Pranks, Punk and Industrial Culture from V. Vale

WELCOME TO V. VALE’s RE/SEARCH NEWSLETTER #109, Oct 2012 Add Us to Your Address Book! You are Receiving this Email because You or Someone You Know Signed Up to Our Newsletter in the Past. Scroll to the Bottom of this Email to UNSUBSCRIBE. Are you receiving this newsletter (annoyingly) TWICE? PLEASE tell us which address to delete.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. MESSAGE FROM YOUR EDITOR, V. VALE
2. Counter Culture Hour Sat Oct 13, 2012 – 6:00 PM PACIFIC TIME – SF cable channel 29, also simulcast on-line (see below): Penelope Rosemont & Dennis Cunningham at Winston Smith’s Studio. (re-air due to station mishap last month)
3. **MEDITATION SPACE** [blank]
4. FORTHCOMING EVENTS -
5. What We’ve Attended/What We’ve Been Reading/Seeing:
6. WS Burroughs book from Charles Gatewood, NYC museum notes from Steven Gray
7. Recommended Links – send some!
8. QUOTES
9. Letters from Readers
10. Sponsors (Please check ‘em out!)
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1. MESSAGE FROM V. VALE: Does anyone still read my editorials? (Let me know!) I expanded my last month’s editorial to 1,700 words and for the benefit of all who didn’t read it last time (or want to read more), here is a link to it in all of its **expanded, unedited** “glory”: http://www.researchpubs.com/Blog/category/blog/
And now for a word on our forthcoming new book!

RE/Search’s new book is DATING AI: A Guide to Artificial Intelligence, written by a brilliant Russian scientist named Alex Zhavaronkoff. Finally, here is an easy-to-read, engaging, clear explication of what Artificial Intelligence (AI) **IS.** Almost all questions dealing with how ÅI will impact humanity in the future are explicated and explored, leaving, nevertheless, an immense territory on which all of us can speculate and bring our imaginations to bear.
Here is a brief excerpt from DATING AI, which can now be pre-ordered on the RE/Search website: http://www.researchpubs.com/Blog/pre-orders-soon/     All pre-orders will be given a free RE/Search book (pick one): Punk 77 or Modern Pagans

From “Dating AI” by Alex Zhavaronkoff, PhD:

() – () – () – () – () – () – () – () – () – () – () – () – () – ()
One thing seems clear: the ability of sentient AI to explore animal intelligence has revolutionized their (and our) view of intelligence. Many human researchers had done their best in what was an uphill struggle to convince people that many animals have intelligence beyond the human definitions, and that it was often combined with both social and emotional intelligence in ways that we barely understood. Since then, sentient AI, while admittedly having great difficulty mastering the full range of animal intel­ligence, have moved scientific knowledge farther down that road than anyone imagined.
Some of the advances have resulted from collaboration with people. Certainly, build­ing animal robotics and integrating them with sentient AI nodes required both human and AI effort. Human researchers had decades of preliminary work on the robotics. AI provided a new and powerful tool: the active presence of a node and global AI within the robotics. That made it possible to inhabit a community of animals in their native habitat, while retaining the flexibility and intellectual resources of a fully connected AI.
…In some ways, the experiments with animal forms and AI presence were like sentient AI androids among humans. We could use that experience as a guide. It was especially helpful in identifying the most human-influenced elements in our mental models, so that we could attempt to lessen the bias in observing and analyzing animals.
In some ways that is a disconcerting thought, but I guess I’m being all too human about it.
…We said repeatedly that we do not choose among human beings on the basis of intelligence. This is true, if conditional. With animals it is quite the oppo­site. There are so many kinds of animals in so many different contexts, that some kind of selection criteria was necessary. Even global AI could not afford to simulate many animal forms, or simultaneously add the wealth of experiences. So we use intelligence as our guide—a very rough guide indeed, but useful.
In practice, it meant that sentient AI allocated their resources mostly to those ani­mals that appeared in preliminary human studies to have the most active forms of intel­ligence: cetaceans, primates, elephants, cephalopods, corvids, and psittacidae—in that order. Are you competing against dolphins, chimpanzees, elephants, squid, crows and parrots? Yes, in a way. You can also add domesticated animals such as dogs and pigs, plus some of the new hybrid animals.

CETACEANS: DOLPHINS, PORPOISES, WHALES

“Go swim with the fishes” is not a friendly phrase to say to people. When you think about it, though, how else would you get to know cetaceans? Visit SeaWorld? Look through glass? Watch a few leaps into the air? Of course not. Dolphins, whales, porpoises and other cetaceans are best studied in their own environment in the oceans, and mostly under water. Unfortunately, this is almost as alien an environment for human beings as outer space. It is very difficult for us to envision living under water.
…This is probably a contributing factor for why it required so many decades to begin comprehending that cetaceans, notably some species of dolphin, have great intelligence—just not the human kind of intelligence.
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Please preorder today!

http://www.researchpubs.com/Blog/pre-orders-soon/

Order now and get a free book: Punk 77 or Modern Pagans, please indicate your 1st choice.

2. Counter Culture Hour -  Sat Oct 13, 2012 – 6:00 PM PACIFIC TIME.

This month’s program features a re-broadcast of the Penelope Rosemont/Dennis Cunningham interview filmed at Winston Smith’s Grant’s Tomb gallery – last month only 1/2 of the show was aired.
Edited/filmed/produced by Marian Wallace;  interviews by V. Vale.
The Counter Culture Hour (aka RE/SEARCH TV) is also simulcast ON-LINE as well as on cable access San Francisco Channel 29 — 6pm Pacific Time, Sat  Oct 13, 2012
- see this link at broadcast time:

http://72.47.201.244/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1881&Itemid=1801

You need a fairly decent internet connection and computer to “get it.”
USA west coast: 6:00 PM Saturday, Oct 13, 2012
USA east coast: 9:00 PM Saturday, Oct 13, 2012
London: 2:00 AM Sunday, Oct 14, 2012
Tokyo: 10:00 AM Sunday, Oct 14, 2012
If you cannot get this online email us at info@researchpubs.com
Would you like to have a Counter Culture Hour showing in your town? Please write & ask us how you can do this. (write:  info@researchpubs.com)

See RE/Search channel on youtube: “researchpubs”

Next month:    San Francisco Punk reunion!

3. This is blank space a la John Cage aka “Meditation Space”!

4. FORTHCOMING EVENTS (San Francisco unless Otherwise Noted) (sorry some have already happened!)

() $ **SAN JOSE**: NOW through Dec 8: ZERO1Biennial: Seeking Silicon Valley. www.zero1biennial.org Facebook / Twitter

() PUSSY RIOT GLOBAL DAY 2 – Please post your link on http://www.facebook.com/pages/freepussyriotorg/395771127128284 so we can add it on http://freepussyriot.org/fr/news/global-day-2-1st-october-global-day-action-freepussyriot

() FREE Tue Oct 2: SFMOMA (CINDY SHERMAN), Legion of Honor, de Young, Jewish, Yerba Buena MUSEUMS. Legion of Honor has MAN RAY-LEE MILLER SHOW  (a “must”) http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/legion/exhibitions/man-ray-lee-miller-partners-surrealism

() $ Opening Wed Oct 3 through October: Thrillpeddlers’ Shocktoberfest, www.thrillpeddlers.com Last week they were Cheryl Eddy’s “pick of the week” in the SF Bay Guardian: “The Thrillpeddlers have been killing it lately, with endlessly extended runs of Cockettes revivals and a recent hit production of Marat/Sade. Now the company is poised to kill it again — live! Onstage! With gruesome gore! — in its annual “Shocktoberfest” production. This year’s lucky 13th incarnation includes a classic Grand Guignol one-act (Coals of Fire by Fredrick Whitney, which caused a scandal in 1922 Britain); two contemporary world premieres about mad scientists (The Bride of Death by Michael Phillis and The Twisted Pair by Rob Keefe); and Scrumbly Koldewyn’s “musical spectacle” Those Beautiful Ghouls. And if you think you’re safe just sitting in the audience, wait until the uniquely terrifying spook-show finale — if you’re not afraid of the dark, you will be!” ‘Nuff said. San Francisco is lucky to have the Thrillpeddlers here, in their own Hypnodrome Theater at 575 10th St, SF… You don’t want to be one of those people who said, “I never saw the Thrillpeddlers; wish I had gone while they were still here!” No. Support worthwhile LOCAL causes…

() $ Wed Oct 3 JUCIFER played Oakland’s Uptown w/Hellbeard and The Bite. One of our favorite “life on the road” band books is JUCIFER RISING by longtime RE/Search subscriber JIM HAYES; reading that book definitely makes you want to see the band in person. We missed them in Oakland but they’re playing San Jose Sat Oct 6, 2012.

() FREE Thu Oct 4: Berkeley Art Museum.

() $ Fri Oct 5, 730pm, **OAKLAND** the gorgeous FOX THEATRE: NEW ORDER! The successor band to Joy Division after Ian Curtis’s suicide on the eve of their first American tour, the stalwart survivors soldiered on to produce their own classic recordings and albums. A rare opportunity to hear them LIVE (and perhaps get them to sign recordings afterward?). The Fox Theatre itself is worth experiencing alone (saw Roxy Music there long ago) and a concert by New Order makes the expedition to Oakland well worthwhile. This was truly one of the most enrapturing concerts we’ve ever experienced, what with the mind-expanding visuals, video footage, time-lapse film footage, 3-D laser light effects, strobe lights and other memorable imagery (some of it curated by our old pal Michael Shamberg, who was once head of Factory Records US and a filmmaker, curator and man-of-the-world in his own right (let us all send him “healing vibrations”).

() $ Fri Oct 5, 730pm Emerald Tablet, 50 Fresno Alley (behind Saloon on Grant Ave) presents Mario Guarneri & jazz quartet. (part of North Beach First Fridays)

() FREE Now thru Oct 4 only: **LONDON**: Wolfe Von Lenkiewicz: Hieronymus Bosch. All Visual Arts, 2 Omega Place, London N1 9DR, Tue-Sat 10-6pm. www.allvisualarts.org – A seemingly-amazing “take” on work by my favorite artist of all time: Bosch… (We would love to jet there and see the work IN PERSON, but finance does not permit…!)

() $ Thur Oct 4, 630pm **SAN RAFAEL** – ON THE ROAD at Smith Rafael Film Center – director Walter Salles in person. (MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL) www.mvff.com

() $ Fri Oct 5, 7pm at the Swedish American Hall, Roger Knox / Jon Langford & Sally Timms will be performing. Jon Langford and Sally Timms are two members of The Mekons, the band who gave a great acoustic performance at the hall last year.

() FREE Fri Oct 5, time? Kent Baer’s Ratio 3 Gallery Opening w/Lutz Bacher. 2831A Mission/24th St, SF. 821-3371. www.ratio3.org – Barry McGee intv podcast: http://blogs.artinfo.com/modernartnotes/2012/09/the-modern-art-notes-podcast-barry-mcgee/

() FREE. Fri-Sun Oct 5-7. Patti Smith (Oct 7) @ Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Hellman Hollow, Lindley & Marx Meadows in Golden Gate Park, SF  http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/2012/artists.shtml

() $ Sat Oct 6 (noon,2pm,4pm) Canyon Cinema films at the Exploratorium’s theater (Liz Keim, curator). Free w/admission to Exploratorium.

() FREE Sun Oct 7: Asian Art Museum, Oakland Art Museum.

() $$ Mon Oct 8, 8pm, Fillmore, Geary/Fillmore Sts, SF. Patti Smith.

() FREE **LONDON** Oct 9. Chris Marker Selected Works 1951-2011 at Peter Blum Gallery, 3 Olaf St. rsvp@ltbfoundation.org

() Oct 11, Thursday – Pixelvision Percept Plunder & THOMAS INCE (double feature) at 8pm (730 pm pot-luck), free admission at New Nothing, 16 Sherman St (off Folsom between 6th & 7th), San Fran CA 94103, phone 310-306-7330, film history and the future of live cinema with music improv by V. Vale, Rock Ross.

() Oct 12, Friday – MARK PAULINE INTERVIEW- 8:30pm at Oddball Films & Video http://www.oddballfilm.com/ 275 Capp St, San Fran CA 94110, 415-558-8112, $12 rsvp info@oddballfilm.com 30 minutes of rare film clips followed by Pauline interview by Gerry Fialka.

() $ Fri Oct 12, 8pm, Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno St, presents Brian Baumbusch gamelan concert.

() $10 1 day, $15 both days. Sat-Sun Oct 13-14, 11-6pm. APE (Alternative Press Expo) at Concourse, 8th/Brannan St, SF. RE/Search will have a table – come meet us! Let us know if you want to bring You a particular book! (info@researchpubs.com) We’re sharing with Charles Gatewood…

() FREE Sat-Sun Oct 13-14, 11-6pm. ArtSpan Open Studios w/Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno Alley.

() FREE Fri Oct 19, 7pm SFAI, 800 Chesnut: MARK PAULINE lectures! BTOBS…  www.sfai.edu/ArtistTalks.

() $ Sat Oct 20 (noon,3pm) Home Movies at Exploratorium’s theater. Free w/admission to Exploratorium.

() $7 Sat Oct 20, 8pm: JG. Ballard would have liked this program: “Orphans in Space” — forgotten films on space exploration, curated by Megan Prelinger. Also on the bill is Linda Scobie’s SPACE DOGS & Thad Povey’s Cineroc. Free “Orphans” DVDs to the first 10 patrons! ATA 992 Valencia/21st St, S.F.

() FREE Sat Oct 20, 7-10pm Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno St, presents New Exhibit Opening by MicroClimate Collective w/performances, drinks, etc

() FREE Wed Oct 24, 7pm City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus/Broadway: Sister Spit Anthology Book Release Party w/Mari Naomi, Michelle Tea, Paul Madonna. etc.  https://www.facebook.com/events/265494593560917/

() FREE Wed Oct 24, __, 50 Shotwell. Wed-Sun 1-8pm. Altered Barbie Event (til Nov 18).

() $$ Sat Oct 25, 730pm P.I.L. at Regency Ballroom, Van Ness/Sutter St, SF.

() FREE Fri Oct 26  5:30pm CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE 20th Anniv Justin Herman Plaza =  Market @ Embarcadero SF Bring Bike, Helmet, Lights, Costume

() FREE Tue Oct 30, 7-10pm Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno St, presents NERUDA DAY poetry reading w/Jack Hirschman, Agneta Falk, etc.
() $$  Return to SFAI Party Saturday, Nov 3, 5-10 PM, 800 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA  $40 early-bird price until Oct 22, then $55

www.sfai.edu/Return2SFAI

This campus-wide party—celebrating SFAI alumni but open to all arts enthusiasts—offers a chance to carouse and connect at a storied venue and legendary nexus of artistic innovation.

