7

"The wines were too various"
---Evelyn Waugh


This is it. Came back to Austin today. I heard on the radio today that Detroit is almost 2/3 deserted. I want to go up there and see it.




"Under the Volcano"--- John Huston movie from 1984. Fucking great. I can watch a pompous, drunk Englishman 24 hours a day and be happy. The character is one of those poetry dribbling drunks that make me laugh. Shot in Mexico. God, Mexico's good.

6

"On this occasion Lovecraft tried to play "Yes, We Have No Bananas" on the church's organ, but was 'balk'd by lack of power, since the machine is not a self-starter.'"
---Lovecraft Quoted by S.T. Joshi





Look at those pigs going to put out a fire. Fuck the pigs, man.






Since I've been in Dallas I have been on an intense Quest to find a suit jacket (blazer?) that fits me. I'm a little guy so I figured I needed a small or something. Well, it turns out I'm a ridiculously little man or else everyone in the world is a big fatso giant because there is no such thing as a jacket that fits me. I went and tried on the super-rare size 36 jacket at Dillard's that I had to call around looking for, and that is too big for me too. I'm a freak! I am having to resort to getting my friend John to buy me a jacket from a H&M in NY and send it to me. Apparently people in NY are all tiny or something because that size 36 fits me. Is this the most boring story I can think of?


I watched part of "Two Weeks Notice" on TV last night as I was eating some Cheerios. That Hugh Grant is one charming son of a bitch. He should have went with the redhead over that lame-o Sandra Bullock.

5

"This is the fifth communication from the Weathermen Underground. Rosemary and Tim are free and high."---Statement from Weather Underground when they broke Timothy Leary out of jail



In 1970, The Brotherhood of Eternal Love paid the Weathermen to break Timothy Leary out of prison for 20,000 dollars. They literally didn't care about Leary but were such hard-asses that they could bust someone out of jail just to make some money. Then Leary escaped to Algeria where a bunch of Black Panthers had set up an independent state within the country's border. Why is no one this cool anymore? I wish there was a draft now so it would force us all off of our asses and do something interesting instead of being a bunch of dildos making music that sounds like it was written with the intent of being used for a future I-pod commercial. We are such a generation of pussies. Fuck us.

Oh and for posterity, last night I went to a party at John Magary's house who I was friends with in junior high and I haven't seen him in like 10 years. I ate a bunch of cheese dip and talked to Alex Kuzio, Shelly Acker, Toby, David Lowey, and Yasmine about G-d knows what. Actually, I spent most of the time taling to Alex about ayahuasca. I really want to try it, but I'm also pretty sure I would hate it while it was happening. Hmmmmmmmmm.


I'm about to watch "The Damned" by Michelangelo Antonioni but I have nothing to report yet.

post: 4 of 7, Chanukah: day 5 of 8, and some Christian thing too

"If you are sixteen or under, try not to go bald."
---Woody Allen


I went to a party at the Moon Mansion in Dallas last night as I have been doing every Christmas Eve for the last 4 or 5 years. 3 or 4 years? I don't know. I saw some Austin people there, and I generally see the same people there every year. It has a kind of time warp element to it because some of the people I see exclusively at that party once a year so it seems like déjà vu and that it is a continuation from the previous year. It is an old Dallas traditional kind of thing where a bunch of people go to this old hippie artist Ashley Bellamy's house. His house is a huge old church that I think might literally go on forever underground in a series of crazy shambling, cluttered basement rooms. Last year I got too drunk and ended up wandering around down there and it was incredible. It was surreal because every room I went into seemed to have some weird activity going on in it that was unrelated to the party. For example, there was some band that was practicing down there who seemed to have no idea there hundreds of people above having a party. Unfortunately, this year the basement part was locked. I spent a lot of time talking to my friend Alex K. about his psychedelic spiritual quest he has been on for the last few months. It was revealed that he was carrying a magic crystal in his pocket, and we both expressed concern that he might turn into a new-age fruitcake.

"Vertigo"--- I was actually a little disappointed by this movie. Maybe it was because I expected too much as it is supposed to be one of the best Hitchcock movies ever. It started pretty well and was mysterious and stylish, but I thought it got a little bogged down with melodrama the romantic aspect of the story. It's true that I'm a baby who hates seeing people kissing onscreen, but I thought it lost the cooler mystery element in favor of a more creepy love/obsession thing between James Stewart and the lady. It had a lot of really cool San Francisco locations and scenery. Not terrible or anything, I just expected more.

