Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Archives for May 2013

‘John Barleycorn’ & ‘Death to Alejandro’

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Ben Schot does all his drawings on the hotel stationary of Les Fregates in Royale-les-Eaux, a fictional seaside resort in Normandy described in Casino Royale as “just north of Dieppe.” He also keeps a running count by numbering them in sequence. These two were done back in March. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Assange: It’s U.S. Security State vs. First Amendment

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In a 40-minute Web & television interview on Democracy Now! WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange discussed U.S. Justice Department spying on journalists and what the “abuse of the Espionage Act” against a reporter means. He also talked about the future of WikiLeaks, the financial blockade against it, and his nearly year-long political asylum in the Ecuadorean […]

Gerard Bellaart Sends Greetings From France

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The resident genius of Cold Turkey Press has a thing for Artaud. Can you blame him?Not I. Neither can Hemingway. “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our […]

Say Hello to Claes Oldenburg’s Cheeseburgers

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“I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum. … I am for the art of underwear and the art of taxicabs. I am for the art of ice cream cones dropped on concrete. … I am for an art that takes its forms […]

From Ralph Richardson to Alan Cox in ‘Cornelius’

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Any actor taking on what the savvy, longtime drama critic of The Guardian calls “a monumental leading role” expressly written for the great Ralph Richardson, is either crazy or brave — possibly both. Which partly explains why the role hadn’t been done in more than 70 years until Alan Cox brought it back to life […]

Orwell Was a Genius at Fiction Right From the Start

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Jane Perlez reminds us in this morning’s New York Times of George Orwell’s first novel, Burmese Days. Orwell is best known for his later novels, of course, the dystopian 1984 and the allegorical Animal Farm, which are remembered less for their impact as fiction than for their prescient warnings about the reality of a totalitarian […]

Ernest Hemingway, Heathcote Williams, and So Forth

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And then I sent a photo of the Ernest Hemingway plaque in the series … Which drew this reply … Serving as further testament to what has been lost, or as the poet noted with his reply, “Pace Hemingway.” EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

A Difference Between the 16th Century and the 21st

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When I sent Heathcote Williams a photo of the Francis Bacon plaque in the Library Walk series … He replied with an ironic poem, like so … … which illustrates a difference between the 16th century and the 21st, doncha think? EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

From Laugharne Boathouse to Library Walk

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On my way to work I sometimes take a street in midtown Manhattan where an unsung marvel known as “Library Walk” celebrates the world’s great books and writers. For the length of two city blocks I’m distracted by bronze reliefs in granite plaques set into the sidewalk. They are beautiful to look at and inspiring […]

Richard Feynman’s ‘Ode to a Flower’

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The Guardian posted a tribute to a bongo-playing physicist the other day, with the subhed “Flowers, music, strip clubs…Richard Feynman’s scientific curiosity knew no bounds.” Linked to a cute cartoon video based on a 1981 BBC documentary, it gives a sense of the man as a fabulous paradox. Which is perfectly illustrated in the video […]

Can a Royal Party Boy Really Change His Stripes?

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So how do you, in the words of Heathcote Williams, “turn a plutocratic oaf into a lovable national treasure instead of a casually racist and unthinking parasite”? With difficulty. Unless you can get the press behind you and send Prince Harry on an American tour. Trouble is, during Harry’s former deployment in Afghanistan, as Williams […]

Unbuttoned: Samuel Beckett Meets William Osborne

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I knew my friend Bill Osborne and Samuel Beckett had met and spoken about Osborne’s musical settings of Beckett’s plays. But I had never heard the details. Now at last the full story! By William Osborne I spent seven years doing nothing else but setting the works of Beckett to music. At the end in […]

An Absurd Debate About the Last Word

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Following up on the previous blogpost, Gerard Bellaart sent a superimposition of several lines on Beckett’s short dramatic monologue “Not I.” Bellaart also sent an excerpt from Michael Maier’s paper, “GEISTERTRIO: Beethoven’s Music in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Ghost Trio.’” To which, Bellaart says: “The debate as to whether music has the last word is rather like […]

Menu-Size Art: Quicker Than You Can Say Fast Food

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Cold Turkey Press has just put together a beautiful portfolio of menu-size collages by Norman O. Mustill dating from 1975, when Mustill sent them to Carl Weissner, who wanted to illustrate his German translation of Harold Norse’s Beat Hotel with Mustill’s artwork. Phew … got that? Weissner didn’t receive the collages in time to make […]

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