Watch Martin Luther King Jr. giving his greatest address, the “I have a dream” speech of Aug. 28, 1963, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Listen to his peerless “Letter from Birmingham Jail” of April 16, 1963, in which he defends direct-action nonviolence, explains its principles, expresses his disappointment with […]
The Day David Bowie Died, a Poet Wondered Why
‘What Are People Doing Fucking Dying?’ What are people doing fucking dying? Haven’t they got better things to do? No sooner than you’re on someone’s wavelength Then suddenly they’re whisked away from you. I saw Bowie at the first Glastonbury in 1971.* He was performing at five in the morning. With golden locks he was […]
Charlotte Moorman Gets a Full-Dress Close-Up
![Moorman and Paik performing 'Human Cello Variation' as part of John Cage's "26'1.1499 for String Player" [Photo: Peter Moore © 1965]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Moorman-and-Paik-performing-Human-Cello-Variation-as-part-of-John-Cages-261.1499-for-String-Player-Pmoore©1965220-3-200x200.jpeg)
On a visit I made years ago to Northwestern University’s Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections its curator at the time, Russell Maylone, showed me a room piled with ramshackle cartons that had recently arrived. He pointed to them with pride and said they were Charlotte Moorman’s archival materials, a lifetime’s worth of hoarding. […]
Progress for Women at Vienna Philharmonic
For the first time in three years, William Osborne, an expert on the sociology of German-speaking orchestras, has posted an update about the latest developments at the VPo. “It’s the most positive I’ve ever written,” he tells me. Which is saying a lot when you know how critical he’s been of the orchestra’s all-male ideology […]
A Cool Way to End the Year
The countdown continues at the Bibliographic Bunker, where Jed Birmingham’s top 23 most interesting Burroughs collectibles has reached Carl Weissner’s Klacto 23 International, the seventh of the Klacto zines, which Birmingham terms “one of the great mimeo mags of the post-WWII era.” Coincidentally, a friend stopped by the rare books room at the Strand and […]
In RAIN TAXI: Paul Buhle on ‘The Z Collection’
“Once, a mere blink in the eye of eternity but actually several generations ago, literary essays were considered a high art form. Not the kind written in pursuit of academic self-advancement …” Click to enlarge.
Gonzo Style
Gonzo Today brings us a gonzo poem by Heathcote Williams that begins: The Parisian atrocities were born in Libya / Where Cameron, Sarkozy, and Obama / Murdered twelve thousand Libyans between sips / Of Downing Street and Oval Office coffee. Read the complete poem here.
Redux: Dear Cannibals, Have a Happy Thanksgiving
Our 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 added a sweetener, something like cranberry sauce, to last year’s celebration. Here ‘tiz again: Words by Heathcote Williams, narration and montage by Alan Cox. And from Straight Up’s Thanksgiving […]
I’m Getting My 15 Minutes . . .
![Los Angeles Review of Books [Aaron Shulman interviews Jan Herman, 2015]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LARB-screenshot-750cropped-200x200.jpg)
If you think my staff of thousands doesn’t appreciate that, you don’t know how hungry they are to promote my new book. In this age of shameless self-promotion, it’s all about me, me, me. So I made a deal with them. One click gets them a penny, five gets them a dime. Make them rich. […]
Cartoon Artist Kate Evans Does Rosa Luxemburg
!['RED ROSA: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg' by Kate Evans [Verso, 2015]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/red-rosa-cover-200x200.jpg)
I notice that the NYT Sunday Book Review’s not-so-special “Special Issue” on graphic books (Oct. 18) makes no mention of ‘Red Rosa’ by Kate Evans, forthcoming from Verso (Nov. 3). My tireless staff of thousands decided to right that wrong. Kate Evans, aka Cartoon Kate, is no ordinary biographer. Her in-depth account of the socialist […]
‘Picasso Sculpture’ at MoMA: The Magnificent Tinkerer
The swoon of the professional crickets had me wondering about their impressions. One was so taken with the show, he seemed to be suffering from emphysema (“I found myself constantly having to catch my breath …”) Poor cricket. But at least his cataracts were cleared up (“… you can feel the scales fall from your […]
A Blistering Attack on Wall Street — and Not Only That
It’s also “a celebration of words that changed the world” directed by Paul Hodson, with live music by Dr. Blue. Poetry Can F*ck Off will feature “verse, lyrics, and music by Maya Angelou, Jim Morrison, Billie Holiday, Sophie Scholl, Emily Dickinson, Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, Martin Luther King, William Blake, Arundhati Roy, Victor Jara, Gil Scott-Heron, […]
Going Whole Hog: The Prime Minister & the Pig’s Head
The British press has been having a field day with tales of Prime Minister David Cameron’s crush on a pig during his student days at Oxford. Maybe “crush” is the wrong term. How about “necrophiliac oral sex.” My tireless staff of thousands doesn’t presume to know the gory details. But it has taken notice of […]
Tripping With Andy
‘It is Deborah Davis’s style to pan to a faraway object, complete its history, then cinematically bring it into the focus of the story. John Huston becomes cinema verité. Her style permits one to learn everything related to the trip. Even things Andy Warhol’s diarist didn’t know.’ By Charles Plymell “The Trip” it was … […]
From Fleet Street to Biafra . . . and to MI6
When I interviewed Frederick Forsyth in 1982, he spoke about his time as a BBC correspondent in Biafra during the late 1960s. He had predicted a genocidal race war there, but his editors didn’t want to hear about it. This led to his departure from Fleet Street and a two-year odyssey as a freelance reporter […]
John Lennon Sang It: ‘Imagine there’s no countries …’
Posted at “Stop the War coalition”: For the first time in the post-World War II era, more than 50 million people are on the move — as refugees, asylum-seekers or internally displaced. They are mostly fleeing wars and upheaval of the West’s making. Instead of building walls and fences to keep them out, imagine there […]
Whose Side Are They On? Not Nelson Algren’s
It doesn’t take much for headline writers, editorialists, reporters, columnists, sports writers, what have you, to grab the reader’s attention with a catchy phrase. Some phrases have become such favorites that you see them used over and over. But I would bet that in plenty of cases the journalists who make use of them don’t […]