2012 Guggenheim Fellow Carlos Villa—beloved in the Bay Area and beyond as an artist, mentor, and community organizer—and other prominent faculty and alumni will be among the honored guests. Alumna and acclaimed artist Karen Finley—one of the notorious NEA Four and an icon of free speech and sexual expression—will perform a piece exclusively for this event. Special musical performances by alumni Penelope Houston of The Avengers and Debora Iyall of Romeo Void, both pioneers in the Bay Area punk scene, will keep guests dancing through the night.

Revelers will savor custom specialty cocktails by nationally recognized mixologists The Bon Vivants, known for throwing one-of-a-kind events and as the creative force behind bars Rio Grande and the much-anticipated Trick Dog. Hors d’oeuvres by renowned Bay Area chefs, including Chris L’Hommedieu from Prospect, Dennis Lee from Namu Gaji, William Werner from Craftsman & Wolves, and Chester Watson from Trick Dog, will be available to all. (More surprise chefs will be announcedonline.)

Tickets can be purchased today online or by phone at 415.749.4512!

() FREE  Return to SFAI Winter Art Festival, Sunday Nov 4, 11am-4pm 800 Chestnut St

www.sfai.edu/SFAIWinterArtFest

This FREE art festival transforms SFAI’s breathtaking Russian Hill campus into a winter bazaar featuring the exhibition and sale of new art by up to 200 students and alumni. Visitors will engage with the Institute’s forward-thinking contemporary artists and share in this unique display of SFAI spirit. The event also features live music, San Francisco’s best food trucks including Hapa Ramen and Le Truc, interactive installations from the cutting-edge Design and Technology Department, and special performances by the infamous New Genres Department. Works on display will include painting, drawing, collage, photography, printmaking, sculpture, mixed media, video, performance, and fiber art. All proceeds from the sale of work support the students directly. Twenty percent of proceeds from the sale of alumni work will go toward student scholarships.

5. What We’ve Attended/What We’ve Been Reading/Seeing/Listening to/What We’ve Been Sent

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED for REVIEW:

() KINGLUX: A Scientific Romance, Issue 3, Price 5 UK pounds. 7.7×11″, color cover, 76pp. Future Technology of the No-Money Generation: Magick, Cambodia Torture Ghosts, DMT, Modern Shamanism, #Occupy, Broken Capitalism, JG Ballard’s House, Cory Arcangel, Psychogeography, Mobile Phone Militia, Stelarc, Surveillance Poetry with Iain Sinclair. Do you see why we highly recommend that you send for this beautiful paper publication created by TONY HILL? www.kinglux.co.uk

() Beatdom issue Eleven Spring 2012: The Nature Issue. Ed. by David S. Wills, Michael Hendrick, Katharine Hollister with cover art by Waylon Bacon. We started reaing the first story, “Grizzly Bear” (set in S.F.’s Mission district) by Katy Gurin, and were “hooked.” Included in this 7×10″ perfectbound book-azine are an article on Hunter S. Thompson by Rory Feehan, an interview with Al Hinkle, “Liberation Under the Snow Moon” by Zeena Schreck (Anton LaVey’s daughter), “William Blake and the Beat Generation” — the Waylon Bacon illustrations are compelling and the entire production oddly satisfying. Order from www.books.beatdom.com

() Laurie Anderson @ Berkeley reviewed by Jewli Judd
Having not seen Laurie Anderson before, I had no idea what I was in for when she came to Zellerbach Auditorium on 9/18/12. Anderson walked out on stage wearing  her traditional white shirt, black tie and slacks. “Dirt” was  the third installment of her trilogy, in which she has been performing throughout the summer. Candles dotted  the stage, as tranquil colors filtered through fog.
Alternating between keyboards, electronic viola, and story-telling, I was mesmerized throughout the 90 minute set. At one point she made her voice sound like a man…..the bass in the speakers vibrating my seat. Her stories were humorous. “Earth,” she says, “sounds so formal. Why not call it Dirt?”
She reflected on Darwin and how he did not like  peacocks because it threw the whole idea of natural selection off. And that is:  the female of the species actually controls natural selection – what really matters, Anderson says,  “is who has the biggest, brightest, bushiest, bluest tail.”
Towards the middle of her set, Anderson moved to a big, comfy chair, as if she was drawing us into her living room. She shared artwork that her dog, Lolabelle, had created. She shared hilarious videos of a blind Lolabelle playing keyboard.
Towards the end of her set  Anderson said she had always wondered what it would be like to sing like a violin…she brought out a  “pillow speaker,” which turned her voice into a violin.
Laurie Anderson returns to the Bay Area November 16,  at Mills College.

() Sat 9/22/12: Jon Moritsugu/Amy Davis’s PIG DEATH MACHINE. One of the best films we’ve seen, and, made on a zero budget too! Great music score by Monte Cazazza & others (including a Meri St. Mary song) underscore this hilarious, edgy, underground yet occasionally gorgeous film: “After eating rotten meat, a brunette is transformed into a dangerous genius, while in a Doctor Doolittle twist, a misanthropic-punk-rock-botanist-babe gains the power to ‘talk to plants.’ ” Starring also Hannah Levbarg, Tucker Bennett (of Bloodrape), Victor of Acquitaine and Cherries Jubilee. Filmed amidst the beautiful architecture and occasionally magnificent landscapes of New Mexico and its mountains, this film is perfectly cast and brings out all the inherent humor and talent of its fortunate principals. Some highly original storytelling twists, retro medical footage and just-plain cinematographic virtuosity make this film a standout science-fiction mystery film of IDEAS, not just spectacle. We’d like to see it again — that translates to five (or is it three, in the Michelin rating system?) stars. The filmmakers were on hand to answer questions at the under-rated ATA, 992 Valencia/21st St, S.F. We highly recommend googling and tracking down the entire oeuvre of these two talented thespian-filmmakers; counter-culture “culture” is never handed to you on a silver platter; it takes energy to track it down and first-hand experience these mind-bending independently-creative achivements which are nothing if not thought-provoking and inspiring — imagine doing all this with practically-zero budget!

() Our thanks to Peter Urban who gave RE/Search a table at the ’70s Punk Reunion Sept 14-15-16 at Lennon Studios (also, concerts at Bottom of the Hill w/Avengers-Urge-Mutants-Noh Mercy and The On Broadway with The Offs, etc. This event needs to be written in much fuller detail; reunions are a source of pain but also pleasure as a flood of memories sometimes prove almost overwhelming. More later!

6.  W.S. Burroughs book from Charles Gatewood

Photographer Charles Gatewood and publisher Dana Smith have donated a signed and numbered copy of  Gatewood’s handmade photo book Burroughs23 to the William Burroughs Communications archive in Lawrence, Kansas. The deluxe 28-page book contains pictures of Burroughs and Gysin taken in London, 1972, and shows Burroughs with Jimmy Page in NYC, 1975. Only five books remain for sale before the edition is sold out. For more info, see www.burroughs23.com.

