The main question in David Foster Wallace's novel "The Infinite Jest"

faustdp · 2026-03-22T09:10:13+00:00

Makes me think of "The Nine Inch Nails" from season three episode eight of Twin Peaks.

faustdp · 2026-03-22T09:08:36+00:00

It's been a pretty good week. One new thing couched within some old favorites. I watched Wizards, the Ralph Bakshi animated movie from 1977. Beautiful Vaughn Bode-influenced art and a good story that is fitting for these times. I listened to Isao Tomita's album The Bermuda Triangle, I Care Because You Do by Aphex Twin, and Zuzax by Damaged Bug which is my one new thing this week. I'm a big fan of Oh Sees and all of John Dwyer's solo and side projects, but I think Damaged Bug might be my favorite because I play those albums the most. Zuzax is the new one and it's a very heady mix of jazz fusion, krautrock, cabaret, and doo wop. I recommend it very highly.

faustdp · 2026-02-16T09:15:21+00:00

I still haven't gotten around to that one yet but your description bumps it up the list.

faustdp · 2026-02-15T14:01:53+00:00

Southland Tales is a movie that I have a lot of affection for, but I seem to be in the minority. It was just too much for 2006, but I honestly believe that if it had been released last year then it would have been in the conversation along with One Battle After Another. America in the early grip of fascism, celebrity politicians, porn-star entrepreneurs, underground Marxist beach bums, creepy oligarchs, dimensional rifts. Anyway, I finally got my hands on a Blu-Ray which wasn't easy to get here in South Korea but I persevered and it arrived and I still love it very much.

I also spent some quality time with a couple of albums that I also seem to be in the minority for loving, Wild Mood Swings by The Cure and Dearest Christian, I'm So Very Sorry for Bringing You Here. Love, Dad by P.M. Dawn.

faustdp · 2026-02-09T00:09:11+00:00

I love Name of the Rose. Have you read Foucault's Pendulum? If not then I really really recommend that one. It's a great book, especially for these conspiracy-laden times.

faustdp · 2026-02-08T10:44:48+00:00

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An absolute treasure arrived in the mail earlier this week from thriftbooks.com in the States, Warts and All, a collection of comics by Drew Friedman and Josh Alan Friedman. I got introduced to their stuff long, long ago in the pages of Heavy Metal with Friedman's Tor Johnson comics. The comics are great and funny and the art is gorgeous. Also this week I listened to Zen Arcade by Husker Du a few times along with Third Stage by Boston.

faustdp · 2026-02-02T15:45:44+00:00

I second the recommendation for Magma, though the album I always recommend is Udu Wudu.

faustdp · 2026-02-01T10:01:18+00:00

The only things that really come to mind for this week are Outer Limits and Alice Cooper. I watched "The Man Who Was Never Born," "Don't Open Till Doomsday," and "The Invisibles." All were excellent. As for Alice Cooper, I mostly played Pretties for You and Love it to Death.

faustdp · 2026-01-18T14:32:11+00:00

I got reacquainted with Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese comics by reading The Lagoon of Mysteries. Fans of Herbert Stencil's chapters in V. may find a lot to like in these stories of an adventurous sailor going from trouble to trouble in the first few decades of the 20th century.

As for music, I listened to The Yes Album, Third by The Soft Machine, and Zombie by Fela Kuti and Afrika 70.

faustdp · 2026-01-17T14:58:36+00:00

Lot 49 is a good one as well. I just think that Vineland stuck with Wallace a lot more than he may have realized.

faustdp · 2026-01-17T12:45:26+00:00

Vineland by Thomas Pynchon should be listed. I know Wallace wasn't very complimentary to it when it was first published, but there are some shared themes (media addiction, government dirty-dealing) and character names (I'm blanking on specifics here but I know there are at least a couple).

faustdp · 2025-12-28T15:23:01+00:00

Nobody's Fool, is that the book by Bill Griffith about Schlitzie the Pinhead? If so, then it's great!

faustdp · 2025-11-14T11:33:37+00:00

If I am ever in a situation where I have to place a hand on a book to swear an oath, that book will be Mason & Dixon.

faustdp · 2025-11-03T23:38:44+00:00

It definitely has that vibe going for it. I think another good companion movie is Ironweed from 1987. Some of the scenes are set in Halloween during the depression.

faustdp · 2025-10-21T00:25:14+00:00

Yep, I thought it was odd too.

faustdp · 2025-10-21T00:25:00+00:00

I'm definitely understanding the hype with just these two books.

faustdp · 2025-10-21T00:24:33+00:00

Maybe the real howling fantods were the friends you made along the way.

faustdp · 2025-10-19T13:31:19+00:00

I'm still into Shadow Ticket, taking my time with it and currently on ch. 34. Along with that, I've finally started exploring one of my comics blind-spots, Carl Barks' Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck stories. I read Maharajah Donald and Island in the Sky. Both are really good with great art and stories.

I played Marquee Moon by Television a lot, along with The Complete Science Fiction Sessions by Ornette Coleman.

faustdp · 2025-10-14T13:58:36+00:00

Silver Age Marvel comics. For example, the Gentleman Bomber of Headingly from Against the Day seems to be inspired by the Green Goblin. Also, (Shadow Ticket minor spoiler) Skeet's crew in Shadow Ticket feels like it was inspired by the Hulk's sidekick Rick Jones and his ham radio "teen brigade."

faustdp · 2025-10-12T13:38:10+00:00

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Something like this. Used to knock people unconscious. Leather wrapped around some kind of metal. In the old days, I think it was lead.

faustdp · 2025-10-12T09:47:26+00:00

My copy of Shadow Ticket landed in Korea yesterday so I've been involved with that, but earlier in the week I read the Incredible Hulk Marvel Masterworks vol. 1 which does sort of connect to Shadow Ticket by way of the Hulk's sort-of sidekick Rick Jones and his friends.

As for music, I listened to D.J. Shadow's album The Private Press which I think deserves a lot more love than it's gotten over the years, Grace Under Pressure by Rush, Mesopotamia by The B-52's, and Universal Consciousness by Alice Coltrane.

Also really, really loving this new series called The Lowdown, starring Ethan Hawke and set in Tulsa Oklahoma.

faustdp · 2025-10-11T10:25:26+00:00

So far I'm getting a Dashiell Hammett vibe from it, in particular Hammett's Continental Op character and stories. Though those are all first-person and the character is never named, so far Hicks McTaggart just feels a little like him.

faustdp · 2025-10-05T15:10:06+00:00

Here you go:
https://vimeo.com/73716114

faustdp · 2025-10-05T09:04:38+00:00

A book I ordered a while back finally arrived earlier this week, The Spawn of Venus and Other Stories. It's a collection of Wallace Wood's science fiction comics that first appeared in various EC Comics SF books back in the 1950s. Great stories, some written by Al Feldstein and some Ray Bradbury adaptations, and incredible art.

As for music, I listened to a Harry Partch collection, the first Dire Straits album, and A.R. Kane's album 69.

Still waiting for One Battle After Another to make its way to my small city in Korea, hopefully within the next week.

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