*Part 2? Why, that's unheard of in the annals of RE/Search.
Welcome to V. Vale's RE/Search Newsletter #163, August 2017 Part 2
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Table of contents
1: Editorial by V. Vale
2: Zora Burden does GX JUPITTER-LARSEN interview, Part Two
3: New on the RE/Search podcast
4: OUR PAST LIFE: What We've Received, Liked, Experienced
5: Recommended links – send us some!
6: Quotes
7: Letters from readers
8: Sponsors (Check 'em out! - they make this newsletter possible!)
1: Editorial by V. Vale
We're experimenting with sending out the monthly eNewsletter in two or more installments – because people don't seem to read it to the end. (((There must be some guy, besides me stuck with formatting tasks on the blog here, who is willing to read RE/Search to the bitter end.))) Here is Part 2 for August 2017 with an interview, letters from readers and links. Feel free to give us feedback! ((Okay. Get rid of the "pivot to video." It's the road to hell!)))
2: Interview with GX Jupitter-Larsen by Zora Burden, Part Two
ZORA BURDEN: What excites you most about your performances?
GX: How, after 38 years of doing this, people seem just as confused now as ever about what I’m doing. What could be more life-affirming…?
ZB: Are there any tools or objects you've tried performing with that didn't work out? Are there any you wish you had used or couldn't due to safety precautions or venue stipulations?
GX: I’m still hoping to get shot out of a cannon. One of these days!
ZB: Will you talk about your work with SRL (Survival Research Laboratories; srl.org) and how you became involved?
GX: I interviewed Mark Pauline for a radio show I was doing at the time. This was back in 1986. We became good friends afterwards. I ended up living with Mark at the old SRL compound off San Bruno and Army for something like 10 years. He has always been very supportive of my projects.
So I did the live soundtracks for 9 SRL shows, starting with the SFMOMA groundbreaking ceremony in 1992. The last SRL show I was involved with was at The Legion of Honor in 2002. Most of my soundtracks for Mark were a live mix of cartoon sound effects. Well, Mark seemed to enjoy them.
During the 90’s, most of the core members of the SRL crew were involved in The Haters one way of the other. Many of them would perform with me on stage as members of The Haters. A few of them, designed and built stuff for The Haters. Chip Flynn designed and built these large metal puppets we used a few times in performance. A lot of SRL people also helped out in my video and film projects, both behind and in front of the camera. It was an intensely creative time for us all.
ZB: Explain what is importance of entropy in your work.
GX: I embrace beauty. Entropy makes everything beautiful. Even angels have to rot in the ground before they can fly in the sky [?!?]. (((Oh come on, how hard is that to understand? Especially if you ever saw those early Survival Research Labs robots made of repurposed dead animals.)))
ZB: Throughout your life, what were some of the most significant collaborations you've done?
GX: I’ve been collaborating with AMK the longest. We’ve been involved in each other’s projects since the very early 80’s. Starting in '89 we tried to play gin rummy to a million. Every time we got together we would play a few hands using the normal rules and variants of the game. The idea being that after someone had reached a million points, we would stop and publish our score sheets as a big picture book.
After about ten years we had made it up to about 100,000 points each. Despite still seeing each other often as we do, we haven’t payed the game since. It was a very silly act of futility on our part. I think we just wanted to see firsthand just how hard it would be the do something that senseless.
Interesting side note: AMK is the only noise artist I know who has been sued by a major oil company. Back in 1985, AMK’s record label, Banned Productions (which was also the first American label to release Japanese noise), had appropriated the BP logo as its own. The criminals at British Petroleum actually thought the public might confuse their large scale acts of petro-terrorism with the vision and mission of a small DIY record label. The whole thing was stupid and stressful. They ended up settling out of court.
ZB: You've talked about discovering that certain noises were actually sound fetishes for you. What were these and how do they relate to entropy and decomposition?
GX: If you ask me which came first, my interest with entropy as a thing of beauty, or my fetish for the "sounds of things falling apart," I'd have to say it's much like the chicken and the egg. One didn't come before the other; they evolved simultaneously. You don't need to listen to anything I've ever recorded to hear entropy. Entropy is all around us: whenever you hear a fire engine, a car crash, an explosion, or… you are getting another opportunity to savor that sweet, sweet sound of entropy.
