I'm currently reading The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod which is about a cult based around a health food restaurant in Los Angeles in the early 70's and Eros and Magic in the Renaissance which is a scholarly attempt to understand and explain what people meant by "magic" in medieval and later times.

Read Speedboat this year. I was surprised at how contemporary it felt - sometimes it reads like a blog (that's not meant to be an insult). It's also very funny.

Awesome. Like you, I love the movie and have been meaning to get to the novel. It's on the list.

Except Norm got fired for doing that.

I lost it when Edina did the perfect clumsy stumble around the perimeter of her father's grave before falling in.

Whereas "two (British) women being piss drunk and fashion obsessed" makes me laugh out loud, though I do admit that I haven't watched the latter couple of seasons.

I wish someone would put Marquis out on dvd with English subtitles. A vhs was released but it's tough to find a copy. Definitely an inventive biopic.

My choice would be John Crowley, best known for his novels Aegypt and Little, Big. He's got his cult but he's not as well known as he should be. There are sections in his books that read like bemused parodies of my life and my thoughts.

Great article. One revision, though: Fowles write minor British classics, not American. He's from England.

I have Crime Wave on vhs somewhere in my apartment. Really need to dig it out. I'm still kicking myself for not going to see it at Anthology Film Archives when Paizs was at the screening. How dumb am I?

Oh yeah. In fact, Grease came out when I was in junior high.

I don't think anybody considers Grease a masterpiece.

Or JG Ballard. There's a section of "The Atrocity Exhibition" that's one sentence, with each word heavily footnoted.

Wait a minute. Someone who knows what they're talking about AND puts things in context? What are you doing here?

Yeah, I bought this as soon as I saw it in a bookstore. I had no idea it was existed. Can't wait to read it.

"Desperately Seeking Susan" is quite enjoyable and far from terrible.

As I said last night, Schlesinger directing The Next Best Thing is one of those "weird facts."

Martin Freeman was great in that documentary - eloquent and quite incisive.

Right there with ya. I've always preferred The Jam to The Clash, something that makes me a bit of a pariah.

I don't know, I think this invented version of Davis's life sounds kinda awesome. Sort of like a jazz "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" or like that episode of "Yacht Rock" about Michael Jackson being obsessed with pussy.