p.s. Hey. No alerts today, I don't think. Uh, oh, I finally saw 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' last night after waiting what felt like endlessly to see it, and, since I've made no secret of my impatience in this regard, I'll just finish off that mini-narrative by saying I thought it was a totally exquisite and brilliant film, up there with Wes Anderson's very best, and, needless to say, I'm a massive fan of his work. Anyway, I'm still pretty high from the experience of seeing that film. Other than that, life and the blog goes on, and, to prove it ... ** Pascal, Hey. I remember sparkly that feeling of Dodiedom well. That was a cool and prettily put paragraph about your life in and post-bookstore, man. ** Chris (British, or should I change that to Irish?), I'm actually a fairly big lover of folk music, and I was heavily into it back in the day when McLean made those albums, and I wasn't so into them, but, taste is taste, and the only thing that matters is that you're getting a lot from his music. I did know 'Killing Me Softly' was about him, and, weirdly and trivially, I was actually at the very same show where Lori Lieberman saw him play and had the reaction that ended up inspiring the writing of that very song. ** Killer Luka, I have this feeling that if I'd seen the deleted comments, I'd understand the NC thing. Fishing in the dark, how about ... niggling contrarian? Yeah, I really want to see 'Fish Tank' a lot. It opens here in a week or three, and I won't miss it. ** Jesse Hudson, My head's screwed back on, yeah, or less tightly screwed on or something. I curse the undoable lengthiness of that detour. 'Kind of gone downhill' is generous, sadly. I mean I love Grove, and it was my beloved home for so long, but these days it's more that a Grove book has to overcome the general feeling of ennui that their output inspires. These days it's more like when you buy a new book with the words Grove Press on the spine you're taking the same kind of chance you take when going to see a movie that has Sandra Bullock's name on the marquee. I feel really sad as I type that. ** Empty Frame, Getting stuff done, yeah, checking things off one by one. I like that drug. ** David, Mm, maybe I'll just find a story or two of his online or in an anthology and start there. I'm not sure I'm ready to commit to the big book. I need a solid taste first. ** David Ehrenstein, I love 'Performance', but I think I'd love it even more if Jagger actually had managed to act like Brian Jones. There was a kind of funny post on the Huffington the other day noting the history of TV series that were about gay characters but didn't want the audience to know the characters were gay. 'The Odd Couple', and so on. Ha ha, I've only seen that French anti-smoking poster -- the big one at the top -- once two days ago in ... can you guess? ... the window of a gay sex shop in the Marais where it seemed quite effective albeit not exactly in the intended manner. ** L@rstonovich, Dude, I totally want to give it/them an inaugural here. Hopefully, you'll have a bunch of them here and there. Just say the word. Aw, man, that's kind of you about the blog. Where would it be with you? And today is my Hummingbird day. Always a day late, but never a day behind, or something. Hm, that made no sense, did it? ** Dan Callahan, Hey. Yeah, I saw an email from you in my box this morning. I'll open it today. (I'm slow.) Yeah, just email the mss. to me, that's best, and I'll do my very best to give it a read and a blurb. And give my very best to the very great Ken Siman! ** Bacteriaburger, Whoa! That's absolutely amazing and such great news, Natty! I'm so happy RS saw the light. Yeah, congrats to you and to fans like me and to all the future fans! Tell me more when you know more. Yeah, that's just so great, Natty! I'm thrilled to pieces. Enjoy, enjoy! ** Alan, Well, if you saw my gush at the top of the post, you know I'm completely swoony with love for the Wes Anderson film. Even with all the build up, I absolutely adored it, and I'll see it again very soon. Plus, your wonderful related gifts are even more like unearthed buried treasure now. So even more thanks. Gosh! Let's see, oh, I thought you'd been to Paris. Hugely needless to say, it'd be just great if you can come over here this summer. I'm guessing you have some other friends and comrades here? ** Tosh, If the rain lets up long enough for a healthy walk, I'll have that PS book in my hands today. So crazy that you actually knew Brian Jones, wow. Yeah, I'm getting the feeling that Jack is getting more and more back into writing or at least into sharing his writing, and I'm excited. I agree 100% with you about publishing and about the beauty of a press whose output you know you can trust. Just in the last year or two, I've discovered a whole bunch of new indie publishers whose taste I trust the way I once trusted Grove, New Directions, City Lights, etc., like you said. I think it's a really great time for publishing or at least for being a lover of book buying and reading. I feel like the good old days are back, and now it's just a matter of being able to afford all the books I see out there and crave. ** JW Veldhoen, Fedora, interesting. Hard to picture, which is a sign from heaven. I'm amazed you've even found the nightlife that you have managed to find, but my bedtime is 11 pm. ** Blendin, Oh, well, I'll just pick that novel up at Sherwood Magazines