I destroy out of joy, not despair. I don’t destroy out of anger; I destroy out of curiosity. I tear things apart to see what makes them tick. I want to take time apart to see what makes it tick-tock. My noise acts as a kind of audio account or authentic evidence of this ceaseless, perpetual bittersweet happiness we call entropy.
ZB: Can you give some examples of the best reactions you've had?
GX: Ruth Norman, who you may know as Uriel of the Unarius Society, (((who doesn't))) was something of a penpal of mine back in the '80s. After I expanded my number system (the trans-expansion numeral units) to her, she started sending me copies of her books and videos which were quite numerous. I just couldn’t keep up with all of this frequent correspondence from her—she was such a sweet, dear lady.
The first time I performed in Philadelphia, fans brought their own power tools to help smash the place up—that was neat!
After a screening of a video I did on lesbian vampires, a woman came up and told me that if she had ever had any doubts about being gay before seeing this piece of mine, those doubts had now completely disappeared!
But I think maybe my favorite reaction to anything I’ve done is when I designed and manufactured my own ruler. It has symbols and markers that don’t conform to any other. Elementary grade school teachers bought lots of them to share with their students: it was a way of getting the kids excited about the idea of measuring!
ZB: Why do you incorporate Mexican wrestling into your performances? Is anonymity during performances a part of your art?
GX: Just the opposite, actually. Wrestling masks don’t hide the face, they reveal the true face. Actually, the reason for using hoods and masks in performance has a pragmatic function. In my early days as a performance artist, I was always traveling alone. I’d have local performers join me when I came to a new town. To give The Haters a consistent look from place to place, I’d have everyone wear the same wrestling masks. If we didn’t have our masks on, people wouldn’t have known it was really us!
Wrestling has always been a source of inspiration for me. Wrestling is the purest form of theatre of the absurd; one of non-confrontational violence where stereotypes are exaggerated beyond all recognition.
Since its premiere in early 1999, my Untitled Title Belt has become my main sound source both on stage and in the studio. Just by looking at this belt, one wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell that this implement is a combination microphone, distortion-pedal, and noise generator. It was fashioned after the traditional championship wrestling belt. (((Beat that, "wearables" fans.)))
ZB: Would you describe the destruction and chaos of The Haters shows as an audio assault that acted as a catalyst for change? Was it ever about a personal catharsis?
GX: The performances are celebrations, first and foremost. But they’re also a form of mediation for me. I guess that makes them both a catalyst for change and a personal catharsis.
ZB: Wil you talk about your books and films?
GX: Over the years I’ve written four novels. I wrote these “noise novels” by combining different writing techniques into a literary hiss, or full-spectrum text. Passages of random letters would represent nothingness, while whole sections of entirely self-invented words represented the spiritual. Regular words were reserved for the physical.
I wanted my books to have more opinions than words—so many, in fact, that the text should seem devoid of intent… while overwhelmed by impulsively heedful actions. In other words: a disposal of loosely precise jargons in a mass of meliorations predetermined by accident. Don’t underestimate the communicative potential of the soundbite. One opinion after another adds up to form an equation whose sum is zero.
A Noisy Delivery, which I completed a few years ago, was my first attempt to make a feature-length narrative. It’s about this girl who leaves her boyfriend waiting while she stops by the post office. It’s a post office where people go for philosophy instead of postage. The soundtrack is a composition of broken toy pianos and amplified erosion. As the ideas in the movie get more difficult, the soundtrack gets denser.
I’m currently in post-production with my second feature Omniwave Refresher. It’s about scientists who use public transportation. Actually, it’s going to be the same story told three different ways. As a documentary for Act 1, as a puppet show in Act 2, and as a drama for Act 3. It stars Dakota The Bearded Lady as the chief scientist.
ZB: What is your approach with your art within the context of a "gallery event" compared to "music venue"?
