It is great, but it’s not as dark as some are playing up. No sexual violence for example, no sex at all really. And there was one helicopter crash that was lame CG in my opinion, but it’s pretty great for a main stream film. Cool sound design. Ledger does a great Joker, but I predict he’s already won the Academy award due to his demise, and I’m not sure it’s THAT great.
And I’ll probably never go see at film at Atlantic Station again-

Somni 451 still lives!

Stay strong, sister! Viva Las Angelas del Diablo!

“Ah…Layla….”(drool, dribble, drool)

Oh but NYC tried to hold on to us! Passed from one benevolent matron to the next as our bankroll yo yo-ed and we puttered between Brooklyn and the lower East Side, chasing after Parisians, Athens girls, lipstick tornado bar tenders, and other hotties. Fantastic guest spot at Daredevill, thanx Michelle! Got to catch up briefly with Dylan and Rudyard Lee. Not using my best story form here I realize but I’m still in recovery. The roadshow will definitely be returning to the City.

Just got our first on the fly guest spot from Wizards World of Tattoos I just outside of Pottstown, PA, which makes “the fixer” feel much better about our budget before we roll on to Bogata, NJ and The Apple. Can’t have too much $ around there…

Thanx Joe!

Also check out Brian’s flash.

I’m not in it, wasn’t at the shoot, but this is the first where I helped with post production.

Also music by Don Chambers, and teenage girls!

This morning I was in a dirty ‘73 Maverick riding down a state highway in southern Pennsylvania after an insanely long all-nighter and compounded sleep deprivation when I spied an amazing bookstore in a barn built in 1821. We pulled over and I went in with the camera to get some footage. It was about 10:30 in the morning. I walked in and there were two nicely dressed gentlemen, one seated in a rocking chair, the other standing, surrounded by stacks, in fact 5 stories, of antiquarian volumes. His first words were,
“Welcome! Are you camping?”
Perhaps it was paranoia induced by my lack of sleep, or his general quaffed appearance, but I misunderstood where he was coming from and launched into a neurotic cautious schpeal.
“Well…we are camping some on this trip…but you see, some friends and I used to own a bookstore…and I’m working on this crazy project with this other friend of mine now…and we’re driving around the country visiting tattoo shops…and like, bookstores because this place seems so amazing, that I was just wondering if it would be OK if I walked around a second with my camera…and the benefit to you might be…”
“Young man”, said Tom politely to silence me. “I’m trying to ask if you’d like to camp out in the six acre yard there.”
And then the top of my head came off and a huge wave of universal positivity flooded my weary, corrupted and cynical soul.

We’ll be staying here for a while.

“Now don’t be put off when you meet my friend gentlemen, he has some tattoos…”

So you get part of a narrative poem:

Four day late pick up, insomnia kicks in.
Finally the call,
and when a moped has been repo-ed from a crackhead who wouldn’t pay,
I momentarily consider taking that with the money I have rather than to get on board.
But I must get on board - Poncho Sanaza can’t let Don Quixote roam alone…
in fact he bankrolls the first leg, because the nest egg is in Myrtle Beach.
DQ lost the cell phone two weeks ago, so lots of contact #’s are gone, and the car does not have wifi (part of my tardy reports)

Up to the mountains, loose ends to tie up:
portraits on a Cherokee man and the cop Garcia clone from Reno 911
beers and industrial strength lortab ride on to Helen,
sell the van and now the egg is 900
but must get mamas ring out of hawk,
and fees to pay on the storage space - both monetary and emotional.
More drinking with Scuba and a final “fuck you” toast to the locals in Bavaria.
Dropped $40 on shots for strange and the princess bitch bartender, daughter of Frenchy.

I am the money man, the fixer, I carry the roll.

He’s so psyched just to hit the SC line, clearly not picturing the entire thing accurately,
but then, neither am I.
Visit and shoot a shop in Anderson
“Fuck it dude, let’s just plow on to Myrtle Bch tonight”
“Yeah. Let’s ride”
a semi bungled short cut through the state roads
but all is mirth and potential.
Steve awaits us, steve who has lined up the party
16 wanting ink
our next, very needed bankroll
I talk with Steve and we will call him a half hour from town.
But we linger and shoot footage
and eat
and the bad short cut
and It’s after midnight by the time we hit the beach.
Next time, Steve don’t answer
but we pull an all-nighter
And the strip is empty and ours at night
Dennys and Lobster van and a scratchy eye that might need tending to if the $ ever comes,
keeping the car safe, watching the sun rise over the ocean.

