Journal

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Why Stephin Merritt wants to destroy the world...

It's scary. Last night's video is up before I had a chance to blog about the event it was filmed at (I slept on the plane this morning), so you can watch me reading Chapter Two at:

http://mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=2

And this is it embedded (I hope):



...

i saw you yesterday in nyc reading ur first chapter from your new book. no i'm not the girl you hugged, i watched you from above and it was brilliantly done. i haven't read all your stories, yet but i do hope you keep writing as its inspiring for us. Come back to new york, but don't go to the beauty bar. i thought you to be too cool for such a pretentious place, cosmo and a pedicure? lol...have fun on the tour!

Is that what the Beauty Bar is? I thought it was cool, because Stephin Merritt was DJing there, and I had a chance to talk to him about his Coraline Musical and other stuff, and any chance to talk to Stephin is a cool thing, and any place you can talk to Stephin is, by definition, a cool place.

The Magnetic Fields is, simply, my favourite band, witty and intelligent and wise, and The Gothic Archies is wonderful too, and so are the Future Bible Heroes and the Sixths (all of these are Stephin Merrit driven or co-driven musical entities). There's a marvellous interview with Stephin (about the new Magnetic Fields album, and the Coraline musical, and whether the French should send him some of the shoes they have named after him) I just noticed at http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2008/10/interview_magne.php , and I shall quote from the ending:

Have you seen the line of footwear supposedly inspired by you?

I've seen it online. I haven't actually obtained it in person. Because...Oh these French people, they haven't sent me anything! If I named an album after their shoe line, I would send them the album.

They haven't sent you a single pair of shoes?

They haven't sent me a single shoelace.

That's despicable.

Yeah. You know, I'm supposed to be honored that they named some shoes—a whole line of shoes—after me, but they don't send me anything? Nuke Europe!

That seems like a great place to stop. Thank you for talking to me...

Sure.

...Unless you care to clarify that latter comment?

Smash the European Union.

Great. Thank you Stephin.

I want my shoes. Destroy the world. Goodbye.


(If you're in the US and you want to see the Magnetic Fields, which, honestly, you should, check out http://houseoftomorrow.com/calendar.php for their October tour.)


There is a wonderful interview with and reading from Eddie Campbell up at http://www.bookslut.com/features/2008_09_013473.php And if I'm going to get lunch I'm going to have to stop writing this now and do another post later about what happened in Philadelphia and seeing Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick and Kyle Cassidy and suchlike luminaries...

food. food good. right.

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