“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

NUMBER 26 of 1,750

OCTOBER 4, 2005

http://www.arthurmag.com

I. “The Wild Women of East Tenth taught me a valuable lesson that carried me all the way through the rest of the decade. I tended to be morose and always worried about things. Events, projects and decisions swirled around me in terrible turbulence. Nobody had any time to sleep. Everybody had five careers. What I learned from them was the Dickens Principle–it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but it was OUR times, and we owned them with our youth, our energy, our good will, our edginess. So let’s party. Under the Dickens Principle everything was a party. Poetry was a party. Work was a party. Fugs rehearsals were a party. Even demonstrations and long meetings planning the revolution.” — from “Tales of Beatnik Glory” by Ed Sanders 

II. ARTHUR FOR PRISONERS. 

Arthur regularly receives written inquiries from inmates at U.S. prisons requesting complimentary subsciptions to the magazine. We are now keeping a list of such requests, all of which we hope to fufill at no charge to the prisoners themselves.

We are inviting Arthur’s readers to participate in this program and help it grow.

Please remember that over two million people — one out of every 142 Americans is now in prison. Almost 500,000 Americans are in jail for drugs-only offenses. According to a 2003 Human Rights Watch report, since 1980 “nearly three quarters of new admissions to state prison were convicted of nonviolent crimes.” The same report stated that “although black Americans account for only 12 percent of the U.S. population, 44 percent of all prisoners in the United States are black.”

The easiest, quickest way you can help us get Arthur into U.S. prisons is by buying a one-year, $30 gift subscription on a prisoner’s behalf.

III. LOVELY ARTHUR T-SHIRTS NOW IN STOCK. 

Remember the “Tuff Wizard” Arthur T-shirts designed by Arik Moonhawk Roper we had on sale a while ago? Yes? No? In either event, they’re back in stock– one could say “new and improved” with a straight face because now they’re in stylish Royal Blue & Yellow, and it also says “Magazine” under the wizard so people won’t ask you, “So what is Arthur”? Now they will know straight off: it’s a magazine. Also, we’ve found a few more of the Earth & Mustard ones, so those are on offer now as well. Both look good with a grin. $18.95US postpaid. Ordering info at www.arthurmag.com

IV.  “2 MILLION TONGUES” FESTIVAL COMPILATION CD AVAILABLE NOV. 1.

To commemorate the second annual Plastic Crimewave-curated, Galactic Zoo Dossier/Arthur-presented Million Tongues festival at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, occurring this year on two stages from November 3-6, Arthur’s Bastet imprint will be releasing 2 Million Tongues, spotlighting work by artists performing at the festival, on Nov. 1.

Track listing:

1. MOUNTAINS – “Speaking”

2. NO NECK BLUES BAND – “Pulse”

3. MIMINOKOTO – “Tokedasu”

4. TIM KINSELLA & AMY CARGILL – “Song for Josh”

5. MICHAEL CHAPMAN – “The Northern Lights”

6. JOSEPHINE FOSTER – “Wondrous Love”

7. CHRIS CONNELLY – “Pray’r”

8. PEARLS AND BRASS – “Waterfall”

9. TRAVELING BELL – “Apparitions”

10. THE SINGLEMAN AFFAIR – “Good to Be With You Again”

11. JACK ROSE – “Hey Fuck You Rag”

12. TAR PET – “Takeit Heri”

13. BIRDSHOW – “Pilz”

14. TONY CONRAD – “Bowstring 1”

15. HOTOTOGISU – “Blues for Steve K”

16. HAPTIC – “Indifference -> Building On Fire”

17. LUX – “Need Fade In + Out”

18. HARDSCRABBLE – “Sail It Away”

This CD is limited to 1,000 copies.

Ships Nov. 1

$12 US, $14 Can, $17 world, postpaid. Or free with new subscription order. 

Ordering info at

www.arthurmag.com

V. PRESS REVIEWS OF ARTHURFEST.

*  “ArthurFest yields an eclectic and bountiful crop, with Yoko Ono particularly vibrant.” –Los Angeles Times 

* “Two days of transcendental psychedelia and mind-expanding musical machinations… There was the vibe, a commonality between so many bands looking to higher goals. The event definitely reverberated with a high-minded and spiritual and community-oriented, living-off-the-grid feeling so rare in the city of angles.”– San Francisco Bay Guardian 

* “At Arthur Magazine’s inaugural gathering, youth and experience, the rough-hewn and the preening, dissonance and harmony all rubbed comfortably against each other.” — Pitchfork 

* “But for all the range, there was a unifying intelligence holding the festival’s 41 acts together: a devotion to following their muses to the extreme and a near complete disregard for commercial appeal.” — Variety 

* “For two days at least, Arthurfest provided a relatively unruffled respite from the city below.”– Billboard 

* “Ono, the weekend’s de facto veteran of disorder, seemed wholly nonplussed. After roughly sixteen hours soaking in ArthurFest’s vivid goon-age daydream — this spectrum of sublimity in the face of such a greater, tumescent ignorance — so was everyone else. And all were better because of it.” — Dusted 

* “Looks like we’ve got an instant, de rigueur classic on our hands.” — LAWeekly 

* “This was the most peaceful and carefree festival I have ever attended.” — Valdas Kiralis, IceCreamMan.com

One thousand ArthurFest photos are online at 

http://www.icecreamman.com/festivals/arthurfest2005 

bless,

Arthur Social Pleasure Society

Los Angeles, California

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

NUMBER 25

SEPTEMBER 13, 2005

http://www.arthurmag.com

Hey sweeties,

1. YES WE WENT TO ARTHURFEST BLAH BLAH BLAH 

ArthurFest reviews, photos and more are now being linked from — and posted at — the website and its now extremely active Forum. Just go to 

http://www.arthurmag.com

Thanks to everyone who made the festival happen: the performers, the audience, our lovely and able publicist Judy Milller at Motormouth and OF COURSE a big hug of super-appreciation to Mitchell Frank, Liz Garo, Jessica and TK and everyone else at Spaceland, all of our volunteers, Councilman Eric Garcetti and his staff, the Barnsdall folks, Lance Bangs & his film crew, many many other people who toiled behind the scenes before during and after the show,  and a big hoorah to the weatherlord who made it clear blue and not-too-hot all day long for two days in a row. It was worth the work. THANK YOU!

