So brightly blisters the great regurgitating ribbon of the Thames. Sculls skim through like springtime swallows. Keels kiss tidal scum, lancing the stolen sun -- boils or bops to a stop, as in The bee on wheels has laments on a stick Wags weepy banners with gypsy ribbons ... The tiny wheeled bee has the sky on a stick Idly waves as she buzzes through the afternoon Kicking the tears around like bean tins. Now click to listen to this: … [Read more...]
‘Street Gangs of the Lower East Side’
It's rare that the tireless staff of thousands agrees to post a guest review. But there are exceptions. Review by Jerome Sala The Street Gangs of the Lower East Side offers a provocative eyewitness history of gang culture in the context of the whole diverse, eccentric and sometimes revolutionary LES scene of the '70s through the early '90s. More than that, however, the book contains revelatory moments that make you realize that gangs, though often perceived as something “other” and consigned to the outer darkness of the outlaw world, are … [Read more...]
The Evil Wind
It was a year ago today. But they soldier on. Alles wandelt sich. Neu beginnen Kannst du mit dem letzten Atemzug. Aber was geschehen, ist geschehen. Und das Wasser Das du in den Wein gossest, kannst du Nicht mehr herausschütten. Was geschehen, ist geschehen. Das Wasser Das du in den Wein gossest, kannst du Nicht mehr herausschütten, aber Alles wandelt sich. Neu beginnen Kannst du mit dem letzten Atemzug. Bertolt Brecht … [Read more...]
In Case Facebook Is Watching
AP Photographer Nick Ut's famous Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam War photo illustrating the terror of war was censored for nudity by Mark Zukerberg's minions. Facebook deigned to restore the image to its site, but did not apologize. It issued instead a boilerplate claim that the image could have been mistaken for kiddie porn in some countries, proving that Facebook was one of them. "In this case," it added, "we recognize the history and global importance of this image in documenting a particular moment in time.” So helpful of them. Here's … [Read more...]
Leonard Weinglass, Our ‘Modern Clarence Darrow’
Other defense attorneys may have been more famous -- William Kunstler, for example -- but radical leftists of a certain age remember the late Leonard Weinglass with special feeling. On the back cover of Seth Tobocman's graphic biography Len, A Lawyer in History, the publisher's description says (and I believe every word of it): "In a field dominated by egomaniacs, Weinglass was known for his humility, his common touch, his ability to work collectively, his kindness, and his attention to detail." Not least, he was also known for his legal … [Read more...]
The Dark Side of Boris Johnson
Back in April, before the Brexit vote, Heathcote Williams wrote a merciless pamphlet, subtitled "A Study in Depravity," about the most notorious cheerleader for the British exit from the European Union. Completely factual, replete with scores of footnotes, it was circulated to friends and then taken up by the London Review of Books, which republished it after the LRB's bookshop customers began asking for it. Of course it did no good. The "little Englanders" -- as Williams says Orwell "would doubtless have called the anxious xenophobes" -- won … [Read more...]
Image by Bellaart, Text by Beckett
'Well, hang it! That steals the pen from any writer's hand, and castrates the inkpot!' -- Malcolm Ritchie … [Read more...]
Still Counting . . .
And here's what your tax dollars could have paid for instead. Meanwhile, anybody who follows the news is familiar with the flight of Edward Snowden, who is arguably the most important whistleblower in American history for his massive leak of secret NSA documents. Even so, the Danish-made film "Chasing Edward Snowden" about the details of his risky escape from the U.S. to avoid arrest -- and, some have contended, possible assassination -- tells the story with an authority, clarity, and drama that make it too gripping to miss. It was recently … [Read more...]
Nuttall Show Comes With a Warning
The John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester is close to launching "Off Beat: Jeff Nuttall and the International Underground," a comprehensive exhibition of artworks, writings, correspondence, books, and little magazines produced by or associated with an "all-round genius" whose stunning countercultural career half a century ago is little remembered today. Jeff Nuttall was a painter, poet, actor, and sculptor, a performance artist, pioneer of "happenings," cultural critic, and the author of nearly 40 books. The exhibition opens … [Read more...]
