Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:35:43 -0700 To: From: RE/Search Publications Subject: Cc: Bcc: X-Attachments: eNewsletter #41
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RE/SEARCH Newsletter #41, October 2005

HERE'S THE NEWS FROM SAN FRANCISCO....


CONTENTS:
1. DEVO to play at Oakland's Paramount Theater THIS SATURDAY NIGHT--tomorrow, Oct 8!
2. CounterCulture Hour airs Sat, October 8, 2005, 6:30pm (11th episode) with Diane Di Prima, San Francisco poet/writer famous for her association with the "Beat" movement.
3. Leslie Hodgkins' Review of the RE/Search Sept 10 JGBallard Conversations party at Hayes Valley Market, S.F. Transcripts of Mark Pauline and Graeme Revell speaking at the panel.
4. A review of our new J.G. Ballard Conversations book from the U.K.!
5. A brief note on the RE/Search party for Jean-Jacques Perrey, composer extraordinaire, Sept 10 at Varnish Gallery
6. Recovering from the RE/Search Office Flood...
7. WEBZINE 2005 - a fantastic, futuristic, fun-filled event - see the photos!

**Dear Friends: Please note that our email address has changed to:
info@researchpubs.com (not: research@sirius.com).
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1. Did you know you can see DEVO IN OAKLAND TOMORROW? (From ClubDevo.com) at Oakland's Paramount Theater Sat, Oct 8 7:30pm, Devo & Bow Wow Wow Doors open 60 minutes before show time. Tickets: $64.00 & $54.00 DEVO - One of new wave's most innovative and successful bands, and also perhaps one of its most misunderstood. For the first time in 22 years, Devo is reforming for a brief U.S. tour. Do they still wear flowerpots on their heads? Come and see! Bow Wow Wow opens the show! For the record, DEVO was definitely one of our favorite bands to spark and inspire the Punk Rock Cultural Revolution, and also among those most lastingly-subversive...

2. CounterCulture Hour this Sat, Oct 8, 2005, 6:30pm, Cable Channel 29 (Sorry, San Francisco only, but watch for video releases on our website.) Due to the scheduling conflict with OUR event last month, we are repeating the 11th episode, featuring Diane Di Prima, San Francisco-based poet/writer famous for her association with the "Beat" Movement. Hosted by V. Vale and Produced by Marian & Marian (Marian Wallace and Marian Wilde). A very "inspiring" interview!

3. Leslie Hodgkins, M.A., is a San Francisco writer and musician who currently works at Black Oak Books on Broadway near Columbus Ave in San Francisco, a used bookstore which occasionally yields surprising treasures (aka "finds"). Sadly, the store is under-patronized, so we urge all of our readers to visit and support Black Oak...used bookstores need to be treasured! Leslie has penned the following "review" of our J.G. Ballard Conversations party Sept 10 at the Hayes Valley Market, transcribing part of the "live" panel which featured Mark Pauline, Graeme Revell, and V. Vale.

Personal Obsessions Made Public, and Ballard Boosterisms

To me, the desolate space of the huge Hayes Valley Market, on Hayes at Laguna in San Francisco, seemed like a place begging to be destroyed by robotic half-breeds . . . to have the decorated walls decimated by improvised explosives sending the hordes of "hip" attendees skipping into the streets with the cheery British story-time accent of J.G. Ballard ringing in their ears against the caterwaul of Survival Research Laboratories' cannons.

