Our delicious Thanksgiving team of William S. Burroughs and Norman O. Mustill has been a happy pairing. It still is. But the Straight Up staff of thousands wanted to add a sweetener, something like cranberry sauce, to this year’s celebration of gratitude. Here ‘tiz: Words by Heathcote Williams, narration and montage by Alan Cox.
‘Anatomy of Violence,’ a Prophetic Blast from the Past
An article in the Washington Post declares that the riots in Ferguson have been “the most significant explosions of racial frustration since the election of the nation’s first black president, and so Ferguson forced the country out of the fantasy that America had entered a ‘post-racial’ era.” I’m not sure who really entertained that fantasy […]
Monday Morning Quiz: Who Said That?
“Every once in a while, it’s nice to be wrong about something.” + Alan Dershowitz + Henry Kissinger + Dick Cheney + V.S. Naipaul + God + Click for the answer. But you get points for guessing it was The Albanian Idol of the BananaRepublic. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
‘Hello!’ — ‘The Duchess of Malfi,’ or ‘A Dead Pussy’
Selma Hayek asks and Heathcote Williams answers. She: “I had this cousin from Mexico who had two very jealous brothers.And one day she confronted them, and she said: ‘Stop spying on my pussy!’”He: “I so wish I’d met you before. I could have used that line.” EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
More News from Paris: Huge Bookfair Opens Today
Offprint Paris at the Beaux-arts de Paris showcases publishers of art, photography, design, and experimental music labels. The 2014 edition features more than 130 publishers from nearly two dozen countries, an exhibition (“Disarming Design from Palestine”), and a variety of public discussions and signings. Special guests include Paul Soulellis (Library of the Printed Web), Mathieu […]
News from Paris: ‘Hey kids, let’s put on a photo show!’
![Gerard Malanga: 'Edie photobooth' [© 1966] (courtesy galerie Caroline Smulders)](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/6-malanga-Edie-photobooth-200x200.jpg)
Gerard Malanga Photographer, filmmaker, poet, actor, and witness to the Warhol years EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
A Message From My Orwellian Phone Carrier
The email arrived with this message: “At Verizon Wireless your privacy is our priority.” How nice. So I read on: “We’re enhancing our Relevant Mobile Advertising program in a way that can help marketers reach you with messages …” And here I thought privacy was defined as “the state or condition of being free from […]
Too Bad Burroughs Isn’t Around to See the Video
No words of mine needed. WILLIAM BURROUGHS – MALCOLM MC NEILL: AH POOK IS HERE AND THE CONTROL OF TIME TWO BOOKS from Malcolm Mc Neill on Vimeo. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
Touring ‘Poetry Army’ Charts History of Radical Verse
A posting by the Stop the War Coalition: From The Peasants’ Revolt to recent events at Tahrir Square, this incendiary performance celebrates radical verse in all its glory down through the centuries. The longstanding collaboration between poet Heathcote Williams and performer Roy Hutchins, encompassing such hits as Whale Nation and Autogeddon, continues as Hutchins combines […]
50 Years Apart: ‘American Porn’ & ‘Call Me Burroughs’
The similarity was unintended, which makes it even better. The 1965 vinyl “Call Me Burroughs” is a classic.The 2014 vinyl “American Porn” will be.The 1965 vinyl “Call Me Burroughs” is a classic.The 2014 vinyl “American Porn” will be a classic.Here it is with a different sleeve. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
When War Criminals Fall in Love . . .
Bush and Blair: ‘Let’s go to war.’ ‘Let’s go to bed.’ Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox.Click to watch the video. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
‘Unstoppable’: On Dismantling the Corporate State
I’m a huge fan of Brian Lamb’s ‘Q & A’ on C-Span. Listening to Ralph Nader speak to Lamb last night about Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State, Nader’s new book, was typical of the broadcast’s educational brilliance. The discussion, or rather the story as Nader told it, of Nader’s “upbringing […]
‘People Power vs. Money Power’
Written by Heathcote Williams, narration and montage by Alan Cox, with photos by Adrian Arbib. Professor Nanjunda’s Direct Actions “What India needs today is the Gandhian formula for progress, not the presence of the West which is interested in stealing our wealth.” This was Professor Nanjundaswamy’s war cry As he fended off corporate kleptocrats And […]
Echoes of Micheline and Norse at 16th and Valencia
The San Francisco poet Alejandro Murguía reads his poem ’16th and Valencia’ in this short video edited with footage from street protests against the recent killing of Alejandro Neito who was shot in his Bernal Heights neighborhood by the SFPD.” — Todd Swindell Alex Nieto from Juan Ruiz on Vimeo. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
‘American Porn’ on Vinyl LP, with CD
Heathcote Williams has recorded his poems “Mr. President,” “The United States of Porn,” “Forbidden Fruit, or The Cybernetic Apple Core,” and “Snuff Films at the White House.” “In their uncompromising nakedness they are CT scans of history.” [from JH liner notes] “All his work is deeply political. I think it’s informed not only by violent […]
William S. Burroughs: The Life, the Myth, the Influence
April 25, 2014 + Free and open to the public at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th Street) in Manhattan.+ 10:00 a.m. “Editing Burroughs” — John Bennett and Geoffrey Smith+ 11:00 a.m. “Burroughs and Literary Magazines” — Jed Birmingham, Charles Plymell, and Jan Herman +2:00 p.m. “Biography and Photography” — Barry Miles […]
Fatty Easter: Christopher Hitchens Would Be Chortling
Words by Heathcote Williams. Montage and narration by Alan Cox. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit