[Landline] Tricksters

Lewis Hyde, Paul Reubens, Gary Young, SBHOTM, Castaneda, Clearcut and more

Hey gang,

Here’s a few things that have been on my mind, with links and endnotes.

I’ve been reading this extraordinary book lately/finally¹…

Cover via the author’s website, which features an excerpt

…and thinking about Paul Reubens…

…and I’ve been thinking about Gary Young — Pavement’s (much older) original drummer, producer and weirdo uncle-spirit — who died this week, age 70…² ³

Photo of Gary Young by Brian Thalken, date unknown. Via facebook.

…and I’ve been thinking about Sunburned Hand of the Man, who are the subject of “No Way Out,” a brand new 8-part (!) oral history podcast by Kelly Davis, currently being unfurled every Monday via Aquarium Drunkard and Talkhouse (here’s ep. 1 // here’s ep. 2 )…

…and I’ve been thinking about this ridiculously exhaustive, enthralling and ultimately disturbing 2021-2022 podcast documentary series on Carlos Castaneda, which… well, to me, hasn’t seemed to have reached its audience yet, for whatever reason…

…and I’m still thinking about this extraordinary, distressing and very timely 1991 film which, for no particular reason at all, I watched for the first time earlier this week…

(….I don’t want to say anything else about Clearcut other than this is a major film, one that cuts deeper as it goes. Essential uneasy viewing, available via Kanopy (public library resource, use it or lose it!) and youtube⁴ ….)

And, finally, I’ve been thinking about artful, unpretentious and strangely moving 74-minute 2006 documentary film on the Hidden People of Iceland, which I came across again recently while I was cleaning up the old Arthur Magazine blog archives⁵:

You can stream Huldufólk 102 in its entirety here.

More soon,

Jay Babcock

Arizona

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1. I’ve meant to read this book for years, but I’ve never seen it in a used bookstore, anywhere. It’s either a book that never gets sold back, or always gets snatched up as soon as it’s on the shelf. Or, perhaps, I’ve just been visiting all the wrong bookstores.

2. I met Gary Young once. He was greeting everyone at the gate for the big Sonic Youth/Mudhoney/Pavement (and—unannounced—solo Kurt Cobain) show at Castaic Lake in 1992. 10,000 people, maybe. Gary was shaking hands with all us early arrivers as we walked in — very few people (including me) knew who he was, or why he was doing that. Incredible.

3. Pavement’s official statement on Gary’s passing is tremendous.

He was made to play drums in rock and roll bands. He came from the “Keith Moon school of drummers.” It’s an unofficial school. But, Gary graduated from it with honors. We’ve had the great pleasure of seeing insanely talented drummers. He drummed very hard from a different planet despite being born and raised in Mamaroneck, New York on the easiest birthdate ever to remember (5/3/53).

To us and all who knew him, he was a fearless fireball. His enthusiasm for playing live music was relentless and unrepentant.
He was the best storyteller we’ve known and a unique judge of character. The things he experienced before we knew him blew our minds.

Gary loved tension. He wanted to make people excited and anxious. He accomplished both. We embraced him and he taught us myriads of things that we never thought about. He was an educator. In ways, we were his apprentices.

Read the whole statement here.

4. I discovered this morning that Clearcut is getting the deluxe Bluray release treatment from Severin Films in October. Fantastic! Here are the details.

5. 5,000-plus posts! Good god do I have my work cut out for me.

6. Substack doesn’t let writers offer subscriptions below $5/month, which is unfortunate. If I could offer this thing at $1/month, I would!