Some of these are easy and some aren't. The signers come from all over the place: the arts, entertainment, history, politics, celebrity culture. Some are alive, and some aren't. The person who guesses the most signers correctly will win a prize. You can use the guesses of people whose comments precede yours, but you must indicate which guesses you are coopting. You can guess more than once if you like. The prize is the same one I offered in the last pop quiz. Since the winner of that quiz never claimed their prize, it could be a crappy prize, but it's the prize nonetheless. If you win the contest, I will make a post for this blog about you or anyone or anything you like. Your choice entirely. Since I will announce the winner in Monday's p.s., you have between now and then to take your guesses. Best of luck to those of you who are game.
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p.s. Hey. So, there's a little something for you to do during the first two days of Labor Day Weekend, if you're an American, or over your average weekend, if you're elsewhere like me. I seem to have come down with a cold, and I feel like crap. Straight talk. I'm chugalugging coffee to help me through the p.s., but if I come off a little cloudy or sour at times, now you know why. Okay, ... ** Tigersare, No, sir, it was and still is you who qualifies as angelic. I thought the post could pass for recently made quite easily, in fact. A beaut. So, so wish I could see or see a stream of your show with Xiu Xiu, damn. And please, yes, do say hi to and bow deeply before the great Mr. Stewart for me, if you don't mind. Tell me how the show, etc. went please. ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, I believe you must have mentioned Sonbert's use of 'Walk Away Renee' because I know about that, and I can't imagine how else I would know. Lovely thoughts and memories about Chet Baker and John Heard. Yeah, strange that John Heard kind of ... fizzled, career-wise. Did I read somewhere that he kind of hit the bottle too hard for a while? Could it be because he got kind of thick around the middle? Hm. ** Tonyoneill, Hi, Tony. The Left Banke are sublime. I'd just go ahead and get the 2CD comp 'There's Gonna Be a Storm' which has almost everything they recorded barring a few key tracks and which is pretty consistently awe inspiring. 'Piranha 3D' ... worth it? Mm, depends. Maybe, yeah, for the last very bloody, fairly gory forty or so minutes, but it doesn't have the Dante touch at all. It's a bad faux-80s horror film in both the fun and unfun sense. ** Pilgarlic, Paris isn't stinky. A bit of pee stink in parts of the metro now and then, but nothing out of the ordinary, and vast sections of it sparkle. I'd totally love to flea market with C. Wilson too. Hope your place on Tybee hung in there and continues to. A bit of sand and surf for the holidays? Well, probably not too much surf, I guess. ** Bernard Welt, Hey. I did go find that ghostly pic of Tim. Wow, yeah. Nalley seems a terrific guy. I assume I or even you must have met him back in the day. No, you never did the Winsor McCay post, and I would so incredibly love it if you would do that. So, yes, please, and the porn pictures post too, if I'm not being too greedy. Glad you new batches of kids are cool and optimistic, of course. 'Visual culture course' ... meaning what precisely? The term sounds so giant. ** Dan Callahan, 'The Big Valley', that was it. Well, yeah, a come-down for her, and yet I remember as a kid being struck by her even in that tight vehicle, enough to seek more of her, so all was not lost, I guess. ** Chris Goode, Chris! Really wonderful to see you, man. And from Helsinki. No, never been there. Of course I vaguely hope to get to go along for the 'Jerk' gig, but I seriously doubt I'll get the invite. I lobbied passionately and constantly for about a year to go along on the upcoming Japan tour of 'TIHYWD', and I was endlessly promised that they wouldn't go without me and all that crap, and of course I'm cut from the squad. Sorry, that was a bit some cold-related crabbiness going on there, I fear. Well, I would expect no less than controversy from you, my brilliant friend, so I'm happy to hear The Author hit its marks. Was the performance recorded by chance? Congrats on the award! I know what you mean, but still, an award! Anyway, it's so good to see you, Chris! ** David, Did your weather get off scot free? Where does that term 'scot free' come from, I wonder. Scot as in Scottish? ** Allesfliesst, Oh, that's very interesting about the dilemma that arises in your work, and the comparison to a crime author's dilemma is beautiful. It's not so much that aspect being my problem, at least in the sense that the substructure and littering of clues and red herrings and so on is pretty locked down. It's both the voice itself and the final designing of the spots in the voice where the substructures surface and interact with the prose that's proving so difficult. The voice I'm working with is a kind of multi-sided three-dimensional object, or, I mean, it is to me as far the construction process goes. That's what I see it as. And the content or whatever is actually inside that object as opposed to the usual way things work, i.e. the content is three dimensional and the prose is flat, one-dimensional or whatever. So, it's sort of like creating different levels of transparence and translucence in the prose itself