Rotterdam Hotels
Johnsinclair's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Cold Turkey in Rotterdam
Entry 33 of 40 | show all | print this entry |
My friend Ben Schot is the guy who brought me to Holland in the first place, in the summer of 1998, to participate in a series of art events in Rotterdam centered on modern Detroit cultural history called "I Rip You, You Rip Me." Later that year High Times would install me as High Priest of the 1998 Cannabis Cup and introduce me to my love affair with Amsterdam, but Rotterdam still has a very special place in my heart for being the place where I first landed in Holland.
For the past few years Ben has labored hard at establishing his avant-garde publishing house, Sea-Urchin Editions, and his guerrilla cultural squadron The Buggers, from his base in Rotterdam, where he is a rerspected member of long standing in the local arts community. Sea-Urchin Editions has published Dutch-language editions of Pier Paolo Pasolini's first novel, Il Sogno di una Cosa, and Roerige nacht by Henri Michaux. From the Sea-Urchin News:
"Pasolini wrote IL SOGNO DI UNA COSA during the brief spell that he was active for the Friulian division of the Partito Comunista Italiano, which ended in 1949 when the party expelled him for 'immoral behaviour.' But the text was not published until 1962 when Pasolini lived in Rome. At that time he had already made his name with the novels RAGAZZI DI VITA and UNA VITA VIOLENTE, and with the films ACCATTONE and MAMMA ROMA.
"Just like these city tales IL SOGNO DI UNA COSA is set in the lower layers of society, in this case the poor country communities of Friuli, in the northeast of Italy. Against the background of the economical chaos after World War II Pasolini sketches the struggle for survival, the vitality, and the solidarity of the Friulian day labourers and peasants. Each in his own way the main characters, the young friends Nini, Milio, and Eligio, rebel against their desperate situation...."
"Henri Michaux (1899-1984) became an artist and writer out of inner necessity. He had an awkward relationship to life and sought refuge in fields in which he could cope with the world. This resulted, among other things, in his prose poems, which he wrote, to put it in his own words, 'for sanitary reasons.' ROERIGE NACHT contains a broad selection from two early French volumes (1929 and 1933) that Michaux published in 1967 with Editions Gallimard under the collective title of LA NUIT REMUE. In casual but musical phrases Michaux leads the reader to worlds reminiscent of our own but invariably containing alien elements: a language, biology, ethnology or psychology of their own. Cheerful, tart, and at times enlivening images."
The soul loves swimming. In order to swim you lay down on your belly. The soul starts to move and departs.
Recently Ben Schot made contact with Gerard Bellaart, a Rotterdammer artist and publisher whose Cold Turkey Press was an important component of the international counterculture between 1970 and 1976. Cold Turkey published mimeographed Dutch and English-lanuage editions of manuscripts by Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Charles Bukowski, Ezra Pound, Sinclair Beiles, William Levy and others and, with Klactoveedsedsteen Press in Germany, produced a landmark album of modern American poetry recorded by Klacto publisher Carl Weissner between 1966-68 and featuring performances of their works by Ed Sanders, John Giorno, Ginsberg, Diane diPrima, Paul Blackburn, Bukowski, Ray Bremser, Carol Berge and others.
In collaboration with Sea-Urchin Editions, Cold Turkey/Klacto has just issued a fine CD containing all the tracks from the LP plus another 18 minutes + of recordings from the project that could not be contained on the LP. The album is titled 12 Great Americans, and its release provided the occasion for a salute to Cold Turkey Press by the Rotterdam Historische Museum which opened on this bright Sunday afternoon. The Cold Turkey books and a selection of materials from the Cold Turkey Press archives are being exhibited at the Historische Museum in Het Schielandshuis from May 16 to July 16, 2006, including publications, letters, posters and other artifacts from the Cold Turkey Press authors and collaborators.
Ben and Gerard will continue their collaboration with a collection of poems by Sinclair Beiles (no relation), The Idiot's Voice, and A Cold Turkey Primer that will contain, among other stone literary gems, the first appearance in print of excerpts from Bellaart's "omitted text," Americans Abroad. The Cold Turkey motto is CONCEDO NULLI, with the admonition: "He who hides his madmen dies voiceless."
Sea-Urchin Editions may be found at http://www.sea-urchin.net/
* * * * *
Here's this week's podcast of the John Sinclair Radio Show on Radio Free Amsterdam:
The John Sinclair Radio Show #86
Gray Area, Amsterdam
Monday, May 15, 2006 @ 4:20 - 5:20 pm [20-0615]
We finally got to do a show at the Gray Area, the only American-owned coffeeshop in Amsterdam, thanks to our sponsor for today's show, Uncle Stoner, director of the Global Cannabis Coop at http://www.cannabiscoop.com. Since he paid his own way, Uncle Stoner served as our principal guest for the day and brought Marteen from behind the Gray Area cannabis counter to the mike to talk about his popular little spot around the corner from the Amnesia. And we had some great music by Charlie Parker, Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers, Snooks Eaglin, Glen David Andrews & His Lazy Six, John Sinclair & His Motor City Blues Scholars 'live' at the Music Menu, James Andrews, Dr. John, the Pin Stripe Brass Band, John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema, and Muddy Waters 'live' at Big Bill Hill's Copacabana Club in Chicago.
