In loving memory of drummer Jerry Fuchs, 1974-2009

jerry

Above: The Juan MacLean, featuring Jerry Fuchs on drums, at ArthurFest in Los Angeles, September 2005. Directed by Lance Bangs.

Statement from Juan Maclean: http://www.thejuanmaclean.com/blog/juan-maclean-drummer-jerry-fuchs-has-tragically-died

New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/nyregion/09elevator.html

Jerry Fuchs memorial website: http://www.jerryfuchs.net/

Announcement from The Juan MacLean’s publicist:

Juan MacLean will DJ a benefit show in memory and in tribute to friend, band mate and legendary drummer Jerry Fuchs, who passed away in an unfortunate accident in the early hours of November 8. The show will take place November 20 at San Francisco’s Mezzanine (444 Jessie Street). The show will also feature a DJ set with Parallels. A donation will be made to the Fuchs Family.

Jerry was a celebrated drummer, having recorded and toured with The Juan MacLean, Holy Ghost!, Maserati, !!! and Turing Machine. Born December 30, 1974 in Marietta, Georgia, he attended the University of Georgia and moved to New York in 1995, quickly becoming a beloved fixture on the city’s music scene. When not touring, Jerry worked as a graphic designer for publications like Chunklet and Entertainment Weekly. Juan MacLean describes Jerry as “the absolute best at what he did” and a “supportive and loyal friend.”

The Juan MacLean has released a video [posted below] of the extended version of “Happy House,” featuring some of Jerry’s best work. Shot at the Double Door in Chicago on June 16 of this year, the song is a crowd and critic favorite, having been named one of Pitchfork’s 100 Best Tracks of 2008. At nearly 20 minutes long, the performance is a testament to Jerry’s talent and dedication to his craft.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Flora Tristan

flora
NOVEMBER 14 — FLORA TRISTAN
Great French feminist and socialist theorist, writer.

NOVEMBER 14 HOLIDAYS AND FESIVALS
Inuit ASKING FESTIVAL. On the first day young people blacken their faces
and make the rounds collecting food for the next day’s feast. At the
feast men and women ask each other for coveted possessions,
which are turned over. After a large percentage of village
property has changed hands, everyone dances.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 14 IN HISTORY…
1831 — German Idealist philosopher G. W. F. Hegel dies, Berlin, Germany.
1843 — French feminist and socialist Flora Tristan dies.
1889 — American feminist journalist Nellie Bly sets out to circle the world.
1925 — Surrealist art exhibit opens in Paris, causing great scandal.
1938 — All Jews are expelled from German colleges as Nazis consolidate power.

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 — Camille Pissaro

camille pissarro
NOVEMBER 13 — CAMILLE PISSARRO
French impressionist painter, anarchist.
pissaro45.preview
Camille Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre at Night, 1897. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London, UK.

NOVEMBER 13 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Ancient Rome: FESTIVAL OF JUPITER. FAKE I.D. DAY.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 13 IN HISTORY…
1829 — Sam Patch, famed stunt diver, dives to his death.
1850 — British novelist Robert Louis Stevenson born.
1903 — French painter, anarchist Camille Pissarro dies, Paris, France.
1914 — Caresse Crosby applies for patent for the backless brassiere.
1967 — Scandalously nude musical “Hair” opens in New York City.
1974 — Karen Silkwood killed during Keer-McGee Nuclear
Power Plant investigation; driving to meet reporter with documents
on safety violations, her car mysteriously crashes, documents disappear.

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

'GWC' pt. 3 by Jesse Moynihan

Part 3 of GWC by Jesse Moynihan!  Apocalypse – from the Greek, Apok-lypsis: “lifting of the veil” or “revelation”.  Here’s the previous chapters, part 1 and part 2.

Jesse Moynihan self published 2 books in 2005, and ran a strip in the Philadelphia Weekly.  He’s been featured in Meathaus and Canicola anthologies.  This year, Bodega put out a larger volume of his work called Follow Me.  He recently collaborated with Dash Shaw on a strip that will appear in an upcoming issue of Believer Magazine.

Meanwhile Jesse has been plugging away every Thursday on his webcomic, Forming, which is a sprawling account of human origins, transgender aliens, and ripped gods.

GWC+page9 Continue reading

Saturday, November 14th – DEVIL'S TRUMPET @ Perfect Wave in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

A candlelight music show in celebration of the crepuscular descension of fall, featuring nebulous electronics combined with classical components and an element of the barely perceptible unknown… hot cider and whiskey will be served, binaural beats will be played live on didgeridoos between sets.