6.5 REVIEW OF TWO MUSEUM SHOWS IN MANHATTAN – by Steven Gray

NEW MUSEUM – “Ghosts in the Machine” – the bookstore is selling a few RE/Search books now!
One of my favorite half-hour films was showing in the lobby – “Der Lauf Der Dinge” (“The Way Things Go” – 1987), so I watched it.  It’s a Rube Goldberg sequence of chain reactions involving tires, ladders, cans, fire, chemicals, etc.
On another floor was Movie-Drome by Stan VanDerBeek (b. 1927).  I walked into a dome about 10 feet high and 30 feet wide, with projectors and cushions around the perimeter.  There were ghosts in each projector and it sprayed them on the wall.  I lay down and absorbed an overlapping audio-visual collage of short films that VanDerBeek made from 1963 to 1966.  I was there for a while, partly to see if he repeated anything (he didn’t), and the lack of repetition held my attention.  Also, there were references to people and politics in the 1960’s, so it had the effect of memory flashbacks for those of us who were alive and alert back then.  Some people came in, sat down, and left in a minute or two.
J.G. Ballard – there were six of his collages on the wall – “Advertiser’s Announcements” from Ambit.  “Fiction is a branch of neurology”.  Also framed on the wall was his Project for a New Novel from 1958 (http://www.jgballard.ca/uncollected_work/project_new_novel.html).  It is approximately 1 foot by 6 feet – a semi-abstract word collage.  “Mr. F is Mr. F… the terminal beach… T-1 emergency mega-channel multi-horn dive drill… programming the psycho-drill:  coded sleep and intertime.”  Some of the lines and concepts were seeds for novels which came later.  On the next wall was a film showing Ballard driving around London, anticipating or witnessing provocative car crashes (?).
“On the Origin of the ‘Influencing Machine‘ in Schizophrenia” – drawings by various schizophrenics having delirious visions of atmospheric mental/mechanical control systems.
There was more in the show:  “The bleached joint and carcass of choice.”  “Der Mensch als Industriepalast.”  A room with an “epileptic seizure comparison”.  A blue fabric floating on the updraft of a fan and stabilized by fishing weights.
—-Steven Gray
MUSEUM OF SEX
I was expecting two or three floors of erotic art, and in fact there were some bj videos and an x-rated Picasso etching (talk about contorted), but there was also an historical and scientific approach, with much ado about the animal kingdom. For example: Amazon River dolphin blowhole sex; and a statue of a bonobo monkey with a full erection and some sugarcane in his hot little fist – he was trading it for sex. Anything goes in a state of nature, as sea slugs and the Marquis de Sade both figured out. If you are looking for some justification for your own hard-to-categorize proclivities, this is the place.
With respect to the dark ages of repression, there was an “anti-onanism device” for males from the 1890’s – sort of a jock strap made of iron so you wouldn’t….  And there was something else to consider, which sounds like a turn-off:  “Spermatorrhaeal ophthalmia consequent through onanism.” [result: inflamed eyeballs.]
While wandering through the various rooms, with exhibits concerning sex on the internet and multi-persuasions, I saw three Japanese women in their early 40’s. They seemed curious and open-minded. One of them asked me to take her photograph in front of a picture of a naked woman leaping through the air.
The shop in the lobby had a Taschen book I recommend:  “Erotica Universalis – from Pompeii to Picasso”.
—-Steven Gray

7. RECOMMENDED LINKS (send some!)

() William Gibson & Ken Goldberg at JCC 9-4-2012 free VIDEO: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/v-vale/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall_b_1881370.html – also, 1000-word introduction penned by V. Vale for this video

() from Mikkel A: Chris Marker homage: http://www.mikkelaaland.com/tag/chris-marker/

() “Hi Vale, Did you see my Rumpus comic about Les Rowe? He’s the homeless man who used to stand in front of the Citibank [in North Beach at Columbus/Green Sts]. http://therumpus.net/2012/08/smoke-in-your-eyes-have-a-nice-day/  – Mari Naomi (my North Beach neighbor)

() from PhilG: http://www.houseoftheunusual.com/menu.html – “unusual”! Hogan’s Alley newsletter (a great publication about classic comics)

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120828/18264320201/b-movie-legends-troma-entertainment-releases-150-films-youtube.shtml

John Cage: http://www.openculture.com/2011/12/john_cage_performs_iwater_walki_on_ive_got_a_secret_1960_.html
banal Ballardian future: http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14314
I always liked the name Francine Fishpaws in Polyester; then I looked it up in Urban dictionary – even funnier

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/14/where-did-punk-begin-peruvian-los-saicos-claims-first-punk-band-title/

Romney goes dark: http://jezebel.com/5945024/did-mitt-romney-seriously-just-wear-brownface-to-appear-on-univision

() About GMOs: http://youtu.be/7y-X8j6vKi4     http://www.labelgmos.org

() from Brian & Amy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amybean/sets/72157631351259242/ Zaha Hadid space

() from Jerry Connolly: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2012/09/smartguy_records.php

() from V in London: music video -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxR8NPI_66o&sns=em

http://www.fieldtripday.com/san-francisco/

() from BR: http://vintagesleaze.blogspot.fr/

http://www.flickr.com/

http://archive.org/web/web.php

() http://www.monochrom.at/arse-elektronika/

() from Chris T: “Punk” -  http://www.nowness.com/day/2012/9/8?ecid=ema1843&CID=#replay
lobsters: http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/09/gaspods/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=twitterclickthru
Small Press: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/09/25/business/100000001805248/business-day-live-september-25-2012.html

() new DEVO song about Mitt Romney’s Dog, Seamus: “Don’t Roof Rack Me, Bro!” http://www.upi.com/blog/2012/08/16/Listen-to-Devos-song-about-Romneys-dog/5361345137287/

() from Ken Goldberg: William Gibson live at JCC 9-4-2012:  http://www.3200stories.org/blog/2012/09/10/william-gibson-live-from-kanbar-hall/

() from Tom: http://raykophoto.com/lydia-panas-the-mark-of-abel/

() from James: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVam-fshUgw

() Who Bombed Judi Bari? http://whobombedjudibari.com/

() from Greg L:  http://www.misterhonk.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/h%C3%A4dr%C3%B6nn-kollider-560×936.jpg?e83a2c

()  from GX Jupitter-Larsen: http://gx-communique.blogspot.com/2012/09/weltmaschine.html

() from Baba: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/world/fire-tornado-video-today-show-features-australian-outback-video-of-fiery-phenomenon-wptv

() from Chris Cobb: My pictures of Werner Herzog at SFMOMA:

http://blog.sfmoma.org/2012/09/diary-of-a-crazy-artist-trevor-paglen-with-werner-herzog/

My pictures of New York cops at SFMOMA:

http://blog.sfmoma.org/2012/09/diary-of-a-crazy-artist-cops-at-occupy-wall-street-anniversary/

() from Andrew B: A link for catlovers and Burroughs readers!

http://www.vice.com/read/the-cat-offers-itself-0000360-v19n9

8. QUOTES chosen by, or authored by, V. Vale – this issue of the newsletter is too long already!

9. LETTERS FROM READERS:

()  “Your newsletter about your mentors was inspiring. I don’t think anyone can ever replace a significant artist (or I hope not!), but we as artists can certainly strive to join them in the canons of greatness. And by “greatness” I mean all the things that artists ought to do: open people’s eyes, expose lies, encourage emotional growth, make a difference in the world, help spread compassion and love, increase and expand a vision of betterment, CONNECT and encourage connectedness. This all sounds hippy-dippy and I might have to barf on my computer now. Ha ha.” – Mari Naomi

() “VALE, HAPPY ART LIFE TO US AND ALLLLLLLL, LINDA (Montano)”

() “Hey Vale, That was pretty interesting about what you said about Devo and Blondie [Sept newsletter]. –alan”

() “Dear Vale, My boss says you are a legend! Blue Cheer!  – Samantha”

() “[Dear Vale,] Your books really helped shape my tastes. Thank you. – Josh.”

() “Dear Vale, read just a bit in the “prophecy in lit” – excellent …Not familiar with Philip Lamantia, but since YOU like him, that’s good enough for me…i bought that issue of Search and Destroy from you… interesting about the William Gibson event. like his work much, may just go to this soiree… i must say, zero history and much of gibson’s later work do not fulfill a sense of conveying the zeitgeist, really. had it on audio and it was hard to get any sense of what was going on. but maybe that IS the zeitgeist of our now?! – M.S.”

