p.s. Hey. So, just to briefly fill in the surface of yesterday's blank, Gisele and the people who'll design the lights and tech for our new piece and I spent the morning and early afternoon at this warehouse in the Paris suburbs (aka a company called Animatik) looking at the different ways holograms can be projected so we could choose the kind of screen and projection system that best suits what we're up to, and we settled on this amazingly invisible/ transparent, diagonally slanted film-like screen that requires a really complicated kind of multi-bounce (off a series of mirrors) projection set up, but it looks terrific and is the most convincing of the versions we can afford. We'll be shooting a bunch of test human holograms in Belfort next week to see what works best and most eerily with that system. Then I spent the rest of the day in rehearsals for the big Avital Ronell event at the Centre Pompidou on Friday. It's kind of a performance based on part of her great book 'Crack Wars', and I sort of play T.S. Eliot. It should turn out pretty wacky for better or worse. And those are the basics about my day away. Oh, so I'll dash very quickly through the comments from Tuesday just to catch anything specifically directed my way and also get to the ones from yesterday, of course. ** Trinie D, Hey, Trinie! You're making me even more homesick than I already was, which is a lot, and is a good thing, mind you. I haven't been to Venice since those medical marijuana shops popped up, I guess. How civilized that place has gotten. The impending wilderness stuff sounds awesome, and I'll get to your email today, cool. Tons of love to you and Matt! ** Chris Goode, Aw, thanks, Chris. Yeah, we're pretty stoked. Can't wait to see you, needless to say. ** Roger Clarke, Howdy, Roger! An early toast to your and Simon's 18th, wow. Not to mention the Penguin thing. I want to hear more about that. Yeah, we definitely need to hang out while I'm in London. I'm there from the evening of the 30th until the morning of the 4th, so let's sort out a meeting. Are you coming to 'Jerk'? I'm behind on email as almost always, but I'll go hunt down that ghost story with greed in my heart. ** Stan_cz, I only know how to drive an automatic. I'm utterly hopeless with a stick shift. Which are you learning on? Oh, crap, about the credit card fraud. Yeah, I had that kind of thing happen in Russia, and I literally lost all the money I had in the bank and never got it back, so, I hear you. Did you figure out how the culprit got your info? ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, That Spain trip sounds awfully nice. I've still never been to Spain, so it's all very romantic and toasty in my mind. I'm catching up on your incredible stuff over on your blog, and I'll say hi and whatever else there soon. As always, you are a fount of the stunning, my friend. ** David Ehrenstein, Yeah, the Avignon Festival is huge fun just to attend much less perform in. As you said, a really gorgeous walled town, intricate and just pleasure incarnate to wander through. Getting programmed for 2010 means Gisele and I get to go for a few days this year in July gratis to see stuff, check out the theaters and put our dibs on the one(s) we most crave, and so on. Yeah, that always blows my mind that Bresson considered using actual stars in 'Lancelot du Lac'. What a weird almost decision that was. ** Tonyoneill, Wonderful to see you, man. I want to hear how Paris was for you, obviously. It's too bad we didn't get to meet up, for sure. I was dead to the world in a nap most of the day anyway and probably would have made feeble company. Anyway, I'm glad you're home safe, and, yeah, really great to see you here. ** Roger P, Hey, Roger. ** Misanthrope, A Day for me? Slurp. I'm very pleased that the Powell stuff pleased you, very of course. ** SYpHA_69, Sounds like your birthday was deservedly nice. Yeah, I mean, on the online meeting stuff, I just think maybe it'd be best to let yourself go ahead and make whatever first impression you're going to make, which I'm absolutely positive will be a much, much better impression than you're fearing, rather than to make that first impression before the guy even meets you and doesn't yet have the virtues of your presence and personality and looks, etc.., to contribute to and/or counter the worries you're expressing. In the online flirting world, tight lips don't necessarily sink ships. ** Mark, The goings on in Iran are as you say to me too. The monolithic stereotype that was our image of Iran is no more, and that's exciting just in and of itself. ** JW Veldhoen, It would have to be between Attila and Gram Parsons. Your confused question about fellatio was confusing but not