Thursday, March 14, 2019
Contents of a Country: Leicester Hemingway’s Republic of New Atlantis
Leicester (pronounced “Lester”) Hemingway is known to history principally for three things: For being the younger brother of the famous novelist Ernest Hemingway, to whom he bore a striking physical resemblance; for publishing a well-received biography of his brother a mere eight months after Ernest died; and for “founding” his own island nation, the Republic of New Atlantis. Artifacts related to each of these contributions have found their way to the Harry Ransom Center.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
CZECH SINGER VĚRA BÍLÁ, DUBBED THE ELLA FITZGERALD OF GYPSY MUSIC, DIES DAYS BEFORE HER COMEBACK TOUR
It was supposed to be the week when she started her comeback tour. Instead, it ended with her death on a hospital bed. Věra Bílá, who died on Tuesday, was just 64-years-old. But those who knew her say her songs will remain an important contribution to the genre of world music forever.
Read the full article by Tom McEnchroe on Radio Praha in English HERE
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855
These weren't the kind of clowns you want to mess with. They were, by all accounts, a pretty rough crew. They were in town for just a couple of days — part of a touring show from the U.S. called S.B. Howes' Star Troupe Menagerie & Circus. Along with the clowns, there were acrobats and equestrian trick riders and a bunch of exotic animals: big cats, elephants, even a giraffe. The circus had already performed a few sold out shows that day — it was a rare big draw in a city that was just starting to come into its own.
Read the full aritcle on The Toronto Dream Project HERE
Requiem for Tina Sanchez
Requiem for Tina Sanchez
short film about prostitution in New York City (1976)
A Psychotronic Tour of 42nd Street
A Psychotronic Tour of 42nd Street
short film clip with Michael Weldon
Monday, March 11, 2019
P2 yesterday. His victory today
Today Licio Gelli returns to TV to claim his triumph. His National Rebirth Plan was largely carried out by the most brilliant of his affiliates, now President of the Council. Here is the story of the secret lodge and today's "yellow pages" of Propaganda 2
Sunday, March 10, 2019
The Power to Serve: A Presentation of Burroughs Corporation
The Power to Serve: A Presentation of Burroughs Corporation
short promotional film (1956)
Burroughs Adding Machine Company Glimpses into the Past History - 1857-1953
| The following is a brief historical look at the Burroughs Adding Machine Company and it’s predecessor company, the American Arithmometer Company. The information provides some interesting perspectives on the company and answers a personal question I have always had about the difficulty in finding a specimen of a Burroughs machine that was made prior to 1900. As the text demonstrates few machines were sold in the early years, and the production increased dramatically after the turn of the century. Read the full article by Michael Hancock on XNumber HERE |
Roxy Music - In Every Dreamhome a Heartache
Roxy Music
In Every Dreamhome a Heartache
from the lp For Your Pleasure
Demon Angel: A Day and Night with Roky Erickson
Demon Angel: A Day and Night with Roky Erickson
short film (984)
Friday, March 8, 2019
New York Men 1993: Interview with Iggy Pop
New York Men 1993
Interview with Iggy Pop
directed by Bram van Splunteren
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation - The Sexy Midnight Torture Show
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation
The Sexy Midnight Torture Show
from the lp Succubus
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation - A Place for Fantasies
The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation
A Place for Fantasies
from the lp Succubus
Never forget David Bowie masterminded "the biggest art hoax in history"
Along with novelist William Boyd, Bowie fabricated an artist who never existed, the art world fell for it
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
The Long Now Foundation
The Long Now Foundation
tv clip from BBC2 featuring Brian Eno and Stewart Brand (2000)
Interview With David Thomas Of Pere Ubu!
James Fleming talks to Pere Ubu’s leading man, the legendary David Thomas, for Hifi Pig.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
A Psychopathic Hymn: J.G. Ballard's 'Crashed Cars' Exhibition of 1970
As advertised in Art & Artists, 'Jim Ballard: Crashed Cars' took place at the gallery between 4-28 April 1970.19 The cars – a Pontiac, an Austin Cambridge A60 and a Mini – were hired from Charles Symmonds's knacker's yard, Motor Crash Repairs. 'They don't appeal to me as art,' Symmonds told the Sunday Times. 'I detest cars. But maybe it's a good idea to show crashed cars. It's frightening.'20 Ballard's choice of car was far from accidental. The Pontiac was a model from the mid-fifties, and thus represented a particularly baroque phase in American car styling, while the Mini symbolised the fun-loving mobility of the swinging sixties. The sober and conservative saloon, the A60, stood for the Mini's exact antithesis.21 All however, through the catastrophe of the car crash, were now in a sense equivalent; smashed and levelled to the raw material of their crushed metal, broken glass, and stained upholstery.
