Living with the myth of Janis JoplinThe history of Big Brother & the Holding Co. 1965-2005 by Michael Spörke (English Translation by Sam Andrew) "The fame of Big Brother is like a golden albatross, it hangs around your neck like a curse. But the curse is made of gold." — Dave Getz (BBHC drummer) Friends and fans of Big Brother and the Holding Co. have long … [Read more...]
The Eve of Fluxus: A Fluxmemoir by Billie Maciunas
Arbiter Press, Orlando, Florida / ISBN 978-0-615-35216-9 Fluxus is a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"— often described as "intermedia," a term coined by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins in 1966. Fluxus as an artistic group was named and organized by George Maciunas, a Lithuanian-born American artist and founding member of Fluxus, an international community of … [Read more...]
Book Review – Bob Dylan and the Beatles by Al Aronowitz
Al Aronowitz is often referred to as "the godfather of rock journalism." But his roots are in the tradition of the writers who trailed behind the Old West's outlaws and revolutionaries, embellishing the truth to delight an eager readership. However, Al was always more a participant than a mere observer, positioned early at the crossroads of one of modern America's defining … [Read more...]
Book Review – Moondog: The Viking of 6th Avenue by Robert Scotto
Moondog: The Viking of 6th Avenue by Robert Scotto / Process Media / 2007 / 280 pages / ISBN # 978-0-9760822-8-6 Born in Marysville, Kansas in 1916, the son of an Episcopal minister, Louis Hardin Jr. lived a relatively simple life in America's heartland until the age of 16 when he was permanently blinded when he mistakenly toyed with a blasting cap. A life-altering event … [Read more...]
Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut (Misadventures in the Counter-Culture) by Paul Krassner
New World Digital Publishing (2010) / ISBN-13: 978-0982531433 Having racked my brains in search of the perfect opening, I'll just wing it by saying that "reading Paul Krasner’s Expanded Edition of his 1993 Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut (Misadventures in the Counter-Culture) will cure cancer!" Paul was a child violin prodigy and the youngest person ever to … [Read more...]
Book Review — Who the Hell is Stew Albert? A Memoir
Who the Hell is Stew Albert? / Red Hen Press / 2004 / 216 pages / 978-1888996630 Cover photo by Robert Altman Author Larry "Ratso" Sloman was appearing on 'The Howard Stern Show' plugging his book "Steal This Dream," a biography of activist Abbie Hoffman. During the course of the interview, Sloman declared, "Well Stew Albert likes my book," to which Stern replied, "Who … [Read more...]
Review: Jamming with Relix: The Book
I first experienced what would eventually be called "Jam Band" music when I attended one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests in 1965. In order to get into the place you had to first walk literally through the Acid Test band then playing a warped rendition of Wilson Pickett's "Midnight Hour." The first person I locked eyes with was Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist of the then nascent … [Read more...]
Book Review – The Beat Hotel by Barry Miles
With the July 2000 Grove Press release of The Beat Hotel, author (Barry) Miles revisits 9 rue Git-le-Coeur, an historic set of decaying digs amid a rat infested slum on the Left Bank of Paris, "a decrepit rooming house with hole-in-the-floor toilets shared by all..." circa 1957-1963. A spectral time in diminutive spaces where life's more literate mysteries were eloquently … [Read more...]
Ted Joans Lives! Tribute: Rik Lina, Hammond Guthrie, Richard Krech and more
Rik Lina This is one of the many cadavre-exquises Ted made people to do, must be more than thousand...note the small text he wrote in it: "cadavrexquis is not dead." Laura Corsiglia, Ted and I made it 19 June in Amsterdam 2001. Hammond Guthrie AlphaRhythmicAfterBeats At best, or at the very least, Be - Bop - Beatnik and Beatitude Concern subterranean … [Read more...]
(Revisiting) Mondo Hollywood: A Film and Event
At midnight on June 10, 2006, in a special event for the Moondance Film Festival, The Chaplin Theater (5300 Melrose Ave) in Los Angeles will be presenting the digitally-enhanced Director's cut of Mondo Hollywood. Written, produced, directed and edited by Robert Carl Cohen -- renowned for his pioneering documentary films INSIDE RED CHINA, INSIDE EAST GERMANY, THREE CUBANS, and … [Read more...]
Poems & art by Hammond Guthrie
Tide and Time Again... ...the length and width of the attention spanis being tested, strained, and manipulatedfrom the highest denominations of power, preemptively initiating an undeniable falloutfrom Homeland Weapons of Mass Distractionself imploding under the seals of their office, as hidden Weapons of Mass Destruction remain intactquod erat demonstrandum in time's ever … [Read more...]
Book Review – Michael Rothenberg’s poetry collection, Unhurried Vision
Unhurried Vision La Alameda Press, Alburquerque, NM, 2004 Unhurried Vision, and in this manner so it reads, from one new year to the next scribing a journal of living (1999) poetically in the moment, a creative endeavor of complex simplicity - as with the last moments of a moth in April's entry, "The Small Things in Life": "a tragedy we're here to eulogize." Poetically … [Read more...]
