Returning the Favor

Last night, Jillian and I got back late after the Q+A and book-signing that followed the screening of Crispin Hellion Glover's film What Is It? at The Loft. As sittinginaroom recently pointed out, the picture is ten times stranger than you think it's going to be and its creator ten times more normal. The title is apt. I'm still floating in the backwash of the question. But I'm happy, because I was able to see an artist present his work and then represent it afterwards. Presence makes a huge difference in this case as well.

Since the next stops on Glover's tour are in San Francisco and Seattle, where I have a few readers, I'll do a little promotion. Glover's slide show before the screening, in which he reads from his wonderful books of "detourned" found material, is delightful. And he has a wonderful manner. I've never seen a more gracious artist. The film is hard to take, but its framing did a lot to ease the discomfort. Besides, as Glover pointed out during the discussion, our world could stand to be a little less comfortable. After all, it's not as if the comforts extended by mass-mediated society are making many of us genuinely happy.

Spring Is Here

We even got April showers yesterday.

And, yes, the earth is fresh. Even our basin is rising, like a phoenix, unlike Phoenix, from its days of hard-packed dirt.