() Vale—
Thanks for putting the effort into producing these newsletters. I always read them and they usually make me wish i had more time and money… and they ALWAYS make me glad i live in the Bay Area!
Regarding the Future and Futurity—the evident earmarks of futurity have come into people’s everyday life, particulalrly the type of dystopian/alienated visions that Wm. Gibson traded in, but we are no more in the ‘future’ than we have ever been, since the future is only a conceptual frame rather than a time-period… we suffer from a lack of celebrity-visionaries in regards to what the ‘future’ might mean next, but a picture is beginning to emerge nonetheless: the product of a distributed zeitgeist instead of a visionary or two. The new future is like green clockwork—it has abandoned the dualistic conflict between technology and nature. It has its roots in design, architecture, ecology, neuroscience and a respect for systems; it has read Bucky Fuller and it sounds like Eno.
Or at least that’s what i see coming. Respectfully, — Kevin L.

() Our former intern Erica Olsen sent us an announcement about her new book, “Recapture & Other Stories” from torreyhouse.com and recapturestories.com – check it out!

() The Zeros recently played San Francisco at Brick & Mortar — we bought their new CD, The Zeros: Don’t Push Me Around, from Bomp Records. It’s a classic!

() Really enjoyed the “Incredibly Strange Music” book and thought you might be willing to listen to some more (relatively) strange music. I work by myself and release one new album a month. This month’s is “Days Like Polished Glass” and is available here:  http://scottmillermusic.bandcamp.com/album/days-like-polished-glass-new-lp  Thanks for listening (if you do). – Scott/Paul

10. **SPONSORS** (Without them you would NOT be receiving this newsletter – Please go to their websites!)
1. 47 Canal Street (Gallery w/events, NYC) – 47Canal Street.com
2.  Emerald Tablet (Gallery w/events), Fresno Alley (100 feet from RE/Search! in North Beach). emtab.org – lots of free or low cost local community events; check out their schedule! http://emtab.org/
3. Mrs Dalloway (Catering, Bay Area): Holly Erickson’s catering/foodblog/cookbook
www.mrsdallowayscatering.com and lightscameracuisine.foodblog.com
4. Contribute to (& Order copies of!) “OUT OF OUR” – Steven Gray & Sarah Page’s San Francisco Poetry Magazine:  outofour.com
5. From our friends Amy and Brian: check out their  “simple business software for art galleries: gallerystar.com
6. V. Vale’s RE/Search Newsletter is cordially sponsored by “Beyond the Beyond.”
Information Wants To Be Free WE MEAN IT MAN! $0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0 http://blog.wired.com/sterling
7. www.SOPHIAGASPARIAN.com “fine art about equal human rights worldwide”
RE/Search THANKS (3) SPONSORS who Wish to Remain Anonymous – you know who you are! And yes, we NEEDED Your Support! (B.H., D.S., V.V.)

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OCT 2012 RE/Search eNewsletter written by V. Vale & other contributors. RE/Search website powered by http://www.laughingsquid.com.  Add us (“info@researchpubs.com”) to Your Address Book
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Physical Address since May 1979: RE/SEARCH | 20 Romolo #B | San Francisco CA 94133-4041 | 415.362.1465
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RE/Search Publications
20 Romolo Place #B
San Francisco, CA  94133-4041
(415) 362-1465
info@researchpubs.com

The CyberPunk writer William Gibson described the Bay Area as a “liminal” place and—having looked up some definitions of the word online—we agree with Mr. Gibson that the Bay Area is indeed a place where a huge chunk of “the future” happens first. TheGold Rush (a model for future flash migrations in search of wealth, opportunity, cutting-edge fun). The accompanying legal whorehouses on the Barbary Coast. The invention of Levis jeans. Isadora Duncan, Imogen Cunningham, Ambrose Bierce, Frank Norris, Dashiell Hammett… The rise of the anarchist “Wobblies” and socialist-ideas-inspired labor unions; the San Francisco General Strike of 1933. Oppenheimer’s awesome “deadly discoveries” which he later disavowed; Lawrence Livermore Lab and the Stanford linear accelerator. Dyke- and gay bars. The Beats; City Lights Books. The underground filmmaking movement; electronic and original-instrument music pioneers (like Morton Subotnick; Harry Partch) at Mills College and beyond. The Hippies; the huge Gay Rights movement; the body-piercing-and-tattoo-and-fetish-clothing movement. San Francisco’s own Punk movement; the rise of skateboard culture (first promulgated by Thrasher magazine; the colorful bike-messenger underground; the underground warehouse rave-music scene. And the San Francisco “industrial culture” scene with Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) and noise musicians which helped spawn challenging, border-crossing creativity all over the planet. Then there’s Xerox Parc, the invention of the home computer by the Steves (Wozniak and Jobs), the Internet, the router, the CD industry, CNC systems, the cell phone, and numerous computer-telecom-Internet-related tech start-ups aided and abetted by risk-taking venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road. The Bay Area.

And why? The Bay Area is an international seaport hosting the largest Chinese community outside of China. It boasts Mediterranean weather 365 days a year, interesting topography (the 7 Hills of Frisco), bridges that are engineering marvels, the oldest living trees (Muir Woods), and beautiful architecture and city planning. Although… the aggressive implementation of Manhattan-ugly high-rises and shoddily-constructed, code-circumventing live-work “lofts” and “high-rise condos for the rich” threaten the future beauty of the San Francisco Gay Bay, the Gay Mecca of the West Coast. Couid it be that the extreme tolerance for gays, women, other races, unconventional ideas and lifestyles helps spawn breakthrough ideas, concepts and inventiveness which (gasp) bring us an unexpected future? If the future could be easily predicted, wouldn’t there be a lot more millionaires around? Actually, there ARE a lot of start-up millionaires in the Bay Area—even billionaires…

There are also totalitarian, dystopian, chaotic, and wild-card skeptical futures being predicted by the few prophets alive on the planet. Thanks to the worldwide media network, these prophets can criss-cross the planet supporting themselves by writing books and promoting them in lectures and interviews. Buckminster Fuller said it best: “I’m interested in the future because I’m going to spend the rest of my life there”—but are most people truly interested in the future? Two hundred in San Francisco are, because they turned up for CyberProphet William Gibson at the JCC answering questions by Ken Goldberg and members of the audience. This, more than any other situation, shows the true character and mettle of the artist: answering questions which have not been pre-submitted and vetted, thus forcing the intellect to invent and frame a response on the spot—laugh-provoking, at best… (It should be mentioned that William Gibson was on tour to promote his new book of essays, “Distrust That Particular Flavor” — thanks to our friend V in London, we have the British edition, which has a much more beautiful photographic-portrait cover. Ah, British book covers are usually BETTER than their American counterparts. )

But who are William Gibson and Ken Goldberg? To answer that question, we must provide a surrounding context to the persistently nagging question, “Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who’s the Most Prophetic of Them All?”

William Gibson. Long ago, back around 1984, we saw the rise of the so-called CyberPunk writers (William Gibson, John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, Richard Kadrey, Rudy Rucker; who else?). These humans are still alive and penning miles of sentences, but we have to wonder how successfully they have predicted the future, and are they still predicting the future—or maybe it’s enough to simply interrogate what-the-heck is happening NOW—what with the sea-change in our lives brought about by the omniscient, omnivorous, chronos-consuming invention of the Internet and ubiquitous cell-phone technology. Don’t people wonder if there a zeitgeist of now, besides “Things Fall Apart”? Maybe our “now” is stretched out into an almost-eternal “Long Now” where we never have time to reflect upon our rapidly-receding personal histories, or “the future”—say, twenty or fifty years away.

