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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Archives for January 2013

‘Throws Up Words’

January 31, 2013 by Jan Herman

'throws up words 2' © 2005 by Gerard Bellaart.

These two stenciled texts by Gerard Bellaart are from a series of more than 500 created in 2005. 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 […]

Selling the Earth … ‘No Return, No Exchange’

January 28, 2013 by Jan Herman

A poem by Heathcote Williams, narration and montage by Alan Cox. The print edition of Selling the Earth is coming soon from Cold Turkey Press. The poem begins: After someone had sold their virginity on the Internet And made a hundred thousand pounds, Another entrepreneur would decide that he’d try To put Planet Earth itself […]

Way Ahead of My Time in 1969

January 28, 2013 by Jan Herman

Ben Shot's Sea Urchin Editions does me proud.

Where would the blogworld be without blogger self-promotion? So indulge me. Anneke Auer, webmaster for Rotterdam-based Sea Urchin Editions, has designed a classy presentation of General Municipal Election, a “collectible” action-art book of mine. I published it in San Francisco way back in ’69 under the Nova Broadcast imprint. Ben Schot, the artist who founded […]

Carl Weissner, Cherished by Friends & Colleagues

January 25, 2013 by Jan Herman

It was a year ago today that I began posting tributes to Carl Weissner (1940-2012), whose unexpected death last January came as a shock. My own words went up with a photo and funeral announcement by the filmmaker Signe Mähler, another of his friends. The poet and performance artist William Cody Maher, the journalist and […]

Algren on Learning to Write by Way of Academia

January 23, 2013 by Jan Herman

Advertisement in The New Yorker

I noticed an ad in the current issue of The New Yorker for the Yale Writers’ Conference to be held this coming June. Since a bunch of us have been talking about Nelson Algren, the ad couldn’t help reminding me of his essay “Hand in Hand Through the Greenery,” published in The Last Carousel back […]

The Algren I Knew Was No Loser

January 12, 2013 by Jan Herman

Flyer for Second City tribute to Nelson Algren

Taking nothing away from the brilliance of Colin Asher’s biographical essay on Nelson Algren, or my admiration for it, I have a mild but serious objection. I intended to post this earlier but didnt have the time. Now I do. The subhead on the essay calls Algren “the type of loser this country just can’t […]

‘tric trac du ciel’

January 10, 2013 by Jan Herman

'tric-trac-du-ciel' by Gerard Bellaart

This is a stenciled text by Gerard Bellaart, from a series of more than 500 created in 2005. 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 […]

Algren Gets What He Deserves from Colin Asher

January 9, 2013 by Jan Herman

I’m happy to report that Colin Asher’s smart biographical essay on Nelson Algren in The Believer is the best I’ve ever read. I’m also glad I made an unacknowledged contribution, one nearly verbatim. Though small, it reminds me that words have a life of their own, regardless of who wrote them. Postscript: I finally found […]

VDRSVP #2 for Old Times’ Sake

January 9, 2013 by Jan Herman

VDRSVP #3, eds. Jan Herman & Norman O. Mustill [San Francisco, 1969]

Now that my venereal staff of thousands has managed to get its shabby act together for VDRSVP #1, I’ll be posting info about the contents of this issue as soon as possible. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

‘Harry Patch: Anti War Hero’

January 8, 2013 by Jan Herman

If journalism is the first draft of history, Heathcote Williams’s poetry is the CAT scan. Text by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

VDRSVP #1 for Old Times’ Sake

January 7, 2013 by Jan Herman

VDRSVP #1 [1969] eds. Jan Herman & Norman O. Mustill

I’ll be posting info about the contents as soon as my venereal staff of thousands manages to get its shabby act together. But first things first: What a great title. Second things first: VDRSVP #2 and #3 are coming too. Postscript: Jan. 9 — The staff finally woke up. Here are the contents of VDRSVP […]

La Môme et de Rouge

January 2, 2013 by Jan Herman

"La Mome et de Rouge" [front cover of four-page folio of the published poem, COLD TURKEY PRESS, 2011].

Date: April 26, 2012 11:43:35 AM GMT+02:00 Had a message from Marianne Faithfull . . .. . . ‘Isn’t it time you wrote me another song?’ I said ‘What do you want it to be about?’she said she’d been reading a book about Edith Piaf and was gripped by it.I said I’d have a look. […]

2013 Begins … Let It ‘ROT NOT’

January 1, 2013 by Jan Herman

In his etchings, drawings, paintings, monotypes, Bellaart employs a variety of techniques & materials including oil paint, tempera, charcoal, ink. Supports include handmade paper, canvas & panel.

I’m a sucker for Bellaart’s word-image artworks.

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

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