Author Archives for Jay Babcock

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

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Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

Congratulations to HOWARD WALDROP—first American to win the prestigious Jack Trevor Story Memorial Cup!

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above: the winner!

Press release from Michael Moorcock:

FIRST AMERICAN TO WIN THE JACK TREVOR STORY MEMORIAL CUP

The committee awarding the Jack Trevor Story Memorial Cup for humorous writing this year presented the cup to an American for the first time.

Meeting at its traditional venue, L’Horizon, rue Saint Placide, Paris, the Committee consisting of Iain Sinclair (UK), Michael Moorcock (US/UK), Lili Sztajn (France), Jeff VanderMeer (USA), Fabrice Colin (France), Lisa Tuttle (Scotland) and Sebastian Doubinski (Denmark) unanimously agreed to give the Jack Trevor Story Memorial Cup, together with a $1,000 prize to Howard Waldrop, author of Them Bones, The Texas/Israeli War and several collections of short stories including Dream Factories and Radio Pictures and Heart of Whiteness. (All available from Amazon)

The Cup was presented to the winner by Michael Moorcock during a special ceremony at the Doubletree Inn Hotel, Austin, Texas on Friday 14th August 2009.

The usual conditions will apply: that the money be spent within two weeks and the recipient have nothing to show for it by the end of that period. This recalls Story’s remark to a bankruptcy judge when asked what had happened to money from his films The Trouble with Harry and Live Now, Pay Later: “You know how it is, judge. Two hundred or two thousand. It always lasts a week to a fortnight.”

A regular columnist for The Guardian during the 1960s and 1970s, Story also contributed to Punch, The Evening Standard, Sexton Blake Library, The Listener, The New Statesman, New Worlds and many other journals. Milton Keynes’ Writer in Residence, he wrote series for TV and radio as well as many other films and died in 1991 at his typewriter, having written ‘THE END’ to his final novel Shabby Weddings.

Previous winners of the JTS Memorial Cup include Fred Normandale and Steve Aylett.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – JULIO CORTÁZAR


AUGUST 26 — JULIO CORTÁZAR
Cronopio? Fama? Fine leftist novelist, Hopscotchplayer.

AUGUST 26, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
WOMEN’S EQUALITY DAY.

ALSO ON AUGUST 26 IN HISTORY…
1786 — Shay’s Rebellion, armed insurrection, begins, Western Massachusetts.
1880 — Guillaume Apollinaire born, Rome, Italy.
1904 — British writer Christopher Isherwood born, High Lane, Cheshire.
1910 — American philosopher William James dies, Chocoura, New Hampshire.
1914 — Argentine novelist Julio Cortazar born, Brussels, Belgium.
1920 — 19th Amendment guarantees U.S. women’s right to vote.
1937 — “Gimme a pigfoot” chanteuse Bessie Smith dies, Clarksdale, Mississippi.
1968 — Pigasus, a true porker, wins Yippie! nomination for U.S. President.
1970 — “Alice Doesn’t” Day. (Unfortunately, Alice still does, more than ever.)

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

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Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

'44 PRESIDENTS' by MZA & Maria Sputnik

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Forty Four Presidents by MZA & Maria Sputnik.  Available in hardcover from Garrett County Press.

A brief illustrated history of the U.S. presidency told by the presidents themselves in the style favored by modern social networking web sites, Forty Four Presidents imagines 220 years of presidential succession pancaked into a single moment — documented simultaneously by each commander-in-chief in status updates designed for easy consumption by their Facebook friends. Each status update is accompanied by a jaunty, high-contrast profile picture intended to reflect something of the essential personality (and hotness) of the president.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint: Gerard Lebovici

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AUGUST 25 — GERARD LEBOVICI
Radical French Champ Libre publisher, martyr.

AUGUST 25, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Lake Champlain, New York: FEAST OF THE GREEN CORN, a pageant
presented by the Society for the Preservation of Indian Lore,
performed by actors from the six Iroquois nations.

ALSO ON AUGUST 25 IN HISTORY
1893 — “Colored Peoples’ Day” at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
1899 — Metaphysical writer Jorge-Luis Borges born, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1900 — “Mad” German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche dies, Weimar, Germany.
1932 — Radical French publisher Gerard Lebovici born, Neuilly, France.
1968 — Lincoln Park, Chicago scene of riot during Democratic Party convention

Monday evening music: Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions

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Stream: [audio:http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/08-Trouble.mp3%5D

Download: “Trouble” – Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions (mp3)

Subscribe to Arthur’s iTunes Podcast and receive music automatically: click here

Another glamorously doomed blues serenade, with a rare chord change, from Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions’ forthcoming second album, Through the Devil Softly, out in late September from the good people at Nettwerk Records.