2.  OUR NUCLEAR BOMB FUTURE.

Regarding the following article excerpt from this past Sunday’s Washington Post. 

Now that the Neo-Cons know that the American public won’t support never-ending wars across the planet, they are pursuing a new way of extending American power: by authorizing the president to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively against anyone anywhere in the world who the president believes is preparing an attack using weapons of mass destruction. It follows that if this had been official policy in 2002/2003, President Bush, who at the time mistakenly believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was preparing to use them (or was thinking about using them), would have been justified to authorize dropping nuclear weapons on Iraq. We know now that were no WMDs. But, if Bush had used the nuke option, we would never have found out that Iraq didn’t have WMDs.  In other words, innocent Iraqis would have been nuked without even the justification that Bush provided, and further, there would be no ability to hold Bush accountable — because any evidence that Bush had been wrong in his assumptions about what Iraq was up to would likely have been vaporized. 

In this way the use of nuclear weapons by a paranoid hyperpower justfiies itself; and the problem of facing eventual substantive internal political dissent over a misguided policy disappears along with it. Most of all: it’s easier — less costly in every way — to drop a nuclear bomb than it is to invade and indefinitely occupy a hostile, foreign land. A preemptive nuclear strike is the final Neo-Con solution and the most evil of all. 

Is this the initial step in justifying US nuclear strikes on Iran, Syria and North Korea in 2006 and 2007? 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/10/AR2005091001053_pf.html

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan

Strategy Includes Preemptive Use Against Banned Weapons

By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, September 11, 2005; A01

The Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to use them to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

The document, written by the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs staff but not yet finally approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, would update rules and procedures governing use of nuclear weapons to reflect a preemption strategy first announced by the Bush White House in December 2002. The strategy was outlined in more detail at the time in classified national security directives.

At a White House briefing that year, a spokesman said the United States would “respond with overwhelming force” to the use of weapons of mass destruction against the United States, its forces or allies, and said “all options” would be available to the president.

The draft, dated March 15, would provide authoritative guidance for commanders to request presidential approval for using nuclear weapons, and represents the Pentagon’s first attempt to revise procedures to reflect the Bush preemption doctrine. A previous version, completed in 1995 during the Clinton administration, contains no mention of using nuclear weapons preemptively or specifically against threats from weapons of mass destruction.

Titled “Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations” and written under the direction of Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the draft document is unclassified and available on a Pentagon Web site. It is expected to be signed within a few weeks by Air Force Lt. Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, director of the Joint Staff, according to Navy Cmdr. Dawn Cutler, a public affairs officer in Myers’s office. Meanwhile, the draft is going through final coordination with the military services, the combatant commanders, Pentagon legal authorities and Rumsfeld’s office, Cutler said in a written statement.

A “summary of changes” included in the draft identifies differences from the 1995 doctrine, and says the new document “revises the discussion of nuclear weapons use across the range of military operations.”

The first example for potential nuclear weapon use listed in the draft is against an enemy that is using “or intending to use WMD” against U.S. or allied, multinational military forces or civilian populations…. [more]

3. A SPECIAL OFFER.

The DKT/MC5 folks are extending a special discount offer to all Arthur Mailing List members:

Saturday, September 17 –  Royce Hall at UCLA – Los Angeles – 8pm – $15

DKT/MC5 (Michael Davis, Wayne Kramer, Dennis Thompson) featuring Gilby Clarke (guitar), Lisa Kekaula (vocals), Dr. Charles Moore (trumpet), Buzzy Jones (sax), Phil Ranelin (trombone), Handsome Dick Manitoba (vocals) + Greg Dulli (vocals)

With special guests

SUN RA ARKESTRA directed by Marshall Allen

BARBEZ

Call 310.825.2101 or go to the link 

http://tinyurl.com/7jgsw

to get your tickets for only $15…..

Enter Special Offer Code:  MC515.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Arthur Ecstatic Peace Corps

Los Angeles, California division

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

NUMBER 24

AUGUST 30, 2005

http://www.arthurmag.com

Hey! Fancy meeting you here,

LET’S ANNOUNCE SOME HOT PRE-ARTHURFEST GIGS, SHALL WE?…

EARLY Thurs, Sept 1 at The Echo // $7.00 // 18 and up

7:00pm: doors open

7:30pm: MAGIK MARKERS

8:30pm: SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN

Friday, Sept. 2 at The Echo // $10 adv; $12 dos / 18+

8:30pm: doors

9pm: THE MOON UPSTAIRS

10pm: DARKER MY LOVE

11pm: DEAD MEADOW

EARLY Sat Sept 3 at The Echo // $10 / 18+

7pm: doors open

7:30pm: THE RED ONIONS

8:30pm: T-MODEL FORD

Sat, Sept. 3 at Spaceland // $10 // 9pm // 21 & over 

WOLFMOTHER

LATE Saturday, Sept. 3 at The Echo // 10 PM / $10 / 18+ 

10pm: doors open

10:30 PM: POLE

11:30 PM: THE JUAN MACLEAN

Info and Ticketweb links for all these shows at

http://www.arthurmag.com

The levee broke,

ArthurFest Royal Benevolent Society

Los Angeles, California

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

NUMBER 23

AUGUST 23, 2005

http://www.arthurmag.com

Hello you,

1. ARTHURFEST — SEPT. 4-5 IN LOS ANGELES — NEWS/ALERT/CAUTION.

If you haven’t got tix for the festival yet, don’t dawdle and be left outside. Barnsdall Park is a small outdoor/indoor venue with a capacity of just 2,000. The LATimes, LAWeekly, KTLA Channel 5 (?!) and other major local TV/radio/newsprint media outlets are all doing major features on ArthurFest in the days just prior to the big event. ArthurFest will sell out. If you’re planning on showing up on the day of the show, you might not get in. And we wouldn’t want that.

