FIGHT ON THE SCAFFOLD OF LOVE, SCRIPTED PLEASURES MADE FOREVER

Good night, August; good morning, September.

Time for my monthly video store picks. No theme this month, just movies.

* Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler & The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, both directed by Fritz Lang - is this the first supervillain to ever make it to the screen? Begin with his downfall in the silent epic from 1922, then watch as he makes one more stand in a talkie from eleven years later (which also features the detective from M).

* Diary of a Chambermaid starring Jeanne Moreau, dir. Luis Bunuel - a kinky surrealist class struggle from 1964.

* Love in the Afternoon starring Audrey Hepburn & Gary Cooper, dir. Billy Wilder - Parisian romance circa 1957. Cooper is a little old, but Audrey is radiant, and Maurice Chevalier steals the show as her father. Plus, best train station ending ever.

* We Don't Live Here Anymore starring Naomi Watts, Peter Krause, Laura Dern, & Mark Ruffalo - a literate ensemble piece from last year about the push-pull of fidelity.

SIDE NOTE: Big thanks to the folks who put some money in the "Yoga Girls" jar.

Current Soundtrack: Miles Davis, Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) score

Current Mood: scrumptious

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

AIN'T 2 PROUD 2 BEG

I have finished "Yoga Girls." The final installment was posted earlier today. You can find it here. At that link, also, is a bit of panhandling from yours truly. If you enjoyed the serial, consider leaving me a tip. I will also accept books on how to write short stories, because I have a sneaking suspicion that I suck at them.

It's only Tuesday and I've already been cramming a lot of work in. Yesterday was a bunch of printing and prepping for new short story submissions and agent/publisher queries. Some things in publisher listings in various Writer's Markets amuse me in nerdy ways. Like, how can you publish something so niche specific as books about American ex-patriots with particular attention made to ones who have moved to Mexico and then advise writers not to write for a specific market. It seems to me that publisher's very lifeblood depends on people trying to appeal specifically to their very teeny-tiny market...doesn't it?

Been working on a promotional interview for the Oni site and their new and improved group blog-style Buzz section. It's with Chynna Clugston and Ian R. Shaughnessy about their book Strangetown. I'll post when it's up in the next couple of days.

Now, for a mini diversion:

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Your personality type is RLOEI

You are reserved, moody, organized, egocentric, and intellectual, and may prefer a city which matches those traits.

The largest representation of your personality type can be found in the these U.S. cities: Albuquerque/Santa Fe, Providence, Richmond, Norfolk, Tucson, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis area, Denver, New York City, Houston and these international countries/regions Brazil, Slovenia, Argentina, Israel, Portugal, Romania, Croatia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Finland, Puerto Rico, France, Italy, Belgium, Philippines

What Places In The World Match Your Personality?
Powered by CityCulture.org

10

It seems to me they are very accurate on the subject of my personality, but woefully ignorant when it comes to anywhere I'd actually want to rest my head.

Current Soundtrack: Gorillaz, "Dare (DFA Remix);" The Clipse, "Definition of a Roller"

Current Mood: pensive

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

I SOLD THE RENOIR AND THE TV SET

"Can You Picture That?" returns to the all-new Oni Press Buzz section. This month's column examines a handful of television shows recently released to DVD.

Using my rudimentary design skills, I created a flyer for my reading. You can download it here and laugh. It's designed in Word! Very professional! Print it out and paste it up all over Portland.

Current Soundtrack: Depeche Mode, "Precious (X-Tended Remix);" Paul Weller, "From The Floorboards Up (Lynch Mob Remix)"

Current Mood: accomplished

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

MIND'S ALIVE! ON FRIDAY STREET

Ark Angels went swimmingly and it's now all turned in, volume 1 is wrapped. Bravo for me. This has given me plenty of time to go to town on "Yoga Girls" and I have been updating furiously. I actually got stuck in the middle of part XIII, and that's why it's split. Getting out of the house and doing other things loosened up my brain. There are probably only a couple of chapters left, and then I'll look at it and see what I've got. Disjointed mess, or fun romantic comedy?

The link I've been sharing most with people in the last couple of days comes to me courtesy of Mason West. It's called Lovehare and seems to be the adventures of a bunny and a kitty who share a cage in Hong Kong.

