p.s. Hey. Just to get this out of the way, under normal circumstances, the amount of sleep I got last night would have been very shitty, but, speaking as a zombie, it was enough of a boon that I will celebrate by not whining about how crappy if less crappy I feel today. If you're in Paris today, you might want to attend a curious event at the Centre Pompidou at 7:30 pm tonight where the odd and interesting combination of author Mark Z. Danielewski and filmmaker Lars von Trier will be having a round table discussion (in English, no less) about 'Labyrinthian Spaces'. If I get a second wind, I'll be there. If you're in LA tomorrow night, I highly recommend you show up at The Mountain around 8: 30 pm to see a Semiotext(e) hosted event featuring the writers Ariana Reines (formerly also known as the legendary d.l. Antler), Veronica Gonzalez, and Sarah Wang. And with that, I think our pre-conversational business is done. ** GV, Hi. Yes, it's a curious system here. The other people who comment and to whom I comment in return are, well, people much like yourself. If you scroll down to the bottom of the 'p.s.' section and click open the 'Comments' area there, you will discover the people I'm talking with, and you can also leave your comment in that area as well. Thanks for the kind words, and I guess I'll see you tomorrow. ** Kiddiepunk, Hey. July 4th, nice. I think I'll be heading back home from London that day if all goes as planned, so we'll have to have a welcome to Recollets celebratory espresso or crepe or something better, yes? I'm like you: very excited for the Spike Jonze 'Where the Wild Things Are'. I understand there were great struggles between him and the studio over the final cut, so I hope all of that got sorted out to his rather than their satisfaction. ** Marcus Whale, Hey, man. Wow, I really like the Natural Numbers stuff, so thanks a lot for the link. I'd known a little about him and heard maybe a track or two, but the songs on his Myspace are really terrific. So his album's unattainable? I'll see if I can find your 44 words online. How are things? Music, school, writing, ... etc.? ** Nick Hudson, Hey, man. Yeah, I've started to get sleep again, I think, I hope. I was just contemplating the purchase of the new Dirty Projectors both for natural reasons and because the Pitchfork review intrigued me further. And now your glowing praise complete with a tasty New Pornos reference. I think I'm sold. I'm glad your system is digesting the romantic loss and telling you the truth, i.e. that the loss is his. Back to work, right? I'll go check your new poems later with excellence of intention. ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, yes, I did get the email/pix you sent, and only my jetlag aka prison warden has kept me from responding to you before now. Yes, they'll make a very fine Day, needless to say, and I'll write to you soon with the launch date. Thanks a lot, David. ** Oscar B, I've never been to Birmingham, but it has some kind of association no doubt inspired by song lyrics or bands from there or something that causes me to understand why you might not want to move there, yeah. Oh, that was nice of that person David Burrows to say that. His name's familiar. Yeah, the police and violence installation piece looks really good. Folks, check out our pal and artist Oscar B's new artful obstruction. Morpheus flirted with me a little last night, so thanks for pointing me out to him. That's crazy about the Italian prize of a Recollets residency. Apply indeed, whoa. ** David, So I should walk if not exactly run to see that Star Trek movie? I'm pretty sure I'll see it on a plane flight if I wait long enough, but it probably needs that big screen treatment, right? Hm. Yeah, Eitzel's been out as gay for ages, I think. He's just not a fashionable artist of late, so the press pays next to no attention to his state of affairs in general. ** Roger P, No, I haven't seen 'Terminator: Salvation'. I don't know if I will. Well, I will eventually just to see my starring friend, but I know already that I'll think it's one degree or another of very shitty. Can you think of a reason I should see it? Everyone I know has either rolled their eyes or vented or shrugged. 'Frisk' was published in China. A number of my books were published in Japan and did well and were really trendy there for a while, but, as it seems to go in Japan, the fingers of fashion snapped and suddenly my stuff was out of style and stopped getting published. But I think five of my books came out in Japan. My best chance to go there is through the theater work. Our new, in-progress piece is booked to tour Japan in the fall of 2010, and the powers-that-be have already heard my demand that I be brought along for that tour ... or else. ** Bernard Welt, Oh, that's interesting. I mean about there being an academic conference on RE/Search. Good idea. I should, uh ... Everyone, there's going to be a big academic conference in, I think, Manchester, UK focused around the great press/ magazine RE/Search, and I guess they're looking for papers to be delivered at said conference, and if by some chance this possibility interests you, go to the Comments section under yesterday's p.s., scroll down a short ways until you reach the comment of Bernard Welt, and you will find all the information. Yeah, especially when you used to do those readings with Language poets, yuk yuk. ** Stan_cz, Congrats on the new home and the heavy city access. I like the idea of 'theoretical driving lessons'. After that, you'll be closer to being a theoretical Los Angeleno too. I haven't read Chandler since I was relatively wee, and I can hardly remember the particulars, but traditional and conventional generally means more popular, so your theory sounds about right. I assume all of the sometimes great movies that his books inspired have more than a little something to do with the fame and big readership too. