p.s. Hey. Today the very distinguished local Justin marks the occasion of designer Alexander McQueen's final collection with this fine and fond overview of his work. My warmest thanks go out to Justin and to you out there for perusing and contemplating his kind guest-post then sharing your thoughts with him and one another. Alert: if you're in LA tonight, don't miss a special reading and book signing by the eminent author, expert, and virtual d.l. Bill Reed who will be launching his new book 'Hot from Harlem: Twelve African American Entertainers 1890 - 1960' at Book Soup, 7 pm, 8818 W. Sunset Blvd. All the info you need lies here. Tomorrow I fly to LA for a two week fun- and event-filled fest, and, as a result, I won't be able to do a proper, interactive p.s., but I will catch up with your comments from today and tomorrow when I return to action here on Friday. Second to lastly, this is your daily SPD nudge. Lastly, I'll have to speed along today due to a bunch of pre-trip shit I need to do, so my apologies for that. ** Dorna, Hey, Dorna! A fellow Undertones lover, awesome. I'm super looking forward to seeing you too, pal. ** Steven Trull, You were absolutely right in thinking I should know. Damn. Now, do you know where I can get my hands on $19,000 dollars per chance? Or $9,500 if you want to go splitsies with me? ** Misanthrope, Self is a mega-ass, if you ask me, but he can write, yeah. 'Toby's Life'? No. Shall I seek it? I wonder why there isn't a twink porn star named Toby, unless there is. Hope that fucking Candle place gets on the fucking horn. ** Bernard Welt, Maybe you can get one of your fine art students to draw a picture of what you and Ms. Ste. Marie must have looked like together and then, I guess, scan it, worst comes to worst? You fucking Vincent Kartheiser ... X-D ** Empty Frame, Shame that your overzealous sister ruined Sharkey for you 'cos the Undertones stuff would have been a sale, I think. I'd do Leiris over Selby and Acker over Jelinek, but that's just me all over. ** Tonyoneill, Yeah, the times I saw the Undertones, Sharkey could barely stand upright he seemed so frail and crushed by the weight of his own singing. It was nice. Oh, I'm doing a 'Neon Angel' post, no surprise. I hope you like it. ** Pisycaca, Hey, pal. Your doctor's right, of course. Imagine the terribleness I went through being over here as my mom's end approached, and it's just a gift that you can be with him when you can and as much as you're able. Take really good care until I next get to see you from LA. ** David, Thanks for link, D., and for apparently luring the Flitster himself back into the fold. ** David Ehrenstein, 'The old "termite" school': really nice. Wish I could be there tonight to see Bill rock the Soup. ** Uli, Very best of luck with your computer. I live in terror of parting with mine. I hope to see you through it again really soon, man. ** Tosh, Thanks, Tosh! Yeah, I think they were kind of a brilliant band, definitely. 'My Perfect Cousin' is like a lost, weirdly performed Kinks song. As I understand it, Sharkey is now some kind of advisor to the British government regarding musicians' rights, or something like that. ** Bill, What a complicated, rangy trip you have laid before you. In theory, pretty amazing. Apart from whatever theater rehearsals in Brest, I'll be around here until the summer. Hope Paris snags you for a day or two. ** Jose, Yeah, pre- or just-pre-MTV, but England had all those Top of the Pops type music shows where, I'd guess, music clips were useful. ** Flit, Flit! My little world is once again complete! Man, you are just storming on the art front. I only peeped at the new stuff so far, but, wow, I'll hang out on your blog thoroughly in a bit. Everyone, the mighty artist and d.l. Flit has some new work up on his blog, and it is just knock-down, drag-out great. Drop whatever you're doing and click this. So, so lovely to see you and to find you so on fire, pal. ** Sypha, I had writers block for the first three years I lived over here. I say just make do, fiddle, try little things, and you'll be unblocked pretty soon, you mercurial thing you. ** Paul Joseph, Hey, man. Yeah, I'm a bit rushed and scrambled getting ready for my LA trip, but I'll get back to you as soon as I touch down and get some decent zzzs. Thanks, man. ** JW Veldhoen, 'Or so I'm told': ha ha. ** Steevee, I'm okay with a fair amount of Albarn's stuff, I guess. Gorillaz don't bother me. The image thing is fun. They've popped out some good singles. I haven't seen the 'Stylo' vid. I will, though. ** _Black_Acrylic, I can imagine that Self's intense self-regard and Zeus-like confidence plus that voice of his would disconcert politicians, yeah. ** Kier, Oh, Kier! I went down to pay my rent yesterday, and this person in the office said, oh, there's this package here for you that I keep forgetting to tell you about, and it was the insanely great, magnificent 'House Down the Street'! Oh, fuck, thank you and thank Nick. It's just ... wow, I'm so blown away by it and so chuffed to have it. Gosh, Kier, just thank you so much! ** Little foal, Yeah, sometimes it's best when things like that happen by accident. I got 'outed' as gay when I was about 14 by my snoopy