p.s. Hey. Mr. Gluth has wisely decided to give you a clean cut introduction to his amazing first novel. Me, I probably would have jammed up the occasion with my blog's usual array of jpeg-ish bells and mpeg-ish whistles. Instead, I'll just add that as the proud papa-ish publisher of this tome, I hope you'll consider buying and reading it, first and foremost because 'TLWoMK' really is something special -- and, thankfully, a bunch of early rave reviews and awesome online buzz have already confirmed my opinion -- and also because my Little House on the Bowery imprint needs to come as close as possible to earning its keep if it expects to stay in business within the realms of the gracious Akashic Press. So, basically, you'll not only get to read a fantastic book, you'll be helping me continue to support daring new fiction writers. No obligation, of course, but thanks for letting me toot LHotB's horn. Okay, more theater rehearsals for me today, so I'll get a move on. ** 健康保寶, Well, you're a pesky, quirky little spambot, aren't you? ** Heliotrope, Hey, M. I'm glad you found some pleasure in the psychedelic fest. Yeah, for sure, on the Traffic clip. I guess I was most blown away by the live clip of the mach 2 version of Love playing 'August'. I hadn't seen that vid before finding it, and it reminded me how strong the second generation version of Love was in concert around the time of 'Four Sail'. Wow, Robert's Fool poster. I had forgotten all about that. Yeah, wow. I will post a handful of the tarot reading photos, basically every one that isn't hopelessly dark and blurry. I hope pennies from heaven rain down on you guys asap, my friend. ** Steven Trull, Dead fingers talk. Isn't that Burroughs? Yours aren't dead anyway. They're just dirty. Dirty fingers talk? That's a given. ** Alan, No, from what I've been able to tell, Paris is almost as weak on Chinese food as it is on Mexican. Why, you've got me. You're almost home at last or rather just home at last? Any good plane movies? 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' finally opens here in five days! ** David, When mine crashes, there seems no rhyme or reason. One day it's a simple flash site, the next day it's more predictable (youtube), the next day it's a random poetry blog, ... ** Empty Frame, It's colder than shit here this week. End of winter shenanigans. Yeah, The Fall's cover of The Move song is nice. Yeah, McQueen's suicide is really a shock, even to know-almost-nothing me. He did some really, really nice work. RIP, for sure. ** Stan_cz, Makes sense re: Cervantes, yeah. My novel is progressing steadily. The slowish pace is hard to take, but I'm working on it every free second I have, basically, and I couldn't be working harder considering my time constraints, and it's just a complicated novel that needs a lot of very detailed attention . It's getting there, though, I think. Thanks for asking. How's your writing going? ** David Ehrenstein, It did? Oh, you're right, it has. I mean 'A Single Man' opening in Paris. It sure slipped in here quietly. Okay, I'll get myself to the theater as soon as I'm able. Yes, yes, truly very sad about McQueen. It takes a lot to shock Yury, and he's really shaken up by the news. ** Tosh, Hey. Yes, that seems very clear. Thanks, man. ** Wolf, Yeah, Scott read the cards. I think Kiddiepunk sat out the tarot thing for reasons not unlike your reasons maybe. Mm, all your savings? Kind of hard to full-on support something that drastic sounding, but, heck. Maybe you can find some quasi-scientific evidence somewhere that supports the idea that the tones produced by said synthesizer have healing properties or ... I don't know. ** Sypha, The blog was born on May 15, 2005. Yep, we've been friends for years now, and isn't time strange? Man, your first comment got me a little worried, I have to say, but the follow ups helped, I guess. Like Steevee and others wisely said in so many words, being prone to intense anxiety and having physical symptoms is not tantamount to being a mental case. Being in therapy is not a fucked up or indicting thing at all. As I've told you, I was in therapy for years, and it was mysterious and intense sometimes and boring sometimes and just really helpful. It kind of fixed me, and it helped me as a writer too. I say give it a serious shot, James. If you take it seriously and try to surrender to the process, it can be very, very interesting. ** Matty B, Hey, man! My pleasure, of course. Oh, I think we'll likely have mutual LA time. I'm not reading in Portland. Mr. Gluth and Mr. Greer are heading up there, and I leave the mini-tour after SF. I need to get my LA dates/tickets, and I still haven't done that. I figure I'll get there around four or five days before the LA reading and then stay in LA for just over two weeks. That should work, right? It'd be swell to see you. ** Steevee, Very thoughtful and wise and kind thoughts for Sypha, man. Psychedelic literature: Well, I guess I use that term kind of loosely, but I basically mean a certain kind of experimental fiction and literary non-fiction that was being written during that era, and some examples might be the early Thomas McGuane, Tom Wolfe, Ishmael Reed, Terry Southern, Hunter Thompson, ... and others I could list more thoroughly and by title and stuff if you wanted. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey, and, yes, and RIP. ** Paul Curran, I was strangely well behaved except for maybe the scary look in my eyes and my scrambled speech, so I might have proven a solid trip companion, it's true. Rain date for the post-time machine gifted world? ** Killer Luka, 8 foot drifts ... yum. Okay, I'll stop now. Anyway, most of me is ready for some Spring. Wow, that Frank Dillane must be quite the actor. While I did like him evil a little better, if I were offered a slice, I'd probably ask for the most recent morsel possible. So, yes, I definitely feel your point. ** Thomas, Hey, pal! Always a state of grace to see you. You'd never heard 'Epistle to Dippy' before? That's probably in my top ten all time songs. I almost jumped onstage and sang it as the encore with some friends' band once. Great pix and vid from the Five Years show! Excellent stuff! Hold on. Everyone, more visual goodies from the recent and increasingly legendary Winter Rites/Five Years extravaganza, this time thanks to the ultra-fine musician and d.l. Thomas. Go here to see some really good photos and also videos of the d.l. supergroup Dirty Snow and the great Jeremy Reed and his Ginger Light. Really nice array, man. Thank you so much! The GbV discs? Shit, maybe they did get here. I'm doing this top secret thing I can't talk about that has turned my mailbox into an avalanche of packages, and it could very well be that your package is in the pile that I've been assuming relates to this other thing I'm doing. I'll go check as soon as I'm finished here, and I will let you know. Wow, thank you! I could really use your GbV input right about now. ** Trees, Jesus, that is a really beautiful video. Incredible. Would it be rude of me to use my new awareness of your exploration of the burning churches videos by gathering a bunch of them together into a post with your tip/idea fully credited? Please say no if you have other plans for them. Just a thought. The Nazz are awesome. Second album especially for me. Thanks a lot! You doing good? How's writing and life and everything? ** Kier, It sucks, yeah. A hug for you, my pal. ** Creative Massacre, Oh, a little addiction is okay, ha ha. I've been really good about staying away from my video game addiction, so I think I deserve at least a little fixation in recompense or something. Cool, I'll go thoroughly get an understanding of the Darwin Awards when I get back from rehearsals. Thanks a lot, my friend. You're sounding so much better, and that's just great to hear. ** Justin, I was wondering if they'll go ahead with his show here in Paris. Is that what normally happens in a situation like this? I mean, to not show his last collection would seem pretty weird. Oh, I think Yury has seen that Signe Chanel show, and I think I've seen bits of it if it's the show I'm thinking of. It did seem pretty interesting. I'll look for the YSL documentaries. I mentioned a few weeks back that I rewatched Altman's fiction/ non-fiction fashion film 'Pret A Porte' on a plane, and it seemed much more charming than I'd remembered. Thanks a lot for all of that, Justin. Big help. ** JW Veldhoen, That's a fucking great beauty of a Transductions post, man. I've just scratched the surface thus far, but whoa. I'm grabbing a slice of it for my post, so I'll save a link for then. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, You can't go wrong with blue. Mine changes all the time like a mood ring. Remember mood rings? Lame. If Thursday had a song, it would be by default and via no choice on my part Fergie's 'Delicious' because Gisele used it repeatedly as a very temporary soundtrack to a movement we were working on yesterday in order to get the performer to hit a certain rhythm and energy level. Not that I think it's a bad song or anything. I just wouldn't have listened to it once much less seven times yesterday if I'd had a choice. The mixed up left overs were cold but not watery, if that helps. More like gritty. Snow, nice, very nice, and Dallas on top of it. Not bad. I hope it didn't give you a cold, though. I'm vaguely maybe getting one too, I hope not, 'cos it was biting out yesterday, and I was out in that too much. My day: Well, rehearsals were the almost totality of it. We were supposed to work with the two Jonathans, but the Capdeville portion called in sick, so we just worked with the Schatz portion. He's