BILLY RUANE

The impulse to recount Billy stories was/is widespread. Initial responses below.

It's a more ordinary, appropriate, boring world now. But less so since he made a huge positive contribution to so many lives, mine included.

Sad news. What a fun, sweet, complicated guy. Unique dance moves..! RT @SamSifton Billy Ruane died last night, 52. http://t.co/o3FRFdo

I remember when I was leaving Boston he showed up at Ginza after hours to give me a fistful of Roger Miller CDs.

I have a desert island list of films he recommended--all melancholy arthouse. This he scrawled out after some wild punk show of course.

I remember Billy Ruane showing up onstage at Helldorado, early days, having just seen Cocksucker Blues and regaling us with his cover version

I remember him eating whole meals during matinees at Brattle in the 80's. #BillyRuane

#BillyRuane That DANCE MOVE. I remember when audience was sittting on the floor like hippies. Only he was dancing. Trenchcoat. Beer Bottle.

#BillyRuane Fuck. No one expected that guy to live forever when he was in his 30's but he looked great as a 50 yr old guy so just perhaps..

Billy Ruane invades this video halfway through. DISRUPTIVE. ENTHUSIAST. http://bit.ly /c4lukw

RIP MALCOLM

Saul Bellow is my Co Pilot

WWSBD?

"It would not be practical for her to hate herself. Luckily, God sends a substitute, a husband. "
— Saul Bellow (Herzog)

Churchill: Role Model or What?

This documentary was invigorating in many ways. Witness the pure power of FDR's Reality Distortion Field--I mean, "lend-lease" is insanely great. Churchill's "regimen" and carefully designed schedule even better.

(Churchill) said this siesta, a habit gained in Cuba, allowed him to work 1 1/2 days in every 24 hours.

From American Experience The Presidents: FDR

Doris Kearns Goodwin: When Churchill came, it was like a cyclone that hit the White House. His whole schedule was totally out of whack with Roosevelt's. He, of course, loved to stay up late at night, drinking, smoking cigars, and Roosevelt would sit there with him until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, smoking cigars.

Alonzo Fields: Before breakfast, he preferred a tumbler of sherry and he would have that as his eye-opener. For lunch, he started drinking scotch and soda and he'd drink scotch and soda until he'd take a nap. And at dinner, he had to have his champagne and 90-year-old brandy. Then he would go to work.

Tuva Or Bust

Great video of Richard Feynman.

Cramps R.I.P.

Lux Interior, dead at 62.

Pitchfork has the news and great video links


The Cramps were Ramones-like in their ability to be incredibly influential, potent and yet somehow hang in the background of things.

Put their stuff in a mixtape or playlist and it jumps out in vitality and humor everytime. We need more Cramps in our lives.

Update: interview (Real Audio link) from an old radio archive with Lux and Ivy.

Letter to The New York Times On Will Elder's Obit

Hadju gets some things right, but really, WTF is he doing at the paper of record slamming Elder in his obit as a closer? Here's my response.

Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:47:23 -0500 (EST)
To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: Hadju on Elder

Whatever Hadju's critique of Little Annie Fanny (I agree that it was not Kurtzman & Elder's finest work) I don't think it appropriate to end his NYT year end obit on that negative note.

Elder's best work was genius and for that, and for him, we can be grateful.

The critique would be fine in the body of the article, but as the last word it is petty. Imagine ending Orson Welles' obit by savaging his crummy TV ad appearances instead of summing it up as a great, albeit flawed master director and creator.

Original article here.
A link to some Little Annie Fanny stuff, which is still pretty neat, here.

Gene Colan

Gene Colan, genius penciller of the Silver Age, is in poor health right now. More info here.
(via Comics Journal)

Gene Colan! I only know the work and not the man, but in some ways I feel like I do know him via the humanity of those pages and pages of his art which I have pored over.

His women are among the least stereotyped, even when wearing an all black unitard like the Black Widow did. But they were often sexy as well. How did he do it?

And what about the shadows in Dr. Strange, Daredevil and Nathaniel Dusk for example? How were they all so atmospheric and yet different shadows?

Here is a man who can make a pencil sing.

So, I don't know Gene Colan. But man, do I know some things about Gene Colan.

My deepest heartfelt best wishes for the Genial One and his family.

PS: (quote from Comics Journal):
Tom Spurgeon alerts us to the fact that the family of Gene Colan are having immense difficulties paying his medical bills. Caring readers who would like to assist them have two ways to do so:

1. You can bid in one of the Colans’ eBay auctions, which would not only put money in their hands but also net you a nice piece of art, to boot.
2. Do as I did, and make a direct donation via Paypal, where the Colans are registered as genecolan@optonline.net — just log into your account, hit the “send money” button, and insert said email address and the amount you wish to donate into the appropriate boxes. Oh, and you might want to mention the word “donation” prominently in the comments box, so the Colans don’t have to sort through a bunch of listings to find the eBay payments.