Ken Goldberg. We have long supported Survival Research Laboratories in their noisy machine performances which we felt were divining a rusty, improvised-technological future in the perhaps money-less, state-less, more robotic- and drone-filled world landscape ahead of us. In reviewing the past 20 years, an SRL associate comes to mind who has more or less selflessly curated dozens (maybe hundreds) of futuristic, bursting-with-ideas presentations by the crême-de-la-crême of cutting-edge thinkers, scientists and artists—most of them free; no admission charge—at U.C. Berkeley. That would be Ken Goldberg, who has been studying the future for several decades. Anyone heard of telerobotics? To quote, “Telerobotics is the field of robotics concerned with the remote distance control of robots using wireless connections, tethered connections, or internet connectivity via human input. Ken Goldberg, a pioneer of telerobotic art and his collaborative art installation Memento Mori can be seen as the first telepresent, internet-based earthwork controlled by minute movements of the Hayward Fault in California and transmitted continuously as a seismic data stream to an embedded audio visual display.” [!]

Of course, like everyone, we’re interested in making sense of the bewildering, dazzling scope of contemporary computer-assisted scientific experimentation—i.e., doing epistemological inquiries. And, “Much debate in the field of Epistemology has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. Professor Ken Goldberg of Berkeley UC notes that knowledge attained via distant and remote participation via the likes of web cams is defined as Telepistemology. The Robot In The Garden, Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet, edited by Ken Goldberg, Cambridge MIT Press 2000, pp 2-22.”

Twelve years after the publication of this still-futuristic book, Ken Goldberg was the one chosen to do a live conversation/interview with one of the premier CyberPunk writers of our time, William Gibson. Actually, this event was pitched as a kind of “meta-conversation”—anyone could submit questions in advance to this URL: http://opinion.berkeley.edu/gibson—and even tweet questions during the event.

William Gibson has a special connection to the Bay Area in that many years ago he “grokked” Survival Research Laboratories’ special joie-de-vivre and esprit, subsequently transmogrifying some of that ethos into the novel Mona Lisa Overdrive where he depicted an artist making large robotic sculptures, collaging them together out of purloined, scavenged metal parts and machinery in his junkyard (That artist would be Mark Pauline, SRL founder—www.srl.org). Gibson also was inspired by San Francisco’s Bay Bridge and the dark side of Silicon Valley’s cowboy entrepreneurialism to write his Bridge Trilogy—with many scenes set on a cobbled-together, Merzbau-like vast living emporium which has taken over (of course) the Bay Bridge—depicting it as a defunct automobile freeway overpass. Gibson was also (obviously) inspired by the San Francisco bike-messenger community of the ’80s-to-present. One of his most vivid characters is a female bike messenger. The Bridge novels include Virtual Light (’93), Idoru (’96) and All Tomorrow’s Parties (’99), now famous as a successful music festival focusing on retro reanimations of “classic” rock LPs.

There were plenty of questions to ask Mr Gibson. With the world’s banking & finance markets in free fall, and religious fanaticism on the uptake, the Internet continues to cannibalize the entirety of the world’s culture. Copyright be damned. Give everything away FOR FREE, and ultimately ruin the “information economy” (as Bruce Sterling predicted China would do back in 1998, in his prophetic masterpiece Distraction). There were a lot of questions to throw at Messieurs Gibson and Goldberg; so many, in fact, that only a small percentage were able to be mentioned.

In a kind of gordian-knot-cutting straight to the most pressing paradigm of now, Ken Goldberg asked William Gibson for his “take” on Twitter, FaceBook and the way the Internet has changed our lives. Here are a few of Mr. Gibson’s responses: “Facebook reminds me of a mall, while Twitter feels like the street.” “Usually the things that people think are really weird are not so weird to me.” “In the future there will be no unaugmented reality.” “I’m always curious about what criminals and artists will do with any new technology.” “News cycles today last as long as it takes to click the REFRESH button.” “Fashion is a code humans wear for others to decode, like language made flesh.”

William Gibson in person is part of an American lineage of geek- or nerd-heroes with glasses—think Clark Kent, Buddy Holly, Mark Pauline, but tall, gangly and slightly stoop-shouldered. When he walks, he leans forward, befitting his futuristic mind-set. Over the past decades, whenever we had glimpsed him, he had worn all black—but with black-and-white Converse tennis shoes. This evening of September 4, 2012 he wore a dark blue shirt, brown pants, brightly-striped socks with black-and-white tennis shoes—maybe not Converse but perhaps some esoteric Japanese brand. As quoted above, he reminded us that clothing is CODE, and the spectator’s job is to DECODE it. During the book signing afterward he wore an obliquely-trendy dark-brown Patagonia-style [no logo visible] down sweater (actually, was that from Uniqlo?) —no doubt very useful in the colder Canadian climate of Vancouver, B.C., where he resides with his wife (they raised a daughter, now 29, and a son).

We liked the way he almost-diffidently ambled onstage following the more confident strides of the blond, bespectacled Ken Goldberg, and were surprised by how high his voice is, and how slowly (and carefully?) he crafted his responses, often for seemingly the most “universal” encompassment. The territory of words presents numerous dangers, and it is so easy to fall into the verbal equivalent of a tiger trap. And thanks to the contemporary miracle of digital recording technology (everything under the sun can be converted into zeros and ones, then decoded back into analog formats decipherable by human eyes and ears), everyone on Planet Earth can hear the William Gibson-Ken Goldberg conversation, for free via the Internet. Here it is, for your listening edification: Full link to web page: http://www.3200stories.org/blog/2012/09/10/william-gibson-live-from-kanbar-hall/
– full video version plus 1,000-word version of the above at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/v-vale/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall_b_1881370.html …

WELCOME TO V. VALE’s RE/SEARCH NEWSLETTER #96, AUGUST 2010
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RE/SEARCH | 20 Romolo #B | San Francisco CA 94133 | 415.362.1465
www.researchpubs.com | http://www.myspace.com/researchpubs | info@researchpubs.com
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**TO RECEIVE LAST-MINUTE LOCAL S.F. BAY AREA NEWS OF RE/SEARCH-recommended EVENTS, reply to this newsletter & in subject line write “local subscribe” // If you’re receiving multiple eNewsletters let us know WHAT to delete from our list!

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. MESSAGE FROM YOUR EDITOR, V. VALE
2. Isaac Bonewits RIP
3. Counter Culture Hour with SINAN REVELL: 6 PM Pacific Time, Saturday August 14 – also simulcast on-line
4. FORTHCOMING EVENTS
5. What We’ve Attended/What We’ve Been Reading/Seeing
6. Mini book review from Bryce Frackas
7. Recommended Links – send some!
8. QUOTES- next month!
9. Letters from Readers
————–
please add info@researchpubs.com to your ADDRESS BOOK. If you change your email, send it plus your “old” email address to delete. Lastly, forward our newsletter to your friends! If you are on AOL, please make sure you can receive our newsletter – we get the most returns from addresses at AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo!
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[COMMERCIAL:] Since 1977, we are a small independent book publisher who needs your support! Call to Order, or Visit for the personal touch…

ORDER the DELUXE 20th Anniversary MODERN PRIMITIVES HARDBACK LIBRARY EDITION on Glossy Paper! Retail orders
Paperback (List $25) $20 + shipping
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Hardback limited edition (List $50) $40 + shipping
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Order (including payment) by August 31, 2010 – ORDER FROM WWW.RESEARCHPUBS.COM or: order by phone 415-362-1465 (& receive additional free book of our choice)
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1. MESSAGE FROM YOUR EDITOR, V. VALE —
Just came back from NYC – more on that next month. Now we’re all in a rush getting the brand new Modern Primitives 20th Anniversary Edition out!
Tonight you can come see us at Great American Music Hall — see below –
_________________
Vale is off at the SM Flea Market today – a quarterly event in San Francisco — so here is an extremely abbreviated (unfinished) eNews letter. He promises more next month, and in the meantime, follow him on Twitter!
(ValeRESearch — http://twitter.com/ValeRESearch?utm_source=follow&utm_campaign=newfollow20100706&utm_medium=email&utm_content=profile)
or watch the his videos on youtube and facebook.
Here are some links to get you started — shot by Richard Wylde at the RE/Search office.

