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La femme et le pantin (1909) by \u00c1ngel Z\u00e1rraga.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 RIP John Berger<\/a>. Berger’s essential TV series on art, Ways of Seeing<\/em> (1972), is at YouTube<\/a> and Ubuweb<\/a>; “Such freedom is unthinkable today,” says series director Mike Dibb<\/a>; the book of the series<\/a> was designed by Berger and Richard Hollis; ways of seeing Ways of Seeing<\/em><\/a>; Geoff Dyer, Olivia Laing & Ali Smith<\/a> on Berger; M. John Harrison<\/a> on Berger.<\/p>\n \u2022 The beginning of January means the LRB<\/em> posting Alan Bennett<\/a>‘s diary for the previous year. In related news, Network DVD will be releasing Six Plays by Alan Bennett<\/em><\/a> next month, a collection that includes a favourite of mine, Me! I’m Afraid of Virginia Woolf<\/em> (1978).<\/p>\n \u2022 At Dennis Cooper’s: Acid Westerns Day (Restated)<\/a>. Related: Jodorowsky’s El Topo<\/em> and The Holy Mountain<\/em> are being released on Blu-ray (Region B) by Gryphon Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n The acre of suburban lawn surrounding our house became like the Paramount lot for my feverish theatrics. I graduated to building “spook houses” in the family garage out back. Inspired by the ride-through Trimper’s Haunted House in Ocean City, Maryland, designed by Bill Tracy (and it’s still there in operation), I remembered excitedly wheeling through this attraction in these rickety little coffin-shaped cars and dreaming of befriending the crudely built, motorized corpses, cannibals, and skeletons who lived inside. I fantasized the cars breaking down, the panicked, chickenshit children screaming, bolting from their seats, tripping over live wires, and electrocuting themselves. I wanted to take this imagined fear, this frightened happiness, back to my own house where I knew I could preserve, protect, and stylize it on my own adolescent terms.<\/p>\n John Waters<\/a> on his childhood home<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u2022 Strange Flowers<\/a>‘ latest reading recommendations include books on lesbian decadence, occult Paris,\u00a0fl\u00e2neurie and the queerness of the Benson family.<\/p>\n \u2022 Where Evil Dwells<\/em><\/a> (1985), a 28-minute preview of a longer piece of weird cinema (now destroyed) by\u00a0Tommy Turner and David Wojnarowicz.<\/p>\n \u2022 Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma<\/a> having a conversation about Coppola’s The Conversation<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Edge Question for 2017<\/a>: “What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?”<\/p>\n \u2022 Mixes of the week: Drone Theory with Roly Porter<\/a>, and Secret Thirteen Mix 205 by Stavaris<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Simran Hans<\/a> suggests where to begin with the films of Todd Haynes.<\/p>\n \u2022 More decadence, this time among the Mexican Modernists<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Moon Wiring Club<\/a> at Bandcamp.<\/p>\n \u2022 No Name, No Slogan<\/a><\/em> (1989) by Acid Horse | Those Tapes Are Dangerous<\/a><\/em> (1997) by The Bug | Spooky Action At A Distance<\/a><\/em> (2014) by Sq\u00fcrl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"