p.s. Hey. So, yeah: Tuesday, cleaning crew, exile, hurrying, apologies. You know that drill by now, right? Hence, I shall depart post haste for regions known only to you. ** Chris, Cool beans on the rehearsing and song reinventions. I want to hear. I'll try to get Ish on the Facebook horn and see what's up with 'Them' if anything. ** Oscar B, How was the old time music? Oh, I'll call you and the big M in a bit, but if you see this first: tarot reading tonight, tentatively 8pm. ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, cool re: Bill and 'Stadium Pal'. Weirdly, I think I was the first person to ever publish David Sedaris' work, either in this zine I edited called 'Farm Boys' or in the 'Discontents' anthology. Lucky break. They showed 'Alphaville' on the French/ German TV channel Arte last night. I hadn't watched it in decades. What an absolutely strange, strange movie that is. I'd forgotten about the 'dying breath' narration, for one. Jesus. ** Joseph, Oh, hm, yeah, I think I'll take a raincheck on 'Hitman' then. Hope you like the Kristof. You got the version that has the whole trilogy of novels in one volume? Hm, Offense Mechanisms looks very promising and interesting. Very nice to see a press focused on the literary and transgressive in close tandem. I didn't know about it before. Yeah, let me know. Oh, maybe I should ... Everyone, as passed along to me and then along to you via Joseph, 'Offensive Mechanisms' seems like an interesting publisher, seemingly new, if you're interested in the new, transgressive, and literary. Have a look. ** Stan_cz, Nice about the one journalism class. Hope a few more of them open up. I was going to say Paris is pretty much post-snow, but, weird, I turned just now to look out the window, and it's snowing, so never mind. Still, it has generally been on the pleasant side of cold for the most part. My weekend was writing and seeing a music gig and that's pretty much it. No Super Bowl. Not my thing to say the least, as you can imagine. ** Statictick, The Detroit Projection Project open house sounds pretty nice. I wished I was there anyway. Happy to look over Misa's shoulder and see that our beloved Dynomoose is doing well. ** Pisycaca, Hey, pal! Yeah, the Sunn0))) gig was bonkers good. The venue was tiny, which made it heavier still. I understand about the concern re: taking anti-depressants, but they're a very small price to pay for strength and more peace right now, you know that. Yeah, just ongoing big hopes on your Dad's front. That's so scary. I remember that fear, and when you describe where you guys are right now, I can feel it again in my bones and in my ether. Oh, I'm happy and honored to be your label's Facebook fan, and I'm watching for alerts. ** JW Veldhoen, Yeah, Sunn0)))/Atila, whoa. Oh, you know, the Weber-y is an ideal to a lot of people. Don't take my very specializing tastes as anything. You like Duane Michals? I can't get past the sentimentality, or I can't parse it into something interesting, but I think that's probably my problem. I'll be scouting your Transductions input, you bet. Very nice stuff on Whitman/ Dickinson/ Blake. ** Allesfliest, Actually, those Japanese things came to me from Japan in Gisele's suitcase, but you might be able to get them here. There's a supposedly treasure trove of stuff in the little Japanese district here that I've never walked through for no good reason at all. I guess it might be no huge surprise that the anarcho-capitalist guy didn't pay off in the best style, but I'll mourn a little anyway. ** Patrick deWitt, Hey, Patrick! Man, I think I'm finally going to write back to you today. I've been under a theatrical lock and key. Yeah, I should be here in April/May almost for sure, apart from a little trip or two to Brest, and I definitely want to hang out. Let me know your dates when you've got them. What are the French publishers having you do to launch the book? That's terrific news! ** Jose, I'll hold out faint hopes for an innovative engine. You never know. Yeah, the Payne seems pretty goopy. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, Ben. I'm writing to Ryan T. today, so I'll slip in that link in case he hasn't seen it yet. Any news/response will be yours post haste. ** Steevee, If you can gradually up the speed of the treadmill, won't that, plus your usual amount of walking, get you close enough? ** Thomas Moronic, Oh, my pleasure, man, and I loved the story. It was so particular and powerful and svelte, I think. Who's the cool sculptor? No, wait, let me be a surprised Transducer. ** Kiddiepunk, Hey, bud. Thanks for yesterday, man. See, it worked out just fine. Oh, like I said to Oscar, take note: tarot reading tonight, probably around 8 pm, refinement and more news via the phone. ** Laura beth, Well, Whitman might be too gay for me, see, ha ha. You know me. No, the gayness is fine, I just don't respond to the particular, trumpeting, 'tell it from the mountaintop' way he outputs his stuff via language is all. My dad loves Whitman. And Whitman's great, don't get me wrong. I'll take stingy Dickinson over heat-seeking Whitman, though, if I had to choose. ** Creative Massacre, Good, good, good about you feeling significantly better. That's very reassuring news, and I hope the test today fuels rather than interrupts the recovery. ** Kier, Needless to say, I don't know how to use Wordpress at all. It sounds weird, navigationally. Ooh, that's exciting to get a report on your book! When's it coming out? Can I do a celebration/launch post type of thing here about it with your help? Hugs back, and I'll give you the tarot's report. I think I'm going to document the reading for the blog. ** Killer Luka, Thank me? For what? For being lucky enough to be in your great graces? Definitely for the best on the rejection from that rinky dink joint. What a joke. ** L@rstonovich, Greetings, man. ** Bollo, My hearing is still buzzing. More faintly all the time, though. It's getting a little old, though, too. But I'm not in the market for a stethoscope yet. The only Anger films not on DVD are the new ones, most of which are depressingly awful in my opinion. Vollman ... so much to choose from. My favorite is an early one: 'The Rainbow Stories'. It's not a bad route into his work. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Oh, thanks a lot for the McCormack review. I hadn't seen that, and it's very good, yeah. I'll pass it along to Derek and the Akashic higher ups in case they haven't spied it. Glad the project is falling into place. I'd love to hear more about when the time is right. ** Jesse Hudson, Heighty-ho, Jesse! Things good? I'll endeavor to find out via the secret passages a little later on. ** NB, Well, first of all, speaking as a dear friend of the Almighty, you'd be more likely to get a call back were you to adhere to his quirky insistence that when referring to him as 'him' you begin that word with a capitol letter. I think if you can make this little adjustment, that tortilla in your fridge will start looking a lot less like a tortilla, if you catch my drift. ** Rigby, You so lucky to have hit that 5 Years show, and, man, it sounds tasty. Marc better have shot that motherfucker with a 3D IMAX camera, that's all I have to say. ** Justin, Hey. Oh, that is beginning to ring a bell. The Temple Grandin story. I must have seen that PBS documentary or a Discovery Channel show about her or something. Doing HBO shows isn't a bad fate, you're right. I kind of like Danes, but in vehicles other than MYSL and a couple of others, she always seems to cry all the time, and she does this gulping, face collapsing, wailing thingeroony when she cries that kind of gets on my nerves. ** Bernard Welt, I like snow even more than the next man, but houses should be temperate inside, so I think winter probably has gone just a little bit too far over there. I'm a bad houseguest too. I mean, I'm perfectly pleasant to my hosts, I imagine, although I do recall a certain occasion when Richard H. and I accepted your hospitality and filled the air with the white noise of our never ending spats. I was just trying to say I prefer motels. No, you didn't do a Day on 'The Sleepers', I'm virtually positive. That would be most extremely welcome. My opinion of his poetry needs a game changer, and there's one little reason for you. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Oh, yeah, I can see why the 'EtV' thing is off limits. Shame, though. Like I said somewhere else, I think I'll document the tarot reading for the blog, so you'll likely get a bigger dose of it than you even want. I do like coffee, but it's the jolt mostly, I guess. And it's like a social lubrication thing when you don't love to drink alcohol like me, I guess. A mermaid tattoo is so dorky it's positively charming. Oh, jeez, I think your friend with the gay crush is in for a big, messy crash of a romantic experience with that guy. That's a classic no-no. My day wasn't much to speak of at all. Originally, I was supposed to be rehearsing all day, but Gisele decided it would be best to do what she did last week and work privately with the two Jonathans and then bring me in tomorrow to use my fresh perspective. She did call mid-rehearsal to ask me about a sentence in one of the dialogues 'cos they were translating the texts roughly into French so the boys could rehearse their parts in a familiar way. Anyway, the sentence was 'I'm glad you're here', and she wanted to know if I mean 'glad' as in 'satisfying' or glad as in 'happy'. I meant happy, so that answered that. Otherwise, I wrote pretty much all day. It went okay. Later, after eating dinner and stuff (pasta), Yury finally cut my hair while I watched 'Alphaville' on TV, and, as I said to David E., what a weird film that is. Weird good. My hair looks better now. Oh, and there's this new documentary film about Burroughs in the works, and I got an email from the director, and I guess they screened it and decided based on the reaction that it still needs a little something, and part of that little something is me being interviewed for the movie, and I said, Sure, I'll do that, and so I think the director/crew are coming to Paris to interview me, and that's going to happen right away. I think that's everything that's fit to print. Back to you. ** Armando, Hey. Ah, the bus scene, of course. Yeah, I would love to read what you wrote someday if it's ever possible. In person, Nan Goldin is intense. It depends on whether she's in a drug using period or not. When she's not, she's intense in the sense of being very passionate about things. When she is, she's intense in a way more like, Yikes, get me out of here. Intense is the word. Either style, she's amazing. ** Marcus Whale, Hey, Marcus. Oh, I was honored. I love the record. It's super gorgeous. Selling saxophones? Now, that's a curious job. My last few weeks in a nutshell, uh ... That is hard. Actually, since my trip to the States for 'Jerk' and to see pals, it's been kind of not that big a deal. I'm in a heavy work phase and have more work to do than I have time for, so it's been intense but uneventful outside of the fireworks and stuff going off in my brain. Lovely to see you, man. It'd be great if you were around here more, obviously. ** Misanthrope, Actually, it's kind of great being an American here as long as you think/know France is a superior place and get into being a humble, wide-eyed, eager to be enlightened resident. Ha ha, yeah, I knew you'd like that boy on that 'Percy ...' poster. And you probably know, I think he's way too squeaky clean/sane and without perceivable depth to interest me. Yeah, that snow you guys got is mighty impressive. I'm sure it has now reached 'this sucks' status, but I still think you're lucky dogs. Your neighbors are idiots, in point of fact. ** Paul Curran, Hey, Paul! I so totally agree that I should have been there. Sigh. You, writing, life, love, kid, ... all doing good? ** I think I made it through pre-exile if I can just proof this fucker quickly enough. Today's post: Well, it explains itself. That strange space in the middle of that news story really intrigued me. It's not unlike some strange spaces I'm building into my novel, I guess, or in some way. In any case, give it your best shot, please. See you on Wednesday.