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November 30, 2002
The Joe Bob ReportRemember Drive-in movie reviewer Joe Bob Briggs (aka John Bloom)? In the late 80's and early 90's he put out a bunch of books and a weekly newsletter. The books were "Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In", "Joe Bob Goes Back to the Drive-In", "Iron Joe Bob", "Guide to Western Civilization, or My Story" and "The Cosmic Wisdom of Joe Bob Briggs". Most of these are long out of print.
Coming up in 2003: "Profoundly Disturbing", a book about exploitation movies. He still writes a lot of newspaper columns, and he's doing the commentary on a recent dvd release of the rape-revenge classic "I Spit On Your Grave".
Check out his writing at his voluminous web site www.joebobbriggs.com
19:39
November 25, 2002
"Disinformation -- The Interviews" Richard Metzger made the TV series Disinfo TV that was sadly shown only in the UK on Channel 4. The Sci-Fi-channel in the US dropped it like a hot potato. Look for the imminent dvd release that also includes hours from their disinfo convention.
But for now, feast your eyes on the great book of the complete versions of the disinfo interviews from the TV shows.
Genesis P-Orridge says of the book: "In fact, familiar as I am with many of the concepts, strategies and commentaries discussed with incredible honesty and compassion in these texts, I still found this a re-awakening-up call. we live in a time where the ignorance of the young in terms of what should be their own youth culture is staggering. Television, especially MTV, colludes with corporate greed and political apathy to train us globally to believe in infinite novelty, and the inate superiority of any and all products presented as NEW. For an informed opinion to be made, information must be available, but more than that, our brains must learn to process and evaluate."
The book is in full colour, with beautiful, sharp reprints of the amazing visionary art of Paul Laffoley, Norbert Cox and Joe Coleman. There's great interviews with these, as well as R. A. Wilson, GP-Orridge, anarchist and comic book writer Grant Morrison, media critic Douglas Rushkoff, and others. A recurring theme is mankind's survival in the future, culturally and literally. Howard Bloom claims that viruses are winning over humans, and that we will be extinct within 30 years unless we do some very intense research in the coming years. This book is strongly recommended!
Full table of contents: Robert Anton Wilson on The Illuminati and "black magician" Aleister Crowley -- Comics genius Grant Morrison (The Invisibles, X-Men) describes sex magick, Hollywood's interest in underground culture and the best alien abduction story you'll ever hear! -- Scientist Howard Bloom (The Lucifer Principle) on the coming biological apocalypse. -- Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) describes what it's like to be the leader of your own cult. -- Artist Joe Coleman on serial killers. -- Douglas Rushkoff explains media viruses. -- New York's most outrageous performance artist Kembra Pfahler on why she sewed her vagina shut. -- Artist Paul Laffoley tells how to build a time machine and solve the housing shortage by growing houses from plants. -- Duncan Laurie reveals the forbidden science of radionics. -- Philosopher Peter Russell on ecological doomsday and spiritual renewal. -- The apocalyptic visual parables of religious painter Norbert H. Kox.
Check out additional info and links on disinfo.com
12:54
November 22, 2002
39th Anniversary of JFK AssassinationToday it's 39 years since JFK met his maker on Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Read about the myriads of theories on what really happened on:
The Kennedy Assassination Home Page
The John F. Kennedy Assassination Homepage
JFK Assassination Web Page
and the official National Archives & Records Administration -- JFK Assassination Records
And hey, the 22nd was also Joe Coleman's 47th birthday (b. 11/22/55). Sign the petition linked to below!
01:05
November 20, 2002
Keep Artist Joe Coleman's Work At The 2003 New York Outsider Art Fair Sign the Petition at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/momboozo/petition.html
To: Outsider Art Enthusiasts, Collectors, and Dealers
To: Board of Directors, 2003 New York Outsider Art Fair.
We the undersigned as individuals and as a group oppose the exclusion of Brooklyn artist Joe Coleman's work from the upcoming 2003 Outsider Art Fair in New York on January 24-26, 2003.
The Board first attempted to exclude Coleman from the 2002 Outsider Art Fair on the grounds that Mr. Coleman exhibited "an unusual level of awareness of the marketing and sales of his work". The proposal to exclude his work from last year's show was later retracted, and Coleman was represented in the 2002 show.
