Hey all—no auctions this last week of December and instead including best of the year lists from friends in good standing of the newsletter. All people with fine taste and expression. Thank you for reading. May 2024 be the year all that’s good and great comes true.
Geoff Snack
Geoff lives in New York and is the best paper dealer alive. I don’t know how he gets his crap. I mean, I do know, he works hard to find it. But it boggles the mind. Also has a job and a life and is a very nice guy. More info can be found in Geoff’s Q&A below:
Geoff (IG) top 10 submission:
Some things are just fundamentally better than other things.
Here’s 10 of the best things I purchased or traded for in 2023:
Richard Prince - SOIL MECHANICS / CALL MARCELLUS litho
An early Prince offset lithograph. 1978! Apparently he would make copies of these and paste them up around the Lower East Side. It’s small, but has good presence.
On Kawara - Date Paintings 1981-1983. On Sundays Catalog by Galerie Watari
I recently got very into On Kawara’s work and this is a fantastic catalog. The best part is that it comes with stickers of his date paintings as well as a fold out page with origami instructions to make your own date painting. It’s no longer recognized as part of Kawara’s oeuvre by the Kawara foundation. They probably didn’t love the stickers.
Birthday card from Andy Warhol to Sam Bolton
A dollar store birthday card that Warhol bought and stuffed some cash into as a last-minute gift for his assistant Sam Bolton. The card accompanied a large canvas with dollar bills pasted to it by Warhol. The Canvas sold at Phillips in 2022 (https://www.phillips.com/detail/andy-warhol/HK010422/146) but I have the card. (shout out Matt at Karma for the info)
Sol Lewitt - 1975 Invite with Wall Drawing instructions
I went to MOCA with my partner Victoria a few weeks ago and saw the Sol Lewitt Wall Drawings show. I feel like they’re so much more interesting as conceptual works in books. The actual drawings didn’t do much for me. The front of this invite has instructions for a Wall Drawing piece which is so much more interesting than the realized work.
It reads:
WHITE LINES FROM THE CENTER AND FOUR CORNERS ON YELLOW WALL
9 LINES FROM EACH CORNER & 9 FROM CENTER
4 ABOVE CENTER
1 TOWARD CENTER
4 BELOW CENTER
So good.
Comme De Garçons Homme pre-2000s Button Up Shirts
Excellent shirts. Outstanding fit: Nice and blouse-y but not too long. Apparently only the shirts made before 2000 have this fit. They’re plain too, though you can find freaky ones with weird patches of argyle and studs on them or something but those aren’t for me.
Damien Hirst - Pharmacy business card
Old Damien Hirst is actually good.
I picked up a business card from Hirst’s now-closed bar. The design and attention to detail on that project is wild. The wallpaper, china, stationary, etc. was all designed by Hirst (or someone on his team).
There’s a Sotheby’s catalog from the sale of all of this stuff that I really should get.
Nike Dri-Fit Unstructured Club hat in white
This is a great hat for running and just walking around. Really good fit, light material, and its cheap.
Art Workers’ Coalition: Open Hearing Document
This is a collection of statements from members of the AWC following their first public meeting at the School of Visual Arts in 1969. It also acts as documentation of that meeting. They covered a range of important topics including more fair labor practices and representation and rights of marginalized artists. I think this was reissued by Primary Information, but mine is the first edition.
Brand New - Art and Commodity in the 1980s
This is a great book that covers appropriation, Pictures Generation and the culture and economics before, during, and after. Lots of pictures and really informative. This is still in print and available.
Seth Siegelaub - The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer and Sale Agreement
A fairly prescient document. It was initially created as an open-source contract for the sale of artwork. Most notably, it states that collectors or dealers need to give a 15% royalty back to the artist on any price increases of their work.
Mark Pennington
Mark is a good friend, lives in Philly, and puts me onto more music than almost anyone. He has one of the best approaches to life out of anyone I know. A font of knowledge and a positive and honest person with wide-ranging and deep and honest tastes.
