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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Gone But Not Forgotten
The Pyramid Club on the Lower East Side

April 7, 2021 by Jan Herman

Gone, finished, closed, shut forever. Though less well known than CBGB, Webster Hall, The Palladium, the Continental, it gave birth to much LES culture. Over the last few years, the Pyramid Club struggled to stay alive. Then came the Covid-19 death grip.

Transubstantiation
Christopher Hitchens Would Be Chortling

April 4, 2021 by Jan Herman

Words by Heathcote Williams. Montage and narration by Alan Cox.
Video redux for Easter Sunday 2021.

He Had A Dream

April 4, 2021 by Jan Herman

#1-- Martin Luther King Jr.

He was assassinated fifty-three years ago today. His dream did not die with him.

Carl Weissner’s German Essays and Reportage
Notes on Outsiders

March 29, 2021 by Jan Herman

UPDATED: To get the drift of “Aufzeichnungen über Aussenseiter” by Carl Weissner, I’ve been typing pieces of text into google translate. It’s a helluva time-consuming job, as if re-setting type you understand. Matthias Penzel, who edited the collection and wrote an afterword, tells me I should have better things to do with my time. But it’s more than worth the effort.

A Photo Portrait for the Ages

March 24, 2021 by Jan Herman

They don’t make characters like this any more unless you think of Trump’s sourpusses.

Rare Book Collecting
Connecting Brion Gysin and Paul-Armand Gette

March 22, 2021 by Jan Herman

UPDATED // To rate collectors by the use they make of their collections rather than simply by completeness, or by the rarity and excellence of individual items, makes great sense. Jed Birmingham’s new series about collectors of Burroughsiana is essential reading for anyone interested in the usefulness of collecting books of any kind, not just those by Williams Burroughs.

From Bike Messenger to Filmmaker
Rich Allen’s ‘Street Shots / Hooky’

March 17, 2021 by Jan Herman

When a book begins like this, notice must be taken: “I woke up, New Year’s Day 1970, in a straitjacket. I had no memory, of anything, at least not at first. I was in an asylum on Long Island after taking an overdose of some pills a shrink gave me. Slowly awareness arose. … I asked to have the jacket removed and they did. Bit by bit memories came back. I could recall details of my childhood. I remembered I’d married Cathy, my girlfriend, months ago when she turned eighteen … In a few days I felt normal.”

Oprah Interview Misses the Bigger Picture

March 10, 2021 by Jan Herman

In all the press coverage I have seen of Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Meghan and Harry, it has been treated as a tale of personal tragedy, a terrible racist family squabble, for the British royals — but not one mention of the larger tragedy at the heart of Heathcote Williams’s “Royal Babylon,” namely the immense damage caused by the monarchy’s greedy, rapacious treatment of peoples and nations the worldover.

The Long Haul: New York City Grins and Bears It

March 9, 2021 by Jan Herman

“Vaccine acceleration and partial re-openings inspire hope, but coming back from the pandemic will be a complex process.” — Michael Oreskes

Will Oprah Pick Up Where He Left Off?
Heathcote Williams on the British Monarchy

March 6, 2021 by Jan Herman

“‘God save the queen,’ they sang, ‘it’s a fascist regime.’ / And the song’s hook-line became a new anthem — / Disturbing to clutches of flag-wavers lining the streets. / And horrifying to Middle England and the Daily Mail.” — from ROYAL BABYLON

PS: In all the press coverage I have seen of the interview, it has been treated as a tale of personal tragedy, a terrible racist family squabble, for the British royals but not one mention of the larger tragedy at the heart of “Royal Babylon,” namely the immense damage caused by the monarchy’s greedy, rapacious treatment of peoples and nations the world over.


Gary Lee-Nova: ‘Oblique Trajectories’

February 23, 2021 by Jan Herman

A survey exhibition of the artist’s work over more than four decades.
The exhibition at the Burnaby Art Gallery in Burnaby, B.C., Canada, will run until April 18, 2021.

Riding the Zoom Wagon
‘Journalism in a Time of Crisis’

February 18, 2021 by Jan Herman

The New York Review of Books will present a discussion about the ways contemporary journalism has addressed moments of political and social crisis. The program, Journalism in a Time of Crisis, is scheduled for Feb. 24 at 7:30 p.m., featuring Justine van der Leun, Howard French, Elizabeth Bruenig, Mark Danner, and Darryl Pinckney.

Poetry Comes in Different Ways from Different Sources

February 11, 2021 by Jan Herman

David Erdos, a British poet most prolific, shows us one of them.

Let’s Talk About Literary Exposure

January 14, 2021 by Jan Herman

Some would call it visibility. If you’re talking books, how about millions upon millions of Youtube views for a reading from Supervert’s ‘Necrophilia Variations.’ A dozen years ago when that video had two million views, I called it “viral reading.” Three years later, on Dec. 30, 2015, the video had 18.6 million views. Today it has some 28 million views. So what has this meant for selling the book?

Jim Haynes, RIP

January 12, 2021 by Jan Herman

Jim Haynes

Brad Spurgeon memorializes him: “End of an Era, but not of a Philosophy of Life.” I never met Jim. But he was extraordinarily welcoming when we corresponded by email about the strange case of Orwell’s typewriter.

Remember These Headlines

January 7, 2021 by Jan Herman

These headline writers got it right.

GC CUNY at the Center of the Conversation
Peter Baker & Susan Glasser on James A. Baker III, with Kai Bird

January 5, 2021 by Jan Herman

“For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency without the help of James A. Baker III or ran the White House without his advice. Now two major political journalists, Peter Baker (of The New York Times) and Susan Glasser (of The New Yorker) have written ‘The Man Who Ran Washington,’ a definitive, page-turning biography of the power broker whose impact was unmatched when Washington ran the world and who influenced America’s destiny for generations. The authors join in a discussion with Kai Bird, executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography.”

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Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
Another strange fact... Read More…

About

My Books

Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

Straight Up

The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

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