Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

‘Peter Bayliss and the Breatharians’

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The obituary in The Telegraph, in 2002, said: “He wanted no memorial, but his near-lunatic appetite for life will be impossible to forget.” The poet Heathcote Williams certainly remembers Peter Bayliss. He remembers, too, “the Bayliss Mischief” that “might still be working / From beyond the grave.” Here given their due are the vaunted philanthropic […]

Iraq Invasion Time Capsule: March Madness Redux

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This is the week to remember the “The Ides of March, 2003.” Can’t let it pass without recalling what I posted at the time on MSNBC.com, links included. (Miracle of miracles, many still work). Looking back, I see the posts are very tame. I tried not to be, but I knew I could go only […]

MacFadyen Takes ‘Front Porch’ Look at Burroughs

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I knew when RealityStudio posted Ian MacFadyen’s review of “The Name Is Burroughs: expanded media at the ZKM, Karlsruhe” that it would be a major critique. I had already read his “Codename Burroughs,” the pamphlet that accompanied the retrospective, which was excerpted from a more complete text in MacFadyen’s book, William S. Burroughs. Cut. With […]

Now for Something from the Lookalikes Department

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Ben Schot’s drawing, “Study of Majesty” — executed on the stationary of LES FREGATES Hotel **NN Restaurant, which the Dutch artist uses as a “conceptual constant” for all his drawings — was not separated at birth from Picasso’s “She-Goat.” But they look a helluva lot like fraternal twins. I’d say they make a lecherous brother […]

From the ‘Let Us Compare Obscenities’ Department

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The other day a call went out for “comparative obscenities” to add to the literary examples by Bukowski and Catullus. One reader obliged by sending a drawing by Topor, whom he regards as a “sheer genius.” Straight Up’s staff of thousands agrees and decided to pair Topor’s drawing with one of Tomi Ungerer‘s. (And here’s […]

Bukowski & Catullus: Let Us Compare Obscenities

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The other day a friend of mine said, “I’m not sure a living human has written a good poem since Bukowski died.” His all-time Buk favorite is “The Best Love Poem I Can Write at the Moment.” Coincidentally, I came across a review by Michael Hinds of The FBI’s Obscene File: J. Edgar Hoover and […]

Still Hidden in Plain Sight, a Reminder of Old Times

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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 […]

‘Artaud Fragmentations’

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And now for another kind of poem, as unlike “Death Is a Wind That Will Carry You Off” as day from night. It’s part of a large series of stenciled texts by the Dutch artist and writer Gerard Bellaart. At the urging of my staff of thousands, examples from Bellaart’s word-based series of artworks have […]

‘Death Is a Wind That Will Carry You Off’

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This poem is not intended as a companion piece to “Music for the End of Time.” The tone is entirely different, not at all apocalyptic. But it covers the same or similar ground, and I can’t help thinking that the difference in treatment is a merely a matter of temperament. Which is enough: Death is […]

‘Music for the End of Time’

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Excerpted from the complete 52-minute work for trombone, video and quadraphonic electronics. Based on the Book of Revelation, the music had its premiere in Montreal, at McGill University, in March 1998. The video was premiered in Taos, New Mexico, in September 2007. Personnel: Abbie Conant, trombone; Norbert Bach, digital stills; William Osborne, music and video. […]

Raw Data: Armed Drone Prototype

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This comes from Norman O. Mustill’s “raw data” pile. It appeared during World War II in an ad for Good Housekeeping Magazine, warning against “A Dictator’s Newest Dream.” According to the text that accompanied the ad, “The army has specified that it must be able to carry 4 soldiers with full equipment or a machinegun […]

‘Democracy Now!’: Riveting Look at the Terror Courts

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Wall Street Journal journalist Jess Bravin reports on the controversial military commissions at Guantanamo. Describing it as “the most important legal story in decades,” Bravin uncovers how the Bush administration quickly drew up an alternative legal system to try men captured abroad after the Sept. 11 attacks. Soon evidence obtained by torture was being used […]

VDRSVP #3 for Old Times’ Sake

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Someone told me he knew what RSVP stands for. But what did VDRSVP mean? “Black humor,” I said. No point giving away the joke. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

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