“COMMAND PERFORMANCE”
THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN No. 0011
FRIDAY DECEMBER 3, 2004
title: “IF NOT FOR LOVE, WHY?”
Did you know?: “The ‘Ferals’ of eastern Australia are yet another present day link in the chain of youths who have abandoned urbanism and returned into forested areas where they live mostly in nomadic tipis in the Nimbin/Byron region of New South Wales, sometimes numbering as many as 10,000… Nearly all of these Gen-X kids come from the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne, and are a modern-day echo of the German Naturmensch and the American youth movements in the 1960s.” (found online)
The new issue of Arthur has been printed by our friends across the Northern border and is now speeding its way to distro points across North America via truck, boat, car and 10-speed. Look for it starting around December 11. Sorry we can’t be more exact than that.
What we can be exact about, though, is Arthur No. 14 (Jan 05)’s contents: cover star Jello Biafra tells all to Sorina Diaconescu in a 9,000-word interview, Ms. Ryan Beshara presents a photo essay of bingo players across the USA, we chat with an American who’s already moved to Canada about how it’s going up there in Quebec, Jay Babcock talks with Danish art collective Superflex about how to open-source soft drinks (!), T-Model Ford tells us what he wants for Christmas, Mark Pilkington explains why magic mushrooms are legal in the UK, MF Doom gives us his recipe for Villainous Mac & Cheez, angry Paul Cullum discusses the late great American satirist Bill Hicks, James Parker on the latest from old grizzlies Mike Watt and Richard Meltzer, Daniel Pinchbeck on the plight of the Hopi, very funny comics about woodworking, very angry comics about the Great Satan, a full page of color artwork by Seldon Hunt, mushroom drawings by Matt Greene, and Byron Coley & Thurston Moore review a metric ton of new loam from the undergrounds. 48 pages of genuine Arthur smash. Yeah!
Over at the Bastet end of the office, the phone has been ringing off the hook for the last 96 hours with pre-orders for the forthcoming Bastet release–a brand new album by none other than Sunburned Hand of the Man, co-stars with Comets On Fire and Six Organs of Admittance in Tony Rettman’s piece in Arthur No. 7. The cd is called “No Magic Man” and is beard-certified primo Hand material: dark foggy funk, psychedelic exploration reports, echo chamber escape artistry, gumbo yeh-yeh ya ya…you know the deal with their real feel. Starting December 20, we really can listen to the Hand (sorry), for only twelve bucks usa, 14 canada, 17 rest of the world. And now being prepared for 2005 release: a new Bastet compilation of hot spaz curated by Comets on Fire’s Ethan Miller.
Hey, if you have pictures of Ron Boise’s Thunder Sculptures, please be in touch with the person who answers email at
And, if you are in California this December, you may enjoy attending one of these Arthur-sponsored shows, starring our multi-talented psychedelic utopian freak friend from Chicago–Plastic Crimewave. He’ll be accompanied on this jaunt by underground psych-folk legend Nick Castro of Los Angeles. Here are the dates:
Dec. 10, Voltaire Commune (4862 Voltaire, San Diego): Plastic Crimewave with Frankie Delmaine, Nick Castro, Tiffany Anders, Becky Stark and the Lavender Diamond
Dec. 11, Tonevendor (1812 J Street Sacramento), early show: Plastic Crimewave (featuring Frankie Delmane) with Nick Castro
Dec 12, The Hemlock (1131 Polk St., San Francisco): Plastic Crimewave with Nick Castro, Eric Landmark
Please be well and stay that way,
The Arthur Tough Doves
(This is the end, my friend.)
Arthur Magazine 