MP (IG) top 10 submission:
1. Death metal
This was a fantastic year for my favorite genre of metal. Vets like Cannibal Corpse, Autopsy, Suffocation and Dying Fetus all brought the fire with their new albums, and we also got raging new releases by younger bands like Outer Heaven and Kommand. Live highlights are too many to name; I was able to see performances by Vader, Krisiun, Morbid Angel, Incantation, Obituary, Immolation, Suffocation, Gorguts, Molder, Outer Heaven, Kruelty, Psycroptic, Ulcerate, Drawn and Quartered, Wormhole, Frozen Soul among others. Nearly everyone delivered. Death metal shows are my antidepressant at this point.
2. The Hated at Earleigh Heights Fire Hall in Severna Park, MD, 1/15/2023
This started the year on a positive note. The Hated are a band I’ve been fascinated with since first hearing them years ago. I didn’t have much of a reaction when I noticed they were playing a big Numero fest in LA, but when I saw they had an earlier show at a fire hall in the Annapolis area, I had to make it down. I went to more gigs this year than any year in my 30s; this was among the most memorable. It wasn’t a perfect set, but it was incredible to hear so many classic songs (especially the acoustic ones!) that I never thought I would ever see performed live. They played for almost two hours. Three great folk artists opened: Deadwood Divine, Currituck Co., and Max Ochs.
3. PhilaMOCA
One of the best venues in Philly for music and especially for film screenings. I attended too many events to list, but if I had to pick favorites, I’d say the screening of the shot on video Philadelphia horror film A Corpse for Christmas, with the whole cast and crew present, was the most memorable. The Dropdead and Oxbow shows also rank highly.
4. The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle Blu-ray box set (Severin Films)
I’ve owned this since July, and I’m still making my way through this massive collection from Severin. Like last year’s enormous All the Haunts Be Ours folk horror box set, this one was produced by Kier-La Janisse, and they really went all out here, collecting over 20 Black Emanuelle films and loading nearly every disc with special features. Of course the Joe D’Amato ones are the classics if you’re looking for peak sexploitation sleaze, but there are some very cool films in the later discs too, including Laura Gemser as the leader of a hippie free love cult in Divine Emanuelle.
5. Narrow Head “Moments of Clarity” (Run For Cover)
I’ve enjoyed every Narrow Head album so far, but this one has had the most replay value for me. Reviews have compared them to nearly every good ‘90s rock band (my own comparison is “Hum meets Swervedriver”), and they’re indeed the best type of genre worship, somehow sounding new and exciting while mining very familiar nostalgic territory. Their show in Philly this past spring was yet another live highlight of 2023.
6. The Tale of Tsar Saltan (dir. Aleksandr Ptushko) and The Son of the Stars (dir. Călin Cazan and Mircea Toia), Blu-ray releases on Deaf Crocodile
Deaf Crocodile may be the best of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels, releasing restored versions of extremely cool films that I didn’t know EXISTED. The Son of the Stars is mind blowing psychedelic animation from Romania, for fans of films like Son of the White Mare and Fantastic Planet. The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a delightful Russian fairy tale come to life and is essential like their other Ptushko releases.
7. Skourge “Torrential Torment” (Lockin’ Out)
A good year for hardcore overall. This was the one I listened to the most; sounds like if Obituary was an NYHC band.
8. Uneasy Listening with Commie Francis, on WPRB Princeton 103.3 FM
One of the most reliably good weekly radio shows. There's a focus on old punk and new punk, and weekly themes allow for a great mix of songs and genres. Highly recommended listening, Saturdays at 8 p.m. EST.
9. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki)
I can only echo the wide, wide praise this movie has gotten. This might have the best non-kaiju characters of any Godzilla film, and was easily the better of the two WW2 films I saw in a cinema this year.
10. Billy Harper Quintet at Solar Myth in Philadelphia, 7/28/2023
I’ve been to an embarrassingly small number of jazz concerts in my life, and I’ve tried to change that this year. Billy Harper is among my favorite saxophonists ever, and, like The Hated, he’s an artist I never thought I would ever see live. He played two sets with a Q&A in between. Which is a great format for an artist as eternal as Harper. Songs like “Illumination” and “Soran Bushi BH” were simply wonderful. Everyone around me felt the same.
