‘COMMAND PERFORMANCE’
The Arthur Magazine Email Bulletin
No. 0029
December 14, 2005
Website:
Comments:
Season’s greetings,
Lots of news.
1. NEW ARTHUR NOW OUT THERE.
A new issue of Arthur has been published and distributed. As always, it is available for free from outlets across North American while supplies last.
This issue features acclaimed author Brian Evenson’s lengthy profile of doom/drone artists Sunn 0))) and Earth; Kristine McKenna speaks with David Lynch about his meditation practice and advocacy; Daniel Chamberlin concludes his journey through the Middle East with a visit to Syria and a return to Egypt; John Adamian interviews the enigmatic Parisian instrumental composer Colleen, creator of one of the year’s most beautiful albums; Alan Bishop raves about the Buddha Machine; columnist Doug Rushkoff talks business; filmmaker Henry Griffin recounts his post-Katrina returns to his home in the Upper Ninth Ward; the usual assortment of comics; columnists Byron Coley & Thurston Moore survey underground music and publications; and C & D wax rather passionately about a number of recently released recordings.
If you can’t find a copy easily during this season of endless rushing, order a copy (or a 6-issue subscription) via the Arthur website at
2. ARTHUR MAGAZINE PROUDLY PRESENTS ESPERS & VETIVER DOUBLE BILL LIVE TOUR ON THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA IN JANUARY.
Here are the dates. Plan accordingly.
Tue, Jan 17, 2006 Davis CA UC Davis Coffeehouse
Wed, Jan 18, 2006 Santa Cruz CA The Attic
Thu, Jan 19, 2006 San Francisco CA 12 Galaxies
Fri Jan 20, 2006 Big Sur CA Quiet, Quiet Ocean Spell
Sat Jan 21, 2006 Big Sur CA Quiet, Quiet Ocean Spell
Sun, Jan 22, 2006 San Diego CA Casbah
Mon, Jan 23, 2006 Los Angeles, CA Echo
Tue, Jan 24, 2006 Los Angeles, CA UCLA Cooperage Hall
A gorgeous poster commemorating this tour will be available at the show and from the Arthur website. More info at
3. THE INDIE PAGES.
A recent article on the upcoming changeover at Harper’s — Lewis Lapham, the magazine’s $315,000-a-year editor is stepping down — bemoaned the state of thoughtful periodicals in this country. “The Atlantic has lost money for all of living memory, and The New Yorker was unprofitable for most of the last two decades,” wrote the piece’s author. “So are all the little weeklies. Call it cultural philanthropy or call it vanity publishing, but without rich guys willing to take financial baths, magazines of literary and political journalism and belles lettres would scarcely exist in America.”
It is true that these magazines have depended on the kindness of endowments, foundations, anonymous million-dollar donations and such to survive in a cultural environment hostile to considered thinking. But there are other ways for such publications to survive with editorial vision intact. Far be it from us to suggest that Arthur exists at the literary or cultural level of Harper’s, The New Yorker or the Atlantic. But, that said, we do feel we have made a small contribution to the culture, without the help of trust funds, rich donors, endowments or whatnot. (Not that we’d turn any of those down, of course.) But what we’ve managed to do has been achieved by following a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT model from those three magazines. We’ve relied on our personal credit cards for start-up capital, on our willingness to live with incomes below the poverty level, and, most of all, we’ve been absolutely dependent on the goodwill, labor and contributions of literally hundreds of people in our
first three years of existence: the network of volunteer distributors, the magazine’s barely paid “staff,” the hardworking-on-deadline contributors and columnists who work for barter, the many musicians and artists who have contributed material for our various CDs and posters, the loyal advertisers who’ve supported the magazine from the beginning, and so on. Arthur has been a labor of collective love. That love is not always pretty or perfect, but it is REAL. If you are willing to work collectively, if you are willing to be poor (by the first world’s elevated standards), if you are willing to share any rewards equitably, you can get a lot done in this country, even in 2005. You can even publish a free magazine. And you don’t need to pay an editor $315,000 a year to get it done.
But we’re not finished. We want to take ARTHUR into profitability, so that everyone involved in the magazine’s production and distribution can be fairly compensated financially for their labor. We want to greatly up our print run so that we can reach more people. We want to publish more frequently. As independent, dissident voices continue to disappear from the airwaves, from the newsstands and the streetcorners of America — silenced by foolish business decisions, small businesses’ lack of access to capital, corporate acquisition (see: New Times chain acquires Village Voice Media chain), governmental mis-regulation (see: the level of quality/miseducation on the public-owned airwaves), Pentagon and FBI intimidation (today’s LATimes: “The Pentagon has a secret database that indicates the U.S. military may be collecting information on Americans who oppose the Iraq war and may be monitoring peace demonstrations, NBC reported Tuesday”) and the perennial problems of personal cowardice, lack of imagination and/or inertia-born-of-despair.
