Would the city look like this?
‘All the Art That’s Fit to Print (And Some That Wasn’t)’
Have you noticed lately that the art on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times is tamer than it used to be? I haven’t made a study of it, but that’s how it seems to me. Proof, if needed, comes with the paperback publication of All the Art That’s Fit to Print (And Some […]
Astronomy Picture of the Day
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 […]
Publicist’s Alert: ‘Useless Information’
This blog receives many publicist alerts. Here’s the smartest, verbatim (message line included): USELESS INFORMATON Hello. I am David Manning’s underpaid literary agent and publicist. He refuses to send this email, so I am hijacking his books account to do it for him. Thanks to an anonymous donor, there is an ad in the latest […]
Channeling John Cage
Is there anybody not paying tribute to John Cage this year, the centennial of his birth? My own favorite tribute is a performance that began more than a decade ago “in a crumbling medieval church” in Halberstadt, an eastern German city that has been described by The Wall Street Journal as “forlorn.” The piece, called […]
Big Title, Big Music, Young Composer
Dylan Mattingly by name. He’s got a thing for Amelia Earhart, the famous pilot who disappeared 75 years ago near Howland Island in the Pacific. Inspired by the story of her last flight, Mattingly wrote a forty-minute work for chamber orchestra, “Atlas of Somewhere On the Way to Howland Island,” as an homage to her […]
Viral Reading
More than two million YouTube viewers have watched this woman read a book. Imagine that.Update: Dec. 30, 2015 — That number is now 18.86 million. Yes, you read that right. Further Update: Oct. 2, 2024 — Viewers now number 30 million. The woman is Stoya, and she’s a porn star. The book is Necrophilia Variations, […]
Going Viral?
Here’s a change of pace. It’s a parody music video. Guy who made it calls it ‘Casual Pimpin.’ I call it catchy. Guy’s name is Tim Ellis. He’s something of a one-man band. Wrote it. Performs it. Shot it with his “fly girl.” He also happens to be a friend of mine. Now that I’ve […]
The Not-So-Perfect Storm
Ecuador contends that the British Foreign Office has yet to renounce a threat to storm its embassy in London, where Julian Assange has taken refuge from British authorities. So says The Guardian. A British court has ordered the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sexual misconduct, although no formal charges […]
Assange Speaks
WHILE ALL EYES were on the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where Julian Assange has been granted political asylum for good reason, there was a two-man demonstration on Sunday at the British consulate (875 Third Ave.) in midtown Manhattan. Yoni Miller, 18, identified himself as an “occupier” who believes in “direct action.” Articulate and steadfast, he […]
Edition of Death in Paris Is Now in Print
This is not a sales pitch. I’m only kvelling. The printed edition is stunningly handsome, a magnificent artifact in memory of its author, the late Carl Weissner, dear friend and co-conspirator from the ’60s. If you would like to read Death in Paris on paper, please do. If you prefer reading it in a preview, […]
Mustill’s Message on a Postcard (2)
A Long Shot for Carl the Survivor
“Death, the last cut, always leaves a bitter feeling mixed with pain & loss . . . and because of its finality gives you no choice but to look back.” — Jurgen Ploog Here’s a rough translation of Ploog’s original article posted in German by Gasolin Connection on Feb. 2, 2012. Ploog is the author […]
Portrait of the Writer
Broadcast after his death.
Ave Atque Vale
Carl Weissner (1940-2012) died Jan. 24, in Mannheim. Carl wrote his first book, The Braille Film, in English. I published it in 1970, under the Nova Broadcast imprint. Although his native language was German, he had an incomparable ear for phrases that made his written English sing, certainly his American lingo. And he seemed to […]
‘Transfers From a Different World’
Matthias Penzel’s obituary about Carl Weissner, more an appreciation than an obit, appeared this past Sunday in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. He has kindly translated it from the German for me, and I post it here with his permission. Penzel, a Berlin-based author of several books, including TraumHaft (a rock ‘n’ roll novel) and Rebell […]
Cody’s Conversation
When I asked Cody Mahler to write something for me about the friend we both lost, he wrote back: “I have to sit down with Carl and discuss what he would like me to say.” They must’ve had a great conversation, because this is what he wrote: I CALLED HIM MISTER MOOCH Everybody knows that he is […]