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BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK Opens in Roma
Entry 27 of 40 | show all | print this entry |
First, I'm sorry for the lack of photos with the past few entries but since I switched back to iBook I don't know how to get the photos out of iPhoto and into the TravelPod log. As soon as I figure it out, I've got some good shots for you.
Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, as we say in the journalism racket, this entry is being composed at The Dolphins in Amsterdam on a sunny May 2nd morning while I'm drinking my "wrong" coffee and getting ready to roll the first joint of the day. (Don't worry, I've already done up the stub ends of the day before.) But, in order to sync my entries to the TravelPod map with any semblance of accuracy, I'm going to dateline this report:
(Forte Prenestino, Roma, April 24, 2006)--I met Mark Ritsema at Schipol airport yesterday morning and we caught our flight to Munich, changed for Rome and arrived in the late afternoon for the mighty Antonio to pick us up and deliver us to Forte Prenestino, a massive Roman fortress from the 1700s that was "occupied" by the forces of art, marijuana and social freedom 20 years ago and will be our home for the next five days.
Our comrades in crime are already in place, having scored a direct flight from Schipol to FCO Roma: Willem van der Wall on the slide guitar, Will Dawson on bass and Reinier Reitveld on drums. We unite in the Forte's dining space and enjoy a lovely meal prepared by and shared with the Prenestino staff. When I ask about some weed, not having wanted to smuggle the herb from Amsterdam on the plane(s), Antonio drops off a Dixie cup full of bud from the Forte Prenestino gardens.
The weed is pretty low-grade stuff, but the next afternoon--the all-important afternoon of the gig!--he comes back with another cup with three different strains in it, each of which is clearly superior to the first batch and delivers the mental atmosphere we were seeking (well, that would be me, Willem and Will, as the other two Dutchmen--like so many others--don't use the herb).
Monday starts with a breakfast nibble in the dining room, where again the staff treats us like royalty, and special thanks are due to the fabulous Giovanna for making us feel so welcome each time we dined. In the afternoon I enjoyed a much-anticipated meeting arranged by my friend Matteo Guarnaccia, the Milanese author and bon vivant, with Marcello Baraghini, legendary Italian publisher of the radical Stampa Alternativa press which celebrates its 35th anniversary this fall.
Mark Ritsema was also in the house, and over joints and mineral water the four of us soon concluded a two-part agreement: Stampa Alternativa will publish a small collection of my poetry & prose in a 144-page edition printed in American on one side and Italian on the other, due out on September 15th, and Mark & I will perform at the Beati Costruttori di Incertezze, 4th Festival Internazionale della Letteratura Resistente sponsored by Stampa Alternativa at Pitigliano Grosseto on September 8-9-10, along with John Giorno, Matteo Guarnaccia, Hans Ruesch, and Italian poets Luciana Bellini & Giovanni Feo. The greatest part--for those of you who know what I'm always going through trying to get my trans-Atlantic tickets--is that Marcello will cover my airfare from Detroit to Rome and Rome to Amsterdam when I return from the States in the fall.
(I'll report on my plans for USA travel this summer between June 24 and September 7 as soon as I get caught up covering this trip to Rome and what's happening in Amsterdam this week--maybe around Entry #30.)
I'm working with Matteo now to select and edit the material for the book that will then be submitted to the translator to be put into Italian--a formidable task, I should think. As soon as this is finalized I'll let you know more about the book, but it's pretty exciing to be translated and published in Italian with my writings that no one in the United States has ever been interested in printing!
The good news in Italy continued through the sound check, featuring a full-sized professional sound system and stage lighting and a great engineer, then a great communal dinner and Matteo's public presentation of his new book, Gioco Magia Anarchia: Amsterdam Negli Anni Sessanta (Jokes Magic Anarchy: Amsterdam in the Sixties), published by COX 18 Books in Milano.
