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Search Results for: heathcote williams

‘Trans-Am Totem’ and ‘Autogeddon’

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A friend sent this photo of Marcus Bowcott’s “Trans Am Totem,” which stands amid the traffic in Vancouver. As you see, five cars are stacked (four of them crushed) on top of a base made from a single tree trunk. What you cannot see is that the Cedar trunk is signed by a Native First Nations Carver who carved a Bear Paw & Claws symbol into the foot of the trunk.

Cold Turkey Press: A Bibliography

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I don’t know exactly how many chapbooks, folios, broadsides, and poetry cards Cold Turkey Press has published. I never counted. But it must be in the hundreds. All of them—produced in handmade, illustrated, and limited editions—are unique manifestations of their publisher’s mind: scholarly without being academic, exotic but not obscure. They constitute an archive that […]

The Z Collection at Printed Matter in NYC

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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 […]

2018: Thanksgiving in Trumpistan

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To mark the moment, a Straight Up tradition continues. From William Burroughs, and Norman O. Mustill, and Heathcote Williams, and our staff of thousands … thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison . . . thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and to falsify until the bare lies shine through . . . […]

Valedictory in a Taxi Cruising Slowly

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“Here are Sinclair’s ‘Last Words,’ written in Paris long before he would have been aware of any pressing need to devise a valedictory.” — HEATHCOTE WILLIAMS, from a tribute to Sinclair Beiles, in BONE HEBREW, a collection of Beiles’s writings published in 2013, in a limited edition, by Cold Turkey Press. Let me utter my […]

When Language Is Incorrect

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Mokusatsu Asked what he’d do first if called upon to rule a nation Confucius replied, “I’d correct language. If language isn’t correct Then what is said is not what’s meant And what ought to be done remains undone. Morals and art deteriorate And justice goes astray – And if justice should disappear Then people will […]

What Would Daumier Make of Trump?

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Here’s the perfect hint: A mocking depiction of King Louis-Philippe as the Rabelais character Gargantua. The caricature might as well be Trump. He feeds on bundles of swag delivered by his obsequious minions and, from his outhouse throne, he shits out appointments, titles, and other rewards for the privileged class. Not incidentally, Honoré Daumier went […]

The Lust to Consume

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“The people who run Tesco’s must be Buddhists. You go in there … and there is nothing you could possibly want.”–Heathcote Williams Tesco PLC is a global retailer based in the U.K. It owns and operates supermarkets throughout Europe and in recent years has expanded to Turkey, China, Thailand, and the U.S. the Middle East, […]

2017: Thanksgiving in Trumpistan

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A Straight Up greeting to mark the moment. From William Burroughs, and Norman O. Mustill, and Heathcote Williams, and our staff of thousands … thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison . . . thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and to falsify until the bare lies shine through . . . thanks […]

Reminder: The Statue of Liberty’s Burka*

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Words and narration by Heathcote Williams. Montage by Alan Cox. The President is obsessed with deporting Arabs Although, by a superb comic irony, It was an Arab who modeled for the United States’ icon – Namely the Statue of Liberty. The sculptor’s monument was initially designed For the opening of the Suez canal: The original […]

‘The Last Dodo and Dreams of Flying’

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A reading at the Albion Beatnik Bookshop in Oxford from a book of poetry published by New River Press. ‘I hope you love birds, too. It is economical. It saves going to Heaven.’ — Emily Dickinson, from a letter to Eugenia Hall ‘Why,’ said the Dodo, ‘the best way to explain it is to do […]

Lost: Whatever Happened to ‘Severe Joy’?

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When Heathcote Williams died recently, I heard from many people who recalled the lasting impact he’d had on them. Jay Jeff Jones, Michael Butterworth, and David Britton were three. They remembered a manuscript of Heathcote’s called “Severe Joy” that never saw the light of day. John Calder, a major London publisher, had failed to bring […]

A Great One Died Today

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Updated with new information. ‘He was the Shelley of his age and more.’ — Gerard Bellaart A memorial service is to be held Friday (July 14), 3 p.m., at St. Barnabas Church in Jericho, Oxford. All welcome. July 17 — Malcolm Ritchie, whose friendship with Heathcote spanned decades, attended the service. This is his description: […]

Squatting at The Bunker in London

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Cycle One (previews begin April 17) ‘Slummers’ by Sonal Bhattacharyya ‘The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency’ by Heathcote Williams with Sarah Woods ‘Back to Back to Back’ by Stef Smith Cycle Two (previews begin April 18) ‘The Table’ by Lin Coghlin ‘Put The Schwarzes Into De-Stat’ by Nessah Muthy ‘The House With the Yellow […]

Picturing the President

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Insect brain, cold-blooded eye, bared teeth of a human predator. The total obscenity of the American Dream Comes to fruition in Donald John Trump … — Heathcote Williams, from a poem in American Porn The collage was published in 2016 by Verlag Peter Engstler in Paulus Böhmer das es Euch gibt: Collagen, a collection of […]

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