November 12th, 2009 / 6:36 pm
 Web Hype

Great Days for Weaklings

xxxx001-1I read Dennis Cooper’s blog every day, and it’s always a pleasure, but I want to point out that there has been an especially good run this week, and so if you’re an only-occasional visitor over there, this is a good time to go check in. Let’s move backwards through time.

Today’s post is a collection of eleven YouTube clips of Stephen Malkmus singing–solo as well as with Pavement. It kicks off with an acoustic version of “Box Elder,” one of my all-time favorite Pavement songs, which I’ve only ever heard rendered in full fuzz.

Yesterday was a “back from the dead” post–originally posted 10/19/06 on an earlier incarnation of the blog that was hacked and destroyed. DC occasionally painstakingly re-produces one of those lost posts, and I can’t think of one I’m happier to see again than “Great Moments in Gay Porn #8: Klark, a mini-retrospective.”

Career-wise, porn stars are to movie stars as dogs are to humans. That’s to say, their time in the spotlight may constitute a blip relative to their more respectable peers, but their lifespans as fan magnets can be no less storied and impressive. By that reckoning, Klark is something like the Paul Newman of Russian gay porn. In his ten or eleven year long run as a superstar, he has pretty much done it all without ever losing his Gary Cooper-esque stoicism (and consequent aura of dignity), his ever battle-ready attitude, his quasi-underraged everyboy bod, or his very Russian yet strangely nonspecific good looks. He may not get as many starring roles these days as he did when his competition was all but nonexistent, but he’s managed to outlast many of his famous predecessors by never quite stooping too low in his choice of roles to make a quick buck.

Irrespective of your particular level of interest in gay porn (my own is, let’s say, limited) Klark’s story is a compelling narrative, and I think the post is highly instructional in terms of how it approaches and handles certain challenges inherent in discussing an artist’s full body of work. Cheers to whoever it was put the special request in for this one.

Tuesday’s post was “Four Books I Read Recently and Loved: Urs Alleman, Eileen Myles, Reinard Seifert, Matthew Simmons.” In which DC enjoys and excerpts from (respectively) Babyfucker, The Importance of Being Iceland, How to Skin the Moon, and A Jello Horse. And Monday we learned about “Heavily plotted non-linear structures whose velocity lacks narrative drive“–aka, mazes.

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22 Comments

  1. November 12th, 2009 / 10:40 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Fainted with glee.

  2. November 12th, 2009 / 6:40 pm Matthew Simmons—

      Fainted with glee.

  3. November 12th, 2009 / 11:19 pm Tim Jones-Yelvington—

      Loved the Klark piece, and the mazes.

  4. November 12th, 2009 / 7:19 pm Tim Jones-Yelvington—

      Loved the Klark piece, and the mazes.

  5. November 13th, 2009 / 12:21 am davidpeak—

      babyfucker…my god. i might have to read that.

  6. November 12th, 2009 / 8:21 pm davidpeak—

      babyfucker…my god. i might have to read that.

  7. November 13th, 2009 / 12:35 am reynard—

      maybe i should start spelling my name like that, seems more exotic.

  8. November 12th, 2009 / 8:35 pm reynard—

      maybe i should start spelling my name like that, seems more exotic.

  9. November 13th, 2009 / 12:57 am Blake Butler—

      babyfucker is amazing

  10. November 12th, 2009 / 8:57 pm Blake Butler—

      babyfucker is amazing

  11. November 13th, 2009 / 12:59 am jensen—

      you should. it’s very exotic. almost like “Klark.”

      Congrats on the shout out, Matthew. A Jello Horse was super. And Reynard, can’t wait for yours, too. Also: Gay porn!

  12. November 12th, 2009 / 8:59 pm jensen—

      you should. it’s very exotic. almost like “Klark.”

      Congrats on the shout out, Matthew. A Jello Horse was super. And Reynard, can’t wait for yours, too. Also: Gay porn!

  13. November 13th, 2009 / 1:23 am Janey Smith—

      Gosh, Blake looks so cute in drag.

  14. November 12th, 2009 / 9:23 pm Janey Smith—

      Gosh, Blake looks so cute in drag.

  15. November 13th, 2009 / 3:39 am Justin Taylor—

      Whoops, sorry Reynard. It was my error, not DC’s, as I am sure you know…

  16. November 12th, 2009 / 11:39 pm Justin Taylor—

      Whoops, sorry Reynard. It was my error, not DC’s, as I am sure you know…

  17. November 13th, 2009 / 4:40 am reynard—

      it’s all good, jt. it really doesn’t matter.

      jensen, i’m glad to hear you’re excited about all those gay porn mags i finally mailed you today. don’t worry though, i slipped them in between some copies of maxim ^__-

  18. November 13th, 2009 / 12:40 am reynard—

      it’s all good, jt. it really doesn’t matter.

      jensen, i’m glad to hear you’re excited about all those gay porn mags i finally mailed you today. don’t worry though, i slipped them in between some copies of maxim ^__-

  19. November 13th, 2009 / 6:52 am jensen—

      thanks, dude. i’m glad you disguised it this time! it would have been embarrassing if it came by itself like last time.

  20. November 13th, 2009 / 2:52 am jensen—

      thanks, dude. i’m glad you disguised it this time! it would have been embarrassing if it came by itself like last time.

  21. November 13th, 2009 / 12:56 pm davidpeak—

      yo i ordered it. i can’t wait to read this book

      gonna start making DC’s a regular read for serious

  22. November 13th, 2009 / 4:56 pm davidpeak—

      yo i ordered it. i can’t wait to read this book

      gonna start making DC’s a regular read for serious