3

"Solid elements, contained and brewed in water animated by erotic movement, shoot out in the form of flying fish."---Georges Bataille


So the other day I was complaining about the fact that I haven't been writing as much of these gaylogs lately. In response, the international blogging sensation and local newspaper lady Leah demanded that I write a post every day for a week. She's the editor of the Daily Texan so making insane, life threatening demands on people to write is a conditioned response at this point. I instantly saw the horrible truth which is that she is a frenzied Queen bee sending her hapless workers off to die in the honey mines. Although she was clearly off the clock when she gave me the assignment, and the fact that I'm just some dude on blogger and not a writer at the Texan, I got scared and agreed. So, this is my third post out of a proposed seven. I'm scared! What can happen? Who could die?
Anyways, I'm in Dallas for a few days, and tonight Toby attempted to teach me some ridiculously complicated and nerdy card game called "ConQuest of the Galaxy," or something. Man, I lead a life of the most shocking decadence. Here is a sample of the game description:

In Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by game cards that represent worlds or technical and social developments.Each round consists of one or more of five possible phases. In each round, each player secretly and simultaneously chooses one of seven different action cards and then reveals it. Only the selected phases occur. For these phases, every player performs the phase’s action, while the selecting player(s) also get a bonus for that phase.For example, if at least one player chooses the Develop action, then the Develop phase will occur; otherwise it is skipped............

Christ!


"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"--- Watched part of it the other day. Frank Capra tends to be a little overly sentimental and schmaltzy, but I am more willing to accept that kind of thing when Jimmy Stewart is the one being that way. It would probably be unbearable if it starred almost an other actor. Lots of snappy 40's-type dialogue and brassy broads. It's just a little too perfect and tidy: corrupt politicians defeated by the well-meaning townie and his multitude of boy scouts. The good guys win and stuff, and I feel like there was a literal, waving American flag at the end.

(2) Sir Alec Guinness

"Lovecraft was in New York when an earthQuake that affected the entire Northeast occured on February 25th, 1925. His only contemporaneous account of it is found in a laconic diary entry for that day: "house shakes 9:30 p m"--- Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi


I mentioned last time that I had watched "Great Expectations, " and that it had Alec Guinness in it. The man cannot be stopped. I read a hilarious story about when he was in that pussy Lucas' "Star Wars, " and played Obi Wan Kenobi. He told Lucas that it would strengthen the character if Obi Wan died and became a ghost. What actually happened was that he just wanted to get out of having anything to do with the subseQuent "Star Wars" movies. He said, "what I didn't tell him was that I just couldn't go on speaking those bloody awful, banal lines. I'd had enough of the mumbo jumbo." Bwah-ha. Lucas is a faggot. He also refused to sign an autograph for this guy who had seen "Star Wars" 100 times unless he agreed to never watch it again. What a hard-ass.


"A Christmas Tale"--- Yet ANOTHER modern-day French movie I have seen in like the last month or so. This was another example of things becoming over-French and disgusting. Everyone makes eyes at each other and hits on each other and it had this really annoying "look at how life is such a beautiful, nutty thing. What a crazy world, can you believe it!?" etc. It was like "Rachel Getting Married" in that it assumed you wanted to see family portraits of and hear inane stories about a family that is imaginary and that you actually don't give a shit about. It's like someone you don't know sticking their baby pictures in your face.
It was half standard American sappy Christmas movie and half weirdo-Frenchness. It was kinda cool how they don't mind breaking character expectations. The mother character openly just didn't like one of her sons. She was like, "you're the son I never loved." And he's all, "yeah you're gay too." And then they laugh and it's whatevs.

(1) lady shirts and Lean

"Titties are Jewish."
--Lenny Bruce

what the fuck is going on with these girl shirts? i have a shirt meant for a lady and it buttons backwards. what is the point of this? is it just to create an arbitrary distinction to make a bunch of faggots more comfortable? like, "i can't wear that shirt, it's lady shirt. aha, here's a good old-fashioned man shirt, thank jesus." or is there a biological reason for it? ladies little lady fingers work backwards from a man's or something? does anyone know? it's hard to button. i have big dumb-man fingers that are used for strangling my enemies to death and throwing the ole' football around with the bros. you know, regular daboub-ish shit.

alexei illiovitch


"Great Expectations---(the 1946 one by David Lean, what the fuck you think?) David Lean can't do wrong by me so far. My lord, this is so good that it is basically the Platonic form of film. Alex Guinness plays Herbert Pocket, and he's probably my favorite actor of all time. The movie is so flawless and classic that it lulls you into this trance, and eventually you aren't even watching a movie anymore as much as you are floating down a river of inevitability. This might not make any sense, but it's the only way I can describe it. The movie is your life, and when it is over you are in outer space, outside of the universe and you have seen all of time because you are now the godhead. Deal with it pussies."

Hypothetical

"This is your farewell kiss, you dog!"
---Muntadar al-Zeidi (Great Arab Poet)


I heard somewhere that some division of the Secret Service is devoted solely to making sure that no one steals anything that has the President's DNA on it. Like a glass or tissue or something. This is insane. The Secret Service has so much money and weird technology we don't know about that it hurts my head. What could someone do with the President's DNA? Awesome stuff, mainly. You could make little mini-Prez-clones.

It made me start thinking though about a hypothetical situation that I will pose to you now:

• There is a criminal faction that has cloned you from DNA.
• There is a baby version of you that these people have basically kidnapped.
• They call you and demand millions of moneys to release baby-you or murders time.