Coleman's written response to the 2002 attempt to block the artist's work from the Outsider Art Fair came before he was eventually admitted to last year's Fair, but it nonetheless succinctly and eloquently represents the artist's position:
"I don't know if I'm an Outsider. I don't even know if I know what an Outsider is. Certainly I've been called worse things in my life. The art labels I have suffered include: Outsider, Visionary, Low-brow, Folk and Fine artist, all of which roll off me like the heaps of trash pelted at the carnival dodger. Nevertheless, I have always felt that the value of the Outsider Art Fair has been to expose the public to challenging, provocative and raw works of art that they would not find in the mainstream art world venues. I find it extremely ironic that after a lifetime of being excluded from the mainstream art world because my work did not conform to recent trends and polite tastes, that I am now being excluded from an Outsider event. In the committee's memo concerning the banning of my work from the art fair, I am described as "being too aware of the whole business process of selling" my work. It makes me wonder about these anonymous, parasitic art Insiders sitting on their revie! w committee and the fears which would cause them to make such judgements. Are we to assume that they would prefer to deal with someone who is intellectually, physically or emotionally incapable of protecting themselves from being exploited, manipulated, hoodwinked, and/or robbed? -- Joe Coleman, 2002"
(Original link to this statement: http://www.gatesofheck.com/coleman/news/fair.html)
The Board is again attempting to block Coleman's representation in the upcoming 2003 Outsider Art Fair on the same grounds: Coleman exhibits an "unusual, and unacceptable, level of awareness in the sales and marketing of his work". In addition, the Board of Directors has further asserted that their exclusion is based on the position that Coleman is a "schooled" artist, having once attended, the New York School of Visual Arts, from which he was "thrown out", according to the artist.
While Coleman’s work is technically accomplished to a degree which many "mainstream" artists are not, Coleman is as much an "Outsider" as can be imagined. Rejected by the mainstream art community; utilizing subject-matter gathered from such fringe (i.e. pariah, excluded) areas as the carnival, the freak show, and medical and forensics text books; working against every contemporary trend and school in art, Coleman's work is singular in its exploration of an individual psyche damaged and rejected, exorcising through painting the demons inside the artist's own skull.
Coleman is clearly an "Outsider" and belongs at the Outsider Art Fair if one examines the definitions found in John Maizels' outstanding "Raw Vision" magazine -- arguably the codex and bible of Outsider Art enthusiasts, as well as of the New York Outsider Art Fair itself.
[Raw Vision magazine has featured Joe Coleman on its cover, has religiously reported on the artist’s career, while at the same time representing and exhibiting their magazine most prominently at the New York Outsider Art Fair since the show’s inception.]
Here are some definitions of Outsider Art from an uncredited esssay at Raw Vision magazine's website: "forms of creative expression that exist outside accepted cultural norms, or the realm of 'fine art'" and "works of extreme individuality and inventiveness". Coleman's work fits each of these definitions closely. (see http://www.rawvision.com/whatisoa.html)
Further, Outsider Art, and the New York Outsider Art Fair surely encompass the sub-category of "VISIONARY ART AND INTUITIVE ART" which are described in the same essay from Raw Vision's website:
 "VISIONARY ART, INTUITIVE ART: Both of these are deliberate umbrella terms, used together they can include almost everything of value in the field, including much tribal art and the urban folk art of the third world, as well as most of the works described above. They are safe and honest general terms that avoid the specifics of Outsider Art or Folk Art (examples: Kox, Coleman)."
The above definition uses Coleman as an example, as well as the artist Norbet Cox-- another Outsider Art Fair regular-- to which we might add Alex Grey, Michel Nedjar, Terry Turrell, Thornton Dial, Chris Hipkiss, Albert Louden, Paul Laffoley and many other "main-stays" at the New York show, who are not only exceptional Outsider artists, but variously sophisticated and "schooled" in their approaches. Why single out Joe Coleman? And why "now", after ten years of Coleman’s art at the New York Outsider Art Fair?
