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p.s. Hey. An alert to any of you who live in or around Seattle: tonight, 7 pm, at Pilot Books, 219 Broadway E, my Little House on the Bowery imprint is being heavily represented in the form of a reading by Lonely Christopher, author of the new 'The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse', and Mark Gluth, author of 'The Late Works of Margaret Kroftis', plus poet Gregory Laynor. It should be a great event, and, of course, I hope you'll attend if you're in the area and can. Thanks! ** Killer Luka, Thanks a bunch, pal. And for the luscious Slowdive link too. And I guess for the disturbingly thick mango juice as well, although that made me kind of urp. ** Bollo, Wow, here you are at the top. That's unusual. Oh, Alex Ross, I like his writing and thinking. I'll trust you on the 'off to work' thing and save my astral projection talents for another time. What did you start to make? ** Bernard Welt, I always do my best to make it as hard as possible for editors to edit me, and it usually adds a year or so to the process, but it's worth it. Yeah, image googling myself brings up every image that has ever appeared on my blog eventually. One of the dancers in 'Them' was a bit freaked out because, due to his name having been listed in my news column for a month or so, when he image googled himself, he got dozens of escort and slave images from my blog. Oops. Yeah, interesting SPD idea. Jax had a good idea recently too. I need to get my shit together and announce the next one 'cos it has been a while. Hm, maybe I'll have people vote for the best theme suggestions or ... I don't know. ** Wolf, Wolfster! Dude, it's awfully good too see you! Oh, we're back to free and easy interacting around here again, if that helps entice you. Insanity's no problem, or yours isn't. How's the new living place for you? Well, other than the low ceiling and closing walls, I mean. Unless they define it. You should come visit Paris. Parisians are very relaxing. They are, seriously! Anyway, I love you and miss you, my great pal, and the door is always open, and the fridge is always seitan-filled. ** Mark, Yeah, it's weird. I called you a few days ago, left a message in some robo-introduced voice mail place. Did you get it? I wasn't sure if it was the right place or not. I'll try again this afternoon. Yeah, it's strange, and my reclusive tendencies definitely aren't the only problem. ** Statictick, Hey. Oh, I can't read or write on acid. I've tried to write, pathetically. When I'm tripping, language is the most uninteresting thing in the world. The dirt on the ground is infinitely more fascinating. So, no, I've never read on acid due to no interest in doing so, and all I've ever written on acid are obscure phrases. ** Bill Reed/ David Ehrenstein, It was nice to see the both of you here. But I'm glad your internet outage got sorted. Good thing you're not in Egypt. Fine FaBlog on David Kato's murder. Everyone, there's an excellent and very informative post on David E's FaBlog regarding the brutal murder of Ugandan queer rights activist David Kato, and it's highly recommended. Here. ** Empty Frame, Tricks are good. Yeah, the DFW essay on the Markson novel is fantastic. Never read the Onion spoof thing. I will, but I'll wait for the right mood to take me over. Hm, I like both of those kinds of novels. I don't know if I favor one or the other. I'm drawn to novels for their formal and stylistic and structural inventiveness. That's where I get my excitement, and I guess I also tend to read to learn new things and methodologies as a writer. I like short novels best. I guess my very favorite novels tend to be extremely precise and uniquely fashioned on the surface and extremely imprecise and complicated inside. If that's in place, writers can do pretty much anything they want within that. Do I set 'traps' for academics in my books? No, never. It's really important to me that, as complex as my novels can get, anyone can figure them out irregardless of their knowledge of theory or not as long as they want to put the time and concentration into reading the novels in a thorough way. I love reading theory, and I've gotten great stuff from some theorists, but my methods and tendencies come almost entirely from trying to figure out things that excite me -- novels, music, film, art, video games, porn, whatever -- on my own. I've learned hugely more from listening to and studying Robert Pollard's music or watching Bresson's films, for instance, than from any philosopher or theorist I've read. The fact that my work attracts critical/ theoretical exegesis, as you put it, is very cool and rewarding to me, and, given the complexities that I aim for, it makes sense, but I never think about that stuff when I'm writing. So, yeah, I guess I would say that I work obsessively and on my own, and it's amazing when writers whose gift is for explaining things recognize what I'm doing and are able to subdivide