p.s. Hey. Nothing really new or timely to report on my end today, so I'll proceed. ** Heliotrope, Great to see you yesterday, Mark. Look forward to seeing you and J. again really soon. ** Blake Butler, Hey, Blake! Thanks a lot, man. I think 'Kindertotenlieder' will likely be the next piece of ours to play at least in NYC if not elsewhere. You good? All's well here. I met Mike Young and Nick Antosca at the LHotB readings, and that was very cool, of course. Take care, and I'll talk to you soon. ** Jose, Hey. Not creepy to me, at least, but then you could have figured that, right? What's new with you? ** Steven Trull, Hey, Steven. It was very, very nice to meet you, sir. ** Tim Jones-Yelvington, Hi, Tim. Thanks much for that. How are writing and life with you? Any new work by you that I can see somewhere? ** Blendin, Hey, B. Thanks for talking to the folks. Talk to you and see you soon, I hope? ** Changeling, Hey. Yeah, the disconnect between the stats and the photos is weirdly (?) common. Makes you wonder whether it's the photos or the words that are the utopian part. Glad you liked the dolls, of course. Maybe we'll get to perform another piece in the UK, and you can see the things in the 'flesh'. I'm continuing to love and devour your writing. Was it really just your birthday? If so, accept a belated, imaginary parade. ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, then I will rewatch 'Zachariah', thanks. Did you ever see the first issue of Interview magazine when Gerard Malanga was the editor? The cover was a nude pic of the young DJ. An auspicious start, to say the least. ** Paul Curran, Thanks a lot, Paul. ** Mark Gluth, Jim didn't smoke the whole trip? He's a bigger man than me. How was the event last night? I'll check FB to see if any beans have been spilled. I hope tonight is the masterstroke. Take care, pal. ** Misanthrope, Oh, really? I'll try to do that more often then. I do remember Rigby asking that. I think I explained to Gisele about the particular brilliance that is Rigby, and all was well. The dolls are stored in coffin-like wooden boxes that are lined with comfortable padding and stuff. I forget if you've seen 'I Apologize', but the coffins/ storage units are used as props in that piece. Very occasionally I look at straight porn, usually Russian, because it's as sad/weird as the Russian gay porn, and it uses basically the same pool of performers. If someone videoed the Cody/ Keanu reading, I don't know about it. Wish I'd thought ahead. ** Little foal, Hey, man. I keep figuring most of the 24/7/365 is just fantasy play, first because in reality guys just can't disappear like that without some family member or friend alerting the police and all that, which would lead to the Recon site being in the news, and I haven't seen that happen, and, secondly, because it seems like the unbelievably boring reality that would come along with being imprisoned 24/7 never seems to cross anyone's mind. Is it unlikely that you could get a lecturer to supervise that topic/ paper at your school? I mean it is kind of a big contemporary issue and all that. Maybe your ex is just going through some personal issue or dilemma that has nothing to do with you, you know? Maybe he's feeling fragile and is wary of activating his own emotions right now or something? I've known that to happen. I hope he gets in contact with you, obviously. The Xbox 360 super elite would be a nice possession, that's for sure. There's an pre-elite 360 here on loan at my LA pad, and I've been playing this game 'Portal', which is totally up my alley. All strategy and puzzles with no one trying to kill you while you figure them out. ** Trees, Hey. Yeah, let's strategize in advance about meeting in LA. I probably won't know what's possible on my end for a while. It'd probably be late summer because our new theater piece premieres in July, and I'll be swamped in France working on that until those shows. Come over to France for them, man. ** Justin, Yeah, the dolls' histories are all oral, I think, and I keep forgetting the specifics. Gisele knows their life stories, of course. I think only maybe two or three of the dolls have switched gender. I know the 6th and 7th dolls from the top -- the top being after the text -- have been girls and boys. ** Steevee, Absolutely about Chilton and 'Third'. ** Sypha, Thanks, James. I'll pass your and others' warm words along to Gisele when I see her. I don't think she reads the blog. Those porn loop things sound very curious and interesting. Will you make them public? ** David, Yeah, his solo stuff is spotty, but that collection you mentioned has the lion's share of the jewels, as I recall. ** Michael Karo, Hey, man. Great to meet you finally and talk at least the little amount that we managed. I will take you up on your offer of swiping some photos for my post with full credit of course. Gracias. Yeah, take care, Michael, and thanks so much for everything again. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Mm, I think that 'Alex' thing I was talking about rather a sequel to some book or TV movie about a teenage runaway/ prostitute. I can't remember. I don't think it was very good or anything. Oh, I think Gaga's music is fine, really. It just doesn't tweak me or anything. I don't think you would talk as loudly as that boy talked. He was practically shouting the whole flight. He must have had an iPod in his ears or something. I'll watch that Chelsea Handler clip because all I know is her name, and I need to catch up on as much current Americana as I can while I've got a TV in front of me. You wrote! Excellent! You know, do not hesitate to share what you're writing at the veritable drop of a hat. I love the way you write, and I'm always hungry. My day: The weather was LA-style superb, all blue and cloudless and warm but not scary. I had to do some work re: blog and other stuff, so I had to sit out the first part of the weather-fest, but then my old friend Mark aka d.l. Heliotrope came over as did Joel's and my long term pal Robert Coddington -- not a blog participant, but a very interesting guy who's kind of the manager of Mary Woronov, Holly Woodlawn, and Cherry Vanilla among others -- and we all hung out, got burritos down the street, shot the shit and so on. We almost went to Amoeba Records, but we didn't for some reason. I got the new LA Weekly and saw that Werner Herzog is doing an