Christophe Tarkos: if you are curious about french poetry, this young man is what was called a genius in the past. For me he is one of them now (use Kiefer Sutherland's intonation as Jack Bauer while saying now). He was born in Marseille in 1964.

Christophe Tarkos : Ma Langue est Poetique�Selected Work (Roof Books, 2000, $12.95)

I thought that all the questions relating to the poet were obsolete, but I was wrong. Jean-Michel Maulpoix is writing clever books about these dangerous notions. I have just written: Le Poete perplexe, Jose Corti (2002). He is also a poet himself, and a teacher at Nanterre University.

He's extremely close to Simone Weil's spirit when he writes that poetry is a form of attention. What is attention? Attention is expensive: I do pay attention. The reason why I have to pay attention is because attention isn't free. Attention is something rare and rarety makes the value.

I went to visit Simone Weil's confident, the very old blind priest Pere Perrin in Marseille, in 1993. I wanted to know more about Simone Weil's doctrine of attention. The very old Pere Perrin didn't want to talk about Simone anymore. He did it all his life, in many books and conferences. He spoke as if he wanted to become my directeur de conscience. But I couldn't pretend to be Simone, even by faking my voice.

This is a new venue in Paris. Felix Kubin is playing there on 11/11. Near the Canal Saint Martin (close to OFR bookshop rue Beaurepaire).

A train passes in Arles.

Io vissi dentro il cuore
del vostro cielo ardente
e bruciai come voi
la mia vita per niente.

Leonardo Sinisgalli

I think of starting a record label. It would be called Pittoresque. A label for the really new, the risky and the unboring. I could make 3 releases a year. The 2005 projects w(c)ould be:

1.) Animals don't care
2.) ING
3.) Momus: the early tracks

Explosion by Florence Manlik

Favorite song: Echo's answer by Broadcast. I first listened to this song in Montreal in 2002, with Antoine Bedard from Montag. Antoine is friends with the band. I was stunned. It's worth spending one whole life on nothing but one song, if the result will sound like this.

People who will buy Lou Etendue will get all the translations surrounding an exploding sun. But I forgot the last verses on the first track. Asia is murmuring this in my left ear:

Toi et moi nous sommes des tours jumelles
Si l'une tombe l'autre tombera avec
Mais ne crains rien
Je t'aimerai sous les decombres

Approximate Babeltoog Translation:

You and me we are twin towers
If one falls the other one will fall with
But don't be afraid:
I will love you under the debris.

Today we cooked a chocolate cake with pears and a vegetable soup. I worked on music, new songs that are already old like traffic jam, la chambre noire, haut et court. I want to go back on stage. I want to see Manon de Boer's film Sylvia Kristel - Paris.

Asia Argento is in Toronto for a zombie movie with Romero. Yesterday we went to the Salon du Champignon and discovered the secret life of myxomycetes, a new form of life that is very old. There is no difference between zombies and mushrooms: zombies are human mushrooms.

www.myxomycetes.it

Spelling mistakes:

toog - loe etendue (germany)
TOOG - Lou Entendu (uk)
Toog Lou entendu (germany)
TOOG LOU ETEMDUE (japan)
took (italy)
Low etendue (germany)

Favorite combination: TOOK - LOE ETEMDU

COSMIC WONDER

I was talking with Olivier from ING, the most interesting french singer I know. We were at Palais de Tokyo. Suddenly I saw all the Cosmic Wonder crew. Fashion week, of course. I asked them if they do have nudist beaches in Japan. They sayed no, it's prohibited. How strange! I adore to plunge naked in a shoal of meduses, it makes great picotements.

