p.s. Any response lists would be most welcome, needless to say. You don't have to come up with 30. I just ran out of steam at that point. Well, I got a bit more sleep last night, though not enough to sparkle, I fear. And with that said ... ** Aaron, I knew HC Day would rouse you out the woodwork. How are you? ** Joe mills, Close. For me, second and third 'good,' first 'bad,' and all the Dennis Cooper ones naturally. How nice to see you talk about Barry Graham. What a totally splendid writer and person he is. Boy, talk about another very undervalued writer. What's wrong with people? That reading I did with him in Scotland was great, and I met Irvine Welsh for the first time at the reading, which was cool. So you and jax know/knew him? Barry's, great. People should definitely read his books. For sure. Hey, Barry. ** Tigersare, I know, I was thinking yesterday the blog was magically transformed into a real blog for a day. ** Nikolas, Gotta say I'm kind of with you on the ideal HC dream date. I don't have the proper Edward Furlong Japanese album, but I have the cash-in second Japanese one where he reads 'poems my grandfather loved.' It's totally hilarious -- the most bored, embarrassed monotone you can imagine. Unfortunately, the CD is in LA, but I'll happily burn it for you next trip. ** Statictick, Fake gore? What?! You wuss. ** David ehrenstein, 'Goodbye Again,' that's it. Yeah, I was shocked to learn that Berry Berenson was one of the 9/11 planes. I talked to her once at a party. She was incredibly nice. Did you know her? Or him for that matter? ** Tosh, Aw, gosh, thanks. You're looking pretty spiffy yourself. Yeah, it's really not the health thing. There's nothing really new and wrong going on. I don't feel really much different from when I was in my 20s, apart from a bit more mellow. But death's slow zoom ... ugh. But the hardest thing, I think, is having really old parents who won't live much longer. That's the big shock for me these days. ** David c., What's your conference paper on, if you don't mind my asking? My cold is pretty kaput, I think. Unless my insomnia is hiding it from me. ** Atheist, Thanks again for the wonderful yesterday. Getting older is okay, apart from the reason I mentioned above. It's just a matter of holding on to who you've always been and maintaining excitement about the future. With that, being older isn't bad at all. I mean I'm really not much different at all than I was however many years ago. It's just that my friends are mostly twenty plus years younger than me, which I guess is weird, though it doesn't feel weird. Anyway, your dad sounds lovely. And last, I don't suppose you're going to clue me/us in on why you think you and and david c are a couple of idiots? ** Gregoryedwin, What do you do for your anxiety? Any tips? I tend to just be anxious and wait for a good night's sleep. A beer helps sometimes. Taking a walk. Playing videogames helps sometimes. Jumping around to a New Pornographers album. But I've never found a real anxiety-reducing holistic thing that's helped at all, for instance. You? Well, Friday's almost here, so Friday night you'll be back in great shape, yes? ** Brian curtin, Oh, sure I can. Did you write to me? I've been slow on the email checking front. I'll go look. But yes, I will, thank you a ton. I'm seeing Gisele Vienne tomorrow, so she can give me the relevant materials. ** Ignacio, God, I miss raves. I mean really good trippy raves like the one you described. A phenomenon like rave just couldn't happen in the current world. Good times, those were. ** Paul curran, So true. The astonishing thing (for me) about this place is how it doesn't matter at all how old you are or what your sexual preference is or your gender. It's practically a rave in here, come to think of it. But without as many drugs. ** Akechikogorou, Good, a voice of reason on the Merkel thing. Maybe it's all relative to Bush. I mean I've caught myself going, 'Oh, Chirac's not so bad,' before I had a chance to think about what I was saying. But, you know, when you're a US citizen, and you're used to government shows of complete disinterest in its citizen's opinions and intelligence, seeing Chirac's government kind of back down in the face last year's student uprising starts to seem like a succesful revolution. For a minute, at least. Fucked up. ** Katsim, I