PZB Fans

NOLA finds

2008-07-18T08:57:46Z

I thought this was interesting, somewhat relevant.. and.. yeah

enjoy.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/07/16/new-orleans-cathedral.html

Re She Is Here

2008-07-17T13:02:32Z

I'm confuzed ... I see Bonnie, but where's Clyde? ;-)

Am I really the first one to do this to poor Poppy?

2008-07-17T06:31:11Z

Hell yeah.

2008-07-17T02:27:48Z

Pops, those two pics are awesome.

Just watch your trigger finger. ;)

And come up to Dallas and go shooting with us!

prime_liquor @ 2008-07-15T21:37:00

2008-07-16T02:28:17Z

I wish New Orleans was closer to Houston. From what I understand, it's fairly easy to get scrips for pain medicine here - they have tons of pain relief clinics here that are pretty much devoted to giving scrips for heavy duty pain meds. ((((poppy)))

Re: Wikipedia Weeniedom

2008-07-16T01:37:39Z

It's kind of hilarious someone would criticise docbrite's editing in a message rife with grammatical and spelling errors. And the message is dispiriting in that it kind of runs counter to what one tends to hope Wikipedia is; thousands of people creating something based on their individual intelligence and drive. This guy seems to be just blindly following a rule. So Stephen Colbert tried to sabotage Wikipedia as part of a joke, therefore anyone who edits their own entries is inevitably doing so for the same purpose? Obviously he doesn't think this, since he takes the time to mention that he doesn't think docbrite's trying to do anything unethical with her edits. I think it's probably a twerp looking for the glory of schooling Poppy Z. Brite, and has chosen to interpret a rule past his own better judgement to do so.

Reader/Reviewer Expectations

2008-07-15T13:59:34Z

< COMMENTER: I was a Poppy fan but her works seems to get way too predictably homosexual. It's almost like she's compelled to put in a gay male in every story.

< ME: I know just what you mean. I love Stephen King, but it's almost like he feels compelled to put straight people in everything he writes.

< Seriously, do people think about the shit they say? 99% of fiction and all other entertainment celebrates heterosexuality (not to say "shoves heterosexuality in your face," though that's how I often feel), but when an author writes mainly or exclusively about gay characters, he's repetitive. Or "predictable," if you like.

I've been attending a series of looks at history as presented by American film (a local history teachers' seminar that I've been very kindly invited to attend even though I'm not an educator). Our instructor did an evening on black films and blacks *in* film, and at one pointed quoted Spike Lee as saying that no non-black person can make an authentic, quality film about the black experience.

Ridiculous. That implies that men can't write about women, women can't direct men, Asians have no business making Westerns, etc. And such criticism can only be leveled by someone who has knowledge (or who thinks they do) about the creator's sex/orientation/age/ethnic background/any other criteria, that predisposes them to assume the creator is unfit to tell the story. Without that knowledge (before or after the fact) such a criticism cannot be leveled, which makes it invalid at any point, IMHO.

I find it completely ridiculous in this day and age that people can subscribe to such a viewpoint, or the complimentary assumption that the creator's personal incarnation inclines them, compells them, or entitles them to a certain type of creation. I suppose it could be a problem with a casual audience, but certainly people interested in books, film, and television could be expected to be a bit more realistic.

Ah well. We don't live in that world yet. But we're getting there. In the meantime, it's sometimes easier consider the source and move on. %-/ But I'm glad you called them on their idiocy!

New Book on NO Rebuilding

2008-07-12T12:55:49Z

I just saw an interview on the Today Show with a woman named Julia Reed, who has written a book called The House on First Street. She had apparently moved to New Orleans from New York, bought a house with her husband, and moved in three weeks before Katrina.

They were lucky ... they had wind damage but no water. She talked about the city rebuilding and said something very interesting; "the chefs saved us." She noted that the small neighborhood restaurants were among the first businesses to open and that they have been the foothold for the rebuilding of commerce and neighborhoods in the city.

I think I'll be looking up this book. %-)

On another happy note, they were running clips of New Orleans and I was thrilled to see that Felix's on Iberville appears to be open again; at least they showed a shot of the sign re-hung. I fell in love with Felix's back in the 60s, and it and Mandina's have always been my favorite New Orleans restaurants.

