What I'm Listening to: Automatic's "mq9"
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Filtering by Tag: WEIRD
What I'm (Looking Forward to) Watching: The Bride!
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Four Minute Mile
I got myself a copy of Jim Camp’s latest limited edition photozine: Four Minute Mile. I love it. Get yours here.
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Weapons
I really liked Weapons. A terrific script structure, weirdly realistic and awkward dialogue, a major case of the spooks, a mind-blowing performance by Amy Madigan as the totally terrifying Aunt Gladys, and a lot of dynamic film-making. The third act got a little wobbly a few times, but all in all if you liked Barbarian, as I did, you’ll really love Weapons. The best thing about this inventive movie is its nonlinear narrative script, which allows for overlap and interweaving that’s impossible with linearity.
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Entitled
Yesterday I went to see the It Smells Like Girl show at Deitch in Los Angeles. The standout piece of the show was Nadia Lee Cohen’s Entitled. A giant box contains a virtual girl who gyrates, flirts, and appears to track your movements as you move before her. Poke the screen where her body is and she stumbles, drops, and develops bruises. It reminded me of Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0. Devastating and moving.
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The Maniac
Today I wrote a short appreciation of Anton Chigurh for a website. I’ll share a link to the piece when it’s online.
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What I'm Listening to: Gelli Haha's "Normalize"
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Books I Read: Trulee Hall
I bought a copy of Trulee Hall, a monograph about the artist, after seeing her work at MOCA. I was blown away by Witch House, which is insane and amazing. The book features essays and commentary and an interview. If you’re looking to embrace your inner ick or wade in the goo of sex or shift your ideas around the kinds of art women can create, this book is a good place to start. Hall: “I don’t differentiate between high and low and right and wrong, but I’m more likely to gravitate to something ‘low’ and ‘wrong.’”
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What I'm Listening to: Emily Allan's "Steps to Destruction"
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The Audition, Cont.
A panel from My, My American Bukkake Too, 2004
As I wrote on my blog previously, I pitched a story about the most extreme, out-there thing I’ve ever seen in all my years writing about the adult movie industry to a popular podcast. This podcast tends to explore topics on the outer limits, so I thought this may be a fit. They responded, letting me know they were interested and requesting a 10-minute audio audition. Because these events had happened some years ago, I spent quite a bit of time going over everything I’d written about this particular subject over the years. Last Sunday, I created an abbreviated version of the notes I’d taken during my re-research. Last Monday, I made a list of 10 bulleted points and sat down to record. For this podcast, you can have notes and bullet points, but in terms of telling the story, you must do so off the cuff. In any case, my goal was to record the audio in one take, which I did; I figured my first go at telling the story would be the strongest. Then I sent the audio recording I’d made to the producer with whom I had been in touch. Now, it’s a wait-and-see game. We’ll see what happens next.
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What I'm Watching: Deichkind's "Keine Party" (Featuring Lars Eidinger)
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What I'm Watching: "The Discipline of D.E."
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Books I Read: A Guest in the House
E. M. Carroll’s A Guest in the House is a tricky book to review because about 90% of it is terrific. It’s a dark, weird, gloomy story about what happens when you marry a man who seems normal and it turns out he may have murdered the wife before you. One of the most exciting things about the book is how it occasionally explodes out and across the page in moments of colorful surrealism. So, mostly, I really liked this book. But the ending left me baffled. It felt rushed, patchworked together, and I had to search the internet to try and understand it. Your experience may vary. But in general, this is a great work. She didn’t nail the ending.
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Relief
A panel from a series of comics I created some years ago by manipulating photos I took on an adult movie set.
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Books I Read: Caprice
Caprice by Charles Burns is a small thing. It’s not really a comic book, per se. And it’s certainly not a graphic novel. It’s a collection of fictional comic book covers, apparently. The themes are classically Burnsian: girls in trouble, blobular creatures, impossible landscapes. It’s an interesting journey through a curious mind.
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What I'm Listening to: My Morning Jacket's "River Road"
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Apartment: A Short Story
Illustration by Susannah Breslin
Nearly 30 years ago, I had my first short story published in an anthology. The story was “Apartment,” and it appeared in Chick Lit 2. Now, I’ve published the story online for the first time. This work of fiction features boobs, a dog, and a man who may be losing his mind. If you’re upset by adult themes, don’t read it.
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What I'm Listening to: The English Beat's "Mirror in the Bathroom"
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Books I Read: Why Art?
I adore Why Art? by Eleanor Davis. It’s hard to describe what this book is. A comic book? A book of art? A rumination on why art matters and how it shapes us? It also would make for a great gift. Buy a copy!
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What I'm Dreaming (Matt & Ben)
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