"The evil which the curiosity about the past uncovers marches in accelerating pursuit of the horrors lurking in the present . . . " That comment by Cyril Connolly refers to a very different work from these two studies sketched by Gerard Bellaart for one of his paintings. But I can't help thinking it applies here. … [Read more...]
Drawing by Other Means
Ladies and Gentleman -- On the left, we have a collage by Max Ernst from Une semaine de bonté, a surrealist graphic novel published in 1934. Ernst reportedly made the entire book of collages in three weeks. A few of his sources were identified as illustrations from an 1883 novel by Jules Mary, Les damnées de Paris, and possibly a volume of works by Gustave Doré. Ernst used scissors and paper. Below, we have a collage titled "One Trip Pony." by Robert Schalinski. He made it last month for a book by Wolf Pehlke not yet published. Schalinski used … [Read more...]
Tax Cheat Circus King
A poem received from an unnamed source with an illustration from the NY Times. America’s top shitholer goes whole hog at the public trough, and never mind the rest of us, because that is the hog's nature. A silly grin when he licks his lips, a scowl like a lout's mustache— the toadstool dick, the hellish grunts, the squeals, the bogus outrage of the ring, all are brazen matches for his silly pompadour. … [Read more...]
‘A Whole New Order of Hidden’
A few excerpts from "Wooden Ships" by Malcolm Mc Neill that struck my indefatiguable staff of thousands, courtesy of IT: International Times, the Newspaper of Resistance: “The disclosure has begun of what was hidden from the first creation of the world,” wrote Peter Martyr when Columbus got back from his voyages. The creation of the modern world that is -- the “civilized” world that would become his Renaissance Europe. There would indeed be disclosure, but there would also be obfuscation and concealment, a whole new order of hidden. … [Read more...]
Long Before Cambridge Analytica
Specialists. There is no record of the long colloquies which took place between the founding fathers of CrossRoads Publishing, nor the long dreamy nights of investigation which must have preceded their collective action. We have only hearsay. But we suspect they first set up in London and it was not a particularly impressive address . . . With their lightning canvassers [they] decided to team up again in New York City -- considering themselves specialists in the rather peculiar votive trade of human forgery. -- excerpted from CUT UP OR SHUT … [Read more...]
‘It Could Bring You Back Alive’
Of all the heavy bombers that saw action during the Second World War, none earned as much admiration, gratitude, and affection from their crews as the B-17. It was durable, maneuverable, easy to fly. It was fast for its size and well-armed. It could bring you back alive even with its tail shot off, or with gaping holes blown in a wing, or with three of its four engines out and a fuselage ripped by hundreds of bullets. It could cruise six miles above the ground, beyond sight of the naked eye. It could dive at speeds of more than four hundred … [Read more...]
Are Pictures Worth More Than Words?
They are at The New York Times, it seems. My tut-tutting staff has noticed they have been for some time. Yesterday the print edition provided the most recent example in which the ratio of photo to text, for a book feature no less, is ridiculous. The subject of the article, having written an evocative novel, happens to be strikingly beautiful. But two posed photos, too? … [Read more...]
Weapons of Choice: Mustill’s MESSKIT
"Mess kit" is defined as "a portable set of usually metal cooking and eating utensils, used especially by soldiers and campers." For Norman O. Mustill, America's "messkit" consisted of silent weapons, play money, dancing the two-step, and industry in art. During the Vietnam War, when MESSKIT was published, that meant flamethrowers, napalm, Agent Orange, billions of wasted dollars, disastrous military strategy, torture and executions. No different from today, actually -- just add cyberweapons and other upgrades. MESSKIT front and back … [Read more...]
#MeToo: ‘The No Holes Bard’
A bit of bawdy verse-and-drawing by Heathcote Williams. With thanks to Jay Jeff Jones, who sent it along. … [Read more...]
Documentary Spotlight at NY Film Fest
A newly restored print of William Wyler's World War II air-combat documentary The Memphis Belle and Erik Nelson's new documentary The Cold Blue (created from recently discovered raw footage shot during the filming of Memphis Belle) are to be featured in screenings at the 56th New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center, accompanied by interviews with Erik Nelson and Catherine Wyler, the producer of the 1986 American Masters documentary about her father Directed By William Wyler. Click the images to enlarge them. "In February of 1943, Major … [Read more...]
She Knows the Nuances of No
Hanne Lippard updates Molly Bloom. Audio kicks in at 1:23 on the video track. Wait for it. Some on the staff here call it a #MeToo moment before its time. Maybe. But whatever it is, prick up your ears. … [Read more...]
Remembering Bukowski
The animation, directed by John Hodgson, dates to 1999. A tip of the hat to IT: International Times, The Newspaper of Resistance, for reminding us of it. The poem is included in The Last Night of the Earth Poems, published by HarperCollins in a 2009 reprint. The first edition was published in 1992 by Black Sparrow Press. the man with the beautiful eyes when we were kids there was a strange house all the shades were always drawn and we never heard voices in there and the yard was full of bamboo and we liked to play in … [Read more...]
50 Ways to See the Middle Ages
Our tireless staff of thousands is often asked to review all sorts of books, and from time to time one or another seems worth noting. This one, for example, by Elina Gertsman and Barbara H. Rosenwein. Since the staff knows much too little about the Middle Ages -- and even less about the 50 objects that the authors have chosen to explore from the European, Byzantine, and Islamic worlds of the Middle Ages -- it makes no sense to even attempt a review. Instead, to acknowledge that their lavishly illustrated work caught our eye, here is a notice … [Read more...]
Remembering Emmett Williams
These are not Fluxus poems. … [Read more...]
Hamilton & Beach, 32 Years Apart
Sweethearts. Click the images to enlarge them. … [Read more...]
Where Haughty Celia Sits
This poem was spurred by email exchanges among Liliane Lijn, Gerard Bellaart, and myself. It takes phrases from them and from the three sources noted below. The impulse to compose it arose from this blogpost. MUSE In the sawdust heart of a puppet world, where haughty Celia ingloriously sits, her failed prophecy is buried by time, perverted by history, displaced and forgot like a lost memorial to the living dark. Oh yes, Celia shits, the summit of it all, watered by the kind reverence of the blind. --JH Via … [Read more...]
Valedictory in a Taxi Cruising Slowly
"Here are Sinclair's 'Last Words,' written in Paris long before he would have been aware of any pressing need to devise a valedictory." -- HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS, from a tribute to Sinclair Beiles, in BONE HEBREW, a collection of Beiles's writings published in 2013, in a limited edition, by Cold Turkey Press. Let me utter my last words in a taxi cruising slowly Through the beautiful posies of neon signs. Let someone else die in my room on a turned mattress So it doesn't show stains. Let him savour the smell of it. The smell of old lemons … [Read more...]