Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

19th-Century Balzac Meets 20th-Century Bellaart

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Gerard Bellaart’s masterly washed-pen drawing of Honoré de Balzac testifies to his great admiration for one of France’s most prodigious writers. He is particularly fond of the 19th-century Balzac novel Illusions perdues, about a young poet living in Angoulême, a provincial town in “France profonde,” who is desperate to make a name for himself in […]

Get Your Megadeath ‘Fun Stuff’ Here

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Words by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. The National Atomic Museum ‘Hiroshima bomb earrings for sale’ Katherine Butler and Fiona Bell, London: The Independent, 6 August, 1999 In the National Atomic Museum At Albuquerque, New Mexico, You can buy souvenirs of ‘Little Boy’, The bomb that demolished Hiroshima, And of ‘Fat Man’, […]

Nanos Valaoritis: On Language and Poetry

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At 92 / Nanos in his element / his element the world / his world the words / his words a philosopher’s. Here’s a poem of his — “Endless Crucifixion” — from the late-20th century. This is from the entry about him in Wikipedia: Nanos Valaoritis (Greek: Νάνος Βαλαωρίτης; born July 5, 1921) is one […]

New Arrival: Ira Cohen’s From Journey West

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Sea Urchin Editions maestro Ben Schot writes: The summer of 1975 was hot. A heatwave of eighteen consecutive days singed Western Europe and turned its capitals into seething cauldrons. Ira Cohen landed on the soft tarmac of Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, in August — his mind still filled with the opiate clouds over Kathmandu, […]

Seamus Heaney, R.I.P.

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Seamus Heaney died today Fred just told me. that leaves very few of his caliber. attached an anatomical study as a sign of respect. the drawing was on the desktop when Fred brought me the sad news. I have mailed you the ‘stone from delphi’ which really sums up the poet and man. small precious […]

He Had a Dream, But His Speech Was Hardly Noticed

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Given all the self-congratulation of the 50th anniversary celebration marking the historic significance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, you’d think its importance had been noted at the time, especially by the news media. Well, Jess Bravin has news for you. The day before King gave the speech on the steps […]

‘No Borders’

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‘The grass is greener when there are no sides.’ — Heathcote Williams Click for video. Narration and montage by Alan Cox.

Why Some of the Best Journalists Jam the Media

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This comment from William Osborne, in response to Surveillance Without Just Cause, deserves its own post: Most Americans no longer care if they are being spied on by their government. We live in a society so transparent they already feel they have no meaningful secrets left. Through social conditioning, government becomes an almost aestheticized ideal […]

On ‘Planetary-wide Surveillance Without Just Cause’

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Why is it that dissident journalists are articulate and eloquent in their arguments? One good reason is that the truth is on their side. Another is that they’re dedicated to human rights. Watch Jacob Appelbaum, a dissident security researcher and Wikileaks associate, speaking today in an interview on “Democracy Now!” It’s a stunner, and not […]

‘Omit Dead Ends’ … Yes, Please

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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 […]

Free Lynne Stewart: Save Her Life

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UPDATES BELOW … Back in 2005, when Lynne Stewart was prosecuted for aiding terrorists in her role as a civil rights defense attorney representing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in 1995 of plotting to blow up the United Nations building in New York, it was clear the feds were aiming to fry her. […]

From a Townhouse to the Vasty Deep

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Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them? Glendower: Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the Devil Hotspur: And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the Devil By telling the truth. […]

Queen of the Arms Trade

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“Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is one of the world’s richest women, worth £17 billion. Her investments in the arms trade include firms that produce the uranium used in depleted uranium (DU) shells. The deployment of these shells by the US military in its attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 is believed to […]

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