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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

The Long Haul: New York City Grins and Bears It

March 9, 2021 by Jan Herman

“Vaccine acceleration and partial re-openings inspire hope, but coming back from the pandemic will be a complex process.” — Michael Oreskes

Will Oprah Pick Up Where He Left Off?
Heathcote Williams on the British Monarchy

March 6, 2021 by Jan Herman

“‘God save the queen,’ they sang, ‘it’s a fascist regime.’ / And the song’s hook-line became a new anthem — / Disturbing to clutches of flag-wavers lining the streets. / And horrifying to Middle England and the Daily Mail.” — from ROYAL BABYLON

PS: In all the press coverage I have seen of the interview, it has been treated as a tale of personal tragedy, a terrible racist family squabble, for the British royals but not one mention of the larger tragedy at the heart of “Royal Babylon,” namely the immense damage caused by the monarchy’s greedy, rapacious treatment of peoples and nations the world over.


Gary Lee-Nova: ‘Oblique Trajectories’

February 23, 2021 by Jan Herman

A survey exhibition of the artist’s work over more than four decades.
The exhibition at the Burnaby Art Gallery in Burnaby, B.C., Canada, will run until April 18, 2021.

Riding the Zoom Wagon
‘Journalism in a Time of Crisis’

February 18, 2021 by Jan Herman

The New York Review of Books will present a discussion about the ways contemporary journalism has addressed moments of political and social crisis. The program, Journalism in a Time of Crisis, is scheduled for Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m., featuring Justine van der Leun, Howard French, Elizabeth Bruenig, Mark Danner, and Darryl Pinckney.

Poetry Comes in Different Ways from Different Sources

February 11, 2021 by Jan Herman

David Erdos, a British poet most prolific, shows us one of them.

Let’s Talk About Literary Exposure

January 14, 2021 by Jan Herman

Some would call it visibility. If you’re talking books, how about millions upon millions of Youtube views for a reading from Supervert’s ‘Necrophilia Variations.’ A dozen years ago when that video had two million views, I called it “viral reading.” Three years later, on Dec. 30, 2015, the video had 18.6 million views. Today it has some 28 million views. So what has this meant for selling the book?

Jim Haynes, RIP

January 12, 2021 by Jan Herman

Jim Haynes

Brad Spurgeon memorializes him: “End of an Era, but not of a Philosophy of Life.” I never met Jim. But he was extraordinarily welcoming when we corresponded by email about the strange case of Orwell’s typewriter.

Remember These Headlines

January 7, 2021 by Jan Herman

These headline writers got it right.

GC CUNY at the Center of the Conversation
Peter Baker & Susan Glasser on James A. Baker III, with Kai Bird

January 5, 2021 by Jan Herman

“For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency without the help of James A. Baker III or ran the White House without his advice. Now two major political journalists, Peter Baker (of The New York Times) and Susan Glasser (of The New Yorker) have written ‘The Man Who Ran Washington,’ a definitive, page-turning biography of the power broker whose impact was unmatched when Washington ran the world and who influenced America’s destiny for generations. The authors join in a discussion with Kai Bird, executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography.”

Heathcote Williams: ‘Cobalt Blues’

December 29, 2020 by Jan Herman

I was reminded of ‘Cobalt Blues’ this morning by Louise Erdrich’s op-ed “Not Just Another Pipeline” about “a tar sands climate bomb” in Minnesota now under construction and racing “to lock in pipeline infrastructure” before it can be stopped.

‘Burroughs and the Dharma’

December 17, 2020 by Jan Herman

William S. Burroughs was not a Buddhist: he never sought or found a “Teacher,” he never took Refuge, and he never undertook any Bodhisattva vows nor—for that matter—did he ever declare himself a follower of any one faith or practice.. He did not consider himself a Buddhist. But he did have an awareness of the essentials of Buddhism, and in his own way, he was affected by bodhidharma.

GC CUNY at the Center of the Conversation
Biden Chronicler Evan Osnos on the 2020 Presidential Election

December 8, 2020 by Jan Herman

In his new book, “Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now,” Evan Osnos draws on nearly a decade of reporting for The New Yorker. His portrait of Biden and what his election means for the nation. is based on lengthy interviews with Biden, as well as conversations with President Barack Obama, the Biden family, his advisers, rivals, and opponents.

The Clown King’s Latest Confidence Game

November 26, 2020 by Jan Herman

An email arrived just in tiime for Thanksgiving, asking for contributions to help overturn the election even after he’s been declared—signed, sealed, and certified—the absolute loser. Meanwhile construction has begun on renovations to his post-presidential living quarters in Florida. Does he believe his supporters are brain-dead suckers? Of course.

REDUX: The Shithole and the Shithouse

November 16, 2020 by Jan Herman

The White House in Washington, D.C. also known as Trump's Shithouse.

Originally posted Jan. 17, 2018. By now many, many millions of people have seen the rebranded Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Or if they haven’t, at least that many have googled it. If you’re the one person who hasn’t seen it, here it is. And here, not incidentally, is Trump’s Shithouse in Washington D.C., also known as The White House.

His Birthday Was 79 Years Ago Today

November 15, 2020 by Jan Herman

Heathcote Williams [Photo: JH, 2013]

Heathcote Williams was an unstoppable force. Even in death he is unstoppable. His writings, his activism, and his personal example continue to inspire others. At heart, Williams was a revolutionary. The historian Peter Whitfield placed his work in a “great tradition of visionary dissent” stretching from William Blake and John Ruskin to DH Lawrence and David Jones. I had the privilege of recording Williams’s final vinyl LP-cum-CD, “American Porn,” at his home in Oxford several years before he died. The poems he read — “Mr. President,” “The United States of Porn,” “Forbidden Fruit, or The Cybernetic Apple Core,” and “Snuff Films at the White House” — were in their uncompromising nakedness CT scans of history.

Kosti Does His Self-Publishing T-h-a-a-a-n-g . . .

November 11, 2020 by Jan Herman

Richard Kostelanetz shows us his M-A-N-Y books from Archae Editions. And he is stacked.

GC CUNY at the Center of the Conversation
The Science of Superheroes

November 10, 2020 by Jan Herman

FREE ONLINE EVENT: “The pop-culture universe of superheroes is filled with extraordinary humans and abilities. Captain America, the Hulk, and Black Panther seem to lie firmly in the realm of fantasy, but the technology behind them might not be as farfetched as we think. In his book ‘The Science of Marvel,’ Sebastian Alvarado shows that, using quantum physics, evolutionary biology, and mechanical engineering, we can find real-world parallels to superpowers such as ‘spidey sense’ and Thor’s lightning. He speaks with Shane Campbell-Staton, host of the podcast ‘The Biology of Superheroes,’ about where the science meets the fiction.” — GC Presents

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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.
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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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