Nico - Evening of Light
Nico
Evening of Light
video clip with Nico and Iggy Pop
directed by Francois de Menil (1969)
Broadcast and The Focus Group - A Searching Song
Broadcast and The Focus Group
A Searching Song
from the ep Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of the Radio Age
Broadcast and The Focus Group - Ritual/Looking In
Broadcast and The Focus Group
Ritual/Looking In
from the ep Broadcast and The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of the Radio Age
Monday, March 4, 2019
That Creepy Momo Sculpture Has Been Destroyed
The “Momo Challenge,” which allegedly caused children to commit violent acts on themselves and others, turned out to be a viral hoax. Momo herself, however, is a real sculpture—at least, she was.
Crispy Ambulance - Four Minutes From the Frintline
Crispy Ambulance
Four Minutes From the Frontline
from the lp Fin
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Blue Whale: What is the truth behind an online 'suicide challenge'?
The "Blue Whale challenge" was reported to be an online "suicide game" aimed at teenagers which set 50 tasks over 50 days. The challenge was alleged to be linked to numerous deaths around the world. But little about the "game" was quite as it seemed.
Read the full BBC article here.
The Principality of Sealand: The World's Most Successful Micronation
No
doubt, most people with an above average IQ have at some time started
a sentence with the phrase “If I had my own country...”
Idealistic college students, eccentrics, social theorists, crackpot
windbag amateur political commentators, gregarious barroom
drunks...probably most of society’s discontents have entertained
the idea of
running their own nation
for at least a few seconds. There was, however, once a man named
Paddy Roy Bates who went all the way, declared himself king, and
founded the Principality of Sealand. His
venture into obscure political history did not come without its
conflicts but many would say it was worth the trouble in the end.
Sealand
is located on HM Fort Roughs or Roughs Tower as it is more commonly
known. The British navy built the structure during World War II as a
defense fortress for the sake of fighting off German invaders, coming
from across the sea. Roughs Tower is built on the seabed; it has two
pillars and a deck that connects them across the top. The deck has a
landing pad for helicopters. The structure is about seven nautical
miles off the coast of England. The closest city is Suffolk.
After
England’s victory at the end of World War II, Roughs
Tower was abandoned. By the 1960s, it had been discovered and taken
over by a group of young pirate radio broadcasters
who transmitted their Wonderful Radio London station across the waves
and into Great Britain. Then came Paddy Roy Bates.
Bates
had formerly served as a major in the British navy. After re-entering
civilian life, he
gained some experience as a pirate radio-station
operator.
Eventually he decided to seize Roughs Tower and use it for his own
purposes. In 1967, the British government claimed his radio station
to be illegal and guilty of broadcasting entertainment without a
license. Rather than contesting the charges in court, he declared
himself King Roy Bates (although
King Badass would have been just as suitable)
and established the Principality of Sealand, thereby stating that
Great Britain had no jurisdiction over Roughs Tower; this claim had
some validity since British territorial waters ended six nautical
miles offshore and the fledgling micronation was located one nautical
mile beyond that point. The King of Sealand then made his family the
official royal family. He wrote up a constitution, eventually
went on to mint money and publish passports which, inevitably, were
never recognized internationally for travel to other countries.
Sealand hired a composer to write a national anthem, established an
order of knighthood, and even put
together their own national football team, albeit one that was made
up of non-citizens, never receiving
recognition from FIFA. King Roy Bates kept
Sealand afloat financially by running his pirate radio station,
raising revenue by running his own offshore radio shows and charging
advertisers for airtime, a lucrative business in those days since
Britain’s established radio programming was known for being
lackluster and boring.
Then
some troubles began. Ronan O’Rahilly, the founder of another pirate
station called Radio Caroline tried to seize Roughs Tower from King
Roy Bates. O’Rahilly and his gang were met with gas bombs when they
tried to come ashore. The bombings made so much noise that the
British navy sent out a few soldiers to calm the conflict down but
upon arrival, the king’s
son, Prince Michael, began firing warning shots with his rifle. The
navy eventually took command of
Sealand, King Roy and Prince Michael were arrested, and taken to
court in England on illegal weapons possessions charges. The court
dropped the case because, as previously stated, Sealand’s location
was in international waters and not under the rule of the U.K. King
Roy later used this incident as, some might say, rather flimsy
evidence to meet the minimum requirements for declaration of
statehood under United Nations law, the minimum requirement being
recognition of legitimacy by another established nation.
