Bob Flanagan’s PAIN JOURNAL

JANUARY

Back in New York, the Gramercy Park Hotel. Back in bed. Forget what time it is-I mean who cares? It's been an awful Christmas and an even worse birthday. Me, my whiny, wheezy, grumbling self, scaring the shit out of everyone, acting like I'm going to die at any moment. Still depressed. All I want to do is die-mean cry-I meant to write cry and I wrote die. How Freudian can you get?
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Birthday party over-thank God. Success from the looks of it. People. Presents. Cake. But me? Where the hell was I? Laid out naked on the Gurney of Nails, big marzipan penis on my stomach, candles blazing. Everybody impressed at the sight of me, I guess-but I wasn't really on the nails-not all of me-too chicken shit to let go. Couldn't breathe. My idiot's lament. Terrified at the si ... more

Down is up. Interview to Moondog

di Cole Gagne

MOONDOG was born Louis Thomas Hardin in Marysville, Kansas, on May 26, 1916. At the age of 16, a dynamite cap exploded in his face, permanently robbing him of his eyesight. He attended the Iowa School for the Blind, where he received his first musical training, and went on to study privately with Burnet Tuthill at the Memphis Conservatory of Music. He came to New York in 1943 and soon gained the friendship of Artur Rodzinski, renowned conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Hardin became a singular exception to Rodzinski's ban on outsiders attending rehearsals of the orchestra. With Rodzinski's departure from the Philharmonic in 1947, however, Hardin discovered his presence was less welcome, especially because of his unconventional ways of dressing.

Hardin adopted the name Moondog t ... more

Designed By. Interview to the founder of Oz Magazine, Richard Neville Autunno 2008

Oz is considered an "hippy psychedelic" magazine. If you agree, which are the graphic elements that build this kind of tag?

The first thing to remember is that Oz was launched in Sydney, Australia on April Fools day 1963, as a satirical magazine, with letterpress printing (molten lead) and an interest in mocking authority and widening the boundaries of free speech. It was black & white. It contained numerous images, cartoons & Photos, larger that was usual in “intellectual” mags of that time. It was not hippy, but it was youth oriented, with stories/cartoons on Bob Dylan, The Beatles, etc... AFTER A few years, we discovered offsett printing, with expanded the visual/design element of the mage even more – Martin Sharp often decorated the pages by hand prior to going to press .. ... more

SAVAGE MESSIAH - An interview with Ken Russell (original version)

di Nik Huggins

An interview with Ken Russell (original version)


So tell us about your latest project, a biography of the Nineteenth Century scientist Nicola Tesla?
That’s now been postponed. It was all set to go and then the President of Serbia was shot, and the country’s been in turmoil ever since. They were due to put in a chunk of the financing. Hopefully it will be made one day but not at the moment. At the moment I have a feature film coming out after Christmas called Jonathan Tooley. It’s a strange name and will probably be changed, it’s based on a children’s bestseller in America. It’s a very charming fantasy, primarily a children’s film but with lots for adults as well.
I am also working on a project of my own called “The Revenge of the Elephant Man and Other Ta ... more

1987 - 1990. The Sound of New Beat

di V/Vm

It's time to go back, way back into the past. New Beat was instrumental in V/Vm becoming involved in making, mutating and destroying sound. V/Vm has never forgotten this Belgian influence. Traces of a New Beat influence can be found on the earliest V/Vm releases, subsequently the audio released by V/Vm has moved away from being solely electronic into other areas.
V/Vm has decided to revive the New Beat style as we believe it is the only Electronic style which currently remains untouched and unbastardised by todays musicians. Indeed people are falling over themselves to make straight acid, house and techno tracks. New Beat has somehow escaped the remake unlike every genre surrounding it.
It's also cool to be able to introduce a few new people to New Beat as well and it's hoped that so ... more

COCOON. Heaven is knowing who you are

di Michele Manfellotto

Ecco la terza ed ultima puntata di Cocoon sulla saga del Flaminio e dei suoi protagonisti. Le prime due puntate potete trovarle sui numeri 15 e 16 del magazine.

Il Flaminio ha chiuso quando hanno cominciato a portare l’eroina.
Killa Bee si incazzava se un eritreo fumava l’eroina, entrava nel giro, si avvitava nella spirale.
Il problema è che, all’inizio magari per un furto, o dei pestaggi, poi per cose più grosse, venivano le guardie: per tre, quattro settimane di fila, tutti i giorni. Perquisizioni e tutto.
E c’era uno che per una cosa o per un’altra ce l’aveva con Killa Bee.
Lo chiamavamo Rambo. Era commissario, e stava lì da sempre.
Killa Bee, famosissimo, aveva fatto mille casini, e le denunce le facevano al distretto del Flaminio, dove c’era Rambo. ... more

