Ekaterina Panikanova paints on books.
Back in 2009 I bought a book of Art Nouveau illustration and design which contained an intriguing drawing by an Austrian artist, Franz Wacik (1883–1938). At the time there was little of Wacik’s other work online so I was delighted by the latest post at 50 Watts which showcases a selection of his illustrations. Wacik was a contemporary of British illustrator Sidney Sime, and both artists share a predilection for the comic and the grotesque.
• “The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, MDMA and LSD amounts to the ‘the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo’, the former Government drugs advisor Professor David Nutt has claimed.” Related: “At last, the edifice of drugs prohibition is starting to crumble,” says Amanda Feilding.
• Alan Johnston on “A gay island community created by Italy’s Fascists”, and at Another Nickel In The Machine a report on The Gateways Club, one of the few meeting places for London’s lesbians in the 1960s. Alex Park wonders “Why Is Gay Porn So Popular In Pakistan?”
• If it’s June 16th then it must be Bloomsday: The Irish Times has a page of Joyce-related links to mark the anniversary. This year there’s a global reading of Ulysses taking place.
• “Now we can concentrate on album number nine,” says Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hutter. The rest of us will impatiently count the passing seconds.
• After a week in which George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has seen an increase in sales, a look at its cover designs old and new.
• Aleister Crowley: Wandering the Waste is a 144-page graphic biography of the Great Beast by Martin Hayes and RH Stewart.
• Barnbrook Design‘s presentation of Taxidermy, a book by Alexis Turner, is rather splendid.
• FACT Mix 386 is a great collection of dubby grooves compiled by Young Echo.
• From 2001: Michael Wood in the LRB reviewing Apocalypse Now Redux.
• The first recording of Allen Ginsberg reading Howl.
• Rejoyce (1967) by Jefferson Airplane | The Sensual World (1989) by Kate Bush | Molly Bloom (2013) by Alan Munde
That Franz Wacik reminds me of someone I’d see on the MonsterBrains blog. As for the post regarding gay porn in Pakistan, well, its funny how different parts of the world seem to take turns being prejudiced about different things. And whenever East or West begins to assume a different position, whatever it may be, they- or rather the idiots amongst them, behave as though nothing whatsoever preceded their ideological interval in history.
Re: Pakistan, another recent study showed how popular porn of all kinds was in highly religious states in the US. Repressive attitudes will have a lot to do with it, whatever the country; if you create an oppressive atmosphere where people are afraid to meet each other openly then obviously they’ll satisfy themselves in secret with their web browsers.