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Eyes glazed insanely behind tiny gold-rimmed greaser shades, screaming gibberish….

Jon Hassel concert in Paris, 1984, after the justly celebrated album Power Spot came out. Palm trees on stage, beautiful small theatre. My girlfriend of the time Lisa said ‘don’t look now but guess who’s right behind us.’ Mr. Brian Eno was sitting behind us. Afterwards, said a quick hello. A snippet from a life in the bush of ghosts. Of late, listening to Neroli, On Land and Shutov Assembly, none of them recent but all recommended. Hassel’s and Eno’s collaboration Fourth World v.1: Possible Musics must to this day and well into the future remain one of the finest ambient records ever conceived.

Conducting research on CM in Paris in July 1991, I was at the Vidéothèque de Paris watching his film Le Fond de l’Air est Rouge (aka Cat Without a Grin) when i took a coffee break in the cafe there. My heart beat faster as I spotted the man himself in the corner of the cafe. He went to a press conference and we met back a bit later to talk (my french quite rusty). I admired his watch, a time travel piece imported from the year 4001.

I saw him one other time at the San Francisco Int. Film Festival after a screening of The Last Bolchevik. Later we communicated as I was building a CM website.

Recommended films, in no particular order: La Jetee; Sans Soleil; The Last Bolchevik; Level Five; If I Had 4 Camels; Letter from Siberia; The Koumiko Mystery; Chats Perchés; Le Fond de l’Air est Rouge; Slon Tango; Statues Also Die; One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich; Owls at Noon; À Valparaiso (writer); Far From Vietnam (omnibus film); Remembrance of Things to Come; Immemory (CD-ROM).

My sister sees him in the hardware store. He’s building something too. I paid 200 dollars for a ticket to see him at the Wiltern. It was 100 percent worth it. Bone Machine is a litmus test. Gun Street Girl can be played 100 times. He gave an interview once at It’s Tops, a small diner Market & Octavia where i used to eat breakfast. Like Chris Marker, he’s Big in Japan. Bitters and blue ruin…

What are your five favorite watches of all time?

Peter Gabriel came to visit at Interval Research in Palo Alto circa 1995. He was charming. We presented to him and he presented to us. He has an enormous presence and humility at the same time.