In Which Yahoo! and Redbook Try to Kill Me

I don't know why I hurt myself reading the "relationship"/"social" stuff off Yahoo! News, but they're my mine e-mail, so I see it a lot and get curious, I guess. And it never fails to annoy, amuse, or cripple my brain. Case in point: Dating Question: Are You Having an Emotional Affair?

Written for women (a) because it's written for Redbook and (b) because, presumably, there are standards of behaviour/expectations for women that differ from men (if you read [b]Redbook[/b]), about relationships between womena dn men, because that's the only arrangement those sorts of things come in, this article explains to me right off that "You've Probably Crossed the Line if You...

"1. Touch your male friend in "legal" ways, like picking lint off his blazer.
2. Pay extra attention to how you look before you see him.
3. Think crush-like thoughts like "He'd love this song!"
4. Tell him more details about your day than you do your partner.
5. No longer feel comfortable telling your mate about this person and begin to cover up your relationship.
6. Experience increasing sensual tension; you admit your attraction to him but also insist to yourself that you would never act on it."

Seriously, now? I mean, let's look closely at these, which to me, appear, as does much of the threatening signs detailed in the article to be pretty much basic elements of any close relationship or friendship.

"Picking lint off his blazer"? Touching "your male friend in 'legal' ways"? Oooooh! you'd best watch out or before you know it, you'll be footing half the bill for an afternoon hotel room. Maybe I should be glad that "you" isn't touching anyone in illegal ways, but seriously, physical contact can only lead to illicit cheating wrong uncouth affairs? "You" should probably learn to control themselves (not to mention this "male friend" that "you" keeps touching all legal and such, but apparently he's not complicit in the affair, he's just there).

If you're going to meet a good friend and you don't pay a bit of attention to how you look, you're kinda being rude. At least, that's my opinion. Heck, if you don't pay attention to how you look before you go out somewhere... who raised you people?

And, Holly Golly, don't ever think someone might like a song when you hear it! Sick sick depraved cheating unfaithful person you are, thinking someone might appreciate a piece of music! (I'm beginning at this point in the article, to believe that "crush-like thoughts" might be the only kind my brain makes.)

Then we have the all-important lesson that you should never ever talk to your friends more than your lover. Ever. And never tell them different things. If your partner/significant other/lover doesn't share an interest... bottle it up and never speak to anyone about it. Ever. Or you're cheating. Emotionally. Tramp. Also, never be attracted to someone you're not with, even for a second, and if you are, don't pretend like you wouldn't if you could. We know you! We can see! Why would you lie like that?

Anyhow, the article goes on to explain that a woman should never put herself in a situation where she is alone with a man she isn't having sex with. They don't say exactly what will happen, but apparently, it's pretty bad. Also, never flirt over the phone or internet or in person. Flirting is the Devil's work. And, see, again, "you" are pretending to believe that "you" can actually control what you will or won't do, what lines will or won't be crossed! How dare you think for yourself, like that?


(This post brought to you by the power of no sleep, Elvis Costello's Mystery Dance, and a firm belief in the axiom that flirting in the only thing you're allowed to do with married folks.)

25 Angry, Seething, Bitter Songs

You know the drill; I put up the list on my facebook and now the list is here with added audiovisual assistance. Twenty-five self-righteous getcherself primed songs. In no order but the random kind.


1. Prophets of Rage – Public Enemy

I got a right to be hostile; my people being persecuted.

2. Bob Dylan’s Blues – Bob Dylan

Petty, spiteful, and self-aware.

3. Common People – Pulp

Like trying to shoot the chip off your own shoulder.

4. Luck of the Irish – John Lennon and Yoko Ono

I like how there’s a nice version of this song that doesn’t use words like “bastards” or “rape.” Commercial necessity, but still, was this ever going to get loads of radio play?

5. Losing His Touch – Jack Off Jill

I still think “Hey there, dead god” sounds like a pick up line.

6. Time of the Preacher – Johnny Cash and Alice in Chains

A great cover of a great Willie Nelson song. And mean as hell.

7. Bring Me Some Water – Melissa Etheridge

Genuine frustration set to music.

8. Delia’s Gone – Johnny Cash

Sometimes killing your problems just doesn’t work out well. Who would’ve known?