GX: These days, there’s no difference: whatever they need from me is what I give them! It’s always been a collaboration. The venues and I both have a better understanding of this relationship.
ZB: Did you want to say something about your units of measurement and your life philosophy behind this?
GX: The distance between ideas and those words used to express those thoughts are measured in mingwaves. Standstills, momentary pauses, are measured in omniwaves. Any sudden movement is measured in permawaves. The polywave is used to measure the self-contradictory nature of moment itself. The romawave was used to measure the distance something travels before it is forgotten. And then there’s the xylowave. You use the xylowave to measure the distance between something and nothing. These are all different means of measuring different types of voids. I like voids, and their warm embrace. There’s more to nothingness than empty space!
ZB: Will you talk about your interest in fluxus art?
GX: Personally, I’m much more interested in Dada, Lettrism, and the Situationists. These were artists who weren’t afraid to be offensive or political. However, I’ve always admired the work of Allan Kaprow—in particular, his performance piece “Women licking jam off a car.” It has a kind of conceptual patina to it. It’s maybe my favorite art piece of any kind by any one.
ZB: I'd like to hear about your zines.
GX: I’ve contributed to many zines by other people over the years; especially during the 1980s. My own zines at that time were one-offs mostly about my number system. In the '90s I published “Scraps Of Paper.” This was a noise zine, but in some ways it had more to do with poetry and philosophy. The last issue came out in 2003.
ZB: Who is someone you really admire as a sound artist?
GX: Damion Romero is, in my humble opinion, the greatest living noisician. In the '80s his noise project was Speculum Fight. More recently he’s been collaborating with John Wiese as Waves. Damion, more than anyone else, exemplifies the idea that one listens to noise with one’s whole body, not just the ears. Damion live is a big bear hug of sound that squeezes you tight. Very tight! [End]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKK2K-zMFbI
http://performances.jupitter-larsen.com/1990-1999.html
3: RE/Search Conversations: 2 new episodes!
Don't miss our recent podcasts! Subscribe and listen to some of the conversations that happen around the table at the RE/Search office. Find RE/Search Conversations, on iTunes or your favorite podcast app!
Latest episode: Zine-maker Marc Fischer of Temporary Services zines, and Museum of Capitalism's Timothy Furstnau stopped by the RE/Search office to share ideas. They discuss their recent publications, the art book fair circuit, printing technique pros and cons, and TSA confiscations.
The Museum of Capitalism is having their book-release party this Friday in Oakland (August 11, 2017). The exhibition will be coming down and Timothy and cohorts are currently looking for new places to exhibit the collection. Marc Fischer dropped off his seven recent zines which mine the public libraries for interesting but long-forgotten facts and photos.
Also new: our podcast featuring Robert Conway, who manages the trust of Bruce Conner. The conversation includes Conway's interviews of friends and associates of Conner’s, the defining criteria of an artist and how we all might define ourselves as such, Conner’s inkblot series, and biography as art form.
Recent podcasts feature David J (Bauhaus), Diane DiPrima, Dirk Dirksen (2 parts), and Mike Watt.
Listen and subscribe: https://researchconversations.simplecast.fm
Subscribe in iTunes (or your favorite podcast app): https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/re-search-conversations/id1071988559
Please send us feedback if you listen to these podcasts so we'll know someone out there is listening!!
4: OUR PAST LIFE: What We've Received, Liked, Experienced
() Tiffany Pruitt gave us a small glossy booklet of her obviously-insider, often-intense B&W photos (color centerfold) taken from 1980-83 in the D.C. Punk scene. It's a rare artifact, very limited, which can be ordered from www.moveelore.com, or write moveelore@gmail.com, or send $12 to Move Elore Press, 491 65th St #A, Oakland CA 94609.
() After knowing about him for decades, we finally met Eugene Chadbourne at the Burger Boogaloo Festival July 1 and bought his intense surrealist dream/memoir/diary/fantasy titled DREAMORY (5x8", 1186 pages). Anywhere you open this book at random, there's some compelling weirdness, or at the least a funny anecdote. Biafra was with us, and he told us about staying at EC's house back east, etc. You can have your own copy by sending $35 to Eugene Chadbourne, The House of Chadula, 707 Longview St, Greensboro NC 27403. We also bought some hand-artwork-embellished recordings; kinda one-of-a-kind personally individualized (uh, can't find them right now!).
