TIME, June 21st 1968. Cover by Roy Lichtenstein.
• “Forget the democratic processes, the judicial system and the talent for organization that have long been the distinctive marks of the US. Forget, too, the affluence (vast, if still not general enough) and the fundamental respect for law by most Americans. Remember, instead, the Gun. That is how much of the world beyond its borders feels about the US today. All too widely, the country is regarded as a blood-drenched, continent-wide shooting range where toddlers blast off with real rifles, housewives pack pearl-handled revolvers, and political assassins stalk their victims at will.” The TIME magazine feature with the famous Roy Lichtenstein cover (prompted by the assassination of Robert Kennedy) will be fifty years old in June.
• “Where do we feel at home? What do our cities look like? How do we see? In 1908, architect and theorist August Endell set out to answer these deceptively simple questions.” Endell’s The Beauty of the Metropolis is coming from Rixdorf Editions in May.
• Beardsley 120: The Death of Pierrot is a series of events in Aubrey Beardsley’s birthplace, Brighton, taking place throughout the month of March.
Like the Bloomsbury Group and the Beats, the Surrealists could be incestuous, choosing lovers from inside the circle and often remaining close to their exes. When [Max] Ernst and [Leonora] Carrington reached Paris, he introduced her to Leonor Fini, his friend and former lover. Tall, dazzling, and bejeweled, Fini cultivated a baroque theatricality; every day with her was a masked ball. Recognizing Carrington as “a revolutionary,” she claimed her as an astrological twin—a feat possible only because Fini lied about her age. “This chronological charade, combined with later cosmetic surgeries, sustained the image of youth and beauty that remained vital to Leonor’s self-image, the sexuality and her sense of her place in the world,” writes Chadwick:
Imperious and mercurial, she was also generous, loving and happy to share her rich intellectual life with the younger woman she considered her double. Like Leonora, she believed that cats possessed highly developed psychic powers, that horses had mythological powers that identified them with the feminine, and that painting was an alchemical process.
Regina Marler reviewing three new books about Leonora Carrington and the women artists of the Surrealist movement
• As Serious As Your Life: Black Music and the Free Jazz Revolution, 1957–1977 by Val Wilmer receives a welcome republication next month.
• At Dangerous Minds: Occultism, cinema and architecture: How a ouija board built the Bradbury Building.
• When Books Read You, a Defence of Bibliomancy by Ed Simon.
• Ä Brïëf Hïstöry Öf Mëtäl Umläüts by Mike Rampton.
• Joey Zone Illustration – Art from The joey Zone.
• At Dennis Cooper’s: Brad Dourif Day.
• Alva Noto‘s favourite albums.
• Metropolis (1978) by Edgar Froese | Metropolis (1979) by Motörhead | Under The Gun (Metropolis Mix) (1993) by The Sisters Of Mercy
Gun control in America: Hasn’t really changed in 50-odd years, even the debating about it. Only change now is that, at least for the moment, young people are both the face of the problem and agitating for a change. Of course, the government is too corrupted by the NRA to do anything. If I did the hashtag idiocy, it’s #FailedStateUSA. (Even at the Olympics: Disappointing results capped by a visit from Ivanka. #FailedStateUSA)
Thanks for the mention of my website! May my work live up to the fine soundtrack provided by Froese, Andrew Eldritch, and of course, LEMMY…