The Paris Project: Il y a 21 ans

09/18/2009

The Paris Project: Il y a 21 ans

November 26, 1988: I'm seriously starting to understand just about everything, I think. (Even the TV.) Guillaume went shopping in a big way today (a flannel shirt of Ralph Lauren for 600 francs -- over $100 -- totally not worth it). I don't understand the relationship between him and his mother. They hurt each other so much, and what they say about each other is generally true. Guillaume's mother is sort of unstable and she's the first to admit it, but he is all she has -- when he's happy, she's happy. On the other hand, Guillaume is completely clueless on a practical level -- I can't imagine what he would do without her. A real case of 'can't live with her, can't live without her.'

I'm hopefully going to play guitar with Andy tomorrow and that other guy Alex on bass. Alex seems like he'll be pretty damn good. Andy just doesn't cut it as far as my style of guitar player. First of all, he loves all of the early seventies groups -- Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page is his guitar hero), Bad Company, etc. The other day when I was at his apartment, 'Feel Like Makin' Love,' was playing and he said, 'They just don't write songs like this anymore,' and I said, 'Yes they do, except a lot better' and he said 'Really?' and I said, 'Yeah, what's so great about this song? Boring words, chords..." I mean it's ok for the time, but let's not overdo it here. But when 'Don't You Know That You Are a Shooting Star?' came on, Andy said, 'Well, this one you have to admit is a real classic.' And I was like, 'Yeah, you're right' just because it was obvious he wasn't about to listen to what I had to say. I hate it when people say that they hate 'new' music. I mean, it's not like there's nothing new and innovative out there. It's because of this stupid attitude that radio stations play only 'classic' music these days, and hardly any new bands. Note the resurgence of aging rockers, etc. Need I write more? Along the same vein, every time I see Andy and I have my guitar (Thursday in acting class) he takes it out and starts twiddling with it, and he invariably plays the solo, the stupid solo, to 'Feel Like Makin' Love' by Bad Company. It bugs the shit out of me the way he just picks up my guitar every spare second like it's the most important thing in the world. At the same time, he's also one of those guitar players who figures out bits and pieces of all of these old songs, and then when it comes time to play, you just sit around and compare bits and pieces that you both know. I usually know like one thing, and I'm not too interested in learning every note that Jimmy Page played in that one song that every guitar player except me in the whole world knows how to play.

Since I'm really rolling, I'll let it all out. Final annoyance: The scene: Andy twiddling with my guitar in Acting:

Katy: Wow, how long have you been playing guitar?
Andy: 3 years (or 4, or whatever).
Katy: Did you take lessons?
Andy: Never. I completely taught myself.
Matt: Yeah, well -- that's pretty obvious.

Of course, I didn't really say that, but I thought it. I never ceased to be amazed by the attitude that exists, especially among guitar players, that you're somehow better if you've never taken lessons, a kind of virginity. Most of the time it shows. What's even worse about Andy is that he likes to pretend he knows so much about musical theory, like, 'Have you ever tried soloing in the locrian mode?' My advice would be to watch out for anyone who starts winging the word 'mode' around too much. Modes are something to be kept behind closed doors, whispered softly or perhaps contemplated, but not a subject just to throw out there. Final point -- Andy is one of those guys obsessed by equipment. 'Wow, listen to the sound -- definitely a Telecaster going through a Marshall stack.' I was like 'Yeah, I like Peter Buck's style of guitar.' Andy was like 'Well, what kind of guitar does he play?' 'I don't know' 'What, and he's your guitar hero?' So, I'm playing guitar with Andy tomorrow. Why? Because it's better than playing with no one, and he's a nice guy with a good sense of humor, I'm not kidding.

This pen is the greatest -- so smooth. I want to talk to SK. I just know that he won't let me down. I've always said that I'll keep in touch with him out of anyone from Cranbrook.

I'm leaving in 6 weeks.

I saw a photograph today of a road that ended. It just stopped.

Did I mention that Rebecca's French family (friends who picked us up at the airport) are LePen supporters? Need I say more?

Posted at 10:26 AM in Expression, Science Projects | Permalink

Comments

How interesting to read the Matthew of so long ago. And how brave of you to share it.

Posted by: James van Maanen | 09/18/2009 at 03:57 PM

Thanks, Jim...more like 'exploit' it (LOL?)

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 3:57 PM, wrote:

Posted by: Matthew Gallaway | 09/18/2009 at 04:07 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

#gods

ORDER HERE

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

“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal

“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch

“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America

“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World

The Metropolis Case

'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'

-- 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.

Subscribe to this blog's feed

Search

Matthew Gallaway

Expression//Reaction//ScienceProjects

09/18/2009