singapore, is hot but a very seemingly happening place… we are almost done, two more shows here tomorrow and one in bangkok where we spent that memorable couple of weeks back in ’77… asia is most definitely on an upswing the local economies are thriving etc etc singapore has a local music scene we met some of the local bands and related people today i’ll get some names up later but i really dont like the oscars, i avoid it every year… why is that? well i found this couple of lists ok: hitchcock, c.b. demille, peckinpah, chaplin (charlie), king vidor, orson welles, scorsese, robert altman, kubrick, howard hawks… what do they have in common? should be obvious; never won… the other one is what films won as best picture against what other ones, so the year that ‘apocalypse now’ ran the best picture was ‘kramer vs. kramer’, ‘2001 space odyssey’ beat by ‘oliver, ‘raging bull’ by ‘ordinary people’, ‘pulp fiction’ by ‘forrest gump’ and my favorite ‘singing in the rain’ and ‘high noon’ both beat by ‘the greatest show on earth’ that burt lancaster soap opera circus movie… who is gonna put ‘kramer vs. kramer’ on their list of greatest films? now i’m presuming most of this is accurate so dont complain to me about it if its not, i read it in a magazine… speaking of films though our hotel here is right accross the street from the shaw brothers building, their logo is up on the roof, i can see it from my window ‘SB’ in a big crest like in the beginnings of the movies, fantastic

perth australia… and i cant help but wonder is its less wearing to spend a month on a leaky boat like the old days than 24 hours give or take on a fucking airplane… why cant they leave the windows open, figure out how to let in outside air rather than re-cycle the stale germ infested stuff thats floating around… i must have gotten my first case of corperal korporeal tunnel syndrome, however you spell it, cause my wrist was aching from blankly playing doom 2 on my stupid game boy for what must have been hours… now i feel like the heroine of the last wm. gibson book who says that her soul takes time to catch up after these longass rides, certaily mine is back there someplace struggling with headwinds, what a burn out… beyond that not much to report yet, perth is beautiful and calm, theres so little traffic out there… i do vividly recall our first trip down here in ’77, how weirdly conservative it was, now its a little slower than some of the other cities here but just another modern big city… i miss Akira a lot, we have been very close lately… last week we went into NYC to see the christo gates in the park, somehow twenty million seems excessive for the things even though they are nice, i think he got beat, probably could have got em done cheaper… what? nothing yet… oh yeah we saw ‘hide and seek’ what a farce, now if i was bob d. would i take the twenty million or so in exchange for two weeks of pretty easy work? well most likely… the question is why make it so obvious that thats whats going on… what a load of crap… barbara sort of dragged me to see ‘sideways’ but then i realised what all the buzz is about, its really a great little film, the sort that isnt done much any more, its likely to kick off a whole load of imitators like ‘blur witch’… any how the mall that we go to to see movies is the same one that had the dude go on a rampage last week… luckily we werent there and he didnt do much damage in spite of getting off 60 shots from his ak… its sad how the alienation out there is adding up to these events, what the hell else is it except all of the unfulfilled hopes and dreams blowing up in peoples faces, its so hard for me to avoid being sucked up by the consumer greed culture, how can anyone be happy when they are just constantly barraged with all the things they are not and that they are lacking, all this bullshit shoved down everyones collective throat… oh and on a related ‘lighter note’ who the fuck thinks sponge bob is really a gay conspiracy??!? so here are the same people who rage about anyone questioning the current governments political motives/agenda yelling “conspiracy nut!” carrying on about this craziest dumb concept… actually i was down on sponge bob myself cause i partially blamed him for bumping zim, so i never watched, but really its pretty funny… so whats next anti milton berle… what about the evil of monty python, they wear dresses

i have started sketching out some stuff for upcoming recording, a bunch of you have asked about whats happening, the last bunch of records had me writing primarily on machines and i’m determined to go into the next period writing on guitar, with a more primitive approach… we have discussed that the next thing should be more ‘raw’ or whatever, i still am endlessly frustrated by the US music scene, what rises to the surface, that by now the fifties to the nineties are represented by the same handful of ‘classic’ songs played over and over again… a lot of people are asking about us touring in the states this year, thus far nothing is on the books but we will figure it out hopefully…

