Missed out on an obit. last Friday, and this one is a little different as I actually once “met” and interacted with him. He read on the UGA campus in what I’ll guess was ‘95, but I can’t reference a month right now. Some friends and I owned a bookstore in Athens at the time and when I walked up to him after the reading, maybe I was being a bit “glory”, but I couldn’t help but throw out the idea that, had he time, it might be cool if he came by. My intention was truly just for him to see and enjoy the place, as it was a bookstore like no other, I wasn’t trying to cash in on some “celebrity appearance”.

But how exactly to spontaneously pitch this?
I guess he wasn’t too impressed, for his response came, and I’ll never forget,
“You have a bookstoaahh?” like a junkie Elmer Fudd doing an impersonation of a New Yorker.

And then quickly some student union handler whisked him away with a promised carrot juice. Surely he was tired after the reading, surely wackballs approached him constantly, and as the sage N. Peart reminds us “one must put up barriers to keep oneself in tact.” I’m not bitter or anything, that’s just my little Jim Carroll story. He came of age in a great city at a unique time in it’s history and wrote some great stuff. I first saw this photo on the inner sleeve of J. Giorno’s compilation “Your a hook”.

J Carroll and P Smith in 1969. photo by Wren D’Antonio

This film has gotten much hype and acclaim, all of it deserved. It stands now as a further memorial to the demolished towers, and a beautiful quixotic event in another bleak economic period. I also think it’s really interesting that there was another toll or cost from the event, in terms of the lost friendships and love, which are honestly discussed. A must see! I’ll probably read Philipe’s pick pocket book at some point as well.

When I was traveling around Northern Italy in the Spring of 2004, I kept seeing a book by this American con. Thus began my introduction to Edward Bunker. I read a few of his books soon after, including The Animal Factory. I knew Steve Buscemi made a film version in 2000, but I only recently got around to seeing it. Why this film, with Willem Dafoe and Edward Furlong, wasn’t better received I can only count to the prison subject matter. But I thought it was really well done, including a soundtrack from the enigmatic John Lurie. One IMDB review I saw complained of the plot being “unbelievable”, but it’s completely true to the novel…I think the real complaint was Furlong was too good looking to not get punked, but whatever.

photo Simon Sellers

Here’s one resource page, and goodreads. A heavy hitter of 20th century outre fiction! Two other BBC articles on JGB references in music and as a Seer of the Atomic Age.

Finally found a great Ballardarian animated tribute. I’ll be doing more research on this filmmaker!

She was found dead in her mobile home in California. I’m a fan of the early Cronenberg film Rabid in which she starred. I’ve never actually seen Behind the Green Door…well maybe it was on a middle school VHS comp I briefly had possession of with Debbie Does Dallas and other “hits” of the era, but I don’t remember any of it.

And here’s a VERY 1977 interview.

Who was recently hospitalized. Reading interviews with her, she seems more like the former Miss Beverly Hills than the darker character she plays on L+O:SVU. Still I’ve always wanted to ask her about her impressions of writer JG Ballard, esp. concerning the inclusion of her mother in some of his older works. It would most likely be awkward, shed me in an unfavorable light, possibly leading her to get all “Olivia Benson” on my ass, but I think it’s an honest question…

I haven’t actually read Palahniuk yet, but in this film he delves in the same “self-help recovery” culture as the first half of ‘Fight Club’. And that’s the amusing part. But Norton is far more likable than Sam Rockwell – sort of the point here. And instead of just Helena Bohnam Carter as the “psycho fantasy girl” we have several, including Kelly Macdonald – who after this and ‘No Country for Old Men’ I would like to officially declare my crush on.

It’s an eyebrow thing, not so much her figure, though I just realized she was the schoolgirl in ‘Trainspotting’ so I’m not gonna complain about any part her – a fine actress.
Angelica Huston doesn’t really work for me, and I don’t get why she seems so loved by others. Not in the Wes Anderson stuff, can’t think of anything I’ve seen and liked her in. And maybe it was seeing her do such a similar “crazy but lovable mom” role in ‘Darjeeling Limited’ that made that schtick seem especially tired here. It was like they shot all of the childhood flashback scenes in a single day. Overall the film does seem quickly thrown together, the soundtrack is plain sad (the same lame tune is playing on two different days in the strip club, and if you can’t come up with stripper music in this day and age – either as it is or as it should be – you really are lost), but there are some laughs. My review in one word: meh…

He would have been 88 today. Who’s drunk right now?

Some poems:
death

the sex fiends

From “Poems and Insults”, recorded in the City Lights Poets Lights Theatre, SF 9-14-73
Here’s the entire show, if you want it…