Well, at least part of the fantasy came true. While there was no "Dynamic Art Installation," there were amazing large-scale color reproductions of photos from SRL's latest L.A. performance, April 2, 2005. They looked like promo stills of the most horrifying Science Fiction action flick never made. RE/Search Publications covered their side of the space with an alluring solid roll of blown-up pages reproduced from their latest Ballard title, JG BALLARD CONVERSATIONS, that seemed thousands of feet long to my wine-muddled memory. An array of photographs from the aforementioned RE/Search book emblazoned the walls, and Charles Gatewood made quite an impression with his single photographic offering for the evening: the most majestic and intricately fleshy mound of naked femininity my virginal eyes have ever beheld. Ana Barrado flew all the way from Florida to meet and greet devotees of her amazing photography ("Ana Barrado is the best living photographer in the world!"--Yoshi Yubai)

The "Vermilion Sands Lounge" served up the Two-Buck Chuck in an array of amazingly transforming shapes and colors and I remember thinking "How apropos" as the music of Suicide emerged from Mike Ryan's Ballardian Disc Jockeying. Let's not forget the "Uncle Bill Burroughs" photo booth, by Robert Collison, complete with a very convincing dummy of Burroughs, some stellar quotes and the most hard-edge picture of Bill brandishing a revolver that I have ever seen (may He rest in peace). The highlight of the evening, however, was the panel discussion featuring Graeme Revell and Mark Pauline, with V. Vale as moderator.

What follows is a transcription of some of the highlights: Mark Pauline: I moved to San Francisco and suddenly began to feel the pull of my obsessions. I didn't know why I felt this sudden urge to start breaking into abandoned factories and steal all the equipment I could get my hands on. In novels like CRASH, Ballard made the most far-out obsessions seem totally normal. He was one of my seminal influences for starting SRL. It suddenly seemed like no big deal whatsoever to build these gigantic robotic dinosaurs that weigh a ton and have them destroy each other in public spectacles. Ballard's work has continued to inform and bolster all the bad decisions I've made in my life!

Graeme Revell: Ballard is working in an area that I initially discovered through his work and later, when I was studying philosophy at the Sorbonne, was reintroduced to in the writing of thinkers like Baudrillard, Deleuze and Foucault. Ballard really is working in the same territory--only he's much more fun...

It was an incredible honor to converse with him. When he speak, his thoughts come complete in full paragraphs with perfect punctuation. It's like talking to a sage who is telling you exactly how the universe operates.

MP: I remember when I was visiting Ballard [in the 80's] there was a massive protest underway at a major nuclear weapons facility. All of these demonstrators were outside in this huge encampment in protest of nuclear weapons, and Ballard went on this very long and very well reasoned diatribe about how to sit outside the weapons plant would never do any good. He said what they should really do is all go into some random stranger's backyard. That they should take their protest out of context, and that's what would really get people's attention. To stop nuclear weapons you've got to think outside of the box.

It's the intensity of really amazing writers like Ballard that make it possible for me, a person who is really just a marginal character, to hold it together and be inspired to get with other people who are just as marginal as I am, and create a coherent--well, a COMPLICATED product. There is something about the structures in the writing that I am able to carry away with me, especially in the vivid and intense writings of somebody like Ballard. They are cataclysmic topics and cataclysmic characters--that is how he draws his worlds, and when I read him I feel like I soak up the structure, the skeleton of the work and I get a buzz off of his books for months afterwards. If I were a crustacean, it would be like my dose of calcium for a couple of months!

GR: It's the explanatory function that Ballard's books provide in my life that make them the most valuable to me. He writes about people who live in gated communities, people who watch too much porn, and who have violent impulses for no apparent reason . . . and I'm going, "Hey, I live in a gated community, I watch too much porn, and I have very violent impulses toward people I don't know, specifically in Washington."

Q&A Highlight: Q: How are you influenced by the imagery in Ballard's books? GR: Well, it's kind of an abstract leap since what I mainly do is audio . . . but early in my career, while Mark liked to break into factories, I was fond of breaking into medical museums and taking the bodies to "do" things with them. The idea of Ballard as doctor really inspired me. I remember being really intrigued by how when you take these bodies out of the formaldehyde, you can see that the doctors who had done the dissecting when they were freshly-deceased human beings--[in many cases] the doctors had actually signed their names to their creations. I found it really bizarre to discover that science had crossed over and become an art form, like Ballard was foretelling in his novels. When it comes to my own work, I liken it a lot to Burroughs and the Cut-Up. Everything you hear is lacerated, cut to shreds, rearranged and run backwards--processed. Nothing is at it seems. I think of it cinematically as well . . . when I write, I see pictures. It's kinesthetic.