() On our European tour in May, we were having breakfast at our hotel (was it in Dusseldorf?) and in walks Kenneth Goldsmith who had just done a presentation at the big local art museum (sadly; we missed the Otto Dix show there). He gave us a copy of his new book, Wasting Time on the Internet. It has taken us months to finally finish it, at the rate of a few pages per night. This book is dense and contains a lot of information about contemporary artists, attitudes and media theories/history. The appendix: "101 Ways to Waste Time on the Internet" isn't 100% ironic.
While we retain a dark, noir opinion as to where the Internet is taking us, defiantly disagreeing with K.G.'s cautiously optimistic conclusions, nevertheless… the Internet can make possible genuine, physical, meat-space interactions to take place IRL and in real time, but a heckuva lotta time is sure spent in front of a screen (the average eight-year-old spends four to six hours, in America) and humans of all ages are definitely getting fatter as a result. Hmm... Well, at least the book got Kenneth Goldsmith his share of lectures and workshops globally!
() from Chicago the highly-energetic RoBurt Reynolds sent us his newest 12" vinyl LP titled ROOM 101 One Man Band featuring gorgeous cover art by San Francisco's own Winston Smith, a friend and collaborator. A handwritten note: "Hi Vale! The covers turned out so good and it soooounds amazingly intense. Hope you are well! Sincere Regards, Rob!!!" Wow! The gatefold LP cover contains a beautiful lyric booklet illustrated with moody B&W photos, drawings; and the heavy vinyl 12" itself says to play it at 45rpm, not 33-1/3. Room 101 one man band can be heard at roburtreynolds.bandcamp.com, and the LP itself can be ordered from room10101@hotmail.com or room101onemanband@gmail.com. www.youtube.com/roburtreynolds or www.facebook.com/room10101 The LP can also be ordered by snail mail: Summary Execution Records, 3235 Banks St, NOLA 70119
() Guitars and Bongos Records sent us a CD of NAKED BEAST featuring Johnny Strike of CRIME, Hank Rank, Roger Strobel, Michael Campbell, and Joey D'Kaye. The recording features cut-up tapes (for WSBurroughs fans), distorted guitars, and "old-timey-sound-effects". This is a kind of dark avant-garde soundscape, with titles like "Emergency Music Ward," "The Homeless Mutants," "Ports of Hell," "Gnostic Wolf," and "Remote Viewers." Go to guitarsandbongos.com , write guitarsandbongosrecs@gmail.com and snailmail G&B Records, 6431 Hazel Ave, Richmond CA 94805, tel 510-229-8963. Only 300 CDs were made and 500 vinyl LPs. "Features three members of San Francisco's first and only rock'n'roll band [we called it "Punk"] CRIME."
() At SFABF July 21-23 we acquired two gorgeous color limited-edition "Cosey Fanni Tutti Magazine Action" artists' books bearing absolutely no credits or ordering information. They probably fall into the category of "For Throbbing Gristle Fanatics" only, and were obviously a labor of love with high production values. (Most of our friends are reading Cosey Fanni Tutti's autobiography Art Sex Music—a must-read and a bit of a shocker.) The same source provided super-rare repros of Industrial News—highly recommended for TG fans. Very, very interesting, and contemporary still today... Again, a labor of love and we are gratified that this spirit persists in our contemporary here-today-gone-tomorrow hurricane of mediated-mediocrity millions-of-images information overload!
() Former Search&Destroy staffer Babeth Mondini-VanLoo has a coffee-table 8.5x11.5" hardback art book out about her life titled Art=Life=Art: From Beuys to Buddhism. Lavishly illustrated in color and black-and-white on heavy coated-stock paper, the book shows those of us who thought we "knew" her that we only knew a fraction of what her life has encompassed!