mom, and it couldn't have worked out better. Gee, I would sure imagine that your dad knows by now unless your parents' relationship is a very strange, chilly one. I hope he's at least as okay about it as your mom is. Ha ha, don't tell anyone, but I've been known to floss with a gum wrapper, post-it note, and you name it. Whatever works and whatever no one else ever has to see happening is good enough for me too, exactly. ** Chris Goode, I planned carefully. In fact, even the inclusion of 'You Little Thief' came after a bit of soul searching. That one great little couplet in there plus his delivery sold it. I think BSM will get you one these days. You just have to get her particular brand of earnestness in the correct position. I think what I used to like about Judy Collins was that thinness and weakness in her voice. It de-stiffened it in an odd way or something. That doomy feeling sucks so bad. Someone once told me it's produced by the same brain chemical that produces deja vus. ** Creative Massacre, You started on your project, yum. Yeah, I'd love to be its looky loo. I don't know if I'll be able to take that Flair vs. Hogan thing if blood's involved. That might be one Halloween decoration too many. Still, when I get to LA and to my cable TV, I'll start catching up. Hope the chest pain was just a weird, measly aftershock, pal. ** Jeff, Oh, I shouldn't have said 'singles'. That was lazy. I just meant the best known tracks, basically, singles or not. Nice parallel about This Heat. Its acuteness made me laugh in the good way. Cool, I'll get Rehberg to give me that Mego release. Oh, I did see the HTMLG thing about Ariana. I'll pass it on. Everyone, the great writer Ariana Reines also formerly known around here as the great d.l. Antler is embarking on trip to Haiti, and she needs some help. HTML GIANT posted something about this, and, thanks to our good friend and comrade Jeff, here it is. Please go over there and see if you can be of any assistance. Thanks! Thanks, Jeff. Wow, very interesting about the Reines/Ribot album. ** Alec Niedenthal, Thanks re: the post, Alec. Re: my nerves, it's the inevitable and impending bad case of jet lag that most stresses me out in advance. I really hate that I seem fated to suffer from it so thoroughly and like clockwork. Mm, I hope 2011. There's a ton of work left to do, but I'm at least dreaming I'll have it finished by the summer. Yeah, I did see and read the 'mailbag' comments threat over on HTMLG. Personally, I really like it when HTMLG addresses those issues, and David was a magnificent contributor, yes, as were you. The Lipsyte seems like a good way to jar yourself. It's juicy and craggy in the right way maybe? I'll try not to be nervous, thank you, and the next time you hear from me, I'll be predictably whining about my fascist body clock, but I promise to put up a good fight. ** Thomas, Hey, Thomas! This is a fine and rare pleasure, man. Nice Undertones gig report there. I saw them maybe three times, I think, always with Sharkey. I watched a few clips of the current line-up when I was gathering the clips for that post, and the replacement singer just doesn't cut it for me. Oh, wait'll you hear Pollard's next album 'Moses on a Snail'. It's monstrously great. Take care, man. ** NB, How's your heat treating you? I suppose we'll get to compare our temperatures and their effects for a day or two before I'm the only one left baking. ** Justin, Hey. Thank you 'in person' for the post today, man. Really, thanks so much. I'll go check out the last collection on Style when I get a minute today. No, I didn't read/know about that gay porn star news. The name Dustin Michaels rings a bell. I'll be all over that today too. I hope your and AMcQ's day in the blog's sun goes well, and I'll be peeking in. ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, First, like I told Kier, I finally got my hands on 'House Down the Street' yesterday, and, oh man, it's not just great in and of itself, I'm also staggered and thrilled to my marrow that it's mine. Thank you so much for both your genius and your kindness. I'm not expecting so much from 'Alice in Wonderland', but it's too something or other for me to risk missing. Yeah, Jenilek's 'Lust' is great, right? I think it's my favorite of hers. And it's awesome to hear you sounding so up and aroused by the progress on the Stations piece. Do you/they have a performance date/ deadline in place yet? Hope the haircut was even less of a big deal than my non-struggle with the dentist. ** Bollo, I was wondering what you'd have to say about Sharkey, being his, err, neighbor or fellow countryman and all that. Hope whatever was outside that door you sped through this morning ruled. My day won't be overly nice, I fear, but I hope yours was. ** Okay, I think I managed to finish that off without pissing off the first person I need to meet with today by arriving late. Glory in the legacy of Alexander McQueen today, talk to Justin, to yourselves, to the general readership, and even to me if you like. I'll say hi and give you a quick lowdown on how the blog will work while I'm on the West Coast tomorrow morning, and then I'll do the blab thing with you again come Friday. Be well, safe, etc.