Nieghbors 1 and 2

Well France is anything but tiny, yet this young man had already made a good start toward fulfilling his dream.

HELLO FROM NOLA

I dress up for Mardi Gras
in a costume provided
by my hostess

described
on the package
as
           Jesus, "one size
           fits all."

I

When Eddie Woods & Jane Harvey left London in March 1978, heading initially for Amsterdam, what they had in mind was to once again go traveling, first around parts of Europe they had not yet sufficiently explored, then--depending on how 'things' turned out--possibly back to India or even (again) to lands beyond.

Amsterdam was a logical jumping-off point: Not only did Eddie want to finally see the fabled 'Kathmandu of the West'; he had also been asked by Max Handley, at that time chief editor of International Times (IT), to call upon Dutch writer Simon Vinkenoog, in hopes of getting an in-depth article from him on the Operation Julie LSD case, a lengthy police surveillance undertaking that culminated in an astonishing trial and long prison sentences--up to 13 years--for most of the defendants. (Vinkenoog was also a well-known expert on psychedelic substances and a personal friend of David Solomon, an American writer who was among those charged and convicted. Eddie, moreover, had worked on IT with David's youngest daughter, Lin.).

Once in Amsterdam, Eddie took the opportunity to look up several other people, among them William Levy, a fellow expatriate American with whose literary work (The Virgin Sperm Dancer, Wet Dreams, etc.) Eddie was long familiar. He had Levy's telephone number from the English poet & playwright Heathcote Williams. (Along with Vinkenoog, (1) but to an even greater extent, Levy would become a pivotal figure in the development of Ins & Outs magazine. He and Eddie soon became close friends.)

As well as trotting about the city "interviewing people" (as Jane humorously put it), Eddie sat in their room in the Hotel Arrivé knocking off poems & stories on the manual typewriter he had borrowed from Simon. Jane, meanwhile, kept track of their finances (they were rapidly going broke) and checked out other Amsterdam attractions. She soon came upon, and more than once, an interesting 'Wanted' poster. Some unnamed person was looking for people to write for a new magazine. She went along to the address given, listened in, then came back and told Eddie. Eddie wasn't interested, but (after much urging) he went to a meeting anyway.

Louis Farrakhan is an evil sociopathic anti-Semite who was responsible for the murder of Malcolm X, but he was right-on about one thing-- the Jews who ran Hollywood were racists. The celluloid presence of shiftless, stupid, lazy, greedy, sassy Blacks, featured exclusively as maids and butlers, tainted major studio releases from the ‘30’s to the 50’s, rendering heartwarming family fare, cutting-edge comedy classics and edgy film noir expeditions into psychic cringe fests.  What was the purpose of including Black actors if only to cast them as bobbly-eyed cooks and butlers unable to follow the simplest commands, who frequently fell down (since they were also incapable of learning how to walk properly), and bug-eyed, big-bottomed maids who either sassed their employees, broke or stole things, or relayed misinformation?  Their presence was usually irrelevant to the plot, and it always interfered with my cinematic suspension of disbelief.  As soon as I felt myself swept up in emotion I ended up obsessing about why Louis B. Mayer, Harry Cohn, Jack Warner, et al, found it necessary to demean and ridicule Black people.  These studio-owners were always kvetching about not being included in Hollywood’s old WASP society, forcing them to form their own country clubs.  Shouldn’t they have understood prejudice on a personal level?

The Wall in My Head: Words and Images from the Fall of the Iron Curtain : A Words Without Borders Anthology

from Nolan's semi-published work, Made In The Shade.
11/7/90
Hunce died.  We all expected it just not so soon.  He was attended by those who loved him.  Even if we didn't realize it before we did now.  We all walked around dazed and tried to assure each other that yes, the end had come, but still we gaped in disbelief at the man we had once known as skinny, even emaciated, now a bloated ball of gray skin, cold to the touch.  With the life gone from him, he seemed so impersonal, so distant.  He was never that way alive, always so engaging, so receptive.  We clambered up and down the narrow stairways that he had fashioned to resemble catwalks on a suspension bridge as if they weren't there.  We did what we had to do.  And the ambulance left and the volunteer firemen returned and the deputy took his report.  Still we had to wait for the mortuary van to come for the body.  Hunce didn't appear to be in any hurry.  We had the look of a party at which the guests were waiting for the host to leave.  We toasted him with his champagne.  He was a beautiful man with a beautiful heart.  Hear, hear.  He had a big heart.  Yes, his body finally caught up with his heart.  Hey, that's cold.  But then, so is he.

"Because I could not stop for Death-
He kindly stopped for me…."

Waves of raucous laughter, “Fuck! Did you see that shut-out at lunch?”

“Shit yeah!”

It is every public school teacher’s onus that the system serves the dual purposes of education and free day-care, but what wonderfully awful juxtapositions this affords, as on the Friday before a full moon weekend when I had scheduled my Emily Dickinson video. The audiences were periods four and five, alike only in their average age of 17. The periods differ in that period four, before lunch, is controlled by several literate girls, fascinated by Dickinson and not ashamed to say so, while period five is under the spell of four Russian boys, very much in the tradition of Aykroyd and Martin's “Wild and Crazy Guys.”

Thirteen paintings created by Adolf Hitler have failed to attract a single bid at a Shropshire auction.

The artwork was up for sale in a historical documents sale at the Mullocks auction at Ludlow Racecourse yesterday.

The works included oils, pastels and watercolours, along with an etching of the Nazi leader playing chess, which was apparently created by his Jewish art teacher.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2009


The Yes Men: http://www.theyesmen.org

Andy Bichlbaum, co-founder of activist group the Yes Men, emerged after 26 hours in New York City's central lockup with all charges against him dismissed.[1 ]

"The judge just laughed," said Bichlbaum. "The police had a less well-developed sense of humor - and, it turned out, much less regard for the law. But all in all, I'm ecstatic that they arrested me."

At 10am Tuesday, Bichlbaum was arrested and charged with trespassing, after he and 21 "Survivaballs" [2 ] gathered on New York City's East River and announced they were to going to "take the UN by storm" from the water, since all the land approaches were sealed. Once at the UN, they would supposedly use the Survivaballs to blockade the negotiations and refuse to let world leaders leave the room until they'd agreed on sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has demanded.[3 ]

The event was a "scenic and mediagenic way to call attention to what our leaders need to do in the run-up to Copenhagen," said Bichlbaum. [4 ] It was also the official inauguration of the Yes Men's "Balls Across America" series of civil disobedience actions, inspired by the call for direct action on climate change by website http://BeyondTalk.net .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2009


Early this morning, nearly a million New Yorkers were stunned by the appearance of a "special edition" New York Post blaring headlines that their city could face deadly heat waves, extreme flooding, and other lethal effects of global warming within the next few decades. The most alarming thing about it: the news came from an official City report.

Distributed by over 2000 volunteers throughout New York City, the paper has been created by The Yes Men and a coalition of activists as a wake-up call to action on climate change. It appears one day before a UN summit where Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will push 100 world leaders to make serious commitments to reduce carbon emissions in the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate conference in December. Ban has said that the world has "less than 10 years to halt (the) global rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet," adding that Copenhagen is a "once-in-a-generation opportunity."

Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100% true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts.

"This could be, and should be, a real New York Post," said Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men. "Climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced, and it should be in the headlines of every paper, every day until we solve the problem."