The book is simply spectacular, funny, entertaining, and covers nearly fifty years of art-making, often involving famous names like Jack Smith, Joseph Beuys (made two films about him), Abel Ferrara, Ira Cohen, Gerard Malanga, Maya Deren, the Kuchar Brothers, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Screamers, Nico, Jim Sclavunos, Stan Brakhage, Udo Kier—the list goes on and on. The variety of personas photographed recalls Cindy Sherman, but more spontaneous and "fun"...
Order from www.samsarabooks.com, or from Samsara Ultgeverij bv, Herengracht 341, 1016 AZ Amsterdam, Holland.
THE OFFs Punk CD
View
Paperback JG BALLARD ATROCITY EXHIBITION
View
5: Links (send us some!)
() More releases from La Mère, avant-garde music project from Marian "RE/Search" Wallace: "Our Future Is Now" newly available on Bandcamp. Take a listen for free! Also available now: "Soothing Music" (parts 1 & 2)
https://lamere1.bandcamp.com/ [review: "Marian,
I really like Can't Miss It. Is that a real bass guitar or a keyboard bass? You should make a video for it. Cool band name.—Gary"]
() from our pal Jack Rabid: "Good news! Big Takeover #80 Spring 2017 issue is out on the stands! The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde on the cover, and featuring fabulous history interviews with Tommy Stinson of legendary garage rockers The Replacements and his own band Bash & Pop, also reunited ’90s shoegaze legends Lush Part II (R.I.P.), and long-running L.A. indie rock-popsters the black watch, plus still going former Guided By Voices stalwart and solo artist Tobin Sprout, precocious veteran Dylan Baldi of Cloud Nothings, Nottingham punk-rap sensations Sleaford Mods, and Jason Lytle, guitarist and singer for the also reunited Grandaddy, as well as equally interesting, shorter sit-downs with The Bats, Paranoid Style, rejuvenated Boss Hog, Joan of Arc, Montreal dreampoppers No Joy, Mexican shoegazers Car Crash Sisters, Drab Majesty, Bing & Ruth, Tim Bowness, and solo artist Spiral Stairs also from Pavement, and more! A full description of its contents is just below!
"Remember, we only come out twice a year, every Spring and Fall, so you don't want to miss one of our jam-packed 160-page issues!
"And since the issue has been mailed to subscribers and is appearing in the best book, record, and magazine shops near you, now is an excellent time look for it there or contact us via our secure online store to order back issues
if you would like to receive it in the mail, or subscribe
if you've been meaning to, or renew your subscription if it has run out.
If you want to subscribe or renew or give the gift that keeps on giving, just go to our "subscribe site": http://bigtakeover.com/phplist/lt.php?tid=iwlwWsayqIi0OUNYGviH8Ua3Mgz7DROZr41N4tKI2Ug0kYtIhVDkoIEh4LfTUUe1
(and feel free to indicate which issue you'd like to start with (or have your friends start with), issue 79 (Lush cover), the current #80 (Chrissie Hynde cover), or the Fall issue #81 (Katy Perry cover–ha, just kidding. Just wanted to make sure you were still reading). It's only $20 for four issues (save 23% off the newsstand price including average sales tax), or $32 for overseas, or $26 for Canada. Or, for those in the U.S. you can send us a check made out to "Big Takeover" for $20 to the following address:
The Big Takeover, 1713 8th Ave. Suite 3-2 Box 2, Brooklyn, NY 11215
Or if you want to order just issue 80, you can send us a check (or make PayPal payment to jrabid@bigtakeover.com for $6 or order it by sending us a check.
Big Takeover T-shirts (kids' sizes too!), beer cozies, posters, back issues, plus various CDs are also available! www.bigtakeover.com - support Jack Rabid and his amazing music-history magazine!