uninteresting, mind you. ** Robert-nyc, Hey! It's a rare pleasure to have you here, Mr. Siek. Thank you. I hope you're doing okay after the rough turn, and of course it would have been great to see you in NYC. Next time. And thanks for your kind words and for your thoughts on poetry submitting to Stan. I'd love to hear how and what you're doing these days if you don't mind sharing. ** Derek McCormack, Thanks, D! ** Ken Baumann, Thanks, man. Very interesting how inadvertently telling and helpful that third reader's response was, and your confident interpretation is yet another great sign. Congrats. Well, if you spring for the DVD, worst comes to worst, it's o.o.p., and you can probably turn it around for a profit in a year or so, not that I think you'll want to. That's my gut talking. I don't know Shane Jones's work. I'll look it up. Yeah, if you can spring some new work on us to ease that three month wait, I for one would be most grateful. Take care, K. ** Math t, Yeah, for all the crap involved, it seems like a plum job in theory, from over here at least. My main concern, I guess, is about it cutting into your art making the way it does. But I'm sure you can suss that. Hey, maybe since it's not for a year, you can figure out a way to come to France/ Avignon/ Paris next summer. What do you think? ** Kier, Ah, you reached that Galactic point. I remember it and the soundtrack well. Prepare for more complications, needless to say. Me doing an advice column, hm. I think I would be afraid I'd get sued or something. Thanks, pal, about Avignon. Yeah, you have to come be there. You've got a whole year to suss out the trip. The festival is just a blast to be hanging around in general. Oh, I'll do an alert on the Printed Matter event here. I'll go find some online info. You or someone should take pix so the experience can be posted and shared by all the local gang and the gang at large. ** Oscar B, Thanks, pal, about 'UM', and welcome home. I'll go look for your email today. ** Tigersare, Not a bad vinyl haul at all. Pidgeon, wow. Now there's a band I haven't thought of since the dawn on whatever was happening back then. Stay warm, pal. ** KYTE, Hey, Kyte! Great to see you. Mm, yeah, maybe the changes you mentioned are just confusing you emotionally, and a therapist might be just the person to help you decide how to embrace the shift. I have this feeling the newness is a good thing, and, yeah, making art can take a hit when you're discombobulated, but you'll find your way back. Anyway, your art as I see it showing up on Facebook is in a terrific state, if you ask me. Absolutely true about relationships. People's power over you can be very spooky, but that's part of the amazing thing about relationships. They change you and keep you on your toes about the world and on the ball about who you really are and who you want to be and all that stuff like nothing else. It's seriously intense. Traveling's a great thing to be able to do. It's one of the many reasons I so completely encourage people to spend their lives as artists if they can. The way it physically frees up your life is so worth the lack of security, etc. Take good care, Kyte. ** MarkDP, Very nice to make your acquaintance. It seems people headed over to look at your blog and work, and I'm due over there as soon as I finish this. Do stick around here if it would give you pleasure or anything. ** Kiddiepunk, Hey, thank you. Keep on keeping on heading over here. ** No more teenagekicks, Another stellar fragment. I'm really glad the post experiment helped. You know this place is at your disposal. Just say the words. ** Squeaky, Thank you kindly. ** Killer Luka, Ha ha, no sooner than you express your hatred for poetry than I threw some in your face. Pure accident and coincidence, of course. Heavy yikes about the boat tumble. Thank the universe in general for your lack of actual 3D balls. Are you still up for that CV/Gisele thing? I'm your ongoing runner on the great idea front. ** Tosh, Thanks, man. Thank you. Yours too, in my book among many. ** Orestes, Hey. I'm glad you liked the Powell post. In the theatrical 'Jerk', it's one performer playing David Brooks, and the rest of the performers are all his hand-puppets. We've made a couple of okay but not great video recordings of the piece, and we're going to do another. Plus, as I mentioned, if all goes very well, the 'Jerk' piece will be turned into a feature film. We'll see. Translating 'Closer' into Greek? Wow, that's so cool. Of course it's okay. Don't worry about copyright stuff. I've got your back. I was in Greece once in the mid-late 90s. My friend Joel and I stayed in Athens for maybe four days, and the rest of the time we did some of the islands (Naxos, Chios, Santorini, Mykonos, others) by ferry, staying on some, just visiting others. I loved the islands part, of course, like everyone does, but I really didn't like Athens much at all, but it was incredibly hot and incredibly smoggy the whole time I was there, and I think that probably created the bad impression. ** Pisycaca, Hey. Oh, I loved Honore's 'Les chansons d'amour'. It was one of my fave films from last year. I mentioned that Gisele and I are going to Avignon for a couple of days in July, and one of the main things I want to see is a piece directed by Honore, his first theater work. I like his stuff, and so I'm very curious. You're going to NYC? Very cool. When? ** Paul Curran, Yeah, I should be reasonably free on the 2nd if everything works okay on the night of the 1st, which it should. In the afternoon sometime, I guess. It'll depend on how early I'll need to be at the SLG before the show. Anyway, we'll make at least a basic plan before I climb on the Eurostar. I think I'd rather give someone a colonoscopy than be subjected to one. That's probably a very revealing preference, oops. ** Bill, Hey, thanks. The holography stuff was quite, quite interesting. I'm enough of a kid to get wowed by those kinds of effects, not to mention by getting to make them whoa. It was cool. ** Maximum Etc., Welcome back. The trip sounds and looks terrific. I actually love looking at pictures of people I don't know, at least when they're all lively and adorable like those people look. You being the elder must have been trippy and good for the soul or something maybe? Oh, wait. Everyone, Maximum Etc. is just back from what's called a Birthright trip to Israel, and there's a cool and generous pictorial show of his travels and revels right here, so have a look. You were there for the Netanyahu speech. Did you feel any vibe off that, or was the trip fairly sheltered from current events? Are you going to do further HTMLGIANT posts about the trip, or have you sussed another place to write at length about it? ** Alan, Pretty good joke, yeah. I'll help spread it. Oh, I heard back from Marvin, who's out of town at the moment, and everything's fine, and he appreciated your contribution. Hope you got some sleep. ** Heliotrope, Oh, sorry about the bad relations between my blog's longings towards high tech heaven and your analogue-loving computer. I think you'll have no problems for the next few days because I don't think videos will reappear here until early next week. That's crazy about the Mouse not paying her for thirty days. They are so god damned calculating, those people, and ever since Walt left the wheel, it's rarely worth the trouble. Oh, Julie has wonderful tastes, obviously. As do you, but that's duck to water news. Joanne Bentz ... name is so familiar, hm. Oh yeah, my name's on that Todd poster, you bet. Is yours? Are the Dodgers still kicking asses left and right? I need to go find out. The Lakers ate the entire Europe allotment of LA sports related news for a while there. ** Steven Vineis, Thanks for your thoughts about and to the new d.l. Mark, man. Wow, that hotel story is killer. Way better than real considering that it was real. Which, hm, made sense in my head. Everyone, you really should go read this story that relates one of our pal Steven Vineis's recent experiences working the all-night shift at a down and out-seeming hotel. Really, you won't be sorry, trust me. Okay, I think it's very safe to say this job is paying off on the writing front. Man, thanks. ** Stephen, The warmest greetings to you. ** Wolf, Thanks, pal. Uh, no, it won't get us the funds for a real forest and river. We did find out yesterday that the forest set we had in mind would be too massive and expensive to transport on tour, so we're only going to have a few traveling trees, and we'll have to build the rest of the forest from scratch at every location where it shows, which is going to be quite a huge hassle. No, this good news has zero impact on my own financial shit hole. I just get paid a little to write and help direct the thing, and then I get teeny tiny royalties whenever it plays. Dude, you totally need to be there at the Avignon premiere. Has to be. We'll have to organize a massive blog gang field trip if the blog still exists then. Like I said, Gisele and I are planning to go to Avignon this year for a couple of days. I don't know the exact dates yet, but she was mentioning something about maybe around the 11th. I'll find out. It would be awesome to collide there. The only pieces so far that I know I want to see are the Christophe Honore, the Thomas Bernhard, the Maguy Marin, and maybe a couple of others. I'll check. Fabre's 'Orgy of Intolerance' is crap. I saw it. It's really