Musical performances by

DORON SADJA | MARIO DIAZ DE LEON DUO
http://doron.sadja.com
http://www.myspace.com/mariodiazdeleon

ABLEHEARTS (Tom Arsenault)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNCaRELa-eg

LA BIG VIC (Emilie Friedlander + Toshio Masuda)
http://www.myspace.com/labigvic

$5 at the door

Saturday, November 14th, 8:30pm
Perfect Wave Gallery
184 West St. #2 / Brooklyn, NY 11222 (See map.)

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Roland Barthes

barthes photo
NOVEMBER 12 — ROLAND BARTHES
French Marxist theorist of the pleasure of the text.
cov_barthes_fragments_disco
“Language is a skin: I rub my language against the other. It is as if I had words instead of fingers, or fingers at the tip of my words. My language trembles with desire.” — A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, 1967.

NOVEMBER 12 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
OLD TEUTONIC YULE FEAST. BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 12 IN HISTORY…
1381 — Adolphus, Count of Cleves, founds “The Brotherhood of Fools.”
1660 — John Bunyan jailed for preaching without a license, Bedfordshire, England.
1815 — Women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton born, Johnstown, NY.
1817 — Religious mystic Bahá’u’lláh born.
1845 — French progressive anarcho-communist Jules Guesde born, Paris, France.
1915 — French literary critic Roland Barthes born, Cherbourg, Manche, France.
1939 — Canadian-born Chinese revolutionist Norman Bethune dies, Heibei, China.
1990 — Iran gives Kuwaitis untilmatum to acquire Iraqi identity cards.

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

'TOYLAND' by Al Columbia

toyland sm

TOYLAND by Al Columbia

Pim & Francie is already receiving advance praise from folks like Spike Jonze.  Jim Woodring’s drawing group, Friends of the Nib, is calling it “book of the year“.

Al’s always working on something new and amazing, whether it’s music, filmmaking, comics, or in this case, painting.  Al showed me a photo of this new painting he was working on and I became immersed in the labyrinth of frayed facade and haunting beauty.  We reprinted it as the centerpiece of the new issue of Diamond Comics, available now!

To commemorate the release of Al Columbia’s new book, Floating World has teamed with the artist to produce a limited edition series of archival prints of this latest painting, Toyland.  The giclee prints are on museum quality paper measuring 18″x24″; the artwork is 15″x20″.

We only made 25 copies of this incredible image, and each was signed and numbered by the artist at his recent book release party at the Fantagraphics store.  Orders will be filled in numerical order starting with number 3 of 25 (#1 and #2 already sold).  They will be shipped securely in a tube.  Head over to Floating World Comics’ website to place your order.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint — Kurt Vonnegut

vonnegut
NOVEMBER 11 — KURT VONNEGUT
Beloved American novelist, sardonic social critic.
cats_cradle_2[1]

NOVEMBER 11 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
U.S.: VETERAN’S DAY. MARTINMAS, one of four “quarter days” in Old
England when rents were paid. As celebration and consolation there
was feasting and drinking. Was also called “TEAR-STOMACH DAY.”Martin
was the patron of beggars, tavern keepers and wine growers, proba-
bly because his day coincides with the ancient “FEAST OF DIONYSUS.”
Netherlands: ELEVEN ELEVEN ELEVEN DAY.Tradition says
eleven is the number of fools. On the 11th day of the 11th month a
council of 11 begins organizing the next year’s carnival, “so anyone
can be as foolish as he or she cares to be for those three days.”

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 11 IN HISTORY
1647 — First American compulsory school law passed, Massachusetts.
1821 — Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky born, Moscow, Russia.
1831 — American slave rebellion leader Nat Turner hanged, Jerusalem, Virginia.
1880 — American feminist Lucretia Mott dies, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1887 — Haymarket martyrs executed, Chicago, Illinois.
1922 — American novelist Kurt Vonnegut born, Indianapolis, Indiana.
1942 — Jimi Hendrix, rock guitar wizard, born, Seattle, Washington.
1989 — Civil Rights Memorial dedicated in Montgomery, Alabama.
2004 — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dies; succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas.