I am most excited by the fact that the kitty is sleeping next to a Mashimaro. I love Mashimaro! He's the baddest half-eaten marshmallow around. People should give me lots and lots of Mashimaro stuff!

Current Soundtrack: Bjork, The Music From Drawing Restraint 9

Current Mood: slinky

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

BUT I CAN PULL ON A ROPE, I CAN KILL A COW, FAST AS ANY OTHER FUCKER CAN

THIS WEEK IN REVIEW...

In stores:

Ai Yori Aoshi volume 10 by Kou Fumizuki

In this volume, life grows even more complicated as Kaoru must make some hard decisions and risk estranging Aoi as he works harder to bring their future together.

Top of my to-do list:

Ark Angels volume 1 by Sang-Sung Park

Ark Angels is a brand new comic by a Korean artist, and it's being published by Tokyopop simultaneously in Japan and America. A truly international effort! This means that production on the book is more like the traditional comic book publishing I am used to, and we're working on it in segments. I am doing the second of what will likely be four installments this week, heading for a December publication date. It's a strange book about interdimensional travel and saving endangered species and girls with flying scooters. Fun, fun, fun!

Current Soundtrack: Stuart A. Staples, Lucky Dog Recordings

Current Mood: mellow

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

LOOK AT YOU NOW; YOU TURNED OUT WELL, MY DANDELION

FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE - AUGUST 22, 2005

JAMIE S. RICH TO READ FROM NEW NOVEL AT TWENTY-THIRD AVE BOOKS

Twenty-Third Avenue Books and Portland-based publisher Oni Press are pleased to be hosting a reading by author Jamie S. Rich on September 14. Rich will be reading from his recently published novella I Was Someone Dead. The event is free and starts at 7:30 p.m.

Jamie S. Rich is a well-known writer in Portland thanks to his past contributions to many of the city's periodicals, including Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, and The Rocket. He was also an editor at Dark Horse Comics in the mid-90s before moving on to Oni Press, where he was editor in chief until June 2004. In 2000, he published his debut novel, Cut My Hair, to much critical acclaim. Willamette Week called it "[A] lyrical elegy to lost youth, the death of modern rock, and the search for something authentic," and national magazine Alternative Press dubbed it "High Fidelity written by a young punk outsider instead of a 30-something music snob."

I Was Someone Dead is Rich's second major prose work. It is the story of Hieronymus Zoo, a man who has fled from modern life to live on an island where he hopes to create an existence free of pain. Two things threaten this plan. First, a mysterious monster he sees lurking the ocean at night; second, a woman who invades his paradise seeking her own version of escape. Both of these presences force Hieronymus Zoo to confront life once more.

Inspired by the classic novella storytelling of writers like Giovanni Boccaccio and Joseph Conrad, Rich has crafted I Was Someone Dead as modern storybook allegory. This feeling is aided by illustrations from UK comics artist Andi Watson, creator of Breakfast After Noon and Love Fights. Leading comic book blog Gotham Lounge has called I Was Someone Dead "a good book...that allows you to think about the story in greater detail; examining everything from all sorts of different angles, even after having finished it. It sticks in your mind, playing out those scenes over and over again as you try and figure out 'is that what the author meant?'" And Cellar Door Publishing echoes the sentiment: "...engrossing... causing the reader to think a little about not only the story, but also how it is told, and who is telling it."

Twenty-Third Avenue Books is located at 1015 NW 23RD Avenue, Portland, Oregon. Phone number: (503) 224-5097.

Oni Press can be contacted at 1305 SE MLK Blvd., Suite # A, Portland, OR 97214. E-mail: James Lucas Jones at jjones@onipress.com

Current Soundtrack: Alfie, Crying at Teatime

Current Mood: self-absorbed

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

GOD'S IN HIS HEAVEN, ALL IS RIGHT IN THE WORLD

November 5, 2005!!!

Current Soundtrack: Franz Ferdinand, "Do You Want To?" & Kanye West, "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (remix w/ Jay-Z)" (do you think anyone told Jigga what the song was allegedly about?)