This presentation was followed by the panel discussion with Giancarlo Mattia, a cat named Duka and myself on the topic of freaks and revolution. Giancarlo is the creator, with Marco Philopat, of the BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK exhibit which has brought all of us to Rome for its opening here. He knows more about America in the 1960s and 70s than anyone I know in America and has a fantastic collection of visual artifacts from the period, including posters, flyers, stickers, undergound newspaper covers and pages, album covers and epherema of every description. This collection provided much material for the BHAP exhibit, which takes the viewer from the beat and bebop culture of the 1940s and 50s through the hippie and black revolutions of the 60s and 70s, the Italian autonomi and world punk movements of the 70s & 80s.
I had the pleasure of being part of the initial opening of the exhibit in Milano last November at c.s.o.a. COX 18, a massive art squat that was "occupied" by the citizens known as COX 18 some 30 years ago. CSOA is the nomenclature used by the squatter communes in Italy to identify themselves: Centro Sociale Occupato ed Autogestito. The first wave to establish itself in buildings seized from the state was led by the autonomi movement of the 1970s, inspired by the beatnik, hippy and freek movements of the 40s, 50s and 60s.
The exhibit, which appeared at COX 18 as a massive collage stretching across three adjacent walls, has been completely redesigned for the Forte Prenestino show in recognition of the differences between the two art spaces. At COX 18 the collage exploded across three walls of a large room, with each tendency morphing into the next (as in real llife) so you saw the movement beginning with the Beats and growing and growing with the actions of more and more resistant people.
Forte Prenestino is literally a former military fortress built in the 1700s and abandoned some time later. It's constructed of thick blocks of stone--it's a fortress!--and the linked stone structures are covered with earth, grass and trees. Inside two long stone tunnels connect the front gate with the huge open space out the rear door, and off the tunnels are located a series of disparate rooms that are used as bars (3 different rooms), kitchen and dining space, a recording studio, at least three splendid performance spaces, a record shop, practice rooms and others we never even saw.
To view the BHAP exhibit one descended a set of stone steps leading to the lower (underground) level where the collage was reconfigured into a procession of colorful and informative panels that were hung in a series of 17 small cell-like rooms that lay to the left of the stone passageway. Starting with the Beat panels, each section continued through 3, 4 or 5 cells before giving way to the next historical wave and its vibrant, distinctive imagery. More museum-like in its Roma presentation, this version of BHAP served to emphasize the seriousness and historical import of the oppositionist cultural movement from the 1940s to the present.
I hope Giancarlo and Marco will soon have the opportunity to collect these images into a book with a text by, say, Matteo Guarnaccia that could be read by people all over the world. Perhaps the COX 18 Press will shoulder the task and get BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK into print.
Matteo's presentation of his new book and the ensuing panel discussion took place in one of the meeting spaces in the underground level that was packed with a warm and extremely attentive audience. The proceedings were recorded and I've been promised a copy, so maybe I'll be able to transcribe my remarks--so beautifully translated for the audience by Eva Gilmore--and share them with you.
The panel was followed by a screening downstairs of the film My Generation by Thomas Haneke & Barbara Kopple, and then the action moved back upstairs to the main performance stage where the Blues Scholars did our show for our Italian comrades. It was the maiden voyage for this particular band, and Will and Reinier moved everything along without any problems at all. Forte Prenestino was founded and developed by members of the punk movement of the 1980s and dedicated for years to performances by punk bands. One of the communards told us after the show that this was the first time in the 20-year history of the Forte occupation that blues had been played in the building, and confessed that 10 years earlier we would have been stoned off the stage by an irate audience.
But tonight everything was super cool and everybody had a ball. We caught a cab after the show to our one night of hotel living (complete with showers), checked out in the morning and went back to the Forte to see what everybody was gonna do to celebrate Freedom Day.