Maybe I can get down there next January for Pardi Gras....

prime_liquor @ 2008-07-10T15:11:00

2008-07-10T03:19:45Z

Seriously, do people think about the shit they say?

Nope. No, they do not.

99% of fiction and all other entertainment celebrates heterosexuality (not to say "shoves heterosexuality in your face," though that's how I often feel), but when an author writes mainly or exclusively about gay characters, he's repetitive. Or "predictable," if you like.

Trufax again. Do you think you'd get this less if you were not gender-confusing to readers? Like, if you were a malebodied gay man called Bob McBob, would such readers be as likely to go "oh Bob just keeps writing about The Gayz, why can't he write some Straight Characters for a change?" I'm guessing some would assume that Bob McBob, being a gay man, only knows about gay people so naturally he would want to write about them a lot of the time (in much the same way as a Gay Actor Cannot Play Straight Believably, except for how many totally can and audiences don't know because said Gay Actor is pretending not to be gay IRL as well; or, to draw on your point, a black writer would only want to write about other black people.) The fact that you're not outwardly Bob McBob possibly means you get it in the neck more, and that's so unfair.

For that matter, a vast percentage of fiction is about white people, and when a black writer tries to move outside the "African-American fiction" niche, he's frequently told that his book won't sell because "black people don't read horror [or whatever genre he's working in], and white readers won't read about black characters."

Many authors who I really like have a cunning, sneaky way of making you invested in a character and then mentioning casually two chapters in that they are, you know, *brown*, or Asian or whatever, but you don't really care one way or another because you want to know their STORY. I think this is a brilliant technique, myself. Technically it shouldn't be any different with gay characters, unless the readers are raging homophobes.

*sends you baseball*

prime_liquor @ 2008-07-01T21:07:00

2008-07-02T02:07:37Z

Hello,

I'm selling all of my special edition Poppy Z. Brite books on Amazon thanks to the IRS and other misc. bills. :/

GO HERE!

Me confused

2008-06-28T14:35:56Z

What is Chris talking about? Did he leave The Delachaise?

prime_liquor @ 2008-06-20T18:12:00

2008-06-20T22:13:36Z

Coughs and calls to attention.

O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone (60)
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spiders' legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers, (65)
The traces of the smallest spider's web,
The collars of the moonshine's watery beams,
Her whip of cricket's bone, the lash of film,
Her wagoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not so big as a round little worm (70)
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o' mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night...

She does get into dreams and nightmares as well, Mr. Poppy.

Oooh Oooh Oooh! I hope you haven't seen this yet. . .

2008-06-06T03:01:57Z

I do NOT believe this!

http://iwishicouldfly.com/iwishicouldfly/journal/html/053007.htm

New Community: therealpzb

2008-05-31T21:45:51Z

So on the one hand, you have the PZB communities that consist of "Which Lost Souls character are you?" quiz results and pleas for me to write more vampire erotica. On the other hand, you have prime_liquor and nextroundsonme, cool places created with the express purpose of not becoming Lost Souls fan communities, with the unfortunate side effect that posters who so much as mention the pre-Liquor books sometimes get yelled at. Also, subject matter on those two communities tends to range far and wide, which is fun, but I thought there might be some call for a community that focuses more exclusively on the books.

Thus, I have created therealpzb in hopes of making a place where readers can engage in intelligent discussion of all my work. I'll try to answer questions whenever possible, though I can't promise to get to all of them. Membership is open for now; if we start having troll problems, we'll moderate it. Please read the rules before joining; there are only a few and I don't think they are terribly onerous, but if there's any chance you cannot follow them, you'd probably be happier with one of the fake PZBs.

prime_liquor @ 2008-05-30T10:35:00

2008-05-30T15:41:31Z

Mr. Poppy,
As I am of a certain age, I have very, very fond memories of sitting on the 'davenport' on Saturday night and watching the Carol Burnett show. That was back when being home on Saturday was not as if you had a giant, blazing LOSER written across your forehead. Harvey Korman was a particular favorite of mine. He's also the highlight of 'Blazing Saddles' as far as I'm concerned, although Gene Wilder does say my favorite line in all of movies: 'My name is Jim, but most folks call me...Jim.'
The chemistry between Mr Korman and Mr Conway made them one of the best comedy teams of all time and I urge any of the 'youngsters' on this list to get some DVDs of the show and enjoy!

question for the doc

2008-05-30T03:28:54Z

Hi, Mr Poppy.

