High Plains Drifter: Garth Cartwright
‘Burning Man had 20-30,000 well-off white people all pretending to be ‘alternative’. God, they were bland,’ Garth spits. ‘I used to go raving in the 90s and while I always hated techno I liked the drugs and squat parties and the sense of madness. Burning Man removes all that — you don’t even see anyone smoking a damn joint in public, they’re scared they will be arrested! Techno/trance is machine music for people who only need a beat. Dancing fools. For a festival that promotes itself as so ‘alternative’ and ‘new age’ it just panders to that sense of white entitlement. “Be naked. Dance to shit music. Feel you are not part of McDonalds eating consumer America. $300 please for entry!” I hated it with a vengeance. And I was stuck out there for seven days…’
Garth Cartwright searches for the lost soul of American music. Cathi Unsworth follows his tracks.
ampere’s and
Today’s quick lit [& alt.cult] links from around the web: Synaesthesia Press’ Jim Camp remembers Steve Richmond & Misremembering Jack Kerouac & The return of Henry Miller, an 1944 essay (via @millerwalks) & When did ‘Brechtian‘ become such a dirty word? & Melville House named Best Small Press of the Year (Tao Lin interviews MHP’s […]
You’ve Got To Be Obscene To Be Heard
This manic madman was bouncing and bounding and growling and prowling across the stage taking no prisoners, not censoring himself at all, no restraints no limits, tanning pint of lager after pint of lager, saying he drank because life was shit and we have to get through it however we can, laying waste to huge tracts of humanity and philosophy and simple decency and self-respect and dignity. It was instantly crystal clear that what the man was beerspray-saying was coming straight out of some tortured contorted corner of his dark head and heart, and he was somebody who was into Telling The Truth…
An appreciation of Jim Jefferies by Graham Rae.
Paul Buck Reading/Performance
Time: Saturday 24th October 3pm – 4 pm Space: James Taylor Gallery, Collent Street, Hackney, E9 Admission is free “I will create a performance that converses through time and space with a text written in the late 80s, a text which is itself a conversation, a text called Walking into Myself.” From the original book […]