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hey. Yeah, 'Predicate' is a fave Sotos book on my end. Nice excerpt on your blog. Nice of you to do that as finding Sotos excerpts online is no small task. I didn't get to see the Sotos/Best collab thing in NYC because I was bound to another event at the same time. Peter was very modest sounding about it when I asked, but he's always very modest. Here's a link to the gallery with a basic description of the show, which was all I could find online about it. The curator of the series of shows in which the Best/Sotos show/event happened is a friend of mine, and I'll see if he can alert me to any related pix or video. All the best to you too. ** Alan, The Bryant Park thing was pleasant, but if attending would have lead you to what I've been going through, it definitely wasn't worth that. On seeing the scrapbooks ... first, like I said, I will be a little surprised if they let you see them at all, or at least some of the more 'controversial' ones, in which case, tell them you're a friend of mine and that I authorized your getting to look at them, and they can call or email me for the official okay if need be. If you get to see them, I think Fales has them pretty well organized in terms of what novels or periods of my work that they relate to. Thanks for saying that about 'UM'. Obviously, that means a lot me. ** SYpHA_69, Oh, Providence, very close, very good. Maybe it's just me, but I can see some weird kind of visual connection between Lambert and McCartney. They both have kind of fat (not in a bad way) faces, and the haircuts aren't wildly divergent, and of course they're both manufactured stars and all that. But, yeah, obviously, I sometimes use pop culture figures as muses too, as poor Alex James found out the hard way. ** Tomas, Oh, gosh, thanks, man. You've helped de-slog the blog with your presence, so the feeling's mutual. Circus Books, ha ha, sure. You probably mean the one in West Hollywood. I live nearish the Silverlake one, so that's the baby I know better. Weird, I don't think I've ever read Katherine Ann Porter. Isn't that peculiar? I don't know how she's evaded me. Wow, you were living in some nice digs, area-wise, in Paris. Creme de la creme. How did you score that? Shakespeare & Co. is kind of a really great store, looks-wise and even content-wise. In terms of stock, it's better than most American indie bookstores. Shame about the massive import prices, but so it goes. When I read there, the hosts gave me a tour, showed me where Burroughs wrote 'Naked Lunch' and so on and so forth. So when did you live here and why and all that? ** JW Veldhoen, I am? I aspire to such a state, but I've always thought I was too clumsy and kid-like. But that's good to know. Are you? You thought the name Chris Lemmerhirt was an invention? Oh, well, no, obviously. The Lenin was from Alan, and it was gifted not lent because Alan is a kind soul just like you. The givers. ** Statictick, Yeah, thanks a lot again. People explored and learned and liked it. You did good yet again. Okay, I'll try to convince Wines, although I was only Detroit for 24 hours one time, so I'll have to take your word for its wonderfulness. Ativan, noted. Man, yeah, Jesus, what a nightmare, but I think it might be ending, and I'm trying to keep mum re: how bleah I actually feel so as not to jinx the seeming shift. ** Creative Massacre, Oh, 'Deranged'. I've heard of that. I don't think I've seen it. I did see a movie called 'Demented', or I think I did -- unless I'm thinking of John Waters' 'Cecil B. Demented' -- and I think it was pretty okay, unless it actually was Waters' 'CBD', which is great in my opinion. That sucks you can't afford to get your tooth pulled. America is so fucked up. Bring on the motherfucking free healthcare already. I hope your tooth goes totally numb or falls out or something as soon as possible. ** Ken Baumann, Fingers crossed that your close readers give you as close to green light as is humanly possible so you can get to 'Unguentine'. I'm so very curious to hear how that project goes. What a fascinating and challenging act of translation, as you well know. Not to mention that I'm hoping hard you'll be able to get into your new book this summer too. Thanks for the wished luck on the option. The hopeful thing is that 'Coraline' has done really well, so they've got some clout right now as a result, and maybe 'God Jr.' has a quirkily accessible appeal on the storyline front, or that's their idea. Sure would be amazing if it happens. ** Mark, Oh, I was surely in the room in which you filmed that person since the owners gave me grand tour of the upstairs. You probably know that S&Co. allows young writers to live in the store free for many months at a time as long as they use the opportunity to read and write. I met some of the seven who are living there now, and they were very cool, mostly from the US, Canada, and the UK. Your video alerts are whatever the opposite of a burden would be, and I'll go check out the DADA percussionist as well as 'Schtick Machine' now that my eyes and brain are realigning at last. ** Thomas, Yeah, we have five variations on 'Thomas' now, how curious: you, T H O M, Tomas, Tomkendall, and Thomas Moronic. But it's weirdly easy to distinguish each of you, so no worries on the name change unless it would amuse you to do a presto change-o. Yeah, right, about the new Sunn0))). I'm kind of in love with it. I didn't know you could do that with Firefox. I always use Safari because for some weird reason whenever I've used Firefox to make the blog, these strange gray blocks tend to appear over the posts. Maybe it was automatically censoring the blog of its own accord. ** Kier, Oh, film