The definitions and controversy surrounding the Outsider Art Fair's decision are not new. In fact, these issues have been brewing since the fair’s inception more than 10 years ago. To make Coleman the Outsider Art Fair's first "martyr" or "scapegoat" is not a good idea, as Coleman's embodiment of the Outsider ethic is so complete that many contemporary critics and dealers consider him to be the most important of all living "Outsider" artists. Indeed, if quality alone were a criteria for entry into the New York show, much of the work shown there over the last ten years would have to be barred.
Raw Vision again: "The controversy surrounding the exact definition of Outsider Art and allied fields has been going on ever since awareness of the phenomenon began. Whatever views we have about the value of controversy itself, it is important to sustain creative discussion by way of an agreed vocabulary."
We the undersigned argue that by excluding Coleman the Board of Directors has esssentially squelched any such "creative discussion".
Another contemporary source which asks the question "What Is Outsider Art?" admits to the controversy, and comments on the defining element of the New York Outsider Art Fair’s Board of Directors’ decision, i.e. The economic and commercial aspects of Outsider Art:
"Partly it [the term "Outsider Art"] seems to persist for commercial reasons -- demarcating a particular sector of the art market helps to create and sustain it. But it also remains a handy shorthand for work that is liable to reflect different motivations, histories and concerns than that generally produced by art school graduates." (Complete essay at the website "Outsiderpages.com." http://www.interestingideas.com/out/what.htm)
What is Coleman’s main "sin" to the Board of Directors? That Coleman has broken from the Outsider Art 'mainstream' -- and indeed perhaps the mainstream of the art world as a whole -- by taking an active role in the marketing and sales of his work? While many "Outsider" artists are impoverished, indigent members of communities thousands of miles from New York's locus of art sales -- and thereby rely on galleries and representatives who take significant chunks of their earnings simply to afford access to affluent art-buying markets -- Coleman has bypassed the 'gallery sharecropping system'. Thus is the attempted rejection of Coleman’s art influenced by the fact that he "defies" the Outsider Art Fair’s criteria of an artist being represented in every transaction by a dealer?
Where other "Outsider Artists" rely on galleries and dealers for survival, Coleman often -- but not exclusively -- sells his work to buyers who contact him directly, thus by-passing the traditional system which the Outsider Art Fair relies on to survive as a business. Is there not room at the New York show for an artist whose form of commerce is slightly at odds with the goals of the show, or should the show become merely about "selling from the floor" and nothing else?
Is the existence of the show threatened by Coleman’s art and own form of commerce? We think not. The show can clearly survive Coleman’s unique talents and methods of selling his work -- and has for the past ten years.
In conclusion, we the undersigned, protest Coleman’s exclusion and banishment from the New York Outsider Art Fair on the grounds that to do so will inhibit the free and open dialogue necessary to sustain the growth of this show and others like it; will potentially deny the Outsider Art enthusiasts, dealers and collectors access to any art the Board of Directors deems "un-Outsiderlike;" and will in effect deny deserving artists like Coleman an appropriate venue to promote and sell their work.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
View Current Signatures: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?momboozo
JR speaking: Consider signing the petition yourself at the URL indicated above. Then email the above text to everyone you know that might want to sign it. If you are unfamiliar with Joe Coleman, read my interview and view some of his artwork here.
20:35
November 15, 2002
HWEBlog -- 1 Year!!This blog has existed since Nov. 4th 2001. All postings still available for your perusing. Click on "Archives" to the left, which has hundreds of bits and pieces, archived by the end of 39 different weeks. That is, in the small pockets of time that the archives are out there. Blogger.com seems to be very unstable, and all the older posts disappears every other week, to magically reappear at some later date. Right now (Nov. 18th) it's ALL gone ... Hey, update Nov. 25th: It's all BACK again, now sorted monthly, so there's "only" 13 archival entries. (JR)
22:30
November 10, 2002
24 hours of live Throbbing GristleUnbelievably, Industrial Records celebrates their 25th anniversary on December 23rd 2002 by re-releasing 24 of the TG live tapes on CD. All have a playing time of exactly 60 minutes, and with only one or two index points (tape start and tape turn-over...). This strictly limited release is put out in collaboration with Mute Records. More info here.
