Friday, December 01, 2006

identifying marks

LI has wanted to get rid of the picture of himself here since he put it up - but in the interest of being identifiable in the dark corner of a bar in Alphabet City, we let it hang around on this blog.

Well, yesterday's meeting was more of a success in terms of translators than of readers of LI - one reader, Mr. NYP, did show up, bearing a delicious tartine like confection baked to honor Vermin Direct. Alas, Mr. Scruggs couldn't make it. Our far flung correspondent, Mr. T, was there, and he pointed out that LI's riff on Coriolanus - hey, we are a literary bunch! - was not necessarily necessary. An old friend of mine, Lorin, who hadn't read my blog, nonetheless said that he believed I was well on my way to becoming a backwards Jesus - but Lorin has always expected me to eventually follow the narrative track of the protagonist in Wise Blood. When I do, he wants to get rights for the made for TV movie. Natasha Wimmer, who just translated Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives - the best novel I've read this year, which is coming out this spring, when all people of good will will be buying it - was there, and an editor at Publishers Weekly, Michael Scharf, and a filmmaker friend of mine, James Carmen, who, after the crowd broke up, told me some Bela Tarr stories - turns out he knew Tarr in Berlin, and Tarr eventually denounced him for having no taste. There you are - not quite Page Six, or whatever the fuck that page is in the Post, b-but so sue me.

I am trying to store memories of the cold to take back to Austin. Sunday, Mr. T. and I went to the Met to see the Neue Sachlichkeit exhibit - and it shamed me. I need to be much more savage about this country. It also gave me some ideas for my graphic novel. I was planning on going to Church street, where Tom Paine, in the greatest pain, warded off the ambitions of young preachers eager to convert the old reprobate and died unrepentent, but I probably won't have time - I hope his spirit forgives me.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's a cool photo, you are all pensive and that guy looks like he's auditioning for a remake of 'Caddyshack.' Well, I don't know why you'd care what he thinks, I do everything to stay away from those like that, they're always loud and obnoxious.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I bet I shouldn't have said that. That guy is probably one of your best friends or one of your brothers.

Anonymous said...

I bet that's Mr. T! Oh well, you can give me all sorts of hell for being such an aging adolescent when we get together...

Roger Gathmann said...

Sorry to leave these comments hanging unsupported, Mr. NYP. Again, it was so nice to meet you!

Anonymous said...

rog has a small penis.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous--that's loathsomely silly.

Yes, it was all terrific, but as I've gushed a lot elsewhere, I must only add here that I especially was sad not to meet the wicked Mr. Scruggs, whose blog is a Page That Cannot Be Displayed at the moment. I suppose he had to stay home and brush his pet badger's fur. I don't know if they do 100 strokes with the hairbrush or not...

Anonymous said...

roger--99 Church Street is Moody's Investors Service, right next to the Woolworth Tower, and 100 Church is the New York Law Department. I've worked temp at both of these, and loved Moody's--the Italian lobby receptionist the best, of course. These are only 3 blocks from Ground Zero, but if you could conjure up images of Tom Paine in the current Church Street mutation, maybe you can do Cold Recall without having to consult the VR.

Arkady said...

Scruggs was reeling from medical treatment, but there will be time at some point.

The old UFOB is dead. The new one is here

http://ufobreakfast.wordpress.com/

Roger Gathmann said...

Mister Scruggs, you know what a lazy putz I am about going into this damn template and changing the links (although one of those links will remain, although a fossile, as a monument to one of your earlier incarnations). I am going to change the ufo link, don't worry.

Anonymous said...

Awww. It was an awesome picture, though. All you lacked was an eyepatch and a scimitar.

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