Movie of the Week: Evidently...John Cooper Clarke (2012)

A cool yule and a Beat Xmas

In the style of the mighty Beat Jazz: Pictures From The Gone World, as well as its companion release, Vol. 2, here is a fantastic Christmas comp from our pals at WFMU's Rock & Soul Ichiban. Unfortunately its one long MP3 file rather than separate tracks...but hey, I'm not complaining. Grab Beat Xmas here.

Don't Hide The Madness: Lydia Lunch To Host Howl Benefit at Pyramid

HOWL! Arts and Some Serious Business Present an Evening of Spoken Word in the Raw

LYDIA LUNCH Hosts DON’T HIDE THE MADNESS
With cohorts Bob Bert, Nicole Blackman, Bibbe Hansen, Zachary Lipez, Edgar Oliver, Tony O'Neill, Phantom Family Halo, and surprise guests. 

 DJ: Linda Rizzo

Thursday, May 30, 2013 / 7–10 PM

Tickets: $10 in advance / $15 at the door / Cash only the evening of the show
Tickets available in advance through Brown Paper Tickets http://m.bpt.me/event/378639

A Benefit for HOWL! Emergency Life Project (H.E.L.P.)
*100% of the proceeds from the door go to H.E.L.P.

Pyramid Cocktail Lounge
101 Ave A (between 6th & 7th Streets)

East Village, NYC

Taylor Mead RIP

Taylor Mead - RIP. This morning Bowery Boogie is reporting that underground artist, actor, and Warhol superstar, Taylor Mead has passed away at the age of 88. He was a sweet guy, and I think I can speak for a a fairly sizable group of friends when I say I'm truly sad about it. RIP indeed, Simple Country Girl.

Movie of the Week: The Beat Generation (1999)

Burroughs 99th birthday, new Beat Books catalog

William Burroughs keeping it real by Kate Simon

Happy 99th birthday to Mr. William S. Burroughs. And while we're at it, a brand new Beat Books catalog is now available for viewing. And for the first time in a while the focus of the catalog is on Beat-related items including some rare Burroughs recordings. See the catalog here.

"Rock and Roll" by Tony Walsh (Longfella)

Why does spoken word sound so good with a northern UK accent? 

For more info on Tony Walsh go to www.longfella.co.uk.

I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp: The Richard Hell Memoir

Coming 3.12.13, I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp by Richard Hell. Pre-order here.

Nightclubbing in the Summer of Heroin

Max Blagg by Emily Armstrong

I was beginning to think there wouldn't be an entry this week from our pals Emily & Pat at Nightclubbing. But lo & behold, here it is! This week they take us back to the summer of 1980, talk about getting ripped off by junkies in the East Village, and tell us that sometimes a poem is all a girl needs (the right sort of girl anyway), and how it all connects to a fellow named Max Blagg.

August 1980 in the Lower East Side: it was the Summer of Heroin. Clinton Street was not yet restaurant row – it was lined with shooting galleries, rows of cars with Jersey plates and steerers plying their wares. “We got Snoopy, 7-Up, Yellow Bag; we got the stuff that can kill you, man!” – a pitch both fascinating and confounding. Junkies were on every other corner and street muggings were rampant. Home break-ins were a fact of life so common that it became uninteresting unless it happened to you. Continued here.

Visit Go Nightclubbing here
Read all of Pat & Emily's stories here

Pulp Junkies - Beats - Outsiders - Sound Poetry

Now available - the new Beat Books catalog - 

Pulp Junkies - Beats - Outsiders - Sound Poetry

Movie of the Week - Destroy All Rational Thought with William Burroughs

Burroughs shot by Kate Simon

This week's Movie of the Week is a good one. This film features one of the last interviews with Burroughs, and previously unseen vintage footage of him in his prime during the 50s and early 60s. Also featured are The Master Musicians of Joujouka, and experiments that took place in Tangier where William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and the Moroccan painter Hamri taught Jack Kerouac, Timothy Leary, and Allen Ginsberg, how to live outside the law. In addition, there is music from Bill Laswell, The Baby Snakes, plus contributions from Ira Cohen, Hakim Bey, Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy) and many more.

NYNS - The Junky's Christmas by William Burroughs

A little claymation is always nice on a holiday: Be grateful...this could be you. It originally appeared in 1993, and was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. It's available on DVD. Photo above by me, Feb. 2008. Pay no attention to the part numbers - it's all here.