Just came back from NYC – more on that next month. Now we’re all in a rush getting the brand new Modern Primitives 20th Anniversary Edition out!

Tonight you can come see us at Great American Music Hall — see below —

2. Isaac Bonewits (featured in “Modern Pagans”) RIP (1949-2010)
Neopagan author Issac Bonewits passed away Thursday, August 12, after a short struggle with cancer. Born Phillip Emmons Isaac Bonewits on 10/1/1949 in Royal Oak Michigan, Issac Bonewits was a druid priest, writer, teacher, and psychic, as well as a self proclaimed ne’er-do-well and trouble-maker.
One of his most influential contributions was the Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (the “ABCDEF”), developed in 1979 as a response to the Jim Jones People’s Temple tragedy. It has been translated into many languages and used around the world to evaluate how dangerous or harmless an organization might be. It was the first such scale to use theories of mental health and personal growth to judge rather than theological or ideological standards.
Obituaries:

http://witchescupboard.info/famous-pagans/author-isaac-bonewits-passes-over-to-the-summerland-2010/

http://neopagan.net/blog/

http://witchfulthinking.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/isaac-bonewits-died-of-cancer/

http://cosettefromjupiter.blogspot.com/2010/08/isaac-bonewits-crosses-veil.html

3. Counter Culture Hour – Sat August 14, 2010 – 6:00 PM PACIFIC TIME. (We hope to air this at its listed time this month. Due to a mix-up, the June’s show was shown in July … Sorry for any confusion.)
SINAN REVELL, visual artist, photographer and vocalist of industrial pioneers SPK, discusses her career and the multicultural environment in which she was raised. The Counter Culture Hour is edited/produced by Marian Wallace; interview by V. Vale.
The Counter Culture Hour (aka RE/SEARCH TV) is also ON-LINE as well as on cable access San Francisco Channel 29 — 6pm Pacific Time, Sat April 10, 2010 ALSO on-line (simulcast) – at this link:

http://72.47.201.244/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1881&Itemid=1801

You need a fairly decent internet connection and computer to “get it.”
USA west coast: 6:00 PM Saturday,August 14
USA east coast: 9:00 PM Saturday, August 14
London: 2:00 AM Sunday, August 15
Tokyo: 10:00 AM Sunday, August 15
ETC.
If you cannot get this online (we have heard some complaints about this), please write us to get a DVD copy. ($20 postpaid USA domestic, $25 overseas – to cover expenses)
Would you like to have a Counter Culture Hour showing in your town? Please write and ask us how you can do this. (write: info@researchpubs.com)

The new management of the Public Access Station is working towards having all shows available all the time in an archive, and we are looking into other hostings for the show, also as an audio MP3. Or, contact us for a DVD now! ($20 postpaid USA domestic, $25 overseas – to cover expenses)

4. FORTHCOMING EVENTS (San Francisco unless Otherwise Noted)

Saturday Aug 14th
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine @ Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell St/Polk, SF. 8pm Sat 8/14/10. Tel 415-885-0750.
RE/SEARCH will have a small table there – come talk to us! Our new 20th Anniversary Deluxe MODERN PRIMITIVES HARDBACK is just in. Alternative Tentacles will also have a table of hard-to-find vinyl, their latest releases, plus, of course, Jello Biafra & his band’s New CD — Have him autograph it. Support bands are ZOLAR X and LA PLEBE – 3 bands total for a full night of music!

Thursday August 19, 2010 (through October)
There is a brand new market coming to UN Plaza for local artists.
The kick off date is Thursday, August 19, 2010 and will run through October. They are looking for local artists who are interested in applying for tent space at these markets.
12pm-8pm every Thursday. Early Bird tents run a mere $25.
They will also be looking to book local musicians for the noon and 5pm hours.
Apply now at www.artsmarketsf.org

() FREE – through through Saturday September 25, 2010
Art at the Dump: Twenty Years of the Artist in Residence Program at Recology at Intersection 5M. This exhibition celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the art and education program at Recology San Francisco, a one-of-a-kind initiative that enables artists to work with materials taken directly from the city of San Francisco’s waste stream, while teaching the public about recycling and resource conservation.
Art at the Dump presents a sampling of work made by some of the more than eighty artists who have participated in the program. Work in a variety of mediums – sculpture, photography, painting, drawing, performance, video, textiles, and musical composition – is represented, and often runs counter to traditional notions of what art made from found materials should look like. http://theintersection.org/calendar/index.php?op=view&id=2943
Location: 925 Mission Street at 5th Street, In the historic San Francisco Chronicle building.

5. What We’ve Attended/What We’ve Been Reading/Seeing/Listening to/What We’ve Been Sent

NYC Subways – get you there … eventually! It’s a bigger city than it looks on the map.

Brion Gysin show at New Museum in the Bowery– well worth seeing.

David Byrne’s “Bicycle Diaries” has some thoughts for a future without cars. Great chapter on San Francisco featuring a visit to SRL.

6. A recent book from Last Gasp: “Onikage” by Toshio Saeki
Mini-review by Bryce Frackas
A transgressive take on the traditional Japanese “floating world erotica” style, lovingly drawn. Of particular note are the beautiful overlays. This oversized hardback production contains the stuff of erotic nightmares of extreme fetishes, whose redeeming value is assured by the gorgeous technique and artistry. The most extreme fears and paranoias are unblinkingly depicted. Virtually every conceivable taboo has been breached, even the most outlier fantasies are wondrously depicted. This 12 x 15 inch hardback belongs in the rare book libraries of the most discerning collectors worldwide. Sumptuously produced red hardback.

7. RECOMMENDED LINKS (send some!)

() http://www.glatz.com/blog/operating-system-dare-not-speak-its-name

() www.streetlevels.blogdrive.com

() http://www.pwhole.com/zoomify/Aladdin3.html
I’ve just added the first Zoomify version of my Treak Cliff Cavern panoramas to the website, if anyone’s interested. The actual finished image is close to 2 metres across when printed out at photo-resolution, so it’s quite a beast, and may pay off viewed slowly for best results. I’ll add more as time (and server space!) allows, but I hope you like it, and can hopefully see where this project is heading…;)
Phil Wolstenholme, Digital Art and Design

8. QUOTES Next Month!

9. Letter from a Reader:

Hi there,
I first wanted to say thanks for keep doing what you are doing. I am currently reading your Ballard collection of quotes as a writing/inspiration tool. I pick up the book, find a chapter, read a few quotes until one really sticks with me and then sit about writing my thoughts/experiences/grapples with it. An awesome exercise!
Here is a link about Burroghs on Magikal practices: http://pop-damage.com/?p=5393GENERAL SEMANTICS MEETS EXPERIMENTAL LITERATURE: THE LIFELONG EFFECT OF ALFRED KORZYBSKI ON WILLIAM S BURROUGHS : http://realitystudio.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9907&sid=0992344419efd82c1405e220729446da#p9907
you have probably seen both, but always nice to read more. take care! –Dave L –

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AUGUST 2010 RE/Search eNewsletter written by V. Vale & other contributors. Newsletter and website powered by http://www.laughingsquid.com.
DISCLAIMER : If you’re receiving V. VALE’s newsletter, it’s because you **or someone you know** has sent your address to us, or signed our mailing list at an event!
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RE/SEARCH | 20 Romolo #B | San Francisco CA 94133 | 415.362.1465
http://www.researchpubs.com | http://www.myspace.com/researchpubs | info@researchpubs.com facebook: “RE/Search Group”

 RE/Search at DORKBOT Wed Sep 10, 730pm, S.F. Million Fishes Gallery, 23rd/Bryant St.

it’s this wednesday sept 10 at 7:30pm
and thanks to ulrika will be hosted at million fishes at 2501 bryant
mc’d by the awesome jonathan foote!