and then speak clearly about the experiments I undertake in my novels because I can do the experiments, and I can create representations of them, but I rarely am able to explain them adequately to people since they're so kind of fused into my thinking process or something. Dude, thanks a lot for asking about that! And for pulling out that 'Guide' quote too. ** Tosh, Hi, Tosh. I'm glad that it's at least partly life that's keeping you quiet. That's a great reason. Yeah, any great upcoming book release tips you can share? I was going to be reading at Book Soup with Lonely Christopher and Joseph, but I'm having big money problems right now, and I can't afford the flight, etc., so I had to pull out, very disappointingly for me. ** Sypha, Thanks, James. Me too. ** Paul Curran, Thanks a lot, Paul. I'm hoping to find out the release date maybe today. ** MANCY, Glad you liked it, man. Hope all's really well on your end. ** Jeff, Oh, you had plenty of understanding there, man. That was beautifully said and written. ** Mark Gluth, First, have a blast at the event tonight. I hope it goes really well, and I wish I could be there, obviously. Say hey to LC for me. 'Half done, structurally speaking': meaning the prose surface is fully in place, or is it less done than the structure? I'm guessing the former? Exciting news that you've gotten that far on it. This novel seems to be going more easily or smoothly for you than 'MK' did? ** Bill, The Topor cannibal book is really cool. I wish I could read it. The illustrations are expectedly weird, funny, sexy. Maybe I'll try to scan them, actually. Gisele says Topor is quite forgotten in France these days. There had been a big vogue for his work, but she says he has kind of faded from conversation and the critical discourse in the past ten or so years. ** Tender Prey, Hey, Marc. Yeah, I've been spacing and behind and suffering from a too-packed brain. I will write you today with my quick impressions and thoughts. I'm guessing the possible Vegas option is the way to go? Anyway, sorry again. ** Allesfliesst, Hey. I have your address, yeah, so look for it. You know that the version on DVD is the French one, right? That's the only version we've recorded. Anyway, you'll get it. Enjoy your Australian bud and all the changes he affords. ** Joey Martin, Hey, greetings and welcome, Mr. Martin. I like the way you write. On your blog, obviously, since that's my first exposure. Yeah, I really like your writing, and kudos. Come back anytime, why don't you? ** Patrick deWitt, Hey. Oh, great about the application. I'm not sure where you sent it, but the boss of the Recollets is Chrystel Dozias, and her address is: Chrystel.Dozias@lerichemont.fr. You could try writing directly to her if you don't hear back very soon. Yes, of course, I'll put in many good words for you. I'm meeting with Chrystel today, in fact, and I'll mention that you're applying and talk you up. I imagine you mentioned in your email that you have books published in France, yes? That will definitely help. Anyway, I'll get on it, and I imagine it will be fairly easy to work out as long as they have room available, and they surely will that far in advance. Fantastic! ** Frank Jaffe, Hey, Frank! Cool, thanks for the FB link. I'll go find it today. Dude, I have to do a theme park run. It's imperative. I need to figure out how I can do that. I suppose they offer package deals and all that. Anyway, I'm dying to, almost literally. I love rollercoasters. I don't seem to get too scared on them. But my true love is dark and theme rides. Oh, yeah, Bava's 'Demons' is terrific, yeah, totally. Tell me how the fest went, okay? ** Sister Wolf, Hi, welcome. Oh, no, that crazy guy is targeting you now? Yeah, I had an awful series of back and forth emails with him. Here's my experience, and maybe it will help. He first wrote to me accusing me of 'copyright infringement', but he refused to say what images I had used that were supposedly his. He demanded an address so he could send me a legal letter. I refused to give him my address and said just tell me the images I used that were yours and I'll delete them, and I'll write a sentence or two on the blog saying I had posted them without your permission. He refused and kept demanding a physical address. He was very threatening -- he was going to take me to court, veiled threats of physical violence, etc. -- and very crazy sounding. I kept telling him I wasn't going to give him my address, and that he could identify the images, and I would delete them, and that was my offer, period. He wouldn't give up. Eventually, I consulted with my literary agent about the situation, and he looked into it, and he said the guy doesn't have a legal leg to stand on because his images are posted all over the web, never with any credit to him, and that my finding and using them on my blog -- which is not a money making venture -- without crediting him showed no ill intent and was not remotely a criminal act. So, I just