() Sent by Toby Dammit: Best review of Nick Cave Tour: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebaltin/2017/07/07/seeing-nick-cave-and-the-meaning-of-art/#6c8dff661ce2
() from Chris T: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/t-magazine/chris-kraus-william-burroughs-after-kathy-acker.html
https://money.good.is/articles/walmart-face-tech this is just the start of this kind of intrusive monitoring. it'll get far worse.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/31/zine-queens-how-womens-magazines-found-new-life-via-indie-publishing Fem Zines
() from Mako: https://youtu.be/Xff3oWymE4c (WSBurroughs reading on YouTube)
() from Gary C: http://www.abramsbooks.com/product/photograph-albums-of-jean-dubuffet_9788874397969/
() from Kiowa Hammons (our former intern):
Part I: Escapism (Setting the Scene)
https://youtu.be/_bTXHhiK_ZU
Part II: Who Has the Answer (Macro)
https://youtu.be/Bnm7v8SBAwo
Part III: On America (In Circles)
https://youtu.be/Om4Jm4jejJw
Part IV: Fragments from Sweet Auburn (Personal)
https://youtu.be/RBE7LGnvMoE
Part V: New Normal (Onward)
https://youtu.be/pVZgFxMdh-E
() Terry Graham, Bags drummer, released a new book titled PUNK LIKE ME. 'Nuff said! https://www.lostwordpress.com/
() Life of Kal Spelletich in a "film" and etc: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VYGW1F2 http://www.indiewire.com/…/amazon-pilot-reviews-marvelous-…/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1-UrMhIASo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD95GR-eSxAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-abs7wOCH1w&t=3s
Craig Baldwin http://www.othercinema.com/mu.html
- from JG Thirlwell: new album XORDOX http://foetus.org/content/shop
() from artist Asha Schechter, pal of Patrick Jackson: new collaborative exhibition space in L.A. area: http://potts.la/about/
() Klaus Maeck sent us: link to "B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin https://vimeo.com/123314394
() from Roy Christopher: " RE:Search and Mark Pauline got nice mentions in my recent M.Sayyid interview:
http://roychristopher.com/m-sayyid-antipop-consortium
And you might dig this one with Chris Kraus (plenty of Acker in there):
http://roychristopher.com/chris-kraus-i-love-dick
Also, this year's Summer Reading List is out!
http://roychristopher.com/summer-reading-list-2017 "
() from David Cox: "Rocket Opera review": https://blinkingeyeblog.com/2017/07/07/rocket-opera/
also check out David's intv w/V. Vale: https://archive.org/details/vvale2
() from Gail T: " http://www.ocweekly.com/music/burger-boogaloo-throws-a-party-for-the-ages-in-oakland-8234858
Read in your newsletter about the Burger Bugaloo without an address; when I looked it up, I found a local review of it-was-quite-an-event in my free paper the OC Weekly on line. Too long for me to read but nice photos.
Looks like no big deal about the anniversary of the Summer of Love, but hey! that's not Punk news, but definitely pre-punk news:
https://timeline.com/summer-love-jim-marshall-2d681853b080 "
http://mymodernmet.com/stunning-stair-art/
thought you might think this was interesting if you haven't seen it before. Does Telegraph Hill have any painted staircases?
() Tue July 25, 2017, Justin Carlson interviewed V. Vale for a zines video he's doing – Hope it comes out! justin-carlson.com
() from George Chen: https://zumaudio.bandcamp.com/album/word-origami
"And I got interviewed about it for KQED Arts.
https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/07/08/from-the-video-store-basement-to-smog-city-with-george-chen/
() from V in London: "queer artificial intelligence" http://www.queerai.org/
() from Joey Skaggs (featured in our PRANKS! book(:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/portofess-confessional-booth-prank-democratic-convention
() [SAN PEDRO, CA] from Stuart Swezey and Mariska Leyssius: "Our exhibition has been extended to Sun August 27, 2017 when there will be a closing party starting at 1 pm. [They did the first desert music/performance festival, presaging Burning Man, Coachella, SXSW, etc] www.corneliusprojects.com www.desolationcenter.com
() Thrillpeddlers' space is gone; if you know of a possible new space please contact us!!!(Thrillpeddlers: one of San Francisco's greatest independent theater/performance cultural nexus locales; we had many a memorable night there) Meanwhile check out these videos: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbKSk601_Xg&ct=t(Newsletter_October_201610_5_2016)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dc9YGBJtMY&ct=t(Newsletter_October_201610_5_2016)
() good article on the Beats: Driving the BEAT Road: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/the-beat-generation/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_beats-315pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.bc35e7839546
() films of Bomarzo, which RE/Search has always wanted to visit, in Italy [remember, we are fans of so-called "Naive Art" or "Outsider Art"]: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/11/dali-muse-caresse-crosby
6: Quotations
() "Jeff Bezos picked off the bookstore business, Apple picked off the music business, and Netflix disrupted television..." [quotation sent to us]
() "Amazon will bring us the apocalypse..." [quotation sent to us. So think twice before you order from the gorgon. Order DIRECT from small businesses!]
7: Letters from readers
() call for papers on JG Ballard and the Sciences: https://csff-anglia.co.uk/open-calls/call-for-papers-j-g-ballard-the-sciences-due-31-august/
"RE (my new novel) MURDER IN THE MEDINA: Did you recognize Allen Hibbard from Conversations with WSBurroughs? He was the editor. A real Johnson.
"My latest music project with Hank, Joey and two others NAKED BEAST will be out on CD shortly. LP to follow in a few month. Label: Guitars & Bongos. I'll make sure you get one. Best, Johnny Strike" https://www.instagram.com/p/BWyOLrwlf8w/
() RE: BURGER BOOGALOO Sat July 1, 2017: "I was surprised & confused that Iggy ended his set w/ "Real Wild Child"...I always thought that was his lamest cover even though it was probably his biggest commercial success.
"I recall a friend being in Spain when it was released in '86 telling me how it was a top 5 radio hit over there... which was some solace to me since I wanted Iggy to succeed but I was so disappointed in that album & how much press it got, cuz I thought it was terrible.... and I would have luv'd to tell my friends go & buy it but I couldn't.
"So I think Iggy was ending his set w/ it to tacitly admit that this tour was all about him making as much money as possible, which at age 70 has to provide him w/ some comfort... I enjoyed seeing him, as did F–.
"We expect that was the last time we'll get to see him perform live."—Dave S.
() "You have done a lot for J.G. Ballard in north America and over the years, and I salute your endeavours. I thought you might care to hear, unless you already know by way of Rickshaw Rikko, that there is a secret school of JG Ballard studies. [?!?]. (((Yes I am still reading RE/Search all the way to the end. That's why I know things like this.)))
"The purpose of the writing is to reanimate the psychic remains of Mary Ballard (1930-64). Dune sands confuse and disrupt the visual centres of the central nervous system. The neuro-psychopathological fusing sequences are contained in four fictional works (two novels, two short stories). Ballard would appear to have underwent some kind of blackout most likely in the first few months of nineteen sixty-six. In brief, he established a solar cult and very understandably protected it with a psychological apocalypse implement. The Noon character in Day of Creation is JG Ballard and Mary Ballard's psychic love nipper. One can in actuality dip one's tootsies in the Sands of Shepperton and the River Ballard. The novel Crash is not about car crashes any more than it is about running over stray canines. Mary Ballard is represented in the fictional works by empty swimming pools, water reservoirs, "space sickness", fugues, pyramids of knackered cars, moss, and one or two other things. 'Notes Towards a Mental Breakdown' (1967) is Mary Ballard's memorial service or I don't know what it is. If Shakey [sic, ?!?] discovered the subconscious (which doesn't really matter), British writing is the true story of the Surrealist impulse. Dune sands are the way into, and out of, the atrocity exhibition.
"I love Henry Rollins, incidentally. Best wishes - and please, no reply - Dai Thomas, Great Britain" [ed. note: we printed this without endorsement, and frankly, without full comprehension of its text!]. (((To lose the mother of your children when she is 34, man, the human condition is tragic.)))