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 – MIRIAM MAKEBA


NOVEMBER 10 — MIRIAM MAKEBA
“Mama Africa.” South African songstress, anti-apartheidist.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs_CxmMMpW4

NOVEMBER 10, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Lousa, Portugal: ST. MARTIN’S EVE, FESTIVAL OF SANTA BEBIANA, said to be Martin’s sister. The name derives from “beber” (“to drink”). Martin, patron of revelry, presides over slaughter of festival pigs. Torchlight procession with “Bebiana” in wheelbarrow, a flask to her lips. She then delivers a sermon on the evils of drunkenness, a temperance hymn is sung, and everyone gets stinking drunk.
STANK DANCE IN PERPETUAL PEACE DAY.     FESTIVAL OF SPIRITUAL INDOLENCE.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 10 IN HISTORY…
1483 — Anti-Church of Rome reformer Martin Luther born, Eisleben, Germany.
1697 — British satirist engraver William Hogarth born, London, England.
1879 — Patrick Henry Pearse, Irish freedom fighter, born, Dublin, Ireland.
1891 — Gay French gun-runner, poet Arthur Rimbaud dies, Marseilles.
1891 — Polish anarchist Simon Radowitzky born, Stepanesso, Ukraine.
1973 — Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 burned as “tool of the Devil” by school
board, and teacher who assigned it fired, Drake, North Dakota.
1995 — Eco-activist Ken Saro-Wiwa hanged, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
2008 — South African singer Miriam Makeba dies, Castel Volturno, Caserta, Italy.

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

FUTURE SAFETY MEASURES

from : http://spectregroup.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/future-safety-measures/

No Provision Against Acts Of God (Or Future God-Particles)
http://edms.cern.ch/file/342513/LAST_RELEASED/AOC_E.pdf
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-11/bread-loving-bird-shuts-down-lhc
Bread Dropped By Bird Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)
“The Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine. This incident won’t delay the reactivation of the facility later this month, but exposes yet another vulnerability of the what might be the most complex machine ever built. With freak accident after freak accident piling up over at CERN, the idea of time traveling particles returning from the future to prevent their own discovery is beginning to seem less and less far fetched.”

Retrocausality
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/space/13lhc.html
The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate
“More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid helium shut it down, the world’s biggest and most expensive physics experiment, known as the Large Hadron Collider, is poised to start up again. In December, if all goes well, protons will start smashing together in an underground racetrack outside Geneva in a search for forces and particles that reigned during the first trillionth of a second of the Big Bang. Then it will be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science. I’m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, put this idea forward in a series of papers with titles like “Search for Future Influence From LHC,” posted on the physics Web site arXiv.org in the last year and a half. According to the so-called Standard Model that rules almost all physics, the Higgs is responsible for imbuing other elementary particles with mass. “It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message. This malign influence from the future, they argue, could explain why the United States Superconducting Supercollider, also designed to find the Higgs, was canceled in 1993 after billions of dollars had already been spent, an event so unlikely that Dr. Nielsen calls it an “anti-miracle.” Dr. Nielsen admits that he and Dr. Ninomiya’s new theory smacks of time travel, a longtime interest, which has become a respectable research subject in recent years. While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus. In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus.”

Long Odds
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/09/19/lhc-first-magnet-failure/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2009/10/14/spooky-signals-from-the-future-telling-us-to-cancel-the-lhc/
“In their December 2007 paper — before the LHC tried to turn on — they very explicitly say that a “natural” accident will come along and break the LHC if we try to turn it on. Well, we know how that turned out. But NN have an ingenious suggestion for saving us from future accidents at the LHC — which, as they warn, could endanger lives. They propose a card game with more than a million cards, almost all of which say “go ahead, no problem.” But one card says “don’t turn on the LHC!” In their model, the nonlocal effect of the imaginary part of the action is to ensure that the realized history of the universe is one in which the LHC never turns on; but it doesn’t matter why it doesn’t turn on. If we randomly pick one out of a million cards, and honestly promise to follow through on the instructions on the card we pick, and we happen to pick the card that says not to turn it on, and we therefore don’t — that’s a history of the universe that is completely unsuppressed by their mechanism. And if we choose a card that says “go ahead,” well then their theory is falsified. (Unless we try to go ahead and are continually foiled by a series of unfortunate accidents.) Best of all, playing the card game costs almost nothing. But for it to work, we have to be very sincere that we won’t turn on the LHC if that’s what the card says. It’s only a million-to-one chance, after all.”