Sam Mercauto

Some of my favorite writing is the text associated with art and photography books. Nice thing about “reading” a book containing Vollmann’s art and photography is you are sure to get the best of both (text & visual). So today I plan to immerse myself into Volume 1.

Stanley Kubrick on why he doesn't like to explain about his movies: "Interviewer: All the books, most of the articles I read about you—It’s all conceptualizing. Kubrick: Yeah, but not by me. I thought I had to ask those kinds of questions. No. Hell, no. That’s my... [He shudders.] It’s the thing I hate the worst. Interviewer: Really? I’ve got all these questions written down in a form I thought you might require. They all sound like essay questions for the finals in a graduate philosophy seminar. Kubrick: The truth is that I’ve always felt trapped and pinned down and harried by those questions. Questions like [reading from notes] “Your first feature, 'Fear and Desire', in 1953, concerned a group of soldiers lost behind enemy lines in an unnamed war; 'Spartacus' contained some battle scenes; 'Paths of Glory' was an indictment of war and, more specifically, of the generals who wage it; and 'Dr. Strangelove' was the blackest of comedies about accidental nuclear war. How does 'Full Metal Jacket' complete your examination of the subject of war? Or does it?” Those kinds of questions. Interviewer: You feel the real question lurking behind all the verbiage is “What does this new movie mean?” Kubrick: Exactly. And that’s almost impossible to answer, especially when you’ve been so deeply inside the film for so long. Some people demand a five-line capsule summary. Something you’d read in a magazine. They want you to say, “This is the story of the duality of man and the duplicity of governments.” [A pretty good description of the subtext that informs Full Metal Jacket, actually.] I hear people try to do it— give the five-line summary — but if a film has any substance or subtlety, whatever you say is never complete, it’s usually wrong, and it’s necessarily simplistic: truth is too multifaceted to be contained in a five-line summary. If the work is good, what you say about it is usually irrelevant. I don’t know. Perhaps it’s vanity, this idea that the work is bigger than one’s capacity to describe it. Some people can do interviews. They’re very slick, and they neatly evade this hateful conceptualizing. Fellini is good; his interviews are very amusing. He just makes jokes and says preposterous things that you know he can’t possibly mean. I mean, I’m doing interviews to help the film, and I think they do help the film, so I can’t complain. But it isn’t... it’s... it’s difficult." (Stanley Kubrick's interview with Tim Cahill, 1987) Clip from: Full Metal Jacket (1987) Director: Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick explaining the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey in a rare 1980 interview

hbo’s “carnivàle” (2003-2005) is one of the most brilliant, weirdest, and criminally underrated shows i’ve ever seen. it takes place in the 1930s dust bowl and it’s inspired by gnosticism, david lynch, the book of revelation, hinduism, & masonic lore. so ahead of its time.

.@geese_band celebrated Halloween with Velvet Underground and Stooges covers in San Diego stereogum.com/2328489/geese-…

Where the real Abel heads at?

Design of this extension

‘Getting Killed’ is an apocalyptic album for apocalyptic times, one that affirms Geese as prospective messiahs for Gen Z rock ‘n’ roll. Today the 2021 Stereogum Band To Watch celebrated its release with a free outdoor hometown show at Banker’s Anchor in Brooklyn. [📹: @scottgum]

windows down. hydraulics engaged. absolutely BLASTING this.

William Eggleston • Frontier, 1965

David Lynch on the set of 'Eraserhead'

Without a shadow of doubt, our hidden gem is the album Space Museum, by Solid Space. Once this record came to our lives it just haunted us, and we immediately wondered why we hadn't heard a word about this mysterious band or listened to any of their songs before. We felt fascinated by this minimalistic-atmospheric post-punk with sparkling melodies, this wonderful consequence of the combination of primitive drum machines and synthesizers with acoustic guitars and toy drums, resulting in songs that are full of emotions, cold and moving, sweet and robotic! Time went by and these cassettes became an analog buried treasure, which was occasionally recovered, sold as low-quality vinyl records, until 2017, when the record label Dark Entries released a precious reissue of Space Museum. Each song was carefully remastered by George Horn (Fantasy Studios, Berkeley), including two additional tracks from the band’s archives: “Platform 6”, originally released as B side of the second single of their previous band Exhibit ‘A’, and “Tutti Lo Sanno”, which is one of our favorites, since it’s Marine Girls cover, one of our biggest references and idols. We are absolutely in love of the beauty of these songs, the mystery of the story around them and, of course, its artwork, which shows Cybermen and Zoe from the Dr’s Who episode “The Wheel in Space”. Blessed the day these rescued tracks came to our lives! @RSTBRecords

Lou Reed & John Cale dressed as Batman & Robin In the early days of The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed and John Cale had a day job playing Batman and Robin at birthday parties

Jack Delano. Working All Night at a Textile Mill. New Bedford, Massachusetts. ca. 1941.

10-year-old abandoned Japanese YouTube channel that mostly uploaded remixes of Sylvia Plath reciting poetry over post-punk music.

It’s #TwinPeaks pilot weather today in Snoqualmie Valley, WA

Feel like a lotta people have slept on this DeLillo, his (excellent) stab at a literary thriller, and my favorite of his early novels. Nic Pizzolatto convinced me to read it in 2010 and I taught it the next semester. Returning to it today.

bob dylan plays chess in woodstock, shot by daniel kramer, 1964

Thread of books I’ve read this year. Will add as I go. I have no plan/list but there’s plenty I want to read. Frequently, listeners ask me what I’m reading. Think of this like the official @lemonpartyshow book club

The luscious brushwork in the paintings of Eric Bowman (born 1960)