Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Home Again

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Home again. / They were / her last words. / She never / had a home. / She slept in ditches / under bridges / near old / railroad tracks. . . .

Power Malu Shines at 2019 Ackers

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The honorees at the 2019 NY Acker Awards made some terrific statements about the history of the Lower East Side and their commitment both to the community and to the arts, but a rap performance by Power Malu about the devastation in Puerto Rico, where people are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria and from the Trumpistan government’s failure to provide proper help, was the most notable of the evening.

2019 NY Acker Awards Held at Theater for the New City

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The Acker Awards, now in their sixth year, are a tribute given to members of the avant-garde arts community who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention, or else served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways. The award’s novelist namesake, in her life and work, exemplified the risk-taking and […]

Patchel’s ‘Plinkout’

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Keith Patchel, a New York-based composer and producer, has created a free online/mobile application called Plinkout, which he is touting as “the easiest way to teach anyone,” especially kids, how to play an instrument as well as how to learn “the core cognitive ideas of music.” He’s looking for funding to complete his project, and […]

Beckett’s ‘Rockaby’ Set by William Osborne

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In William Osborne’s setting of ‘Rockaby’ we hear the whispered thoughts of an old woman during the last twenty-five minutes of her life accompanied by the dirge of four distant trombones. “Those arms at last…”

‘Miriam, Part 2, The Chair’

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“A woman trapped in domestic boredom moves toward a nervous breakdown.  Institutionalized, she  attempts to create a performance for a shortly expected visit from her children, but  can find no words to express her feelings.  She discovers she has no language of her own and recedes more and more into silence.  Only her instrument can serve as an expression of her […]

NNOI Festival = 90% Water

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Living organisms are gathering near the old water mill in Groswaltersdorf, 70 kilometers north of Berlin. NNOI Festival 2018 July 12 — Crossposted at IT: International Times, The Newspaper of Resistance. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

From the Pond Across the Street

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We would travel light years to find alien beings inhabiting fabulous worlds. — Malcolm Mc Neill Some things just won’t stay down. ‘The permutations are infinite: Whatever it is, the joke is on us.’ EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Streaming What We Breathe

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Quantum Words for Bill Osborne Stealthy quantum words phantoms of expectation and suicides of time riddle us with springs and traps. Self-delusion streaming what we breathe we who breathe in silence holding worlds together   &    apart like ancient beacons bearing witness in halos of fading light. — JH EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Trump’s Corrupt Precursor

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Carl Weissner and I made this track in 1971 during the Vietnam War before Nixon resigned his corrupt presidency. The collage shows Nixon’s customary “V” for victory salute, which was as hollow and phoney as he was, with his wife Pat behind him looking over his shoulder against a backdrop of two pots, one clean […]

Spike, Smalls, and Mezzrow

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Spike Wilner is a ragtime jazz pianist with an unusual background. He’s also the major domo of not one but two great jazz clubs across the street from each other in Manhattan. As a tireless partisan for music of all kinds, especially for the kind that keeps audiences coming back to Smalls and Mezzrow every […]

‘Aletheia’ to Tour Northeastern U.S.

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Composed by William Osborne for singer-instrumentalist, computer-controlled piano, and quadraphonic electronics, “Aletheia” is a music theater work featuring the solo performance of Abbie Conant as the title character. Osborne writes, “Aletheia is an opera singer who is delighted that she has been asked to perform for an opera gala. She only needs to go down […]

Acker Awards to Honor One-of-a Kind Artists

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I don’t know what the late Kathy Acker would think of an award given in her name to non-conforming artists. I assume an experimental punk novelist and poet would like the idea of supporting artists who don’t conform. Although awards are besides the point especially for non-conformists, they do generate publicity. And unless I’m wrong, […]

A Rising Composer’s Calling

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Dylan Mattingly’s work-in-progress opera “Stranger Love” is to be performed at Roulette in a world premiere next week in New York City on Jan. 16 & 17. STRANGER LOVE Music by Dylan Mattingly Libretto by Thomas Bartscherer Concept by Thomas Bartscherer and Dylan Mattingly Act I is the tale of two lovers, in the tradition […]

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