p.s. Hey. Today the writer, artist, and d.l. Jose quite simply spotlights the violence prone, often violently received videos of Jubal Brown, seeking your discovery both of the work and of its ensuing controversy, presumably with an unspoken request that you share your thoughts on these matters, so I hope you'll take some time to sample Brown's oeuvre and post something of your response for Jose and each other in the comments arenas. Thanks, and big thanks to Jose for the gift and opportunity. ** David Ehrenstein, 'After Bathing at Baxters' is one of the true pinnacles of LSD influenced/ damaged rock, or I guess I'm saying I think so. It's like the clearest sound of the Summer of Love if not hippiedom itself going south. I literally get flashbacks just listening to it. Kind of nice. Interesting Gielgud story, yes. ** Statictick, Yeah, I thought finding his sentence was kind of a little coup. At the time, The Knack were the sound of Power Pop being too gussied up for me, but it's hard to deny that 'My Sharona' is a perfect nugget of a thing. Nope, never seen Kervorkian's paintings, but I'll find what I can find. Intriguing, of course. ** Stan_cz, Yeah, I guess SSNs are for residents only, but it just seems like there'd be some kind of rough equivalent or acceptable substitute for long term visa residents to use. If not, that's quite the weird oversight. How was art class? ** Sypha, Oh, I phrased my sentence lazily. I just meant that to me Crowley feels like a touchstone from another time, one that fit back then but seems dated and odd to me now, so it's the references to him that feel like a prank, not necessarily his work itself or the seriousness of his intentions. Anyway, that issue with Crowley is meant more as an indicator of where I'm coming from than any kind of judgement on his work, since I don't think I'm qualified to make that call. If it's any consolation, I think most published writers would tell you that, apart from whatever reviews a book receives, getting detailed feedback on your work is a rarity. The problem with self-publishing is that there isn't (yet anyway) a clear thoroughfare to the press, which relies on the old system of mostly basing what books get covered on the basis of which books both arrive in the form of review copies and are pushed by their publishers' publicists. Without that, putting a book out can feel pretty lonely. You need to have a lot of faith in your work and in the idea that the 'I really liked it' kind of response is a signal of a more thorough response that happens in private because mostly what you get from people/readers is 'I really liked it' and not a whole lot more. ** Trees, Ha ha, wow, that's a really good one. That's a wonderful little story/image. I don't know the shape and nature of your writing very well at all, but, man, if I were you, I'd use that happy accident somehow, assuming it could fit into your writing somewhere. It's a beauty of a thing. ** JoeM, Thanks for the answer. Yeah, I guess that's basically what I meant. I guess the pre-set goal and deadline make the real difference? Granted, I think probably at this point I could find someone or other to publish a novel of mine even if it were completely out in left field, and that feeling does help a lot, and I think that maybe in the beginning, it helped in some way that I came into novel writing from poetry where you really don't know if your poem is ever going to end up being published somewhere, and I definitely thought of my early lengthy fiction as more like a sequence of prose poems or something. I agree that the rising 'book on demand' publishing phenom is a really good thing, and there have already been examples of books being picked up by publishers after they've raised interest and gotten some buzz in their early, more piecemeal incarnation. ** _Black_Acrylic, Sorry about Leeds United. Sure, I know 'going pear-shaped'. It's an odd, nice way to put it. Nice review. It drew out the substance of the show very well. That 'Folklore II' sounds curious. Everyone, _Black_Acrylic aka Ben Robinson has a sharp review of a recent art show up and readable at The Skinny here. The stars rating thing is, as you said, dumb and lazy. It doesn't bother me in record reviews, but I guess that's just because it's such a long standing practice. With art, yeah, it seems particularly wrong for some reason. ** Steevee, I can see why that rankled. I guess I can also see how with the current scarily transitional state of reviewing and journalism, a writer can get too insecure and paranoid to share. Still, ... ** Killer Luka, Ha ha, hey. ** Jesse Hudson, Considering the many cold shoulders that this month's escorts were shown here in the headquarters, I think I can go ahead and speak for that talented if snubbed crop when I say thank you kindly for your keenness and understanding. ** Blendin, You have indeed been MIA just a little too lengthily, but all is forgiven. How was the Portland show? Oh, yeah, I did see and covet that Eugene Robinson gig of yours. Hold on. Everyone, if you're in LA this weekend and if you have your wits about you, you will find yourself at Sherwood Magazines, 745 N. La Cienega, at 4:30 pm on this coming Saturday, the 20th, where and when the great Eugene S. Robinson of the great band Oxbow will be reading from his wonderfully titled new novel 'A Long Slow Screw'. It's a guaranteed capital 'E' event. Dang, I wish ... yeah, I wish. My LA time is mid-month of March for roughly two weeks or so. I need to get my tickets today. News once I have. ** Creative Massacre, Liking the escort posts isn't weird, or not to me, obviously, ha ha. Ideally, I think what's interesting about them has little to do with whether you actually want to fuck the guys in the pictures, but that's just where I'm coming from. Yeah, I have missed this recent battle between the ratings hungry. I was there for the WCW vs. WWE phase, but this TNA thing is new to me. I'm kind of surprised Hulk