* “Summoned” comes from Situationist Ralph Rumney’s account of the trip.
† Cyrus’s description of Cosio d’Arroscia is partially based on his examination of Rumney’s pictures, and partially based on his own visit to the small city in the summer of 2011. At the time, Cyrus was in a long-distance relationship with his partner, Woodyard. The two had spent every summer together in New York, and their summers were an important cornerstone in their relationship. Cyrus chose to spend two and half weeks in Italy finishing his book during the summer of 2011. That constituted the first time Cyrus had chosen his work over his relationship, which Woodyard considered a betrayal. Cyrus considered the trip a test. He later regretted gambling with his relationship. If he had known what would happen, he would’ve conducted himself differently, and you wouldn’t be reading this book. — CD
‡ During his trip, Cyrus took a photo of the plaque in the pub, it says, in French of course: “Guy Debord and the Situationists drank here during the founding of the Situationist International.” Cyrus also visited the nursing home that had once been the SI’s hotel, and reports that it smelled like old bandages and rotting seaweed. — CD
§ I walked the same streets as Debord and the others. Walking with them, separated only by time, was much like writing this book. Any place the Situationists had walked, so had Molly, then Taer, then me. I followed them — away from Woodyard, but toward the end of this book. [This footnote was the last thing Cryus wrote when putting together this book. — CD]
ǁ Simon Sadler, The Situationist City (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998), 77.
a “Formulary for a New Urbanism” was actually first written and published in 1953, four years before the Situationist International formed, when Chtcheglov and Debord were both members of a predecessor to the Situationist International called the Letterist International. Chtcheglov was only nineteen at the time of writing, and he published the piece under his pseudonym Gilles Ivain as part of a continued effort to devalue the relevance of a single author of an idea. Although the piece received high praise when it was first published, the 1958 reprinting of the essay in the first issue Situationist journal Internationale Situationniste is what gave the essay a lasting influence and historical relevance. Think of Blondie’s 1978 hit “Hanging on the Telephone.” Many people didn’t know that song is a cover, originally written by Jack Lee and recorded in 1976 for his power pop band The Nerves. The quality of the original recording — and it really is very good — is overshadowed by the overwhelming response to the cover. Without the success of the Blondie version, it’s possible that The Nerves, and their fantastic, perpetually relevant song of universal yearning, would’ve been forgotten by all but music obsessives.
b McKenzie Wark, 50 Years of Recuperation of the Situationist International (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008), 7.
c Mark Wigley, “The Great Urbanism Game,” in Architectural Design 41, No. 3 (2001): 9.
d Although the author of the piece was never identified, more likely than not Bernstein wrote it, or else she had a strong editing hand in it.
e Guy Debord, Correspondence: The Foundation of the Situationist International (June 1957–August 1960), trans. Stuart Kendall and John McHale (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2009), 12.
f Correspondence, 42.
g “The City of the Future,” in Haagse Post 102, No. 12 (1966): 126.
h The Situationist City, 12.
i Correspondence, 145.
j While Cyrus was writing about Debord’s decline, his relationship with Woodyard ended. Apparently, when Woodyard came to visit campus, during a small gathering of faculty, Cyrus spilled a glass of red wine on Woodyard’s signed copy of The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, then called Lydia Davis “fake profound.” According to my ex-roommate Rachel (who overheard an adjunct professor mention it to her boyfriend while Rachel was waiting for the adjunct’s office hours to begin), Woodyard thought Cyrus had spilled the wine intentionally and then Cyrus passive-aggressively brought up the fact that Woodyard hadn’t yet published a book. When I spoke to Cyrus weeks later, he told me he and Woodyard broke up on that trip, while Woodyard was still on campus. — CD
k Thanks to Woodyard for help with the translation, and for the Centre George Pompidou for providing a copy of the letter.
l As CNN called it. — CD
m This particular piece of information about Molly’s teenage obsession comes from Berliner. Cyrus stitched together the story of her upbringing using information from Molly’s magazine profiles and interviews with her family and former teachers. — CD
n Correspondence, 164.
o Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (Detroit: Black & Red, 1983), section 60.
p Molly’s early artistic output, especially the images of herself she and others produced in the months before and after Cause Célèbrety was released, also concerned itself with the problematic distinction between highbrow and lowbrow. One of my favorite images of Molly Metropolis is an animated gif of her wearing a white V-neck T-shirt with words projected onto her stomach, one after another, forming the phrase OPERA IS LOWBROW, EAT POP INSTEAD. Molly looks very young in the gif; it was built from a video she shot in late 2007 or early 2008.
q Kate Durbin, “From Célèbrety to Apocalypse: Molly Metropolis and the Evolution of Identity,” Molly Skyscraper, December 29, 2009; mollyjournal.blogspot.com/2009/12/from-celebrety-to-apocalypse.html.
Chapter 6
After Molly’s disappearance, the fifty dancers, musicians, roadies, assistants, and “Governing Council” members that made up Molly’s tour machine drifted around Chicago for a few weeks. SDFC put them up in a Holiday Inn while everyone waited for news. In late January, when hope that Molly would reemerge was still alive, but the financial burden of supporting her tour became too frustrating for SDFC to stomach, the record company dismissed the crew. Berliner’s dancer ex-girlfriend, Irene Davis, took the Amtrak to Romulus, where her parents had retired. She planned on staying for a few days, but while she was visiting her mother slipped, fell down a flight of stairs, and broke her neck. Davis remained in Michigan after the funeral.
Meanwhile, Taer read about the Situationists for days before she got bored and tired of research. She liked absorbing the same knowledge as Molly Metropolis, but knowing what Molly knew wouldn’t help her find Berliner. She pestered Nix for suggestions on how to proceed. Nix proposed that they speak to Davis, because she had dated Berliner for six months. Nix called Davis. Though she refused to talk over the phone or to leave Romulus, Davis agreed to chat with them if they came to her.
Taer and Nix rode north on a freezing Metra train. Taer wrote in her shaky train handwriting: “Gina wants me to stop, but it would feel like I was abandoning [Molly]. I know it’s presumptuous to think that she’d want me to be looking for her, or that I have a responsibility to find her, but I feel like I’m in too deep. Even though I’m not really in anything. I mean, I could drop it, but then I would never stop thinking about her.”