01:39
November 09, 2002
Cinemateket & Klubb Super 8 viser "Black Gestapo"! Er du i Oslo 15. desember er Cinemateket i Dronningens gt. stedet. I samarbeid med det svenske filmarkivet Klubb Super 8 viser de den vanvittige blaxploitationfilmen "Black Gestapo" (Lee Frost, 1975), der en ekstremt militant og uniformert svart gruppering i Watts tar opp kampen mot italienske gangstere, for så å vende seg mot lokalbefolkningen og bli gangstere sjøl. Fra omtalen: "Alle muligheter for å berøre viktige tema skusles bort i en yr glede over skytevåpen, spesialeffekter og nakne kropper."
Klubb Super 8-bolken omfatter også filmene "Rock 'n Roll High School" (Allan Arkush, Joe Dante & Jerry Zucker, 1979) og den noe sexfikserte liksom-dokumentaren "Mondo Freudo" (også den av Lee Frost, 1968) . Legg ellers merke til at Filmbutikken på Norsk filminstitutt tilbyr over 20 av Klubb Super 8s videoutgivelser!
Ellers er det vel verdt å sjekke ut programmet til Oslo Filmfestival. Mye asiatisk film, og mange helt ville dokumentarer. Som f.eks. "Cinemania", "Harvesting Me" og "The Smartest Man in the World".
16:43
November 08, 2002
Thank God It's Ugly #7 Marcel Ruijters has just put out a new issue of his ongoing series of comix anthologies Thank God It's Ugly. As always, there's a bunch of contributors wallowing in sex and violence. Many of the usual people are here: The ubiquitous, nightmarish Mike Diana, the only comics artist in the world convicted of making art, and for a period he was forbidden to draw -- even for his own personal use! You'll find our good friend, the late, great Sverre H. Kristensen (1966-1997), with his cute animals killing each other and taking gigantic dumps on each other's heads. Other artists: Marcel Ruijters himself, Chris Crielaard, and Kapreles. Kapreles was subject of a police raid in 2001, when the police wrongly suspected him of trafficking kiddie porn, raided his home and confiscated tons of stuff.
The best story in here is "Sumo-Maso" by Matthias Lehmann from France. The 3-dimensional-looking art and the funny, inventive story from a day in the life of a sex worker really stands out. This issue is in a nice book-size bound format, with several colour pages. Well worth your support.
Website on exhibition by various artists: www.lost-comics-tribe.com
Ruijters' own web site: www.xs4all.nl/~troglo.
20:00
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Reunion!!! Velvet Hammer is proud to announce a full "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!" reunion at their November 14th & 21st shows at The Mayan Theater, Los Angeles. See Tura Satana, Haji & Lori Williams on the same stage for the 1st time in the U.S. since 1965! Stick around after the show and mingle with these (and more) Russ Meyer superstars! You won't want to miss 2002's Miss Exotic World, Kitten DeVille, as well as all your other favorite Fellini-esque females! See TV's Craig Anton, Blaine Capatch, Ron Lynch & David Koechner! This year's Velvet Hammer promises wall to wall decadent delights for an entertainment-starved Los Angeles! You will not be disappointed! The Mayan has ample seating for everyone.... Tickets available at Wacko -- Squaresville Melrose -- The Brat Store. Online at: www.ticketweb.com (search by typing in "velvet hammer"). Tickets are $30 each.
19:39
November 07, 2002
Jim Goad's Exotic -- November Issue The new issue of the Goad-edited free porn mag Exotic has the usual "Trucker Fags in Denial" comic strip, the column "The Industry", and: My Teenaged Celebrity Crushes -- Twats wit' Tats Ad #2 -- An Interview with Jim Goad (by Jim Goad) -- Women Stink: The Distinguished Gentleman's Guide to Vaginal Odor (written in '95) -- Alcoholic Titty (parody of ex-Exotic column). You must be 21 to view it (yeah, right ...) and you need to have the program Acrobat Reader. http://www.jimgoad.com/newstuff.html. Also in the "new" section: "A Small Sip of Success" (a chapter deleted from the "Shit Magnet" book.) Exotic magazine itself is at: http://www.xmag.com
16:52
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