And then the sun is well high
as I cover my dosing patron with a beach umbrella and my mind unravels
and fucko Steve still has yet to call.
In search of an address he gave
which the GPS seems not to know.
All the hotels want three days commitments for too much, “weekend” bullshit.

Something might be wrong

(more soon)

Bo Diddley

Even if Ray had been intentionally making a symbolic show of support for the Palestinian cause, would this have been a support of terrorism? What would have happened had she appeared wearing a scarf depicting the Israeli flag?

In the above link, be sure to note under “controversial symbol” how Urban Outfitters last year quit carrying the garment after pressure from pro-Israeli lobbyists. I challenge you to think about the following: is it possible to be anti-Zionist without being anti-semitic? I say the answer is yes, just as it is possible to be an American patriot while opposing American imperialism.

God doesn’t hand out countries or play racial favorites.

A tattoo artist sells his shop, gets camera, computer, ink guns and sterilization equipment, loads them into a ‘73 Maverick and sets out on the road, filming the entire thing in hopes of getting sponsorship for continuing funds for the operation. Sure, his style is a little “home spun” and some of the antics border on slapstick, but I’d argue this venture is also extremely DIY, and even a bit punk rock.

Follow later episodes through his youtube page (there are 11 as of now). Don’t just stop at one, seriously.

I especially love that he’s gone back to a variation on what he and brother Watson (Twins of Pain) were doing when I first met them 15 years ago. I’ll never forget when they showed up in Athens in that school bus with the rest of the entourage, leaving behind Indiana, where at the time tattooing “on the fly” was considered ‘practicing medicine without a license’, and carried rather stiff penalties, as you might imagine. They made such a lasting impression - not only in our hearts, but also on our skins. I don’t want to give up too many stories now, since I’m actively pursuing an interview for the podcast in the very near future. And if I’m lucky, might even do some time and miles with ol’ One Eye Willie myself.

Er, maybe I should rephrase that…

I’ve only recently discovered this pop psychedelic creation of Guy Peellaert, and haven’t seen any of the actual comics yet. (great, another expensive hobby no one needs: collecting vintage European comics…) And sadly, I sense none will add up to be as cool as this animated sequence, a slow load but well worth it! I especially love the lampoon of the three major western religions included.

So doing a bit of hack research, I see that Judy Strangis was also a child actor in a ‘63 episode of the Twilight Zone, The Bard, which happened to feature a young Burt Reynolds. A television actress, as she grew up, she appeared in episodes of many classic shows of the day: Room 222, Love American Style, The Mod Squad, a few years later the A-team, though she seems to have retired in the 90’s.

Well I’ve been getting into wood crafty shit: some signs for friends, plastering the back with hilarious old newspapers I found in a house during a recent restoration. The dragonheads are from an older project 2-3 years ago. I’ve gone twice now to sell at Big City Bread with my friend’s Chris and Lou. But next week the entire operation moves to Bishop Park in conjunction with an outdoor farmers market.

I’m a huge fan of this little bar, which is a fine place to catch a film or play a poker tournament in the room on the right hand side. There is of course music going on most nights over there as well, but seldom an evening as well booked as last night. Madeline did some new material with horns, and one man band Geoff Reacher is back in his old Athens haunt for a few nights. Here’s a little home brewed video from “Look me in the Eye”.

*Warning: if the title of this post isn’t clear enough, links may contain adult themes and material*

You’ve heard about this phenomenon right? Young women who choose to “save themselves” for the right guy, but meanwhile have nothing against a good time in the realm of sodomy. I certainly can’t claim to be against it, but it strikes me as unusual, so against the grain of behavior most women consider to be acceptable. Sometimes, as in the case of Aurora Jolie AKA Nicara, this crosses over into the world of porn. She tells the story herself in this interview. “But what about slightly fat nerdy white guys, A?”

In my, ahem, “research” for this post, I also came across the all American man and wife, which is amusing, though the call from the guy who breaks down after giving up the brown eye to his girl in ep. 36 is clearly fake. But Fatman’s response, while cliche, is hilarious.

Sundance channel is running this film and I caught it over the weekend. I can’t recall exactly where I first heard about Punishment Park (1971), but it was fairly recently, and considering the controversy, was surprised to get a chance to see it. Overall as a film, I must say, it’s not all that. But as I’m obsessed with that period in American history, it was something I had to see. Watkins was by chance ahead of the curve in terms of what reality TV has become, but the ideological back and forth between the radicals and tribunal comes off as overstated and cliche, the yelling between the camera crew and cops rather unrealistic (why wouldn’t fascists destroy the equipment and confiscate the footage?), and the “ironic hook” at the end can be seen from a mile off - or more accurately, 50 miles off.
But there is enough substance to keep this from being a “b movie”, despite it’s vague similarity to films of the era like Deathrace 2000, which came out 4 years later, and to be fair, is much more of a fantasy. In some ways, it falls into a dystopian genre with Children of Men, at least in terms of paranoia when viewing The State. Certainly a lot accomplished with a small budget. I’m always interested in films that for one reason or another are pushed off the radar, and now definitely curious to see more of Peter Watkins work.
As a time capsule, two things that are interesting are to look at how relatively naked “the pigs” are when compared with the modern day forces of control. And I couldn’t help but imagine a parody of this film, where various 19-27 year olds are lined to face “the tribunal” in the modern day - how timid they might seem in comparison…”you mean like, no Starbucks OR videogames?!? Dude…” But that’s unfair of course: more accurately the accused, if in fact youths from rejected bourgeoisie backgrounds, would be anti-G8 eco-terror types, and the virile minority man gagged and pinned to the floor would have a lighter skin tone and be talking a more religious jive. There would also be a lot more talk about The Patriot Act than the Constitution, and hopefully that realization sends a bit of a chill down your spine…

creston and tanner

evil creston

Had a double dose of Athen’s greats Harvey Milk recently, once there over the past weekend and last night in ATL @ Drunken Unicorn. Overall I must prefer the first show, though this is a minority opinion due to their more drunken state at the Caledonia Lounge. But it was when Tanner came out with the gem that became this entry’s title. But I’m definitely glad I didn’t miss the brief “Pleaser” material the second night. The Thrones Joe Preston was a welcome addition both nights on additional vocals and second guitar.

Click image for larger. There is no funky photoshop filter at play to make Creston look like a Siekiewicz drawn goat-creature in that second one, just random bad lo light photography, but using the approved MUS “2 handed” method…

Portland, OR (February 11, 2008) – On a February night in 1956, Allen Ginsberg stood in front of a group of students in a dormitory lounge at Reed College and read from a manuscript that a few months later would be published as Howl and Other Poems. “Howl” is Ginsberg’s most famous and controversial poem, and a seminal work of the Beat Generation. The book sparked censorship debates that are credited with broadening First Amendment protections.

The February 1956 recording at Reed was duly labeled, cataloged, and then overlooked in the college’s library for more than 50 years. Literary scholar John Suiter rediscovered the tape last summer while researching a biography of poet Gary Snyder (Reed Class of 1951, winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry); Snyder and Ginsberg were on a hitch-hiking trip to the Pacific Northwest at the time the tape was made and spent February 13-14 on campus giving poetry readings. Suiter concludes in a forthcoming article in the Reed alumni magazine that this is the earliest-known recording of Ginsberg reading “Howl.” On the recording, Ginsberg reads to the conclusion of Part I, but ends before completing Part II, saying, “I don’t really feel like reading any more. I just sorta’ haven’t got any kind of steam.”

The pristine recording of “Howl” caught on tape that night at Reed differs in numerous ways from the legendary first public reading of the poem at San Francisco’s Six Gallery in October 1955. It predates by approximately five weeks the previous earliest-known recording of “Howl,” made at the Town Hall Theatre in Berkeley on March 18, 1956.

And the recording. It’s strange to me when these things are discovered after half a century: unknown sketches from great painters, previously unheard demos from famous rock bands etc. hidden and decaying in “archives”. But then I’m someone often with too much time on his hands who would relish access to certain caches.

Automobiles are statistically far more dangerous of course, and while I’ve never experienced anything too scary in the air, it isn’t hard to get me white knuckled or queesy with common bumps and dips. Somehow in a car wreck I feel like I might have a chance - that is, manipulate my body in some way to minimize injury. It’s an illusion of course, but to be in a cylinder falling out of the sky, ever faster, subjected to your fellow sardines shrieks and panic…I don’t think I could handle that. But I think my “fear of flying” is actually rooted in a fear of sharks. Somehow you realize you’ve survived the impact, maybe some broken limbs, clinging to some flotilla in the frigid ocean and fuel burn off dancing on savage waves, only to realize the uber-efficient predators will find you before the rescue party does-

I’ll still take taunting the Christmas Day Tiger, thank you…

I have nothing against the idea of a vegan strip club like the one recently opened in Portland, OR, it just sort of cracks me up. As does this quote from the young woman in the article-

” I can’t stand the smell of smoldering rotting carcasses when I walk by the kitchen. It is totally gross. I’ve been a vegan for three and a half years and I can’t stand the thought of working in a place that serves murder victims on a bun. Working at a club like Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club is my dream!”

If you’re ever out that way to check it out for yourself, be sure to stop in to the USDAT+A Acropolis mentioned in the comment section as well.

So you’ve heard about all of the snow related travel chaos in China, intensified because it is their New Year, or Spring Festival. I have friends now in Beijing, north of the main commotion and not directly effected. This video shows how they do up the fireworks over there, but unfortunately loads slowly. Out with the Pig and in with the Rat! If Beijing strikes you as huge, remember you are seeing only one part of one district. The blasts are little more powdery and raw. And where can I get some of those “flail sparklers”?

It’s the anniversary of when Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and was thus able to live out the bad girl fantasy of bank robbery, only do 22 months for the crime and later receive a full pardon. Hurray for rich kids… why shouldn’t they have it all? Still, it’s more twisted and exciting than anything Paris ever did- This doc is good too.