RE/Search will have  a table of books/t-shirts FOR SALE.

FREE ADMISSION but DONATIONS very much appreciated! all donations go
to the host who has to do some work to set their space up for the
night! $5 after 10pm to cover the entertainment – BLANKETHEAD

our speakers will be:

Carl Pisaturo – Orbit 2 [seen above]
He will be giving a tour of his space nearby for those interested

Jonathan Jaffe – RIAA vs You

Rachel McConnell – Soft Circuits

CASH BAR so 21+
see you guys then!

The Exploratorium’s Ulrika Andersson invited us to “SECOND SKIN: Imaginative Designs in Digital & Analog Clothing”‘s opening night celebration, 4/25/08 7-11pm. This took place in one of San Francisco’s most beautiful buildings, left over from the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition, and designed around a small lake graced by trees, grass, and black swans. The guest list entrance is a hundred feet to the left of the main entrance, but it leads directly to the small movie theater run by an alumnae of the 70s Punk Rock Cultural Revolution, Liz Keim. We arrived at 8pm and as soon as we entered the large main room we saw SRL crew Ralf, Liisa Pine, Sean (?) and Joanne — a good start. Liisa wore foam “industrial” jewelry and Joanne sported a futuristic flight suit. Then a couple of spectacularly plumaged and masked women walked by, then more.

Slowly we walked through the exhibits through the main room and saw Louis, a member of the original Suicide Club now involved in www.lightnwire.com — “lightwire” for clothing. A man walked by wearing coveralls whose pockets were outlined in glowing lightwire — it was like watching a living animation. Another man walked by in a light-green suit made out of bubble-wrap! We paused at a booth and watched fuzzy-wuzzy animals come to life when an operator “petted” them with a magnetic steel bar. In a windowed room we spotted Xeni Jardin (NPR, Boing Boing) video-interviewing several people.

Upstairs a man in a loincloth sat in a seven-sided “jukebox” slowly eating chocolate biscuits. Judging by the program, we missed most of the performances and runways and demonstrations, but in various locations people were playing a theremin, marimbas, and trying out the Exploratorium’s interactive (and sometimes walk-through) exhibits. A couple glowing lightwire art bicycles wheeled by, along with local “indie” circus performers. Some couples were dressed retro-hippie in multiple layers of fabric and jewelry, complex and colorful. In DIY terms there was no difference between the runway and the audience walking about. This was people-watching (one of my favorite activities in cafes over the world) times powers of ten…

A ten-year-old girl was wearing a costume she made out of newspaper and colorful tape. A girl wore a large wing assembly made of playing cards. All kinds of exotic and unlikely materials were being re-purposed as costume with high-tech references. In the very back, high up, an aerial acrobatic kind of opera was being performed, in spectacular post-Goth, Solomon-and-Sheba draperies, mostly white with touches of black. Throughout the evening, the sky was the limit as far as neo-clothing concepts goes — I liked the concept of a video camera wire hat which not only added height but recorded everything you saw and heard — total recall might then be possible, as long as one didn’t run out of memory. Maybe someday, at birth there will be an SD card implanted into our heads with a memory sufficient to video-record our entire lifetime…

At 9:10 we drove to the San Francisco Film Festival’s Kabuki Theater to see the U.S. premiere of Dario Argento’s “Mother of Tears” — the last installment of his “Three Mothers” trilogy. At the head of the line was Jeffrey Friend and Tom Iwatsubo, whom we “joined.” Jeffrey had the U.S. edition of Maitland McDonagh’s “Broken Mirrors, Broken Minds” for Dario to autograph — sadly, neither he nor his daughter Asia Argento showed up for the festival — Asia was pregnant, and Dario had to accelerate filming on his next work, “Giallo,” when Adrien Brody suddenly became available. Jeffrey was also holding a beautiful vintage pulp copy of Cornell Woolrich’s (under the pseudonym of “William Irish”) “Dilemma of the Dead Lady.” Jeffrey’s favorite Cornell Woolrich books include all the “Black” series (“The Bride Wore Black,” “Rendezvous in Black,” etc), “The Phantom Lady,” “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” etc.

The announcer staged a poster giveaway, told us his favorite Argento film was “Phenomena,” and that tonight was probably the largest screen to show the film. Finally, the film opened, and contrary to rumors featured music by “Goblin” or at least Claudio Simonetti. Good. Also, Daria Nicolodi was in the film. Better. And Dario’s daughter, Asia Argento, was the star. Best. I’m partial to themes of family reunion, especially when the work produced is obviously exponentially better.

To begin with, the opening credits featured disturbing, provocative and gorgeous detailed close-ups of some of the most enigmatic paintings in history by the likes of Hieronymus Bosch and kin. The history of mankind is also the history of torture and so-called “pornography.” Probably Rome never looked more beautiful and spectacular than in this film. Argento has an eye for exceptional architecture and interior design — perhaps he himself is a closet architect — and his lighting and camerawork are legendary for both beauty and mystery, the key elements of a work of art. The film continually surprised us: by beautiful scenes and compositions; by sudden poetic violence; by all kinds of eroticism. The plot made total sense, contrary to certain “spoiler” reviews by bourgeois film critic hacks and horror-film fanboy publications. We had the impression of having seen a sensuously choreographed, overwhelmingly romantic and timeless classic exploring the Dark Side of love and power.

One of the true modern-day horror experiences is being caught in the press of a crowd, feeling suffocated and unable to easily escape, despite being in, say, an airport, or a complex new train station. This was captured — sunlit horror, perhaps? Some favorite moments involve the feeling of being watched intently by beautiful women. The best theme of all was, as usual, that of “empowerment” — the hero(ine) finds within herself the reserves to combat enemies and threats no matter what the situation, and transcend and escape with one’s life. Maybe you CAN be invisible if you just concentrate hard enough. Who knows? William Burroughs once pointed out a man who looked so ordinary — not worth a second glance — that he was actually overwhelmingly exceptional. Funny, after W. S. Burroughs died on August 2, 1997, I kept seeing on the streets of North Beach, from a distance, a man who looked almost exactly like him — gray suit and fedora and bony face — but shorter. Weird.

We went through the nightmare of clearing customs ourselves and finally got our PRANKS hardback (edition of 500) to our warehouse in a 20-foot Ryder dock-high truck — just try driving one to Oakland and back! (No radio on, please) If you liked that book and deem it worth re-reading for the remainder of your life, please order one from www.researchpubs.com

– V. Vale, your scribe and RE/Search founder (also, the founder of SEARCH & DESTROY a bit earlier).
RE/Search Publications
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