BOB WITH A TIRE?

CANDY WITH A GUN?

A UFO BURNING CHICAGO IN 1871?

TOMORROW KNOWS

Come along if you can to our a gallery opening and live performance tomorrow Thursday September 1st at SPACE, 129 – 131 MARE STREET, LONDON E8 3RH (020 8525 4330). I’ll be reading my poetry accompanied by master guitarist Andy Colquhoun and percussionist, Jaki Miles-Windmill.

Click here for a sample of what we do

The secret word is Returned

I AM THE LIZARD KING – I HAVE TURNED BLUE

WHERE’S MY DOME, YOU BASTARDS?

Back in the middle of the 20th century they promised us that we’d live in Bucky Fuller domes, that we’d vacation on Mars, and there would be a bloody great mysterious monolith orbiting Jupiter. Zero out of three is pathetic.

“It’s hard to believe that people once thought we’d all be living in domes by the year 2000, but this delightful retro article from Popular Science confirms that the future is a lot squarer than people in the 60s and 70s thought it would be. The geodesic dome was the brainchild of R. Buckminster Fuller, who felt that the simplicity of design and ease with which it could be built would catch on like wildfire across the country, and claimed rather ambitiously that it could replace all manner of traditional housing. However, Fuller hadn’t taken the cost of repairs into consideration, nor the problems that would be encountered bringing the dome up to code, and the awkward shape of the panels made replacing them a real pain, so the geodesic dome fad fell along the wayside, becoming nothing more than a vision of the future that was never meant to be. If you want to read more about the “dome of the future”, follow the link to PopSci, where you’ll find lots more info, and pages from past Popular Science articles detailing the rise and fall of the housing dome fad.” Click here for more.

Click here for Prince (formerly)

The secret word is Disappointed

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Verity Frozdick saw no evil.

BAT-SAN

I have no information about this. I just find it visually cool. Much the same also applies to the next image as you scroll down. But click here first for The Who

GRATUITOUS ANONYMOUS

THE FOOLS OF TEXAS ARE UPON YOU

As the USA succumbs to a creeping insanity, the state of Texas leads the field. A new state-mandated school curriculum officially called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills is in fact a mess of arrant nonsense and extreme right fundamentalist claptrap that will pitchfork Texans into some anti-intellectual heart of darkness.

"Perhaps you have heard something about a labor movement in the 20th century? No longer will your children. The only reference to a 20th-century labor movement will come when learning about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. No mention of the Fair Labor Standards Act or the National Labor Relations Act. No mention of strikes or any labor dispute. The words "labor movement" were taken out of the TEKS. Perhaps there is not enough time because students must now "understand how the free enterprise system drives technological innovation ... such as cell phones, inexpensive personal computers and global positioning products." Students will learn about the contributions of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. Maybe the students will read Falwell's claim that feminists and homosexuals were partially responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Phyllis Schlafly, the Heritage Foundation and the NRA are all included. Students will also be required to "discuss the meaning of ‘In God We Trust.' History in Texas classrooms will be decidedly different from when we were students. I never learned "both the positive and negative impacts of ... country and western music" in my high school history class. Where would you rate Estée Lauder in terms of historical importance to our country? If you think she is one of the 68 most important historical figures, you agree with the board. Yes, the board included her in the state curriculum, but not George Washington.” Click here for more.

Click here for Korn

The secret word is Hopeless

TRON SCOOTER

This is actually a kid-sized Tron light cycle that small children can own, ride, and, I would imagine, look and feel extremely cool in the process. I am so goddamned jealous. Why didn’t we have stuff like that?

PLEASE TAKE NOTE

GRATUITOUS CONNERY

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

No, my friends, I am not drinking Tang on the moon this Sunday, although, in some respects I’m fascinating close. If we extend the NASA metaphor, I guess you could say I was flat on my back, strapped down in the command module, as the countdown comes closer to ignition, lift-off, and that Atlas blast of acceleration to escape velocity. The band that constitutes The Deviants Last Stand is on the pad. We are seriously seeking selected shows all over this land. Meanwhile I have a reading next week, a poetry collection I need to get into print, and much more fact and fiction to keep me pounding at the keyboard. No to mention what’s laughing called civilization is clearly coming apart at the seams. As I write this NYC is in hiding from a hurricane. And while not wanting to actively talk about my private life, it seems to have a taken a turn for the totally who’d-have-though-it, and I’m no longer buying into the concept that I’m better equipped to write the good fight when fucked up and miserable. Like Jim said, “Summer’s almost gone.” It’s time to reap the mists and mellow fruitfulness of fall and take ownership of the night that will be drawing in. (For our younger readers, Tang – a powdered orange drink – was taken to the moon by NASA’s Apollo astronauts back when we still dreamed of infinity.)