We are selling tickets online thru Ticketweb, which charges much lower handling fees than Ticketmaster. Right now, for a limited time, we are offering a $10 discount on the ArthurFest Two-Day Pass to Arthur Mailing List Bulletin members. Take us up on this offer before they’re gone.

Go to

http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=socal&query=detail&event=611985&interface=

For the type of ticket, choose: 2 DAY PASS (PROMOTION)

For promotion code, enter: ROGER

The discount price is $65 (instead of $75) for a two-day pass. Sorry, there are no discounts on the one-day tickets, which go for $40.

Of course, the ** cheapest ** way to buy tickets is IN PERSON at one of the following fine record stores in Southern California: Amoeba Music (Hollywood), Aron’s Records (Hollywood), Benway Records (Venice), The Brat Store (Santa Monica), Fingerprints (Long Beach) and Sea Level Records (Echo Park).  Addresses/phone numbers are for these stores are available at arthurmag.com

2. NEW ARTHUR OUT THIS WEEK/END.

It’s our “Border Crossing” issue… at least that’s the loose them… look for the striking cover illustration by PAUL POPE…. inside:

*  John Payne visits with a true master: JON HASSELL, composer, trumpeter and visionary theorist-enacter of a sensual new kind of music. Plus, a beginner’s guide to Hassell by John Adamian, and a provocative new essay by Hassell himself. Photography by W. T. Nelson.

* Stricken by skin cancer, David Reeves journeyed to IQUITOS, PERU. There, he found witchdoctors, ayahuasca, deluded gringos, fears of American ‘facepeelers,’ the legacy of the CIA, the boat from Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, a shantytown built on water and more. Photography by Simon Lund.

* Could it be that SERIAL MONOGAMY is at the root of all of our civilization’s problems? Columnist DANIEL PINCHBECK is on the case.

*  Swedish psych-pop wunderperson DUNGEN and Earth’s finest living crooner RICHARD HAWLEY get to work in their respective kitchens.

* Arthur assembles its knights for a Round Table discussion on the gems worth checking out in THE GRATEFUL DEAD’s vast catalog. Up for the task are members of Animal Collective, Comets On Fire, Brightblack Morning Light and the Duna Records braintrust as well as Barry Smolin, Erik Davis, Michael Simmons, The Seth Man and Daniel Chamberlin.

* ALAN BISHOP of Sun City Girls speaks with Brandon Stosuy about terrorism, travel, clueless Americans and curating the cut-up world music collages of his Sublime Frequencies label.

* Oliver Hall encounters AFRIRAMPO, Osaka’s number one freedom paradise rock duo in downtown Los Angeles. Photography by W.T. Nelson.

* New full-page comics by Keith Jones (“Bacter-Area”), Vanessa Davis (“Preparation Information”), Chris Wright (“Letter to Rachel”) and David Lasky (“Diary of a Bread Delivery Man”).

* New artwork by John Lurie, Able Brown and Dennis Culver.

* After a controversial sabbatical, 85-year-old bluesman T-MODEL FORD returns to the counselor’s desk.

* Columnist DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF wonders if some techniques of persuasion are so inherently wrong that they should never be used, no matter how noble the purpose.

* “Bull Tongue” columnists BYRON COLEY & THURSTON MOORE review the latest emanations from the underground, including new stuff from Picks & Lighters, Zaika, The Friday Group, Christina Carter/Andrew MacGregor, My Cat Is an Alien, Sun Ra: The Immeasurable Equation book, Richard Youngs, Andrew Paine, Alexander Neilson, Trinie Dalton, Vee Dee, Karate Party, Human Eye, Klyd Watkins, Charles Potts, Ex-Cocaine, Wayne Rogers, Marco Fursinato, Paul Metzger, Paper Rodeo mag, Roktop mag, Modern Arf mag, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Leprechaun Gathering, Whysp, French Sex Murders dvd, Dangerous Seductress dvd, Lady Terminator dvd, Samara Lubelski, Bummer Road, Nemo Bidstrup, Dream Magazine,  zine, Prague Literary Review, La Societe des Timides a la Parade des Oiseaux, Legendary Pink Dots, Ka-Spel, Current 93, Kemialliset Ystavat, Maniacs Dream and Paul Flaherty/Chris Corsano.

* C & D come to important understandings about new audio and video recordings, including new makings from Ween, Shel Silverstein, Devendra Banhart, Silver Jews, Sinead O’Connor, Terry Reid, The 88, Flamin Groovies, The Time Flys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Chris Cunningham, Bjork, Birds (feat. Cotton Casino, ex-Acid Mothers Temple), August Born, Coco Rosie, Modey Lemon, Sonny Sharrock and Earthless, plus a quick look at the Dick Cavett Rock Icons DVD set featuring Sly & the Family Stone, David Bowie and Janis Joplin.