* * * * *
When I was in Milano for BHAP in November we pulled together a crew from COX 18 and made an episode of the John Sinclair Radio Show with my Milanese comrades that was podcast as Show #59. Here it is:
The John Sinclair Radio Show #59
BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK @ COX 18, Milano, Italy
Sunday, November 6, 2005 @ 7:00 - 8:00 pm [20-0543]
I was invited to spend the weekend in Milano, Italy, as a featured participant in a massive 3-week art event called BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK held at a venerable art squat in Milano called COX 18. Steve Gebhardt, director of the film 20 To Life: The Life & Times of John Sinclair, came over from the States and we screened the film and talked to the audience on Friday night. I hung around COX 18 all day Saturday and Sunday with the characters in charge: Guiseppe, Stefano, Giancarlo, Marco et al. On Sunday evening they scrambled their little equipment together and we all sat around a big table at COX 18 and did a radio show. Gary Barton-this one from San Francisco-joined us, and we had recorded music by Yusef Lateef, Martha & The Vandellas, The Treniers, John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema, Muddy Waters, Ornette Coleman, Jimmy Reed, and the Blues Scholars 'live' on WDET last July.
Listen here: John Sinclair Show #59 @ COX 18, Milano, November 6, 2005 (.mp3)
Playlist #59
[01] Opening Music: Yusef Lateef: Blues In Space with Intro & Opening Tokes
[02] Martha & The Vandellas: Dancing in the Street
[03] The Treniers: Rock This Joint
[04] Comments & Conversation with Guiseppe & Intro of COX 18 BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK Exhibition
[05] John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema: brilliant corners
[06] Comments with Guiseppe & Giancarlo & Paolo re: COX 18
[07] Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home
[08] Ornette Coleman: Blues Connotation
[09] Jimmy Reed: Take Out Some Insurance
[10] Comments with Gary Barton of San Francisco re: BEAT HIPPY AUTONOMI PUNK Exhibition at COX 18
[11] Closing Comments & Closing Music:
[12] John Sinclair & His Blues Scholars: Fat Boy @ WDET
Produced & Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Co-Produced, Co-Hosted & Translated by Guiseppe for COX 18
Engineered by Stefano
Executive Producer: John Sinclair
Special thanks to Caterina, Monica, Guiseppe, Stefano, Giancarlo, Paolo & Gary Barton
©(P) 2005 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
Podcasted @ November 7, 2005
* * * * *
And speaking of radio shows, the New York Times printed the Mother's Day program playlist from Bob Dylan's new show on satellite radio, including Bob's comments about each song. What a gas!
New York Times, April 30, 2006:
Who knew Bob Dylan was an LL Cool J fan?
Once famously reclusive, Mr. Dylan is now going very public with his eclectic musical tastes, on a show that makes its debut Wednesday on XM Satellite Radio.
"Theme Time Radio Hour" (XM Channel 40) features Mr. Dylan introducing his favorite records, organized each week around a different theme - like cars, drinking or, this week's theme, weather. (First tune: "Blow, Wind, Blow," by Muddy Waters.)
He typically records from home or on tour, XM says, even though an announcer says the show is recorded in "Studio B of the Abernathy Building," to lend it a vintage aura. The hourly programs are sprinkled with recorded spoken cameos from the likes of Elvis Costello, Sarah Silverman and Penn Jillette.
As D.J., Mr. Dylan vamps on the lyrics of his chosen songs, and makes observations that often amount to something like what he does musically: he taps America's musical heritage with words that veer from the logically linear to the abstract, delivered in his wry, mumbly growl.
To illustrate, here are excerpts from the show to be broadcast next week, devoted to mothers for Mother's Day.
Tommy Duncan: "Daddy Loves Mommyo"
His real name was Thomas Elmer Duncan, born on January 11, 1911, in Whitney, Texas - full of iodine and iron. He won an audition against 66 other singers to join Bob Wills's Light Crust Doughboys, who later became the Texas Playboys. Tommy Duncan left the band in 1948, recorded a number of songs including "Gambling Polka Dot Blues," "Sick, Sober and Sorry" and "There's Not a Cow in Texas" - lot of fuzzy logic there. But in honor of Mother's Day, here's a song. Tommy Duncan, "Daddy Loves Mommyo" - no fatty acid in there.