Current Mood: ecstatic

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

ONLY THIS TIME, WHAT A TIME IT IS

I've been steadily listening to my dubiously obtained copy of the forthcoming Dandy Warhols album, Odditorium or Warlord of Mars, since I so dubiously obtained it. Readers may recall I had some intitial misgivings, as the songs are longer with less of a hook-laden structure than the straight-to-the-ear-drum rock the Dandys are known for. As I suspected, however, it's a record that just needs to sink in. Once you find its groove, it's actually quite good. You just have to be strapped in and prepared to be its passenger.

So, when design-man extraordinaire Steve Birch called me last night and asked if I wanted to go to a listening party and eat some free sushi and drink some free booze, I looked at the pile of DVDs I had ready to watch, thought for a second, and said, "Sure." Even if I wasn't curious to rejoin the spectacle of the rock world (it's been years since I was "in the scene," as they say), the first rule of freelance life is never say no to free.

The event was set up at MasuSushi in downtown Portland. The restaurant was right across the street from the Crystal Ballroom, so I could look over at the big "CURSE" graffiti tag that an old coworker of mine once got arrested for making. Which sort of did put me in the mind that I was somehow back at the turn of the century.

The night really was about just listening to the record. A DJ was set up in one corner, and while at one point he did deviate from Odditorium to play some Bowie and Thin Lizzy (fuckin' Thin Lizzy?!), it was mainly a Dandys all-nighter. Not that you could actually hear the music most of the time. Once the band and their entourage strolled in, making the regular diners nearly choke on their spicy tuna rolls with their outlandish rock 'n' roll circus get-ups, the noise of the schmoozing overwhelmed all. I did catch up with a few people I hadn't seen in a while, including Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the head Dandy. Additionally, I was reintroduced to keyboard maven Zia McCabe, saw Guy Burwell for the first time since he got back into town (apparently seven months ago), and chatted a bit with Sean Gothman, the all-around good guy of the Dandy Warhols brigade who once appeared on a couple of episodes of my mercifully defunct cable-access show @lright. Most of the night, though, I was just being reminded of why I didn't do this kind of social thing more often, as I darted around looking for a safe place to stand, hoping I wouldn't look awkward in that weird way that makes people actually want to talk to you.

Anyway, thanks Dandy Warhols for the drinks (I kept having something called the Hello Kitty, though per the restaurant owner's recommendation, with whiskey instead of vodka). Despite the nervous look in my eyes, I had a good time. And seriously, I really am digging the new record. I was even before you got me buzzed!

Current Soundtrack: Dandy Warhols, Odditorium or Warlord of Mars

Current Mood: silly

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

THIS IS MY IDEA OF FUN, I HOPE I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE

Happily, I got a pretty regular day of writing out of myself today. Somewhere around 2,000 words, which is not the best I can do in a day, but is around my average; plus, part of the time was spent looking up cat myths and the origins of Bill Clinton's middle name. All for Horizon. I still feel like I am in a state of searching with it, feeling it out, getting to know what I am doing. A lot of this beginning, just over 11,000 words in all, may be things that can go. I might be overexplaining, or explaining too early, all stuff I'll understand better when I am farther in. But I have settled into the voice, so that has cleared the way to really dig into it.

I didn't work on "Yoga Girls," but I did post the 10th segment yesterday. I also started the next "Can You Picture That?," which I think will go up on the 30th.

Current Soundtrack: Mansun, Kleptomania disc 2

Current Mood: nuturing

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

DON'T STAND ME DOWN FOR NO REASON

As I've written before, I haven't been that political a person in life. It speaks of our times that I've felt compelled to be more active, and really, I am just the sort of person the powers that be should fear, the ones they previously could count on to stay at home and quietly accept. Imagine if we all got mobilized!

Needless to say, I've never attended any real protest or demonstration. Unless you count in 8th grade when we had a walk-out to protest the rule that we couldn't wear shorts to Francis Parkman Junior High. But that was more about not having to be in class for me then it was an urge to fight the power, and though we won, the true reward as far as I was concerned was the girl I had a crush on, Becky Posternak, was interviewed for the 10 o'clock news, giving me a precious 10 seconds of video footage of my beloved. You kids don’t know how easy you have it, what with these MySpace profiles full of downloadable pictures. In the old days, when you were sweet on someone, it was much harder to obtain fetishes for one's shrine.