David Mancuso by Tim Lawrence (versione integrale in italiano)

di Tim Lawrence

Come una zuppa o una bicicletta o Wikipedia, il Loft è un composto di parti che prese singolarmente possono apparire deboli, ma che diventano divertenti, rivelatorie e potenti una volta messe insieme. Primo ingrediente è il desiderio di un gruppo di persone di stare insieme e divertirsi. Il secondo è trovare una stanza abbastanza confortevole per il ballo, con una buona acustica, in altre parole una sala rettangolare con un soffitto ragionevolmente alto, un bel pavimento di legno e la possibilità di agire nella privacy. Mattone successivo è il sound system, meglio quando è semplice, pulito, caldo, e quando è spinto poco più di una frazione sopra i 100 decibel (in modo che le orecchie delle persone non si stanchino o si danneggino). La stanza poi dovrebbe essere decorata, con palloncini ... more

A short conversation with Harmony Korine

di Luca Lo Pinto and Filipa Ramos

Harmony Korine is one of our favourite directors. He directed only three movies. The last one, Mr. Loneley, is still unreleased in Italy. Gummo and Julien Donkey Boy, insted, are already in the history of cinema. Harmony is a difficult guy, maybe he doesn't like so much the interviews. We managed to ask him some questions.

What is the first movie you remember of?
It was a filmed called Harry and Tonto starring Art Carney and his best friend who is a cat. I remember having a deep emotional bond with the cat.

If you look at Mr. Lonely one realizes that dreams and made-ups are a happier side of existence. How would you combine this (it) to your last films?
I try not to think about it too much. I would rather go after something that is les ... more

Designed by

di Nero

Interview with Jop Van Bennekom, editor and graphic designer of BUTT Magazine, one of the most innovative and charming gay magazine.
In the Seventies there were a few gay magazines, first of all "Little Caesar" edited by Dennis Cooper, that somehow seem to belong to the same esthetic imaginary of Butt. Does this imaginary exist? Can you think of any magazine from the past that you would connect with this imaginary?


There are plenty of magazines, especialy from the seventies, that we refer to in BUTT. When starting BUTT we looked at lots of imagery that we feel were less conditioned and more spontanious than what we see nowadays; like the perfect bodies, the groomed and shaved look... The marketing of a gay lifestyle has corrupted a lot of the energy tha ... more

David Mancuso by Tim Lawrence (original version) Febbraio / Marzo 2008

di Tim Lawrence

Like a soup or a bicycle or Wikipedia, the Loft is an amalgamation of parts that are weak in isolation, but joyful, revelatory and powerful when joined together. The first ingredient is the desire of a group of friends to want to get together and have some fun. The second element is the discovery of a room that has good acoustics and is comfortable for dancing, which means it should have rectangular dimensions, a reasonably high ceiling, a nice wooden floor and the possibility of privacy. The next building block is the sound system, which is most effective when it is simple, clean and warm, and when it isn't pushed more than a fraction above 100 decibels (so that people's ears don't become tired or even damaged). After that, the room should be decorated, with balloons and a mirror ball ... more

Rodney Graham by Kim Gordon (original version) Febbraio / Marzo 2008

di Kim Gordon

In the work of Rodney Graham, sound — be it the abstract noise of a 1950s Italian projector, as in his latest work, Rheinmetall/Victoria, or a song presented within a film, as in How I Became a Ramblin’ Man — is more than an integral part of the work. It has an equal weight to the visual components as subject matter. Even though Graham is not a New York-based artist, the work reminds me of the energy and interests floating around New York in the early ‘80s. Visual artists such as Robert Longo and Richard Prince played music alongside young composers such as Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca. There was a lack of boundaries as to the formalism of art, or a deliberate ignoring of them. People had discussions about the context of performing in clubs as opposed to alternative spaces. While most ... more

Intervista a Gualtiero Jacopetti (versione integrale) Febbraio / Marzo 2008

di Lorenzo Micheli Gigotti & Anthony Ettorre

Per alcuni un apostolo della violenza e della shock-exploitation, per altri uno straordinario innovatore del giornalismo su pellicola. Jacopetti è, con Prosperi e Cavara, il padre di Mondo Cane, uno dei film documentari più discussi della storia del cinema. I suoi film, scomodi e ignorati in Italia, sono imitati in tutto il mondo. Lo abbiamo incontrato per un'intervista esclusiva.

Ci può raccontare della sua esperienza con Blasetti in Europa di notte (1959)?
E’ praticamente l'inizio della mia storia. Ero al Corriere della Sera e venni a Roma per dirigere la Settimana INCOM, allora un giornale oltre che un newsreel. Fatalmente ebbi contatto con gente del cinema tra cui Blasetti, una persona straordinaria e un amico di cui ho un ottimo ricordo. Simpatizzam ... more