MP: All I can say is this: when you're in this huge abandoned factory and its two in the morning and you're by yourself and you are trying to haul off this giant lathe worth about 15,000 dollars and you only have 3 or 4 more hours of darkness to drive it out with this truck that you've managed to drive into this giant wrecked factory and you just need a little bit of added energy and inspiration, that's when Ballard has really helped me out. Because his characters are very ordinary, but they seem somehow unstoppable. Like they are impervious to inertia. When I was doing stuff like that, I would always think about Ballard books and they would help get me through . . . it would get me to the other side. [end] As an addendum, we must personally thank SCOTT BEALE for tirelessly documenting many of the events we've been privileged to attend (the SRL L.A. Show, etc). Scott's photos of the Sept 10 JGBallard Conversations Party can be viewed here.

We must also thank KAREN MARCELO, the SRL Web Master, who has also published (as immediately as Scott Beale) numerous photos of interest on the Web - her photos of the JGBallard Conversations party may be viewed here.

4. Strange Attractor Journal, U.K., has published a review of our J.G. Ballard Conversations book on Oct 7, 2005. We recommend that our readers check out their website.

J.G. Ballard Conversations: SAJ2 contributor Tim Chapman has contributed some excellent photographs to the new RE/Search anthology, JG Ballard Conversations, a fine collection of interviews with the author by the likes of V Vale, Mark Pauline and Graeme Revell.

It's a finely produced book in a new handbag ­ or manbag ­ size, and certainly one that any Ballard obsessive--and you know who you are--will want to own. Ballard comes across as a warm, private man and a highly prescient writer: recent news images of 100-mile traffic jams outside Houston as people fled hurricane Rita, or passengers on a flaming jetliner witnessing their predicament unravelling live on televisions inside their own aircraft, appear to have come straight out of his fiction. This is, for me, where the Ballard Paradox comes into play: his futures share so much with our present, that they can now feel a little old-fashioned, making even his earlier writing seem increasingly less like science fiction as time marches on.

The interviews date from 1983 to 2004, during which time Ballard's opinions and obsessions ­ power, celebrity, media domination, war, politics and the future (and what else is there?) ­ have remained fairly constant in a changing world, perhaps because he was already into his 50s when the first interviews took place. Our man in Shepperton reveals a solid grasp of the broad sweep of both historical and contemporary geopolitical affairs, as well as the human, and inhuman condition. On a more personal note you'll find insights into the origins of Crash, The Atrocity Exhibition, Ballard's childhood experiences in a Japanese POW camp (the basis for Empire of the Sun, his experience of success and Hollywood following Steven Spielberg's film of that "breakthrough" book. And he likes cats. A lot. It's also interesting to discover that while Ballard has always been something of a respected, almost canonical, late 20th century author in the U.K., his earlier books were difficult to obtain for American readers, where he has developed a cult following akin to that of William S. Burroughs, largely thanks to the work of RE/Search. While not a Ballardophile myself, reading these interviews has driven me to dig out some of his short story collections, so the program works!

Find a copy via RE/Search, or The Ballardian or at the usual bookshops.--Mark O. Pilkington

Strange Attractor celebrates unpopular culture. We declare war on mediocrity and a pox on the foot soldiers of stupidity. Join Us. Strange Attractor was co-founded in 2001 by: John Lundberg: john@strangeattractor.co.uk - Mark Pilkington: mark@strangeattractor.co.uk