A Mystical Prickle/ Space Talk Lyricism/ Misty Space Call/
Slimy Space Rack/ Kill My Space Racist/ Risky Space Cat/
Space Mail Trick/ Space Liar Cyst Milk/ My Slick Space Trail/
Slim Space Lark City/ Space Ark City Mill/ Icy Space Mall Skirt/
My Salty Space Lick/ Space Ram Kill City/ Space Arm Lily Trick/
Space Ram City Skill/ Space Army Licks It/ Icky Space Tsar/
Space Satyr Licks ‘im/ Slimy Space Rat/ Slick Space Art/
My Space Rack Till/ Track My Space/ My Sick Space Art/
Kill Creamy Spastic/ Slim Pastie Crack/ Kill Pastie Mac/
Typical Mescal Risk/ Lacy Pi Mescal Skirt/ Silk Pity Mescal Arc/
Silky Pit Mescal Car/ Piracy Mescal Talk/ Mescal Pal City/
Sickly Mescal Rap/ Sickly Rat Mescal/ Lily Mist Carp Cake/
Kill A Ecstasy Crimp/ Kill Camera Cyst/ Icy Sarcasm Kill Pet/
Ceramic Spa Kill/ Mass Kill Icecap/ My Icecap Tsar/
Kill My Icecap Rats/ Sitar Spy Kill Mecca/ Mecca Kill Party/
Mecca Kill Rats/ Ram Pity Kill Access/ Acme Kill Satyr/
Acme Crispy Kill/ Kill Racist Mace Spy/ Mace Kill Party/
Kill Spicy Mace Rats/ It’s Spacy Kill Cream!/ Pa City Kill Screams/
Creamy Kill Cat Piss/ Scary Mist Kill Pace/ Mass Recap Kill City/
Yam Carpet Kill/ Mars City Kill/ Icy Kill Aspects/
Mystic Kill Acre Spa/ Kill City Race Spasm/ Spicy Kill Races/
Amp City Kill Caress/ Icy Actress Kill Map/ Kill React Scam/
Car Imp Ecstacy Kill/ Ream Cyst Aspic Kill/ Spastic Ram Kill/
Pastie Kill Cam/ Epic Satyr Kill Cam/ Racy Kill Camp Site/
Airy Sects Kill Camp/ Campy Tsar Kill Ice/ Piracy Kill Scams/
Milk Piracy Castle/ Slick Piracy Metals/ Slack Piracy Melt/
Clam Silk Piracy/ Elks Piracy Cam/ Elk Slit Piracy Scam/
Mall Piracy Sect/ Sick Piracy Alms/ Lick Em Piracy Salts/
Mass Cell Piracy Kit/ Piracy Lick Ass Melt/ Satyr Claim Pickles/
Satyr Lisp Milk/ Satyr Lip Silk Mecca/ Satyr Lace Milk Pics/
Sick Satyr Place/ Slack Satyr Epic/ Slack Satyr Epic/
Satyr Smack Ice Pill/ Calm Satyr Lick Pies/ Silk Satyr Ice Clamp/
Epic Skill Satyr Cam/ Lick Isle Satyr Camp/ Lame Satyr Lick Clip/
Maple Satyr Lick/ Slick Satyr Ice Lamp/ Satyr Lice Map/
Sick Satyr Pie Call/ Mystical Ski Parcel/ Mystical prick Ale/
Slick Mystical Rape/ Mystical Splice Ark/ Mystical Silk Cap/
Milk Cyst Replica/ Sky Clam Replica/ Silt Sky Replica Cam/
A Mecca Kills Stripy/ A Scarce Milky Split/ A Catlike Sly Scrimp/
A Carsick Smelly Pit/ A Classic Perky Milt/ A Metallic Sick Spry/
A Metallic Cry Skips/ A Silk Malice Crypt/ A Campsite Cry Kills/
A Slackers City Limp/ A Caskets Crimp Lily/ A Caskets Lyric Limp/
A Scalpels Icky Trim/ A Callers Sticky Imp/ A Callers Mystic Kip/
A Camel Licks Stripy/ A Camels Tricky Lisp/ A Calmer Sickly Spit/
A Camels Crispy Kilt/ A Mescal Tricky Lisp/ A Calmest Lyric Skip/
A Mac Prick Let Is Sly/ Rack A Spicy Millets/ Track A Slice Simply/
Clip A Smiley Track/ Rack A Systemic Pill/ Stack A Spicy Miller/
Tacky Crime Pills/ Call A Mystic Picker/ A Calm Rye Lipstick/
Clamp A Silkier Cyst/ Sticky Calms Peril/ A Clams Tricky Spiel/
Clap A Tricky Smile/ Scalp A Sickly Timer/ Clasp A Milkier Cyst/
Crystal Lime Pickles/ Trick Plasma Ice/ A Classy Lick Permit/
A Scaly Tickle Prism/ Trick Salsa Mice/ Trick Llama pics/
Trick Llama pics/ Trick Ice Pals/ Trick Salsa Pals/
Trick Malice Spa/ Trick Lace Yams/ Play Mescal Trick/
Slay Trick Places/ Acme Trick Silly Spa/ Mass Trick Pace Lily/
Cape Slay Trick/

A new theory how Bob Pollard gets song titles… Also, possibly a good place to get passwords.

I-mockery presents you with the following list, some I’ve played, some I’ve never even seen. Ah, to have the money, space and patience with continuous repairs to collect such things. Home systems have their advantage, but as a Gen X’er, I’ll always have nostalgia for these big clunkers. I don’t think Galaga made the list, but as a testimonial to it’s longevity, check any laundrymat.

Thanx Jairoo for the bite.

I caught Conan the Barbarian last night on cable and was noticing how hot the character who plays his mom is, and with a little research, wasn’t too surprised to find Nadiuska was in fact an Italian porn star. Actually, most every actress in the film looks like she might have done a little “Blue” work - the Witch, Thulsa Doom’s daughter, Conan’s girlfriend, the various cult and orgy members… It was sort of an interesting era for film: lingering 70’s ethos, lots of “Penthouse soft lense”, a certain European feel to the entire production. Not to mention the general crossover appeal of Italian porn actors-

Take the example of Ilona Staller, AKA Cicciolina, who in ‘79 ran for Italian parliament in their first incarnation of the Green Party, then switching to the Partito Radicale, was actually elected in ‘87. Near the beginning of the first Gulf War she offered to fuck Saddam Hussein to help ease escalating tensions with that conflict. She later made the same offer to both he and Osama Bin Laden for the same reason, but let’s face it, Osama’s a longshot, and not just because of the dialyses…

America is clearly behind the times, though porn stars here do cross over into legit film and pro wrestling. Recently a candidate may have increased her results in a primary by “tearing up” during a press conference, apparently it made her more relatable to some voters… makes you wonder. This is only a jokey insight Mrs. Clinton - please don’t do anything drastic!

