Moving day
Today we lug our stuff from the loft to our new home in the artists' residency, so this'll be another quickie. That's a wing of the building in the little photo, and the residency program has a website if you want to know more about it for some reason. http://www.centre-les-recollets.com/ The place supposedly has easy, full-time internet access so there shouldn't be any break in the blog's rhythm. Some of you are talking about the Henry Darger documentary. Yeah, it's great. I wrote a piece about it for Artforum some months back. Here's the address if you want to read it: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_5_43/ai_n9486082 Re. the crying at the movies question, the film that really makes me blubber is John Huston's 'The Dead.' That last scene kills me, largely because of Joyce's writing. In general, I tend to cry at movies when there are scenes in which characters say or do something that shows incredible kindness and selflessness. For some reason that wipes me out, even when the movie is sentimental crap. So, yeah. Saturday there's a big literary festival here in Paris to mark the start of the fall book season and a lot of new and famous French writers will be reading and talking. I'm attending it and the related hoity toity after-party, so if it's worth a report, I'll report. Time to get out of here, so take it easy if possible until tomorrow.
posted by Dennis Cooper at 11:45 PM
5 Comments:
Dennis, if you go to the Paris Litterature Festival, you have to meet Christophe Honoré. He will be there saturday and sunday. He is a very talented young writer and also director.
dennis,one of the things that really gets me in your work,is the actual voice of some of the guys,like jim in "my loose thread",i can really hear him speak,so i was wondering if you have any favourite film voices?,
ive a short list,(most of these voices sound distant and brittle).
david arnott in "criss cross" 1992
mucnhkin in "streetwise" 1984
edward furlong in "terminator2"1991
thanks.
garrison,re;tears in the cinema,
all of these got to me,
armani crying in royston tans "15"
william hurt in "loved"
bruno s in "enigma of kaspar hauser"
shepithkos "the ascent"
john hurt in "the elephant man"
paul dano in "l.i.e.",(when brian cox shaves him)
take care.
Thanks, everyone, for the response to my crying film question...
Dennis:
Interesting that you should say that what makes you cry in a film is when a character acts selflessly. I remember Roger Ebert saying something similar and I totally agree with both of you... which is why DANCER IN THE DARK floors me everytime. It seems that most of us are always so isolated and living in our own heads, thinking of ourselves. It's the human condition, I guess, which is what makes it so moving when we encounter such sacrifice in a fictional character. It gives us hope, I think, and an authentic dose of that should make anyone cry.
Thanks again, guys.
- garrison
"John Wayne Gacy, Jr." traces, with alarming accuracy, and over a hazy swirl of acoustic guitar and piano, the pathology of Illinois' most infamous serial killer: From 1972 until his arrest in 1978, Gacy was responsible for the torture, rape, and murder of 33 boys and young men, many of whom were discovered buried under the floorboards of his Norwood Park home. Lyrically, Stevens nails the specifics (as a kid, Gacy was slammed in the head by a swing, resulting in a blackout-inducing blood clot in his brain; he routinely donned a clown suit to entertain at a local hospital; victims were typically immobilized with chloroform-soaked cloths), and shifts perspectives gracefully; anchored in first-person, the song's narrator prods Gacy's mother and father, his neighbors, his victims, himself. More than any other track here, "Gacy" highlights Stevens' literary prowess, perfectly packed with nuance and detail.
Capo 3
e ---1---3---1---0-----------------
B -3---3---3---3-----3---3---3---1-
G --2---2---2---2--0---0---0---0---
D 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0---2---2---2---2--
A ----------------3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--
E ---------------------------------
e ---------------------------------
B ---1---1---1---1---1---1---1-----
G -2---2---2---2---2---2---2-------
D --2---2---2---2---3---3---3--3-2-
A 0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------------
E ----------------1-1-1-1-1-1-1-0--
Lyrics
His father was a drinker
And his mother cried in bed
Folding John Wayne's T-shirts
When the swingset hit his head
The neighbors they adored him
For his humor and his conversation
Look underneath the house there
Find the few living things
Rotting fast in their sleep of the dead
Twenty-seven people, even more
They were boys with their cars, summer jobs
Oh my God
Are you one of them?
He dressed up like a clown for them
With his face paint white and red
And on his best behavior
In a dark room on the bed he kissed them all
He'd kill ten thousand people
With a sleight of his hand
Running far, running fast to the dead
He took of all their clothes for them
He put a cloth on their lips
Quiet hands, quiet kiss
On the mouth
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid
download mp3
Oh, yeah. The Gacy song is a stunner. I mentioned the song a month or so ago when asking Dennis if he had heard it. Glad to hear it pop back up in conversation...
cheers to that,
garrison
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