3. “Bread, Beard & Bear’s Prayers” CD EXPERIENCES PRODUCTION HICCUPS

A long time ago, Ethan Miller of Comets On Fire gathered 13 gnarly tunes from high and low, and lower still: bloody nose street folk, dangerous shit rock, drunken cosmic slop and some true goneria. We speak here of Albert Ayler, Monoshock, Colossal Yes, Ghost, Electric Six Organs of Admittance, Michael Yonkers, Shit Spangled Banner, Brother JT, Joshua, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, August Born (Six Organs and L), Dark Inside the Sun and Comets on Fire. Then Ethan got the idea to have each sleeve silk-screened, with a booklet bound in by hand. Well, this takes time, more time than any of us realized. So far we’ve gone through 150-plus out of the 500 that Ethan’s sent us. All orders will eventually be filled, hopefully on the sooner side, so…all orders through last week have been filled, and any orders since then will be filled as soon as possible. Trust us, for 12 bucks American and some patience, you will be rewarded with a one-of-a-kind (okay, one of 500) object that you will treasure. Again we apologize for any delays and headaches and heartyearnings this delay may have cause you. And that’s the double truth, Ruth.

We love you all and there’s nothing you can do about it,

ArthurFest Preparation Committee

Los Angeles, California

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

NUMBER 21

JULy 31, 2005

1. ED SANDERS SAID…

“I’m 57 and I’m facing a kind of right-wing, blaisez-faire America that I thought would not be quite as cruel as it is. But hey, it’s not bad. I’m still having fun.” — Ed Sanders, 1997

2. SO LET’S HAVE A PARTY, A GRAND MEETING, A PSYCHEDELIC MUTUAL MINISTERING-TO. LET’S CALL IT ARTHURFEST 2005, LET’S HAVE IT ON SEPTEMBER 4 & 5, LET’S DO IN IN LOS ANGELES…

Here’s the latest Arthurfest news:

* YOKO ONO and SPOON have been added to the Arthurfest lineup; they will both be playing on Day 2 (Sept. 5). PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE has been added as one of the guest DJs. 

* Two more special guest performers will be revealed later this week, as will additional details about the films that will be screened. 

* Both days will feature music across three stages (one indoor, two outdoor), so it will be possible to experience live performances for *nine straight hours* each day. All artists will be playing full sets. Complete Day 1 and Day 2 lineups and ticket purchasing info are available at

arthurmag.com

*  “Space-age biker saddhus” (Marcus Boon, 2001) are encouraged to attend and will be treated as the VIPs that they are.

* Arik Moonhawk Roper’s striking Arthurfest “daemon cats” poster is now available for $15 US postpaid from arthurmag.com

* If you’re in need of lodging for the festival, we’ve made arrangements with two local hotels to offer special discounted rates to Arthurfest attendees. Info at arthurmag.com

* The New Energy Movement will be present on site and in full effect. Say what? Who that? More info at

http://greatgodpan.com/blog/archives/000039.html#more

* Arthur editor Jay Babcock will be appearing on Barry Smolin’s Grateful Dead-centric “The Music Never Stops” KPFK radio program Sunday night, July 31 at 8pm PST to rap for a few minutes about the festival. You can listen live via the web, info at 

www.kpfk.org

3. MAGIC CITY FESTIVAL: AUG 6, 2005 IN SAN FRANCISCO — FREE!

Arthur is proud to present the 2005 Magic City Festival in San Franciso with the Papercuts, Hard Place, the Society of Rockets, Mushroom, Pillows, Jai Young Kim and more.

An outdoor ode to San Francisco’s psych-freak spirit, this year’s one-of-a-kind Magic City Festival will be a day-long, summer camp-style BBQ  party featuring the best and brightest of the Bay Area’s ever-blossoming  underground scene, and all for free! Come out in the grass and get your head filled with voodoo funk, lo-fi pop hymns, new wave narcotics, and good ol rock n roll. All stops pulled, all tickets punched, all wrongs reversed, full speed ahead for the heart of the sun. shhhh, it’s a secret.

When: Saturday, August 6th, Noon – 6pm.

Where: Potrero Del Sol Park (25th St and Potrero), San Francisco

Cost:  FREE

More Info: www.magiccityfest.com

4. FINALLY AVAILABLE, AND WE MEAN IT THIS TIME: THE ETHAN MILLER-CURATED “BREAD, BEARD & BEAR’S PRAYERS” COMPILATION CD ON BASTET

Over 15 months in the making, “Bread, Beard & Bear’s Prayers” — 13 gnarly tunes gathered from high and low by Ethan Miller of Comets On Fire — is finally here and is now shipping. For lovers of bloody nose street folk, dangerous shit rock, drunken cosmic slop and those wandering down the outer and under paths alone. Features Albert Ayler, Monoshock, Colossal Yes, Ghost, Electric Six Organs of Admittance, Michael Yonkers, Shit Spangled Banner, Brother JT, Joshua, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, August Born (Six Organs and L), Dark Inside the Sun and Comets on Fire. Each CD sleeve has been silk-screened, stitched, bound, numbered and assembled by  experts of the loving hand. Limited edition of 500. You can order it from 

http://www.arthurmag.com/store/bastet_cds.php

5. NEW ISSUE OF ARTHUR AT THE PRINTER THIS WEEK.

We’re almost done and those who know say it’s a keeper. It’ll be out in three weeks, with a full-color cover by the man they call Paul Pope. Keep yer peepers peeled…

Still aging,

Friends of Arthur

Los Angeles, California 

No. 20 – July 17, 2005

Hey kind folks,

1. YOKO ONO (!!!!) TO PLAY ARTHURFEST, SEPT 4-5 IN LOS ANGELES

Since we first announced ArthurFest last month in this email bulletin and in the pages of Arthur magazine, we’ve had some additions to the line-up. 

