“For me, everything comes back to sound. Everything comes from sound. Sound can be expressed in terms of colour, in terms of the relationship between people, or the relationship between your limbs.” – Keiji Haino
I can’t quite remember the first time that I became aware of Keiji Haino. It was probably in a copy of The Wire or something like that. The thing is – Haino is instantly iconic; so probably within minutes of me seeing him I felt like he’d been around for a while, he was familiar, he had an identity that quickly dug its heels into my consciousness. He seems iconic especially in the genre/genres he operates within – whatever you want to call it: “experimental”, “avant garde”, “improv”, “whatever” – Keiji Haino looks like a Rock Star.
I like to listen to music when I write. When I find music that I can write to it feels like a blessing, because I love having that other thing – that sound – present while I’m working, and for whatever reason I find that I can’t write to a lot of music, often even favourite artists of mine. I can write to Keiji Haino. His music somehow manages to wrap itself in and out of whatever inclinations it is that make me feel compelled to write. There’s something about free music, about feeling a shape out in the dark, about pulling shadows off something, the weird things about how writing feels that I can’t articulate no matter how hard I try that I hear or feel in the music that Haino creates.
I think there’s little point trying to use too many words to try and describe Haino’s work (and there are already plenty of places online that do a very good job and are easily searchable). The best way is just to listen:
TM xx
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p.s. Hey. Today, the superior writer and kindly d.l. Thomas Moronic uses his guest hosting gig to spotlight the visionary, crazed, exhilarating guitarist and music maker Keiji Haino, of whom I am also a huge fan, obviously, and thus I join TM in urging you to have the KJ experience and then talk to Thomas, if you will. Thanks a whole lot, T. ** Allesfliesst, 'The Thing of the Hand' ... a book by you? Purchasable? Can you say more about it? That's interesting! Sexiest hands and lips post? That might work better as a group effort of some sort. I've been wanting to do some kind of post about this particular kind of nose that's like Kryptonite or its opposite to me, but I haven't quite sussed the form. Oh, don't sweat 'possibly delusional'. I was just being a stickler. ** Empty Frame, The sigil/ recipe thing is really nice, a really interesting approach. As I recall, when I tried a 'recipe' piece, I wanted it to work as an actual recipe in a linear way while simultaneously creating something surreptitious and somewhat oppositional when read backwards, i.e. from end result to initial ingredient. It was too much to ask, of myself anyway. Actually, ha ha, when I read the Mrs. Greaves quote, the voice in my head that recited it sounded a lot like Maggie Smith's. Well, 'Catch 22' has zaniness for sure. Dark zaniness. You have to enjoy that, probably. I love psychedelic 60s literary zaniness for some reason. I guess I mostly see it as a particular kind of weird energy within the writing. Happy Tuesday, love, etc. ** David Ehrenstein, 'Our beloved structuring absence', gorgeous! How awesome it would have been if Arnold had picked up the award for Godard. Molly Ringwald picking it up is pretty terrific too, though. Good call. If I'm not mistaken, I think Sorkin wrote an interesting post about Palin on Huffington Post a week or so ago. Interesting indeed about the Sondheim match-up idea, yeah. ** MANCY, Hey, man. Well, obviously, I hope you can suss out the work situation vis a vis moving to Seattle. Is the idea to do there what you're doing in Bellingham? I'm glad you're hopeful. I don't know what I could do to help on the school thing, but if there's anything, just say the word. ** Jax, Hey, pal. Yeah, totally, on 'Sister George'. That's interesting. I remember that version of 'The Maids' being pretty good. Glenda Jackson is in it too. Wow, you sound great and fired up. That's so awesome. How's the werewolf thing going so far? Have you gotten the voice you want to use down? I would hope I'll get an official acceptance from HP for 'TMS' any minute. It's taking longer than I'm used to. Like I've said, it's a bit of a tough book in certain ways, and I hope that isn't proving to be a problem. Yeah, I'll let you know the word when the word comes down. ** Alexp336, Hey. Oh, yeah, I get broad strokes reactions to my stuff a lot. For a lot of people, the subject matter lights everything else in the novels on fire. A lot of people think when you depict something explicitly, the explicitness is an inherent sign of approval. It's strange to me, but that thought is very common. Your fella sounds very complicated. I say that as someone for whom complicated people are like flames to my inner moth. ** Sypha, Hey. Interesting Ballard quote. Thanks. I think there are perfect novels, though. Well, as much as there are perfect short stories. How would one even know if a piece of writing is perfect, I wonder? Perfect for me or you, maybe. Anyway, interesting. Well, I vote for visiting the store and giving him the card. Or waiting until he's on his break and leaving it there for him, if the shyness proves too daunting. ** Esther Planas, Hi! Oh, apply? You just have to send the text to me, that's all. And amend a preface if you want to receive specific comments and critique on particular aspects or parts of it. That's all it takes! You leave on ... Thursday, right? I want to hear as much as you can spare. ** Steevee, Yeah, I think the weight thing is pretty up and down. Yury, who's the last person who needs to worry about his weight, does anyway because he's, well, Yury, and he gets weight fluctuations for no seeming reason a lot. Water retention makes total sense, of course. Yes, that's very worrisome and sad news about Nile Rodgers' battle with cancer. Fingers heavily crossed for him. What an amazing genius that guy is. ** Math, Hey. Cool you liked the hands, and very cool that Portland and its Portlanders are treating you so right. Trippy about the guy who used to date your sister. Does she know? Yeah, great, great all around, pal. I love Portland. I couldn't really see myself living there either, but it's a great city. Keep the fun going. ** Pilgarlic, That week of white and snow-related troubles will make for lovely memories, no doubt. Probably a great story or three too, knowing you. ** Tender prey, Hey, Marc! I wondered if you were at the Vegas performance, and I kind of figured you would have been, and I was hoping for your take. So, thanks. Not having seen it or any of his works in the flesh, I think I'm with you nonetheless on the grand guignol, charlatan, carnival barker charm of the project. The paintings themselves seem kind of ... whatever, like looking at finger paintings done by someone else's little kid or something, but I like the showy gesture, and the 'somebody had to do it' amusement value. Anyway, glad you guys finally got hooked up cyber-wise at your apartment, obviously. Give the Wolf my love and devotion. I'm actually finally getting to your email today, sorry. I've been locked down working on a text for Gisele, but it's nearly done. So, I'll write to you today or tomorrow at the latest. Great to see you, man! ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, I don't know where the Germans' love of shit thing comes from either. It sure is pervasive. I.e., that 'South Park' squib about Cartman's mom. 'If you were in a German "scheisse" video, you... you'd tell me, right?' And, right, that Cannibal Ox song, wow, sure. Computer science, ah, yeah, that sounds practical and, you know, wise. In a school situation? How's the move affecting your creativity, your arts? ** _Black_Acrylic, Oh, that sounds ... boring, ha ha, or de rigeur or something. I thought 'ball', like, you know, gowns and waltzes and that sort of thing. ** Daveyhoule, Hey, Davey! Oh, sorry to be slow on the email front. Yes, I'm very interested in and would be thrilled by a 'Husands and Wives' post or the Haneke/ Houellebecq day. Yeah, that would be amazing and really kind of you, D. Sure, yes, please, and let me know if you have any questions or anything. Thanks a lot! ** Killer Luka, Yep, very nice and deserved indeed that my buddy CB won the GG. Can a big O award be far behind? That's what I'm thinking. ** Alan, Oh, yeah, Ledray, I can see that. You good, A? What's going on? ** Creative Massacre, Hey, M. Oh, I'm sorry to hear about the suckage and the stress. What's the problem? My best to you. ** Andrew, Good question. I don't know. And since he's so mysterious about the hands, who knows what the real story is? Well, the second Stokoe novel is pretty different from 'Cows', but they are kind of tangential in terms of their outrageousness. The new novel is supposedly much, I don't know, cleaner? 'Cows' was also compared a lot to Brite's 'Exquisite Corpse', which seems to have been a one-off too. ** Bill, Hey. Yeah, no, the Viskum paintings don't seem like much to me either. Maybe if you scour them for fingerprints or something, they'd gain ... ? Good news about the software progress. I've read real good things about Alissa Nutting, and I've been meaning to read something by her. I'll try 'Unclean Jobs ...' then. Thanks, B! ** Squeaky, Hi, D! Great to see you! You hung out with Mr. Kitchell. That's very cool. I have yet to have the honor of his in-person-ness. Oh, sadly the trip to LA and SF to do those readings got nixed because I can't afford the plane flight right now, so I'm stuck here, but I'm hoping to get out that way for just a visit at least not long afterwards if I can solve my financial mess. Maybe I'll get to see you then, I hope. All the very, very best to you, man! ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hi! It's great to see you, even briefly! I'm sorry to hear things have been so depressing, and, yeah, it does sound kind of intense. Here's severely hoping that things improve drastically for you as of the very moment you opened your eyes this morning. Oh, my days ... uh, I'll just grab some things that I remember from the last few days because they're kind of a blur now. Let's see ... the jetlag passed pretty smoothly, for which I was and am grateful. I found out that my novel 'My Loose Thread' is being published in Slovenia, which is very cool. I've never been published there before. I met with Gisele about the maze piece just before she went to Israel for a week partly just to see the place and partly because Stephen (O'Malley) has some gigs there. I've been working on the text for the 'trailer' piece that will be part of the bigger maze piece, and maybe I'll finish it today, if I'm really lucky. 'Them' is already getting gig offers, and we're trying to figure out if we can do them, meaning we have to find out if the dancers are available and decide how/if we would replace them if not. The gigs would be in Utrecht, Holland in late April and Portland in September and then maybe a pretty good European tour next year and other stuff. I'm getting some kind of weird email thing. A guy wrote to me five days ago saying he wanted to send me 'unusual photography' and asking for my mailing address. I didn't answer 'cos it seemed weird. Then yesterday, I got another email from him saying that since I hadn't responded to his email, he was going to sue me for 'copyright infringement' if I didn't send him my mailing address. So, I don't know what the fuck is going on there. I'm still waiting for my publisher HP to officially accept 'TMS', and I'm starting to get a bit concerned about what the lengthy delay might mean. Otherwise, I think things in my world were pretty uninteresting and normal of late, so I'll leave it there. Again, I really hope you're feeling better, my friend, and please give me a report on your day, if you feel like it and don't mind. ** Misanthrope, You got your work done, or almost all of it. Good going, man. What? Those escorts were a charm-filled bunch, you're out of your mind, ha ha. A germinating Day, eh? Well, I'm, of course, pleased to hear that. You know me. And it was Little Show's idea? Then let me guess ... something about, oh, wrestling? ** Armando, Hey, Armando! I'm good, how are you? I missed you too. I've never seen Loach's 'Kes'. It's an especially excellent Loach, obviously? I'm going to try to see 'Somewhere' asap. Everyone I know has either seen it already or has no interest in seeing it. It's gotten really bad reviews and buzz here in France. I don't know why. That seems weird. The finest of days to you today, man. ** Okay, we're done. Give Keiji Haino a look and listen and then give TM your thoughts. Thank you! See you tomorrow, duh.
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