currently i am amazed and amused by ‘grand theft auto san andreas’… i’ve been playing it a little bit though not too obsessively… what knocks me out about it is its cultural orientation… i’d dealt with the other earlier versions of the game but in them the central characters are less defined, they were a sort of mix of tough guy semi italian gangster types, but here we have the black gangster urban myth sharply etched onto a weirdly retro background; the game begins by telling you its taking place in the early nineties, already ancient history, is this cause the audience is so young or so the music is ‘right’?, its funny how fast things turn over… anyway we are/follow the trials and tribulations of ‘Carl’, archetypal black anti hero as he goes on drive-bys whacks crack dealers and gains ‘respect’ in the hood… but what weirds me out the most is just the intent of the thing… even more than contemporary films theres something about san andreas that finally puts the black gangster hero on a par with your wild west cowboy scenario, its always been there but here its right in your face… i keep thinking of an army of white geek computer types having heavy identification with this ‘dangerous’ black model, glamorized out of all reality… here we can live the urban ghetto myth without any of the real problems… i cant tell if its really a good thing but theres something compelling about putting this high end glamour on former social outcasts… if it makes a whole generation of white kids long to be black then i’m all for it even though all the murdering etc is possibly regretful, though we still have john wayne grabbing the indian by the neck and saying “you talk pretty good american for a red skin” something to that effect anyway etc… ok corral is certainly no less violent and is no doubt considered ‘respectable’ by those who might be detractors of grand theft

in the airport waiting to go to scotland… debbie says: “the pattern of behavior of putting these puppets into power and then tearing them down when they are successful is crap” doesnt like puppetry on a positive note she says: “im working on my book, memoirs, trying to remember everything…” do you have a new years message? “a really interesting documentary film from iceland called ‘investigation’ see that” i looked it up theres a lot about it, it deals with ‘Iceland’s unselfconscious belief in hidden beings — elves, ghosts, sea monsters and aliens’ looks good, i’ll have to check it out… on my list is “Casshern”, japanese, pretty amazing… i hope aviator is ok, i just watched ‘raging bull’ before, its sad, scorcese is one of the last ones here… debbie said “well of course its about hollywood, how can they make a real movie about that…” yeah well we’ll see more later on HAPPY NEW YEARS from all of us

merry xmas to all and related etc. thanks for taking the time to write… i dont have anything right now, nice dreams for all, dont get too sucked up in the grim holiday greed grind, going to toys are us around now is like unto seeing a gladiatorial event, the madness infects the littlest kids and turns them into all devouring beasts, oh yeah as far as current events go i was really amused by this: the other week when rumsfield got called out about equipment by the soldier at the iraq ‘meeting’ with the troops, any how the same day this story was on the first page with pictures of the new york times, the post (ny post) stuck it on page 18 (i checked) as a small four paragraph item entitled “rumsfield spars with troops” something like that… i find it almost impossible to watch television lately, i do see sesame street a lot though, akira really likes it, she has become an elmo fan, calls him “emna” christmas looms, snow on trees here

i’m really excited about announcing the upcoming release (finally) of TV PARTY the DVD… i just got and watched it yesterday, actually its a three disc set… any way its like TOTALLY GREAT!!! im very impressed with the quality of the whole package, if we cant get it on HBO or something i’ll be surprised so far i dont have release info, the release party is on the 8th of dec. the thing comes from BRINK FILMS (see http://www.brink.com for a few details) and was produced for DVD by Kai Eric who did a fantastic job… i’m not one for blatant plugging but this is essential viewing for blondie/debbie fans, theres a lot of stuff of DH, more than i’d remembered, theres even a weird clip of part of a very early version of “Tide is High” that i had totally forgotten about, its us at the Mudd Club and i was surprised to see Debbie actually reading the lyrics which indicates how early the thing was in the history of the song (the first demo of our version was worked up with Walter Steding and Lenny Ferrari who were, with me, the TV Party orkestra) i was the co-host of TVP, for those of you who dont know about it, it was a cable tv show that went on for four years from 1979 there abouts… Glenn and i have been talking about reviving it somehow we’ll see what happens as soon as i get more specific info about the actual release i’ll put it up here