Beat Jazz Movie of the Week - Sound (1966-67)

A short film featuring Rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Cage and David Tudor among others. Directed by Dick Fontaine.

NYNS - Lost and Found

Last weekend I discovered the wonderful radio series, Selected Shorts, that seems to be a cooperative effort between PRI and Symphony Space here in NYC. I had turned on the radio and heard the voice of Alec Baldwin reading Colson Whitehead's "Lost and Found" - a wonderful piece on life and living in New York - and was immediately captivated. The story was originally published in the NY Times Magazine in November 2001. This should be required listening (or reading) for every citizen of this mighty metropolis.

“You start building your private New York the first time you lay eyes on it. Maybe you were in a cab leaving the airport when the skyline first roused itself into view. All your worldly possessions were in the trunk, and in your hand you held an address on a piece of paper. Look: there's the Empire State Building, over there are the twin towers. Somewhere in that fantastic, glorious mess was the address on the piece of paper, your first home here. — Colson Whitehead, “Lost and Found”



Podcasts of this, and past episodes are available here. Pan Am building image courtesy of the Bowery Boys.

Janine Pommy Vega RIP

Janine Pommy Vega - RIP

Just Because - John Cooper Clarke

Just because this piece always makes me laugh, and the weather is so crappy today I'm in need of a laugh, I present "Twat" by the ever inimitable John Cooper Clarke:

Like a Night Club in the morning, you’re the bitter end.
Like a recently disinfected shit-house, you’re clean round the bend.
You give me the horrors
too bad to be true
All of my tomorrow’s
are lousy coz of you.

You put the Shat in Shatter
Put the Pain in Spain
Your germs are splattered about
Your face is just a stain

You’re certainly no raver, commonly known as a drag.
Do us all a favour, here... wear this polythene bag.

You’re like a dose of scabies,
I’ve got you under my skin.
You make life a fairy tale... Grimm!

People mention murder, the moment you arrive.
I’d consider killing you if I thought you were alive.
You’ve got this slippery quality,
it makes me think of phlegm,
and a dual personality
I hate both of them.

Your bad breath, vamps disease, destruction, and decay.
Please, please, please, please, take yourself away.
Like a death a birthday party,
you ruin all the fun.
Like a sucked and spat our smartie,
you’re no use to anyone.
Like the shadow of the guillotine
on a dead consumptive’s face.
Speaking as an outsider,
what do you think of the human race

You went to a progressive psychiatrist.
He recommended suicide...
before scratching your bad name off his list,
and pointing the way outside.

You hear laughter breaking through, it makes you want to fart.
You’re heading for a breakdown,
better pull yourself apart.

Your dirty name gets passed about when something goes amiss.
Your attitudes are platitudes,
just make me wanna piss.

What kind of creature bore you
Was is some kind of bat
They can’t find a good word for you,
but I can...
TWAT.

Tom Waits And Photojournalist Create Hard Ground

With the book Hard Ground, to be released March 2011, the haunting and impassioned poetry of Tom Waits’ accompanies striking images by award winning photojournalist Michael O’Brien (who shot the Glitter And Doom album cover) to create a portrait of homelessness that impels us to look into the eyes of people who live “on the hard ground” and recognize our common humanity. Combining their formidable talents, Waits and O’Brien have crafted a work which transcends documentary and presents independent, yet powerfully complementary views of the trials of homelessness and the resilience of people who survive on the streets.

For more info go here. Via.

Lydia Lunch - The Gun Is Loaded now available

There's nothing like waking up at 7:00AM on a Saturday morning to a film featuring Lydia Lunch. Directed by Joe Tripician, and former Hurrah club VJ Merrill Aldighieri, The Gun Is Loaded was shot in 1988 and features Ms. Lunch walking & ranting in the streets of NYC intercut with various scenery, news footage, etc. All set to music by Mr. Foetus, aka JG Thirwell (both pictured above). The full 37 minute film is now available for download rental via GoEggIt.com. Now if I could only get my hands on a copy of Vortex. Trailer warning for liberal use of the F-word as one might expect.

Beat Jazz movie of the week - Batman Poem by the Liverpool Scene

The Liverpool Scene perform "The Batman Poem." Grab an MP3 here. Via This Isn't Happiness.

Events of note - Howl Fest and Max's reunion shows

Apologies for being a few days late with this info, but I thought it worthy of mention regardless. As udual, click on the images for a closer look, and click the links for the full informational effect.


All month long in the East Village. Many events are free. For the full schedule visit the Howl Festival website.


Further info here.