After
declaring Sealand an official country,
the smallest nation in the world no less, King Roy continued to
scheme. He envisioned the dismal looking Roughs Tower as being an
ideal site for an
offshore hotel and casino. In 1978, he attracted the attention of a
German lawyer
and Sealand passport holder
named Alexander Achenbach. This individual lured King Roy to meet a
group of investors in Austria but the investors never showed up for
the conference.
Meanwhile, the con-man Achenbach had landed on Roughs Tower with a
group of mercenary soldiers that he hired for the operation. Prince
Michael was taken captive and thrown into prison (actually the room
at the bottom of one of the pillars) where they kept him for three
days without food or water before Achenbach
declared himself the new king of Sealand.
The
ever-resourceful King Roy built up a mercenary army of his own and
hired a helicopter pilot, who had worked as such in a couple James
Bond movies, to lead a counter-attack on Sealand and end the coup
d’etat. Upon arrival, King Roy’s band of soldiers seized caches
of weapons that were hidden in secret locations throughout Roughs
Tower, captured Achenbach and then thew him into prison in place of
Prince Michael. King Roy declared ransom money for the return of the
German lawyer, causing diplomats from the Netherlands, Germany, and
Austria to put pressure on Great Britain to get the
faux-revolutionary released. After pay-offs and negotiations,
Achenbach was released and returned to Germany. His Sealand passport
was revoked and the nutty lawyer continued calling himself the
official and unfairly deposed king of Sealand, claiming
to be running a government in exile from Germany.
Since
international diplomats had been involved in the affair, King Roy
again declared de facto international recognition in further attempts
to gain official recognition of statehood.
The
Principality of Sealand remained a quiet outpost of individual
freedom until the 1990s and the dawn of the internet era. An internet
businessman approached King Roy about operating an offshore data
management firm
from
the platform of the micronation. The deal eventually fell through.
The Swedish file-sharing website Pirate Bay also approached King Roy
about operating off Roughts Tower since it was a place where
copyright infringement was not considered a legal issue. That deal
never
got off the ground either.
Alexander Achenbach showed up once again, this time in association
with an organized crime gang based in Spain and made up of human
traffickers from Russia and Iraq; the gang was using Sealand
passports issued by Achenbach’s government in exile to smuggle
human cargo into and out of Hong Kong. King Roy and the royal family
responded by revoking all Sealand passports and ceasing to print any
more. King
Roy had no problem with offshore gambling or transmitting porn into
countries in the Middle East but slavery just was not his game.
At
the onset of old age, King Roy was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s
disease and spent the rest of his days in an English nursing home on
the mainland. He died in 2012 and his son, Prince Michael, became the
reigning monarch, though he lives ashore in the UK where he manages
the political affairs of Sealand, the most successful micronation in
history.
Strauss,
Erwin S. How to
Start Your Own Country. Palladin
Press, 1984.
At Folsom Prison with Dr. Timothy Leary
At Folsom Prison with Dr. Timothy Leary
short interview film (1973)
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Dr. Timothy Leary - Live and Let Live
Dr. Timothy Leary
Live and Let Live
from the lp You Can Be Anyone This Time
The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch
Boston, Mass., once the scene of such famous censorship trials as those involving Forever Amber, God’s Little Acre, and, more recently, Tropic of Cancer, again attracted a distinguished gathering of literary luminaries on January 12, 1965, when “A Book Named Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs” found itself the defendant in Boston Superior Court before Judge J. Hudson.1 The witnesses who testified on behalf of Naked Lunch included Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, John Ciardi, Paul Hollander, Gabriele B. Jackson, Norman Holland, Stanley E. Eldred, John B. Sturrock, and Thomas H. Jackson. The attorney appearing in behalf of the book and its publisher, Grove Press, Inc., was Edward de Grazia, assisted by Daniel Klubock. As we go to press the court has still to hand down its decision. What follows are excerpts from the testimony of Mr. Mailer and Mr. Ginsberg, concluded by a statement from Mr. de GRAZIA.
Friday, March 1, 2019
New York’s Biggest Art Museum to Return a Stolen Artifact
by Nancy Bilyeau
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought an artifact from a Parisian art dealer — a gold-sheathed coffin from the 1st century BC — for $4 million in 2017. But now the museum has announced that it is sending its prized artifact to the Egyptian government for good. Why? The coffin was stolen fairly recently, it’s been discovered.
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