Listening to Richard Pryor Can Help Sometimes

"Let me tell you what really happened... Every night before I go to bed, I have milk and cookies. One night I mixed some low-fat milk and some pasteurized, then I dipped my cookie in and the shit blew up."

Here is a link to a great routine. Not work safe? Depends on your job...

Well he was only 5'3"...

Well he was only 5'3"
But girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole
Not in New York

The opening sequence of Manhattan set to Richman instead of Gershwin.

Steve Gerber Rest In Pissed-Offness

Steve Gerber, who died at 60 this past Sunday, went out with his writing boots on. Check his blog for some of his last entries.

He affected many of us at an impressionable age, with stories like "The Kid's Night Out" in Giant Size Man-Thing #4. Here is a link to The Comics Journal coverage.

From the Wiki: "Gerber initially penned standard superhero stories for titles such as Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, but soon developed an individual voice that mixed adventure with social satire and absurdist humor. In one issue of The Defenders, for example, a group of supervillains, tired of always being beaten by the good guys, seeks out a self-help guru for motivation."

More:
I keep thinking about "The Kid's Night Out" when I try to think of what it meant to be reading Steve's stuff as a kid. But it's more than that and it's part of my life. What a great gift those comics were. I remember being bugged by my hebrew school teacher b/c I was reading a copy of Man-Thing instead of studying my Bar-Mitzvah material. HA! That mediocre teacher didn't impart a fraction of the morality, humor, meaning and even, yes, Jewish values that Gerber's comics did in those days.

Here is a link to The Comics Journal's interview with Steve Gerber in the late 70's.

"They dig a hole. And they put you in it." Ah, we will miss you, Steve.

Rest in peace.

Strummer, Kiku, Square Foot Show, N+1=0

Roundup:
The Future is Unwritten: Strummer reverberates through my head after seeing this documentary.



Kiku: The Art of the Japanese Chrysannthemum at the NY Botanical Garden. O.C.D. has never yielded more sublime results. Plus, you know, Albert used to practice nascent REBT here, so it was also a pilgrimage for me.

Square Foot Show-Hey, not bad. I am in it, it is up until November 17th. I will do more paintings in this format.

N+1 = 0: I still love Indecision, the novel by Benjamin Kunkel, but the NYPL Live talk with Alex Gourevich was a bust. I am all for being skeptical of manipulative politics, but has this retard (Gourevich) ever read any Alan Moore Swamp Thing?

Albert Ellis, Role Model

Here's a dose of Albert:

My first contact with Al served to reinforce his image in my mind as the Lenny Bruce of psychotherapy. I was a doctoral student attending my 1st APA convention in 1980 or 81s. Al was one of four presenters on a symposium on the interface of religion and psychotherapy. The presenter before Al delivered an eloquent plea for the inescapable confluence of spirituality and psychotherapy. Quite moving and uplifting. Al then stood up and said as his opening line: “Religion and psychotherapy: I say fuck it!” Half the crowd gasped in horror and half of the crowd roared its approval. An atheist suggesting that a belief in God was an irrational idea.

Al Ellis: Courageous and Integrative Empiricist by John C. Norcross, Ph.D.

Albert Ellis Memorial

Went to the memorial service at Columbia last night. It was kind of the last Friday Night Workshop ever. At 3 hours plus with no break it was a marathon of Albert tributes.

How to convey the ordinary and spectacular spark that was Ellis in action? Nando Pelusi said he was "Epictetus via Groucho Marx with a stop at the Bronx Botanical Gardens." and "I may not have Albert's genes, but I will pass on his memes."

Albert on Meditation

Ellis: We have lots of cognitive and emotive and behavioral techniques including that. But if you do meditation to extremes, an hour or two a day, then you just piss away a lot of your life. So you can meditate for 20 minutes while you're anxious and that will temporarily allay the anxiety since it's cognitive distraction. Then you go on to dispute your anxiety creating thoughts. Most of the people use meditation to stop their thinking and then they never rethink. So it does much more harm than good in some instances.

Heery: So you yourself never meditate?

Ellis: It's a fucking waste of time. Why should I meditate? I'm not anxious.

See here

Young Albert Ellis in Action

Here is a video demo(c.30 minutes) of a youthful Albert Ellis therapy session with a young woman.

Albert Ellis 1913-2007

Dr. Ellis made a big contribution for the positive in my life among the
many others he helped. His ornery, salty persona did not conceal the
idealism which underlay the mission statement on friday nights to "cure
every screwball in town, one at a time".




In fact, it enhanced its accessibility to this "Fallible Fucked Up
Human".

Obit from his official site

Also: New York Times obit