Tag Archives for SATURNALIA

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – MARTY GLABERMAN


DECEMBER 17 — MARTY GLABERMAN
American radical political theorist, proto-autonomist.

DECEMBER 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Ancient Roman SATURNALIA (December 17– 23): “Unrestrained and intemperate jollity.”  Relaxation of social rules, no business transacted, courts closed, wars suspended, feuds forgotten,slaves take place of masters. LORD OF MISRULE selected.


Above: “Saturnalia” by Antoine-François Callet

ALSO ON DECEMBER 17 IN HISTORY…
1790 — The great Aztec stone calendar discovered, Mexico.
1830 — Latin American liberationist Simón Bolívar dies, Santa Maria, Colombia.
1936 — Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy make first appearance.
1944 — Abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky dies, Paris, France.
2001 — U.S. radical political theorist Martin Glaberman dies, Detroit, Michigan.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site.

NYTimes on Arthur's "The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda" release on DVD

August 27, 2006 – Sunday New York Times

Long, Strange Trip for a Hypnotic Film

By JAMES GADDY

It took 38 years, but Ira Cohen’s cult film, “The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda,” which was first screened in 1968 at the high point of the psychedelic hippie head rush, is now commercially available. Given the close calls, the long absences and his chaotic archival system, Mr. Cohen, 71, is a little surprised himself.

“It didn’t really involve patience,” he said in his apartment on West 106th Street in Manhattan, surrounded by books stacked waist high. “It was just reality.”

In 1961 Mr. Cohen built a room in his New York loft lined with large panels of Mylar plastic, a sort of bendable mirror that causes images to crackle and swirl in hypnotic, sometimes beautiful patterns. After a few years experimenting with the technique in photographs, he invited his friends from the downtown scene — like Beverly Grant, Vali Myers and Tony Conrad — to make a film.

Continue reading →