Who is that guy... singing?

Let's raise one in a salty salute. I know at least one of this motley trio - Dennis Cooper - is in hog heaven for a set of West Coast readings, starting tonight at Book Soup in West Hollywood and heading up to San Francisco for a date at City Lights the following night.  HH 'cause he's such a big proponent of the newest and best, and he's on tour with two relative yearling heavyweights on the lit scene. First of all James Greer (Jim Greer of Guided By Voices and rock journalism fame, Spin et al) is with him (and well, why do you think one of Cooper's best albumbly titled books goes by Guide), and second Mark Gluth has penned one of the best books of the year with The Later Works of Margaret Kroftis. Gluth's getting to be a hefty music writer himself. Some suggested, by the Book Soup blood red, almost Warlohesque pic, that they should be a band. I think this could be possible. Regardless, read the jpegs there for the info and come out and see. You'll get music one way or another. Horror Hotel at least. -CM

 

Seen a few of these Ready Set Readings so far and I am never less than super impressed. Good job Ann Stephenson for curating. And cheers Susan Bridges for providing the perfect place to host. So if in Atlanta, come out tonight at 8 pm at 812 Edgewood in lovely Inman Park for poet Bruce Covey, a lecturer in poetry at Emory and author of Elapsing Speedway Organism, mmm sounds like a GBV song (speaking of which there's a Jim Greer mention coming up next post.), and I hope Covey has his new book on hand, Glass is Really Liquid. Cool. -CM

BTW - per last post... Poor Corey, that was mean Mike. Oh whatever. I'm gonna get extra douchey to make up for our meanness on that one. I need colored mousse or something though. I once got sent home from school for red colored mouse (it was a little extreme for a uniformed school, cause I looked INSTANTLY OF COURSE like Johnny Rotten). But nevermind my bollocks, come see Bruce Covey.

By now you've probably heard. Corey "The Haimster" Haim is dead. He was 38 and had lost something like 150 pounds over the last few years. He was pretty much a career screw-up right until the end, which is somehow cosmically fitting considering how cocky he was early in his career when he was considered a "teen idol." I can't say I ever really liked anything that guy did except for "License to Drive." Even in "Lost Boys" I thought he was pretty bad. And he was never in "The Goonies," like his counterpart in a bunch of terrible movies, Corey Feldman. Feldman, unlike Haim, also put out this ridiculous Christmas record that was basically a 40-minute guitar solo with Feldman mumbling out Christmas song lyrics while on what seems to be opium.

The main reason I don't like Corey Haim is this video my friend Sarah gave me for my birthday one year. It was this promo-documentary on Corey Haim that was probably produced by his agent to help him pick up pre-teen girls (his agent... or Haim. Maybe both.). I still have it somewhere. It's on VHS. Of course, it was a joke present but I watched it anyway. I couldn't believe what a cocky bastard he was in that video; granted I was probably watching it more than 10 years after it was made so I had the benefit of retroactive cynicism that maybe I wouldn't have had when I was nine or whatever. Everyone just kissed his ass in the video, and all his friends called him "Haimster" or "The Haimster," which I found particularly annoying. Even his damn hockey jersey had "The Haimster" stitched across the back. And all his friends passed him the puck. Part of me still wishes I was on the other team so I could hit him with one of those blindside hits that are knocking out NHL players so often this season.

I just found the video. It's called "Corey Haim: Me, Myself and I." What a prick, man. The only thing that saved his career or what was left of it was Corey Feldman, who was in great movies like "The Goonies," "The 'Burbs," "The Monster Squad," and then carried his homeboy Haimster on his back through a bunch of projects, not the least of which was "Blown Away" (1992), which I remember watching in 8th grade so I could see the girl in the movie, Nicole Eggert, get naked. Great stuff.

Other than that, the only Haimster movies worth a damn from my childhood are "Lucas," only because it fueled this crush I had on Winona Ryder when I was a kid (even though Kerri Green who played Andy in "The Goonies" was supposed to be the female love interest, at least to Lucas, Haim's character, who plays this nerdy freshman who can't tell a locust from a cicada [I thought nerds were smart] and decides to impress Green by playing on the football team and getting creamed in the end zone after dropping the pass. I never liked Kerri Green either), and "License to Drive," because it fueled a youthful fascination with Heather Graham. Anything Haimster was in that was "good" was a lucky stroke for him. His presence was mostly incidental and probably could have been replaced by Corey Feldman in any of those roles.

After those halcyon days of Teen Idol-ness quickly faded, Haimster started falling apart. Lots of drugs and addictions. Years wasted. Blew up to over 300 pounds (how's that for a teen idol?). Even Corey Feldman ended up not being able to stand him. The guy had some real problems he couldn't figure out how to fix. Maybe he'll get a second chance somewhere in the universe. 

edit: I take back some of what I said about how bad Haim's career was because I just remembered he was in that werewolf movie "Silver Bullet."

—mkl

Our music-PR buddy Howard Wuefling forwarded us a link to this crazy video for Larkin Grimm's "Parplar," which came out a couple years ago on the Young God label, run by MIchael Gira—the guy from Swans. The description reads interestingly enough: "It’s a beautiful one, a sandy animated clip created by Rebecca Shoenecker featuring a sleepy/cranky/jealous pyramid, flying cows, playful monkeys, and a Sphinx with a very powerful vagina."

Strangely enough, seeing the name Larkin Grimm in print (or digital e-form, as it were) reminded me of a story a friend once told me about a girl she knew at Yale named Larkin, who would always corner her (my friend) and ask her uncomfortably personal questions, probably by some kind of antisocial design. That made me think to Google Larkin, during which I found she dropped out of Yale and then went back about the same time my friend was there. Weird universe. Why do I remember such trivial, seemingly useless things? Anyhow, watch the video.

—mkl

edit: Shoot I can't post any other videos other than YouTube ones. So you'll just have to check out the link from Stereogum.