omigod i've got to interview and write about daniel johnston

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what am i going to say?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: "So...how's things?"

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

"Daniel Johnston, do you like Hitler?"

― Nicole (Nicole), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

i could say: DO YOU NEED YOUR CAT PUT TO SLEEP? BECAUSE YOU KNOW I CAN DO THAT FOR YOU. And don't say anything for the rest???

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: "So did you see that giant octopus that just washed up in Chile? Pretty neat, huh?"

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:45 (twenty-two years ago)

DANIEL JOHNSTON - DO YOU LIKE MEAT?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

who's Daniel Johnston?

― phil jones (interstar), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

ARE YOU AWARE OF THE MATRIX?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"so, that scoutt niblet eh?"

then wink furiously

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: "When you were premier of Quebec, did you have any idea that the you would get blamed when the Nordiques eventually left town and then won the Stanley Cup their first year in Colorado?"

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i am torn between seeing him or marclay/beresford tomorrow

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you aware of the danger that I am in? Will you help me?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: "Are you a misogynist?"

― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Daniel Johnston, have you ever read Charles Bukowski while listening to Tom Waits while nursing a Bloody Mary?

― maria b (maria b), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: Can you give Cozen a job? *then pushes David in front of me* Well? Can you?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Ask him about Cape Breton or the rest of the Maritimes or photography versus painting.
My friend has some very, very, very nice photos of him but that friend is also a bit of a prick.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: Why is Mr Noodles friend such a prick?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

"what's this about a duet with Sean Connery?"

― rumple, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: Do you like Bruce Springsteen?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Don't say that, he likes this guy very much. I can't remeber but I think that little set of shows was with Bob Wiseman, which would have just been oddness squared.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: "How much you think it costs to fill this baby up? Less than you think, I bet."

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Q: Will you help me build a monorail in my small town?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

What ever happed to the Toronto Zoo monorail?

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 3 July 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

"Can I borrow a crayon?"

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 3 July 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Whatever happened to the monorail in New Haverbrook? ;-)

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 3 July 2003 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

There ain't no monorail, and THERE NEVER WAS!!!1!

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I think this is the part where I come in all sour-faced and say "yeah, it'd be totally hilarious to just fuck with the guy, I mean his whole schtick is obviously a put-on and he hasn't actually spent half his life battling for dignity in Texas psychiatric facilities, and he certainly hasn't been trotted out like a geek in a cage nearly enough for the edification of indie fans whom just last week I saw cheering every time he'd make a mistake, and gosh isn't it intense & funny how cra-zee Daniel is!"

We talked briefly last week, he's doing pretty well; his family was with him in Paris and were very protective. I'm not familiar with his relation to his family lately, though I know that as of "Keep Punching Joe" he was a little angry at them. I'd be most interested in hearing what he has to say about his audiences - whether he thinks about how they're reacting to his stuff, whether he feels like people understand what he's trying to do, and what exactly is he trying to do? But then again I am a humorless twat.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

err...john who referenced anything about mental problems? i get giddy and silly like this before i interview anyone. and i come up with the same silly questions. it's, i dunno, fun?

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/j/johnston_daniel-02/

I think this says a lot about his personality.. just go from there

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

john, when first was going to meet up with b*bby g*llispie - i wrote an email describing what precautions needed to be taken if he suddenly ATTACK ME with a knife.

oh fuck it. i'm not going to interview DJ. john's put me off. i'll just do the review.

: - (

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

because obviously, he's sick and obviously, he can't be treated LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE. god, that attitude bites my ass.

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry Doomie I am just way overzealous in wanting people not to go "check out the crazy guy" - these guys in Paris wanted to argue about Daniel Johnston all night* & my little hissyfit above is just leftovers

*I mean this literally

xpost - but of course he oughtn't be treated like everybody else! You wouldn't take a person with broken feet out onto a soccer field and drop him right into the middle of the action, and you don't assume that people whose psyches are ultra-fragile are up for the same sort of mindplay that most of us are!

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

john, do you really think i was going to ask daniel johnston any of those questions? i thought it obvious that it was a joke. joking about does not automatically equate - why, they are all laughing at dj. no, it's about laughing about how ridiculously happy and ridiculous i feel about writing about dj. which was one thing i've always wanted to do but never found the words to express it properly. 'hey joe' is one of the most beautiful songs i've ever heard. i played it incessantly after my mother died. 'hey joe', 'god only knows' and elliott smith's figure eight. so, i'm going to walk in and go SO DANIEL - DO YOU LIKE MEAT? come on, man. that was me being HAPPY.

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry doomie I took it the wrong way!!! :(

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

so, you're saying we SHOULDN'T mind if he asks to play with the scissors?

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

mom, they're baiting me

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

troll, troll, troll, troll,
trollin' down the road...

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:54 (twenty-two years ago)

that' cool john. i know you are a cat with daniel's best interests at heart.

john's not a troll!!! aw kerrist. whenever i'm happy on ilx it turns CONTROVERSIAL! yes, i'm a weirdo! i'll admit.

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

hurrah for resolution!

Doomie for some people a troll is anyone who's willing to get into a fite over something or who posts anything longer than two lines, so yes, I'm headin' down back under my bridge

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 3 July 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

say high to Anthony & Flea for me.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 3 July 2003 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

For a guy who just finished wrongly callin' me a troll, that was pretty funny, I gotta admit

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 3 July 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

that was purdy funny!

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

actually, i was referring to myself as a troll, what with my scissors line.

snip snip snip
http://www.digitalprozac.com/images/gallery/moviepics/lebowski/30.jpg

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Thursday, 3 July 2003 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

oh no not the scissors man! from the german childrens novel and doom patrol comic book? yikes!

― doom-e, Thursday, 3 July 2003 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Now that the thread's redeemed itself and everyone's happy again, I have to come in here and ask something annoying: what is this whole thing with Daniel Johnston? I mean, I know he's a diagnosed manic (bipolar, whatever) depressive and shit, but why is it always referenced whenever he's mentioned (yeah, I know I'm continuing the grand tradition here myself)? There seems to be this kind of weird feeling or attitude that people with mental illnesses are less likely to create art, and when they do it oughta be celebrated more. I think that's an odd attitude. Mentally ill people have created some of the most enduring and compelling art on the planet, for centuries (as long as they weren't executed for being "possessed", that is), so why are we surprised any more?

On a mundane level, many of us have emotional/mental illness. Why the almost condescending hyping of Johnston's disorder? I'm not saying anyone on this thread is doing that, just a wider question that continues to bug me.

― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 3 July 2003 23:04 (twenty-two years ago)

David, it is probably because in this case the illness seems to define the nature of the music. Arguably, this occurs with the music of every songwriter, but yet somehow it seems different in this case because the qualities are somewhat unusual. Nevertheless, I am very sympathetic to what you're saying.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Friday, 4 July 2003 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not sure that all of Daniel's eccentricities can be attributed to bipolar disorder.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 4 July 2003 01:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a tough question, isn't it?

For instance, I have a close friend who was diagnosed with the same disorder, and we used to put a lot of his behaviours down to his illness. Then it turned out he'd been misdiagnosed (after years of lithium and blood work and two hospitalizations) and he wasn't bipolar at all, but an alcoholic. So, do you look back at all the wild stuff, the fun stuff, the hurtful stuff, and see it differently now? (And if he had produced some form of celebrated art, would that hindsight have changed how it was received?)

And I keep going back to: who among us has avoided some kind of emotional disturbance? It's not that uncommon, really.

I think I get it that DJ's music does have a very odd quality, that is perhaps a few degrees more strange even than (for example) Chan Marshall's work, but... I almost don't know how to ask what I'm groping blindly for... I reviewed his last CD, for instance, and in that review I threw into the ring that nagging sense that people (fans, critics, music industry people) are mistaking the mentally ill with the mentally challenged -- that they're astonished that some (and I apologise for the word ahead of time, but I don't know how else to capture this attitude that I only suspect anyway) retarded dude actually makes this strange, compelling music. Am I making any sense, or should I shut the fuck up now?

― David A. (Davant), Friday, 4 July 2003 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Have him draw on you, and then have it tattooed in. That's what I'm going to do if I ever meet him.

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Friday, 4 July 2003 04:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Ask him if he remembers my girlfriend. He came and played here (newport, ky) and we (Me or the Moon) opened for him, and it was a bit of a dream come true for me. He's a pretty strange fella to be around, but for the most part he was very friendly, and always a bit nervous. I brought him a kalimba as a gift, and it was pretty cool, he really seemed delighted with it.

As for some of the problems people have with exploitation (both of Daniel and of wanna-be hipsters....poor hipsters!),,,,,I always say that DJ's music isn't for everybody, and I can't really blame someone if they can't sit thru more than 2 minutes of Songs of Pain. all i can say is that i'd be a very different person if it weren't for his music, and life would make even less sense.

Anyhow, after his set, i went and took a whiz, and was coming back to the merch table to find him rapping with my girlfriend!! We all ended up going out to eat, and Dan was hitting on her the whole time, so watch out, that daniel, he's a smoothie....

― wallace newport, Friday, 4 July 2003 06:11 (twenty-two years ago)

when i was in austin it was strange to see the hi how are you cover stencilled onto the side of a building.

1990 is my favourite

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 4 July 2003 08:19 (twenty-two years ago)

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