Anyway...

Last night, MoveOn.org organized candlelight vigils across the United States in support of Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who is camped outside of George W. Bush's vacation ranch because he won't talk to her about the son she lost in Iraq. Sheehan has become a symbolic stand-in for the American people who feel we deserve more answers from an administration that refuses to be straight with us. Naturally, Portland got in on last night's activities. As Janeane Garofalo joked at an appearance here a couple of years ago, when she comes to Portland she expects to find a lot of strong coffee and join a good protest that is pro-hemp and anti-everything else, because that is what we do. Bush's dad, George Herbert Walker Bush, dubbed this city "Little Beirut" for a reason.

In all honesty, I kind of hemmed and hawed about attending the vigil. I had worked all day, I wanted to stay home, etc., but the thing I couldn't get around is that I really had no excuse not to. What was I giving up? An hour or so? I only had to walk a few blocks to get there. It wasn't costing me any money. It seemed more like the least I could do than any great sacrifice.

The event organizers stressed that this was to be a quiet, peaceful meeting. Show up with a candle and prepare to line NW 23rd in all directions, one person deep, see how long we can stretch it out. When I RSVP'd an hour before start time, nearly 700 people had signed up. I think in the end, the chain went at least twelve blocks on both sides of the street. It could have been longer, but I was near the middle and could only rely on the reports of others.

I was actually quite pleased to end up in front of a fancy restaurant with large windows. 23rd is a bit chi-chi, so I had no problem with making people uncomfortable with their dinners. Isn't the point of such a demonstration to push people to think? Like me, what excuse did they really have not to get up and come out to stand in line? It was also fun to see people step out into the street to block parking spaces after cars pulled out, so that no new cars could come in. We were taking over.

A few individuals walked up and down the line, handing out flyers, stickers, and signs, talking about issues and keeping the mood friendly. Lots of drivers coming by honked their horns and flashed peace signs. Surprisingly, we only had one heckler, who showed up at the very tail end as people were starting to disperse. This clever fellow in an SUV called us all hippies and shouted things about soap. Granted, Portland is scary with hippies, but this was a shockingly average looking crowd; ironically, the driver was the strangest looking guy I saw all night. With his shaved head and long beard, he looked like this dude from Queens of the Stone Age:

So, honestly, who was he to talk?

We also joked when planes passed overhead that we were being photographed, but I daresay I figure in this climate those jokes had truth. It wouldn't have surprised me if at least one of the newsmen on the scene, walking the line, wasn't really from any news organization. Nothing is scarier to a corrupt government than people exercising their rights.

After, I had some time to kill before I had to be somewhere else, so I wandered over to the Hollywood Video nearby to browse their previously viewed DVDs. I hadn't realized that they had a whole section devoted to the Criterion Collection, and only did so last night because I was curious about what movie one of the clerks was helping a very cute girl find. It was either an L or an M title, and they couldn't seem to locate it. For a fleeting moment, I considered being a total creep and being all, "Hey, baby, what movie you after? Because I know a place where I guarantee you can go and watch it." In the end, of course, I didn't, but just the mere thought earned me some instant karma. Exiting the shopping complex through the grocery store next door, I stopped to look at the magazines...where I got cruised by a bulbous older gentleman. It never fails!

Current Soundtrack: Bauhaus, Gotham

Current Mood: optimistic

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

ROCK CHILDREN, HANG YOUR HEAD DOWN LOW

If you're one of those people who likes these guys:

I have to say, I am worried for you. You very well might be mentally defective. Call it what you want, "indie rock" or whatever, but I smell pachouli in the background. I don't know how long these dullards have been around, but Amazon tells me that because I like Idlewild and Nick Hornby, this crappy music will be right up my alley, and it seems like every jagoff in spewing distance has been squirting over them lately. If this is you, I regret to inform that you may have bought into a con job that will ulitmately make you a fan of the next Dave Matthews Band, and you'll end up profoundly embarassed.

Current Soundtrack: Blur, Modern Life is Rubbish

Current Mood: steely

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

FLOATING FREE, ABSURD

Gotham Lounge, a blogsite that previously gave a great review to Four Letter Worlds, has now reviewed I Was Someone Dead. Sample: "...a good book. One that allows you to think about the story in greater detail; examining everything from all sorts of different angles, even after having finished it. It sticks in your mind, playing out those scenes over and over again as you try and figure out 'is that what the author meant?' and similar thoughts along those lines."