So. To simultaneously strengthen Arthur and what’s left of independent America, then, we are proud to announce that the next issue of Arthur, No. 21, out Feb 7, 2006, we will be inaugurating THE ARTHUR INDIE PAGES: pages of LOW-COST advertising, divided by city or region, which will be devoted SOLELY to independently owned and/or operated businesses in that area. Bars, clubs, stores, salons, yoga centers: if it’s local, if it’s quality, if it’s independent, it can advertise with us for very little — and reach not just the neighborhood in which the business operates, but the rest of the nation as well. We’re gonna try to further stitch together a network of no-compromise, non-corporate independents that we’ve built with Arthur to date. We know we can do this because we already are.
Send inquiries about the Arthur Indie Pages to:
4. ARTHUR ON R.U. SIRIUS RADIO.
R.U. Sirius (aka Ken Goffman, author, with Dan Joy, of the book “Counterculture Through the Ages”) recently interviewed Arthur editor Jay Babcock for 20 minutes or so on his internet radio program. You can listen to it by visiting
5. BASTET, ARTHUR’S PUBLISHING IMPRINT, LAUNCHES “MIMEO” SERIES.
It’s something like a cross between the old mimeo literary zines (see Steven Clay and Rodney Phillips’ “A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980” for an astounding survey of presses) and ESP-Disk (“The artists alone decide what you hear on their ESP-Disk”): Arthur’s publishing imprint BASTET has begun publishing small publications on a print-to-order basis. The first two publications — “The Watering Hole” by underground filmmaker James Fotopolous, and “Paradise” by artist Jess Rotter — are now available ONLY from
Many more Bastet “Mimeo” publications are in the works.
6. AND FINALLY: ARTHURBALL.
From the Dec. 11, 2005 edition of the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-ca-popeye11dec11,0,3212171.story?coll=cl-suncal
POP EYE
ArthurBall to follow ArthurFest
By Steve Hochman, Special to The Times
THE outsiders are moving indoors.
ArthurFest, in its mostly alfresco inaugural edition Labor Day weekend on the grounds of the Barnsdall Art Park, showcased leading artists in a variety of underground, avant-garde and outsider movements, with Yoko Ono and Sonic Youth topping the bill. Now it has spawned a winter edition. Dubbed ArthurBall, the event will take place Feb. 24 to 26 in a series of venues along several blocks of Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park.
Among those being booked are Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme (who will team with longtime collaborator Chris Goss for a special project), weird-folk harpist Joanna Newsom and ArthurFest returnees Josephine Foster and Brightblack Morning Light. More acts, from headliners to cult favorites, are being secured, and the event will also include film, spoken word and art installations.
The Echo club will be the central venue, with nearby Taix restaurant, Jensen Recreation Center and perhaps other shops and galleries being used as well. Attendees will be allowed to stroll from spot to spot.
ArthurBall will be smaller than ArthurFest (which drew more than 4,000 people in its two days), but the philosophy is the same. Both draw on the aesthetic of Arthur magazine, which is co-presenting the weekend with Spaceland Productions.
“We’re just trying to find people who love what they do and who are good at it,” says Arthur [co-] founder-editor Jay Babcock. “And we’re asking, expecting the audience to be curious or open enough to at least check them out.”
Babcock says ticket sales and feedback far exceeded his expectations at ArthurFest, not just for such better-known acts as Ono, Sleater-Kinney, Devendra Banhart and Spoon, but also for a wide-ranging roster of cult figures and newcomers including Japanese noise manipulator Merzbow and neo-folkie Marissa Nadler. Plans for a 2006 ArthurFest are already being made, again on Labor Day weekend, but at a new site, as Babcock says it’s already outgrown Barnsdall’s Hollywood hilltop. A film from the 2005 festival is being edited by director Lance Bangs, who shot all 42 acts that performed.
“We wanted to do another kind of event, something with a lower ticket price, something that ranged more outside of music with films and spoken word,” Babcock says of the February plans. “It will be really fun — people walking around. All the venues are indoors, but you’ll be able to walk outdoors, go from one venue to the next. We might use more spaces. And there are restaurants all along there people can check out. We might even run a shuttle bus if we end up using more places farther away.”
Among the other confirmed acts at this point are rock band Pearls and Brass, avant-jazz ensemble Unknown Instructors (featuring Mike Watt, George Hurley and Joe Baiza), French-Swedish neo-folk duo Mi & L’au, veteran piano man Biff Rose and Tarantula A.D. Also on board are the Legs & Pants Dans Theatre, ethnomusical films from the Sublime Frequencies team and a “vibrational healing” installation by White Rainbow.
“It will be the mix of people you would expect from reading our magazine and coming to ArthurFest,” Babcock says. “You have to stretch your mind in order for it to grow.”
More info on ArthurBall will be available at www.arthurmag.com in the coming weeks
7. YOU CANNOT TOP THE FUCK-YOU GREATNESS OF HIS LORDSHIP RICHARD PRYOR.
For evidence, see the vintage image Stephen O’Malley posted on his blog at:
http://www.ideologic.org/news/images/986-1.jpg
8. MORE BEER, LESS WAR.
Join various Arthur antiwar freaks as we drink beer and play music tonight (Wednesday, Dec 14) at the Little Joy bar in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles from 730-10pm.
Good tidings,
Arthur Cheerleaders for Peace, Justice, Song, Art, Laughter and Total Love
Los Angeles, California
Arthur Magazine 
