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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

‘Buried Child’ Surfaces in New Revival

February 18, 2016 by Jan Herman

Paul Sparks, Ed Harris (center), and Amy Madigan [Photo: Monique Carboni]

Sam Shepard recently referred to “Buried Child” as “the same clunky play” it always was, rewrites notwithstanding. That’s Shepard being candid. That’s Shepard being Shepard. Never mind that awkward dramaturgy and a little too much speechifying dialogue didn’t keep the play from winning the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for drama or Shepard from being declared the […]

Nelson Algren’s Walk Through Appalachia

February 17, 2016 by Jan Herman

Nelson Algren in Sag Harbor, N.Y. [ca. 1980]

I have always loved the way A Walk on the Wild Side begins. Show me a more perceptive opening of an American novel with its historical tracing of an Appalachian clan (let alone the lyrical brilliance of its prose) and I’ll buy you dinner. The novel introduces Fitz Linkhorn on the first page — a […]

And the Beat Goes On … And On

February 3, 2016 by Jan Herman

Collage © 1968 by Norman O. Mustill

It was too good to pass up this collage by Norman O. Mustill. He made it in 1968 as a comment on the Vietnam War, but it seems to me as accurate now as it was then. The only difference is that the wars have changed. A little “I don’t care” music please … EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Do You See Something Wrong Here?

January 26, 2016 by Jan Herman

Of the 4.5 million people who have flet the Syrian war, only 2,647 have been taken in my the United States. Why do we make it so hard for them to get here?

On the left is the cover of the New York Times Magazine for its migrant story, ‘Out of Syria.’ On the right is a condo ad for the one percent on the first page of the magazine. Draw your own conclusion. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Huge Counterculture Archive Comes to Market

January 25, 2016 by Jan Herman

ED SANDERS archive for sale from Granary Books

So the Ed Sanders Archive, a massive hoard of literary and countercultural materials, is finally for sale. Steve Clay, the publisher of Granary Books, is the dealer. I have no idea what price is being asked, but you can bet it’s liable to set some kind of record. Beginning with his first poems written while […]

What the Horse’s Mouth Had to Say

January 20, 2016 by Jan Herman

A question for the horse's mouth.

I wanted to get the lowdown, so I went over to the Council on Foreign Depredations. The horse’s mouth was as smart as I expected. But to my pleasant surprise, he was eminently sane, which seemed more important. When Tom Brokaw asked him “how well the country is being served” by the current political debate […]

Honoring MLK With a Clever Starbucks Ad

January 18, 2016 by Jan Herman

Starbucks took this full-page ad in the New York Times to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Watch Martin Luther King Jr. giving his greatest address, the “I have a dream” speech of Aug. 28, 1963, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Listen to his peerless “Letter from Birmingham Jail” of April 16, 1963, in which he defends direct-action nonviolence, explains its principles, expresses his disappointment with […]

The Day David Bowie Died, a Poet Wondered Why

January 12, 2016 by Jan Herman

‘What Are People Doing Fucking Dying?’ What are people doing fucking dying? Haven’t they got better things to do? No sooner than you’re on someone’s wavelength Then suddenly they’re whisked away from you. I saw Bowie at the first Glastonbury in 1971.* He was performing at five in the morning. With golden locks he was […]

Charlotte Moorman Gets a Full-Dress Close-Up

January 11, 2016 by Jan Herman

Moorman and Paik performing 'Human Cello Variation' as part of John Cage's "26'1.1499 for String Player" [Photo: Peter Moore © 1965]

On a visit I made years ago to Northwestern University’s Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections its curator at the time, Russell Maylone, showed me a room piled with ramshackle cartons that had recently arrived. He pointed to them with pride and said they were Charlotte Moorman’s archival materials, a lifetime’s worth of hoarding. […]

Progress for Women at Vienna Philharmonic

January 1, 2016 by Jan Herman

The concert is broadcast to more tan 90 countries.

For the first time in three years, William Osborne, an expert on the sociology of German-speaking orchestras, has posted an update about the latest developments at the VPo. “It’s the most positive I’ve ever written,” he tells me. Which is saying a lot when you know how critical he’s been of the orchestra’s all-male ideology […]

A Cool Way to End the Year

December 30, 2015 by Jan Herman

Carl Weissner's 'The Braille Film' at the Strand's Rare Books Room. This cut-up 'novel' was published in San Francisco, in 1970, by Nova Broadcast Press.

The countdown continues at the Bibliographic Bunker, where Jed Birmingham’s top 23 most interesting Burroughs collectibles has reached Carl Weissner’s Klacto 23 International, the seventh of the Klacto zines, which Birmingham terms “one of the great mimeo mags of the post-WWII era.” Coincidentally, a friend stopped by the rare books room at the Strand and […]

In RAIN TAXI: Paul Buhle on ‘The Z Collection’

December 14, 2015 by Jan Herman

“Once, a mere blink in the eye of eternity but actually several generations ago, literary essays were considered a high art form. Not the kind written in pursuit of academic self-advancement …” Click to enlarge. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Gonzo Style

December 9, 2015 by Jan Herman

GONZO Improv Ad

Gonzo Today brings us a gonzo poem by Heathcote Williams that begins: The Parisian atrocities were born in Libya / Where Cameron, Sarkozy, and Obama / Murdered twelve thousand Libyans between sips / Of Downing Street and Oval Office coffee. Read the complete poem here. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Redux: Dear Cannibals, Have a Happy Thanksgiving

November 25, 2015 by Jan Herman

Our Thanksgiving team of William S. Burroughs and Norman O. Mustill has been a happy pairing. It still is. But the Straight Up staff of thousands added a sweetener, something like cranberry sauce, to last year’s celebration. Here ‘tiz again: Words by Heathcote Williams, narration and montage by Alan Cox. And from Straight Up’s Thanksgiving […]

I’m Getting My 15 Minutes . . .

November 23, 2015 by Jan Herman

Los Angeles Review of Books [Aaron Shulman interviews Jan Herman, 2015]

If you think my staff of thousands doesn’t appreciate that, you don’t know how hungry they are to promote my new book. In this age of shameless self-promotion, it’s all about me, me, me. So I made a deal with them. One click gets them a penny, five gets them a dime. Make them rich. […]

Cartoon Artist Kate Evans Does Rosa Luxemburg

October 19, 2015 by Jan Herman

'RED ROSA: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg' by Kate Evans [Verso, 2015]

I notice that the NYT Sunday Book Review’s not-so-special “Special Issue” on graphic books (Oct. 18) makes no mention of ‘Red Rosa’ by Kate Evans, forthcoming from Verso (Nov. 3). My tireless staff of thousands decided to right that wrong. Kate Evans, aka Cartoon Kate, is no ordinary biographer. Her in-depth account of the socialist […]

‘Picasso Sculpture’ at MoMA: The Magnificent Tinkerer

October 15, 2015 by Jan Herman

Little Owl (Vallauris,1951-'52)

The swoon of the professional crickets had me wondering about their impressions. One was so taken with the show, he seemed to be suffering from emphysema (“I found myself constantly having to catch my breath …”) Poor cricket. But at least his cataracts were cleared up (“… you can feel the scales fall from your […]

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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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