film. Yeah, I was thinking movie. Well, that's okay. Film film is cool too. I haven't heard the new Manic Street Preachers yet. I'm kind of very excited to hear it, naturally, but, at the same time, kind of nervous too. But you just eased some of my fears. I'm going to go ahead and bite the bullet. I like the Saville cover. ** Thomas Moronic, Thanks, man. My body started to behave itself just a little bit last night, and I do feel a little better, can you tell? Hey, what's the latest on your novel-in-progress? ** Paul America, Well, hey there! Long time no see. How nice to have you back. No, keeping the puppet pictures intact was never in the cards. I'd already turned 'Jerk' into a theater piece, and that turned out well, so I thought I'd see what happened if the text stood on its lonesome. Man, that would have been cool if the pickle had been peel-able like the VU's banana. What would be under it? Not a penis, that's for sure. Hm, I'll have to think about the possibilities. That's not something that could be decided without a lot of careful thought. Oh, no, the new SY sucks? I've been a little concerned 'cos the few early reviews I've read have been very qualified. Well, I'll download it no matter what, of course, but, heck, it's SY, right? They can miss the mark every few records if they have to. Or that's my rationale. Yeah, I've been dipping into the Pitchfork SY week, of course. Some cool stuff. I've been doing Sonic Youth Day in pieces. So far I've done a giant Thurston Moore Day. And a Kim Gordon Day. Check 'em out. And then next I'll do a Lee Ranaldo Day. And, hm, I don't know if I'll do a The Drummers of Sonic Youth Day. Maybe. So, before you disappear again, what have you been doing and what are you doing right now? ** Steevee, Hey. Well, being as healthy as possible is always a good idea, right? I say that as a vegetarian and occasional vegan, but I guess I also say that as a smoker, which cancels out my opinion right there. ** Flit, If you want a scary close up, you've got it. You can call the shots. ** NB, Was that a little clue to your new job? Hm. Enterprise ... to ... mm, Sonic Youth? You're going to work for Enterprise to Sonic Youth? Awesome! Also, Destroyer rules, so I'm happy to have been your dealer. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I'll take your not bad day, and I'll see or raise you with what might just be a not bad day for me too, if I'm lucky. 'Not bad' sounds delicious at the moment. After your 'Weeds' rave, I had to google it. Well, I like Mary-Louise Parker, so that's a selling point. Kevin Nealon? Weird. The son Hunter Parrish looks a little too jocked out for me, but he has this kind of Swedish thing that I really like going on in his face, and maybe that makes up for the muscles and tan, I'm not sure. Oh, yeah, I'm ready for the mystery of the guy to be solved. I have now moved onto the edge of my seat and will remain here until I am satiated. The cleaning crew here at the Recollets does the dusting, thank goodness. It's not that dusty here. My LA apartment, which sits at the bottom of Griffith Park, gets filthy dusty every 48 hours. ** Amccartney, Aw, thanks, Alistair. Yeah, thank you so much. That did my heart good. Man, you need to get yourself over to Paris. Seriously. And you should get your novel published over here. Do you have an agent? You do, right? Has he/she tried to get you a French publisher? He/she should send it to mine, POL. I'll do my part on this end. How crazy that you were at the London reading on Charing Cross Road. I remember that reading. It's so trippy to think you were one of those strangers' faces. Did you say hello or anything? Weird, cool. How are your new novels going right now? You have the summer mostly off to write, don't you? ** Steven Vineis, Congrats on the writing- and reading-friendly job. I'm such a day person, I couldn't never work those kinds of hours. I'd have a stroke or something. Thickening the language sounds good. I'm doing some of that with my novel too. Reading tour? Nice, very nice. Fingers severely crossed. Where would the tour take you? ** Winter Rates, Dude, hey. ** Misanthrope, I'm a little better, like I said. And a little feels like a lot. I'm like Lot's wife, which is a Bible reference, isn't it? I have no idea what it means. Well, yeah, get your share of conked out hours then get the hell back here. ** Marc, Hey, man! Excellent to see you. Yeah, I saw a notice that you're playing somewhere, maybe on/from Facebook? You heading back to NYC? That's good news, yes? Would seem so, certainly. Hope it goes really well tonight. ** Pascal, How are you redrafting the novel? Are you trying to get it away from the things about it that specifically targeted the agent in question? Well, that's harsh about the rejections, but it's undoubtedly a good sign about the work. Expectations should always be a hurdle. Too many artists see them as open arms, if you ask me. But the rejection stuff stings anyway. Fuck them. Have a good one today. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Hey, man! Oh, I was just going to write to tell you how incredible you-know-what is, and then you took it in for repairs, so here's some awe and thanks and godspeed on getting it back to me. Yes, the new Sunn0))). I'm floored by it, like I said, and not just 'cos Stevie's my bud. I'm easing into the realm of goodness, thank you. By tomorrow, I may even be doing a textual jig in this very spot. ** I'm done. Re: the post, I did a tiny little thing on the blog about that novel ages ago, but I'm enough of a lover of both it and of Rudy Wurlitzer's fiction in general that I wanted to do more. I hope it's a pleaser. I hope my upwardly swinging concentration level will continue, and that I'll prove to be better and better company beginning tomorrow.