William Cody Maher & Signe Mähler "two people who have been living together for a long time have learned how to live together with the objects and the thoughts and the feelings that they have had for each other and when the thoughts and feelings and the rooms and the objects change and even the city changes and they cannot take all of the objects with them how could they transport all of the objects and now there are so many missing objects and there are more thoughts than there are objects and there are more questions than there are answers … [Read more...]
Yes, Please
Writer on a Rampage
In a tribute to the late German author Carl Weissner, who wrote experimental fiction in both English and German in addition to translating more than 100 books by dissident American and British authors, the literary scholar Tomasz Stompor delivered a paper on Weissner's novel, Death in Paris, at a recent meeting of the European Beat Studies Network. Here it is: Thoughts on Death in Paris – fiction, translation, violence, and locale by Tomasz Stompor Placed within the thematic focus of this year’s conference “collaboration, publication, … [Read more...]
Created Image = Moment in Time
Speaking of maps (per William Burroughs), Malcolm Mc Neill has something to say: MAPS from Malcolm Mc Neill on Vimeo. Music from "Elements" by Ludovico Einaudi. A CREATED IMAGE is the map of a moment in TIME, embedded within it are all the energies that occurred during its making: the sounds, the feelings, the people, the places, even the weather are locked inside it. When combined with others, images constitute a unique form of landscape. MAPS is an attempt to see the big picture, the sum of the parts, and to understand the nature … [Read more...]
Are You a Facebook Lemming?
I disliked Facebook from the very beginning. Resisted it at first. Refused to open an account. But everybody was using it, so I figured I had to see what it is. To do that required an account. As soon as I opened one, I decided Facebook wasn't for me. I tried to close the account but couldn't figure out how. So I let it sit unused. That was years ago. Then my staff of thousands told me I should exploit it for blog traffic. I gave in and began posting there. Not often, but often enough to become a Facebook lemming. I won't be posting on Facebook … [Read more...]
A Book With Extra Thrust
This is the way to promote a book, especially when it won't be available on Amazon or Barnes & Noble websites and won't be readily distributed to brick-and-mortar bookstores: Click to view Rocket 88's webpage for In the Sixties: Illustrated. … [Read more...]
Beat Conference: ‘Paris Interzone’ 2017
I wish I could be there when the European Beat Studies Network meets in Paris on Wednesday. Douglas Field (University of Manchester) will give a presentation about Harold Norse's "Cosmographs." I remember seeing them on the wall of Norse's room at the Beat Hotel more than 50 years ago. As I've written in My Adventures in Fugitive Literature and in a new edition of The Z Collection, to be published by Blue Wind Press, Norse was very proud of them. They had been exhibited with a commentary by William Burroughs, which was not only "effusive," as … [Read more...]
A Dimension Not Visible
“ALL DRAWING FROM THE IMAGINATION I'D CONSIDER A FORM OF AUTOMATIC DRAWING; IF IT EXISTS, IT WILL EXIST ONLY FOR THE FIRST TIME.” -- Gerard Bellaart Profile of an Artist by Gabriel Solomons (first published in Decode Magazine, INTELLECT: Publishers of Original Thinking) GS: Where do your images come from? GB: I think they arise from an instinctive tendency to not look for semblances or analogies. Meaning, to find all that which tries to happen in spite of me; the inevitable association or metaphor of a form, rather than … [Read more...]
Paraphilia: Requiescat in Pace
Paraphilia Magazine officially ceased to be an active publication on September 1, 2017. It was an uninhibited online publication that featured a variety of content "likely not found in the average publication," according to its publisher, Dire McCain. Her primary motive was to enable writers and artists to escape "the grip" of the art and design industries. Between March 2009 and December 2012, the magazine appeared in the form of a journal, with 16 issues produced. The issue format was then retired, and in March 2013, the magazine morphed … [Read more...]