stuck to my guns, refused his demands, called his bluff about the supposed legal recriminations, and he eventually accepted my deleting of the images and gave up, albeit while threatening to beat me up if he ever met me in a veiled way. So, my advice to you would be to delete the image, explain that you found it online uncredited to him when you were looking for images of Walter Potter's work, posted it innocently, and that deleting it is all you're obligated to do and is all you're going to do, and that if he continues to harass you, you will report him. I think he's crazy and that the legal/lawyer stuff he talks about is a bluff and full of shit, basically. I hope that works. If you want to talk about this more, I'd be happy to. My email address is: dcooperweb @gmail.com. Good luck, and I'm so sorry to hear that. ** Steevee, I don't think I've actually heard Balam Acab. I think I just know the name. I'll find and test them. Thanks! Glad the feet pain is down a bit, and, obviously, I hope you can get an appointment set up straight away. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Great if you and Colin can meet up, obviously. ** Math, Hey. Oh, that $5 bookstore does sound awfully dangerous and ... delicious. I haven't read Coupland since 'Microserfs' either, and I don't think I got too far into it. You're finally almost ready to hit SF, no? I'll pass along your alert, of course. Everyone, here's Math with something important, and please give her your attention, thank you: 'everybody especially bay area folk- Lyon-Martin is having a major fundraising drive to stay open. if you click on that link, on the righthand panel theres a paypal link for donations and a couple sweet parties upcoming to benefit L-M. with A New Leaf already gone, L-M is really the only healthcare in the bay area that can be said to be trans-focused, and in general they do great services for all queers [and nonqueers, i mean, they dont ask.. ]. seriously, help save them if you can.' ** Alan, Hey. LC didn't read from his book? Hm, well, that's cool, I guess. Oh, yeah, GP-O is kind of a total -- if quite unusual -- sweetie in person. That surprised me too. ** Chris Cochrane, Hey. I will. Send you the text. No worries. 'Walls & Bridges'? Hm, I don't know, man, ha ha. Yeah, LC saw 'Them' at PS122, said he was totally blown away, and I believed him even. ** Colin, Hey. Yeah, like I said to _B_A, great if you guys can meet up. ** L@rstonovich, Dude, that was one of the most popular blog posts in quite a while. Deservedly, duh, and thank you. That mac & cheese, grr, slurp, grr. Well, I guess I could make some, couldn't I? ** Creative Massacre, They just had this thing over here called the NRJ Awards. It's like the French version of the Grammy Awards. Black Eyed Peas performed, and they showed off one of the super high tech 3D special effects they're touring with. Basically, it was 'them' appearing to perform their new hit live and then revealing themselves as holograms when they collapsed into a pile of kids' building blocks at the end. They didn't look real, and you could see the pixels or whatever, so they looked sort of 3/4 real, but it was sort of cool anyway, I guess. Not that cool, mind you. Supposedly, on Britney's last European tour, about half of the show was just her hologram performing, although the audience wasn't supposed to know it wasn't really her. But apparently some of them did. Sad about that wrestler's suicide. I'll google him and see what I can find. Good Friday, pal. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Ha ha, what?! Now I'm going to spend my whole day trying to decode what my dream version meant by that. Who was I 'nothing but fucking' by the way? Did he have a turned up, pixie nose, I hope? ** Nb, Thanks, man. Yeah, it feels good. Haven't seen the ending episodes of 'Battlestar' yet. Yeah, they seem not to have pleased everyone. But they pleased fans more than the end of 'Lost', apparently, which I also haven't watched yet. Yeah, intense snow there, right? Poor you. But are you getting snow days at least? ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Oh, mm, I probably opened and closed those scissors for a good five hours or so. It didn't hurt during the trip, or I couldn't feel it, or I didn't care, or I thought it was something magical, but I had a cramp for days afterwards. Never read the other books in the series. Should I? I've never heard of Whataburger. Is it a chain? Is that Fangoria 300 Best Horror Movies thing a book? I guess it would have to be unless it's just a little paragraph about each film. I think I want to get that ... book(?). Oh, those clips of the noisy guy at'The Woman' screening are amusing. I'll pass them on. Everyone, here's a Sundance Film Festival report-ette courtesy of (and in the words of ) the splendid Itmpw: 'Lucky McKee's new movie, The Woman, caused walk outs, a woman getting sick, and a man going off on how it was degrading to women and anybody who