The Counterforce No. 79

Mark Forward has a new stand-up special out, Safari Time, and it is phenomenal. It might even be *too* good. I say this because there came a point - quite early on too - where I found I just couldn’t physically laugh as much anymore, as I had been laughing so hard and so often consistently throughout. I’ve taken to watching it again in more bite-sized chunks and it really is that hilarious. 15 minutes will give you more than enough laughs for the day. Genius stuff. Highly recommended

I also see that his Mark Forward Wins All The Awards is now on YouTube. I had a secret link of this for a while and I’m fairly certain it is my favourite comedy special of all-time. Again, non-stop laughs. Really freaking funny

Treat yourself to these and also this short film below. My goodness, everything about Chantal Akerman’s J’ai Faim J’ai Froid (I’m Hungry, I’m Cold) is heart-burstingly lovely. Like all the best films (Daisies, Céline & Julie Go Boating…) it’s just two girls doing whatever the hell they want. And it’s 3 hours and 10 minutes shorter than Jeanne Dielman. It’s not subtitled in English so I turned on YouTube’s closed captions, though I then found the French fairly easy to understand anyway. Go on, it’s only 13 minutes long

Keeping on the French tip (ok, Akerman is Belgian but same language), I went down to Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education in NYC, a couple weeks ago for a talk with Pierre-Henry Gomont. Gomont is one of my favourite comics artists and writers. His illustrations and use of colour are so beautiful. And his stories are wild. Did you know someone stole Einstein’s brain right after he died? Although Einstein forbid this, pathologist Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey removed and stole the organ because he believed it should be studied for the sake of science. He was on the lamb for many years - Philadelphia, Kansas, Missouri… - periodically sending sections of Einstein’s brain to scientists to examine. Although Gomont freely admits within the text to “woefully wandering” from “the anchor of historical fact”, Brain Drain is a fantastic read. The English version only being available digitally, I bought the hardcover in French and though I’m rarely one for autographs, I had him sign it. Very glad I did as this is lovely:

Love the covers for the albums too:

He was in town to promote his latest book out now in English as Soviet Land, all about the unscrupulous looting that took place right after the fall of the Soviet Union. It comes complete with a wonderfully insane cast of characters. I love his blues throughout the book especially these twilight shades

I introduced myself to his interviewer Karen Green afterwards as she’s doing some cool stuff with comics at Columbia University and she said “Oh, Aug Stone, I stole my question about his use of the color red from your review.” That was very cool. My TCJ review here

Chris Bro posted Valerie Loves Me a few weeks ago and I have been listening to A LOT of Material Issue since. They were SO GOOD. I remember it was a couple weeks into my first year at Boston University. I really didn’t want to be there - my family had guilted me into studying something practical - but the one good thing about Boston was access to so much great music. The record stores were amazing back then - Second Coming, Mystery Train, Newbury Comics… - and despite Boston not being a big college town, bands were always coming through. But this happened in the dorms. This guy Yanni on my floor had his door open and issuing from it was this incredible pop music, so I popped my head in to ask what it was. I didn’t really know Yanni and he was a jock, though one of those rare cool jocks that had good taste in music and actually treated people with respect, and anyways the power of music always overcame my shyness. He told me it was Material Issue and I immediately went out the next day and bought all three of their albums - International Pop Overthrow, Destination Universe, and Freak City Soundtrack. Writing them out because they have great names and I am always one to appreciate a good title

Valerie Loves Me is a such a fantastic pop tune. Unique, in that I can’t think of anything else that really sounds like it. I love the verse melody and how it carries on longer than you’d expect. Plus there’s no real chorus per se, just a shout of the title. It’s full of melancholy and longing, but also some hints of joy and pin pricks of ego. A wonderful mix of emotion

From the second album, it’s all about Next Big Thing for me. Such a lovely, lovely song

And off the third one, I absolutely LOVE Goin’ Through Your Purse. It freaking rocks, and is almost like a proto-MCR. The love with which they talk about making the third record with producer Mike Chapman is really inspiring. That’s in the documentary, which is free on TUBI. I watched it right after Chris posted about them and found it pretty heartbreaking. They had such great songs and worked so hard and never got to the level they deserved. And of course half the doc is about Jim’s suicide, which is tragic. He was so talented and had such a strong vision for the band he wanted. But it was good to be reminded of how special they were. And also got me thinking that Chicago was really where it was at in the States in the 90s, much more so than Seattle. And you gotta love their collab with Liz Phair on the Banana Splits theme song. She is fantastic in this video

Two weeks til my birthday and it’s the big 5-0 this year. After the 24th, I’ll be on the back nine. I keep referring to it as such, though Vic and I were laughing the other day about the possibility of either of us living to see 100. Though with my healthy lifestyle these days… of which I’m torn about, what a terrible thing it would be to have to watch everyone I love pass away. On a more positive note, although it didn’t seem like it really at all most of the time, 49 was actually one of the best years of my life. It was difficult as hell but I got SO MUCH done. A couple years ago I described myself to an ex-girlfriend as ‘a creative volcano’ and this has only gotten more effusive as time has gone on. With this year of the Fire Horse and me having been born on a Fire Horse day, it’s the most Yang you’re gonna get, and I’ve got SO MANY projects I wanna make happen, that I am making happen. And it’s wonderful. I’m so excited to bring these into the world. On Chani Nicholas’ podcast the other week for us Sag Risings, she said ‘pick your project and move heaven and earth to make it happen’. I wish I could pick just one. It seems like I’m doing that for at least three at any given time. I talked about how one should never spend too long licking one’s wounds a couple Counterforces ago. I did that way too much as a young man, retreating in order to figure things out, or just plain daydreaming, and I wasted so much time. Especially with the energy I had then. I’ve been forever trying to make up for that. Though in no way do I feel like I’m going to be 50. I still feel like I’m 18, 25 at the most. And thankfully people often think I’m 38, which I will happily take. But four books and a couple hundred songs does not seem like a lot to me. Especially with all that I’ve had in my head these many years, all that I’ve wanted to make happen. It’d be nice to have a life too lol Though life has always been tied to all this. Most of the wonderful things I have have come from simply pursuing music and writing. All the good stuff. May it continue