in-person screening of some of his films at the Egyptian Theater next week, and I'm pretty sure I'll go to that. In the evening, Mark/ Heliotrope was joined by his wife and my pal Julie, and we all dined down the street at this place Alcove before they split. I did some work, and I watched or half-watched a slew of HGTV reality shows about buying and selling homes, and I found it a bit riveting, and I don't know why since I doubt I'll ever have the finances to buy a home, but maybe that's the reason. I think I ended up crashing somewhere in there. Oh, and I showered, smoked a bunch of my beloved Camel Wide Lights that I can't buy in France. That's it, I believe. Which brings us back to .... you. ** Creative Massacre, Real glad you're feeling better, pal. I'm better too since I think my jet lag is history finally. And of course the positive momentum with the new person and possible relationship does my heart good. The African food sounds yum. I think I probably already asked you a while ago if you've ever made Ethiopian food. That's a fave cuisine of mine. Oh, that funny food names link/page is great! I'll go scour it when I get done here. Thanks a lot for that! ** Math, Cool, thanks a lot, Math. Any good progress on the job and etc. front? ** Chris (British), You don't have newsstands in New Zealand? That's odd, isn't it? I think of them as a universal phenom for some reason. I guess because they seem such a practical way to sell magazines unless, well, the general weather patterns don't permit it or something. Cricket ... the sport? I think I've said this before, but, man, I do not understand the appeal of that game at all. The glacial pace is beyond my abilities, and I say that as someone for whom films can't ever be too slow or uneventful. ** Tosh, Hey, T. I never had the chance or never took the chance to see Alex Chilton, I do not know why. Big regret. ** Bill, Hey. Really great hanging out with you too. A total pleasure. Thanks for the tip about the data disc. It is possible I would have been totally flummoxed. I hope to dig in and watch the work this weekend. ** Stan_cz, Hey, man. I think the SF to LA flight was 54 minutes long, or I think that's what the pilot announced. Very quick and easy. And very cheap if you play your cards right. Oh, cool about the email. I'll check my mailbox later on. ** Bollo, So St. Pat is kind of like Xmas. Xmas is the only other holiday I can think of that's only good until about 3 pm when all the packages are open and the day devolves into watching American football on TV. Hm, I don't know what the dolls are made of. I'll have to ask. Certainly wood and metal, but I'm not sure what the material is that makes up their torsos and limbs. I'll find out. ** Wolf, Hey, Wolfy! I will pass along your twisted motherfucking genius compliment to the boss. I think it's safe to say she'll blush. Seeing as how I know nothing about this interview you mentioned, it must just be with Gisele. It's pretty rare that I'm wanted in those situations, especially in France since, you know, I don't speak the language of love. ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, That is a very interesting problem, and, yeah, it's hard to know what the right answer is in a theoretical or conceptual way. Seems like one of those things you just have to try out. I do like the idea of the actors displaying similar or identical characteristics. The idea is weird and exciting. But I know from the work with Gisele that really interesting ideas get confusing when real human bodies have to perform them. I'll be interested to hear what you decide is best. Creating the backstory seems like a really good place to start, obviously. Oh, Bouremouth, yeah. I've never been there, but my friend Christian (Bale) is from there, so I've heard many stories both romantic and not about it. I'll look for that Swedish movie. I've never heard of it before. Thanks a ton, Nick, and ongoing lots of love. ** Oscar B, Oh, Tuesday. Yeah, we're kind of just almost going to miss each other. Yury has been positively raving about the Paris weather of late. It sounds LA-like. Well, I'll look forward to chatting before you go into black out mode. I need to talk to Michael before you guys leave actually. But now I'm talking to myself. ** Marcus Whale, Hey, Marcus! Oh, my poems from the 70s? Oh, you know, I guess they seem pretty romantic and young and naive to me, no surprise. I like the occasional poem from back then for that very reason sometimes 'cos the me who felt that way and wrote with so few chops sometimes sort of charms me when I'm feeling objective. The ones that ended up in 'The Dream Police' are the ones I'm least embarrassed by. But it's kind of odd to me how sex seemed so gigantic and promising of so much to me back then, I guess. What new with you, man? ** Bacteriaburger, Thanks, Natty. I'm happy that things with RS are proceeding apace. That Kirwan stuff is pretty cool, yeah. Is the idea that he would do color illustrations for the book? His colors are crazy and terrific. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. People have wanted to showcase the dolls on their own, but Gisele has been resistant. But she's working on an installation work that I'll be involved in to some degree as well where people will walk through a maze and some of the dolls will feature in that, especially the robotic ones that move or breathe or cry. And I think she's planning to make one or two talking dolls for that project. That's probably the way they'll be shown, and I think the installation/ maze is going to premiere in March 2011. Hope the YnY meeting was fruitful, and that your weekend follows suit. ** Killer Luka, Thanks much, my friend. How are you doing? ** Tonyoneill, Man, the premiere sounds like the total surreal blast of a thing. I'm going to go see the film this weekend or early next week. Reviews on it seem pretty positive. And that's awesome about the book's stats! I'm gonna get Michael to ship me one of those by hook or crook. No, I hadn't seen that youtube Chilton tribute, and, yeah, it is bizarre. ** JW Veldhoen, Thanks, John. You feeling a little more Even Steven? (Where does that term come from, weird?) ** Okay, this is getting to you very late, sorry. Hope you enjoy the post on Ben Brooks' book. I'm pretty blown away by it, but see what you think based on what you can tell. Take care until tomorrow.