I didn’t want to post this item, especially because I have no interest in writing anything that might be misconstrued as a defense of Goldman Sachs. But has anybody besides my staff of thousands — Bill Osborne, to be precise — noticed that Matt Taibbi’s description of Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped […]
Lynne Stewart Is Looking at 28 Months
This is very bad news. Here’s why.
The Outsider
Dave Teeuwen’s Interview with Graham Masterton on William S. Burroughs is a gem — every last word of it — and especially the remark that Burroughs said “he felt as if he had never lived the life he was supposed to live, and that somehow he had ended up as an outsider on the edge […]
And Now for a Change of Pace
From Video Poetry and Video Fictions, courtesy of Richard Kostelanetz, who produced the visual content in 1989, and Seth G. Samuel, who composed and performed the music in 2009. Postscript: Nov. 2 — A change from the change … and I doan care if dey mispell Artur’s name …
Straight From the Horse’s Mouth
Here’s the truth, simply stated … bookstores are suffering from a serious crisis of falling sales. Don’t believe a single zero of all those editions claimed to be 100,000! 40,000! … even 400 copies! just for suckers! Alack! … Alas! … only love and romance … and even then! … manage to keep selling … […]
Vonnegut Tells a Story
Here’s the beginning of a nice little tale of blackmail and paranoia by the late Kurt Vonnegut. It’s one of 14 previously unpublished stories in a new collection of short fiction, Look at the Birdie, just out from Random House. I was sitting in a bar one night, talking rather loudly about a person I […]
The Mind Reels
Did you see this? How could you not? It was frontpage — front and center above the fold — the kind of news that sends the mind reeling: Wounded Soldiers Return to Iraq, Seeking Solace. Really. Americans wounded in the Iraq war are being ferried back to the scenes where they were maimed to help […]
Of Charles Darwin, Walt Disney, and God
Malcolm Mc Neill animated Televolution 20 years ago. “I redid it for Charles Darwin,” he said the other day, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and to pay tribute to On the Origin of Species. The 19th-century naturalist’s masterwork was published in November 1859. Mc Neill’s animated cartoon consists of 1859 frames. Televolution […]
Perkowski Film Does Burroughs to the Max
Have a look at “The Subliminal Kid,” a short, brilliant sequence from Andre Perkowski’s “Nova Express.” Excerpts of his montage film, a three-hour work-in-progress based on the writings of William S. Burroughs, will be screened tonight at the School for the Visual Arts in New York as part of an ongoing homage to Burroughs, celebrating […]
Dancing With the Bulls
José Tomás shows in just 37 stunning seconds why he is the last best hopefor bullfighting … … and if that doesn’t prove it, have a look at these two and a half minutes.¡Olé! Postscript: Oct. 7 — Yesterday, during arguments in a a free-speech case involving a ban on animal-cruelty videos, Supreme Court Justice […]
Going, Going, Went … But Not All Gone
The last time I saw Burt Britton it must have been more than 20 years ago. He simply disappeared. I’m not sure why. He told me, as I gather he told others, that if I ever wanted to contact him I could dial a special phone number, which he spelled out for me as MEL […]
Homage to ‘Naked Lunch’ Is on the Menu in NYC
The book that made William S. Burroughs famous and established his reputation as a writer of the blackest satire since Swift is to be celebrated on its 50th anniversary with readings, films, photographs, panel discussions, scholarly papers, and performances. Four days of events in New York are to begin Oct. 7 at the Poetry Project […]
Armey’s Army
Protestors: You Lie! You Lie! Click for video. Bill Moyers: They came from all over the country to register their opposition to President Obama and big government. … Max Blumenthal, reporter: Who do you think is more dangerous, Al Quaeda or Obama? Protestor: Obama. Reporter: Obama’s more dangerous than Osama? Protestor: Absolutely. Reporter: Why? Protester: […]
Hail to the Judge
When the Bus Crashes, Does the Driver Get a Bonus? If you see an apter headline, please rush & phone us. — Leon Freilich And so, belatedly, we turn to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, a former criminal prosecutor and white-collar defense lawyer with a reputation as “one of the top jurists on the topic […]
Barbara Ehrenreich Does It Again
Just as she did last month, she has published the best op-ed read of the day, this time with an assist from Dedrick Muhammad. Their lede asks, “What do you get when you combine the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the first black president?” And answers: A surge of white racial resentment, loosely […]
That Google Book Settlement
Bulletin: Copyright Office Assails Google’s Settlement on Digital Books SAN FRANCISCO — The nation’s top copyright official made a blistering attack Thursday on a controversial legal settlement that would let Google create a huge online library and bookstore. Now hear this from Techdirt: Complaints Against Google Book Scanning Project Reach Ridiculous Levels A friend who […]
Still the Best 9/11 Memorial, Redux
It goes up again tonight.