hadn't heard of that UK law before you mentioned it, but that is just infuriating, I must say. You can chalk it up to a lot of things, but one of them is a terror of sex itself. I mean governments hate sex anyway because when people are fucking they don't care about or need anything to do with the society that the government wants so badly to control. But that law, if it's enforced, is dangerous, obviously. And absolutely stupid. I mean Japan is okay with really extreme fantasy in porn, and lets just about anything appear in obviously faked contexts, and yet Japan had the lowest sex crime rate of any democratic country in the world the last time I checked. And it really is just a hop, skip, and a jump to banning literature and horror fims and music if some 'respectable' fanatic starts making a lot of noise about some book or film or CD. I'm just ranting, but that is just ridiculous and ugly news. I can only imagine your pre-trip panic. I get little versions even when I'm flying back to my hometown. But, yeah, when you're actually on the plane, it'll go, I bet. In the meantime, write and paint and make music as much as you can, yeah? ** Cautivos, Okay, thanks for warning me off David Mitchell. I'll be more cautious. Bjork in the Texas Chainsaw prequel? Really? ** Jax, Well, obviously we're on the same page about that new law. I'm kind of shocked by it, though. Maybe because in the US, as much as people are somewhat hysterical about porn and predators on the internet and all that, there's too many wars and other crap going on for Bush's gang to take the time to chase down the 'immoral.' But it's almost election time in the UK, right? Makes all the difference, I guess. Anyway ... ** Land of the bat, Great idea. Actually, that's going to be the theme of the next Self-Portrait Day, which I'm going to announce tomorrow, I think. That'll be a fun one. ** Michael Karo, Blame my sleeplessness. My bad. ** Samuelkidd, Yury was loading me with zinc, which may be why I'm better on the cold front, though it might also be why my body won't sleep. ** Bernard Welt, I second your 'Pretty Poison' tip. What is Tuesday Weld's story anyway? David e., you must know. She was so great, but did so little work, and then stopped so early, as far as I can tell. Is she still alive? Anyway, hey, Bernard. ** Lux, Well, howdy! Uh, the porn thing. Sure, you can have in if it happens. Absolutely. A viciously strobing Noe movie, sounds like heaven on earth. What do I make of Gus van Sant. Oh, that's too long a story, a mixture of the personal and the non-. As a filmmaker, he's pretty valuable, for all his ups and downs. I'm supportive in theory of his recent films, though I don't really like them very much. Early stuff, terrific. Blah blah. I need to see 'Requiem for a Dream' again because too many people I respect hold it in high regard, but I found it irksome. I like Richard Linklater, sure. Hard not to like his stuff, mostly. Fun, nothing genius that I've seen, but very enjoyable. I'm dying to see 'A Scanner Darkly,' which doesn't open here for two months yet. Jackass 2, I'm with you. Can't wait. I did PCP, and it is just as awful as people say. Ugly high, no good. ** Dynomoose, Good to see you. 'pussified Darth Vader:' so fucking true. ** Hedi, Hi, man. Where've you been? How are you? What's new? ** C., He'd be nothing without that lazy eye. Certainly nothing to unwrap. ** Rigby101, Hey, there. You're another one who's been on a little hiatus. Which is fine, of course. What have you been up to? How's your writing going? ** Math tinder, I would literally kill for you to curate a Day here on 'research chemicals.' Please, please do. I promise the person I literally kill will be an expendable one. That would be just beyond fantastic of you. 2ci ... mm, I might have to come out of my no more drugs phase for that. That sounds just a little too delicious. Anyway, more more. ** Lost child, You know, I only realized yesterday that Mischa looks a little like Yury. But like me? Hm. Nice of you to say. Mischa's sweet, and he's on quite an adventure, as you'll see. ** Jeff, Just wanted to say hi. ** I'm running late today. Probably you US people won't see this until you wake up. Well, any lists of fave gay songs, bring 'em on, and feel free to be as idiocyncratic in your definition of 'gay song' as I am, obviously. See you.