Click here for Elvis (I mean, who else?)

The secret word is Rising

MARILYN SEZ...

“It’s like Bill Hicks told us – ‘It’s a choice between fear and love.’”

THE CATAPOCALYPSE IS NEAR

I’M NOT KIDDING

MAYBE NEARER THAN YOU THINK

THIS IS CAMILA VALLEJO

She may be the new face of revolution.


“Not since the days of Zapatistas' Subcomandante Marcos has Latin America been so charmed by a rebel leader. This time, there is no ski mask, no pipe and no gun, just a silver nose ring. Meet Commander Camila, a student leader in Chile who has become the face of a populist uprising that some analysts are calling the Chilean winter. Her press conferences can lead to the sacking of a minister. The street marches she leads shut down sections of the Chilean capital. She has the government on the run, and now even has police protection after receiving death threats. Yet six months ago, no one had heard of Camila Vallejo, the 23-year-old spearheading an uprising that has shaken not only the presidency of the billionaire businessman Sebastián Piñera, but the entire Chilean political class. Opinion polls show that 26% of the public support Piñera and only 16% back his recently ousted Concertación coalition. Wednesday saw the start of a two-day nationwide shutdown, as transport workers and other public-sector employees joined the burgeoning student movement in protest. "There are huge levels of discontent," said Vallejo in a recent interview. "It is always the youth that make the first move … we don't have family commitments, this allows us to be freer. We took the first step, but we are no longer alone, the older generations are now joining this fight." Click here for more

Click here for Bowie

The secret word is Next

IF YOU’RE IN LONDON NEXT WEEK YOU’RE INVITED…

…to a gallery opening and live performance next Thursday September 1st at SPACE in Hackney, East London.
The event is a re-examination and maybe a celebration of the agitprop tome Watch Out Kids that Edward Barker and I put together way back in the 20th century and was a highly subjective compendium of counterculture graphics and the rogue philosophy of the psychedelic left. Since a gallery show, by definition, is primarily visual, the major tribute is really to the work of the late great Edward. But I will be showing up with master guitarist Andy Colquhoun – a once and future Deviant and Pink Fairy – plus our new friend and percussionist, Jaki Miles-Windmill, to perform poetry and other rhymed writings.
The deal is that doors open at 6.00pm; allowing us to stand around, drink 50p beer, pose and chat, observe and be observed, until sometime just after eight, when we the performers get down and perform. Finally after the show, we head into the after-party at which a good time will be had by all. All this wonder is all at…
SPACE
129 – 131 MARE STREET
LONDON E8 3RH
020 8525 4330

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Ansonia Frozdick just loved to walk the lobster.

GRATUITOUS KINSKI

THIS WAS OMAR BONGO

This was Omar Bongo. He’s dead now, but his story – a snippet of which was sent to me by our pals at Delancey Place – is a near perfect example of why Africa is a bloody mess with AIDS, AK47s, famine, cocaine and gunpowder.

"Bongo's story is a miniature tale of what happened when France formally relinquished its colonies. As countries in Africa and elsewhere gained in- dependence, the old beneficiaries of the French empire set up new ways to stay in control behind the scenes. Gabon became independent in 1960, just as it was starting to emerge as a promising new African oil frontier, and France paid it particular attention. France needed to install the right president: an authentic African leader who would be charismatic, strong, cunning, and, when it mattered, utterly pro-French. In Omar Bongo they found the perfect can- didate: He was from a tiny minority ethnic group and had no natural domestic support base, so he would have to rely on France to protect him. In 1967, aged just 32, Bongo became the world's youngest president, and for good measure France placed several hundred paratroopers in a barracks in Libreville, connected to one of his palaces by underground tunnels. This intimidating deterrent against coup plots proved so effective that by the time Bongo died in 2009, he was the world's longest-serving leader. In exchange for France's backing Bongo gave two things. First, he gave French companies almost exclusive access to his country's minerals, on highly preferential terms that were deeply unfair to the people of Gabon. The country became known as French companies' chasse gardee - their private hunting ground. But the second thing Bongo provided was more interesting. He allowed his country, through its oil industry, to become the African linchpin of the gigantic, secret Elf system - a vast web of global corruption secretly connecting the oil industries of former French African colonies with mainstream politics in metropolitan France, via Switzerland, Luxembourg, and other tax havens.”

