APRIL 7 — HARRY HAY
“The Dutchess,” lavender and red, gay commie, radical fairie elder, founder of the Mattachine Society.
APRIL 7, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
* China: PURE BRIGHTNESS FESTIVAL — Tending of family graves, with a great feast.
* FESTIVAL OF COMMODITY FETISHISM
ALSO ON APRIL 7 IN HISTORY…
c. 30 — Underground religious cult leader Jesus crucified, Jerusalem.
1722 — Utopian socialist Charles Fourier born, Besançon, France.
1770 — Romantic poet William Wordsworth born, Cumberland, England.
1803 — French socialist feminist Flora Tristan born.
1870 — Munich Soviet leader Gustav Landauer born, Karlsruhe, Germany.
1912 — Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay born, Worthing, England.
1915 — Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1927— First televised political demonstration occurs.
This Saturday, Issue Project Room (Brooklyn, NY) celebrates its sixth anniversary with “EDO9”, a 17-piece drone composition by artist-in-residence Duane Pitre. Working primarily with acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments—here, strings, woodwinds, and bowed guitar—Pitre combines long-tones and microtonal tuning schemes to create mile-long blankets of flickering, overtone-laden bliss. Also on the menu for the evening, a second ensemble performance by the prodigious Tony Conrad, the title and nature of which have yet to be disclosed.
Tony Conrad & Duane Pitre
Saturday, April 11th, 8pm
Issue Project Room
The (OA) Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
“In 1995, while living with his future wife, the singer Cindy Lee Berryhill, in Encinitas, California, Paul suffered a traumatic brain injury in a spill from his bicycle, and was never completely able to resume his full activities as a writer. The injury likely triggered an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease; some symptoms were immediate, while others revealed themselves in tragic slow motion: fading powers of memory, then of comprension and speech. In 2008, unable to continue caring for Paul while also taking care of their eight year-old son, Cindy began to arrange for Paul to live in managed care outside the home. Like so many freelancers, Paul lived without any structure of institutional support. The burden on Cindy and their son has been immense.
Plans are underway for a benefit music-anthology, and for re-publication of some of Paul’s books. In the meantime, direct donations, small or large, are urgently needed. The community of Paul’s friends and professional acquaintances is large – the community of those affected by Paul’s writing and his other enterprises – from music fans to Philip K. Dick fans to readers of his other books – is simply immense. Few, until now, have been aware of the urgent need for help.If you count yourself among those learning of Paul’s disability here for the first time, please consider responding with a donation, as others have before you – and as we hope many more will soon choose to do.”
1. Narcolepsia is a new fetish noise tape label out of Portugal. The first two releases show a promising wide view of what fetid broil squirms in the contemporary noise landscape. First is someone/something called N, with a tape titled Smash My Brain I Can’t Tolerate, which is basically this Italiano dude Davide Tozzoli obsessing on fairly traditional noise moves a la M.B., Atrax Morgue, Merzbow et al. But the dedication and intent is genuine and is decent…nothing too startling or new but that’s kind of the point, the aesthetic. So be it. All you have to do is be beat, dulled and lose yrself in unrequited fantasies of erotic death. Second release is Body Count by An Innocent Young Throat-Cutter, the duo of Houston noise honcho Richard Ramirez and compatriot Isabella K. This duo has been documenting itself quite regularly through Ramirez’ Dead Audio Tapes imprint in super tiny editions. Not that this tape is going to reach that many more harsh wall noise freaks but it is a fine addition to their insane legacy.
2. Holy Crap. Screamingest, wobbliest No Wave screech of the year comes not from the bowels of New York, but from the lost tape archives of Vancouver, Canada. Tunnel Canary was an extremely raw co-ed trio whose entire previous known ouevre was some obscure cassette comp action. Now, Rundownsun has released a massive 2LP set, Jihad, collecting studio and live smeech that is some of the most pugnacious art punk you’ll ever hear. Ebra Ziron’s vocals make Lydia Lunch sound like Dean Martin in a mellow mood. Really fucking ripe! Lotsa weird bass stylings, scuzz generation from both electronics and guitar…what a pretty goddamn picture. Amazing to think this jabbering, destroyed masterpiece has been unheard for almost 30 years. Nice work. Somebody.
