• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Einstein’s Brain

November 8, 2013 by Jan Herman

Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Some Notes Toward ‘Death in Paris’

October 28, 2013 by Jan Herman

Not long ago Walter Hartmann sent me photos of several Moleskin notebooks that our cherished friend Carl Weissner left behind when he died. They’re captivating. Many of the handwritten notes made their way into Death in Paris, Carl’s bravura novel about a serial killer. “It is not quite natural for a guy around 50 who’s […]

Harold Norse: ‘Take a Chance In The Void’

October 25, 2013 by Jan Herman

Via sloowtapes: During the early ’60s Harold Norse was living in Paris at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur, later known as the Beat Hotel. Also living there were William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Gregory Corso, and Sinclair Beiles. All of them experimented with cut prose, a form of collage applied to texts and audiotapes. Norse made the technique […]

Gay ‘Kit’ Marlowe: Poet, Spy, Elizabethan Proto-punk

October 16, 2013 by Jan Herman

'Killing Kit,' a new play by Heathcote Williams, is about the short life and murder of Christopher Marlowe.

LATEST UPDATE: Sept. 1 — “Killing Kit” is to be staged in a London try out. The production opens at The Cockpit on Sept. 21. FURTHER UPDATE: Feb. 15 — The reading came off well, I’m told. Somebody in The Cockpit audience tweeted: “Beautiful, meaty, dangerous Elizabethan play for today’s Elizabethans. Real writing. Great night.” […]

New From Cold Turkey: ‘Pricelessly Outrageous’

October 9, 2013 by Jan Herman

'Le Regard d'Autrui' by Carl Weissner [Cold Turkey Press, 2013]

When Carl Weissner died, unexpectedly, he was only 71. “Le Regard d’Autrui,” now published for the first time, posthumously, by Cold Turkey Press, was written in English. Why in English and why with a French title are unclear. What is clear, however, is that the tale shows him to have been a master storyteller as […]

Algren Actually Had Some Hope for Kerouac, at First

October 6, 2013 by Jan Herman

Nelson Algren's review of 'On the Road' [Chicago Sun-Times, Sept. 8,1957]

Anyone interested in Nelson Algren’s opinion of Jack Kerouac would get the impression from an item I posted several years ago that he was less than enamoured of him. Which would be accurate. After all, the item — about Algren’s indelible review of Kerouac’s 1965 novel Desolation Angels — was titled “The Beats Left Algren […]

Two Poe Shows — One at the Morgan, One on Paper

October 4, 2013 by Jan Herman

Daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) Providence, R.I. : Masury and Hartshorn, 1848

Not being a Poe man myself, I asked a friend who happens to be an avid Poe man, how he would describe him. His reply — “The best writer, the best bad writer, America ever produced” — was pretty much a capsule preview of Charles McGrath’s excellent feature in this morning’s NY Times about the […]

Heathcote Williams: ‘My Dad and My Uncle’

September 30, 2013 by Jan Herman

Royal Artillery gun crews and Howitzers WWI at Lydd [Bill Hyde collection].

Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. Written upon learning that WWI centenary Remembrance plans are to be given £50 million by the UK government.— BBC News, 11 October 2012 My Dad and my Uncle were in World War One. At least they were in it, but not in it: Conscripted but […]

Get Your Megadeath ‘Fun Stuff’ Here

September 7, 2013 by Jan Herman

Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. The National Atomic Museum ‘Hiroshima bomb earrings for sale’ Katherine Butler and Fiona Bell, London: The Independent, 6 August, 1999 In the National Atomic Museum At Albuquerque, New Mexico, You can buy souvenirs of ‘Little Boy’, The bomb that demolished Hiroshima, And of ‘Fat Man’, […]

Nanos Valaoritis: On Language and Poetry

September 4, 2013 by Jan Herman

At 92 / Nanos in his element / his element the world / his world the words / his words a philosopher’s. Here’s a poem of his — “Endless Crucifixion” — from the late-20th century. This is from the entry about him in Wikipedia: Nanos Valaoritis (Greek: Νάνος Βαλαωρίτης; born July 5, 1921) is one […]

‘A tiny smudge on the horizon at Ard na Caithne’

September 1, 2013 by Jan Herman

'HEANEY AT GALLARUS' © by Heathcote Williams [Cold Turkey Press, 2013]

30 VIII 2013Prolific as ever, Heathcote Williams wrote this poem in sublime tribute to Seamus Heaney on the day he learned of his fellow poet’s death. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

New Arrival: Ira Cohen’s From Journey West

August 31, 2013 by Jan Herman

'FROM JOURNEY WEST (All in August)' by Ira Cohen [Sea Urchin Editions / Cold Turkey Press, 2013]

Sea Urchin Editions maestro Ben Schot writes: The summer of 1975 was hot. A heatwave of eighteen consecutive days singed Western Europe and turned its capitals into seething cauldrons. Ira Cohen landed on the soft tarmac of Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, in August — his mind still filled with the opiate clouds over Kathmandu, […]

Seamus Heaney, R.I.P.

August 30, 2013 by Jan Herman

Seamus Heaney died today Fred just told me. that leaves very few of his caliber. attached an anatomical study as a sign of respect. the drawing was on the desktop when Fred brought me the sad news. I have mailed you the ‘stone from delphi’ which really sums up the poet and man. small precious […]

A Little Argentine Adventure, With Pacifist Overtones

August 27, 2013 by Jan Herman

Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Back-to-Back Writings From Underground Dos-à-Dos

July 30, 2013 by Jan Herman

Table of Contents for EAL's 'Stories That Will Buckle Your Knees ...'

+++ Incidental Intelligence: Anyone who cherishes raw truth, and especially those of us who were warmed by Carl Weissner’s friendship, will appreciate EINE ANDERE LIGA as a mammoth achievement. But Milena Verlag ought to correct two claims on its Web site: 1) that this posthumous collection of his underground writings has a foreword written by […]

Brecht Never Taught at Podunk College

July 25, 2013 by Jan Herman

Bertolt Brecht

Two staff messages the other day led me to compare them. One went like this: I have a colleague who reads manuscripts for a literary magazine. Recently, I spent two hours looking at the contributions she has to vet. God, the bulk of them are awful. Actually, what makes them awful is their mediocrity. None […]

‘It’s a Boy!’

July 24, 2013 by Jan Herman

Inheritance [Click for video]

Someone asked what I thought about the royal birth in Britain. Nima Shirazi said it for me. And let’s not forget this: +++ Or the latest addition to the Royal Babylon video archive on YouTube: Inheritance. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

« Previous Page
Next Page »

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...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
Antiwar.com
arkivmusic.com
Artbook&
Arts & Letters Daily

Befunky
Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Daily

The Daily Howler
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Deep L
Democracy Now!

Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Archive (WayBackMachine)
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Kanopy (stream free movies, via participating library or university)
Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Osborne & Conant
The Overgrown Path

Poets House
Political Irony
Poynter

Quanta Magazine

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Stadtlichter Presse
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

Talking Points Memo (TPM)
TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
Third Mind Books
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
The Wayback Machine (Internet Archive)
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Share on email
Email
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...