John Bryan published so many underground papers and magazines over three decades -- beginning in 1962 with renaissance, a San Francisco literary journal inspired by Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (which John said he read “half a dozen times,” and which turned him onto LSD) -- that Warren Hinckle called him “the Peter Zenger of the underground press ... unconquered and ungovernable by the puny laws of journalism.” Paul Krassner said he was “a one-man band, and the printing press was his musical instrument.” He put John “in the tradition of … [Read more...]
Goodbye to a Depressing Year
The image is a detail from a drawing by Paul Klee. The poem owes a debt to George Grosz and Gerard Bellaart. … [Read more...]
Back to Reality: Torma on Michelangelo’s Art
"Colossal as his works were, he saw them still too much as garlands and sought some immoderation wherewith to botch them. He was so successful that he left everything unfinished. Never push things." … [Read more...]
Carly Fiorina, Untethered Gasbag’s Economic Adviser
Here's a blast from the past ... so relevant today. Oh, and by the way: Fiorina Says, 'I Received Only A $21 Million Severance Package — Not $42 Million' … [Read more...]
But W.’s Name Is Missing From the List
This day should not pass without acknowledging the lead editorial in this morning's New York Times: Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses. It points out, among other things, that Any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. It also points out that "many more names could be considered, including Jose … [Read more...]
C.I.A. Refutes Torture Report, Tells Us: ‘Lick That Boot’
Our objection to the C.I.A.'s defiant pushback is best expressed by Norman O. Mustill's collage, because words will not suffice. … [Read more...]
Personal History: My Father Was a New York Cabbie
My father drove a cab at night. This was the early 1950s. A Brooklyn-born New Yorker, he knew the city's streets the way a junky knows his veins. I thought of him because of a headline in today's New York Times: American-Born Cabbies Are a Vanishing Breed in New York. Dad also knew doormen, theater managers, stage hands, bar owners, bartenders, and building superintendents. He was a walking-talking switchboard of high and low connections. He didn't want relatives to know he was driving a cab. It embarrassed him that his day job didn't pay the … [Read more...]
‘Omit Dead Ends’ … Yes, Please
At the urging of my staff of thousands, examples from Gerard Bellaart’s word-based series of artworks have been a continuing feature of recent blogposts. Other stenciled texts of his that have appeared so far include “Artaud Fragmentations,” “tric trac du ciel,” “Throws Up Words,” “ROT NOT,” and "No Mind Fits 5." There are more to come. … [Read more...]
Another Stenciled Text: ‘No Mind Fits 5’
At the urging of my staff of thousands, examples from Gerard Bellaart’s word-based series of artworks have been a continuing feature of recent blogposts. The others so far have been “Artaud Fragmentations,” “tric trac du ciel,” “Throws Up Words,” and “ROT NOT.” There are more to come. Bellaart is a Dutch artist and writer now living in France. He creates etchings, drawings, paintings and monotypes of figures, landscapes, and still lifes, as well as works strictly from the imagination. He notes that he employs a variety of techniques & … [Read more...]
Orwell Was a Genius at Fiction Right From the Start
Jane Perlez reminds us in this morning's New York Times of George Orwell's first novel, Burmese Days. Orwell is best known for his later novels, of course, the dystopian 1984 and the allegorical Animal Farm, which are remembered less for their impact as fiction than for their prescient warnings about the reality of a totalitarian future. But Burmese Days, published in 1934 and one of the most memorable novels I've ever read, shows that the guy was a genius at literary fiction from the very beginning. I emphasize literary. Although Perlez … [Read more...]
Still Hidden in Plain Sight, a Reminder of Old Times
Two news stories -- an "exclusive" in The Guardian ("Revealed: Pentagon's link to Iraqi torture centres") and a front-pager in The New York Times ("C.I.A.’s History Poses Hurdles for an Obama Nominee") -- are reminders that more than seven years ago Straight Up's staff of thousands was onto the story about the American strategy to (democratize) Salvadorize Iraq with death squads and torture chambers. Have a look at our blogpost "Hidden in Plain Sight" of Dec. 20, 2005. Today's tie-in to the top U.S. military brass, particularly to retired Gen. … [Read more...]
Democracy Now! Exclusive: Assange on WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, Cypherpunks, Surveillance State
"In his most extended interview in months, Julian Assange speaks from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been holed up for nearly six months. Assange vowed that WikiLeaks would persevere despite attacks against it. On Tuesday, the European Commission announced that the credit card company Visa did not break the European Union’s antitrust rules by blocking donations to WikiLeaks. 'Since the blockade was erected in December 2010, WikiLeaks has lost 95 percent of the donations that were attempted to be transferred to us over … [Read more...]
Teaming Burroughs & Mustill for Thanksgiving
A Straight Up tradition continues. But this year William S. Burroughs's words of gratitude on Thanksgiving Day are posted with a couple of collages by Norman O. Mustill. That completes the package. Look and listen. It's delish . . . Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts — thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison — thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger — thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving … [Read more...]
Astronomy Picture of the Day
It's a breakfast doodle by Malcolm Mc Neill. He writes in an email, "If only ..." Mc Neill has two books coming out at the end of October from Fantagraphics Books: The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here: Images from the Graphic Novel and the memoir Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook, and Me. Check out the "overview" about OWF and any of the excerpts. This gives you a taste: Observed While Falling is the account of the Word-Image Novel Ah Pook Is Here, an idea conceived by writer WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS and artist MALCOLM MC NEILL … [Read more...]
Life in Turmoil, Life Out of Balance
If you can't get to the screening of Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi at Avery Fisher Hall (on Nov. 2 and 3 in New York), where Philip Glass's score for the film will be performed live by the New York Philharmonic and the Philip Glass Ensemble, or if you can get over there but can't afford to get in, screw it. You can watch the flick online for free (full screen, too). Music included, of course. There are five interruptions for one-minute ads, but you can skip each of them after five seconds. Postscript: As soon as I can get it scanned, I'll … [Read more...]
Is Occupy Wall Street All About the Signs?
Apparently not. I didn't know it, But Occupy Wall Street's most defining characteristics--its decentralized nature and its intensive process of participatory, consensus-based decision-making--are rooted in other precincts of academe and activism: in the scholarship of anarchism and, specifically, in an ethnography of central Madagascar. Yes, really. But you knew that. If you didn't, then go read Dan Barrett in The Chronicle of Higher Education on the intellectual roots of the Wall Street protest. Barrett writes: It was on this island nation off … [Read more...]
Jobs Loved Computers, of Course … and Bach
In 1989, Michael Lawrence filmed Steve Jobs for Memory & Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress. "I remember very fondly every minute of the time I spent with him," Lawrence messages in an email. "I still have the NeXT coffee mug he gave me." "Like so many people around the world," he writes, "I have been thinking of him since his passing. I could not have made BACH & friends without his computers and software." A few years ago, Lawrence posted a clip of Jobs, excerpted from Memory & Imagination. "It has been viewed … [Read more...]