Honorable mentions: The Inferno (dir. Tatsumi Kumashiro) blu-ray on Mondo Macabro, new Mystic 100’s, Ampichino & Rich the Factor, Daiva’s Grille in Philly.
Alix Vollum
Alix’s taste makes me feel sometimes like she lives in a different world than the rest of us. And I also don’t think she’s begun to scratch her potential. Some of her work was up at the Entrance booth at Basel this month. Read her great Q&A from this summer:
Alix (IG) top 10 submission:
Novel experiences: at the start of the year my friend took me skiing indoors at the American Dream Meadowlands in New Jersey, which was a dream of mine since I learned of the mall’s prolonged development marked by catastrophe (construction hindered due to Lehman Brothers bankruptcy… later, partial collapse of indoor ski slope roof under the weight of real snow). Another friend took me to the Met opera for the first time, where we saw La bohème. And I went to a demolition derby.
Fall/winter fruit: I stopped buying pears for a while (years) because I thought I didn’t like them (not as much as apples or tangerines anyway) but they’re good, I’ve changed my mind on pears.
Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country: Funny, complex, and deft novel about psychological damage that results from zealous ascension in society.
Using a waterpik everyday: it’s tedious but it becomes addictive.
Not living in a city: for most of the year I lived in upstate NY (not Hudson valley) and the rest of the time I was in Oregon (not Portland). Although I don’t know if I consider this a top experience of the year as much as it was just a fact of my life.
I watched some movies for the first time: Crash, The Last of the Mohicans, A Room with a View, Phantom Thread, New Rose Hotel
Ebay: I bought a medieval rabbit tapestry needlepoint pillow kit in August and I’m still working on it, it’s very meditative.
Perfume: I think I entered this year wearing Molton Brown Milk Musk edt which is my around the house perfume- I was living in the woods and didn’t really go anywhere. When I went into the city I picked up samples of DS & Durga Pistachio (pleasant but linear) and wore that until it ran out. In the heat of summer I was wearing Naomi Goodsir Corpus Equus, driving myself and everyone around me crazy with the smell of sour horse urine on hay and leather, and if not that then CDG ERL Sunscreen, which is difficult for anyone to object to. The last few months I’ve been wearing Diptyque L’eau papier which is fine for most occasions but kind of anodyne. I’m going into the new year wearing Hilde Soliani Rosa D'Inverno and Oriza L. Legrand Relique d'amour.
Watching Jeopardy!: I got into watching the local news out of Binghamton, NY and Jeopardy! came on after.
Adopting a cat: everything else I've listed is trivial, this really was the best thing that happened in 2023. My life is immeasurably better with the cat. If you are unable to adopt a cat, consider volunteering at an animal shelter.
Brace Belden
Brace is the best-read person I know and has more energy than most people I know, definitely the best read ones, who never have any energy. You want to be both, like he is. He has a board game coming out soon and is the king.
Brace (IG) top 10 submission:
TOP TEN BOOKS I READ THIS YEAR
Listen I don’t think any of these books were published this year—and only a couple were published this century–but Sami said I could put a top ten of whatever so here’s my top ten books I read this year.
Sibyl, Par Lagervikst 1958
Anyone who knows me knows I go nuts for The Dwarf, which is Swedish writer Par Lagervikst’s most well-known book. The Dwarf is one of those books I buy when I see it for a dollar or two and just keep around like light bulbs. I must have fifty copies. Anyways I read Barabbas this summer, his book about that crook who got let off by the crowd instead of Jesus Christ. It was a good little book. I think Sibyl’s even better, this one’s about the Wandering Jew, it’s an even better little book.
The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake Little Brown & Company 1983
Not to sound like a cocksucker but I’m really gonna suck this guy’s cock for a second—Pancake was a hell of a writer. I like a lot of Southern writers on account of my stepmother was from the South and read all of them (this is, in fact, her book) and I eat all that bullshit up, although I feel like anyone writing like that now would just be a jerk-off. These are great sad short stories with beautiful sentences and then the guy blew his brains out so I think it’s just one the one book. Breece Pancake is his real name. Crazy to have the last name Pancake. I guess that’s maybe why he killed himself.