Click here for The Cadets

The secret word is Jane

BABY NEEDS NEW SHOES

BABY NEEDS NEW SHOES WITH WHEELS

Click here for Jeff Beck & Joss Stone

AFTERMATH

Those of you who have been paying attention may have noted that Doc40 has been a little neglected over the past few days. (My Facebook wall too, for that matter.) I guess it’s the result of having entered what feels like an aftermath. The UK urban riots are seemingly over, the News Corp scandal lulls in limbo. Similar could be said of the worst excesses of US democracy, so I’ve found myself with little in the short term about which to rant. Also my private life seems to have taken a turn for the amazing, but that’s a whole other story. (As in private!) I imagine, however, this abeyance won’t last so I might as well enjoy the rest while I can.

Click here for a symphony of porn stars moaning. (We've had a content warning inflicted on us. We might as well use it.)

The secret word is Interlude

Jerry Leiber – RIP

SEISMIC FOLLIES

While once and future Californians snigger at Easterners getting all aflutter at a mere 5.9 seismic event, the US looks to the safety of its own nuke plants.

TAKOMA PARK, MD - August 23 - A 5.9 magnitude that was felt up and down the US east coast was centered in Mineral, Virginia, home to the two-reactor North Anna nuclear power plant operated by Dominion Energy. North Anna sits just 90 miles south of Washington, DC. The plant automatically shut down following a loss of offsite power, but electricity is still needed to cool the reactor core and fuel pools. "Once again, Mother Nature is warning us that nuclear power is the most brittle of electrical power systems," said Paul Gunter, director of Reactor Oversight for Beyond Nuclear. "In times of national crisis or natural disaster, nuclear power becomes more of a liability than an asset," he said. All but one of the four on-site emergency diesel generators at North Anna started up as needed for reactor cooling and safety systems. However, cooling systems for the two spent fuel pools loaded with nuclear waste do not automatically get switched over to emergency power systems. Several other reactor sites along the eastern seaboard reported “unusual events” to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission but no others were forced to shut down. “The Obama administration – which still presses for more nuclear plants – and the nuclear industry and its lapdog regulator refuse to learn the lessons of Fukushima even when they are brought right home by this powerful quake,” said Linda Gunter, International Specialist at Beyond Nuclear. “Even the Japanese prime minister has acknowledged that Japan must move forward without using nuclear energy. Here at home it seems only public outrage can move our leaders. We got lucky again, this time, but at some point that luck will run out. We should not wait to pay that price but start a nuclear phase-out today.” The earthquake risks at North Anna were known as far back as 1970, a 1975 Washington Post article reveals. Then owner, Virginia Electric and Power Company, was fined an unprecedented $60,000 for building the plant on a known fault line which consultants retained by Vepco claimed did not exist. On-going updates about the post-quake status of US nuclear plants can be found on the Beyond Nuclear website.

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Buzz Frozdick’s ostrich suit was close to perfect.

GRATUITOUS EVA GREEN

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

Today’s breakfast is being eaten in private.

Click here for Eddie Cochrane

The secret word is Secret

MARILYN SEZ...

“Private being a euphemism for what, exactly?”

ON WEEKENDS, SOME GUYS GO HUNTING

NOT SEXY BUT CRUCIAL

The conservatives of the world howl and gnash their teeth in the face of imagined debt and the IMF seek to impose punitive austerity on what had once been the workers of the developed world before capitalism descended into voodoo abstraction. All economists to whom I care to pay attention tell me that that current drastic cuts to public spending are nothing short of suicidal. In the instance it’s Robert Reich – formerly Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor (remember peace and prosperity?)

“Not only is the United States slouching toward a double dip, but so is Europe. New data out today show even Europe’s strongest core economies – Germany, France, and the Netherlands – slowing to a crawl. We’re on the cusp of a global recession. Policy makers be warned: Austerity is the wrong medicine. We all know about the weaknesses in Europe’s “periphery” – Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. But the drop in Europe’s core is dizzying. Germany grew at an annualized rate of just half a percent last quarter, down from 5.5 percent in the first quarter of the year. France didn’t grow at all. What’s going on in Europe’s core? Partly it’s a loss of confidence due to debt crises in the periphery. But that’s hardly all. Europe depends on exports – especially to Asia, India, Latin America, and the United States. But exports to China and other emerging markets have been dropping. China, worried about inflation, has pulled in the reins on its sizzling economy. Brazil has been pulling back as well. And as the United States economy sputters, exports to America have been slowing. But chalk up a big part of Europe’s slowdown to the politics and economics of austerity. Europe – including Britain – have turned John Maynard Keynes on his head. They’ve been cutting public spending just when they should be spending more to counteract slowing private spending.” (Click here for more)

Click here for Barrett Strong

The secret word is Clueless

NOT SEXY BUT DANGEROUS

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Pavia and Abigail Frozdick failed to grasp the reality of the Nazi Party.

