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“we weren’t a post-war band. but we were a post-world-trade-center band.”

a long piece of writing about the dresden dolls, 9/11, suffering, and the time it takes to grieve….this was the first real photoshoot the dresden dolls ever did.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/21354496

(it’s a public post, even though it’s hosted on patreon)

Tom Bagshaw’s powerful and evocative work, “Infatuation”, 2018 [One off hand embellished digital painting on cotton rag stock, mounted on board, varnished, 11x16"] . For the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine curated exhibition “Ephemeral”. . Exhibition Dates: September 15th – October 6th. Opening Reception: September 15th, 6 - 9 pm. . Modern Eden Gallery 801 Greenwich St, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA. . To enquire about this work, or to receive the full Collectors Preview email email Gallery Director, Kim Larson at [email protected] . . .

a woman behind a counter in boston yesterday asks me:

“how many months are you?”

“sorry?”

she points at my stomach.

“how many months are you?”

“pregnant? i’m no months pregnant. but i had a baby like three years ago. does that count?”

she waved her hands in apology.

i like to think that it wasn’t a coincidence that this happened to me about 5 hours before i released this little 7-minute film i’ve been working on (for the last 7 months) about how we re-wire our own feelings about our bodies - how we see them, how others see them, how we see others see them…

….about how our relationships to our own bodies get rewired after going through hell.

two nights ago i posted this super-personal video, “REWIRED”: the first of a series of “patron journal vérité” mini-films, for my patrons only. it was scripted by me and directed by michael pope.

i didn’t really feel like making this video open to the public for now.

we’ve had over 500 people join the patreon in the last few days…and while i don’t like keeping my shit behind a paywall, i also didn’t want to deal with the real world conversing about my body right now. and it feels so empowering to be able to make this kind of independent media with absolutely no rules. for the people who get it, and care.check your email if you’re a patron or just click this link (it’ll open if you’re logged into your patreon account). if you don’t belong to the patreon, just join - for $1 if you want - to unlock the link/password.

fair warning: there’s a lot of nudity / it’s not safe for work:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/20803724

I took a peek at the lower level of Hell (Tumblr is above Twitter. I wandered over to Twitter…) and I saw that Neil Gaiman also likes the Harry Clarke Faust illustrations.   

There are times when I feel like I’m the only one in the world who likes certain things and then Neil Gaiman unintentionally reminds me that I’m not alone.  I think I needed that tonight and didn’t even realize it.   

These are for you, Neil. @neil-gaiman

This one is a rare one but a favorite.

These ones below were not already saved to my harddrive.  The above ones were. 

It’s a shame Harry Clarke never did Faust Part 2. 

For those who want to read Faust but never have, here is a fairly decent English language translation of Faust Parts 1 and 2 on PDF format.  It doesn’t have the Harry Clarke illustrations though. 

http://www.iowagrandmaster.org/Books%20in%20pdf/Faust.pdf

Faust is one of my favorite stories but I strongly prefer Goethe’s version to Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.  I like the ending in Goethe’s Faust Part 2 better than previous versions of the tale. I like the message about hope, love, and caring about others.  

There’s also a beautiful silent film from 1926, from F. W. Murnau (who also gave us Nosferatu).   It’s in the public domain so you should be able to find it easily on Youtube.  It’s the only film adaptation that I know of that actually tried to adapt parts 1 and 2… well, other than the children’s show, Wishbone.   

The Power metal albums “Epica” and “The Black Halo” by the band Kamelot also retell Faust Parts 1 and 2 if played back to back.  They just change Marguerite’s name to Helena, and Faust’s name is Ariel.  Mephisto’s name is left alone.  

These are my 9 favourite pieces from The Shortest Story so far. I’m so, so proud of what I’ve built with this project. It’s made me love writing fiction again.

Right now I’m Kickstarting a book of 88 of these stories, including:

13 stories narrated by Cecil Baldwin, voice of Welcome to Night Vale, who narrated the trailer

Incredible guest authors, including Robert Shearman (Doctor Who), Helen Marshall (Hair Side, Flesh Side) and Shawn Coss (Any Means Necessary, Cyanide and Happiness)