Fantagraphics Has the Frontier Spirit
Last time we looked Paul Buhle and Noah Van Sciver's comic art biography of John Chapman, otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed, was published in a paperback edition by Alternative Comics. That was a year ago. It is now being re-issued in hardcover and digital editions by Fantagraphics Books. The production, typical of Fantagraphics, is gorgeous. Of course the hardcover is printed in China, a frontier of affordable book printing for publishers the world over. Everything we reported about the content of the Alternative Comics edition is still … [Read more...]
Caligula Gets Around
A friend of mine, the author of four self-published books -- one of which got 22 million YouTube views when a subversive porn star read from it on camera -- occasionally prints bulletins in limited editions about whatever grabs his attention. Then he mails them to friends. The most recent, Bulletin #4, arrived at the end of June. It was titled Dada Caligula, and it began in boldface caps: DISGUST, THE ABILITY TO CAUSE UNUTTERABLE DISGUST, IS CALIGULA. The text in the second graf continued, also in caps: TO NEGATE THE FAMILY AS WELL AS THE … [Read more...]
Reminder: The Statue of Liberty’s Burka*
Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox. The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs Although, by a superb comic irony, It was an Arab who modeled for the United States’ icon – Namely the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor’s monument was initially designed For the opening of the Suez canal: The original depicted an Arab woman holding a torch. It was destined for the canal’s southern portal. His first drawings show “a gigantic female fellah, or Arab peasant” With a veil modestly hiding her lips, The … [Read more...]
Ridgewood Radio
... from a subterranean region of Queens, New York. Later today, beginning at 3 p.m.ET, David Weinstein's web-only broadcast on WFMU.org will stream a program called "Spheres of Influence!" featuring David First's "Western Enisphere," which you can also hear (and watch) here, something by Andrea Parkins & Brian Chase, Richard Kostelanetz's 1988 radio opera: "Americas' Game: Baseball," and a taste of Harry Partch's music. … [Read more...]
‘Ghost’ + ‘Smarty’ = Opposite Attractions
Updated with new information. "A short video and electronic music work created in 2008, inspired by Theresa Duncan's blog. It is a small tribute to her memory." -- William Osborne + Theresa Duncan's video. Postscript: Aug. 9 -- Per William Osborne's comment, here is her best video. Theresa Duncan's The History of Glamour from M.Duncan on Vimeo. … [Read more...]
‘The Last Dodo and Dreams of Flying’
A reading at the Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Oxford from a book of poetry published by New River Press. ‘I hope you love birds, too. It is economical. It saves going to Heaven.’ -- Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Eugenia Hall ‘Why,’ said the Dodo, ‘the best way to explain it is to do it.’ -- Lewis Carroll, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland * * * Lewis Carroll was nicknamed the Dodo Because of his inveterate stutter. Asked his name, he’d reply ‘Do-Do-Dodgson’. He found ‘Carroll’ easier to utter. So Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, … [Read more...]
Lost: Whatever Happened to ‘Severe Joy’?
When Heathcote Williams died recently, I heard from many people who recalled the lasting impact he'd had on them. Jay Jeff Jones, Michael Butterworth, and David Britton were three. They remembered a manuscript of Heathcote's called "Severe Joy" that never saw the light of day. John Calder, a major London publisher, had failed to bring it out despite signing it up and advertising it as a forthcoming title. Jones and Butterworth both went looking for the manuscript in their files, but neither found it. Butterworth, who recounts a key period in … [Read more...]
A Great One Died Today
Updated with new information. 'He was the Shelley of his age and more.' -- Gerard Bellaart A memorial service is to be held Friday (July 14), 3 p.m., at St. Barnabas Church in Jericho, Oxford. All welcome. July 17 -- Malcolm Ritchie, whose friendship with Heathcote spanned decades, attended the service. This is his description: Dear Gerard, I stayed overnight in London with John Lahr, an old writer friend, and we both went together to the funeral. First, everyone convened at H's old house (an artisan's cottage in … [Read more...]