Today we accepted a Halloween gift of a candy apple, which we considered for a moment before we were transported to the last time we encountered one, this just a few days after 9/11 (which is not to say this is a story about 9/11). Like so many others, we had gone down to walk among the smoking ruins and gape at the thick layers of dust left on the buildings south of Canal Street. We passed a candy store on Chambers Street and impulsively (oddly) purchased a candy apple. This done, we went to the park by City Hall, where we admired the apple's translucent red armor in the heavy sun; but as much as its artificial splendor enticed us, we could not manage more than a few bites before we gave up and threw it away; the apple itself was the opposite of crisp and the candy hurt our teeth. Our thoughts now drift back to the present, where soon -- almost instantly -- we succumb to our next memory, this one older and far more compelling; there is a familiar wave of distortion we don't even need to hear to recognize; there is a heavy, plodding bass; there are the maniacal drumbeats and insistent, obsessive cymbals; most of all there is the angry melancholy of Bob Mould who screams into our thoughts and reminds us of what it's like to be alive: "Shatters your brain in a million tiny pieces The sounds you hear aren't coming out right You think it might be mystic, you think I might be cryptic The crystal in your china case is breaking in a million tiny pieces"
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11/01/2007
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A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
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-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.
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