p.s. Hey. Considering that it's cleaning/exile/rush-rush morning here at the Recollets, and having no real news to pass along, and assuming that you guys know what to do with the monthly escort round-up post by now, I'll just go ahead and break into a trot. ** Andrew Worthington, Hello, welcome. That art post you linked to is pretty terrific, so kudos. Everyone, this relatively new guy around here aka the poet, music artist, and more Andrew Worthington linked over to a really rich and curious post on his blog called 'random but simple post about art' in the comments yesterday, and, if you didn't catch it, it's very worth going over there to explore. You can do that here. Thanks for the tip. Come back any time, obviously. ** Oscar B, Dude. Talk to you later on, yeah? Oh, I keep forgetting: Musee Grevin, no? We simply must, yes? ** Empty Frame, Hey, man. Centquatre is all the things you suggested, a multi-faceted venue and multi-disciplinary work space. They're hiring a new director right now, and we're all hoping that he kicks the activity there up significantly because it has everything that anywhere could ever possibly need to be a major player, but the extant directors haven't come close to taking advantage of it. I think, worst comes to worst, I might miss a day or two of your time here right at the beginning, but I'm pretty sure I'll be in Paris for most if not all of the time you're here. So, coffee and etc., definitely! ** David Ehrenstein, No, no relationship between the Marie Trintignant case and the girlfriend murder thing in our piece. Gisele mentioned a while back that there was a danger of people in France making that association, but I think/hope we've created a disconnection via some of the dialogue/ explanation. The last thing I know that Jean-Louis Trintignant did was a series of theater events where he read from the works of the French writers Jules Renard and Jean-Michel Ribes in April of last year. Fanny Ardant and a couple of other respected French actors read with him. It got a fair amount of press, as you can imagine. I'll watch for that Trisha Brown piece when it gets here, which it undoubtedly will. She's super major in the French dance world. My internet connection is too sluggish at the moment to load that Honore news, but I'll call it up later. I really hope I get to meet him. We have vague plans to meet, but they don't seem to be de-vagueing. ** David, I'm, blanking on films with tarot readings but imagining there must be a fair share of horror-style movies with at least squib-like related scenes. ** Tosh, No, I don't know Michael Bracewell, and I don't think I've read him unless, perhaps, it was essays or articles or that I'm forgetting. Didn't get as far as S&Co. yesterday, but I'm angling to get the Roxy book in the next day or so. I saw that Roxy Music/ Santa Monica Civic show, naturally, since our concert going resume are like doppelgangers. ** Statictick, Hey, Stat. Nice to see you, natch. Centquatre's pretty stunning, yeah. If I wasn't a writer, I might even have applied to be the director 'cos it's hard to be there without my imagination curating in the place like crazy. Nice you got your TV back. Mine's a crappy old antenna job that requires constant jiggling. ** Steevee, Is Burial planning a total remix of the Massive Attack? Yeah, that should make a giant difference. Oscar and I had the option of asking a specific question of the Tarot cards, but we both picked a general approach. In retrospect, I wish I'd been more specific. ** Killer Luka, Yeah, nice space, right? Mm, the French or English thing is still being decided. They'll definitely do it in English when the piece tours, but we might do a French version for the premiere and shows in France. No, the story doesn't consciously relate to the Noir Desir thing. Or it didn't come from there, and we're trying to evade that reference as best we can. It's definitely the case that we were thinking about: the Japanese teens killing themselves in the forest in order to be ghosts. That idea was an impetus. Schatz is new, yeah. We originally cast him to replace Ellie Hay in 'Kindertotenlieder', and he has, but as soon as he started auditioning, I immediately started lobbying to have him in the new piece. He's extremely good. Thanks, pal. ** JW Veldhoen, Seems to me that Charlie White would have fit in, for sure. 'A freaked-out plan B', nice. As was 'Gad'. I miss that word. ** JoeM, Thanks for posting the Ferry quotes. Yeah, I mean, that doesn't shift my reverence for his work, but I just wish his politics, such as they are, didn't lean in that direction. What can you do? Very nice story idea on the Dr. Who front. Do you think working 'on assignment' like that will re-accustom you to the writing habit such that, say, your novel or other writing might flow more easily? I guess I'm asking if you think having a given theme/set of characters to work from like with the Dr. Who story might make it easier to assign the fiction you want to write otherwise to yourself, i.e. by seeing your own characters and plot ideas as a form of laying down certain formal laws for yourself with which to work? Sorry if that's an awfully abstract or confused question. ** Stan_cz, Oh, yeah, the whole Social Security number thing. That is pretty key in the States. Can you as a visa resident get one or get an equivalent? There must be some route because it's true you can hardly do anything in the States without being asked for your SSN. Hm. ** _Black_Acrylic, Nice sculpture, Ben. Nice of you to offer it to Justin's post too. ** Trees, Maybe it's just the the shorthand '40s' tag that got the laugh. It's kind of true that it signals a kind of comical image, at least when sans much context, or at least to me. Yeah, your Valentines Day report did give me the willies, not in an entirely off-putting way, mind you. It's weird how 'fucked up' sounds so much better than it feels. ** Heliotrope, Thank you for enjoying my outburst of me, sir. Wow, you know a lot about Tarot and stuff. Did I know that? Your bros are so right that Spirit blew Hendrix away at Devonshire Downs. I was there too. Partly because Spirit were insanely good live, period, and very on that day, like Tom says, and partly because Hendrix just kind of went through the motions