• Home
  • About
    • Straight Up
    • Jan Herman
    • Contact
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

Straight Up | Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

You are here: Home / Archives for Uncategorized

Reality as a Metaphysical Construct

December 13, 2018 by Jan Herman

It is a rare thing when a book comes along that looks as magnificent as Flesh Film and reads like an hallucination. To be clear,  Jürgen Ploog is an author who does not write for everyone. The “story” he tells in Flesh Film has the pulpy tone of science fiction, a narrator who sounds like a globe-trotting private […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

The Z Collection at Printed Matter in NYC

December 7, 2018 by Jan Herman

Finally, you can buy it in the States without paying the exorbitant cost of international postage. The Z Collection is an illustrated memoir in the form of personal essays about Nelson Algren, William Burroughs, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, E.L. Doctorow, William Styron, Abbie Hoffman, among others, and about the literary underground of the 1960s. “Herman, a […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Tribute to John Bryan from Cold Turkey Press

May 20, 2018 by Jan Herman

John Bryan published so many underground papers and magazines over three decades — beginning in 1962 with renaissance, a San Francisco literary journal inspired by Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (which John said he read “half a dozen times,” and which turned him onto LSD) — that Warren Hinckle called him “the Peter Zenger of […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Goodbye to a Depressing Year

December 11, 2017 by Jan Herman

Blackbird (image detail Paul Klee) Cold Turkey Press, 2017

The image is a detail from a drawing by Paul Klee. The poem owes a debt to George Grosz and Gerard Bellaart. emailFacebookTwitterReddit

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Back to Reality: Torma on Michelangelo’s Art

April 24, 2016 by Jan Herman

“Colossal as his works were, he saw them still too much as garlands and sought some immoderation wherewith to botch them. He was so successful that he left everything unfinished. Never push things.” emailFacebookTwitterReddit

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Carly Fiorina, Untethered Gasbag’s Economic Adviser

September 28, 2015 by Jan Herman

Carly Fiorina

Here’s a blast from the past … so relevant today. Oh, and by the way: Fiorina Says, ‘I Received Only A $21 Million Severance Package — Not $42 Million’ emailFacebookTwitterReddit

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

But W.’s Name Is Missing From the List

December 22, 2014 by Jan Herman

This day should not pass without acknowledging the lead editorial in this morning’s New York Times: Prosecute Torturers and Their Bosses. It points out, among other things, that Any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

C.I.A. Refutes Torture Report, Tells Us: ‘Lick That Boot’

December 13, 2014 by Jan Herman

© 1975, 2013 by Norman O. Mustill

Our objection to the C.I.A.’s defiant pushback is best expressed by Norman O. Mustill’s collage, because words will not suffice. emailFacebookTwitterReddit

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Personal History: My Father Was a New York Cabbie

February 10, 2014 by Jan Herman

'An Angel Rides Disguised as Cabbie' by Gabriel Pressman [New York World Telegram & Sun, ca. 1952 -'53]

My father drove a cab at night. This was the early 1950s. A Brooklyn-born New Yorker, he knew the city’s streets the way a junky knows his veins. I thought of him because of a headline in today’s New York Times: American-Born Cabbies Are a Vanishing Breed in New York. Dad also knew doormen, theater […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

‘Omit Dead Ends’ … Yes, Please

August 11, 2013 by Jan Herman

'omit dead ends' © 2005 by Gerard Bellaart

At the urging of my staff of thousands, examples from Gerard Bellaart’s word-based series of artworks have been a continuing feature of recent blogposts. Other stenciled texts of his that have appeared so far include “Artaud Fragmentations,” “tric trac du ciel,” “Throws Up Words,” “ROT NOT,” and “No Mind Fits 5.” There are more to […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Another Stenciled Text: ‘No Mind Fits 5’

June 9, 2013 by Jan Herman

'no mind fits 5' © 2005 by Gerard Bellaart

At the urging of my staff of thousands, examples from Gerard Bellaart’s word-based series of artworks have been a continuing feature of recent blogposts. The others so far have been “Artaud Fragmentations,” “tric trac du ciel,” “Throws Up Words,” and “ROT NOT.” There are more to come. Bellaart is a Dutch artist and writer now […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Orwell Was a Genius at Fiction Right From the Start

May 24, 2013 by Jan Herman

Orwell's house in Katha, Myanmar. [Photo: Aung Shine Oo for The New York Times]

