Man In The Mirror

The thing I’ve been thinking, thinking about my relationship with the man and his image and his music, and watching “Billy Jean” and “Thriller” on Youtube with my girlfriend last night, is how absolutely a “STAR” he was. Older film buffs talk about the great age of the stars, larger than life actors and actresses that gave Hollywood its mythic stature, and in my lifetime there was Michael Jackson. Name any other star that loomed larger than him? We think of him in terms of the Beatles (indeed, he did a tune w./Sir Paul), but that was before our time. Michael Jackson was our star. You wouldn’t see him in a street. Even the “streets” of Billy Jean are a set — realism has no place in his world, and I suggest that this is a good thing. Stars are important. Fantasy is important. Everything today is so “relatable.” Today’s fantasy movies are written with the idea that “what if they were real”, thus we get “Iron Man” or “Batman” now rewritten with a plausible story. Even “Transformers” is now a tale grounded in reality. We have none other than Kurt Cobain to thank for this, who in his mere 4 years in the public eye sold — along with fellow Pacific Northwesterners Soundgarden and Pearl Jam — the fact that music can be made by people just like you and me. There was no American Idol in MJ’s time because no one in their right mind thought they could be that. We didn’t have the tech to record ourselves, to videotape ourselves, to see what we look like on a screen. Kurt, I argue, showed us what we look like in a magazine, on the television, on a screen. He showed that that private space was his space, thus our space, therefore Myspace. American Idol said “You can sing Michael Jackson songs in front of millions — you ARE Michael Jackson.”

MJ’s power was that you could never be MJ, never hang with him, never relate — and it is my belief that this was not only OK, but necessary. America, it has been argued over and over again, needs gods. We need myths, too, and I’d go as far as to say we need royalty — we need princes, princesses, and we need a king.

The King of Pop is dead. Long live the King.

-Erik Bader, 2009

Believe

Here we are again, another fine Saturday, another entry for the Daily Miltonian.  Some updates on things hitherto unknown and now accepted as GOOD: Lost Lake, True Blood, Morningstar Chicken + Homemade biscuits, Rabbit Redux, Fables, and canoes (in general).

Today’s photographic supplements hail from the crisp early Autumn of 2007.  Why not?  Our histories still matter.  So how’s your summer getting started so far?  Have you been in water yet?  We haven’t.  The water is too cold, here in the Northern part of the West.  We’ve been NEAR it though, sitting by anenome/crab/barnacle/swirl tidal pools next to the Pacific Ocean, or seated on the reedy banks of the Sandy River diggin in a bag of chips, or ON it, floating serenely in a canoe on an alpine lake.  Here at the Miltonian, we dig water, and its our hope that you do too.

Looks like we won’t be heading back East this summer.  Instead, we’re heading South — to California, SF to be exact.  We’ve got some people down there right now.  We’ve got some people here right now.  West Coast is where we’re all at, for the moment.  Here’s to hoping the moment lasts.

Not much else to report except that we’re still just so crazy about it, about this life and these places and our people.  We’re reading books, renting movies, enjoying comics and just laying around a whole bunch.  Summer is leisure.  We’ve got no pressing projects per say, no life-altering ideas or genre-bending concepts to speak of.  We’re just here, and to tell the truth it’s a place we’re been trying to get to for a long time.  A real long time.  So yeah, we’re happy to be here.  It should go without saying that we’re happy that you’re here too.

Everything Crash

Weather’s been cooling to a crisp these days, which would make for nice sleeping if the Wind-Up bird hadn’t taken up a 6am residence in the tree outside our window.  No matter!  If he’s up to catch the worm, so are we, and off we go.

Talk is in the pipeline about a proper Fort Saint Davids website, sort of a streamlined version of our old True Jersey site — the ghost link of which is here.  There’s also some talk about doing this in conjunction with Kindle versions of True Jersey, Volume One and The Pilot and the Panda, as well as actual booklet version of Cherry Hill and some previews of the New American Novel.

WARNING: No posting will occur next week on official GTFO the Internet Week. As in: no Internet.  Swimming, yes, hiking, of course, DVD watching, why not, park grazing, always, book reading, intense, but Web Browsing?  No sir.  De-frag your Mind, uninstall your Web Browser for one week! See you at the barbecue.

Speaking of DVD watching, what serialized television show should we add to our Summer Projects list?  We keep hearing about this one:

We’re the worst with these shows though.  We made it barely to Season 3 of Battlestar before losing interest, got bogged down somewhere around Season 4 of Buffy, barely made it into Season 2 of Deadwood before giving up — and everyone shouts: but that’s when they get good!  It’s like we lack some kind of…dedication.

