The buildings just laughed at me. Ooh, it made me mad. Not today! I yelled back. And they laughed even louder.
~Hi, I'm Manny.
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Recurring nightmares. My doppelganger. Looking inside. Staring outside. What a camera sees and what a microphone hears. What the ink from a pen forms and how it fools us. Commas, periods, and other pesky punctuation. Collecting insecurities. Fumes from spray paint cans. Seeing that thing for the very first time. Forgetting shit. Remembering shit. Alchemy. Podcasts. Fucked-up syntax. Symbols and words. Make-believe versus real life. Real life versus perception. Observation and the conclusions drawn. Crossing boundaries. Secret confessions to people I don't know. Classic cartoons. Killing chia pets. Watching robots deal with puberty. Green tea and voodoo. Waiting impatiently for the light rail. Sheaf stout (where are you?). Letting the poison run its course. Questioning motives. Erections and deconstructions. Mercury bubblebaths. Running up walls and jumping over buildings. Losing things, finding them, then intentionally misplacing them. Old suitcases and the stories they tell. Broken record players, dusty typewriters, and cold film projectors. The illusion of control. Irrational thoughts. That which is just slightly out of reach. Long necks on girls. Furry tummies on boys. Telepathic bunnies and halloween costumes that never get dirty. The ocean. Taking pictures of things I shouldn't. Shivering during the summer. Things that fit in my pockets but no one else's. Foreign accents. Attempting facial hair. Spelling bees. Cracking my knuckles and grinding my teeth. Infiltrating and impersonating. Graveyards. Daydreams.
Those who: create things that weren't there before, dare to make films, have music in their heads 24/7, carry pens and use them, enjoy literature, dance real goofy like me, undermine their social environment, love going to local shows, discuss/argue government & social policy, wonder aloud, and laugh whenever it's inappropriate. Ego maniacs and wallflowers. Sex workers and party rockers. The Jones Soda people. Ex-gays. Cultural attaches. Ingenues. Dudes (and birds) who aren't afraid to rock a moustache. Government insiders and bartenders who tell me what I want to drink. Conspiracy theorists and cult members. Musicians who smoke too much and vegans who can't resist wearing leather. Gender outlaws and hippie grannies. Anyone who has seen a ghost. Foreign & indie film junkies and hungry crate diggers. Somnambulists and insomniacs. Guttertrash and people who eatsleepshit art. Me in ten years.
Oh, and the two motherfuckers who knocked me off my bike and jacked my jazz band chocolate bars in sixth grade. Don't think I forgot, pussies.
Deep breath...Bjork, Stereolab, Kraftwerk, DJ Food, Pram, Nortec Collective, The Ed Banger label, Spank Rock, Devlin & Darko, Tittsworth, Add N To (X), The Cure, Daft Punk, The Beach Boys, Optiganally Yours, the Matador label, MF Doom, Cut Chemist, kid 606, The Faint, Amon Tobin, Four Tet, Air, Phoenix, Jason Forrest, Prefuse 73, Serge Gainsbourg, Treasure Mammal, Editors, Boards of Canada, The Avalanches, Tortoise, Method Man, Os Mutantes, Matthew Herbert, Billie Holiday, Mixmaster Mike, the Ninja Tune label, The Velvet Underground, The Gentle People, Buena Vista Social Club, Cornelius, La Lupe, Celia Cruz, Radiohead, The Domino & Mute labels, Squarepusher, DAT Politics, Superpitcher, Cinematic Orchestra, Busta Rhymes, Monade, Broken Social Scene, The Free Design, Pizzicato Five, The Streets, Siouxie & The Banshees, Talvin Singh, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Public Enemy, Nat King Cole, RJD2, The Aluminum Group, Justice, SebastiAn, Broadcast, Nina Simone, DJ Shadow, Courdek, Grime, Drunken Immortals, Basement Jaxx, the first two Cypress Hill albums, Bob Dylan, Kid Koala, Harry Belafonte, Seksu Roba, Portishead, 2ManyDJs, The Carpenters, Goldfrapp, Daedelus, VHS or Beta, Ursula 1000, Jackson Five, MSTRKRFT, Electric Six, Spoo, The Rapture, David Bowie, Polly Jean Harvey, Solex, The Smiths, The RZA, Cubismo Grafico, Terminal 11, Drex Rekker, Modeselektor, The Postal Service, Yo La Tengo, Violent Femmes, Courdek, The Go! Team, Guns N Bombs, The DFA label, Arling & Cameron, Ladytron, Polysics, M.I.A., Tipsy, DJ Kentaro, Lady Sovereign, Sage Francis, Aphex Twin, Mouse on Mars, Soft Pink Truth, Le Tigre, The Tigerbeat 6 label, Deerhoof, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Interpol, The High Llamas, and the theme song from the $25,000 Pyramid. Whew!
Recent picks include No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, I'm Not There, Voces Inocentes, La Vie En Rose, Paprika, In Cold Blood, Manda Bala, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, Grindhouse, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, Volver, Fur, Shortbus, Babel, Running with Scissors, The Science of Sleep, Art School Confidential, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, A Scanner Darkly, An Inconvenient Truth, Goodbye Lenin!, Why We Fight, V for Vendetta, Wong Kar Wai's 2046, The Squid and the Whale, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Palindromes, The Edukators, The Machinist, Broken Flowers, Mysterious Skin, I Netflix.com, bitches!
Stuff by William S. Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson. That Kafka fellow is kinda nutty. Chuck Palahniuk. Giant Robot. Juxtapose. XLR8R. Shitloads of zines and editorials. And the TTC when I'm needing a reality check.
Anyone who can get a film made. Or has written a book. Or can fix my truck.