() from Maureen Russell on a Roxie film program, The Roots of Rock'n'Roll: "Hi Vale, Greg [Avengers guitarist] said he saw all of you outside the Roxie on Friday when the sign said sold out. I went, but I'd reserved a ticket ahead of time. There were actually a few empty seats in there, but mostly full. (Probably people who'd bought a ticket or members who could reserve a ticket, but didn't make it there.) The program was great - it was 16 mm short music films, edited together chronologically, from the collection of a man in the Bay Area... It may be possible they bring that program back at a later day...Sorry you weren't able to get in.—Maureen"
() from Ben Wa: THRILLPEDDLERS is still looking for an affordable new location; if anyone has any idea please write us! Meanwhile, here's some links:
THRILLPEDDLERS - 'The German Thing To Do' by Scrumbly Koldewyn (World Premiere, 2016)
https://youtu.be/EJxZtMZMZY4
OR
THRILLPEDDLERS present : Amazon Apocalypse (Act1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbKSk601_Xg
ALL available clips are updated and listed on the official Thrillpeddlers Archives page at
www.misterwa.com/performance-arts/thrillpeddlers/
() "Hey Vale! Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain left me with a lot to think about over the last couple of days...
"I really liked the "Tactics" section of your Goals of Life Sheet...as a young person who is so immersed in online social networks and digital culture, your first two points–"FIRST HOUR: SILENCE" and "Impose LIMITS on cellphone, computer, music"–are especially difficult for me, but also especially critical for my creative process. Looking outside myself for inspiration is crucial, but real creation comes from solitude and focus. I need to be reminded of that constantly!
"I also appreciated your advice to "Stay Insecure - it drives you to continually Do Better, and Better Yourself!" Comfort is totally overrated!
"I haven't gotten the chance to look at Terminal Punk yet, but I will get back to you when I do! Thanks for everything! —Inga"
() "Hi! I actually mailed out my two books to your address, my first poetry collection 'Maiden', and my recent release '50 EURO'. I hope they arrived and find a reader at some point. Here is the info I would like to submit to the newsletter.
Karina Bush: New book, 50 EURO - https://www.karinabush.com/
https://www.amazon.com/50-Euro-Karina-Bush/dp/1926449169/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498508302&sr=8-1&keywords=karina+bush
INSTAGRAM
https://www.instagram.com/karinabushxx/
WEBSITE
http://www.karinabush.com [RE/Search comments: the books are beautiful and quite "racy" in content at times! Edgy! For adventurous readers!]
8: Sponsors
(Without them you would NOT be receiving this newsletter – Please go to their websites!)
Here, a personal thanks to our pal Dave S and to Paul L. And this newsletter would not exist without Andrew B. and Emily.
If you would like to be a sponsor, a year costs $144; we ask for a 6-month minimum of $72.
1. BEYOND BAROQUE: Only bookstore in L.A. with a complete stock of RE/SEARCH BOOKS! Please patronize them... (Also, some RE/Search titles at The Pop-Hop in L.A.; thanks, Rhea Tepp!)
2. $0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0
V. Vale's RE/Search Newsletter is cordially sponsored by "Beyond the Beyond."http://archive.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond
http://brucesterling.tumblr.com @bruceshttp://flickr.com/brucesterling
Information Wants To Be Free WE MEAN IT MAN!
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3. Hicks Metal Design & Production: Supporting creativity in the Bay Area since 1994 (x4-30-18)
4. We Heard You Like Books accepts the dominance of RE/Search in all matters, but here's our website anyway: weheardyoulikebooks.com (The Ice Party) (x4-30-18)
5. DRYLAND: Los Angeles Underground Art & Writing—uniquely based in South Central L.A. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, interviews. https://drylandlit.org/ (x10-31-17)
6. What’s CBD and how is it related to harm reduction and vaping? To learn more, visit our blog at http://CascadiaVape.com To purchase CBD and Kava supplements visit http://CascadiaVape.net (x/end1/18)
7. Support & visit NYC Gallerist Margaret Lee! 47 Canal (gallery). (x/end1/18)
8. WorkshopSF, located in Western Addition, offers creative, affordable DIY classes for adults, taught by awesome local artists, woodworkers, and makers, since 2009. http://www.workshopsf.org/
9. Paul L. many many thanks!! Also, thanks much to Dave S. and Billy H.
The end, for now
Abby the cat
August 2017 Part 2 RE/Search Newsletter #163 written by V. Vale & other contributors. RE/Search website powered by Laughing Squid.