NEW DINOSAUR JR. VIDEO:

MOVIES, IN THEATERS:  Nice to see we’re getting a decent spread this summer, instead of just the popcorn flick targeted at Who We Were In 1986 (Transformers! GI Joe!) there’s also a new Woody Allen flick (cannot WAIT for this one.  He wrote the script in the 70’s at the height of his powers!  And it’s got Larry David!  WIN WIN!) and what? That Mendes/Eggers/Jim from the Office flick actually ISN’T some kind of Generation Y2K Garden State Deux groaner?  That’s what we’re hearing, which truth be told was what we were hoping.  Look, we’re not that jaded, ok?  We DO have heartstrings, and a little bit of hope, and we do believe in Magic.  So yeah, impress us, give us something to feel.  We’re not so dead that we still can’t feel.  Just don’t manipulate us.  Just don’t feed it to us.  Give it to us.  Gently.  That’s it.  There you go.  Ah.  Thank you.

WHATEVS THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  It just occurred to me that I haven’t read Pitchfork in months.  Owing a lot to the terrible and rendered unreadable redesign, but mostly to its Total Irrelevance to my life and I guess the music that matters to me in general.  Did Pitchfork kill music forever?  By making every review exactly the same it seems to have made every band exactly the same.  Everything reviewed on Pitchfork sounds like music reviewed on Pitchfork?  What exactly am I saying?  Alchemy, I tell you.  Real weirdness.  Pitchfork scares me.  Avoid.  Worst New Music.

Range Life

Bones is in Oregon.  Updates to follow.

Fort Saint Davids Summer Blockbuster

Can you feel it?  Convergences the likes of which no one has seen since SF in ’68 are happeing right here where we lay our heads, the town where we hang our hat at night, the place we wake up to: Portland, OR.  Telephone arrived quickly.  Much later: Ryer.  And now Vee?!  YES.  With three (3!) visits from Zigz so far and guest appearances from everyone from Steph Smith to Reason, there’s never been a lack of an, er, reason to say yeah!  Here we are!  And now this week the almighty ALEXANDER ZAHRADNIK, co-founder of Fort Saint Davids and this very online magazine that you hold in your hands now will be in town.  Huzzah!  Next up: CARR.

ITEMS WE ARE LOOKING FOR: External Monitor / Keyboard / maybe even a new mouse.  NEW TAPEDECK FOR THE FSD SOUND SYSTEM (old one, a glorious Technics model from the 80’s, is busted).  Contact erikbader@gmail.com) if you have any of these things you are willing to part with.

OUR COURTYARD, EARLY SPRING 2009:

OUR STREET, WINTER 2009:

ABOVE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD, WINTER 2009:

ALSO INTERESTED IN: any small wooden owls (Wowls) you are willing to send to us, for our offices.  It’s a vibe, and we’re working on it.

CURRENTLY PLAYING: Team Fortress, 2, on Steam.  Steam on a Mac!?  We’ve got Windows 7 on the Bootcamp flipside.  We suggest you do the same.  The beta is free and lasts over a year.  And it works!  Is it OS X?  Aw hell naw.  But it’s works, and we’re PC gaming now with ease.  It’s kinda fun!

CURRENTLY READING: The Franchiser by Stanley Elkin, and The Lime Twig, by John Hawkes.  Two heavies.  Both excellent.  Also on the side: Money by Martin Amis.  Hey, why not?

LOVED: Star Trek.

HEARD THEY SUCKED, WISHED IT WASN’T TRUE: Terminator: Salvation and Wolverine.  Aw.

SHOWS WE SAW IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS (WE SAW MANY)): Windy & Carl (sublime!), Animal Collective (not kidding we walked out halfway through, what happened to these guys?) Black Dice/Wolf Eyes (THE show of the year.  Top Black Dice, someone, please.  This band has come so far it’s like further than even that.  It’s furthest.  It’s OUT.  We loved it.)  Chain and the Gang (Ian, thank you for being a performer in an era of recitals.  Rock and roll, it is still real.)

MAGAZINES WE ARE READING:  The Wire is failing to deliver information or quality writing that we couldn’t just find on the, goddammit, on the Internet.  Come on, Wire!  The Believer doesn’t even feel clever.  It just feels silly.  Like, what’s the point?  You knew this thing, you’re telling me, but why?  Do you really want me to know or did you just have to write that?  I don’t know, there’s a click we want, and it doesn’t click.  Harper’s?  Worst issues we’ve maybe ever read.  Their attitude got buried by four years of Bush rage and we’re left with a dull, twitching thing.  The most Essential Magazine has become a chore.  We are still subbed, however, waiting for them to prove us wrong.  They’ve got Wyatt Mason.  I guess that’s it?  The New Yorker, however, is a treat pretty much every week.  How does it keep getting better?  And yet it does.  Pete S. on the art, Alex Ross holding down the refined music talk in a language we can read while Sasha – okay so Sasha always writes about something two years later (Grizzly Bear LOL) – Lane/Denby holding down the meanest movie reviews ANYWHERE and we love it.  Hell you still get the occasional Woody Allen Shouts & Murmurs.  And who doesn’t read Tables for Two every week just to read the breeziest yet tightest writing ever about food YOU WILL NEVER EAT.  Golly, here at the Miltonian we love us some New Yorker.  Is it next week yet?

