Concept & Music: Steff Signer * Photography: Mario Baronchelli *
Acrostic Poetry: Florian Vetsch * Cornet Introduction: Markus Breuss *
Poetry Recitation: Jaswant Hanspal
Remembering Janine Pommy Vega
She’ll get a street named for her in New Jersey, where she was from. The last time I saw Janine was on the Lower East Side at the Bowery Ball Room in Manhattan, for a reading to celebrate a book of poems by migrant farmworkers, “Estamos Aquí,” which she had translated. One of her last messages to me, dated 6/19/2007, arrived not long after. It could have been written yesterday.
William Wyler, an Old Favorite, Speaks About Film
Well, of course he’s a favorite. See “A Talent for Trouble.”
This Was My Song — It Is Ours Now More Than Ever
Long, long ago — in 1970 to be precise — the Berkeley radio station KPFA borrowed a collage of mine for the cover of its guide. I had titled it “This Is My Song,” thinking of it as an obituary for the 1960s.
‘After Words’ at The Grolier Club Tells of a Revolution
If anybody had said to me that the shaggy “mimeo revolution” of little magazines begun in the 1960s would be the subject of an exhibition as elegant as this one, and in as venerable a setting, I wouldn’t have believed it. During that period I played a small part in what was happening as the editor of a little mag myself. I thought we were participants in a rebellion more than a revolution.
That Gaze Is a Gaze of Suspicion
And what does she suspect?
Yes, you guessed it.
Skulduggery of course.
Musk and His Chainsaw Are Still Coming for You
You think DOGE is gone? He’s still here! And so is his chainsaw!
Proposal for a Billboard
The tag team of Elon Musk and Donald Trump were cheered ringside by MAGA Republicans during el presidente’s speech to the joint session of Congress.
You Are All Deleted. You Are Deleted Forever.
AGITPROP PROPOSAL FOR A BILLBOARD: To be deleted is not a matter of the Internet. It’s a matter of reality.
The White House
Color it brown.
My Books
Several books of poems are published by Moloko Print and Stadtlichter Presse in bilingual (American-German) editions, and by Cold Turkey Press in handmade chapbooks. “The Z Collection” appeared in three editions, by AC Books, Blue Wind Press, and Moloko Print.”
More Resonant Than Ever
Heathcote Williams’s ‘The United States of Porn’
Heathcote was always prescient. But it is still astonishing to realize how relevant — and resonant — his dissident voice remains more than a dozen years after he recorded “The United States of Porn.”
Steff Signer / Cabinet Music — Frozen Duck Tears
Concept & Music Vocals & Moniphonium Inventions:
Steff Signer, Switzerland
Photography: Mario Baronchelli, Switzerland
«Mother of Transgression» Poetry: Florian Vetsch
Brass Instruments & Tibetan: «singi»
Cymbals: Markus Breuss, Spain
Electric Guitar Explosion: Chanan Hanspal, England
Viola: David Schnee
Recitation Text: Liz Foulis, Scotland
Recitation Poetry: Jaswant Hanspal
What Trump Really Wants . . .
. . . is your money. Here’s his latest tacky tin-cup beg.
The Late Brion Gysin (1916-1986) Is Having a Moment
Over the years he had many, in fact, although few of them lived up to his expectations. But never mind. An updated model of his and Ian Sommerville’s Dreamachine was recently featured in a symposium on art, AI, and the humanities here in New York; and another will be installed in London at the Tate Modern, in the exhibition “Electric Dreams: Art and Technology Before the Internet,”which will run from the end of this month (Nov. 28) to June 1, 2025. Meanwhile, Roger Knoebber has brought Gysin back to life in a shaggy, unconventional book-length profile, “Hysteresis.”
Does the Dreamachine Elude AI? Yes It Does.
Scholars and specialists addressed ethical and political considerations surrounding AI in collaborations with human creators. Topics ranged from AI aesthetics to the early history of machine learning, from multimedia art to computational research experiments with artificial intelligence, including AI biases and applications.
David Erdos: ‘The United Hates of America’
You can be sure his poem will not be read at the Orange Turd’s coronation.