that night. It's irksome that there doesn't seem to be much or any live footage of Spirit around, just those two goofball, unrepresentative song videos. It pains me. I wish someone would do a documentary about the original Spirit and dig out whatever goods there are. But, whatever, I could go on and on about Spirit, and, sadly, I would guess that only you and I would even know who that is much less care. New Mac, Skype, ... dude! That's the kind of thing I like to hear coming from you. ** Jesse Hudson, Hey, J! I know it's just me, but I can't take Crowley seriously for more than about a minute before I start feeling like I'm getting a prank phone call from the past. It just seems like occasionally fun, intricate hokum to me. Strange, I know. You good? I guess I'll find out. ** NB, Hey. It's really hard to repeat what the Tarot reading said literally because, literally, it was really vague, and then it gets absorbed instantaneously into self-reflection, and then it gets too complicated to describe. I didn't get the feeling that a Tarot reading is a situation where you get some kind of scary warning or bad news. I don't know if you've done the I Ching, but it reminded me a lot of the times I've had people do the I Ching for me, i.e. very abstract and pretty much a matter of being given the design of where you are and what could be ahead, but always with the overriding message that you have the means to control what happens. Really glad you liked Mark's novel, man, and very interested by this transition period that you say your writing is in. That sounds exciting. Anyway, I'll go look at the work you've posted later on. ** Creative Massacre, Every Tarot reading I've had has been pretty mild and mellow. I've had, I think, two psychic readings in my life, and one of them just seemed wacko to me, and the other did kind of freak me out, but not for long. No, I'm pretty behind on the WWE. I need to see if I can stream some of it on my computer or not. I didn't know about the Bret Hart return thing. Weird, hm, but I do want to have a look at that, I guess, although your description of what Bret Hart is like now was pretty spooky. ** Misanthrope, Like I said to NB, it's not a secret what the Tarot reading said, it's just that if I just repeat what Scott said, it'll sound like not much of anything, and if I talk about what I think the reading might mean specifically in regards to me, it gets too longwinded and only really of interest to me. I was at a seance once. I don't believe in that stuff, so it just seemed like grasping at straws. ** Chris, For some reason the image of you rehearsing 26 stories up is really weird. I must have a firmly entrenched cliche in my head whereby rehearsals are automatically walled in by garages or basements. 'After Bathing at Baxters' and the second Floyd album are wonderful things. 'Corporal Clegg' ... what a great song. ** Sypha, I have this idea in my head that Borders is generally better than B&N, I'm not sure why. But hasn't Borders been on its very last legs for the last few years? ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Your shower sounds like my LA shower, sigh. For the record, I shower every single day, I just forget to mention that I do. I'm a cleaner guy than I appear to be. I also brush my teeth about eight to ten times a day, and I never mention that either. I couldn't tell you were a little drunk. I'll go back and reread your last comment and look for the drunken aspects. That'll be fun. That was a tender and sad VD story, gosh. A potent one, though. Thanks for the links. I'm going to have to save them for my return from exile, but I look forward to them. My day: There was the inevitable novel writing. Went okay. Kiddiepunk, Oscar B, the Tarot reading artist Scott Treleaven, his boyfriend aka the artist Paul P, and I have long had plans to put on a big, collective exhibition/ performance here at the Recollets, and we had a meeting with the Recollets boss yesterday to start nailing down a date so we can start planning it out, and it looks like maybe early May. So that happened, and then the K. and the O. and I took the metro to Musee Maillol to see the 'Vanites' show: art from ancient times to right now by artists using skulls in their work. So you had your Caravaggio and Georges de la Tour, et. al, and then you had your Damien Hurst and Warhol and the Chapman Brothers, et. al. It was a big and fun novelty show if not a revelation or anything, and the museum itself has a cool, weird old space. Poor old Maillol himself, though. I remember when I was a kid and you would see his name/work all time in art history books, but, man, his stuff has not aged well at all. Anyway, it was good to get back in the seeking Paris adventures mode again. Tomorrow's adventure is 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox'. After doing that, it was just the usual eating and watching the Olympics and hanging out with Yury and some more work for me. I decided to do a post about miniature golf, and I started putting that together, and if people don't like it, they can bite me, ha ha. Yeah, that's it, I'm afraid. Onwards and upwards, you first. ** Justin, Hey. Awesome that the McQueen post is getting close. I'm excited. Yeah, the work with Gisele is kind of stressful, but the pace is so slow that it kind of counteracts the stress a bit. I'm mostly stressed about how my texts are going to work, and we're only just beginning to figure that part out, and I predict it's going to be really difficult and full of huge decisions and lots of problems. ** Ken Baumann, Thanks for putting the substance in my megaphone. Oh, wow, that Japanese mental health clinic thing is very cool, thanks! Everyone, courtesy of Mr. Ken Baumann, here's a link to a Boingboing squib entitled 'New Tokyo mental health clinic interior filled with optical illusions', and if that moniker isn't enough to get you over there, then I don't understand anything anymore, ha ha. Thanks a lot about the photos, man. You rule forever. ** That's the end of that. I beat the cleaning crew again. I'm on a fucking roll, and your patience with me gets all the credit. Surely there'll be something amidst all the escorts and their sweet talking for everyone today. I've got to hope so. See you tomorrow.