Jane Perlez reminds us in this morning’s New York Times of George Orwell’s first novel, Burmese Days. Orwell is best known for his later novels, of course, the dystopian 1984 and the allegorical Animal Farm, which are remembered less for their impact as fiction than for their prescient warnings about the reality of a totalitarian […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Still Hidden in Plain Sight, a Reminder of Old Times

March 7, 2013 by Jan Herman

Two news stories — an “exclusive” in The Guardian (“Revealed: Pentagon’s link to Iraqi torture centres”) and a front-pager in The New York Times (“C.I.A.’s History Poses Hurdles for an Obama Nominee”) — are reminders that more than seven years ago Straight Up’s staff of thousands was onto the story about the American strategy to […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Democracy Now! Exclusive: Assange on WikiLeaks, Bradley Manning, Cypherpunks, Surveillance State

November 29, 2012 by Jan Herman

“In his most extended interview in months, Julian Assange speaks from inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has been holed up for nearly six months. Assange vowed that WikiLeaks would persevere despite attacks against it. On Tuesday, the European Commission announced that the credit card company Visa did not break the European Union’s […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Teaming Burroughs & Mustill for Thanksgiving

November 22, 2012 by Jan Herman

A Straight Up tradition continues. But this year William S. Burroughs’s words of gratitude on Thanksgiving Day are posted with a couple of collages by Norman O. Mustill. That completes the package. Look and listen. It’s delish . . . Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Astronomy Picture of the Day

October 6, 2012 by Jan Herman

It’s a breakfast doodle by Malcolm Mc Neill. He writes in an email, “If only …” Mc Neill has two books coming out at the end of October from Fantagraphics Books: The Lost Art of Ah Pook Is Here: Images from the Graphic Novel and the memoir Observed While Falling: Bill Burroughs, Ah Pook, and […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit

Life in Turmoil, Life Out of Balance

October 26, 2011 by Jan Herman

If you can’t get to the screening of Godfrey Reggio’s Koyaanisqatsi at Avery Fisher Hall (on Nov. 2 and 3 in New York), where Philip Glass’s score for the film will be performed live by the New York Philharmonic and the Philip Glass Ensemble, or if you can get over there but can’t afford to […]

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit
« Previous Page
Next Page »

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

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...]

Books ‘n’ Stuff

My biography of the Hollywood director William Wyler, A Talent for Trouble, is available as an ebook at Amazon and an ebook on iTunes at the Apple … [Read More...]

Contact me

We're cutting down on spam. Please fill in this form. … [Read More...]

Archives

Blogroll

Abstract City
AC Institute
ACKER AWARDS New York
All Things Allen Ginsberg
AmericaBlog
American Leftist
Antiwar.com
ArkivMusic.com
Arts & Letters Daily

Bellaart
Blogcritics
Booknotes
Bright Lights Film Journal

C-SPAN
Noam Chomsky
Consortium News
Cost of War
Council on Foreign Relations
Crooks and Liars
Cultural Weekly

The Daily Howler
David E’s Fablog
Dark Roasted Blend
DCReport
Democracy Now!
Devil Ducky

Ehrensteinland
Tim Ellis: Comedy
Eschaton

Film Threat
Robert Fisk
Flixnosh (David Elliott’s movie menu)
Fluxlist Europe

Good Reads
The Guardian (London)
GUERNICA: A Magazine of Art & Politics

Herman (Literary) Archive, Northwestern Univ. Library
The Huffington Post

Inter Press Service News Agency
The Intercept
Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Doug Ireland
IT: International Times, The Magazine of Resistance

Jacketmagazine
Clive James

Henry Kisor
Paul Krugman

Lannan Foundation
Life During Wartime
Los Angeles Times

Metacritic
Mimeo Mimeo
Moloko Print
Movie Geeks United (MGU)
MGU: The Kubrick Series

Nat. Arts Journalism Program
National Security Archive
The New York Times
NO!art

Open City
Osborne & Conant

The Overgrown Path

Political Irony
Poynter

The Quarterly Conversation

Rain Taxi
The Raw Story
RealityStudio.org
Bill Reed
The Reeler
Rhizome
Rwanda Project

Salon
Seeing Black
Senses of Cinema
Seven Stories Press
Slate
Studs Terkel
The Synergic Theater

TalkLeft
The 3rd Page
ThugLit: Writing About Wrongs
Times Square Cam
The Tin Man
t r u t h o u t

Ubu Web

Vox

The Wall Street Journal
Wikigate
Wikipedia
The Washington Post
James Wolcott
World Catalogue
World Newspapers, Magazines & News Sites

The XD Agency

Email this to someone
email
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Reddit
Reddit
This blog published under a Creative Commons license

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2021 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in