“COMMAND PERFORMANCE”
The Arthur Magazine Email Bulletin
No. 0062
December 18, 02006
Website:
Comments:
Glad tidings,
1. EXCERPT FROM FORMER BLACK FLAG BASSIST CHUCK DUKOWSKI INTERVIEW IN ARTHUR NO. 25:
“The people in power don’t want to have places where young people can get together easily in any numbers, to associate and trade ideas and have some community besides the schools where they’re super-segregated and super-repressed. I remember when Chief Davis, the former LAPD police chief, said in an interview, ‘What you need to do is bear down on them when they’re young. You break them like a horse and then you can ride them the rest of their lives.’
“I think it was Davis, maybe it was his predecessor, but I remember reading that in the damn paper! Motherfuck! It was something that I, on the outside of things, had been thinking was going on, and now I realized that that WAS what was going on. We’d go do our [Black Flag] concert, come outside and see the cops beating up all the people who came to hear us. They’d bust them all up, breaking legs and arms. Just beating the crap out of people. It was all about keeping people down and showing them who’s boss before they get a chance to feel like they can do something with their lives.
…
“About a year and a half ago, I went to a friend’s party where he had these Jarocho musicians playing. The music is from the Veracruz part of Mexico, it’s a kind of music that’s African and indigenous. These groups are made up of extended families. So the whole group, this extended family, is performing in different combinations and different groups, from the oldest people to the youngest: everybody’s getting their little cameos, everybody’s playing support to everybody else or taking a moment where they’re the ‘star,’ so to speak. What was interesting to me was the breakdown of the ageism. Everybody was participating in it. I started thinking that this is probably closer to where people are coming from, naturally.
“The division by age is probably on purpose. There’s always a desire to divide and pit various groups in the culture against one another, and thereby weaken any chance of people getting together and coming up with alternatives to the governmental infrastructure for holding things together, and the giant corporations and things that hire them. It’s like at school, where they line everybody up by age, and then have them line up by height, or make them learn to march in lines: all of this kind of programming and dividing people up, and ultimately pitting them against one another, is so that they’re easier to control. It’s so much easier to take advantage of somebody who is denied the insights of their forebears. It’s so much easier to take advantage of somebody if they are robbed of the energy of their offspring. I think you need to keep everybody engaged with each other, and then the culture is rich, and has the life and vitality of the whole human family that’s there.”
2. TUESDAY NIGHT DEC. 19 AT MANDRAKE IN LOS ANGELES
“Lite Storms and Cosmic Visions—Earth music and water brother vibes from the ’60s and ’70s from Flo and Erik [Bluhm]”
Tuesday 12/19/06
9-12 PM
no cover
Mandrake Bar
2692 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, Calif. 90034
between Venice Blvd and Washington Blvd.
Info:
3. IT’S HOLY MODAL WEEKEND JAN. 5-7, 2007 IN PDX
“The Holy Modal Rounders …. Bound to Lose”: a documentary film by Sam Wainwright Douglas, Paul Lovelace, Jesse Fisher and Francis Hatch
When fiddler Peter Stampfel collided with guitarist Steve Weber during the “Great Folk Scare” of the early sixties in New York, the two musicians formed a powerful bond based on their shared fascination with American roots music and early psychedelia. Dubbing themselves The Holy Modal Rounders, these eccentric outsiders have drawn a dedicated following of luminaries and lunatics.
From their origins in New York’s Greenwich Village folk scene and their involvement in the Easy Rider soundtrack, to the lost years of constant drugging, endless touring and a final shot at redemption, The Holy Modal Rounders Bound To Lose recounts the unique forty-year history of these true American originals. With startling intimacy, the film also documents the band’s arduous, amusing, and sometimes heartbreaking struggle to capitalize on their recent resurgence in popularity, culminating in an unpredictable 40th anniversary concert in Portland, Oregon.
More than just a chronicle of an obscure band, The Holy Modal Rounders Bound To Lose is a raucous celebration of a lost American outlaw subculture as it draws its final rebellious breaths.
Bound to Lose features endearing and hilarious appearances by playwright (and former Rounders drummer) Sam Shepard, Dennis Hopper, John Sebastian of The Lovin’ Spoonful, Peter Tork of the Monkees, The Fugs, Loudon Wainwright III, Dave Van Ronk, Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo, Wavy Gravy and many many more.
