Violent and original dreams

Will Self on JG Ballard in Granta 107: Ballard, the most outlandish of fictional imaginers, had always dug out his wellspring by the hearth, and remained the perfect exemplar of Magritte’s dictum: a bourgeois in his life, a revolutionary in his dreams. Another maxim, expressing a similar sentiment, is attributed to Flaubert. From his entry [...]

Sensacao Do Principio

Let’s say you snort a line’ve old fashioned mescaline off the ass of PK Dick; the euphoria is immediately transportable to an oozing discotheque shimmering in the glitter of C-Beams. Watch as Precog’s bubble & melt. Who needs them anyway? It’s the 21st Century, so no smoking! Besides, everyone’s telling their cigarettes to shut up [...]

Woke up at 5:30 a.m. for no reason. Fourth consecutive night of sub-sub-optimal sleep. Wearing the moist turban of work-panic and poor self-care. Walking through the dark this morning, I encountered the phrase PANIC AT THE 1970s GRILL. Doesn’t mean anything. Means I’m stressed and don’t feel entitled to the self-pity I half-feel. Sam Lipsyte’s [...]

Permanent Teardrop.

Hey Cancer How’s “the darkness Fine Not as dark as you make it sound Black beans and codfish Shapeshifter rsvp’d. Self-Zine? Got fired Friday, can’t make it Dog wearing lipstick? Dunno,  she’s in heat, maybe spayed,  upset really? aye listen Fear-monger canceled too. it’s just gonna be me you and self-zine shapeshifter And li’l caesar [...]

Wacky Mode

“We have wacky mode,” Powell remembers Barthelme saying to his class, a writing workshop Powell was taking. “What must wacky mode do?” The students, clueless, stayed quiet. Barthelme said, “Break their hearts.” Dan Halpern on Padgett Powell in the NYT

HORRIBLE PLASH

Q: I hear your interns don’t use the bathroom in your office? A: That’s right. They go to the bar across the street. Q: That’s awful. A: I don’t think it’s so bad. It’s a terrific bar. Q: It’s an awful bar. It’s straight out of Kapuscinski. And besides, they should be allowed to go [...]

PETRA: My cousin is in that band. SASCHA: “Wow.” I’m “impressed.” P: I’m adrift, I’m entirely adrift. S: You’re twenty to thirty pounds overweight. Other than that—you’re fine. [A pause.] I forgot what I was going to say. P: I wish we’d never met. S: We’ve never met. I’m a stranger. Hallo! Who the devil [...]

Eyeball Soup

There is a bowl of chili here. Steam rises from its beans and meatflecks. It billows politely around a dollop of cold sour cream. As you gaze into the stew, my face—the face of a young, obese Steven Spielberg, “replete” with undirty baseball cap and full Jewish hair fanning out from beneath the cap’s circumference—appears [...]

DRACULA: We got lost. FRANKENSTEIN: On DVD? DRACULA: Ha. I get it: “We got Lost“! F: Yeah. Ha-ha DRAC: Cool. Ha-ha [The world is engulfed in flames.]

Paging Dr. Gary

Another hot slice of Audi-0 embarrassment for you, my friends. Sunday 9 a.m. oficina multi-tracked GarageBand depression. Oh Charley Charley Charley. The sound of a Sanford Uniball FINE repeatedly clinked against an empty ceramic mug is not a substitute for the digital hi-hat of the 808, and for that I’m sorry. As ever, this is [...]