One of the most pleasurable experiences of this summer was the August morning I spent amid the cool beauty of London’s “private palace of art” Leighton House Museum in the company of the extremely talented British poet Scarlett Sabet.
Poetry
Christopher Logue Poster Poems at Rob Tufnell September 30 – November 7
One of the exhibitions I’m most looking forward to visiting this autumn is London dealer Rob Tufnell’s presentation of the so-called “poster poems” produced by the late Christopher Logue.
Continue reading Christopher Logue Poster Poems at Rob Tufnell September 30 – November 7
Spare and unflinching: Scarlett Sabet’s Rocking Underground
Rocking Underground is the title of Scarlett Sabet’s beautifully presented poetry collection.
Continue reading Spare and unflinching: Scarlett Sabet’s Rocking Underground
Q: What does the Sun Ra perfume Prophetika smell like? A: The Future!
One day I’ll write a post justifying my view that Kicks #6 is the hands-down greatest music magazine of all time, but for now it’s worth recording that the folks behind Kicks – namely Miriam Linna and Billy Miller – continue to, er, kick out the wildest music and related stuff via their Norton Records and Kicks Books imprints.
To coincide with the publication of the first volume of the trilogy Prophetika – which gathers together a trove of unpublished poetry and prose by the intergalactic visionary Sun Ra – Kicks Books (“The publisher, the parfumier”) has announced a fragrance of the same name which draws on an ancient formula “invoking a mirage of memories and mysteries and inciting a call to action”. Apparently there are hints of Cairo, Chicago…and Casseopia.
The perfume comes in a deluxe 0.5 oz Italian glass bottle in a presentation box and is just $13 – buy your’s here.
FB friend Joss Hutton nailed it with his response to the question as to what Prophetika smells like: “The Future”. Of course.
There’s a shindig to launch the book and niff at NYC’s St Mark’s Church next Friday. Details here.
Visit Kicks Books here and Norton Records here.
Sun Ra in performance with his Arkestra and in interview in Helsinki 1971:
London punk demi-monde Polaroids from Jonathan Ross: The return of Chrissie Hynde + Kate Simon with Tamasin Day-Lewis, Gina Louthan, Ruth Marten, Judy Nylon, Patti Palladin, Jon Savage and…John Betjeman
//All photos (c) Jonathan Ross//
Here are more previously unpublished images from London’s punk demi-monde.
Coincident to receiving Joe Stevens’ photograph of the pre-Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and photographer Kate Simon in Malcolm McLaren’s Sex Pistols Nude Boy shirts, collector/gallerist/Londoner Jonathan Ross supplied me with this fabulous selection of Polaroids taken at his west London house in the same period.
These include Hynde and Simon as well as their fellow Americans-about-town, the performers Judy Nylon and Patti Palladin and artist/tattooist Ruth Marten, writers Tamasin Day-Lewis and Jon Savage, Ross himself, his girlfriend Gina Louthan and Sir John Betjeman.
Beatbooks 59: Pulp Junkies, The Naked Lunch, Beats + Outsiders, Concrete, Visual + Sound Poetry
The new BeatBooks catalogue is preoccupied with a print netherworld encompassing one-offs, limited editions and short-runs published by concrete poets, beats and other outsiders.
There are also juicy examples of smack-sensationalising pulp fiction and – in one section alone – 36 items relating to The Naked Lunch, including Chicago Review excerpts from 1958 and William Burroughs’ first US LP release.
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