enjoyed the movie was sick. It's on YouTube now, of course, here. After he leaves the theater: here.' The clips are fun. Check them out. Thanks! Yeah, I read that Bardem is the new DT actor frontrunner replacing my pal CB, apparently. My past two days, consolidated into highlights: Let's see ... Gisele has gotten a studio at Point Ephemere, an alternative arts center near where I live, so we can make the trailer/maze piece there, and I spent some hours there looking at the prototype of the mannequin/robot that will be its star, and consulting with her about the set, costumes, text, music and so on. That was productive. While walking home, I noticed this new little hole in the wall restaurant called El Nopal that looked like a Mexican food place, and, when I got home, I googled it, and, sure enough, there's not only a new Mexican food place in my neighborhood, but, according to the reviews, it's fantastic and by far the best Mexican food in Paris. So, I'm very excited, and I'm going to try it out asap. Yury and I took the TV back to Darty to get it replaced, and they were very hard-assed about it, saying we couldn't do that, but Yury demanded and pressed them, and they finally gave up and said okay. Problem is, the TV we want is out of stock, so we're without TV now until it gets restocked on February 7th, so I'm going to try to get our crappy, Recollets-provided TV back temporarily, if they'll let me. I put together some image ideas for the cover of 'TMS' and sent them to my editor, and we'll see. I tried to write, but it didn't go too well, and I made some blog posts, and that went okay. Last night, Kiddiepunk and I went to this art opening at the gallery Bugada & Cargnel in Belleville. We went because Stephen (O'Malley) was doing a live performance in collaboration with the artist (Nico Vascellari) at the opening. It was packed, and it was fun to be there, and I always like what Stephen does, but I thought the performance was pretentious and boring. It was basically the artist walking around and around this big 'rock' cast out of bronze or something and hitting it like it was a drum with a piece of wood that made this loud noise while Stephen made accompanying noise with a laptop. The sound was okay, but the performance just seemed like a total art wank off. Very faux- daring. Oh, well. I can't remember what else I did. Hm. No, that's pretty much it. Okay, today proceeds. Tell me about yours. ** Postitbreakup, Hey. This new novel would be very hard to excerpt. It's all heavily interconnected and stuff. We'll see. Oh, yeah, I don't think I knew about your 'new' job. I mean, it does sound better than the retail thing. Maybe with this gig on your resume, it will help with getting a more investigative editing type gig in the future, no? My linking abilities are back, yes. So, yeah, post those links. They both sound really interesting -- the cancelled N64 games site especially causing my mouth to water. Thanks, J. ** Oscar B, Hey, bud. Well, maybe I'll get to see you at least briefly today if you have time? Would be nice. If not, understood. Yeah, I can complain to you in person about that artist, if you like. Everyone, and especially those of you in and near London, the great Oscar B aka the artist O.B. De Alessi will have her first solo exhibition in London beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 1st. There's an opening and live performance at 7 pm. If you're in the area, you really, really should see her show and the performance on opening night if you can. It's at Oblong Gallery, and the show is called 'White Moon', and all the information you need to be there is available on Oscar's blog, which is right here. Dude, so awesome! ** Misanthrope, Shit, that headache, no, nooooooo! I have a super mild headache today, and even that's hell, so ... I can't imagine. Wait, and you're in tax hell too? You? With your wages? That's insane. You get the Worst Day prize today. And what is the prize? Uh, check's in the mail? Dude, love you, bushy eyebrows and all. ** Alexp336, Hi, Alex. I won't buy that new Sony handheld. You have to draw the line somewhere. The line used to be 'nothing made in any way, shape, or form by Microsoft'. Well, except for MSW. But then the Xbox turned out to be semi-necessary. So I'll buy it first. The NGP does sound promising though, I fear. I'm a total klutz with smart phones. I seem to cling to the idea that they should just be phones. I still don't have a clue how to use the camera function on my iPhone. My weekend? I'll try that new Mexican place I mentioned to Impw. Dinner with a friend. Meeting with an architect. Uh, .... I don't know what else. Depends on how cold it is outside. It's very cold right now. In any case, the bon-est of weekends to you. ** Happy Fridays. I've got lots and lots of toys for you guys today. Check them out. Surely, at least one of them will light up your innocent faces. Surely. See you tomorrow.
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