9. Dead End Street – The Kinks

People gonna die on Dead End Street.

10. Someday Never Comes – Creedence Clearwater Revival

And it kind of don’t, really.

11. Louie Louie – Iggy Pop

And now, the news.

12. How Do You Sleep – John Lennon (and two other former-Beatles)

Man, were they mad at Paul or what?

13. Hallelujah – Bob Dylan

Cover of the Leonard Cohen classic and boy did he turn it nasty, mean and surly!

14. I Had a Dream – Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson
Exhaustion that drives you forward.

15. Memories of What – Tom Waits
Here’s the audio with Elvis Costello and Lou Reed!

16. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Bob Dylan

Well, it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe…

17. Genius – Warren Zevon

Everybody needs a place to stand
and a method for their schemes and scams.

18. Rated X – Loretta Lynn
It really does stand like a callback/response to a thousand other songs, doesn’t it?

19. I Hate Myself for Loving You – Joan Jett

You can actually remove the “you” from this song without weakening it a bit. (And the video’s singalong lyrics are seriously confuzzled!)

20. See You in Hell – Monster Magnet

I was talking to Jesus through a hole in the floor…

21. Sweet Head – David Bowie

Vicious. Poppy and vicious.

22. The Sick Bed Of Cúchulaínn – The Pogues

Justice, grief, hunger and rage.

23. Radio, Radio – Elvis Costello

‘Cause you better do as you are told.

24. Suicide Sally and Johnny Guitar – Primal Scream

Dead friends and dying.

25. KKK Took My Baby Away – Marilyn Manson

Cover of the very cool, very awkward (bandmate vs bandmate) Ramones’ song. Made less mournful and more angrier.

25 Feel Good Songs - Sound & Vision Edition

So, I thought I'd one of the lists I've done recently for facebook and plug it in here, too, but since I can, I'm going to try and find links for all the books, somewhere online playing the songs, that sort of thing. Visual and audio aids to make everyone who's already seen this elsewhere have to look again.

First off, is the (this really needs a drum roll) List of Twenty-Five Feel Good Songs:

1. Baby Elephant Walk – Quincy Jones
Jones really knocks this Henry Mancini number out of the park by just sharpening the cadence from the brass.


(This ain't the Jones version, but the original. Just imagine it sharper.)

2. Funny How Time Slips Away – Junior Parker
Last thing he ever recorded and just funny and charming as hell.

3. Up on Cripple Creek – The Band
That’s how it is somedays, too.



4. When I Paint My Masterpiece – Bob Dylan
Which is also how it is somedays. An ode to not getting there and enjoying the delay.


(With bonus installation being put up and taken down.)

5. They Say It’s Spring – Blossom Dearie
Anyone who doesn’t love Blossom Dearie has no soul.

6. The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff
Could be one of the most egotistic songs in the history of ever. But it’s not.



7. Rain Street – The Pogues
Ah, optimism. Or, reality. Something like that.



8. Autumn Almanac – The Kinks
All the people I meet, do seeem to come from my street.



9. Dixieland – (well, thereby hangs a few tales, yes?)
I can see my Mom shaking her head all the way ‘cross the internets, but sincerely, folks.



10. Elvis Fucking Christ – The Cramps
Lux Interior explains why he’s the almighty high lord trashman god of rock ‘n’ roll.



11. Back Alley Spaceboy – CobraTwister
The theme to Dai-Guard. Yes, the theme to Dai-Guard.



12. Home in My Hand – Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Just like trouble, you may find me on the corner of any two streets.

Let's hope this link works.

13. Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
Another “last thing he recorded” song. He’s just pouring it out here, ain’t he?

14. Crimson and Clover – Joan Jett
One of the finest covers of all time and just gorgeously handled.



15. Let’s Get Familiar – Zombina and the Skeletones
Talk to your cats, people! Give them parts in your plays!

16. Oh! You Pretty Things – David Bowie
Fear of the new! Fear of the old! Bowie indicts it all!



17. Bold as Love – Jimi Hendrix
Yes.



18. This One’s for Me – Tom Petty
Simple, selfish, and catchy.

19. It’s Too Funky in Here – James Brown
Gimme some air!



20. Dear Prudence – The Beatles
Really does it’s job, this one. At least, I think she did actually go out and perform.



21. I Thank You – Sam and Dave
But you did, but you did.



22. The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 "Choral" – Ludwig von Beethoven
Again, if this doesn’t hit your high buttons, commercial culture has failed you and you have no soul.



