The Guardian posted a tribute to a bongo-playing physicist the other day, with the subhed "Flowers, music, strip clubs...Richard Feynman's scientific curiosity knew no bounds." Linked to a cute cartoon video based on a 1981 BBC documentary, it gives a sense of the man as a fabulous paradox. Which is perfectly illustrated in the video by Feynman's gravelly voiceover. Speaking with a heavy New Yawk accent that tells us he's a streetwise city boy through and through, the Nobel laureate extolls "the wonders of science contained within a simple … [Read more...]
Can a Royal Party Boy Really Change His Stripes?
May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
So how do you, in the words of Heathcote Williams, "turn a plutocratic oaf into a lovable national treasure instead of a casually racist and unthinking parasite"? With difficulty. Unless you can get the press behind you and send Prince Harry on an American tour. Trouble is, during Harry's former deployment in Afghanistan, as Williams points out in the video posted by "Stop the War Coalition," the so-called warrior prince slaughtered 34 Afghanis in a remote control air attack and was "then thought to have boasted of it" at a London night … [Read more...]
Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
May 16, 2013 by 3 Comments
I knew my friend Bill Osborne and Samuel Beckett had met and spoken about Osborne's musical settings of Beckett's plays. But I had never heard the details. Now at last the full story! By William Osborne I spent seven years doing nothing else but setting the works of Beckett to music. At the end in 1987, I gathered up all the scores and some recordings of them I had, and dropped them into the mail box of his Paris apartment. I knew he was a recluse and a bit of a misanthrope. I figured I would never hear from him and just forgot about it. … [Read more...]
An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
May 14, 2013 by 5 Comments
!['Writers at Work' [From Gerard Bellaart's 'Superimpositions' series]](http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/writers-at-work-13not-I-150x150.jpg)
Following up on the previous blogpost, Gerard Bellaart sent a superimposition of several lines on Beckett's short dramatic monologue "Not I." Bellaart also sent an excerpt from Michael Maier's paper, "GEISTERTRIO: Beethoven's Music in Samuel Beckett's 'Ghost Trio.'" To which, Bellaart says: "The debate as to whether music has the last word is rather like looking for reasons to believe in the absurd." … [Read more...]
An Epitaph for Our Golden Era
May 11, 2013 by 2 Comments
'Oh, this is a happy day. This will have been another happy day. After all. So far ..." … [Read more...]
Menu-Size Art: Quicker Than You Can Say Fast Food
May 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Cold Turkey Press has just put together a beautiful portfolio of menu-size collages by Norman O. Mustill dating from 1975, when Mustill sent them to Carl Weissner, who wanted to illustrate his German translation of Harold Norse's Beat Hotel with Mustill's artwork. Phew ... got that? Weissner didn't get the collages in time to make the publisher's deadline because Mustill was delayed by work on another project. So Weissner puts the collages in a drawer. Nobody sees them for the next 37 years except, it turns out, for three that are published in … [Read more...]
‘Sacred Elephant’ Is Coming to New York’s La MaMa
April 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
!['Sacred Elephant' by Heathcote Williams [Naxos]. Read, unabridged, by the author.](http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/SACRED-ELEPHANT-NAXOS-100.jpg)
I haven't seen much theater lately, for reasons I may already have mentioned -- so much is dull dull dull -- but the dramatization of Heathcote Williams's epic poem, "Sacred Elephant," has got my attention as nothing has in years. The show, not yet officially announced, is coming in September to La MaMa's First Floor Theatre on Manhattan's Lower East Side. It is to star Jeremy Crutchley, reprising an acclaimed solo performance, which originated last year in Cape Town, South Africa. "Sacred Elephant" is the second of four epic poems that … [Read more...]
‘Gossip Column’ Cut-Up by Rooney & Beiles
April 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Found in a drawer 44 years later. Still funny, too. And maybe you'll recognize the references. Click the photos if you don't know who they are. I almost forgot Dick Rover. … [Read more...]
Topor Nails It: Drone Attack Avant la Lettre
April 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
And for further edification, there's "A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood" about the "origins of the C.I.A.'s drone war in Pakistan" by Mark Mazzetti and "Targeted Killing Comes to Define War on Terror," about the policy of the "drone campaign" by Scott Shane. They're part of a continuing NY Times series. Mazzetti's latest tells "how a single spy helped turn Pakistan against the United States." … [Read more...]
Death of a Mensch, Roger Ebert, R.I.P.
April 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Rick Kogan has written a fine obituary, "A film critic with the soul of a poet," with a beautiful lede: It was reviewing movies that made Roger Ebert as famous and wealthy as many of the stars who felt the sting or caress of his pen or were the recipients of his televised thumbs-up or thumbs-down judgments. But in words and in life he displayed the soul of a poet whose passions and interests extended far beyond the darkened theaters where he spent so much of his professional life. Kogan, at the Chicago Tribune for many years now, used … [Read more...]