SPEX HIT PARADE OCTOBER 2004 (GERMANY)

01 THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES: Origin (I) (WEA)
02 INTERPOL: Antics (Labels/EMI)
03 TOOG: Lou Etendue (Karaoke Kalk/Indigo)
04 MONTA: Where Circles Begin (Rewika/Alive)
05 ADA: Blondie (Areal/Kompakt)
06 BJORK: Medulla (Polydor/Universal)
07 SOULWAX: Any Minute Now (PIAS/RTD)
08 THE FAINT: Wet From Birth (Saddle Creek/Indigo)
09 DEVENDRA BANHART: Nino Rojo (XL/Beggars/Indigo)
10 HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Slowly But Surely (Damaged Goods)
11 EMBRACE: Out Of Nothing (Indepiendente/Sony)
12 KLEE: Jelngerjelieber (Modern Soul/MOS/Edel)
13 THE LIBERTINES: Dito (Rough Trade/Sanctuary/RTD)
14 THE BLACK KEYS: Rubber Room (Fat Possum/SPV)
15 SLUT: All We Need Is Silence (Virgin/EMI)

4+4

My politics is in my art, especially in the new album...

Visiting North America:

1998

New York at Fez, 01/30;
New York at Fez, 01/31;
Wesleyan College Massachussets w/Magnetic Fields, 02/03;
Boston at Middle East w/Future Bible Heroes 02/04;
Providence at Century Lounge w/Richard Davies 02/05;
Swarthmore College w/Magnetic Fields, 06/02;
Washington at Black Cat w/Magnetic Fields 02/07;
Atlanta at Criminal Store, 02/11;
Atlanta at MJQ Concourse 02/11;
Chicago at Empty Bottle, 02/13;
Los Angeles at No Life Records, 02/18;
Los Angeles at Luna Park, 02/19;
San Francisco at Peacock Lounge, 02/21

(Tour with Momus)

New York, at Fez, 10/13;
New York, at Fez, 10/14;
Boston, at Middle East, 10/15;
New York, at Fez, 10/16;
New York, at Fez, 10/17;
Philadelphia, at The Khyber, 10/20;
Washington, at Black Cat, 10/21;
Detroit, at Magic Stick, 10/22;
Chicago, at Empty Bottle w/Aluminium Group, 10/23;
Chicago, at Empty Bottle, 10/24;
Chicago, at Reckless Records, 10/25;
Los Angeles, at Spaceland, 10/29;
San Francisco, at Bottom of the Hill, 31/10;
San Francisco, at Bottom of the Hill, 11/01;
Seattle, at Aro Space, 11/04;
New York, at Mercury Lounge, CMJ Music Marathon w/Komeda, 11/06;
New York, at Luna Lounge, 11/07

(Tour with Momus)

1999

Boston, at Tower Cambridge, 10/25;
Boston, at Middle East, 10/26;
New York, at Knitting Factory, 10/27;
New York, at Knitting Factory, 10/28;
Hoboken, at Maxwell�s w/David Grubbs and Archer Prewitt, 10/29;
Philadelphie, at Spaceboy and Nick�s, 10/30;
Washington, at Black Cat, 10/31;
Athens, at Caledonia Lounge, 11/02;
Atlanta, at Echo Lounge, 11/03;
Houston, at Rudyards, 11/05;
Austin, at Emo�s, 11/07;
Los Angeles, at Troubadour, 11/09;
San Francisco, at Bottom of the Hill, 11/11;
San Francisco, at Amoeba records, 11/12;
San Francisco, at Bottom of the Hill, 11/13;
Portland, at Reed College, 11/14;
Portland, at EJ�s, 11/15;
Seattle, at Aro Space, 11/16;
Minneapolis, at 400 Bar w/ Sloan, 11/18;
Chicago, at Double Door, 11/19;
Detroit, at Magic Stick, 11/20;
Waterloo (Canada), at Jane Bond, 11/23;
Toronto, at El Mocambo, 11/24;
Montreal, at Jailhouse, 11/25;
New York, at Fez, 11/26;
New York, at Fez, 11/27

(Tour with Momus and Kahimi Karie)

2000

New York, CMJ Festival at Fez 10:08 ;
Brooklyn, at Good/Bad Art 10/12 ;
New York, at Knitting Factory 10/13 ;
New York, at Void 10:14

2001

New York, CMJ Festival, at Fez, 10:12

2002

Montreal, at Jupiter Room, 09/28;
Ottawa, at Cafe Deckuf with Pierre Crube 10/01;
Quebec, at Le Temps Partiel, 10/02;
Kingston, at Scherzo Pub, 10/03;
Toronto, at Victory Cafe, 10/04;
Waterloo, at Jane Bond, 10/05

(Tour with Montag)