Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

They Made Rabelais Look Like a Church Picnic

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Otto Petersen and George Dudley have died. The NYT has an obit for the ventriloquist, calling him “the Voice of Vulgarity.” But there is no separate obit for George, the foul-mouthed dummy who delivered all the tasteless lines that made audiences laugh or walk out. Margalit Fox, whose great lede I stole for my headline, […]

Hear That Clicking Sound? Listen to the ‘Cobalt Blues’

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Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox.Click to listen.+In German folklore a kobold was a deadly sprite That inhabited mines and could live inside rock; Hunched and ugly it warned off human busybodies: It clicked, and it made an eerie, echoing knock. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Say It Ain’t So . . .

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Last Bohemian Turns Out the Lights Clayton Patterson, Rebel and Photographer, Plans to Leave the Lower East Side for Europe EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

A Woman’s Point of View from a Tough-Guy Novelist

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There was no chance to note Nelson Algren’s birthday two days ago because ArtsJournal was taken down by hacker bots. But now that we’re back, herewith a belated blogpost to celebration of a novelist who had a reputation as a tough guy but who wrote with deep sensitivity about women.

‘Eating the Rich and Famous, or Celebrity Roadkill’

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“Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.” — Thomas Jefferson, from his letters Words by Heathcote Williams. Montage and narration by Alan Cox. “I have been […]

‘America: How It Works’ by Heathcote Williams

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The fierce dissidence of Williams’s polemical poetry is as radical as Shelley’s. “America: How It Works” bears witness to the monster within “the most dangerous country in world history.” Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. The business of America is business, And it’s number one business is war. It uses Hollywood […]

Centennial Conference on Life & Myth of William Burroughs

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William S. Burroughs was born 100 years ago today. A centennial conference will be held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York as part of a month-long WSB@100 Festival in April. The conference, sponsored by The Center for Humanities, “will explore the life and myth of one of the most innovative […]

Clayton Patterson on Jewish History of the Lower East Side

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Nobody I know is better versed in the history of Manhattan’s Lower East Side than Clayton Patterson. And I’d be willing to bet that nobody at all is more devoted to, or more articulate about, the history of the Jews who lived on the Lower East Side. He was interviewed a year ago — Feb. […]

Whom Do You Believe? Clapper or Snowden?

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You won’t see Edward Snowden being interviewed on American TV. But you will see the nation’s top intelligence official James R. Clapper Jr., all over the news this morning accusing him of damaging national security.

Do Many Women Admire William Burroughs?

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My staff of thousands hasn’t taken a survey, but I can count his female fans on one hand. When it comes to the number I actually know, make that one finger. Her name is Hanne Lippard, the Berlin-based poet and performance artist with the killer voice. I’ve blogposted about her before: Prick Up Your Ears […]

Ginsberg Does Indian Mantras on Sloow Tapes

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Speaking of Allen Ginsberg, I’m told a new Sloow Tapes cassette entitled “London Mantra” is about to be released. Bart de Paepe, producer of the indie label, writes, “It’s a recording George Dowden made at his home in July 1973.” The tape features “Ginsberg solo on his harmonium, singing Indian mantras and a few of […]

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