Let’s step back for a minute and talk about death in general, not a comfortable topic for mortals, westerners, and particularly Americans. But when you face the fact that we all have “got to go”, I think it morbid logic to consider ways you might prefer to have it happen. And I argue there many worse, less poetic ways to meet your end than they way this guy did. Look at statistics for “average American death”…

Experiencing cancer’s sapping your vitality over the course of months/years vs. an adrenalized tiger assault - true, it is nice to have some time to say your goodbyes and get your affairs in order. But cost wise there is no contest - admission to zoo ticket vs. modern medical expenses times X, insured or not, it’s spendy ya’ll. Plus the “surprise factor”. I guarantee that guy didn’t wake up thinking ‘I might get killed at the zoo today’, and true most young people aren’t conducting their lives in ways conducive to the avoidance of cancer, but the older you get, it can’t help but occur to you at some point your odds against The House. That Big House of Cell Mutation so counter-productive to your current mode of living. True, not everyone selected will be killed by their type of cancer, but it’s an ugly game, and you’re playing, like it or not.

Car accident fatality vs. tiger attack - adrenaline levels might be more comparable here, but in terms of “last moment revelation of irony”, picture that guy lying there viscerated thinking “wow, I was killed by a ferocious animal from the other side of the world in a major urban center - that’s unexpected and sucks”. Then picture yourself after having launched through your windshield into another vehicle and the last thing you see is the backward image of their ‘W - the President’ on the remains of what used to be their back window. Or to realize over the sound of other’s squealing tires, panicked responses, and formerly compressed air escaping from the radiator, tinkling glass shards, whatever else might be going on audio wise, you are also hearing the music another vehicle had on before impact…and it’s a song you always hated, or maybe one you’ve never heard but instantly hate. Your final moments, realizing the animating force is departing your mortal coil, and the chance soundtrack is some saccharine audio schmaltz about sex or bling. OK, that’s too cruel, and odds are the player would be shut off/destroyed during the collision. So the last thing you get to hear are your fellow citizens freaking out and yelling, sounds of irritated traffic and people making the realization they are gonna be “late”. Your body torn apart by steel, fiberglass, and glass shards vs. your body being torn apart by tooth bone and cartalidge claw…Organic - to borrow a popular marketing term. Plus no leaking fuel smell. Tigers almost never explode after incapacitating their victims.

And while they are statistically rare: I think you have to take into account tiger attack vs. other animal attacks. I’d take a tiger over a bear. Shark is just about the worst for me: while many animals have evolutionary advantages against an unarmed, modern human, with a shark it just seems completely cruel in their own habitat. I guess I’d take my chances with a shark out of water, but even then I wouldn’t be too happy about it. Crocodile? To much like the shark: first thing it’s gonna do it try to get you underwater and get his roll on. Dog pack, or single 136kg dog - that would suck as well, because I really like dogs and I’d be giving the fucker commands or trying to bond with it during the attack, definitely making the situation more absurd. Poisonous snakes or insects? Fuck that too. Fight the ‘poison clock’ in addition to the puncture. In general, I think I can safely say I’d rather be killed by a mammal than another species, though trampled by a heard doesn’t seem so keen. Or at least something with a face…imagine trying to swim somewhere relatively safe as you realize your floating in a group of man-o-war.
Tigers are really beautiful and command a certain respect. Just as you can imagine an aged stag giving itself over to a bow hunter, I’m not saying liking it, but on some level appreciating his flight is over…true, preferable for him perhaps to have a lung punctured by a rivals rack, laying there sufficating as he detects some doe’s pheromonal message of “gee, that dude wasn’t SO bad, I might have given him some…oh but girl, you just know I’m fixin to present to that badass that done slayt him…”, but let’s imagine there is some respect for the “order of things”, that a stag who’s been around a few seasons can appreciate when his time has come and a worthy hunter has lain him low.
Maybe it could have been like that in the final moments for the Christmas Zoo patron: ‘obviously death sucks, but I can’t help but admire how beautiful this thing is, right here on top of me, even with all of that crimson of my oxidized blood smeared all over it’s mussel. Look at how her tail whips around like a playful kitten, she’s obviously enjoying this…’

OK, I admit the “romance” is more complete in a jungle (or I guess Siberian forest) than on the concrete of the SF zoo, but I still say there are less “fantastic” ways to go. Quality vs. quantity - is longevity really “all that”?

*paraphrase of NYT’s ‘quote of the day’: The disease is by no means inevitable, but among people 85 and older, about 40 percent develop Alzheimer’s and spend their so-called golden years in a thicket of confusion, ultimately becoming incontinent, mute, bedridden or forced to use a wheelchair and completely dependent on others.

“It makes people wonder whether they really want to live that long,” Dr. Klunk said.

From Japanreview:

-Tokyo is a bleak and joyless place in your books. Is Japan doomed? Or is it a condemnation of suburban life in general? Is there such thing as redemption in this day and age?

I don’t this the situation is cause for despair. Rather, the suburbs are interesting in that human desires are transparent and in the forefront. In case of the suburb where Out was set, the small houses all in row are a product of what people desire. It can be seen as quite typically Japanese. I don’t think there is such thing as “society”. There is that much more freedom in that looseness.

In terms of redemption, the question is, redemption from what? I’m not quite sure what you are referring to, but if you return to the former question, the Japanese rarely recognize the sense of redemption because they lack the concept of the “society.” That’s to say, one doesn’t know how to be redeemed, and what you have to do to accept it, and how and who should accept it.

-What influences your work Japanese literature, western literature—or do you read other mystery writers? Are there any books of this genre you feel strongly about? Or are your influenced by other mediums—TV, movies, music, and news events? What current Japanese writers do you like?

When I was a child, I read magazines indiscriminately and I read a lot of foreign juvenile and children’s fiction—mostly books like Adrift in the Pacific, The Three Musketeers, and Little Women. I think that that they may have influenced the way I tell stories.

I don’t really like mysteries so I don’t read many of them of late. I quite like Patricia Highsmith, among others. As for Japanese authors, I would say Ryu Murakami and Fumiko Hayashi. I also read non-fiction. I love movies, especially Scorsese and Lynch. As for music, I am a fan of seventies soul.

From Metro.co.uk bookclub

The sexual violence in the book is very disturbing - did you ever have any qualms about writing those scenes?

It’s very disturbing to write about violence. However, as long as there is such violence in reality (that’s often beyond our imagination) I feel it is my responsibility as a writer to write about them. It’s unfortunate if anyone is disturbed or feels uncomfortable with these scenes (especially the ending), but I actually wrote the book in an effort to eliminate violence from society.

and Booksense.com

-What reaction surprised you the most?

Men were very shocked that a wife could kill her husband. That was really a provocative idea. Japanese men felt so threatened by it. They also never imagined that a woman could write such an aggressive novel. The most shocking part of Out for a lot of people is that it’s written by a married woman who has a family and a child. If the book was written by a man, people wouldn’t be as surprised, and they’d look at it as fiction. But because a woman wrote it and it’s realistic to a certain degree, people were surprised.

-Your novel and many Japanese films from the last few years depict contemporary Japan as an unsettled society whose outward calm masks an underlying current of severe physical and psychological violence. Is this the case?

The old family system is collapsing more and more. Although the division between men and women remains — men still go out and women still stay in — a man now cannot sustain the entire family. We have reached the point where women have to put the children into childcare so that they can work to help support the family, too. Then, the children themselves are under extreme educational pressure. So everybody is making the best effort to sustain him or herself. It is a very confusing time for our society. I have the feeling that people don’t know what to do to get out of their situations.

-Do you think this is creating a culture of violence?

