At the Movies
I made a movie about movies. I was not aware of this when I made the movie.
Fugitive Pope
How are you? Are you having a good day today? (David Lynch music reference.)
I have a new book out from Louffa Press, FUGITIVE POPE. It’s all letterpress, and you can read more about it here.
Sasquatch Stories
Deron Bauman published my first big collection of stuff, I USED TO BE ASHAMED OF MY STRIPED FACE, in 2001. Now, years later, I have a new book from Publishing Genius called SASQUATCH STORIES, with a cover drawing by Tao Lin and a frontispiece drawing by former Silver Jew and poet David Berman. You can read about the book and maybe order it here.
29 Mini-Essays by Joe Brainard
AMERICA
That a giant economy-sized box of “Supreme—Three Ply—Extra Soft—De Luxe” cleansing tissues only costs 39¢ ought, it would seem, to restore one’s faith in something.
Update: Mike, I added a little context and made a hyperlink. – Michael Smith
Vote Now
VOTE NOW: GROUNDHOG MEAT or GROUND HOGMEAT
Coming in May: The Minus Times
Putting the “Great” back in Depression, the latest Minus Times is a seventy-two page double issue starring Dave Eggers, Sam Lipsyte, and David Berman. Issue #29 draws a bead on the pimp and protector of America’s imagination: Hollywood. Featuring confessions from screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis (High Fideility, Grosse Point Blank) and director Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julian Donkey-Boy) along with a crew of talented extras, the Minus Times subverts and celebrates this billion-dollar dreamworld that we rent by the hour.
An open casting call brought in a cross-section of American talent: rock & rollers Sam Beam, Will Oldham, Colin Gagon, Neil Michael Hagerty; artists Harrison Haynes, Hope Gangloff, Forest Juziuk, and Steve Keene; cartoonist and animator Brad Neely; filmmakers Kathy Egan and Andrew Pope; poets Joe Wenderoth and Mike Topp; photographer Michael McLeod; ad executive Austin McKenna; along with writers Brian Howe, Theodore McDermott, Patrick deWitt, Wells Tower, Brent Van Daley, Mike Laus, and Jeff Johnson. Handsomely weathered scene-stealers one and all.
Since 1997, the Minus Times has consistently delivered emerging American talent in a hand-typed literary almanac alternately referrred to as “Harper’s Magazine on methadone” and “a 34-page ransom note.” Edited by Hunter Kennedy. Published by Drag City.
Super Normal
Quietly extraordinary objects selected by Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison:
In the Bunker
An interview with David Lynch:
“I love paint,” he says, in the same mechanical tone he used to describe his camera. “I like watercolours. I like acrylic paint … a little bit. I like house paint. I like oil-based paint, and I love oil paint. I love the smell of turpentine and I like that world of oil paint very, very, very much.”
Primary Information
Primary Information (James Hoff and Miriam Katzeff) publishes artist books, artist writings, out-of-print publications, etc. Recently published: Aram Saroyan’s Coffee Coffee, originally published in 1967 by 0 to 9 Books.
Medical Exercises for Music
Examples, to be completed:
1. Classical…………………Parkinson’s Disease
2. Rock………………………Acne
3. Folk……………………….Hay Fever
4. Alternative………………Epilepsy
5. Electronic……………….Myopia
6. Proto-Punk……………..Diabetes
7. Jazz………………………
8. Blues……………………..
9. Country………………….
10. Salsa……………………
11. Christian & Gospel…….
12. Soundtrack…………….
13. Hip Hop/Rap……………
whoa shit i almost forgot:
In the future everyone will be famous for $15.00.
Public Illumination Magazine
Public Illumination Magazine was the first magazine to publish my writing in New York City back in 1982. I remember standing in front of the Gotham Book Mart and seeing that issue in the store window and thinking what a thrill it was. Writers were required to use “an obligatory pseudonym”; I chose “Mike Topp.” I’m still a frequent contributor (though the magazine has since forced me to use various pseudonyms, including “Fitty Sense”) and PIM remains my favorite magazine. PIM’s website: http://www.mondorondo.com/pim/.
