percolate / collate

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57ºF, sun: Wednesdays are my off-days from the MainFictionThing: give my brain some percolation time, let things merge, transform; get the inbox wrangled, books and reads processed / TSR preppings and writings for this space.

Truth of pod-prep: Every time I do it, I worry I don't have enough questions. Every time I collate all the fragments and shards assembled over the month(s) of prep and reading, I see that I'll do just fine and that it'll be a matter of cutting things out and of being able to go with the flow: the latter is probably the main thing – for me, at least, I have to have a deep knowledge of the subject matter (not as much as the guest, obviously) in order to go with said flow during the recording and lend each interview the combo of "in the moment" and timelessness I try to add to each (I rarely, for instance, discuss current events - though they may come up as an aside.)

Still on the "to-process/review stack": SUPERMAN'S METROPOLIS. Might have a thing about Postman's AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH coming later, but it won't be a "reviewy review": better to let Postman speak for himself and for our times from 1985.

this is what i write when i haven’t slept

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Woke up in the middle of a horrid night – though I probably slept more than I think – to find that I somehow managed to kick all of the covers loose and bring the bottom of the sheet up to my head; if I talked in my sleep, I'm sure I had interesting things to say, probably far more interesting than in my waking hours. Bright side: I'm still married. Not-so: my capacity to be brilliant is even more nonexistent than normal; might be in negative brilliance territory and no I don't have a clue as to what made it so horrid a night of sleep / send help, DARPA-level coffee / caffeine infusion: I am contributing nothing to this conversation with myself and need to learn to nap.

Scott Walker on PRESS (A) TO START

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Scott Walker – a hell of a writer, a hell of a friend, and someone whose advice has always steered me in a direction I hadn’t considered while keeping my whatever-it-is that makes me me intact – was kind enough to share a few words about the first issue of PRESS (A) TO START:

"Weaver's ability to turn a phrase and zig when you expect him to zag is on full display in the debut issue of PRESS (A): With a confident, unflinching determination, this first installment explores decades of time in a search for closure that can never be but must nevertheless be pursued: Weaver's willingness to unapologetically and poetically chew right down to the bone of the trauma of losing his mother - and the conflicting emotions that loss triggered - has yielded an autobiographical work authentically heartbreaking and surprisingly soul satisfying. Just like the relationship of a mother and a son.

–Scott Walker, author of the LITTLE YOKAI series

PRESS (A) TO START is a twice-a-year, print-only premium (though also imperfect, raw, and free) zine produced exclusively for MacroParentheticals subscribers. The first issue, LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY – A COWARD’S EXORCISM, is now available. You can sign up here to subscribe.

a comics neophyte once more

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Yesterday I read an actual physical single issue comic for the first time in at least 10 years (the antique mall find of SUPERMAN'S METROPOLIS, review forthcoming; quick version: loved it – have to get the other two volumes in the trilogy) and now I'm considering, because there are no local shops in this cultural wasteland, getting a pull list together via Midtown – or some other delivery service; if you've got a recommendation, let me know – and reading them again. Only problem: no clue what I'll read or where to start (recs welcome here too)– I feel like a comics neophyte again (even though I wrote a book on them ten years ago) but that, to me, represents the strength of the medium: constant, perpetual change – not always for the better – but change nonetheless.

PEAKY BLINDERS, Series Six (2022)

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(watched: mon/20220711->fri/20220826 via Netflix; created by Steven Knight and starring Cillian Murphy, Natasha O'Keefe, Sam Clafin, Sophie Rundle, Anya Taylor Joy, Amber Anderson, Finn Cole, Paul Anderson, and Tom Hardy; original airing, 20220207->0403)

In spite of a few last-minute and left-field additions (a last minute addition who is, fortunately, an absolutely perfect last minute addition (kind of reminds me of Klein in Ellroy's WHITE JAZZ); wish we'd had him longer (though perhaps my required re-watch of the series will yield a forgotten setup earlier on)) to the cast to set up the abso-fucking-lutely required film continuation, I'm hard-pressed to recall a better, more fitting finale in recent memory (no I haven't seen BETTER CALL SAUL: I'm only now playing catchup with all the things I've missed; just now started watching JUSTIFIED, ten years late and we've been between the sixth and seventh seasons of SONS OF ANARCHY for at least eight years): the loss of Helen McCrory is handled deftly and tragically, Pol's presence in Michael's every seething glare and vow of revenge and in every machination of Tommy as they hurtle towards one another in a hopelessly (for Michael) unbalanced blood feud; Anya Taylor Joy, Finn Cole, Sam Clafin, Amber Anderson, and James Frecheville make a formidable antagonistic force – though Cole's Michael is most certainly in over his head, not only being on the unbalanced side of that Tommy/Michael blood feud but acting as something of a fall guy for the rest of them; and Natasha O'Keefe, Sophie Rundle, and Paul Anderson prove themselves to be three of the finest actors working today, just as they have in every series prior - Arthur always breaks my heart. Highly, highly recommended.

P.S: the only thing I missed was hearing Nick Cave's original "Red Right Hand" rendition, so here it is.

i appear to be calibrated

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The good news is that – well, actually, two pieces of good news: one, my CGM – unlike the night previous – didn't scream at me all night long which means I am, if nothing else, calibrated; and two, the latest issue of MacroParentheticals is out to subscribers. The bad news – though maybe it's good news but if you're reading this... nevermind – is that since I've spent all morning, so far, on getting the newsletter ready for coffee time, my font of biographical ephemera is at a low ebb and this will have to do... oh, right, third piece of good news: yesterday’s antique mall jackpot wasn't a dream.