Some of the violence depicted in the media is a metaphor for frustration, but there are more and more cruel crimes happening — and the people who commit these hideous crimes are getting younger and younger. A few years ago, there were a lot of crimes committed by young women. Now it’s kids murdering people. Japanese adults are completely astounded, and don’t know what to do. That’s the reality that we are getting into, and it is getting worse.

Also, thanks to mll3 for turning me on to this novel in the first place.

I recently caught some nasty adware/worm, possibly win32.netsky, and drove myself nuts downloading various scans and tricks trying to rid myself of the thing. Eventually I just had to try and save what files I could and nuke my OS - a complete reinstall. All is back to normal now, though I have inferior versions of some programs and am having to rebuild my music library, which regrettably didn’t make it.

The worst part of all is that I got this from a Church site! I’ve been having some doubts about my place in the thereafter recently and went shopping for a new church, when my search for the Lord brought me this nasty virtual infection. How am I to know which of the Repulican canidate has my best interest at heart if I’m not allowed to research the variations of Christianity?!?

Just kiddin’. I got it from a porn site. Skanky nasty porn gave me a skanky nasty virus. On a drunken quest for more files of this one actress, I was lead astray from my usual “safe” haunts, and when prompted to “download a needed codec”, lust got the better of my good sense, and I let the down the gates and invited the foul worm right in. But at deeper fault was my irreverent attitude about spyware: refusing to be one of those paranoid types, I’ve had what I guess is good luck to go with my cavalier attitude about virus infection all of these years of surfing. But now I’ve learned, twice shy. Don’t let it happen to you!

But it does bring to mind the deeper issues about what on your machine is most important, what you’ll miss most when it isn’t available. You can back it all up, but ultimately, you cant take it with you-

Here’s a link to his myspace page.

So I’m sort of caught up in McCarthy fandom and decided I definitely had to read this novel before I saw the film. I have also been a serious fan of Cohen bros. dramas, as opposed to the comedies. Nothing wrong with their comedic quirkyness, but I would argue if you ask the average viewer to name a one of their films, they’ll give you ‘Raising Arizona’ or ‘OBWT’ before ‘Miller’s Crossing’ or ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’, which I find disappointing. Anyway, from my first learning of this project, I had a strong inclination I was going to love it, and I essentially did.
Reading some sneak peak reviews, I quickly came across a complaint from blog reviewers who hadn’t read the book and are so weened on common suspense arcs that rely on over-the-top sensationalism to outdo one another: Tarrantino style, if you will. But this isn’t about that. Period. There is a very specific reason I have chosen the title of this post from the films tagline and a very specific reason I have chosen this image. Go watch a Tom Cruise, or Vin Diesel vehicle if you cant handle post modern tweaking of the thriller genre. This film comes from a pulp work from a literary mind. Yes, there is a “kick ass” psycho (and after being so compelled by ‘Before Night Falls’, I sensed Bardem was gonna nail this role - I think the fact that he is also the lead in the current Marquez classic speaks volumes about his power as an actor) and there are even over-the-top nifty devices you’ve never seen in a film before - straight from the mind of C McCarthy. So go see it. In a way it’s like getting to see another Peckinpah film, but much of that had to do with the period and location. Here are my two minor and one major beefs…

Because the locations and authenticity are so dead on, even while reading, I have to admit their authenticity stumped my imagination, despite the fact I can recall images of 1980 (OK, not central and west Texas…) I have to get finiky and picky. 1) I don’t remember the girlfriend mentioning she worked in a WalMart. It sort of struck me as a modern jab, and as a nomad, I don’t have my copy of the book here and now to reference, but a search reveals Walmart did hit Texas in ‘75, so it is plausible. It may very well come straight from the text, as so much of the dialogue does. 2) Having ridden lots of Greyhound buses, I’m doubting that semi-southwestern style with the bold blue through the other colors that still adorns the apolstry of many of the seats now, did so then. Total nitpicking I know, but the authenticity is dead on in every other way - I think it bears mentioning.

And the major thing I didn’t like: the young hitchhiker character is reduced to a poolside beerswiller with only a few lines of dialogue. I think there was a lot of revelation about Lwelyn’s character in those passages with her in the novel, as well as more of McCarthy’s foundation about what overtly changed about (our) culture at that time, which isn’t exactly what I mean to say but - the big picture stuff about society a