Below is from the LA Times:
Public Illumination Magazine (a.k.a. PIM) is entering its 28th year of publication. PIM is a little magazine (2 3/4 by 4 1/4 inches on slick paper) devoted to art and writing (never more than 250 words per contribution). Each issue has a theme. The first issue in December 1979 was devoted to telephones, followed by others on virulence, mass transit, little girls and on to hair, climate, and miracles.
Contributors are being sought for the forthcoming issue on space.
Just To You Know
Just to you know…In case you email back tonight I won’t respond. I’ve got a Tombstone Pizza in the oven and plans to watch a movie on TV.
Needed
What this country needs is a good five-cent iPhone.
“Polar Express III”
** (2007) Tara Reid. Double agents kill an inventor for his wooden spaceship, but his girlfriend will not let them have it.
Sirowitz, Topp, and McAbee January 23
Wednesday January 23 (8 pm)
Issue Project Room (232 3rd St, 3rd Fl, 718.330.0313 )
$10
Families, like poems, often conflate trivial affairs and matters of extraordinary importance. Two books by Hal Sirowitz — 1996′s Mother Said, followed eight years later by Father Said — thrive on this exaggerative impulse. The former poet laureate of Queens begins each compact poem with moments stolen from a long, claustrophobic car trip, but each ends with a quick shift in subtext — the depressive habits of a quirky uncle, say, or the hushed secret behind Mom’s glaring reprimand. Of equal note is one-line soothsayer Mike Topp, who reads from his work-in-progress, The Lonely Life. Littoral provides music as well, in the form of gruff singer/director Cory McAbee.
– Joel Withrow
Which Gay Bar?
Which gay bar should I choose?
I can’t decide. Can you?
Fiddlesticks? The Boiler Room?
The Slide? The Dungeon?
The Electric Banana?
Persuasions? Nowhere?
Which gay bar should I choose?
I can’t decide. Can you?
(Thanks, and a tip of the hat to Sparrow.)
Grandmother
It makes me mad when people say I didn’t treat Grandmother well when she was sick. Maybe it was because of that one time I dropped her in the hallway when she had to go to the bathroom and I just stood there and laughed and laughed.
Mike Topp – Guardian Mention
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/11/the_story_as_oneliner.html
Games
Red Light, Green Light is one of the most difficult games to play. Variations include calling Yellow Light, which has no consequence. Another difficult game is bridge. There are over fifty cards and a good percentage of them have to be held in one hand so that your opponent doesn’t see them. A Japanese game called Go is another difficult game to play.
A Morse code translation of a haiku by Issa.
.. /_. /… /. /_._. /_ / … /, ._ _ /…. /_._ _ / _._. /._. /_._ _ /?
._ _ /. / ._ / ._.. / ._../ _ _. / _ _ _/
_ /…. / ._ / _ / ._ _ /._ / _. _ _ /
Fact File
In the privacy of his home Jesus wore slacks. He was the first god-man to do so.
The government uses most of your tax money to help foreign countries that want to change their names. “It’s very expensive, what with court costs and ordering all new stationery, so we like to help them out,” says one IRS official. “‘Myanmar’ cost us a bundle and everyone hates it. Let’s face it, people liked saying ‘Burma.’ Now no one even talks about the place.”
The English invented homosexuality in 1067. It was originally a strategy to fight inflation in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings, but it became all the rage among guys who liked to suck dicks.
On the Cover
Vatican officials padlocking the bathrooms in response to the depredations of Pope Pius VI (1637-1701).
You Better Believe It
A friend writes:
Baseball was actually invented in 1768 by Ethan Matherson in Rhode Island Colony. But for some reason he gave it a silly French name (“Fifi ball”), so it never caught on.
Ayn Rand’s pussy hair was hideous—”As bristly as the whiskers on a boar’s snout,” according to one report.
Recent Celebrity Scent Lines
Eau de Roger Clemens
Andy Rooney’s “Desire”
Man Salve por Rupert Murdoch
Weather/Politics
Suspiciously warm… Axis of Evil… Disingenuously chilly… Last gasp of the insurgency… Deliberately foggy… Mission accomplished…
