#Louis CK

[animusrox]

David Lynch in "Late Show: Part 3" Louie (2010-2015)

[alexanderwales]

Art and the Artist

I generally prefer to read things without knowing much about the author. There aren't that many cases where it adds much to the work to know that they were a plumber before they got into writing, or that they immigrated from Jamaica, or that they served in World War II. To my thinking, a piece of media should stand on its own and not need the context of the author's life story. If you have to open up with "this story is about the Holocaust" then in my opinion, you've already failed as an author.

With that said, it's often inevitable. Sometimes it's just the nature of the work itself, and it would bleed into your understanding even if there weren't a little "about the author" blurb at the end. Sometimes a story is painful obvious in how personal it is, or the metaphor to the real world is so poignant that it's impossible not to make the connection. And sometimes you just get a sense of a person from their writing, particularly if you've read a lot of their writing. It can be the authorial voice you come to understand, the things they choose to show you, the way their mind works, and you think to yourself "yeah, I could get along with them".

And other times, you find yourself drawn to the author because they're the person who best knows their own work. A book leaves lingering questions, and it might be better for you to understand it by communing with other people, but the author is often right there, and you want to hear their takes on their own work, what they were thinking, what lies behind the scenes, the cut chapters and the ways the ending might have been different. You finish gobbling up what the author has prepared for you, and then you gobble up the scraps in the kitchen, and when that's not enough, you start gobbling up the author: you read interviews, you read their blog, you start as a fan of their work and become a fan of them.

Sometimes their understanding of their own work does not match your understanding, and that can be a little bit heartbreaking. Sometimes the stuff behind the curtain is awful and bad, worsening your enjoyment of the text because now it seems phony and poorly thought out. Sometimes an author turns out to be a piece of shit.

Usually, I can move past it. If I like a book or a movie, then I like it for the feelings that it produces in me, and the person who created it is irrelevant except maybe for the fact that they're getting $5 from me or whatever, which is not the level of microutilions that I generally worry about.

Sometimes it impacts my understanding of the work itself, casting a shadow over the things that I once felt, tainting the art.

I was a big fan of Louis CK. The self-deprecating humor did it for me, the introspection and irreverence, the way he was saying things that felt real and true, things that I had always noticed but never really considered. And of course I found him funny. But then there were allegations, and his mea culpa, and I stopped finding it funny. Partly that's because his comedy was autobiographical, so the taint was worse than it might have otherwise been, but part of it was the comedy itself: if the comedy rests on me recognizing myself in Louis CK's stories about himself, I'm going to be less able to do that if drawing those comparisons gives me a curdled milk feeling.

I was a fan of Buffy and Dollhouse and Firefly and Cabin in the Woods and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, and I think that these don't suffer nearly as much from being from the mind of Joss Whedon. It's easier to dissociate the stories from the man, and harder to read his personal shittery into the character arcs and setting details and elemental units of plot. Some of that is just the medium: comedy specials are the product of a singular vision, while television shows and movies are the result of team of people working together. Even then, I think shitty people can make good art, so long as they're good at separating their shiftiness from their art. Most people with a bit of awareness would do this naturally, I think: they know what's unpalatable, and present an image to the world, which also comes from the art they make.

Information about the artist informs a reading of the art, as much as we might try to have it not do that. I think some art survives revelations better than others. Someone who writes about murders being revealed as a murderer certainly seems like it would poison my enjoyment of their books. But it's the nature of art that's it's all pretend, and sometimes people don't create because they're spewing self-confession onto the page. Then, I think, you're usually safe.

I hadn't written this with Neil Gaiman in mind: it was sitting in my drafts folder, as so many posts are. But I think Gaiman's work will, for me, survive the accusations, even if the man himself is exiled. I'm certain there will be passages and plots that read differently, places where he can be seen defending himself, chapters that are now unseemly. But I think that for me, the stink of his crimes will wash off quickly, and I'm hopeful that unlike other cases, separating the art from the artist is easier for me.

[oldshowbiz]

Eric Tunney was a Canadian comedian poised to be the next big thing - but it never quite happened.

A close friend and contemporary of Norm Macdonald, Harland Williams, Paul F. Tompkins, Brent Butt and the Kids in the Hall, he appeared on a 1995 Young Comedians Special with fellow up and comers Dave Attell, Louis CK, and Dave Chappelle.

His friendship with Norm Macdonald was destroyed forever after Norm allegedly did one of Eric's lines on an episode of Letterman. Harland supposedly confronted Norm about it and that ended the friendship between Harland Williams and Norm Macdonald as well.

[correctopinionhaver]

[mercatpariah]

[threeamgirl]

I don't get it

Neil Gaiman is just the most recent example of men with any modicum of success or power thinking that they are entitled to women and other people's bodies. Nobody should be treated how some of the descriptions from the NY Mag article. Period. I don't care how rich or how empathic your writing is. Nobody is entitled to that.

How people get pleasure out of forcing someone to do something they are expressly saying they don't want to, especially in a sexual context, is mindboggling to me. Are they all psychopaths? Does fame and money turn you into a psychopath?

It is so fucking easy to not SA someone. Jesus fucking christ.

[ventiquattro3]

[espantajerias]

Jeremy Enecio: Louis CK / David Lynch.

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: The Secret Life of Pets

Rating: PG

Director: Chris Renaud

Cast: Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Albert Brooks, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan, Michael Beattie, Sandra Echeverría, Jaime Camil, Kiely Renaud

Release year: 2016

Genres: family, adventure, comedy

Blurb: The quiet life of Max the terrier is upended when his owner takes in Duke, a stray whom Max instantly dislikes.

[sosorrydad]

Guess I have to give it to Louis C.K. for introducing me to Joan Rivers in that Louie episode where she kicked him out of her Las Vegas hotal room for trying to hook up with her

[feedbaylenny]

What is conscience? Elusive in the media, unfortunately

It seems every day in the news, I read about another powerful man resigning, taking time off from a high-profile job, or under police investigation for inappropriate sexual conduct. The stories just keep coming, or the allegations against the men simply increase. CNN offered a list of recent cases more than a week ago, on Nov. 1. Spacey, via Clip Art In the news these days are Kevin Spacey,…

[zap-me-with-the-creamy-laser]

louisckx on IG

[redtwin]

Filming Louis CK in-studio.

[idioticeliza]

I enjoy randomly finding these scripts

   For this week’s Louis CK episode. Match.com parody.

[longlistshort]

Still from Mulholland Drive

Club Silencio scene with Rebekah Del Rio from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive

Today would have been artist and filmmaker David Lynch’s 79th birthday.

Although it was sad to hear of his passing, it was such a joy to spend the weekend looking through his artwork, reading the tributes from those who knew him, and rewatching his films and the documentary about him, The Art Life.

He also wrote Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, a short book filled with his thoughts on transcendental meditation, his films, digital video, creativity and more- worth checking out. Below is a short clip from one of his interviews with The Atlantic.

He also acted occasionally, both in his Twin Peaks series and in other projects. Below he plays another famous director, John Ford, in a clip from Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.

And here he is on Louis C.K.’s show Louie.

David Lynch’s creative legacy will continue to influence and inspire people for many years to come. He was one of the greats.