April 25, 2014 + Free and open to the public at The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Ave. (at 34th Street) in Manhattan.+ 10:00 a.m. “Editing Burroughs” — John Bennett and Geoffrey Smith+ 11:00 a.m. “Burroughs and Literary Magazines” — Jed Birmingham, Charles Plymell, and Jan Herman +2:00 p.m. “Biography and Photography” — Barry Miles […]
‘Burroughs in London’ by Heathcote Williams
Now that the Burroughs centenary has moved into high gear, it suddenly dawned on Heathcote Williams that he’d known the man on and off for more than half a century.
‘The Intercept’ Launch: Whistleblowers Welcomed
This is not a Wanted! poster, but it might as well be. You can be sure these journalists are or will be targeted by intelligence officials. The Intercept is a whistleblowing enterprise created by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and Laura Poitras. The site was launched today by First Look Media. Our short-term mission is limited […]
You Are There: Where Burroughs Once Lived in Mexico City
In more than 50 years not much had changed. Although the narrow street had been gentrified and renamed, the “run-down white apartment building” was still there looking like time had stood still for it.
Centennial Conference on Life & Myth of William Burroughs
William S. Burroughs was born 100 years ago today. A centennial conference will be held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York as part of a month-long WSB@100 Festival in April. The conference, sponsored by The Center for Humanities, “will explore the life and myth of one of the most innovative […]
Whom Do You Believe? Clapper or Snowden?
![The lineup: U.S. intelligence officials testified yesterday in an annual hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Clapper is the center figure. [Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/clapper-testimony-200x190.jpg)
You won’t see Edward Snowden being interviewed on American TV. But you will see the nation’s top intelligence official James R. Clapper Jr., all over the news this morning accusing him of damaging national security.
Setting the Stage for Barry Miles’s ‘Call Me Burroughs’
!['Call Me Burroughs -- A LIfe' by Barry Miles [TWELVE Books, 2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/call-me-burroughs-a-life-240-200x200.jpg)
I asked Barry Miles, author of the newly published biography “Call Me Burroughs: A Life,” how he felt about the review he got in this week’s New Yorker.
What Martin Luther King Jr. Said About Jazz
Spike Wilner writes the electronic newsletter for Smalls Jazz Club, where he’s the congenial manager and one of the owners. The newsletter is always informative. Never sinks to mere PR. Which makes it one of the best around. (Wilner doesn’t just write the newsletter. He’s a first-class jazz pianist. Click the photo or this link […]
Oxford: ‘An Old Hooker Past Her Sell-by Date’
Connie Bruck’s lede in a profile about the billionaire mogul Leonard Blavatnik has plenty to say about the awful state of affairs at Oxford University.
Ginsberg Does Indian Mantras on Sloow Tapes
!['London Mantra' Sloow Tapes cassette [2014]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/LONDON-MANTRA-artwork560.jpg)
Speaking of Allen Ginsberg, I’m told a new Sloow Tapes cassette entitled “London Mantra” is about to be released. Bart de Paepe, producer of the indie label, writes, “It’s a recording George Dowden made at his home in July 1973.” The tape features “Ginsberg solo on his harmonium, singing Indian mantras and a few of […]
Amiri Baraka Has Died, a Remembrance
Amiri Baraka’s obituary in the NY Times this morning mentioned his first contact with Allen Ginsberg. …to whom, in the puckish spirit of the times, he had written a letter on toilet paper reading, “Are you for real?” (“I’m for real, but I’m tired of being Allen Ginsberg,” came the reply, on what, its recipient […]
How a Brilliant Writer Got in His Own Way
!['Humpty Dumpty' [1924]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/humpty-dumpty-book-cover200-e1388258523554.jpg)
I’m told Ben Hecht was recently inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. That could be why I was asked to write a piece about him for a special “Chicago Issue” of the Chicago Quarterly Review, but something tells me it was pure coincidence. I also have a feeling the Hall of Fame won’t […]
In NYC: Catching Up With Peter Schumann
and the Bread and Puppet Theater
Peter Schumann: The Shatterer is the first solo museum exhibition of Bread and Puppet Theater founder and director Peter Schumann. The exhibition opened in November 2013 as part of the first season in the museum’s newly expanded galleries. It marks the 50th anniversary of the theater company and introduces New York audiences to a largely […]
A Great One Died Today
![Norman O. Mustill and 'OU,' one of his large collages from the 1960s. [Photo: JH, 2007]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/mustill-and-OU-400.jpg)
Click and click and click and click and click and click and click and click again. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
Paris Bookfair Focuses on New Practices in Art
14 Rue Bonaparte, from Nov. 14 to 17. Open to the general public. Free admission. Postscript: Nov. 23 — The bookfair was jammed. Very impressive. The lecture hall was a19th-century amphitheater in back of the main hall. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
Sight Unseen, a Plug for Godfrey Reggio’s ‘Visitors’
2002: “Naqoyqatsi,” meaning “life as war,” was the third in Reggio’s qatsi trilogy. 1988: “Powaqqatsi,” meaning “life in transformation,” was the second. 1982: “Koyaanisqatsi,” meaning “life out of balance,” was the first. Reggio’s latest, “Visitors,” with another score by Philip Glass, will be released in 2014. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit
He Had a Dream, But His Speech Was Hardly Noticed
![From the Wall Street Journal [Aug. 27, 1963]](https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/wsj-little-encouragement-e1377779460236.png)
Given all the self-congratulation of the 50th anniversary celebration marking the historic significance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, you’d think its importance had been noted at the time, especially by the news media. Well, Jess Bravin has news for you. The day before King gave the speech on the steps […]