HOW DO YOU OUTLAW THE OUTLAW’S MASK?

THE CHELSEA TO BE REMODELED? THE WORLD MAY INDEED BE ENDING

Everything ages, everything changes, do what you think you should do, but there are no truths outside the Gates of Eden. So rage, rage against the dying of the light.

“The bohemian long-term residents of Manhattan’s Hotel Chelsea may be about to meet their match in the New York landmark’s new owners: a Moroccan-Jewish family with vast American real estate holdings and past legal difficulties. The Chetrit family, who purchased the famous property on August 1, has made clear its intention to remake the West Side building. And that is making at least some of the Chelsea’s famously bristly residents a little nervous. “I would say it’s very clear their intentions are to get tenants out, because that’s what the practical nature of business demands,” said theater producer Scott Griffin, a 20-year resident of the Chelsea. Griffin described the hotel’s atmosphere as “funereal,” since the family took control and closed the property to transient guests. “They’re being very formal and very respectful right now, as they make their changes,” he said. “But I don’t anticipate that to last. Not because they’re bad human beings, but they’ve made an investment and they need to make sure the investment realizes itself. Such cautious anticipation has not always characterized the hotel tenants’ attitude toward its owners. Following the removal of the hotel’s popular longtime manager in 2007, someone sent a fish head and a pile of excrement to one of the building’s owners. Though the manager wasn’t reinstated, his replacement was eventually chased away. The hotel — usually known as the Chelsea Hotel — holds an unparalleled place in American pop culture myth: It was the site of the sexual encounter recalled in Leonard Cohen’s song, “Chelsea Hotel No. 2,” and of the murder of Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sex Pistols member Sid Vicious. William Burroughs wrote “Naked Lunch” at the Chelsea, and everyone from Dee Dee Ramone to Bob Dylan spent long hours in one or another of its rooms.” (And me, many times! Click here for more)

Click here for Nico

The secret word is Desecration

FREAKS OF GRACELAND – A MEMORIAL

DON’T FORGET THE STAR FLEET PRIME DIRECTIVE

If you have inter-entity sex with The Captain, you will probably die before the end of the episode. 

GRATUITOUS BARDOT

LET US PRAY TO THE DARK GODS THAT THE MAYAN CALENDAR IS CORRECT AND THE WORLD WILL END IN DECEMBER 2012

BECAUSE IF EITHER OF THESE PSYCHOS REALLY BECAME PRESIDENT, I WOULDN’T WANT TO SURVIVE IN THIS REALITY

A DEAD MAN’S HAND?

The conclusion is hard to avoid or pretend it might be otherwise. Click here for Nick Cave.

The secret words are Hole and Card

DON’T YOU MISS THE 20TH CENTURY

Click here for the Do Long Bridge

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

The eggs are looking back at me and I’m very tempted simply to go back to bed. Maybe until September. Let’s face it, friends and neighbours, it’s been one hell of a week. The world feels as though it’s teetering on multiple brinks, and now the eggs are looking back at me. I woke up this morning seeking for respite but all I found was a TV awash in facile social commentators talking unmitigated crap about the UK riots without even the insight of my friends on Facebook. Meanwhile, back in the USA, after barely avoiding an economic apocalypse – which has not exactly gone away – the wholly insane Michele Bachmann has won the GOP Iowa Straw Poll that sets her on track for a run to the White House, and I blanch at the idea that this madwoman should control nuclear weapons. And just to cap it all, my email was hacked and everything I sent out for some 24 hours was going out under the name Clerissa Kahlil. (You figure it.) And yes, brothers and sisters, the eggs are looking back at me.

Click here for Patti singing Bob

The secret word is Contact

MARILYN SEZ...

“But you do realise, darling, if you go back to bed, it’ll all still be there when you wake up again.”

THE FROZDICK FAMILY

Lilo and Niki Frozdick had excellent seats for the atomic blast.

IT’S THE REAL THING