Over the weekend I received thumbnails from Marc Ellerby for a short story we are doing for an as-yet-unannounced anthology. They look great. For a young artist being tossed a script that is essentially two people in a very small room talking, he has a natural instinct for keeping the "camera" moving. If nothing else, the story won't bore people visually.

And what's on deck for me this week? More "Yoga Girls" (prepare for the story to start to solidify, based on a suggestion given to me by a cohort of awesome talent), more Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, some submissions, and...I dunno. We'll see when we get there.

Current Soundtrack: Geneva, Weather Undeground

Current Mood: discontent

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

YOU CAN'T TRUST VIOLENCE

Watching Otto Preminger's Advise & Consent, I was reminded of something that most modern entertainment seems to have forgotten: that intelligent and interesting people doing and saying intelligent and interesting things can be more exciting than men pummeling each other and things exploding.

Current Soundtrack: 94.7 Chill Show

Current Mood: enthralled

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

HAS MY FIRE REALLY GONE OUT?

This seems to be the Not-So-Super Summer. About a week after my posting that I found the new Super Furry Animals record to be a stillborn musical experience, the latest album from Supergrass, Road to Rouen, leaked, and it, too, is a soft drink whose fizz has gone flat.

Both of these bands started off their careers spectacularly, each delivering two albums right up front that were creative and full of passionate youthful energy; after that, each successive record seemed to take an increasing amount steps in the wrong direction. In fact, I never really thought about it before, but they are remarkably similar in their trajectory. Both the Furries and the 'grass recorded debut albums that were punchy and fun (Fuzzy Logic and I Should Coco, respectively). They were pop-rock collections that crackled in our ears the way pop-rock candy crackles in our mouths, the efforts of young musicians with everything to prove. Both matured quickly, delivering their best albums--Radiator for the Furries and In It For The Money for Supergrass--on their second try. What was stunning about both sophomore records was they showed a remarkable growth in a short amount of time. And perhaps that's the problem: these bands hit and then peaked right away, recording discs that most bands have to work several years for--if they ever come at all.

Look back at when we were young and evil.

From there, things started to go wrong. They both found an autopilot that they became more and more reliant on. Road to Rouen, for instance, only has nine songs, including one, "Coffee in the Pot," that isn't even two-minutes long, a mere instrumental interlude. The whole affair last barely over half-an-hour. As if we weren't already noticing a bit of a creative shortfall, the b-sides to the lead single are both live tracks. Supergrass came up with, really, only eight songs this time around, and then they went dry.

All of which would be fine if those songs were blisterng good...but they're not. They are all fine, decent tunes, with no distinguishing marks. They are played with a professional assuredness that can't be faulted on a technical level, but lacks any semblance of feeling. Expect just about every review to quote the song "Low C": "I can wander through the past, make believe it for a while, we were younger...the things we used to have, faded all too fast, like a castle in the sand, some things ain't meant to last, we were younger...." It says it all, doesn't it? Road to Rouen is the sound of a band just showing up.

Back then, the title was a joke.

What really marks Love Kraft and Road to Rouen as a death knell for both these bands, though, is the lack of good singles. Even when the albums were so-so, they both used to be able to pull off a great A-side. On Rings Around the World, the Furries had "Juxtaposed With U," and on Phantom Power, the rockin' "Golden Retriever." On Life on Other Planets, Road to Rouen's more interesting fraternal twin, Supergrass gave us "Grace." Next week, Super Furry Animals will release "Lazer Beam," which has a decent chantalong chorus, but the hook is pretty weak and sounds like something we've heard from them before. The verses are practically nonexistant. Supergrass has already dropped "St. Petersburg," and I'm still waiting for it to land. There's nothing there. It's a straight line that fades off into the horizon, and I can't imagine any listener ever wondering where it leads. In fact, it should be noted that I had to listen to each of these songs as I wrote this paragraph just to rememeber what they sounded like, when a good A-side is supposed to end with me wanting to start it all over again.