The Spy Who Would be Tsar by Kevin Coogan Routledge 2021
I read Coogan’s book about Francis Parker Yockey, the sort of two-bit Spengler that spied and pimped his way around the world’s postwar fascism scene, loved it (it pairs really well with The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee) and so was very excited to read this bad boy, which I got last year but hadn’t had a chance to read yet. Tells the story of crazy (?) Polish intelligence defector Michael Goleniewski, who split his post to snitch to the CIA and later ensconced himself in New York and claimed to, in reality, be the Tsar of Russia. Little histories like this are wonderful for a more detailed and granular look at how Cold War spy games operated, and Kevin Coogan (who died in 2020, RIP) is an engaging and detailed writer.
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm Knopf 1989
This seems like the kinda book they make your ass read in some kind of school but it’s really good, and for any real morons it’s crazy short too. Using a lawsuit against a journalist by a murderer (hey I get the title now!) it’s a really understandable, well-written and engaging book on the ethics of journalism. But I know true players and pimps reading my top ten books are the ones GETTING interviewed and it’s invaluable for your ass too!!!!!
Ain’t It Fun: Peter Laughner, Proto-Punk & The Secret City by Aaron Langue Stone Church Press 2023
Listen, I know Aaron and have worked with him, but it’s not like I get money from putting this in here, so I’m being honest: This fuckin’ thing is something else. It’s not a graphic novel or a comic book, it’s like something else, telling the story of all the shit after the colon in the title with beautiful art. I got a Pere Ubu tattoo back when I was a teenager, a line from one of Laughner’s songs, and since then I’ve met a handful of real Laughner heads and have, unrelated to our mutual fascination with the guy, formed strong bonds with all of them. Great great book.
To Each His Own Leonardo Sciasa 1966
Read this on a recommendation from a friend before I went to Sicily earlier this year. Went nuts over it and read a bunch of his other books. Sciasia was a Communist writer from Sicily whose crime writings is really superb—the Mafia lurks like a devil in the books of his I’ve read, an unnameable, eldritch entity that suffocates towns. Highly recommended—I’ve had so-so luck with foreign crime novels in the past but Sciasa’s tender style of writing heightens his shit by a lot.
The Declared Enemy: Texts and Interviews Jean Genet, Stanford Press dunno when it was printed
Listen, we’ve all read those Genet books and you gotta admit: The little ass fucker can write like hell. I love Genet, everybody loves Genet, Sartre even wrote a book about Genet… just cause he’s French doesn’t make it lame to read his crap. Genet discovered politics in the 1960s and threw himself into it; his essays on Palestine and the Panthers make this really something else, plus the guy can give a great interview as evidenced in the transcripts here.
Various books by and about B. Traven - Circa 20th Century
I had to put “various” up top here because I’ve read a few–The Rebellion of the Hanged, Bridge in the Jungle and this short story collection I can’t remember the name of–and because I’ve also been fascinated by Traven as a man. It’s a fact: Nobody really knows who he was, despite writing a massive hit with Treasures of the Sierra Madre. To that end, I’ve read a couple of books by journalists investigating his identity, including one by Judy Stone, one by Jonah Raskin (who was kind enough to talk to me on the phone for a long time about it) and this one called Anonymity and Death which is really fascinating. I think about Traven frequently; there is a mystery about him that speaks to a very warm part of my soul but I’m not sure I want or care about his actual identity.
Opium Fiend: A 21st Century Slave to a 19th Century Addiction by Steve Martin, Villard 2012
Steve Martin (different Steve Martin) was a journalist/fixer in East Asia who, out of a fascination with opium pipes, accouterments, culture, became himself enmeshed in the pipe. I’ll put it plainly: Heroin feels incredible. But there’s something tacky about it, something evil—opium, to me, has always felt like God’s work, something deliberate by a higher power, and at the same time literally devilish, meant to be ingested in alcoves and caves and low-lit low-slung structures. This and the Tosches book, which I think is called The Last Opium Den, scratch some of that itch for me. Anyways, it’s a good book.
The Non-Jewish Jew Isaac Deutscher Verso 2017
You might know Deutscher for his giant biography on Trotsky, but his writing here is in some ways much more personal. Certainly it is very engaging; these are his essays in which he truly tries to grapple with Judaism–and Zionism—from the perspective of someone brought up in anti-Zionist pre-war Socialist and Communist workers circles. Helped put to word some of my own thoughts on this stuff. Not the first (or second) time I’ve read this book but re-reading it always makes me THINK. What the hell else are we reading for anyways? I guess feeling too. But, hell, what’s the difference?
Charlie Willhoit
Charlie is a friend/brother for life and is more or less indescribable, certainly not by me; but he has a steel trap brain and incomparable taste among his other talents. Where would I be without him? Somewhere very silent and boring, that’s for sure.
Charlie (IG) top 10 submission:
1. The continuing legacy of Houston, Texas
Skourge’s Torrential Torment LP (Lockin’ Out). Narrow Head’s Moments of Clarity LP (Run for Cover). Led by a University of Houston alumnus, the Houston Texans beat the Tennessee Titans, wearing Houston Oilers uniforms—the next best thing to a Bud Adams grave desecration.
2. Zombi Danz #3 hardcover book & double CD (released with Nuclear War Now!)
Meticulous documentation of Brazilian black metal leaving no stone unturned.
3. Screenings of Nowhere & Doom Generation 4K restorations at Austin Film Society
Here’s hoping the Gregg Araki restoration campaign continues. These two dizzying sagas of youths raging confusion hold up like you wouldn’t believe and look better than ever. Honestly, they hold up so well I’m worried I may be angstier now than I was in my teens. “You can see it in our eyes. It's in mine—look. I'm doomed. I'm only eighteen years-old and I'm totally doomed.” Here’s hoping for Totally Fucked Up next.
4. Scarface’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert (YouTube)
I never expected to rank “NPR” anything on a year-end list, but sheesh, this exquisite little set fires on every level imaginable. We always knew Face Mob could play guitar, but what a sublime joy it is to watch the patron saint of Houston rap simultaneously conduct, conversate, strum, and, of course, MC over a small smattering of his many hits—with Mike Dean making synthesized dream music right alongside. “Smile” into “I Seen a Man Die” should leave any fan speechless. I should also mention that the inimitable Dean, continuing to realize his self-stated intention to become the Synth God, saw fit to gift us another densely layered opus, 4:23.
5. Young Scooter — Streets Krazy (Empire)
The Triple Cross King has returned. What a breath of fresh but sweetly familiar air. Relatedly, K Blacka, Scooter’s brother and highly underrated rapper from South Carolina, is back out in the free world. He has already released a couple of songs, but I’m eagerly awaiting a full-length project.
6. Hellpreacher – Resurrection (Life Eternal Productions)
Historically important Necrovore-related San Antonio death metal demo from 1986. It rips, it shreds, it devastates.
7. Jimmie Dale Gilmore covering Jimmy Buffett in the weeks after Uncle Jimmy’s passing
I saw Jimmie Dale Gilmore play “A Pirate Looks at Forty” on a couple of occasions this year across a couple of the last great Austin area venues still hanging on. Cried both times. Sail on, Sailor.
8. Matt McCusker “The Speed of Light” special (YouTube)
Driving around Texas for work, I listen to Matt & Shane’s Secret Podcast ad nauseum. “The Shaman” finally blessed us with a special of his own. Shane’s near-contemporaneous special on Netflix was of course another home run for the recent Austin transplant. I had the pleasure of seeing both stand-ups perform again this year, but I can’t return to those memories as easily as I can press play on this bad boy.
9. Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels – The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia March 16th, 1973 double LP (Amoeba)
Wow, what a stellar recording this turned out to be. It’s unclear why the Amoeba label is reissuing these GP (and Emmylou Harris) titles in such limited capacities as Kickstarter and Record Store Day, but whatever, this soundboard recording is utter magic. The second half of the set is especially devastating until it changes tempo and picks up the pace with a lively rock medley… presumably so the listener can maintain their will to live.
10. Baxaxaxa live at Hotel Vegas (9/15/23)
Seeing Baxaxaxa live is about as proximate an experience to the essence and magic of the ‘90s black metal ideal as I have personally been able to bear witness. An intimate set of pure occult blackness at an unlikely garage rock venue that simply exceeded all expectations. I also saw Emperor in Dallas, but this is the live set of the year that stands out for me.
And a few other considerations…
I’m going to see The Boy and the Heron in the next couple of days. Surely that will make the list.
Through its first two seasons, I remain unable to stop watching Fishtank Live.
There were a couple superb Austin noise releases this year, including Necklace’s Spinner cassette (Breathing Problem Productions) and Stewart Skinner’s For the Happiness of the World CD (Usagi). Breathing Problem also released a compilation CD from gorenoise master Biocyst bearing the handsome title A Monotonous Plethora of Profusely Compiled Sanguineous Putrefactions.
In the reissue department, Cold as Life’s In Memory of Rodney A. Barger 1970 – 1993 double LP (A389) ranks up there. I haven’t heard the Declination of Independence remaster yet, but I’m excited to hear how they reworked that uniquely tinny monstrosity. The shrill and enigmatic Mysteries demos finally saw proper vinyl releases. I’m sure there were many other worthy titles, but as I find myself compiling this list in the final waning moments of the passing year, the deadline looms large.
Finishing up, I’m struck by the memory of Skourge jumping into a seemingly impromptu rendition of “Evil Ways” at the Mohawk a few months back. What a moment. What a year.
Jaya Williams
Jaya has a steel trap brain about design and aesthetics (not just furn/interiors) and it always feels like she’s holding something back… probably because few might understand? She’s also a great writer who should do that more. More info can be found in her Q&A from this year:
Jaya’s top 10 submission:
1. Burbank airport, the best airport in the world
2. Donald Judd’s Review Insults: “the work is perverse and initially disagreeable. It is also finally disagreeable.”
3. Miranda Keyes’ undulating glassware
4. The rare pleasure of living without an audience
5. The Cruise (1998). I watch this every year on my birthday. Speed Levich on planning a gridded city: “it’s like saying: I will spread neurosis throughout the landscape and do my best to recreate myself and the damages of my life for the next generation.”
6. This Tynell outdoor wall lamp that I hope to one day place above the front entry of a cabin
7. Kuchisabishii - when you’re not hungry but you eat because your mouth is lonely
8. Hot dogs. They have always been a perfect food but now they’re back in style. I hope people eat more hot dogs next year
9. Min Jin Lee's Best American Short Stories of 2023 - some heavy hitters this year, particularly Maya Binham's "Do You Belong to Anybody?"
10. Among the best things in this world is finding scribbles and underlined text in a good book, read once before by someone you love
11. A top 10 rumor I heard this year was that Salvador and Gala Dalí never consummated their marriage because he had a raging phobia of female genitalia
12. Abimis stainless kitchens, Protea sugarbushes, the object collection in mid century Czech embassies all over the world
Sami Reiss
Sami Reiss (IG) top 10 submission:
Here is my top 10 in no order:
Mystic 100s - Micro Diet LP — I listened to this record I would say start to finish (except for the third and fifth songs which I don’t enjoy) twice in a row for a good two months straight when it came out. I believe this was right when I moved to Paris. Wake up, read, buy a burnt expresso (that’s how it’s spelled) for €1, work out, read more, work, get dinner, usually in the 19th/20th which was a walk from my hut that usually spanned the length of this record. Mystics began as Milk Music over a decade ago; right before the pandemic I saw them play a show as Mystic 100s, where they used a clean guitar tone and kept the volume during the whole set so quiet that you could hear conversations happening around the room while they played, like on Spacemen 3’s Dreamweapon album. After the show complaints surfaced regarding these topics and that this new direction was a betrayal of their legacy and very successful sound. But they changed their name before the show. Which means it was a different band. How is that a betrayal? It’s progress. Even with Cruise and Mystics (the record before this, which they changed their name to) being what it is… among my favorites. But change for its own sake is just… well, that’s what happens… but this was note . I don’t keep up nearly at all with guitar music these days and so take this with a grain of salt but this record to me feels like… this is just… the exact music on this record is probably why bands exist. You can’t do better than this. I also like that Online Ceramics put it out.
Mike Dean- 4:23 — recommended by Charlie. How satisfying… what an artist.
Killers of the Flower Moon — I don’t think this is Martin Scorsese’s best movie but it’s the most overpowering one from his last decade run and his most… novelistic film since Casino and Age of Innocence)… It’s execution. Completely styleless aesthetically (the cinematic space is… kind of nothing, framed look like an amateur photograph; he says as much with those pics being interspersed in the flick), with a massive political target (I wrote about this in Ssense this week)… that litigates America and puts it into context… it came out October 6. Caught it November. Feels like the most complete cinematic look at America as a political project. Others off the top of my head—Manhunter, Wagon Master, Mohicans, New World— are not as expansive.
To be sure, an artwork’s political compass being aimed correctly… not sure it matters. I don’t work for a senator. Why celebrate these things? I just think it worked because it was so subjective—framed by the Molly character for most of the movie… what can I say. Hadn’t been this moved by anything current—as in didn’t exist Thursday, existed Friday—in maybe 20 years. I like the old crap. Unbelievable. No one is close; one of the great late periods for any artist… unbelievable.
I put on like 11 lbs. of muscle in France working out only three times a week (and running sprints every Wednesday). I walked 12K steps a day, got a lot of sun and ate pho (with the crap in it) for dinner just above every night. And some yogurt for breakfast. It’s sadly not a replicable diet or lifestyle here because in France none of the food has plastics or phytoestrogens or lizard semen in it. Not even at the most low-level grocery store. Also this was done WITHOUT raw milk. (I may be over it; I have moved on from RM as a philosophy. It is only a tool.) In America you take your life in your hands going to the grocery store—it builds character. I lost weight when I moved back. That never happens. But it could happen to you, and will be more or less outlined in the Snake Super Health™️ Underground Manifesto (coming 2024).
Varathron at The Meadows in Brooklyn on July 30th, a Sunday, playing half of His Majesty at the Swamp to a room of maybe 100 people, and a few other songs too. I stood by the side of the stage to watch the band set up, like I was in high school… old Greek black metal has almost Motown-level songwriting, and some Var songs are so pitch perfect and subtle and catchy it’s hard to square that the people who wrote them are only a decade or so removed from age…. The Varathron tour I believe was booked as Houston-LA-New York-Montreal in four days. The band flew to each show, and a couple members found time to go to Times Square and the Venice Beach boardwalk, and so on, before soundcheck. How? Logistically it doesn’t make sense. My friend Hank says Varathron are the only black metal band from that era you can still catch at small venues.
Avatar The Way of Water: I caught this at a theater in Florida in early February; what a masterpiece… my English is not precise enough to explain what was special about seeing this film. It is just… I don’t know, a D.W. Griffith film or something…. a technological achievement but not a redudant one. Like most great artists, Cameron is from Ontario… the first Avatar is probably the defining work of this past decade; this one I bet will have its claws even deeper. Even though Cameron is a far-gone Freemason/lost vegan this thing can’t be faded.
E-Town Concrete - Level Up: Life is full of surprises; I never thought we would get a new E-Town song, and here we receive it during the same month in which Scorsese releases a new picture. There’s no limit to anything.
Texas Longhorns playoff football — no roses for half measures but a satisfying fall this far. Much more rewarding than Ferrari—about which the less said, the better.
My book came out. I wrote about and promoted this book a great deal here… but that was in a professional context. Speaking personally, it was a trip to hold in my hands. A nice capstone to a collection of work, permanent in a way most web writing just isn’t and also very humbling. Which to me I didn’t get but now do. There are really so many books. The Strand takes up a whole block and has books floor to ceiling. Maybe a billion people have written a book; with this and a dollar I get a Coke. Good to be put in perspective. And now that the year’s over the real work can begin.
Bonus: Prada Look 11 from Men’s S/S 2024, the 1997 Big Bang exhibit at Palais Galleria in Paris this past spring, catching Mahjong at Walter Reade yesterday, this video,
Thanks for reading. Rest in Peace Jimmy Flynn—the most shambling, charming, open and generous person to ever do it; gone much, much too soon.
Snake