Hogan is trying it again since when he had that big, ballyhooed return to the WEE some years back, I remember how Hogan was so obviously past his prime that the matches he won have never looked more fake, and then the WWE kind of got rid of him as quickly as they could. I do want to try to check all that out. I guess, worst comes to worst, I'll watch as much wrestling as I can when I'm in LA next. The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, that's interesting. I wonder how much longer The Undertaker can stick around. Forever, I hope. ** Justin, No, I don't have a program that can do that. I don't know how to do it easily. I did that once for a post via Photoshop, and it was so labor-intensive that I stopped even trying after that. So if you want to do that image grouping thing, yeah, best if you can do with Paint or something because I don't think I'll be able to manage to do that on my end. I'm sorry for the trouble. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I kind of envy people for whom drunkenness works. I don't think alcohol has ever done to me what it seems to do to other people, I don't know why. But I guess that's why I was a druggie. For the May show thing? Not sure yet. I guess there'll be art on the walls by some or all of the people who make art for walls: Scott, Paul, Kiddiepunk, Oscar. I think Kp and Scott are thinking of showing films/videos. I think Oscar is going to do a performance, and maybe Kp will play music, I don't know. I'm the oddball, so I guess I'll do a reading? Something like that, I guess. Stale cigarettes, ugh. Kind of an interesting day you had there. The hangover edge was kind of a nice add. My day ... The usual writing and stuff. During my cleaning crew exile, I bought food and cigarettes and read an article I hadn't read yet in the latest Mojo about Syd Barrett, and even though there's not much new to say about him at this point, it was still interesting, and it made me listen lengthily to early Pink Floyd and his solo stuff ('Madcap Laughs', 'Barrett') in the afternoon, and he really was such a genius, and so I got excited, and that was good. After that, I sort of gently coerced Oscar and Kiddiepunk to go eat at Hard Rock Cafe with me because I was seriously craving nachos, so we strolled over there and ate our delicious Americanized crap under a canopy of blasting rock videos by the likes of Madness, White Snake, The Faint, Deep Purple, and so on. And a fine-ish time was had by all. Then more novel work and some eating and smoking and Olympics ensued. My friend Emmie called and said she'd somehow befriended these traveling, hitchhiking 19 year old American guys who like my work and want to meet me, so I guess we're all going to do a coffee or something on Thursday. Anything else? Not to speak of. Oh, my bed. I laid there eventually and turned into a sleeping version of me. Your Wednesday? ** Alec Niedenthal, Hey, Alec! Yeah, 'kicking my ass' translates just fine and dandy. Great that you like Zach's novel. Yeah, isn't it a sparking dream of a thing? Cool that you're going to write about it. I'm very interested to read that. I haven't seen much writing about his novel around yet, which has kind of disappointed me. Man, this place and me miss you too while also remaining the souls of understanding. Getting any fiction done at all? ** Heliotrope, Every new fellow Spirit fan is a friend indeed. Back when I was a big wig at Spin Magazine, I tried my hardest to get them to let me do a big piece on Spirit, interview all the members and so on, but the editor, who was generally a fine fellow, greeted my passionate requests with an annoying mantra, and I quote: 'I am not a member of the church of Randy California'. Fucker. I love you too, man. ** Misanthrope, Seance goers flying against walls ... oh please, spare us. Still, it must be nice to actually believe that could happen or to be able lie so imaginatively with a poker face. Good news on the extra proofing work. Maybe escorts get converted to the taste of condom in their mouths, and they use their clients to get a fix of their beloved flavor. Heck, I've been known to argue that soy cheese tastes better than cheese. ** Bollo, Thanks about the rehearsal pix. A palm reading face raper! Well, now I've heard everything. Oh, cool, I'll try to go see your friend Alan's work then. I'm gearing up for a gallery trawl anyway since several cool shows have just popped up. I'll definitely try to that. Wow, that's some serious and reasonably obscure (to me) wrestling talk there on that forum. I'll go lurk and learn, thank you. ** Slatted Light, Hey, D. Thanks for putting your ear to the conch shell of my escorts post. Hunh, interesting about the radio thing. Actually, yes, but in a particular way because I did this experiment while constructing Period's form where I tried to mesh/ confuse internet chat with Ham Radio chat as a way to give the internet stuff a kind of crackle and greater sense of dislocation and real world traversing signal vibe and more mystique, so it's very interesting that you mention that idea. I don't think I've ever talked about that particular layer before. How'd you get so smart? Thanks, man. Talk to you on Thursday, yes? ** Will Decker, Hey, Will. That performance does sound really cool. I like the kind of work those composers are doing. Well, if any of them show up here, I'll make him/them welcome. The specific venues in Brest and Avignon? In Brest, it'll be Le Quartz, a big theater complex there. In Avignon, I know what the venue is, but I don't know its actual name yet. It's a very large warehouse-like kind of space. I'll let you know when I know if you're interested. Thanks. ** Again, please follow Jose's lead today and then spread your thoughts here, if you don't mind. I'm off with friends to the Paris wax museum Le Grevin, and a resulting 'you are there' style post will probably end up here ere too long, for better or worse. Until tomorrow, be well, etc.