its a bit discouraging to get the few negative messages i get cause on the whole they are just not thought out or anything beyond someone being pissed off about my ‘being a liberal’ and its sad the things and ideas here have dissolved into these kinds of cliche images of ‘weird liberalism’ and ‘red necked’ conservatism… as usual this speaks to me of the spiritual black hole that threatens to suck up everything in its path, if you’re gonna complain at me about something i said then at least back it up with a specific quote… actually the two types of comment i get are “you are a liberal” which apparently is this decades version of calling someone a pinko and “hey you are a music dude, how dare you talk about politics”… i said a while back i was distressed about the amount of bad feelings that the election has engendered, its even sadder to have people tossing catch phrase sound-byte type accusations about without any foundations… (i think i’m mostly distressed about finally watching the remake of ‘the manchurian candidate’ in a way to me what has happened to hollywood is even sadder than what has gone down with music, the corporate art system has just killed the american film industry i cant believe the crap thats churned out… a few years ago i saw an interview with John Schlesenger saying how he just couldnt have made “Midnight Cowboy” in this climate, meaning nowadays, how it just couldnt be done, how fucking pathetic is that, how many great films are we missing now due to film makers being more concerned with selling tickets than with making the movie… these remakes of better films like ‘candidate’ or “the stepford wives” just blow my mind in their mediocrity… the main reason is that big budget art is all subject to committee decisions and fear for the buck so the guys like Fellini etc etc who were just about making art just cant break through… at least Scorsese is out there and to a lesser degree Tarantino and again this is why i am so psyched about all the asian stuff (Quentins next one is gonna be critical for him) i’ve been running into) i dont have much else at the moment, have been back for a while, Mexico City was particularly fantastic, theres a street market called “Sonora” that is almost exclusively devoted to Santeria and related items, just amazing i saw ‘saw’ which pretty much sucked and the puppet movie which i liked more, its pretty great how some of the reviews on ‘team america’ are so confused with the critics not being able to figure out the “position” of the thing durka durka

Early 19th Century French politician Joseph de Maistre said: “Nations get the governments they deserve.” And 20th Century author George Santayana then said: “Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.” these quotes are from Dennis Blair and were amid the latest bunch of mail concerning peoples dismay about the election… i still dont know exactly what to make of it and try as i might i just cant see bush “doing the right thing” for “his legacy”… theres something about his smug arrogant stance and posture that has always remided me of a slightly modernized and toned down version of Mussolini’s weird posing and body language… in a way thats enough, i cant get past just that to even worry about his broken political agenda… today in Panama City, being down here is poignant, the slums everywhere are just tragic, the people are sweet and warm and as usual i am churned up by Americas heavy handed approach to being the boss of the world while at the same time being so fucking selfish that it cant help out its immediate neighbors… tickets to the shows are about thirty dollars which pretty much guarantees that the only ones who can see them are more well off than the average kid on the street… last night was in a mall that was right out of Gibson; modern and decayng filled with booths selling almost exclusively youth related stuff: video games, magic cards, cd’s and cheap ‘hot topic’ type clothes, we played in a club in this place… we finished the set went off before the encore and with just cosmic timing the power in the whole neighborhood went out plunging the crowd into cheering darkness, i’m glad we got to do the whole show, in Southend UK recently the same thing happened near the end of the show and it was a lot more anti climatic… the crowds down here are terrific… just thanks to everyone who has showed up (here are a couple of spanish versions of the last bit above i hope they are not too wack) estaba anoche en un paseo fue cierto fuera de Gibson; moderno y decayng llenó de puestos que venden casi exclusivamente la juventud el material relacionado: videojuegos, tarjetas mágicas, el cd y barato ‘hot topic’ ropas de tipo, nosotros jugamos en un club en este lugar… terminamos el conjunto se fue antes el bis y con tiempo apenas cosmico el poder en el vencindario entero salió hundiendo la multitud a vitorear la oscuridad,Estoy contento que obtuvimos para hacer la exposición entera, en el RU de Southend recientemente la misma cosa sucedió cerca del fin de la exposición y era mucho más anti climático.. las multitudes aquí están hacia abajo tremendo… apenas gracias a todos que ha aparecido el ayer por la noche estaba en una alameda que correcta fuera de Gibson; moderno y decayng llenó de las cabinas que vendían casi exclusivamente la materia relacionada juventud: juegos video, tarjetas mágicas, CD’s y barato tipo ropas del ‘ asunto caliente ‘, jugamos en un club en este lugar… acabamos el sistema nos apagamos antes de que saliera la repetición y con la sincronización cósmica justa la energía en la vecindad entera hundiendo a la muchedumbre en oscuridad que animaba, estoy alegre nosotros conseguí hacer la demostración del conjunto, en Southend Reino Unido la misma cosa sucedió recientemente cerca del final de la demostración y era mucho más contra climática… las muchedumbres abajo aquí son fabulosas… gracias justas a cada uno que ha demostrado para arriba