This week’s addition of YOKO ONO as Monday Sept. 5 night headliner (and thus, ArthurFest closer) has drawn attention from major media outlets like the Los Angeles Times and the Hollywood Reporter. (Both articles are available at arthurmag.com.)  Tickets — both two-day passes and one-day passes — are really starting to “move,” as they say in the business. And there are more co-headliners we’ve yet to announce (Soon, soon!) as well as details on the various non-musical events that will be going on at ArthurFest, including the NEW ENERGY WORKSHOP and the KARL ROVE APPRECIATION TENT.  Plus, did you see that poster ARIK MOONHAWK ROPER made? (Yes we’ll have them on sale soon.)

So, a word to the wise: This event *is* going to sell out, and it may sell out sooner than you might think. Barnsdall isn’t that big. Two-day passes are still $70 from ticketweb.com and various L.A.-area stores. One-day passes are now available for $40/each from ticketweb.com. 

Go to arthurmag.com‘s News page for more details about the Festival lineup, info about how to purchase tickets and info on two site-local hotels who are offering ArthurFest attendees specially discounted room rates. 

Please do not hesitate to email us if you have any questions. We’ll be adding more info to the arthurmag.com site regularly, so stay tuned. 

2.  MISSION VERY POSSIBLE

Arthur’s contributors would like to encourage Arthur readers who spend time online to please give them feedback on their work via the arthurmag.com message board. Many of Arthur’s contributing writers, columnists, artists, cartoonists and photographers drop in on the Arthur forum regularly, and would be overjoyed to hear from you. Here, we’ll make it easy by giving you a direct link… Comments on Arthur 17 (Eno cover) should be posted to:

http://www.arthurmag.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=131

3. OF “BREAD, BEER AND BEAR’S PRAYERS”

The finishing touches have finally been put on the long-awaited new Bastet music CD curated by Ethan Miller of the Comets On Fire band. It’s a hairy beast of a rock-noize-skree-drone beauty spew that spans genres and continents. The first 500 copies are numbered and feature screen-printed sleeves with knit-in booklets. If you wanna know more, check it out at

http://www.arthurmag.com/store/bastet_cds.php

4. WHAT WOULD COUNT AS THE NORTH AMERICAN STONEHENGE?

Bez of The Happy Mondays says: “When I was still a teenager in 1982, I turned up to my first Glastonbury with some mates to find we were two weeks early! It was the year that the Travellers were trying to reclaim Stonehenge. I ended up spending two weeks travelling with the hippies and going to lots of smaller free festivals.”

Turning it up,

The Arthur Early Warning System 

Los Angeles, California

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

NUMBER OH OH ONE NINE

JUNE 21, 2005

OUR LADIES, OUR LORDS —

1. NEW ISSUE OF ARTHUR OUT THIS WEEK. KRISTINE MCKENNA INTERVIEWS BRIAN ENO. ALAN MOORE SALUTES BRIAN ENO. WE GO INSIDE A HAWAIIAN SQUATTERS’ VILLAGE. AN EASY-TO-FOLLOW SEVEN-STEP GUIDE ON TO GETTING GASOLINE FOR FREE. RUSHKOFF TALKS GURUISM. PINCHBECK TALKS ABOUT OUR POST-OIL FUTURE. GOSS TALKS FOOD ALCHEMY. PLUS MORE. ARTHUR: STILL FREE. STILL FOR YOU. STILL… WELL, DETAILS AT 

ARTHURMAG.COM

2. ARTHURFEST 2005. TWO DAYS OF MUSIC IN LOS ANGELES IN A BEAUTIFUL SETTING THAT’S EASY TO GET TO, WHERE ATTENDEES WILL BE TREATED AS HUMAN BEINGS FOR ONCE.  PERFORMERS INCLUDE SONIC YOUTH, SLEATER-KINNEY, THE BLACK KEYS, CAT POWER, OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL, MERZBOW, SUNNO))), DEAD MEADOW, VETIVER, COMETS ON FIRE, SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE, THE JUAN MACLEAN, WOLFMOTHER, CIRCLE, BRIGHTBLACK MORNING LIGHT, JOSEPHINE FOSTER, EARTH, SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN, MARISSA NADLER, JACK ROSE, MODEY LEMON, FUTURE PIGEON, LAVENDER DIAMOND FEAT. BECKY STARK, BRAD LANER, NORA KEYES, RADAR BROS., T-MODEL FORD, PLUS THAT GUY  HENRY JACOBS DOING SOMETHING SPECIAL. TWO-DAY TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE FOR $70 FROM TICKETWEB.COM AND OUR FRIENDS AT AMOEBA (L.A.), ARON’S, SEA LEVEL AND THE BRAT STORE. ONE-DAY TICKETS ON SALE SOON.  GO TO

ARTHURMAG.COM 

FOR ALL OF THE INFO ON HOW TO GET WHAT YOU NEED.

3. ARTHUR PRESENTS THE TOUR OF THE YEAR, SO FAR:  COMETS ON FIRE WITH GROWING. A FEW MORE GIGS IN VARIOUS HOODS. TOUR DETAILS AND FACEMELTING ARIK MOONHAWK ROPER TOUR POSTER AT

ARTHURMAG.COM. 

4. AND, THIS JUST IN…  INSPIRED ACTIVISTS IMPROVE CONFEDERATE MONUMENT

Vandals Spray Black Paint Over Faces In Confederate Monument

June 21,  2005

http://www.wftv.com/news/4634972/detail.html

Portsmouth, Va. — Vandals damaged the city’s monument to Confederate soldiers by spraying black paint over the faces of statues representing four white rebel fighters.

The damage was discovered during the weekend at the memorial, which consists of a 56-foot-tall granite pillar surrounded by four metal figures representing the navy, cavalry, infantry and artillery branches of the Confederate military.

All are white.

“I think the Civil War is still sensitive to a segment of the South,” Nancy Perry, the city’s museum director, said Tuesday.

Police had made no arrests. A metal conservator could begin work to clean up the statues this weekend.

The monument, dedicated in 1893 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was scheduled for an $80,000 restoration this year.

5. ZEN BUDDHIST WORDS OF ADVICE FROM HENRY JACOBS’ NEW CD/DVD OUT NOW: “DON’T JUST DO SOMETHING–STAND THERE.” 

ALL THE BEST,

THE ARTHUR PEOPLE

LOS ANGELES, CA 

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

No. 0018

FRIDAY MAY 20, 2005

1. “It is quite clear that gluttony, greed and lack of compassion have caused America to become the most despised nation on this Earth. And the sad thing is, as my Polish wife tells me, we were and still could be, the hope of all. Instead we have not one friend on earth despite the babblings of that Texas millionaire in Washington.” — Lew Welch, 1967.

2. A PLACE TO COMMINGLE: We’ve added more space to our Arthur message board at www.arthurmag.com. Drop in if you’re in the mood.

3. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Brian Eno is interviewed by Kristine McKenna in the next issue of Arthur, out June 14.

4. SAVE THE DATES. SERIOUSLY: September 4 and 5, 2005: Arthur Festival, Los Angeles, California. More information in the coming weeks.

5. KANDY KORN CARTWHEELS AND YOU: From David Keenan’s review in the May issue of THE WIRE: “We’ve got the closest thing to a high fidelity release here from the confirmed kings of the under-the-counter-culture, Sunburned Hand Of The Man. No Magic Man bundles a selection of some of Sunburned’s most punishingly rhythmic heart-punches to date. There are pieces here that sound like Pete Cosey-era Miles cut up with Lhasa street song and stand-up stonerskits, while others make out like the logical Heavy Metal extension of Tony Williams’ experiments with electricity as part of Lifetime alongside guitarist John McLaughlin and organist Larry Young. Guitarist Marc Orleans can generate kandy korn cartwheels as well as The Magic Band’s Jeff Cotton and combined with Rob Thomas’s bass, the two provide a steam-rolling backline that various drummers — John Moloney, Phil Franklin — work to bolster and undermine. Much of No Magic Man is possessed of a uniquely squelchy analog bottom end and 

between tracks there are some wowing cut-ups from various found sources that add a beautiful veneer of mystic shit to the already precariously dosed proceedings.”

“No Magic Man” is available Arthur’s Bastet label for only $12US/$14Can/$17World, postage paid. Or FREE with a new subscription. Go to www.arthurmag.com to order.

6. ARTHUR ON DUBLAB.COM‘S DUBSTREAM: Arthur editor Jay Babcock just did a 60-minute sequence of music selections that is in random, schedule-less rotation with other folks’ sessions now on dublab.com‘s live “dubstream” thingamabobber. Features Babcock ramble plus new music by Vetiver, A Band of Bees,  Psychic Paramount, Sleater-Kinney, Gang Gang Dance, Growing, Marissa Nadler, Colleen and Radar Bros. and old music from Rod Stewart and P.P. Arnold, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Hawkwind, Incredible String Band and Gary Higgins. Listen in at www.dublab.com

7. ARIK MOONHAWK ROPER’S “TOUGH WIZARD” ARTHUR T-SHIRTS ALMOST GONE, MORE ON THE WAY.

Arik Moonhawk Roper: you’ve seen his illustrations on the covers of High on Fire albums, Black Crowes tour posters and accompanying Daniel Pinchbeck’s column in Arthur. Recently you may have seen his artwork in a new place: on someone’s chest. Yes, Arik designed the very popular bullets-and-mushrooms-wielding Wizard who graces the current Arthur t-shirt. Well, we’re almost out of the mustard-on-earth color variety, so hurry up and order if you want those. They’re cheap and available from www.arthurmag.com We’ve got some new shirts on the way incorporating the same design, but with a different color scheme. What is the new color scheme? It’s a secret, silly.

We all know,

Arthur Information Bureau

Los Angeles, California

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

No. 0017

FRIDAY APRIL 22, 2005

1. TONIGHT, LET IT BE PINCHBECK

People always ask us what columnist Daniel Pinchbeck is *really* like. Well now you can see for yourself, as the man will be live and in the flesh and talking TONIGHT in NEW YORK CITY. Here are the details from the hosts:

“how i learned to stop worrying and love the dimensional shift”

a talk with Arthur columnist Daniel Pinchbeck

Friday, April 22, 2005

8:00 p.m., $10

The Project Room

619 East 6th Street, between B and C

“Daniel’s current book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is on indigenous prophecies, crop circles, shamanism, The Book of Revelation, and other related subjects. He will discuss his research that supports the Mayan Calendar’s projection of the year 2012 as the “end of history” and the movement into a new experience of time and space, as well as the inception of an harmonic and utopian global civilization on the Earth. Open discussion for questions and answers will follow.”

2. NEW ISSUE OF ARTHUR OUT THIS WEEKEND.

Best yet? You be the judge and jury. Rising star M.I.A. on the cover, with a gigantic interview with her by Piotr Orlov on the inside. Erik Davis on a place called Druid Heights. Peter Lamborn Wilson on secessionist movements. Stacy Kranitz visits with surviving black metallers in Scandinavia, with an introduction by metal scholar Ian Christe. Douglas Rushkoff turns his back on the internet. Pinchbeck on transhumanism and nanotech and the Singularity. Comics. C & D on the landmark (!) new album of fuzzed up, psychedelic (!), ear-scalding, mind-melting heavy rock by Sleater-Kinney (!?!?!?). John Payne on new prog by Magma and the Mars Volta. Mike Patton gets in the kitchen. Byron Coley & Thurston Moore get mindzapped. And so on. All free for you. 50,000 copies, going fast. Details here:

http://www.arthurmag.com

3. MATTHEW GREENE EXHIBIT IN LONDON.

Arthur contributing artist Matthew Greene (he did some beautiful illos for the piece on legal magic mushrooms in England in the Jello Biafra issue of Arthur) has a hot new exhibit in London that just opened two days ago. Go here if you can:

Modern Art inc.

10 vyner st.

London E2 9DG

It’s the Bethnal Green stop in the tube.

http://www.modernartinc.com/exhibitions_future.html

4. BASTET NEWS.

Ethan Miller of Comets On Fire has curated a new compilation of spiritual brainfry for Arthur’s Bastet label. The CD is now being mastered. We should have it out before the end of May. Stay tuned. This will be a limited edition thing, with handscreened sleeves and all that quality goodness that we’ve come to expect from the Comets crew.

5. RIGHT ON, ERIC BERNDT!

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/about/scalia-subjected-to-probing-question-the-aftermath-040057.php

Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia visited NYU to receive an honor from the members of the NYU Annual Survey of American Law , which is dedicating their 2005 issue to Scalia.

Scalia is the subject of controversy for his dissenting opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, in which he criticized the decision to overturn a law that criminalized sodomy.

In asking about Scalia’s dissent in Lawrence v. Texas and his view that privacy is not constitutionally protected, Eric Berndt, a law student, shocked the crowd by asking, “Do you sodomize your wife?”

Scalia refused to answer the question while the crowd gasped and the administrators promptly turned off Berndt’s microphone.

Berndt later explained his actions in a post on the Internet:

As the student who asked Justice Scalia about his sexual conduct, I am responding to your posts to explain why I believe I had a right to confront Justice Scalia in the manner I did Tuesday, why any gay or sympathetic person has that same right. It should be clear that I intended to be offensive, obnoxious, and inflammatory. There is a time to discuss and there are times when acts and opposition are necessary. Debate is useless when one participant denies the full dignity of the other. How am I to docilely engage a man who sarcastically rants about the “beauty of homosexual relationships” (at the Q&A) and believes that gay school teachers will try to convert children to a homosexual lifestyle (at oral argument for Lawrence)?

Although my question was legally relevant, as I explain below, an independent motivation for my speech-act was to simply subject a homophobic government official to the same indignity to which he would subject millions of gay Americans. It was partially a naked act of resistance and a refusal to be silenced. I wanted to make him and everyone in the room aware of the dehumanizing effect of trivializing such an important relationship. Justice Scalia has no pity for the millions of gay Americans on whom sodomy laws and official homophobia have such an effect, so it is difficult to sympathize with his brief moment of “humiliation,” as some have called it. The fact that I am a law student and Scalia is a Supreme Court Justice does not require me to circumscribe my justified opposition and outrage within the bounds of jurisprudential discourse.

Law school and the law profession do not negate my identity as a member of an oppressed minority confronting injustice. Even so, I did have a legal point: Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion in Lawrence asked whether criminalizing homosexual conduct advanced a state interest “which could justify the intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual.” Scalia did not answer this question in his dissent because he believed the state need only assert a legitimate interest to defeat non-fundamental liberties. I basically asked him this question again – it is now the law of the land. He said he did not know whether the interest was significant enough. I then asked him if he sodomizes his wife to subject his intimate relations to the scrutiny he cavalierly would allow others – by force, if necessary. Everyone knew at that moment how significant the interest is. Beyond exerting official power against homosexuals, Scalia is an outspoken and high-profile homophobe. After 

the aforementioned sarcastic remarks about gay people’s relationships, can anyone doubt how little respect he has for LGBT Americans? Even if no case touching gay rights ever came before him, his comments from the bench (that employment non-discrimination is some kind of “homosexual agenda,” etc.) and within our very walls are unacceptable to any self-respecting gay person or principled opponent of discrimination. The idea that I should have treated a man with such repugnant views with deference because he is a high government official evinces either a dangerously un-American acceptance of authority or insensitivity to the gay community’s grievances. Friends have forwarded me emails complaining of the “liberal” student who asked “the question.” That some of my classmates are shallow and insensitive enough to conceptualize my complaint as mere partisan politics is disheartening. Though I should not have to, I will share with everyone that I am neither a Democrat nor Republica!

n and do not consider myself a “liberal” except in the classical sense. I hope that we can separate a simple demand for equality under the law and outrage over being denied it from so much dogmatic ideological baggage. LGBT Americans are still a persecuted minority and our struggle for equal rights is still vital. 4 out of 5 LGBT kids are harassed in school – tell them to debate their harassers. Suicide rates for them are much higher than for others. We still cannot serve in the military, have little protection from employment and other forms of discrimination, and are denied the 1000+ benefits that accrue from official recognition of marriage. I know some who support gay rights oppose my question and our protest. Do not presume to tell me when and with how much urgency to stand up for our rights.

I am 17 months out of a lifelong closet and have lost too much time to heterosexist hegemony to tolerate those who say, as Dr. King put it, “just wait.” If you cannot stomach a breach of decorum when justified outrage erupts then your support is nearly worthless anyway. At least do not allow yourselves to become complicit in discrimination by demanding obedience from its victims. Many of our classmates chose NYU over higher-ranked schools because of our reputation as a “private university in the public service” and our commitment to certain values. We were the first law school to require that employers pledge not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Of Scalia’s law schools that have “signed on to the homosexual agenda,” our signature stands out like John Hancock’s. We won a federal injunction in the FAIR litigation as an “expressive association” that counts acceptance of sexual orientation as a core value. Those who worry about our school’s prestige should re

member how we got here and consider whether flattering those who mock what we believe and are otherwise willing to fight for appears prestigious or pathetic. We protestors did not embarrass NYU, Scalia embarrassed NYU. We stood up to a bigot for the values that make NYU more than a great place to learn the law. I repeat my willingess to discuss this issue calmly with anyone who respects my identity as a gay man. I have had many productive talks with classmates since Tuesday and I hope that will continue.

Respectfully,

Eric Berndt

And with that inspirational message, we bid you adieu

Arthur Editorial Action Squad

Los Angeles

“COMMAND PERFORMANCE” -THE ARTHUR MAILING LIST BULLETIN

No. 0015

FRIDAY MARCH 11, 2005

title: Could a Magazine Ever Be Useful?

From “Historical Treasures” by JACK SMITH, edited by Ira Cohen, Hanuman Books, 1990:

“COULD ART EVER BE USEFUL? Ever since the desert glitter drifted over the burnt-out ruins of Plastic Lagoon, thousand of artists have not pondered and dreamed of such things. Yet art must not be used anymore as another elaborate means of fleeing from thinking because of the multiplying amount of information each person needs to process in order to come to any kind of decision about what kind of world one wants to live in, since it has bcome obvious that the schools operate by picking everything out of context.

“LET ART CONTINUE TO BE ENTERTAINING, escapist, stunning, naturalistic and glamorous–but let it also be loaded with information worked into the vapid plots of movies, for instance. Each one would be a more or less complete exposition of one subject or another. Thus you would have Tony Curtis or Janet Leigh busily making yogurt; Humphrey Bogart struggling to introduce a basic civil rights law course into public schools; infants being given to the old in homes for the aged by Ginger Rogers; donut-shaped dwellings with sunlight pouring into central patios for all, designed by Gary Cooper; soft clear plastic bubble-cars with hooks that attach to monorails built by Charlton Heston that pass over the free paradise of abandoned objects in the center of the city near where the community movie sets would also be; and where Maria Montez and Johnny Weissmuller would labor to dissolve all national boundaries and release the prisoners of Uranus. But the stairway to socialism is blocked up by the Yvonne De Carlo tabernacle choir waving bloody palm branches and waiting to sing the ‘Hymn to the Sun’ by Irving Berlin. This is the rented moment of exotic landlordism of Crab Lagoon!”

ARTHUR, ARTHUR!

Events up the wazzoo:

On Friday, March 11 at 11pm — THAT’S TONIGHT — Arthur is co-presenting a screening at the New York Underground Film Festoval of the 1970 film CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE. This is the reel deal people! Said Arthur columnists Byron Coley & Thurston Moore in Arthur 11: “Snappiest DVD in a while has to be CAPTAIN MILKSHAKE, a theatrically released film from 1971, directed by Richard Crawford. Filmed in San Diego, it tells the story of a Marine who comes home on leave from Vietnam and falls in with a winsome hippie lass and the politico-druggies with whom she shares a pad. Sounds like a fairly typically ‘60s film, yeah, but there are lotsa extremely interesting moments in the film, and the non-high-budget quality of the shoot gives everything a very realistic quality. The rock clubs they film in are real rock clubs, the protests in they film are real protests, etc etc. The authenticity of locales, plus the mean-edged realism of the straights’ political banter, and the moral confusion of the title character really make Captain Milkshakean outstanding genre flick. Also worth mentioning is the fact that L.A.’s legendary Kaleidoscope actually appear playing live for two of the film’s sequences. There are limited theatrical showings of the film being done, but if you can’t make one, I strongly suggest viewing the DVD, if you have any interest in the visual literature of hippiedom.”

There’s more information on this screening at

http://www.arthurmag.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=86

Then on March 16 in Los Angeles, Arthur will be presening JOHN SINCLAIR (author/activist/poet/jailbird/Manager and Prime Mover of MC5) at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, where he’ll be spinning tunes and signing copies of his books and CD. This is FREE in every sense of the word! More info

http://www.arthurmag.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=83

The next day is March 17. And on that day, in Austin, Texas, Arthur will be throwing a FREE afternoon party featuring live music from DEAD MEADOW, WOLFMOTHER, JENNIFER GENTLE, PSYCHIC ILLS and WINTER FLOWERS at the Church of the Friendly Ghost. Seriously. Starts at 1:30pm. Free quality Pabst beer while it lasts. Then it’s on to Shiner Bock. No SXSW badges are necessary, everybody and their sister and brother is welcome.

More info

http://www.arthurmag.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=84

Meanwhile, back at HQ. We’ve finally got the pretty new Arthur t-shirts, designed by Arik Moonhawk Roper, who you may know from his illustration work in Arthur and his gorgeous work on the new High On Fire album cover. These “Tuff Wizard” shirts are cheap, chic and going fast. More info

http://www.arthurmag.com

One more thing. The new Bastet album by SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN, _No Magic Man_, is starting to draw some critical notices.  “Finally they give us what we want,” says Jim Steed at fakejazz.com. “Essential to those interested in the band… Wicked funk grooves and trancey drone-outs… No Magic Man is a fitting rival for ‘Jaybird,’ ‘Wild Animal,’ and ‘Headdress’ as best Sunburned Hand of the Man release. Rating: 12/12”  AND  prime Arthur contributor/aesthete John Coulthart sez: “Crazy stuff, reminiscent of Amon Duul, more than anything, for that kind of lurching, freeform, what-will-they-do-next thing. Sounds like the genuine article, being done for their reasons, rather than anything pastiched.” If you want one, hurry, there’s only 1000 of these babies. Available for cheep from

http://ww.arthurmag.com

Stuck in Los Angeles California with those Mobile Alabama blues again,

Your Mama