Talk Normal
For ass-burning contempo No Wave sludge, nothing has been in higher recent rotation than Secret Cog, the self-released debut CD Brooklyn’s Talk Normal. Andryo Ambro and Sarah Register create a feverish hybrid of Lydia’s “crying guitar,” the maniacal yodel-power of Die Kleenex, and the part of the Magic Band the Minutemen also embraced, which probably means the Urinals are a shadow influence. Regardless, the five songs here are totally wired, and just blow away the imaginary competition.
APRIL 6 — ERICH MÜHSAM
German anarchist poet, murdered by the Nazis.
APRIL 6 festivals:
* France: FÊTE OF THE LITTLE BOATS — A children’s festival involving little pine boats with lighted candles.
* GO FOR BROKE DAY.
ALSO ON APRIL 6 THROUGH HISTORY…
1528 — German engraver Albrecht Dürer dies.
1712 — New York City slave revolt begins.
1812 — Anarcho-socialist theorist Alexander Herzen born, Moscow, Russia.
1820 — Photographer, caricaturist Nadar (Félix Tournachon), born, Paris, France.
1825 — Phantasist painter Gustave Moreau born.
1830 — Angelic tablet finder Joseph Smith founds Mormon Church.
1832 — Black Hawk War begins.
1866 — American muckraker Lincoln Steffens born, San Francisco, California.
1878 — German anarchist poet Erich Mühsam born, Berlin, Germany.
1896 — First modern Olympics, Athens, Greece.
Did you hear the news earlier this year? Comic books are dead. But the the first rule of comics, if there are any rules at all, is that no one stays dead in comics. So no one really expected comics to stay dead for long did they?
It’s only been about two months since comics “died” yet here we have a brand new issue of Cold Heat, with staples and everything. So if one era of comics just ended (the one that started with Action Comics #1), then let this be the beginning of a new Golden Age. A lack of widespread distribution to comic shops is discouraging, but it’s not gonna stop creators who are this passionate about the art form.
Cold Heat is one of my favorite comics from the past couple years. Ben Jones’ writing is just as hilarious as his Paper Rad stuff. But this story’s already over 100 pages long, so he and artist Frank Santoro have a lot more room to play. If you’re new to the world of Cold Heatyou can read the first four issues online. But I recommend finding the books. The colors and artwork look great on paper and you also get the bonus short prose stories that are only printed in the issues.
The series focuses on Castle, a high school student who is really bummed out because her favorite rock star was just found dead of an apparent suicide. This subject matter seems strangely appropriate to me because I remember exactly where I was when the radio announced that Kurt Cobain was dead. I was at a comic shop in Phoenix, going through some dollar boxes on the floor. I paused for a moment to listen to the report, then went back to the long boxes of cheap Vertigo comics. The surreal satire that follows has a nice stream of consciousness flow that reminds me of other favorites like Ed the Happy Clown or Gilbert Hernandez. There’s a brilliant twist that takes the series to a whole new level in one of the later issues. I shouldn’t have even mentioned it exists.
Here’s the first six pages of issue 5/6. We thought we were gonna have to wait for the whole story to be collected as a trade, but they couldn’t wait either so issues 5 and 6 have been self-published as a limited edition zine. It’s a beautiful book. The 100 copy print run is almost gone, but you can still get one from the Picturebox website…
APRIL 5 — CEM KARACA
Turkish folk and protest singer, street activist.
APRIL 5 festivals:
* Christian PALM SUNDAY.
* Tibet: SUNNING OF THE BUDDHA. Lamas bring buddha statues out of temples of abstract tranquility to enjoy the sun.
* Zurich: SIX RINGINGS FESTIVAL: Boog (Old Man Winter), a giant snowman stuffed with explosives, is jeered, taunted, and then blown up.
ON THIS DATE
1624 — Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.
1800 — Luminous flying ship spotted over Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1837 — Algernon Charles Swinburne born, London, England.
1856 — Black educator Booker T. Washington born, Hales Ford, Virginia.
1906 — Hipster, flipster musician Lord Buckley born, Stockton, California.
1926 — H. L. Mencken arrested in Boston for selling The American Mercury.
1945 — Turkish rock protest singer, activist Cem Karaca born, Istanbul.
1958 — Castro declares war on dictatorial Batista regime in Cuba.
2006 — “Happenings” event creator Allan Kaprow dies, Encitas, California.
44 Presidents was made by mza and Maria Sputnik. It was created under the influence of Lynda Barry and Wikipedia. It was printed in Diamond Comics last winter, and will come out in hardcover this August from Garrett County Press.
Arthur Magazine 