then. Problem solved. Mm, no ideas about a date, but ... I guess a good thing would be to see if people think they'll be more free on one night/day or another. Let me get my head together, and I'll put out a query here, and we can start planning based on whatever results we get. Hope your date was dateful, whatever that means. Date worthy? Full of date-related destiny? No, I don't know chatroulette.com. I'm not much of a webcam guy, but I'll go see what I can see without one. ** Pisycaca, Yeah, I guess the new medical staff would be good to consult on the issue. I would imagine they've experienced both of the possibilities and consequences. If your dad and you know and feel the preciousness of your time together, there isn't much else either one of you can do apart from concentrating on the love and hope and support that time makes paramount. It's such a simultaneously very complex and very simple experience, and it's so strange. Well, anytime, in any place or way, know I'm here to talk or whatever you need that I can do. I'd love to see you in Paris, of course, whenever you can or want. Much love to you guys. ** Bernard Welt, Ha ha, wow, the Korean food song, yeah. Now you've gotten it stuck in my head, you culprit. ** Paul Curran, I hope your winter joins ours in very slowly cooking itself away. I didn't even need a scarf yesterday. On the other hand, I could have used a much bigger umbrella. ** _Black_Acrylic, Howdy. ** Kier, Urgh about the money delay and the smaller than expected amount. Black box-like building: I want (to see)! Oh, that scene with the wolf was completely genius! I love Wes Anderson's idea of an emotional payoff scene in general, and that was one his most beautiful and bizarrely touching scenes of that kind ever. Damn, I loved that film to pieces. Oh, wait, you did the get the money, I see. I will scour my place and see if that package from you is here waiting in some pile this afternoon, and I'll let you know. ** Stan_cz, Hey. Sure, I'll be my usual time impaired self when I'm in LA, but of course we'll find time to hang no matter what. Good to hear that about 'The Ghost Writer'. I'm pretty interested to see that. ** Steevee, Ah, publicists. Up to their usual tricks, eh? Hope the screening comes through in time, obviously. ** Alyssa Nolan, Hey, Alyssa! Aw, thanks re: the 'Jerk' reception in Montreal. It went gangbusters, apparently. Very cool. Well, we definitely want to bring 'TIHYWD' to the States, and we're working hard to make that happen behind the scenes. There's plenty of interest, but it's the venues' money-related concerns that haven't gotten anything nailed down yet. At this very moment, and these things change constantly, it looks a little more likely that 'Kindertotenlieder' might be the next piece of ours to get to North America just because, while it's a physically big piece, it's less costly to import than the giant new one. I think if the premiere goes well enough this summer, the US offers will become more solid. The Tarot reading was fun. I can't say that it was spookily accurate or anything, and I still haven't made what the cards said into anything that works with my actual life, but it's fun to fool around with the messages at least. Glad you liked the Julius post. I really don't know much about high fashion, although I'm trying to catch up and figure it out, but those particular clothes had no problem cutting through my ignorance and getting a nice 'whoa' out of me. How is school treating you? How's life, everything? ** Creative Massacre, Mm, that phone call does sound confusing, yeah. It does seem to take a fair amount of time for people who've been together and are trying to figure out how to be together in a less dedicated way to not feel confused and say confusing things. It's really tough stuff. I guess you just have to let it evolve for a while and see where it ends up and just try to make your thoughts and feelings clear and hopefully clearer as the change runs its chaotic course. Nice score from the lottery. I try to resist getting into the lotto thing, but then I hear something like you winning, and I get tempted. Hm. So you're in Atlanta now, right? How is it? What are you thinking about the place so far? ** Chris, Hey. 'Sway'? Is that the 'irresistible pull of irrational behavior' book? Sorry about the work suckage, man. It's raining a lot here too, but the temperature is climbing, so I'm trying to positive. ** Sypha, Hey. I apologize if I belabored the publishing discussion, and I'll lay low, but I hope you know everything I said comes from my deep admiration for your writing and from my hoping for the best for it and for you, whatever that 'best' may be. Do you think you'd want to teach theology one day? I mean, you could be a theologian and a writer, and combine the two interests even, if you wanted, right? I've been curious about 'Bioshock 2', of course, but I never played the first one, and maybe I'll hold off. Do you know anything about the 'Dante's Inferno' game? There are massive posters for it all over Paris, and they're enticing, but posters are just posters. I missed seeing the deleted posts you're talking about, and I hesitate to weigh in on the discussion, but I guess I'll say something to Postitbreakup in his comments further down. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Yeah, deaf, right? I mean that would suck. I'm a huge music loving guy, so it's not like deafness would be some kind of dream come true. Well, mm, just because that bird was a prick tease who abandoned you for the first car that came along doesn't mean it didn't want to do you, I reckon. Blondes are nice, no argument there. Sorry about the lack of Bendy, but it was nice to read his name anyway. I saw that iHop promo free pancakes thing mentioned online, and I wished they were an international company. You have to be in the mood, for sure, but pancakes, grr, slurp, sigh. I think I'll have a crepe today. Oh gosh, don't vomit, but, if you do, don't keep secrets from me, okay? My day ... Writing mostly, still going quite well, and I'm still trying to use this spurt of inspiration as thoroughly as I can while it's hanging out inside me. Did anything of note happen during my exile? Don't think so. Just food shopping, smoking, waiting. The day's big moment is the thing I already talked about, i.e. seeing and loving 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' along with Oscar, who also seemed to be very high on it afterwards. The only preview they showed that piqued my interest was some documentary based on a Naomi Klein book about the evil wrought on the world by capitalism. I'll go see that. Otherwise, it was mostly blah French movie previews and one for some insane looking movie called 'Kick Ass' where Nicholas Cage has this teen daughter who's secretly a superhero or avenging ninja or something. Oscar gave me this red plastic bag full of these chocolates that are specialties of the Italian town where her parents live, and I'd eaten one before, and it was very yummy, so I'm happy to have that bag. After the movie, nothing much happened at all because it was already late by my standards once I got home. Watched a little Olympics, and then ... kerplunk. How was your Wednesday, all in all? ** Postitbreakup, Hey. Like I said above, I can't speak to the deleted comments since they're invisible to me. The discussion between you and Sypha is between you two, and I don't want to barge in, but since some of what you guys are talking about involves me, I guess I should say something. One thing is that it's kind of hard for me to grasp how I can be a celebrity to you since we've been friends and have been talking here for years. I sort of feel like I should be very demystified by now considering how real and open and full of my own weird problems and quirks I think I must seem by this point due to how 'warts and all' I am in these interactions. And I'll be very honest with you and say that on the occasions when you treat me like someone who you wish were your boyfriend or something, it makes me uncomfortable because to me we're friends and that kind of 'if only' stuff just doesn't compute for me. I don't know where that's coming from, and I don't know what to do with it. And the stuff you say wherein you express competitive feelings re: Yury, well, it's just not a nice thing to deal with, and it doesn't offend me exactly, but it just seems like you're not in touch with my real life and the real me when you do that. It's like you're talking to a projection of me, and I'm just not that figure whom you're addressing. I'm a guy who writes novels and does this blog and lives on another continent and is your friend and likes and admires you a lot and is in a relationship with Yury. Sometimes I feel like you forget who I am or something, and you address a very idealized and inaccurate image that isn't me. That confuses me, and I don't know how to respond. I've probably said too much and probably said it poorly, but that's where I'm coming from. I think you're great, and I love having you here, and you're a very valuable presence and a treasured friend on the blog, and not only to me. I would just like it if you were to see me as accurately as possible, I guess, and most of the time you do, and most of the time everything is cool and fine. Maybe it's just the effect alcohol has on you, and maybe it's only those comments that cause the trouble. ** Justin, Yury said there's some shop in Paris that carries Julius, but I can't remember what it was. Colette? Mm, I don't think so. Anyway, I've been wanting to check the clothes out in person. Yeah, I think it's probably just anxiety because you certainly don't seem even the slightest bit like someone who would get on one's nerves. Not at all. ** Misanthrope, I downloaded the new Pacific Blush, and I'm planning for a debut performance this very day in fact. Panda?/Matt is kind of a hand on a stack of Bibles brand of genius, yep. I'm no judge of better or worse ice skaters' outfits. They're all just an undifferentiated blur of crassness and lameness on parade to me, but you see how I dress. Ha ha, I hate to break it to you, but you thinking 'I'll do him' upon seeing that photo of Brian Jones is about the least weird thing imaginable. ** Bollo, Hey, man. Performance, excellent! What is it? What are you doing for/in it? Will you videotape it? Like and yet don't like is probably the right and optimal reaction to that book, and embracing those mixed feelings is the thing to go for, I think. No, I think I'm finally seeing the House of Horrors and whatever is next door at the Palais de Tokyo today or tomorrow. I'll let you know the scoop, for sure. ** Right. Wow, this post/p.s. is late today. Sorry. The post: I recently discovered the work of Terence Hannum, and I'm super impressed, and I thought I'd share him with you, so see what you think. Later aka tomorrow.