23. Streetbeater – Quincy Jones
The theme from Sanford and Son and a great on the move song.

24. Baby, I Love You – The Ramones
Another great cover, and in the words of Warren Ellis, “The sound of being a teenager and in love.”



25. I Shall Be Free – Bob Dylan
Greasy kids stuff.

Soon There Will Be Toy

All Edwin Hawks would like is a peaceful, quiet life making toys for peaceful, quiet children. His king insists he design bridges and buildings and various things that would help him win wars and flatten foreign armies. His god - who is insane, unstoppable, unfathomable, and repressive as can be - wants him to journey halfway across Earth to prove himself, and prove how great his god is for giving him such a task. Along the way, he encounters politicians at neverending parties, revolutionaries in a city of orphans high in the treetops of a deep wood, pirates, dancers, kangaroos, talking foxes, and a remarkable young girl, named Puck.

Puck has little time for peace and quiet, seeking at the tender age of early double-digits to steal pretty things, blow up ugly things, and physically assault then run away from police officers and other respectable adults in uniforms, who believe she should stop stealing and exploding stuff. But it's okeh to steal stuff when some people have everything and you don't right? Or to blow the walls off prisons full of innocent people? To stop a wagonload of slaves and free them before robbing the driver of the wagon?

Both Edwin and Puck are sure they can correct the other's naivete with a subtle but persistent touch, and so we're off, while the world falls apart around them and furious magickal forces war in the skies and streets, across vast oceans and in the temporary shadows of a twilit alleyway.

*****

Dedicated to ethical pioneers everywhere and everywhen, and to the noble souls who stumbled along the way.

Toy to the World, written by yours truly, and produced by Daniel Rappaport, will feature artwork by Patti Gresham, Lou Ramano, Sheela Saankaram and many other great illustrators. It will be serialized online for free, aimed at adults and young adults by simply not presuming there's a great deal of comprehending difference and plugging along as its own animal and no other.

If you have kids, check it out before you let them read it. If you have parents, well, it's a bit hard to hide the computer under your mattress.

More info will follow, soon.

Cheap Art

I often say I moved my focus from visual art, particularly from painting, first to installations, and then to writing. This is not entirely true - I was also trying to get more and more involved with my audience, to force them to participate and overwrite me - but the grain of truth that is there, well, is there. A simple sketch, written or visual, a quick arrangement, these are all roughly equal in their cheapness and ease, and I still do sketch a lot. More involved creation, however, takes a fair amount of money if you are doing a painting, than if you are writing. Writing only takes up time, so long as you already have a computer to write on (and aren't printing, natch), and the electrical bill is not taken into account. Painting requires paint, sometimes paint thinner, canvas or paper, a frame (prebuilt or knocked up by your own self), and perhaps a number of studies, references, et al. Installations require supplies and space, which is somehow even worse, especially if you are expected to pay for the space.



Still, I love it all.



When I was at CalArts, I was able to temporarily borrow space easily enough, if not in one of the student galleries, than utilizing a stairwell, a hall, disused exit, restroom or hillside. I preferred works that enticed the audience to get tactile with them, dangling threads, mobile items, and frequently arranged them to be decimated or irrevocably altered by playing with them. Whole arrangements would collapse the instant someone pulled on a handle hanging from a rope, shoes would fall in a fury of shaving cream expanding cold and foamy over everything. Paintings and charcoal drawings would be dissected by fire trailing up the lines of flammable, translucent, chemicals painted onto their surfaces, because some - probably unsuspected audience member - finally flicked the switch on a panel to the left of the pretty pieces and each psychogeographic still life surrendered its cohesion.



I stopped, really, when I lost my favorite standing piece, a charcoal that can yet be seen hanging at Oxnard College in the film Meaningless Excerpts. It was big and feverish and looked more like a landscape than a wooden cart and a baby blanket. I had borrowed it back from my grandparents, to whom I had gifted it, to display at the college, at which point, it was stolen from me, and social niceties have kept me from ever forcefully reclaiming. I don't think I've put any substantial effort into a visual piece since then (discarded the visual aspects of film/video, or visualizing in writing). There is probably something to that, but even if it is only coincidence, it's a marvelously horrid synchronicity, yes?