“BOUND TO LOSE” screens
FRIDAY JANUARY 5 AT 7:00PM
SUNDAY JANUARY 7 AT 2:00PM
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM – PORTLAND ART MUSEUM
1219 SW PARK AVENUE
PLUS: The Holy Modal Rounders + Freak Mountain Ramblers + Special Guests will hold a rare performance at The Crystal Ballroom on Saturday, January 6, 2007!!!!
Info and tix:
4. NEW SUBLIME FREQUENCIES FILM SCREENING JAN 5, 6 AND 9 ON THE EAST COAST…
“Musical Brotherhoods from the Trans-Saharan Highway”
a film by Hisham Mayet
(from the Sublime Frequencies crew)
(57 m.)
“Hisham Mayet’s latest film showcases an assortment of spectacular musical dramas presented live and unfiltered on the home turf of the world’s most dynamic string/drum specialists performing and manifesting the ecstatic truth. Ancient mystical brotherhoods have been flourishing for centuries in and around the cities of Marrakesh and Essaouira in Morocco where the trade caravans have gathered from their long journeys across the Trans-Saharan Highway. This is some of the last great street music on Earth.”
Trailer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wA727eYcO5E
Screening dates:
* Friday, January 5, 2007
7&9 p.m.
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue (at Second Street)
NYC
Telephone: (212) 505-5181
* Saturday, January 6, 2007
Philadelphia International House
3701 Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215-387-5125
* Tuesday, January 9, 2007
9:00 p.m.
the 5th floor
405 west Franklin St.
Baltimore, MD
this is being presented and sponsored by True Vine Records(1123 w. 36th st., baltimore, md 21211 located in downtown hampden, baltimore. telephone: 410 235 4500)
5. BUY YOURSELF (OR SOMEBODY DEAR TO YOU) SOME ARTHUR.
We’ve lowered out SUBSCRIPTION rates. Starting today, new subscriptions to Arthur for one year (six issues) are $20US/$25Can/$50World(airmail). We do gift subscriptions, too. Ordering info:
http://www.arthurmag.com/news/index.php
We’re also selling 50 sets of something we’re calling THE ARTHUR COLLECTION: all 25 issues of Arthur, the full-color ArthurFest 2005 poster by Arik Roper, the full-color ArthurBall 2006 poster by Ron Rege, and the full-color Arthur Nights 2006 poster by Maya Hayuk. $190US/$230Can/$275World. Ordering info:
http://www.arthurmag.com/store/bastet_other.php
And finally we’re offering the ARTHUR EVENTS POSTER SET: the legendary ArthurFest 2005 poster by Arik Roper, a hand-silkscreened South By Southwest Arthur 2006 party poster, and the Arthur Nights 2006 poster designed by Maya Hayuk. $20US/$25Can/$30World.
6. ARTHUR BLOG
Did you know? “Magpie,” the Arthur blog has been updated daily by Arthur editor Jay Babcock since January 2002. Check it at
http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/
7. PHOTOS, FOOTAGE FROM ARTHURNIGHTS…
Check out the updated archives at
http://arthurnights.imeem.com/
8. THEY’RE STILL TRYING TO BURY ‘IDIOCRACY’
“Idiocracy,” the super-vicious feature film satire by Mike Judge (Office Space, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill) that we’ve been championing since we first lucked into seeing it, is finally coming to DVD after its suspiciously limited theatrical release a few months ago. (How limited? It NEVER screened in New York. Or San Francisco.)
But the DVD’s not out until January — in other words, just after the holiday season, when nobody is paying attention and nobody has any money to spend anyways. The film is being buried a second time. Could it have something to do with the way that the film explicitly, mercilessly mocks corporations like Carl’s Jr., Starbucks, CostCo, Gatorade, H & R Block and (lest we forget) Fuddruckers?
The Judge camp still isn’t talking about what exactly is going down with this film, but… well, seems like some high-level calls were made or something. Anyways, if you pre-order a copy through this link, Arthur earns a few Amapennies:
9. THE BEST THING WE HEARD ALL YEAR…(And we do mean all year.)
Bob Dylan’s sparkling, witty “Theme Time Radio Hour” wherein he jokes, fibs and spiels between cuts all centered round a single topic (“Mom,” “Tennessee,” “Dogs,” “Jail”, etc). You probably can guess that each (weekly) show has been a true treasure box of song, history and character. But did you know that every show to date has been archived by some wonderful collector for easy download? Check it out:
http://whitemanstew.com/ttrh/viewtopic.php?t=98
Long may your egg nog,
The Ladies and Gentlemen of Arthur
Los Angeles * Philadelphia * Wherever you are
Arthur Magazine 