Not Franzen’s Kind of Birding
As told to me by Kurt Wold: One day Kurt came to dinner at the artist Norman O. Mustill’s house and noticed a birdcage. “Norm,” he said, “you have a bird!” He walked over to it and said, “Hi budgie, budgie.” To which a somewhat pathetic-looking, pale blue budgerigar grasped the bars of the cage, pulled his body as tight as he could to Kurt’s face, and announced: “Hi, I’m a homosexual.” Norm explained that the bird, which he’d named Sheldon Push, was so keen to talk it only took him 20 minutes of repetition to nail down a phrase. He would hang … [Read more...]
Total Obscenity of the American Dream
Heathcote Williams's verse polemic delivered by Alan Cox. "Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton -- A Foaming Sleazeball from Hell versus An Iron Lady, Hands Dripping with Blood" And now for the video: … [Read more...]
Trump Wrestles for President
A friend tipped me to this video. It's no secret. Hundreds of thousands of viewers have seen it, but I hadn't. My friend also sent along his comment: How could the man in this video be a presidential candidate? Our media has debased people with trash for half a century and has shaped what we have become as a nation. Trump’s fear-mongering is a natural result of our political system and culture. When the hyped-up Cold War ended, we moved on to the hyped-up War On Terror. Uniting people through fear and bigotry has been a central … [Read more...]
East-West Mash-Up, Hokusai Meets Wright
Not many people know that Richard Wright, renowned for his 1940 novel Native Son, and his 1946 autobiography Black Boy, wrote thousands of haikus -- about four thousand actually -- all of them in France, in self-imposed exile from the United States, during the last 18 months of his life. Wright prepared 817 of them for publication in 1960, the year he died -- but except for a few they remained unpublished until 1998 when his selecton finally appeared in print (with an introduction by his daughter Julia Wright) in Haiku: This Other World. … [Read more...]
A Piece of Zen Music Called ‘Pond’
When I heard it for the first time, I didn't know what to make of it. I thought of it as a demonstration of the trombonist's virtuosity. Then I read the composers' general description of the piece, explaining its origin, in 1976, and how it was composed. "Pond" was first performed in 1977 at the Manhattan School of Music. Now they've recorded it in a new performance at their studio in Taos, New Mexico. At the time of its creation, we were studying Zen Buddhism, and were especially involved with the Zen shakuhachi master Goro … [Read more...]
Rugged Norwegian Art Show by War Vets
While traveling recently in Norway, I came across "Camouflage," a group exhibition by military veterans of wars and other armed conflicts that doubled as a form of therapy. It was presented in Bergen, Norway's second largest city, and was curated by Per Ruttledal with the assistance of Suellen Meidell and Robert Rodrigues. Meidell told me she had served with the Norwegian military in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2007, as part of a NATO force-protection unit. Because I could not record the sound track on her video, which could only be heard on … [Read more...]
‘Dadaglobe’: Art for Dada’s Sake
Although "Dadaglobe Reconstructed" at MoMA is a magnificent project of deep-dive reclamation, the catalogue that recreates Tristan Tzara's never-realized Dadaglobe anthology also recreates the limitations of Tzara's original concept. The catalogue is printed as he would have done it -- in black and white. I prefer seeing the works submitted to him in their original form. Francis Picabia's "Pharmarcie Duchamp$," for example . . . . . . or Sophie Taeuber's "Dada Composition (Flat Head / tête au plat)." As the curators point out, a … [Read more...]
Dubuffet’s ‘Welcome Parade’ on Park Ave.
I was drifting down Park Avenue last night on my way to hear a talk on Buckminster Fuller by Jonathon Keats, when I came across Jean Dubuffet's huge "Welcome Parade" of "pathetic monsters." Both the piece and the placement -- the sheer incongruity on that stretch of Manhattan pavement -- made me smile. But whatever the intent, it put me in the proper mood to hear all about Bucky's nutty brilliance. Keats is the author of You Belong to the Universe, a meditation about Fuller's ambitious, visionary work as a frequently self-deluded … [Read more...]