‘Taking the Piss’ That May Pass for Shakespeare
April 4, 2013 by 1 Comment
!['Nubbing' by Heathcote Williams [Cold Turkey Press, 2013] folio front cover](http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/NUBBING-1-150x150.jpg)
I spent more than a decade reviewing theater for a major metro daily and I'd never heard the term "nubbing (or taking the piss)." Hmmph. Heathcote Williams shows how it's done in a sweet folio about to be published by Gerard Bellaart's Cold Turkey Press. As my good friend N.O. Mustill says via email, "me nostrils flare, aquiver at the delicious line: 'Lest wind-filled sprites bequim the air.'" Sometimes an actor will find himself on stage Having forgotten what he’s meant to say. He’s dried completely; his prompter’s in the … [Read more...]
N.O. Mustill’s ‘Critic’ Lowers the Boom, Whimsically
March 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
If I said I put him in a class with the great collagists dating back through the 20th century (like Hausmann, Heartfield, or Höch) -- which I do -- he'd laugh at the presumption. But anyone who has seen Flypaper, his book of demonic collages in black and white, or the huge collages in blazing color that hang on the walls of his desert lair, would know what I'm saying. Not many have seen his work because he refused to play the art game. He has shunned publicity and guards his privacy to an extreme. You certainly won't find much about him on the … [Read more...]
‘Peter Bayliss and the Breatharians’
March 22, 2013 by 1 Comment
The obituary in The Telegraph, in 2002, said: "He wanted no memorial, but his near-lunatic appetite for life will be impossible to forget." The poet Heathcote Williams certainly remembers Peter Bayliss. He remembers, too, "the Bayliss Mischief" that "might still be working / From beyond the grave." Here given their due are the vaunted philanthropic celebrities of our time (Karl Marx aside), memorialized for their various hypocrisies: Bill Gates, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, Mother Theresa, Lady Gaga, Bob Geldof, not to mention the … [Read more...]
Iraq Invasion Time Capsule: March Madness Redux
March 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment
This is the week to remember the "The Ides of March, 2003." Can't let it pass without recalling what I posted at the time on MSNBC.com, links included. (Miracle of miracles, many still work). Looking back, I see the posts are very tame. I tried not to be, but I knew I could go only so far. Most of the stuff did not sit well with certain company-minded bosses to whom I reported. I was never asked to take a particular point of view, but I was called on the carpet for the viewpoint I took. They wanted me to stick strictly to entertainment … [Read more...]
Kid Congo & The Pink Monkeybirds: ‘Conjure Man’
March 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I think of it as "Four Notes and the Dreamachine." … [Read more...]
MacFadyen Takes ‘Front Porch’ Look at Burroughs
March 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
![Detail of shot canvas [Photo: Eric Andersen]](http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/shot-detail-150x150.jpg)
I knew when RealityStudio posted Ian MacFadyen's review of "The Name Is Burroughs: expanded media at the ZKM, Karlsruhe," that it would be a major critique. I had already read his "Codename Burroughs," the pamphlet that accompanied the retrospective, which was excerpted from a more complete text in MacFadyen's book, William S. Burroughs. Cut. With his usual brilliance and lucidity he had made it plain as day what Burroughs was up to, especially in the "third mind" cut-up collaborations with Brion Gysin. Furthermore, when I read the complete … [Read more...]
Now for Something from the Lookalikes Department
March 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Ben Schot's drawing, "Study of Majesty" -- executed on the stationary of LES FREGATES Hotel **NN Restaurant, which the Dutch artist uses as a "conceptual constant" for all his drawings -- was not separated at birth from Picasso's "She-Goat." But they look a helluva lot like fraternal twins. I'd say they make a lecherous brother and sister. … [Read more...]
Red Factory Newspaper, Zurich, Special Issue
March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
![Rote Fabrikzeitung, Special Issue in Memory of Carl Weissner [March 6, 2013] Click to download the complete issue.](http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/CW-RFZ-Memorial-Issue-150x150.jpg)
Click to download a PDF of the complete issue. It's in German and English. … [Read more...]
More from the Comparative Obscenities Department
March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
And here's a Topor bonus. … [Read more...]
From the ‘Let Us Compare Obscenities’ Department
March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The other day a call went out for "comparative obscenities" to add to the literary examples by Bukowski and Catullus. One reader obliged by sending a drawing by Topor, whom he regards as a "sheer genius." Straight Up's staff of thousands agrees and decided to pair Topor's drawing with one of Tomi Ungerer's. (And here's a Topor bonus.) … [Read more...]
Recent Comments
Jan Herman on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
Done. Thanks for the catch.George Butler on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
One more typo to clean up: In the caption under the video link above--to Abbie performing as "Winnie"--her last...william osborne on Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne
Thank you for this, Jan. You are too kind. The "Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne" is hilarious.Jan Herman on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
I disagree, Bill. If your reminiscence about Beckett is any measure, I think you should always write blog comments...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
Actually, I wasn’t referring to Gerard’s comment. In fact, I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t do the additional scroll...Jan Herman on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
Dear Bill -- Now at last the full story! Danke. Merci. I knew you and Beckett had met and...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
One other little thing I forgot. In return for my gift, Beckett wanted to give me tickets to a...william osborne on An Absurd Debate About the Last Word
An interesting topic for me, since I spent seven years doing nothing else but setting the works of Beckett to...Jan Herman onAn Epitaph for Our Golden Era
Thanks, Bill. It puts more light on things. Less irony.william osborne onAn Epitaph for Our Golden Era
“That’s what I find so wonderful, that not a day goes by, to speak in the old style, hardly a...