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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

A Something Else Reader
Newly Discovered, It Was Hidden Away for 50 Years

October 31, 2022 by Jan Herman

” ‘A Something Else Reader’ is a previously unpublished anthology edited by Dick Higgins in 1972 to celebrate Something Else Press, the publishing house he founded in 1963, and to showcase Fluxus and other experimental artistic and literary forms. … He assembled the table of contents and an introduction into a proposal, which went into his archive, where it was found by scholar and curator Alice Centamore, who compiled the works and assembled it.” — Primary Information

Counter Culture Chronicles

July 10, 2022 by Jan Herman

Retro vinyl is a thing. But retro cassette? Does anyone still have or use a cassette player? Apparently some do. René van der Voort has produced more than 100 cassettes by a wide range of poets, writers, and artists. His label, Counter Culture Chronicles, lists audio performances by Aram Saroyan, Charles Plymell, Jürgen Ploog, Stuart Perkoff, Allen Ginsberg, Nanao Sakaki, Angus MacLise, Ed Dorn, Ken Kesey, Joel Oppenheimer, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Ted Berrigan, Peter Orlovsky, Gerd Stern, Ira Cohen, Michael McClure, Fielding Dawson, Steve Dalachinsky, Neeli Cherkovski, Ed Dorn, and ruth weiss. My own cassette has just been released. The recording runs for 30 minutes.

‘A Solo Among Men’

June 12, 2022 by Jan Herman

Abbie Conant won an audition for first trombone in the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. But the conductor, Sergiu Celibidache, preferred a man upfront and demoted her. Conant speaks about coping with that as she looks back at her tenacious struggle for justice. Conant’s husband, the composer William Osborne was instrumental in a feminist campaign against sexism at the Vienna Philharmonic. As he said at the time, “If it were just the Vienna Philharmonic, the whole issue would be much too parochial to bother with. The real issue is that women are not treated fairly …”

Until There Is No Dream to Dream

March 11, 2022 by Jan Herman

This is balm for dreamers.

Let’s All Say Goodbye to Spotify

February 3, 2022 by Jan Herman

The music-streaming service claims that “listening is everything.” But it’s tone deaf. And many agree. As do we.

Once Again
Remembering the President of Soul

November 9, 2021 by Jan Herman

Someone on my staff of thousands reminded me of this blogpost and demanded that I repost it. Obedient to the call of the public, here ‘tiz …

Mustill’s ‘Critic’ in Motion

August 31, 2021 by Jan Herman

Norman O. Mustill made “Critic” on paper, in 1971. He didn’t put much trust in critics. The musical symbols cascade down the page, the letter decays beneath them, and they all disappear into nothingness. I take it as satirical comment.

Keith Patchel, R.I.P.

August 16, 2021 by Jan Herman

Keith Patchel, an American composer and musician, has died. He was 65. One of his musical legacies is the chamber opera “The Plain of Jars,” about America’s secret war in Laos. Anthony Haden Guest called it “the lineal descendant of Stravinsky’s ‘Nightingale’ and Alban Berg’s ‘Lulu’ and ‘Wozzeck.'” His “Pluto Symphony,” created for the Hayden Planetarium, was nominated for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize.

‘Ode to Idealism’
A Contemporaneous ‘Day of Imagination’ in Brooklyn

August 4, 2021 by Jan Herman

Contemporaneous, an ensemble of some two dozen musicians, started out at Bard College as the brainchild of a pair of undergrads. Now, more than a decade later, the ensemble is based in New York City and continues to thrive professionally. It will present its largest production to date on Sept. 18. Billed as The Day of Imagination, the program at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn will feature three sets over a full day, four world premieres, six hours of music, and 50 artists.

‘Water Stone Words’

July 14, 2021 by Jan Herman

This short movie evokes the rich heritage of humankind’s creative responses to the natural environment over millennia. The creators of “water stone words” — filmmaker Ed O’Donnelly, sculptor Kenny Munro, and writer/poet Malcolm Ritchie — made the movie over a period of six days.

Cut-ups, Music, Soundscapes
Moloko CD: ‘Being On The Beat’

June 8, 2021 by Jan Herman

This 23-track CD compilation includes a 28-page booklet of essays, illustrations, and detailed track descriptions. The CD is dedicated to the memory of Jürgen Ploog.

Brion Gysin Uncut

May 17, 2021 by Jan Herman

Have you ever seen a more revealing photo of Brion Gysin than the one on the cover of “His Name Was Master: Texts; Interviews”? It shows a profound sense of dislocation, something Gysin often talked about but rarely showed in his demeanor—which was characteristically grand and worldly and often laced with humor. This sprawling book by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge with Peter Christoferson and Jon Savage offers Gysin in talking mode. It is Gysin uncut. Having already been comprehensively reviewed in The Brooklyn Rail, it needs no review from me. More interesting than anything I might have to say is Gysin’s account of his brief, teenage involvement with the Surrealists. The disappointment, not to say trauma, of that experience was a harbinger of later ones.

Taking a Break

April 12, 2021 by Jan Herman

Back soon.

Gone But Not Forgotten
The Pyramid Club on the Lower East Side

April 7, 2021 by Jan Herman

Gone, finished, closed, shut forever. Though less well known than CBGB, Webster Hall, The Palladium, the Continental, it gave birth to much LES culture. Over the last few years, the Pyramid Club struggled to stay alive. Then came the Covid-19 death grip.

Easy Listening

March 9, 2021 by Jan Herman

Scarlatti Sonata in B minor K.87

GC CUNY at the Center of the Conversation
CHANGE: How Artists Lead the Way

October 12, 2020 by Jan Herman

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7:30 p.m. A FREE ONE EVENT Featuring Vijay Gupta, violinist, founder of Street Symphony, a MacArthur Award-winner, and popular TED speaker; Hồng-An Trương, an artist using photography, sound, video, and performance, whose work has been shown at venues including the International Center for Photography, The Kitchen, and the Museum of Modern Art; and Hank Willis Thomas, a conceptual artist whose work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography; Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; and Hong Kong Arts Centre; and who collaborates on the artist-run initiatives for civic engagement For Freedoms and the Wide Awakes. This cross-disciplinary panel will be moderated by Sarah Lewis, associate professor at Harvard University; a leading commentator on race, contemporary art, and culture; and a much-viewed TED speaker.

This Side of Grub Street

July 13, 2020 by Jan Herman

Readers wanted to know all about their celebrities, or at least about my encounters with them. From A-listers and B-listers right down to Z-listers. The whole stupid alphabet top to bottom. Names to be forgotten one day. They needed the publicity and I needed the job. I wasn’t a star fucker—I’ll say that, having come from the newsroom with no more interest in celebrities than any routine reporter. I was a stand-in for star fuckers.​

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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.
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...]

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