review of
Crispin Hellion Glover's Concrete Inspection
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - March 30, 2012

Warning to the reader of this review: all 3 of my reviews of Glover's bks begin w/ approximately the same contextualization. Otherwise, they aren't the same review.

I'm not very familiar w/ Crispin Hellion Glover's work. I've heard that he has a bit of a 'cult' following, I've heard that he was in some, by my standards, big budget films as an actor. I've seen a few of them: Back to the Future, River's Edge, The People vs Larry Flynt, & Alice in Wonderland - all of wch I've liked.

Then he was coming to one of the places where I work to perform & show his own films & I was to be the projectionist. I wondered: 'Will this guy be an arrogant megalomaniac asshole who's difficult to deal w/?' I read his rider. It wasn't too demanding, it was reasonable & professional. Still, it was either the 1st or one of the few riders I'd ever read for work & I started dreading the job. More stress that I don't need.

Then I met Glover & he was very friendly & likable. I watched him rehearse a bit w/ his Slide Show made from his bks. When we had a chance to talk, I mentioned Tom Philips' wonderful A Humament bk b/c of its similar techniques to Glover's own. & we talked a bit about Max Ernst's collage novels made from Victorian-era bk illustrations. Oddly, I didn't mention my own "Play Out Regress" in wch I extremely meticulously & methodically white-out the page of my high-school yrbk on wch my 16-yr-old encrypted self-description appeared. This piece, having been done in 1979, predates both Glover's work & Philips' 1980 publication date but doesn't work from Victorian novels & is far more conceptual & literary than it is aesthetic (as I wd argue both Philips' & Glover's work is).

Glover immediately offered me free copies of all the bks he had w/ him for sale. This astounded me b/c it was unexpectedly generous. It was then that I was sure that Glover's basic spirit is close to mine & that he isn't, indeed, 'Only In It for the Money'.

I phoned my girlfriend at home, knowing that she was coming to the show that nite, & asked her to gather materials that I cd give Glover in trade since I decided that his generosity shd be reciprocated in kind.

He performed his Big Slide Show wch consists of his standing audience-left to a projection of images from 8 or so of his bks. A sharp red spot is focused in such a way that his head & one gesturing arm are seen illuminated. Glover's delivery of the selected text is dramatic. This was an interesting way to experience the bks.

I decided to read Glover's bks in chronological order. That made Concrete Inspection the last of the ones I have. This one didn't remind me of Edward Gorey as had the other 2 b/c the pen & ink touches are no longer here. Instead, the altered opening & closing framing of the original textbk from 1909 is the main trace of the original bk - from wch some of the original fotos may remain. The style is much less biomorphic than the other 2 Glover bks I've reviewed (Oak Mot - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/158345.Oak_Mot Rat Catching - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13486422-rat-catching ).

Here, there're mainly rectangular fotos on black backgrounds w/ rectangular strips of white w/ short 'typewritten' texts written as if from the viewpoint of a child. It took me 6 minutes to read. I was glad that this was somewhat different from Rat Catching & Oak Mot but, of the 3, I liked Oak Mot the most.

Looking at other reviews of Glover's work I find that he is, indeed, very popular & that the reviews all seem to be by 'fans'. The fans seem to think that he's the pinnacle of eccentricity, weirdness, messed-upness, & brilliance. I have to say that I find the work to be fairly ordinary 'art' w/ little or no evidence of what the fans find there. I get the feeling that, as is typical of fandumb, there's alotof teeny-bopper sexual desire lurking in this worship. One reviewer describes him as "handsome, seemingly immortal" but then goes on to write an intelligent review. Another writes: "really really great, but better when read to you by Crispin Glover himself. in bed." I think it's too bad that eccentricity is largely defined for the general public by characters in Hollywood movies rather than the considerably more eccentric people in real life (who people are generally afraid of &/or ridicule). But, then, even the most 'non-conformist' of fans are usually conformist non-conformists dressing in the styles of their safe subcultures.

All in all, Glover's reworking seems fluid & playful rather than something made in pursuit of a rigorous intellectual end. However, Glover might see it otherwise. During his Q&A after his performances & screenings, he was prolific in his statements of purpose. I wasn't always convinced. What I was convinced of was that he was a nice guy.

Earlier in the day of his 2nd night of presentation, someone rammed my car as it sat parked in front of my house. Given that I live very close to the bone, this caused my stress to skyrocket. As such, I was a nervous wreck by that night. Glover's general niceness went a long way toward rectifying that.

Good luck to ya meatey!