Author Archives: Joe Nolan
Cowpunkgirl Blues
Trying to sneak in a few more birthday notices before the year’s up, 2016 marks the 40th birthday of Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. It’s also the 30th birthday of John Cale’s third album which borrowed its title from Robbins’ novel. Cale’s Cowgirls is a live record/time capsule that captures the New York [...]
Back to Brazil
This weekend I saw that Ira Levin’s The Boys From Brazil is celebrating the 4oth anniversary — the book was published in 1976. I’ve been preoccupied with neo-Nazis and their old school inspirations, and the book’s birthday made me remember my first take on the film it inspired. Back in 2012… Hollywood usually blows it [...]
Back to Cracked
David Bowie’s Station to Station was released on January 23, 1976. One of Bowie’s milestone recordings, Station to Station pushed the funk and soul innovations of Young Americans while building bridges to the European electronica that would define the singer/songwriter’s next phase. Station to Station marks the last turn for Bowie’s Thin White Duke persona [...]
Mad Monk Memories
Whenever I come up short on something to post I almost always check to see what Ezra’s found for {R}emnants. I don’t think he’s ever left me empty handed. The other day he flipped us this fascinating New Statesmen article about a new book remembering Rasputin — the enigmatic Mad Monk died 100 years ago [...]
Ginz Not Was
If I say the words “deep dish” you’d likely think of pizza. But what if you thought about television instead? From the Deep Dish site… For 29 years, Deep Dish has been a laboratory for new, democratic and empowering ways to make and distribute video. It is a hub linking thousands of artists, independent videomakers, [...]
Hey, Huxley
I recently posted about Lee Harvey Oswald, remembering the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963. I wonder how many readers know that the visionary author Aldous Huxley died that same day, tripping on acid as he finally gave way to the laryngeal cancer that had mostly taken his voice. Huxley’s The Doors of Perception [...]
Baby Jimi
This week we celebrate the birthday of Jimi Hendrix on November 27, 1942. Here’s a post from just a few months back marking the end of the genius. The first cut is the deepest… Over the weekend Open Culture pointed back to one of its own posts to remember Jimi Hendrix’ death in London on [...]
Adios, Fidel
This past Friday afternoon I read an article reporting that Fidel Castro had bid the Cuban people adios as he felt he would be dying soon. Early Saturday morning I found out the former lawyer/revolutionary fighter/prime minister and president had indeed passed away. Castro was a complex man who lead a complex life in complex [...]
Naked Thanksgiving
As is our way, we stick to traditions around these parts. We hate the rituals of the bourgeois and we shun the religions of the rich, but we still feel an attachment to the best of our own, and we fly this same freak flag every year: Here’s William S. Burroughs’ “A Thanksgiving Prayer..” Stay [...]
Who Harvey Oswald
Sitting down to write this post I’m reminded that I wrote a song called “Lee Harvey Oswald” years ago. Or at least I tried to. I’ll have to look back through my old journals. I remember being inspired by a line from Oliver Stone’s JFK film where Kevin Costner asks “Who cries for Lee Harvey [...]