Reminder: Give the Gift of the Miltonian

We’ve suggested this before but we’re enforcing it now: it’s time to do your part as a Miltonian and send our oft-hard-to-remember URL to a friendly soul you know whom you think would enjoy reading the Miltonian, possibly even Daily. Daily? It’s always been a goal. The truth is though, we’re the ones at the control board so we’re the ones who see how often you’re reading us. The truth? Often. But the numbers? High, yes, we’d never say there aren’t a lot of you out there. But there are not enough. The numbers don’t increase. Why not? For one, we’re not aggressive in our marketing (read: there is no marketing). We don’t link other blogs, or even really interact with them. We don’t even call ourselves a blog (we call ourselves an online magazine). The only way we’re going to expand our community is through our community. We have never asked you for much, besides your patience and an open mind, so when we humbly ask you to send our URL to someone you know and trust know that you’re not only doing something good for them, you’re doing something good for all of us. Higher numbers means more posts, from us, Fort Saint Davids, your hosts. Enticing, right? Look we know we’ve been lax, slack, maybe even lazy when it comes to providing you, the citizen, with the Miltonian indulgences you’ve come to expect. We know. And we’re sorry. But that’s all going to change. Work with us. And we’ll work for you.

Your humble servants,

Fort Saint Davids

Out There

Sunday arrives, and the Miltonian is here to greet it.  Here’s your items for May 10th, 2009.  As always, in no particular order.

ITEM: The New York Times wrote travel articles about both of our principal cities today.  The Portland one is well considered to the point of hysteria: the guy really can’t believe just how good we have it here (of course, neither can we).  As is inevitable with Virtual Media Hype, some of our secret spots got blown up — including the mighty Paper of Record backing us up on Spella > Stumptown.  We told you it’s better.

The Philadelphia one is depressing beyond belief, explaining that some of the major points of interest are a few year old sterile yuppipster bowling alley and a cafe we all got tired of in 1999 (the guy even eats my old “usual” for breakfast to drive home the static menu.)  Times, we’ve never questioned our choice of relocation, but if you’re trying to tell us something, well, it’s telling.  For extra credit, watch the slideshows that accompany each link.  Some great pix in each.

ITEM: We’ve been saying as such for years but now it’s time to make it official: the Pink Lady is the greatest tasting apple of all time.  We’ve got a basked of them right now on the Miltonian Desk, to be crunched on between entries.  Hold on a second.  Crrrrrrrrrrnunch.  Ah: much better.

ITEM: Tonight’s To Do Debate is a shooting match between Star Trek, Michael Hurley, and a BBQ at Joe Vee’s.  Who just raised their hand and said all three?

Till next time, keep it Miltonian.

Slow Century

Hello again, another transmission from Fort Saint Davids.  It’s May now, season of mists and sun, new beginnings and closed chapters.  We’re already brainstorming as to what the next FSD event will be and when the sun is out like it is today we get to thinking: let’s do some amazing things.  We want to read in parks, we want to release cassette music, we want to draw pictures in the sand on the beach and photograph the pictures and share them with you.  We want to arrange seaweed into letters that form words that make poems, written only for you.  We want to drink Slurpees standing outside of 7-11s all across America.  But hey.  We’ll settle for Oregon.

Big things are happening.  Old friendships rekindled.  New eras.  Interesting times.  We’re sitting on benches, in parks, reading newspapers.  We’re sipping cane sugar soda on any street corner, eager for what comes next.  We’re lost in the woods behind neighborhoods.  We’re high up on a roof, looking down upon the city below.  We’re in this.

We’re behind on sharing our documents, photographs, items of interest, but we have not forgotten you.  These things are forthcoming.  Thank you for your patience.

Your Daily Poem of the Week

Having a Coke with You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully

as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it

-Frank O’Hara

Free Comic Book Day

Everyone loves free things, and everyone loves comics, so today, May 2nd, is a no-brainer: get in the car, on the bike, or just start walking, go to your local comic book store, and you, favored Miltonian that you are,  will receive comic books, for free.  That’s right kids and kidettes, it’s Free Comic Book Day in America.

The Miltonian staff will be present at Floating World Comics today at 4pm.  Nothing crazy, no big event or presentation or even an extended hang.  We’ll just be picking up our free comics.  Hope to see you there.  Afterwards we will work on our Burgertime high scores at our trusty downtown arcade Ground Kontrol (Mary’s working on Frogger). Then off for a leisurly stroll, likely high up in the hills, in search of sunset vistas.  Then back to the Lodge for our Saturday Evening Feast.  The feature film for the night?  Star Trek (1979).  I mean what the hell, right?  It’s Free Comic Book Day.