What do you do? Do you even care? Are you emotionally attached to baby-you you have never met? It's basically like they have your actual child kidnapped, right? Head hurts.


"Fearless Vampire Killers"--- Roman Polanski comedy about vamps. Sharon Tate, Polanski, and others frolicking around in the snow together. I love watching Polanski act. He plays basically the same character as the guy from the "Tenant," a really Quiet and shy little guy. It's really charming. This movie was a little slap-sticky but I don't mind in this context. Lots of funny Eastern Europe accents and tons upon tons of snow. I liked it.

Correction

I wanted to say that upon further reflection, I didn't like "Milk" as much as it seemed by what I said about it the other day. It was a little too feel-goodie and heavy handed than I can really get behind. It is true, however, that I can handle these 2 Qualities less that almost anyone I know in the world. That being said, my friend and I have decided that the movie reminded us of a slightly better version of "Blow." It was biopic, and all glossy and seventies and stuff. Plus "Milk" and "Blow" are practically the same title. I think I was just expecting more from the movie so I was disappointed, but when I wrote about it originally I was under the influence of the 2 people I had gone to see it with who really liked it. Anyway, just wanted to go on the record, you buncha Queers.

love,
alex

Ze French and Ze Blacks and Ze Jews

"Life ain't nothin' but bagels and money"
---NWA


Is it me or do black guys now officially love money more than the Jews? Doesn't this mean that blacks are the new Jews? Yes:
Black People Are The New Jews.




Shalom, my good man.




"La Fille Coupee en Deux - Girl Cut in Half"--- New movie by Claude Chabrol Greg and I saw at the Dobie tonight. Jesus Christ, this was the most French movie I have ever seen. Maybe the most French thing in general I have ever seen. This movie is Frencher than an old man with a big mustache and white hair eating a croissant on a train. It was too French, I guess. I don't dislike the French necessarily, but they do creep me out. They are always kissing and hitting on each other and their language sort of grosses me out. I have a real love/hate relationship with them. They seem so right on about so many things, but at the same time excessive Frenchness is one of the most annoying things in the world. From what I can tell, every French old man gets to have a young lover. It's not even considered an affair, really. It's just something that happens. Anyway, the movie was sort of gross and boring. Just a bunch of different people hitting on this blonde girl and implied sexual depravities. It shared what I dislike about some modern day Woody Allen movies, as well. I feel that, like Woody Allen, Claude Chabrol has probably spend the last 20 or 30 years very rich and surrounded by nothing but wealth and rich people talking to him about culture and art and so forth. That's OK, but it turns up in his movies in this really boring "old people sitting around drinking wine and talking about Art" way that I don't like. It seems a lot like pointless wanking. There were like 5 scenes in this movie where people were just talking about wine in this needless way. Anyway, it was interesting in its Frenchness, but pretty boring otherwise. Thank you and goodnight.

Prop 7: boobs for gay babies

"What a bunch of faggots."
---Harvey Milk


Went to see "Milk" tonight with Greg and Hannah. I was talking about how maybe it was time to put Gus Van Sant back on the directors wall at Vulcan, and Greg siad he had been thinking the exact same thing ever since we saw "Paranoid Park." We have both been spending sleepless nights tossing and turning over whether he has redeemed himself enough yet to overcome "Goodwill Hunting." It's good to know that the Vulcan Hive-Mind is still ruling our lives. Greg has more say as to who goes on the Director's Wall, and he was the one who violently tore him down from there after the appalling trio of "Psycho"(remake), "Goodwill Hunting", and "Finding Forrester." After seeing his last few movies though, Gus's tearful reQuests to be returned might be answered.



"Milk"--- Yeah, pretty good. Sort of heavy-handed with the emotional god-damned music. I hate really typical soundtrack music that tells you when something triumphant is happening. The swelling violins and clashing cymbals and all of that nonsense. Poop, sir. It was really good in most other ways though. Glad I saw it. It was pretty true to the story. I want to see "The Times of Harvey Milk" next to round it out.

Sorry Steve Martin

"There is nothing but Syphilis." ---J.K. Huysmans




I would like to take a moment to point out that Steve Martin isn't actually the devil. He's a close, personal friend of mine.


"Pickman's Model" Short film by Cathy Welch on HP Lovecraft Collection Vol. 4--- This Vulcan customer Cathy Welch, who has been coming in forever and works as a film professor at ACC, shot a film based on "Pickman's Model" in 1981. We started talking about Mr. Lovecraft and she shoed me the movie on the shelf. Well, I'll be damned. I brought it home, and it's good! It was her thesis film for UT. HP Lovecraft is notoriously hard to adapt to film because a lot of the "horror" occurs as a narrative in the characters' minds. This version was really charming and good, though, and obviously done by a fan of the man himself. Why don't I just stop pretending and have an HP Lovecraft blog?


The man himself.