John Sinclair Radio Show #86 at the Gray Area, Amsterdam (.mp3)
Playlist #86
[1] Opening Music: Charlie Parker: Buzzy with Intro & Opening Tokes with Uncle Stoner
[2] Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers: Sittin' at Home Alone
[3] Snooks Eaglin: Dizzy Miss Lizzy
[4] Comments & Conversation with Uncle Stoner
[5] Glen David Andrews & His Lazy 6: Dumaine Street Blues
[6] John Sinclair & His Motor City Blues Scholars: Preachin' the Blues
[7] Comments & Conversation with Uncle Stoner
[8] James Andrews: Last Night on the Back Porch
[9] Dr. John: Sweet Home New Orleans
[10] Comments & Conversation with Marteen of Gray Area
[11] Pin Stripe Brass Band: Higher and Higher
[12] Closing Comments with Uncle Stoner & Outro
[13] John Sinclair & Mark Ritsema: functional
[14] Closing Music: Muddy Waters: Deep Down in My Heart
Hosted by John Sinclair for Radio Free Amsterdam
Produced & Engineered by Henk Botwinik
Executive Producers: Henk Botwinik & John Sinclair
Sponsored by Uncle Stoner for Global Cannabis Coop & The Dolphins
(c)(p) 2006 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved
Podcasted @ May 15, 2006
* * * * *
Finally, to follow up on Tom Morgan's report from New Orleans in my last post (#32), Cary Wolfson writes from Boulder, Colorado to report on his JazzFest visit to the Crescent City, followed by the second episode of Cary's great radio program Live from the Red Rooster Lounge, now featured on Radio Free Amsterdam.
Red Rooster JazzFest Report
After 20 consecutive years of visiting New Orleans, I've come to expect several days of cognitive dissonance when we return to Boulder. I haven't been disappointed, although this year it's a bit different. [You can see these and a bunch more photos at this quickie site I created: The photos are here.
We've all read and heard about and seen pictures of the Katrina disaster, but like so many important events it tends to fade into last week's news cycle. Not so when you're actually there on the ground. I'd estimate that 75% of the non-JazzFest related stories in the Times-Picayune had something to do with the Katrina aftermath. In short, except for the "sliver by the river" and a few other parts of town, the city is trashed. It's estimated that 165,000 of the nearly half-million residents have returned. More and more businesses are gradually reopening, invariably with big signs that say, "WE ARE OPEN -- Now Hiring." But some of our favorite places are gone (like the incomparable Uglesich's, which closed before Katrina, and La Madeleine, where we've been eating Strawberries Romanoff since 1987) or still in cold storage. Radio station WWOZ -- the most soulful station you've ever heard, and the voice of JazzFest -- is back on the air, although in temporary digs since the roof caved in on their old studio. Check them out at http://www.wwoz.org. I'm listening to them online right now.
It has been over eight months since the hurricane hit. As you can see from these photos taken in the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish, there are areas that look like they were hit with a neutron bomb. Power lines strewn all over, handmade street signs and stop signs, no clean water, very, very few people even attempting any kind of clean-up, rescue markings still in place. There are NO businesses open in the Lower 9th and very few in St. B.P.
And yet, the spirit of the returnees is generally high. Beyond the nearly omipresent blue tarps and the residual post-traumatic shock (and not a little survivor guilt among those who came through largely unscathed), people are stubbornly commtted to rebuilding this most unique of Amercan cities. And to retaining its special character, Federal Government be damned. If there were any justice in this world the current batch of Feds would be consigned to the deepest, hottest circle of Hell. Instead, it will be New Orleans residents out in the stifling Louisiana heat, humidity, black mold and rubble. BYO pitchfork.
If you want to make a difference our NOLA friend Vivian Cahn says the very best thing you can do is contact your congressional representatives and urge them to go beyond the paltry efforts we've seen so far. As is typical, Bush's programs funnel most of the money to developers and casinos while making the people who are suffering the most jump through incomprehensible hoops to get whatever crumbs are left over.
JazzFest was, thank God, still JazzFest. As soon as we were in the fairgrounds gate it was like we'd never left. It was very well attended when we were there on the second weekend. Crowds were likely even bigger for weekend #1 when Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews played. (Edna Gunderson has been covering the event for years for USA Today. Read her report at JazzFest in USA Today
Many people pitch their gear at one of the big stages and stay there all day. We, on the other hand, are floaters, catching a few songs and moving on. I think the only full sets we heard were by Bobby Lounge, an eccentric performer who climbs out of an iron lung ("It's for personal preference, not medical necessity") to perform his rollicking and often hilarious songs; and pianist Ellis Marsalis, patriarch of the Marsalis clan, joined by Lou Tabackin on sax. Other good hits were Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Golden Eagles, Marcia Ball, Irma Thomas, Warren Haynes (who performed his original song "Rain Down Pain" in tribute to the city), Tab Benoit, Astral Project and others who are lost in the blur.
Both the performers and natives in general were thrilled to see such a large out-of-state representation and went out of their way to thank us -- both from the stage and in person -- for showing up and caring.
-- Cary Wolfson
Red Rooster Radio Productions
"Bringing the Blues Alive Since 1985"
Live at the Red Rooster Lounge 2 on RadioFreeAmsterdam.com (.mp3)
Good listening.....
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by johnsinclair, from Netherlands or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
13 votes 