Thank God for the new Luke Haines collection, Luke Haines is Dead. His contempt for humanity reminds me that at least someone cares to feel.

Current Soundtrack: Supergrass, Road to Rouen; Super Furry Animals, "Lazer Beam;" Geri Halliwell, "Superstar"

Current Mood: disappointed

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich

I'M JUST A HORNY DEVIL, BABY, BUT I KNOW HOW TO TREAT A LADY

"Yoga Girls" continues apace, with part VI going up today (with any luck). The pace of the writing is suiting me well. I'm also pushing myself for a challenge I haven't yet written about here. A friend and I were discussing a theory she had read about modern literature, how the "it's all been done" attitude has given way to protagonists who react more than act, who are buffeted by their surroundings. Sometimes, as in most of my work, there is a wake-up call that eventually makes the character more proactive. In The Everlasting, there is actually a lot of talk about how Lance was once known as a "doer" and now he doesn't really do anything. Given that this is post-Everlasting Lance, whom I envision as more of a Lothario, he's got to be active in "Yoga Girls." I think this is a direction my work has to take in general after Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?

Additionally, I have to be wary of where any relationships in this story go, how they succeed or fail, lest I tread old ground. It can be hard writing about dating without it being like a sitcom.

And another song whose melody has been haunting the back of my mind whenever I think of the title has now come to the forefront: Aztec Camera's "Orchid Girl."

In stores this week:

Honey Mustard vol. 1, by Yeo Ho-Kyung

I did the script for this sweet little Korean comic, and it was a lot of fun. The story and the art have their rough patches, but for the most part, it's an endearing romantic comedy that sets itself apart by giving us a glimpse of Korean manners and the social system. Rich grandfathers, mean stepmothers, misunderstandings, the works.

Is it possible that the internet has ruined the idea of my beloved eccentric recluses? I'm not talking the mad magpies who can't function in normal society and would never log on to a computer because they fear the government and alien invaders are monitoring their porn activities (besides, I stopped dating her about a year ago *ba-dum-bump*). I mean guys who in the past would have spent their entire lives writing what I post to you in some overstuffed journal they never show the world. Instead, these days, we get a blog.

I am put in mind of this having just watched In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger last night. I was unfamiliar with Darger before this film. He spent his years between 1917 and 1972 locked away in various rooms around Chicago, speaking with no one, trundling back and forth between his inner sanctum and his menial janitorial jobs. He had been kicked around orphanages as a child, and eventually diagnosed as "feeble minded" and put on the work farm he ultimately escaped from. But he wasn't really crazy. Someone in the film says that if he was considered such, it was only because he was poor; only the rich are allowed to be "eccentric."

When Darger died, his landlords discovered a mountain of material in his tiny apartment. He had stacks of clippings and photographs pasted into old phone books and kept around as reference along with classic children's storybooks. He also left behind an autobiography, piles of paintings (some up to twelve-feet long, on butcher paper, painted on both sides), and a 15,000 page manuscript for a novel about two warring nations. One was a land of people who hated little children, the other was Christian and loved children. Their army fought for youth and was often led by little kids, with the most famous being seven blonde sisters, the Vivian Girls. And one of the main heroes in defense of childhood in the story was Henry Darger himself.

Thankfully, Darger's landlords were also artists, and they saw the uniqueness of his life's work and chose to preserve it, even keeping the apartment intact through 2000. Darger only left behind three photographs of himself, and the filmmakers do an excellent job of showing how nobody really knew him by juxtaposing conflicting testimonies about how he lived his life. (For instance, he was known to attend mass nearly every day, but one person swears he always sat in the front row, another says in the back, and an altar boy attests that Darger always sat dead center.) I often lament how the way many people no longer believe in heroes, I no longer believe in anti-heroes in an era where rebellion can be faked for millions of dollars in profit. I put someone like Darger in that special category of ones I can believe in. He was the real deal, but he died over three decades ago. So, it still stands: could he exist now? Could he continue to toil away in secret, or would I be checking out his art in his MySpace profile? Would his uniqueness be eclipsed in a chatroom for loners writing children's epics in their spare time?

Current Soundtrack: Luke Haines, Luke Haines is Dead

Current Mood: searching

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website * Live Journal Syndication

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich