Category Archives for Uncategorized

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — EDUARDO MONDLANE

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June 20– EDUARDO MONDLANE
Mozambiquean liberationist, anti-colonialist martyr.

JUNE 20, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Hamburg, Germany: Cherry Festival. One day during the siege of 1432, the city gates opened and out came children dressed in white. Hussite hearts melted, the siege was raised, and the children were sent back laden with ripe cherries.
*Midsummer’s Eve: Everyone into the woods at night; stay up all night, sing, dance, make love, worship the sun god in fire symbols, greet the rising sun. Fairies speak in human tongues on this night; the flower of happiness blooms. Gather flowers and boughs. Large wheels bound with straw are set burning and rolled down hills, etc.
*New Identity Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 20 IN HISTORY…
1887 — Dadaist master Kurt Schwitters born, Hannover, Germany.
1920 — African liberationist, martyr Eduardo Mondlane born, Gaza, Mozambique.
1923 — Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa dies, Parral, Mexico.
1928 — Jazz great Eric Dolphy born, Los Angeles, California.
1933 — German feminist, radical Clara Zetkin dies, Archangelskoje, USSR.
1963 — Cold War prompts “hot line” between Washington and Moscow.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, 1922-2009

From The Hindu:

Sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan died in San Francisco, U.S., on Friday after a prolonged kidney ailment, according to a family friend here.

Khan, 88, died at his music centre, according to Rabin Pal, secretary of sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Mr. Pal said he was informed about the death by the Ustad’s family in San Francisco.

Khan’s secretary here Ashish Roy said the maestro, who was on dialysis, was ailing for over four years and his condition deteriorated in the last four months.

A recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, the Ustad was a colossus in the world of Indian classical music for the last five decades. He is survived by his wife Mary, three sons and a daughter.

Hailed by violinist Yehudi Menuhin as ‘the greatest musician in the world,’ Khan had many firsts to his credit in taking Indian classical music to the west. He was admired by both eastern as well as western musicians for his brilliant compositions and his mastery of the 25-string instrument.

The illustrious son of Ustad Alauddin Khan was the first to cut a long play record of Indian classical music in the U.S. and to give a sarod recital on American TV.

The Ustad was also the first Indian musician to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1991. He was nominated for Grammy Awards five times between 1970 and 1998.

Born on April 14, 1922 in Shibpur village of Comilla district, now in Bangladesh, Khan took up music at the age of 3, learning vocal music from his father and percussion from his uncle, Fakir Aftabuddin.

His father trained him in several other instruments too, but he decided to concentrate on sarod and vocals.

Khan gave his first public performance in Allahabad at the age of 13 and made his first gramophone recording in Lucknow when he was in his early 20s. He became the court musician of the Maharaja of Jodhpur and continued for seven years until his patron’s death. The state of Jodhpur bestowed upon him the title ‘Ustad.’ At the request of Menuhin, Khan visited the U.S. in 1955 and performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in Kolkata in 1956. In 1965, he began teaching in the U.S. and later opened a branch of his college there and in Switzerland.

Opening tonight: BASIL WOLVERTON at Gladstone

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Basil Wolverton

Curated by Cameron Jamie

515 West 24th Street, New York
June 20 to August 14, 2009
Opening: Friday, June 19th from 5.30-7.30pm

Gladstone Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition by American graphic artist and cartoonist Basil Wolverton curated by Cameron Jamie. Basil Wolverton submitted his first cartoon for publication in 1925 when he was only sixteen and remained an active cartoonist from the 1940s through to the 1970s. His unique and humorously grotesque drawings reveal both his fantastic wit and inventive technique, once famously described in LIFE Magazine as the “spaghetti and meatball school of design.”

Wolverton had no formal training as an artist, creating his own style that distinguished him from the other cartoonists of his generation. As he said, “I know I draw things that look like all kinds of organs and glands, it is like the monkey which, if he pounded away for a million years, might accidentally type out the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ lyrics.” Generations of artists including Peter Saul, Ed Ruscha, Robert Williams, Jim Shaw, Mike Kelley, and Cameron Jamie have been influenced by his meticulous technique and pictorial freedom, in addition to its undeniable impact on numerous cartoonists from R. Crumb to Drew Friedman.

This exhibition includes a wide spectrum of Wolverton’s work from his earliest drawings published in numerous comic books, including “Spacehawk” and “Powerhouse Pepper,” to his very detailed caricatures, with sculpted and exaggerated features. Perhaps the most famous body of work in the exhibition are his drawings for Harvey Kurtzman’s comic-book version of MAD Magazine from the 1950s. Also included are portraits made for Topps Chewing Gum in the 1960s, which appeared on bubble gum posters and stickers. Wolverton turned to illustrating Biblical themes and events in his later years, represented here by thirteen drawings from the Apocalypse series based on the Book of Revelation. These drawings are regarded among his finest and many of these illustrations were reproduced in Plain Truth magazine.

Born in 1909 in Central Point, Oregon, Basil Wolverton resided for most of his life in the Pacific Northwest until his death in 1978. His work has been published in a variety of magazines and comic books, from MAD Magazine, America’s Humor Magazine, The Portland News, Plop! and Hollywood Today. His work has been featured in Timely Comics, Circus Comics and Target Comics. He also contributed to the Li’l Abner Comic Strip and LIFE Magazine. In 2006, his work was exhibited at The Portland Art Center in Oregon and in 2007 the CSUF Grand Art Center in Santa Ana, California presented a solo exhibition of Wolverton’s oeuvre from the collection of Glenn Bray. The works selected and presented in this exhibition are also from Bray’s private archive/collection.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Ali Shariati

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June 19– Ali Shariati
Iranian theorist of the interface of Marxism and Islam.

In Islam man is not subjugated by God, since he is the Lord’s associate, friend, trustee, and kinsman on earth.

JUNE 19, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Berkshire, England: Election of the “Morris Mayor”; residents elect a Morris dancer who is carried through town on a flower-trimmed rocking chair, preceded by an ox-head on a long pole, with stops at every tavern to refill the Mayor’s chalice.
*Brazil: Beggars’ Banquets.
*Festival of the Coming Ice Age.
*Juneteenth.

ALSO ON JUNE 19 IN HISTORY…
1756 — 123 British prisoners die in “Black Hole” of Calcutta, India.
1891 — Anti-fascist collage artist Helmut Herzfeld (John Heartfield) born, Berlin.
1912 — Alleged eight-hour work-day adopted for U.S. government workers.
1953 — Julius and Ethel Rosenberg electrocuted for alleged sale of atomic secrets to Russians, Sing Sing Prison, New York.
1977 — Iranian political & spiritual leader Ali Shariati killed, London, England.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Maxim Gorki

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June 18– Maxim Gorki
“Stormy Petrel.” Russian novelist, intellectual force.
Read works of Gorki at Project Gutenberg.

JUNE 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Festival of Invisible Pornography.

ALSO ON JUNE 18 IN HISTORY…
1778 — British troops evacuate Philadelphia as American Colonial forces enter.
1812 — War declared against Britain by U.S.
1914 — Red Week begins, Italy.
1936 — Russian novelist Maxim Gorki dies, Moscow, USSR.
1953 — Egypt declared a republic by the “Revolutionary Command Council.”
1983 — Sally Ride becomes first U.S. woman in space.
1989 — Muckraking journalist I. F. “Izzy” Feiinstein Stone dies, Boston, MA.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

SATURDAY: Blood Transfusion for a Ghost– Frank Haines at Kenneth Anger Exhibit at PS1

Saturday, June 20, 2009, 7 – 11 pm
PS1/MoMA
In celebration of the summer solstice, Frank Haines has organized an evening of ritualistic, mysterious, and mystical performances, music, film, and spoken word. Four performers—the trio Blanko & Noiry; 16mm filmmaker Rose Kallal and curator Mark Beasley; psychedelic metal band Miracle of Birth; and poet Cedar Sigo— will perform in a different corner of a single gallery. ARP (DFA/Smalltown Supersound) will provide musical transitions between each performance.
In a reference to his artistic relationship to the cult filmmaker Kenneth Anger, Haines borrowed this event’s title from Hugh Kenner’s novel The Pound Era, in which the author notes that Pound “came to think of translation as a model for the poetic act: blood brought to ghosts…essentially creating new life from old texts.” Anger’s current P.S.1 exhibition will be on view throughout the evening.
Ticket information here.

Haines, who currently has a show at the Lisa Cooley Gallery, is a visual, musical, and performance artist. His performances are rare and reportedly not to be missed, filling the entire space with energy in a manner consistent with the occult rituals, such as the gnostic mass, that link Haines with Anger. The performance is $10 and 21+, but it sounds like there will probably be free Grolsch!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHLsN29AEA

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Miguel Piñero

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June 17– Miguel Piñero
Playwright, the original Nuyorican.Poet.
Read some of Piñero’s work here.

JUNE 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Milwaukee: Homebrewers Beer Competition.
*Wish Fulfillment Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 17 IN HISTORY…
1824 — U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs established, Washington, D.C.
1871 — Black American writer James Weldon Johnson born.
1953 — East Germans stage revolt against Russian social imperialism.
1967 — Red China explodes H-bomb, joining club of nuclear-terror states.
1972 — Hotel break-in tips start of Watergate scandal, Washington, D.C.
1988 — Nuyorican Poet Miguel Piñero dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

June 17 — MIGUEL PIñERO

Tuesday evening new music: CELEBRATION "OPEN YOUR HEART"

“Video tarot card for Judgement created by the Baltimore band Celebration for their experimental self released free music art magic ritual website: celebrationelectrictarot.com

“The Judgement card is about rebirth, resurrection. The idea of Judgement day is that the dead rise, their sins are forgiven, and they move onto heaven. The Judgement card is similar, it asks for the resurrection to summon the past, forgive it, and let it go. There are wounds from the past that we never let heal, sins we’ve committed that we refuse to forgive, bad habits we haven’t the courage to lose. Judgement advises us to finally face these, recognize that the past is past, and put them to rest, absolutely and irrevocably. This is also a card of healing, quite literally from an accident or illness, as well as a card signaling great transformation, renewal, change.”