stupid. Awesome that you found a lot in the DA Powell post. Your thoughts were honoring to read. ** Pascal, Thanks, man. Oh, great about the Dempsey Day. Thank you so much! I'll go find it. Glad things are good there. Here too, actually. ** Steevee, Here's hoping on the Toronto Fest. ** The Dreadful Flying Glove, Thank you. You've got me rather hot and bothered for this 'Braid' game now. It would have to be a computer/Mac version for me, which sucks 'cos one of the goals of my current life to get myself away from my laptop. It would be a great train trip companion, though. I'm going to walk down the boulevard Magenta today into the little town within the city known as 'game city' where the video/computer game stores are as thick as postcards on a whirling metal rack. Oh, who was that porn boy you couldn't find? Maybe I can help. And, yes, my friend, there truly ain't nothing like a boy with a throat. I could name names, but I'd live to regret it. ** NB, That was quite the broad sweeping statement, man. What occasioned that? Speaking as your caring uncle, I say you just haven't met the right one yet. ** Amccartney, It'll be a ton of work, but what an exciting ton, you know? I'm thrilled. Six months in Paris: pretty sweet, indeed. Sure, I'll write to Paul at POL today or tomorrow at the latest. I'll just recommend you to the skies and tell him to expect to hear from the co-agent. Yeah, that's a good approach. Mm, I'm not sure about my next LA trip. I think the way things are going with the amount of work and traveling I have to do this summer and my paucity of money, September will probably be when I'll get there next, but if I can get there sooner by any chance, I'll pull out all the stops. That new Sunn0))) album is pretty stunning in general. Highly recommended. ** Inthemostpeculiar, That's okay. I wasn't here yesterday either. We both got hall passes. Oh, I can't explain the joy your descriptions give me, and, even if I could, I probably wouldn't tell you because you might get self-conscious, and that might ruin everything or something. The meeting thing was very cool. I mean there are way worse ways to spend hours on end than looking at 3D wizardry and holograms for hours on end. And the rehearsals were fun too. I'm so not the right guy to play T.S. Eliot, but apparently that's part of the charm. I hope your days is good and properly filled. ** Winter Rates, Oh, that kind of beach is my kind of beach. You still get the mixed blessing that is sand and the crashing waves soundtrack and the negative ions, but you don't have to wear swim trunks or turn unnecessarily red. Awesome. That was Marianne Faithfull? Hunh. Interesting. ** Blendin, Damn, I'm totally down for the mutual Vegas trip. Especially if you can score us a free room. My Vegas poison? Mm, just being there, I guess, looking at the hotels inside and out, a little one-armed bandit action. Watching the stupid pirate attack show and the 'volcano' 'erupt' at the Mirage and the fake Roman parade at Caesar's and, uh, riding some rides at the hotels with rides and stuff. Simple pleasures. Yeah, I don't drink much. A little bit sometimes just to get in the spirit. Would that make me too dull a companion? I could be your good luck charm. ** You-x, Hey, buddy. You started your blog again? I'm there asap. Withdrawals from what? You good otherwise? I owe you an email, and watch for it soon. ** Nick Hudson, Hey, man. Sleeping patterns are okay again, yeah, thank fucking god. I really like Arthur Russell's stuff, of course. I haven't heard those orchestral pieces, but I'll hunt them down. My listening du jour? Mm, a lot of the new Hecker. I'm into to that wiz kid Natural Numbers' stuff. And a bunch of random stuff from and occasionally by Stephen O'Malley that we'll be working with next week as a pre-soundtrack to the piece. Band called Jolick particularly because we might work with the singer for the 'choir' part of the piece. Great about the new album. A spoken word piece? Well, yeah, man, of course. It would be an incredible honor. What kind of thing do you want? Yeah, again, of course, if you're in London when I'm in London, not meeting up would be against the fucking law, right? Sometime on the 2nd or 3rd should be fine. We can sort out the right time, but, yeah, I'd love to. ** All right, we're caught up. Today's post combines two of my fetishes. First, when I was a kid, I was totally obsessed with movie studio backlots, and I made my parents arrange tours at the different studios so I could see them. Second, my fetish for cool, no longer existent buildings is in play too. And probably another fetish or three as well. I hope there's some interest in it for you. In any case, see you in 24 hours or so.