5. Jean Jacques Perrey, the 76-year-old French composer extraordinaire, appeared September 15 at the RE/Search party for him at Varnish Gallery, 77 Natoma St in San Francisco, co-hosted by KFJC/Liz Clark and Lisa Haugen, JJ's manager. Not only did he graciously inscribe his new CD, Circus of Life, for a long line of admirers--often with a little drawing or aphorism--but he answered questions at a panel -- this was videotaped, and someday we hope to have this appear in streaming audio or video on our website. A young woman brought up a 10-inch LP titled Mr. Ondioline -- the cover featured J-J in a mask -- which he reacted to with alacrity, apparently not having seen this early recording in decades. Circus of Life can still be ordered from www.researchpubs.com-- one of the only mail-order sources for this amazing CD... Saturday, we had a small lunch with just J-J, Lisa, Jello Biafra & Stephanie LadyMonster, & ourselves... J-J played the piano for us (what a treat!) and signed a rare recording for Biafra, and we now look forward to the release of the forthcoming new CD, just recorded in the Seattle area by Dana Countryman who published Cool & Strange Music, due early 2006...

6. We've had to move everything off our office floor to make way for new carpeting (to replace the wrecked slog caused by a flood pouring through our ceiling from the apartment above, whose tenant changed her deadbolt without giving a key to the building manager) and are still pulling our office back together, thanks to the help of new interns Sean, Kristin, and Richard--besides Kiowa, Leslie, Margo and Doug. It's been a lot of work, and reminds us that in about a year SRL founder Mark Pauline has to move his legendary "shop" where SRL has been headquartered for some 24 years. Blame the anti-artist unreal-estate conspiracy. RE/Search is just beginning to plan a fund-raiser benefit for the SRL Move to New Quarters... approximate date: around Feb 10, 2006 in San Francisco at the Hayes Valley Market. Watch for it -- it's still in the planning stage...

BTW, we attended an extremely fun "picnic" celebrating the birthday of Kiowa, who interns at RE/Search transcribing the tapes for the next book, PRANKS 2. We realized we hadn't been to a real picnic in years -- besides the SRL birthday picnic for Mark Pauline's son Jake, now age one. Kiowa's "bash" featured an old-fashioned croquet game -- the mallets were immediately seized and wielded threateningly by three nine-year-olds who crashed the party: Bella, Catarina and Valentine -- it's a miracle nobody got bashed bonkers on the noggin. Some photos can be found at here.

Thursday night (yesterday) we saw a huge congregation of people outside City Lights Bookstore, apparently present to celebrate the new anthology of San Francisco Noir, edited by Peter Maravelis (his first book--congrats!). This collection includes our old favorite author Sin Sorocco, plus Jim Nisbett, Barry Gifford, and many others...

7. WEBZINE 2005 happened Sat and Sun Sept 24-25 at the Swedish-American Hall on Market Street at Noe in San Francisco, above the Cafe du Nord. For full details and photos go to www.webzine2005.com - our thanks to independent stalwarts Eddie Codel, Ryan Junell, Scott Beale, Justin and many others who made this very complicated event happen with style and panache. There's even a photo of V. Vale playing the piano posted here - thanks! We were glad to see Shrini from unamerican.com sticker fame -- he provided some of the best "junk food" snacks we've ever sampled, made by his mother -- a kind of pretzel flavored with complex "Indian" spices, and very hot in a subtle way -- a huge potential hit, we think, in the fast food dept -- we would certainly buy 'em by the bagful. Best new "fast food" we've had in years... At Webzine 2005, we got the feeling that if we have any hope at all for the future, it can all be encapsulated by the diverse assortment of folk who traveled to Webzine 2005 and "networked." Smart AND rebellious AND disciplined AND visionary AND discontent AND truth-seeking AND very computer-savvy ... hmmm, if only everyone could all "work together"...

Now, if you got this far and would like to support this pre-blog enterprise, please order our new J.G. BALLARD CONVERSATIONS book at www.researchpubs.com! We think it is well worth reading now! And, we think it has beautiful photos, too...
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Oct. 2005 RE/Search eNewsletter written by V. Vale & contributors. Newsletter and website powered by laughingsquid.com

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