so the content will appear (or appear to appear in some cases) on the surface. Man, that makes no sense when I describe it. I shouldn't be trying to do this with a cold. Anyway, blah blah, I just mean the problems I'm facing right now are pretty much all language problems, I guess. ** Alan, Uh, ha ha, yeah, I probably do need to hear that actually, so thank you. I mean, I know it, but I'm trying not to let myself know it. Okay, I'll ... make an appointment asap, gulp. Thanks, man. ** Bacteriaburger, Hey, Natty. Oh, so is the new Deerhunter song 'Helicopter'? I'll go find out. If so, yeah, it was inspired by a post on this very blog, and I guess Bradford is printing the blog text in the album package. Needless to say, I'm blown away and so honored, and not to mention that 'Helicopter' is just such a great song! Thanks, man! ** Syreearmwellion, Well, your strange reentry into the novel sounds completely normal, so I wouldn't sweat it, not that you are. I think habit is a huge part of novel writing, and habits don't return right away. You have to kind of carve parts of your life away gradually first. It often takes a while. I've been like you re: writing so many times after taking breaks. Give it time, I say, and just direct yourself into the writing as best you can. I await your next report. ** Plexus, Hey. All right, as soon as my poor head is not a stuffed container of ugh, I'll twist your name all over the place. I swear, though, the only cool thing about my name is that it's sinned backwards. Your not liking sugar much will serve you well in the future. I'm not insanely into sugar at all, and I hardly eat sugary things, but you caught me in a rare cake and muffin adoring phase for some reason. Seriously loving all the new writing on your blog, man. And, well, yeah, no surprise about the really good response to your piece at Nick's and Shane's place. Get used to it, pal. Other than working on Saturday, you have any Labor Day whatever, plans, I guess? My plans are to de-sick myself, I guess. Love, me. ** Sypha, Yeah, why do you think it was acceptable to have all that filler back in the Victorian days? Were novels often serialized in newspapers and stuff? That might explain it? Any theories? ** JW Veldhoen, Do I give as good as I get? Hm. I do sort of believe in karma even though it makes no sense. And in fate too, as I've mentioned. It's weird to sort of believe in something you know is irrational that you don't want to have sex with, isn't it? ** Pisycaca, Montse! How wonderful! How are you, my dear friend? It's so nice to see you! Uh, I'm okay. I have a cold, like I mentioned, and that's no good. Novel's killing me, but that's the way it goes. Otherwise, I'm all right, as far as I can tell. My text is in the Deerhunter video?! Okay, I need to go see this. Yeah, so that's what my mysterious phoner with Bradford was about -- about him having used that text as inspiration for a song and about him using the text in/with the album. So cool, right? Gosh, it really is good to see you! I hope you will come back soon. And give my big love to Xet, okay? ** Thomas Moronic, Hey, Thomas! Wow, it's like Xmas today. So, so, so good to see you, T. Yeah, I can only begin to remotely imagine how strange life has been for you recently. I'm glad you managed to say you're okay. We're still pining for you to come visit Paris as soon as you're ready and willing. Cool that you'll get to see Scott's show. He's over there now, so maybe you'll see him too. Tell him hey for me. Yeah, T., so nice to have you back. Please don't be any more of a stranger than necessary, okay? ** Steven Trull, Oh, but I am to blame. That's the tragic part. ** Will Decker, Hey. I've still never seen 'Glee'. The French haven't embraced it yet, but I imagine they will. Kiddiepunk liked 'Tetro'. I've been meaning to borrow the DVD from him. Tears down your cheeks for the reason you mention seems like a very good reason to me, yes. I'm still concerned about my dad. I fear I will be concerned about him from now on as I don't things are going to get too much better for him. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Stay as positive as you can, man. All the 'positive thinking' stuff is such a cliche, but there's something to it. I'm glad you're getting out to see and review that show for The Skinny. It looks pretty promising in the photos on the site. I like that sort of work too. Take care this weekend, man, and take my respect and love along with you. ** Steevee, No, Michael Brown didn't write 'Brother Louie'. Classic MB situation. He starts the band Stories, they're too smart and interesting to have a hit, he quits in frustration, they release a weak and uncharacteristic non-MB track as a single because it sounds sort of like Rod Stewart, it's a hit, and MB is already elsewhere starting his next too good to succeed band. Now your eyes are acting up? Man, you're getting your unfair share lately. ** Colin, Hey. Oh, John Wieners! Yes, incredible, amazing, one of my very favorite poets ever. What are you reading of his? Do you have the two Collected Poems books that Raymond Foye edited for Black Sparrow? I imagine you saw there's a new and proper Wieners website up at last. Great that he's inspired you, and I'm very glad to hear you're sending 'too ok' off some more. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Good to hear. About 'BtK'. I'll revisit it without caution soon. Tough choice on the Pynchon. I love both of those books a lot. Gosh, so either would work, really, but ... okay, maybe 'Against the Day' in a pinch. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hi. Oh, Blogger cut you? That happens here more than once in a while, and who knows why. Ouch about your finger and about your friend's snarkiness too, I guess. I was just mentioning karma up above. Weird. I'd be very happy to pass along to you the flurry of little chat box things that explode from the bottom of the page every time I log on there if I possibly could. I chat on FB only in cases of emergency or of great boredom. But I'm happy for you. Okay, my day sucked because I started feeling sick about 1 pm, and it only continued. I wrote some. It went ... okay, I guess, considering. I went down to the office to retrieve a package of something or other for Yury, and Michele, this transsexual physicist who use to live here was visiting the Recollets boss, so I hung out with them for a while. I bought food. The guy at the Monop was unusually friendly, which was nice, although I felt bleah and sick, so I wasn't as responsive as I might have been. Oscar and I went to see 'Piranha 3D'. Okay, hm, well ... for the first half of the movie, I thought it was just bad in the bad way, and I spent most of the time wondering why Richard Dreyfus was in the movie, like ... does he know the director or is he that hard up these days, etc., and I realized he's never in movies anymore, so he might in fact be that hard up, and he does look awful. Then that part where the divers go into the underground lake happened, and I started liking the movie more. I really liked the very long, very bloody piranha massacre of all the Spring break people, and I guess I was sort of into the movie from there on out, although I did pause occasionally to think it was kind of sad or weird or grim or something that Christopher Lloyd is doing his same old schtick in a self-parodying kind of way. So, by the time the stupid ending arrived, I was okay with the movie. I'd give it a ... C+ maybe. What did you think? After the movie, I was really feeling sick and bad, so I just watched TV and surfed the internet and not much else before falling asleep earlier than usual. Ta da. How's your weekend working out? ** Shai W. Thanatos, Ah, Shai. I wonder could have brought you back here right now after all that time away. Hm. Well, welcome back, and perhaps I don't need to say this, but I will refresh your memory as to a discussion or two that you and I have had in the past, and I will add that nothing has changed in that regard either. Don't think I'll get your car, no, but thanks. You can get into my car however if you wipe your feet first. ** 'Stoopid Slapped Puppies', Hey, Nick. My so-so seems to have been an arriving cold. That explains things, I guess. Ugh. I'm glad you think your writing is going well because it sure the hell is, man, at least for anyone who's been reading what you've been writing of late. Whoa! Mm, I suppose I know what you mean about the greater emotional distance between you and the characters in your current work. However, I think emotion is still exuding from them and, by proxy, from you quite effectively, quite thoroughly even. Speaking for myself, I've found sometimes that some of the most emotionally affecting things I've written were composed in what felt to me to be a quite distanced way. I think there are times you share the characters' emotions when you're writing, and times that you are that emotion's thoroughfare, and the emotion can find its representation kind of telegraphically even while you're to busy with other aspects of the writing. For me, that's how it works sometimes. Sometimes their emotions need to feel mine, and sometimes they know me well enough to construct emotion without the direct help of mine. Does that make any sense? Probably not, ha ha. Only a week left for you in England, wow. Time's so weird. I know what you mean about how you can help and can't help. Man, the inability to help is tough, but just the fact that you recognize what you can do and can't do is what's important. And sometimes -- weirdly sort like in that 'characters' emotion' issue -- you help the most by not deliberately deciding how to help. Again, if that makes any sense at all. Great weekend to you too, Nick, and lots of love. ** Misanthrope, Man, Gnarls Barkley isn't even in the same universe with Outkast when Outkast are at their best. Yeah, a lot of people are allergic to gluten. I'd be fucked, if I were. I guess since Alan bugged me rightfully about avoiding the dentist, I will pass along his bugging. I can do it if you can. My mom was kind of a hoarder. Not in a scary way, but she really didn't see the point of trash cans sometimes. My friend Joel was just telling me about that artist reality show. Like Project Runway for artists or something. Guess it was a flop. I'd like to have seen that. I think the nausea yesterday was due more to my cold's onset than your diet in retrospect, so don't you regret a thing. Bon weekend, George. ** Okay, I made it, but, boy, do I feel shitty now. I need to go stumble outside and buy cigarettes. Oh, do try your hand at the quiz this weekend. Why not? There's no booby prize or anything. See you back here with the announcement of the winner as well as with the usual stuff on Monday. Bye.
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