The Great Depression

[imomus]

You meet a friend and chat for an hour. Have you ever wondered how many pages that would fill, if every word of it were printed in a magazine? How many words would that be?



I can answer those questions, approximately, because this is exactly what happened when I met and interviewed Mike Mills in late January. We spoke for about an hour, with never a dull moment, and I recorded and transcribed the whole thing, and now (well, Tuesday May 5th, to be precise) it's forty pages and seven thousand words in the new edition of 032c magazine.

Mike spoke a lot about depression, in both its meanings -- in the personal, medical sense, and in the social, historical sense ("the Great Depression"). He spoke about discovering his father was gay when his dad -- a museum director -- came out in his seventies. That's the subject of his next film, in fact. He also answered my questions about his documentary about depression in Japan, Does Your Soul Have A Cold?

The new 032c will surely sell like hot cakes. Not because of Mike Mills talking about the two meanings of depression, but because of the visual pep of Agyness Deyn getting naked for Alistair McLellan's camera. Not a bad pick-me-up, really.

Comments

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Did you ask him what his favourite colour was? Did you ask him what breed of dog he'd like to be if he was forced to become a dog? Did you ask him if he liked your shoes?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Blue, pug, and no.

Maybe, it can't hurt, and it is a sunny day, try again?

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, I read with interest the comments you made about so-called "literary" UK songwriter peers. Some glaring omissions which would be nice to hear your views on:

Mark E. Smith
Terry Hall
Jarvis Cocker
David Gedge
Julian Cope
Lawrence

I was wondering what you make of the works by these less "indie" male songwriter artists:

Ali Campbell
Roland Orzabal
Nik Kershaw
Nick Heyward
Colin Vearncombe

Re: Maybe, it can't hurt, and it is a sunny day, try again?

[(Anonymous)]

ill speak on behalf of momus using the old art of second guessing. adopting well spoken clear diction .
mark e smith..mmm lets see a bit working class,common and wears terrible clothes.(once married to that desperate fashion fool brix)
terry hall .........mmmm see above only slightly better clothes.also desperately trading on past glory's.
jarvis cocker....see my film "man of letters"..enough said
david gedge....meat and potatoes...the reliable if somewhat aesthetically drab indie perennial.
julian cope....means well but oh you know......likes stones and things
larwence....oh yes the felt man..vaguely know him a bit neurotic has a certain charrm but lacks my forward thinking,inovation and melodic sense,a decent fellow though.
i think ill leave the rest have conceptual tableauxs to critique.....mmmm excuse me

"...he's been standing there for the past three years yet none of you have noticed him..."

[(Anonymous)]

JG Ballard died, did you write something insightful about that yet? Did I miss it?

cs

Momus sets the trend: Michael Caine threatens to vanish to avoid paying tax

[(Anonymous)]

Champion of cheap, Michael Caine, is also a champion giving other people as little as humanely possible. Like Momus before him, he is threatening to vote with his feet if anyone makes him contribute further!

Phil Collins, Momus, and now Michael. Hurrah for the Far Left!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/budget/5219642/Sir-Michael-Caine-warns-further-tax-rises-will-force-him-to-move-abroad.html

[(Anonymous)]

In the world of tears and dreams Mike Mills would be a millionaire. In the real world his ideas are not worth half a packet of Shibuya street tissues. To me he invokes many of the worst qualities of self indulgent street artists; a novelty aesthetic barely sustained by facile concepts. Which seems unacceptable considering he is dealing with something as important and difficult as depression. I haven't read your article, but his previous works that addressed or touched on depression were almost insultingly saccharine (e.g. The 'Fireworks' and 'Rainbows' series of works for Nieves, Thumbsucker). Another west coaster projecting an overly friendly world of saturated colours and interpersonal 'issues'. What did i miss, where is the appeal? I can't figure out why many of the people i find interesting (Elein Fleiss, Here and There magazine, Yukinori Maeda, etc. etc.) promote him.

[caws-pobi.livejournal.com]

I <3 Aggy.

...Oh, and Momasu.