amazing. I mentioned a while back how hard I fought to get him cast in our new piece, and I was so right, I don't mind saying. We worked on two of his parts: one where he enters and walks through the forest as a kind of rock star apparition, and he has to do this very difficult walk/movement combo, which he aced. Then we worked on the part where he reenters the forest completely devastated and frightened after killing his girlfriend and just before Jonathan C. beats him to death, and that was incredible too. So, it was good. In the piece, he'll have long hair, but he had to cut it short recently for another role, so it's still too short, and so his kind of rock star/goth makeup doesn't look right, but I took some pix for the upcoming rehearsals slideshow. Anyway, that's what I did all afternoon and into the evening. After that, I wrote a little bit and talked with Yury for a while about the Alexander McQueen thing, and I ate and blah blahed before hitting the sack. Today might not be so different, although Jonathan C. is going to have to drag himself out of his sickbed to work, so maybe there'll be some fainting or vomiting or something, hope not. Your Friday? ** Frank Jaffe, It's obviously awfully cool that you have such a cool, supportive dad. Great to hear the seats are still being filled. So it's 'Weak Species' night, eh? Do tell, warts and all. If that 'Percy Jackson' movie has anything to say for it, let me know. Right I'm thinking 'avoid'. My upcoming movie agenda is 'A Single Man', 'A Serious Man', and most importantly the new Wes Anderson, which I've waiting so very patiently for. ** Alyssa Nolan, Hey, Alyssa! Lovely to see you, needless to say. So school has you firmly in its grip. Well, if you're going to do it, do it all the way, right? That's always the best policy, I think. Thanks for the movie reports. 'Hurt Locker' is long gone, but I think ' ... Air' is around. Okay, I'll add it to my list. Oh, under-qualified, pshaw! You're just what Transductions needs. Your friend Sara is over here? Where exactly? Gosh, Paris is so full of excellent things. What are her special interests? I'll try to focus on some ideas that might suit her. If she likes amusements parks, there's also the big French theme park that I'm just waiting for winter to ease up in order to check out myself: Parc Asterix. Hm, but, yeah, give me a clue or two, if you can, and I'll throw out some possibilities. Take care, A. ** L@rstonovich, Thanks for that, maestro. I've got 'A Serious Man' pending. And new Skullhum, righteous! I wonder if I can figure out how to stream that via my iPhone, hm. If so, I'll let it help me through the many slow parts of these rehearsals. Or else it'll ring in my night tonight. ** Bill, Hey. It sure is nice to have the Recollets thing finally focusing and hopefully concluding happily for us both. ** Misanthrope, You know, The Doors never even crossed my mind. How odd. Yeah, in the States, artists' funding gets all polluted by politics and faux-morality and stuff. That doesn't happen in France, or hardly at least. I mean Gisele gets funding, and, at least in theater, there's nothing going on here that comes close to being as problematic in content as our work, and I can't even imagine there being some outrage about her receiving grant money. I don't know about other countries, but I think it's pretty safe to guess America is the absolute worst on demanding that the art it funds be wussy. I'm gonna see if I can get that Johnny Weir show streamed tonight. What channel is it on? Oh, Jesus, I find that info out easily enough myself, duh. Hey, where the heck is Joe Mills? Is he all right? ** Bollo, Thanks, man. No, unfortunately SOMA and Gisele aren't moving in. Long story. Gisele was all for it, and Stephen wasn't. Yeah, I'd see Gaga live for free. Shit, I'd see Britney for free. Maybe even Beyonce, Stefani. Probably not Fergie. You couldn't pay me enough money to see Christina Aguilera for free. ** Oscar B, Even I, the most winter loving one among our little crew, is just about ready for Spring too. It should be here in a couple of weeks. I'm in rehearsals all day today. Maybe a coffee later? I'm dying for us to go out and do something. Asap. You saw the Wes Anderson already, right? I'm counting the seconds. The PdT show doesn't open until the 19th, I guess. But there must be other stuff to see by now. I'll call you when I get back and hopefully see you guys at least for some caffeine and planning. ** Slatted Light, Hey. Today's out 'cos I have to rush to the rehearsals. I'll know the schedule tomorrow by tonight, If they start late enough tomorrow to allow for a good phone call, I'll email you later. Otherwise, I'm in the clean and clear after Saturday. ** Do spend some quality time with Mr. Gluth's post and work, thank you, and, like or rather via clockwork, I'll see you tomorrow.