I had a question on someone elses behalf. I run a group of literary message boards and had mentioned that I belonged to a group that corresponds with you about things of a more personal nature such as life occurances and whatnot and one of my members asked about you afterwords. He is a writer and is very interested to ask you something about one of your books. Would it be advisable to direct him to join this list to ask such things or are you not interested in being asked things of this nature on forums such as these? He isnt a crazy fanboy or anything, he just wanted to know some of the meaning behind some things in a book of yours and I thought that I would ask you here instead of letting him be embarassed by seeming asenine to you on a public forum like this list. If not appropriate on this list, is there another list that I should direct him to?

Thanks in advance.

Candy

"Little Miss Gun to a Knife Fight"

2008-05-30T00:46:03Z

Sorry ... Warren Zevon channeling there. ;-)

Nice work. I'm definately going to try and stay on your good side!

BTW, I just got back from a media fan convention in Lansing, MI ... one I've been attending for about 25 years. I enjoyed a small but lively conversation about the Liquor-verse with a couple of other people, one of whom hasn't read the books but is going to be getting his hands on them asap. Thanks ... we had a great time!

Docshots...

2008-05-29T23:31:54Z

I think you should have that target laminated and post *that* on your door, alongside your "do not disturb" message. It might get through a bit better...
BTW, you look rabidly happy holding that thing!

Hey man, nice shot.

2008-05-29T21:23:31Z

well congrats, doc! Thats a mighty hearty yield of shots for one session. Im terribly envious. I hope you get a chance to go out and shoot again. Its therapeutic at times for lack of a better word. :)

hope you are doing well otherwise,
Candy

prime_liquor @ 2008-05-27T00:58:00

2008-05-27T05:00:47Z

Ray can only be Ray Nagin.

And Jo Ann is Chris's old boss that fired him over a message board post- I remember that entry because I liked her last name (Clevenger) so much.

Guesses

2008-05-26T19:05:02Z

Alfred the archbishop and Carrie the "definitive Katrina novel" pinhead? I want to say Jay is someone from online and goth / troll related but the details escape me.

Actually most of my brain escapes me at the moment. I blame the tile adhesive fumes.

Happy belated b-day; it sounds like you had a good one!

prime_liquor @ 2008-05-26T19:37:00

2008-05-26T07:38:47Z

But Poppy: if you shoot Courtney Love, you will have eliminated my #1 source of bemusement.

Happy birthday Doc

2008-05-26T05:48:24Z

Here's to you adding many more birds to your lifer list - our local wildlife care center has many birds (mostly babies) being treated there and I was able to see up close for the first time many wonderful ones - some were so iridescent they looked like little jewels. Never understood birders before, but now I can see how marvelous it is to be one. Your passion for birds helped me be brave enough to venture to the center and work on my fear of feathered creatures. Anyway, happy birthday, good shooting and take care.

How 'bout singin'? (Happy Birthday, Doc!)

2008-05-25T20:51:04Z

On this birthday day for Poppy Z. “Doc” Brite, an ode to one of docbrite’s favorite things, meat:

All hail meat!
Thanks to chefs, you can eat it!
It can’t fail, meat
Because Rocky can beat it!
We’re all made of meat
So very well we should treat it!
Like the best of things, meat:
It tastes good when we heat it!

I thought of asking Rickey and G-Man to sing that, but neither of them seems all that keen on singing. ;-) (You should’ve heard Rickey’s grousing – that song really wasn’t his bag. “What next,” he said, “you gonna put us in stripey suits and straw hats like a fucking barbershop quartet?” G-Man picked up on his mood and said “Dude, really, we don’t dress up for anything.”)

Happy birthday, Doc! Eat, drink, and be merry! Sounds like you’ve gotten a good start at it.

Happy birthday, Doc

2008-05-25T20:26:39Z

May you have many more birthdays and wonderful gifts.