Buck Owens: "I'll Go to Church With Mama"
Buck Owens. Come out of Sherman, Texas. Made his way to Bakersfield, California. In the 1960's, the Beatles recorded a song of Buck's called "Act Naturally." In those years Buck had 39 chart hits, 19 of 'em at No. 1. Hey, let's not forget "Hee Haw." Never missed it. I still remember some of them jokes from "Hee Haw": "My mother-in-law's very neat - puts paper under the cuckoo clock." Here's Buck singing about hymns that warm your heart in the sweet by-and-by, that chapel in the sky.
Bobby Peterson Quintet: "Mama Get the Hammer"
Some songs you don't have to talk about; they just say it all: "Mama get the hammer, there's a fly on baby's head."
Ruth Brown: "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean"
They called Atlantic Records the House That Ruth Built, and they weren't talking about Babe Ruth or garbanzo beans. ... Ruth Brown had more hits on Atlantic Records than anybody else in the beginning, and she was no gang-banger. But even with all those hits, Ruth's star began to fade. She eventually had to take a 9-to-5 job. But in recent years she's been rediscovered, appearing on Broadway in "Black and Blue," where she won a Tony.
Carl Smith: "Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way"
Carl was married to June Carter before Johnny Cash was, and after he divorced June he married another singer named Goldie Hill. Carl Smith singing a song about Mother Nature, the goddess of the harvest. She wreaked revenge upon the earth by refusing to provide any crops, so that the entire human race would have perished of cruel, biting hunger if the great Zeus had not been concerned. I hope your mother's not that vengeful.
Ernie K-Doe: "Mother-in-Law"
Today's e-mail comes from John Rudolph. ... He writes, "Dear Bob: I've got a hammerhead of a mother-in-law, an ugly, evil-lookin' old woman, so pitiful. She's careworn, drawn and pinched - gaunt and lank. I bought her a new chair, but she won't let me plug it in. She belittles me, depreciates me, disparages me. She downgrades me, berates me, censures me and condemns me, libels me and raps me, dismisses me and rejects me. Could you please play a song for her?" Well, thanks for the letter, John. Your wish is our command.
Little Junior Parker: "Mother-in-Law Blues"
Here's a couple of mother-in-law jokes, couple of slow burners: "I just came back from a pleasure trip. Took my mother-in-law to the airport." "What do you do if you miss your mother-in-law? Reload. Try again." Here's one by Little Junior Parker: "Mother-in-Law Blues." I don't know if you need both Little and Junior. His real name was Herman Parker Jr. I guess I'd call myself Little Junior Parker too. He was a singer and a harmonica player. He got started on Sun Records with his group the Blue Flames. He recorded the original version of "Mystery Train" that Elvis Presley later did.
Jimmy McCracklin: "Gonna Tell Your Mother"
On the Modern record label. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1921. His real name's James Walker, a professional boxer in the Midwest. He didn't get anywhere doing that, so he turned to music, playing piano and singing. His band was called Jimmy McCracklin and His Blues Blasters, featuring Lafayette Thomas on the guitar. This is from 1955 - a strange weed indeed.
LL Cool J: "Mama Said Knock You Out"
Don't call it a comeback, he been here for years, rocking his peers, putting 'em in fear, making tears rain down like a monsoon, explosions overpowerin', over the competition LL Cool J is towering. LL Cool J - stands for Ladies Love Cool J.
....Good listening!
Latest Comments (2)
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From one Fort to another!! (reply)
May 4, 2006 08:37 EST by britabee
Hi Antonio and John!!
Just wanted to say hello from Fort Wayne in Southwest Detroit where I am reading your podcast on a beautiful morning on the Detroit river. I wish I could have been there!
Fort Wayne was built in 1850!
Perhaps we should make it a place like Forte Prenestino with art and music for all- free of course!
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forte prenestino loves you (reply)
May 4, 2006 04:02 EST by antonio
:))))
Hi man... here everybody asks about you, all very happy to host you and the blues scholar...
see you
antonio
p.s.
how ignorant I am!? forte prenestino was built in 1889
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