In this digital era, of course, it is harder to steal in that way, unless one puts significance on the original (versus copies), and I do not. Constant documenting could save a lot of heartache or stress, and maybe I could indulge in a whole series of paintings... except, I live in a tiny space, I have no free time, and I can't afford to, not really. So, I just sketch a lot. All over the edges of notes and prose, in the margins of handouts, over napkins, little entoptic reproductions on the rims of paper plates. Over faded receipts.



And I neurotically replicate my writing by e-mailing it to myself draft after draft, or uploading it this place online or that, burning CDs and filling thumb drives.



It's funny, I lost a whole novel once. The first I ever wrote on a computer (the first novel-length narrative I ever wrote was on paper, filling a few notebooks, and I was probably nine). Completely gone. All on a floppy, and that wiped, by a casual magnet. Who knew?



But, the loss of the novel barely bothered and did not at all hinder me in further writing. It could be that the loss of the charcoal piece has not, either, and that I have enforced the connection after the fact (or, more honestly, after the question).

Things I Learned from Leiji Matsumoto

So, yes, I've been thinking a lot about Leiji Matsumoto lately, and the scope of his career. Writer, artist, comics-making-guy (mangaka, but I dislike borrowing other languages' terminology, and frankly, we should have an English word for this already, shouldn't we?) and national treasure according to the Japanese government. He's created westerns, science fiction, horror, romance, and more bildungsroman than I can count. His work has been adapted for television, film, prose and stage - not to mention thousands of examples of unlicensed fanart and tribute. And he's been including Harlock, in one form or another, as generations in the same family, avatars, icons, or just someone who adopted the identity, in most of these, since 1953.

He has designed buildings (that were actually built), a water bus (that's still in use), and has drawn the same woman wearing different hats for about thirty years longer than I've been on this planet without it getting stale.

Even if you haven't seen something directly of his own work, if you saw a Star Wars movie? Nine tenths of the machinery designs in the first three flicks look like they could have been lifted right off the page and built. One Piece's Eiichirō Oda, Toshio Okada, co-founder of Gainax, and the French house band Daft Punk, as well as Æon Flux creator Peter Chung, have acknowledged Matsumoto's influence.

And I have to admit, I owe him a lot, creatively, and just in terms of how his work has affected my life. I approach narrative, character, and communication with an audience differently because of Leiji Matsumoto. Which, is a long roundabout way of explaining why there now follows a list of simple things I learned from this man's works.


******


Food is necessary.

Everything is political.

If a flag doesn’t naturally wave in outerspace you make it wave.

You have to forgive people. If something was truly unforgivable, you’d have to kill the people responsible.

History is subjective.

People have to decide for themselves to be adults.

Even a Nazi can occasionally do the right thing.

We live myth. Every damn day.

A lot of people look like a lot of other people.

Part of growing up means changing your mind.

Death before dishonor sounds good, but it’s probably better to live in dishonor than be a complete genocidal asshat.

Inexplicably, injuries can often be inherited.

It’s important to have friends who are better looking and smarter than you are.

Every time you see someone, it may be the last.

Jealousy is pretty stupid; grief is probably necessary.

Continuity is for the desperate.

The only thing that can kill you, is you dying.

While thinking of someone you don’t like as less than human, it isn’t true. It’s always just people.

Free will means disobedience means anarchy. It does not mean you have to be a contrary, difficult, selfish jerk.

Laws can’t actually stop anyone from doing anything, they just promise you’ll be punished later.

Wherever you go, somebody knows somebody from where you came. So, behave yourself.

Always keep a jacket or poncho handy. This is more important than any jazz someone might tell you about a towel, because you can, in fact, towel yourself off with a jacket. It can be blanket or pillow, keep the weather off you, be used offensively, and make you look stylish. Plus, it has sleeves and pockets, and requires no bag to carry it in.

Autonomy is a matter of civility.

No law, no rule, has to be enforced.

Some things never go out of style.