Category: Amsterdam

  • AMPSTERDAMPSTER

    NUFF SAID

    Poster by Steven Pratt
  • Felthead Animation Experiment

    Feltheads (bumpkins) are felted heads by Threadonism – shuffled around under some lights and a camera, with audio by steve fly (warming up for a finnegans wake reading) and special thanks to janne. With luck, more to come very soon. Please let us know what you think, how to improve it?

  • Waywords and Meansigns: Recreating Finnegans Wake [in its whole wholume]

    https://archive.org/embed/waywordsandmeansigns

    Recreating Finnegans Wake [in its whole wholume]


    Published May 4, 1939
    Track listing:
    Finnegans Wake is organized into four books. Roman numerals indicate the book, Indo-Arabic numerals indicate the chapter within that book. Chapter names are italicized, followed by the names of musicians. Finnegans Wake is circular, so you can start listening wherever. Mariana Lanari and Sjoerd Leijten suggest beginning with Book IV. To locate a particular passages of the text, use http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/ and http://fweet.org/


    I.1 – Fall, pp. 3-29 – Mariana Lanari & Sjoerd Leijten, with Erik Bindervoet

    I.2 – The Humphriad I: His Agnomen and Reputation, pp. 30-47 – Robert Amos; Chelidon Frame; Alan Ó Raghallaigh

    I.3 – The Humphriad II: His Trial and Incarceration, pp 48-74 – Greg Nahabedian

    I.4 – The Humphriad III – His Demise and Resurrection, pp. 75-103 – Un monton, torero; with Charlie Driker-Ohren & Walker Storz 

    I.5 – The Mamafesta, pp. 104-25 – Tim Carbone 

    I.6 – Riddles: The Personages of the Manifesto, pp. 126-68 – Kevin Spenst

    I.7 – Shem the Penman, pp. 169-216 – Belorusia

    I.8 – Anna Livia, pp. 196-59 – Dérive


    II.1 – The Children’s Hour, pp. 216-59 – Street Kids Named Desire; with Derek Pyle, Parker McQueeney, Zach Leavitt & Samuel Nordli

    II.2 – The Studies, pp. 260-308 – Liz Longo & Izzy Longo, with Leo Traversa

    II.3 – The Stories: Tavernry in Feast, pp. 309-82 – Hayden Chisholm

    II.4 – Mamalujo, pp. 383-99 – Ryan Mihaly


    III.1 – Shaun before the People, pp. 403-28 – Gareth Flowers

    III.2 – Jaun before St. Bride’s, pp. 428-73 – Steve Fly, with William Sutton

    III.3 – Yawn under Inquest, pp. 474-554 – Peter Quadrino, Jake Reading & Evan James

    III.4 – Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and Anna Livia Plurabelle: Their Bed of Trial, pp. 555-590 – Graziano Galati


    IV.1 – Dawn: Return to the Beginning, pp. 593-628 – Mariana Lanari & Sjoerd Leijten; with Eloísa Ejarque, Grace Kyne-Lilley, & Erik Bindervoet.


    Additional track credits:
    Track 1: Produced and performed by Mariana Lanari and Sjoerd Leijten, with special thanks to guests reader Erik Bindervoet (pp.13-18, pp. 21-24).
    Track 2: Robert Amos recorded by Robert Martin.
    Track 3: Keyboards, Voice, Guitar, Bass, and Drums by Greg Nahabedian. Recorded and mixed by Greg Nahabedian and Paul Schmelz. 
    Track 5: Tim Carbone (fiddle, guitar, drone, tan, keyboards, samples), Andy Goessling (zither), Phil Ferlino (piano). Recorded by Tim Carbone and mixed by Don Sternaker and Tim Carbone. 
    Track 6: Background arrangement by Josh Pitre, featuring a Stravinsky circus polka and two ragtime pieces
    Track 8: Dérive is Greg Nahabedian (keyboard, voice), Paul Schmelz (guitar, voice, keyboard), Noah Jacques (bass, voice), Paul DeGrandpre (drums, voice). Recorded by Paul Schmelz. Mixed by Dérive and Paul Schmelz.
    Track 9: Recorded by Derek Pyle and Zach Leavitt. Sound collage by Derek Pyle, featuring many of the musical allusions found in Joyce’s text. With Derek Pyle (bass, voice), Parker McQueeney (piano, voice), Samuel Nordli (mandolin, violin, and viola) and Zach Leavitt (guitar, bass, voice).
    Track 10: Leo Traversa on bass. Recording by Taylor Roig. 
    Track 11: Recorded by Robert Nacken at Nucamusic Studios in Cologne and by Hayden Chisholm in the Moers Residence house, and at Sant Vicenc beach in Mallorca
    Track 14: William Sutton reads pp. 429-42 469-73; Steven ‘Fly’ Pratt reads pp. 443-68. Drums, turntables, guitar, arrangement, production, recording in Amsterdam by Steve Fly. Mastered by Tim Egmond at Ei-Complex Studios, Amsterdam.
    Track 15: Produced by Jake Reading & Peter Quadrino. Executive producer: Evan James. Recorded and mixed by Jake Reading at Casa de Feelgood. Additional vocals by Evan James and Melba Martinez. 
    Track 17: Produced and performed by Mariana Lanari and Sjoerd Leijten, with special thanks to guests readers Eloísa Ejarque (pp. 610-612), Grace Kyne-Lilley (pp. 613-615), and Erik Bindervoet (pp. 13-18, pp. 21-24).



    Derek’s acknowledgments: 
    Waywords and Meansigns would not be possible without the support of many people. Like the Joycean maxim says: Here Comes Everybody. Thanks to the fwread listserv, especially Peter Quadrino, Peter Chrisp, Roman Tsivkin, as well as Adam Harvey and Mariana Lanari; your collective knowledge of Joyce is astounding. Marie Broadway, Jake Tozer, Sam Nordli, and Emma Pampanin co-hosted the Finnegans Wake parties that inspired this project. Zach Leavitt and Chelsea Westra co-hosted the parties of the future. Elaine Thomas, Dylan Muhlberg, the Amherst Irish Association, Jacqui Wise, Krzysztof Bartnicki, Mike Moran, Mike Medeiros, Jason Gross, Rebecca Hanssens-Reed, Billy Mills, and the James Joyce Gazette played pivotal roles spreading the word about this project, through press coverage and otherwise. Thanks to Mackenzie Libbey, and Michael Robbins, for their support throughout. Thanks to L. Brown Kennedy and Annie G. Rogers for first introducing me to Joyce. Special thanks to Mark Traynor and the James Joyce Centre in Dublin, and to Robert Berry. 

    Infinite thanks to the project contributors, and all who channel the spirit of James Joyce.



    Run time 31 hours, 8 minutes, 11 seconds
    Language und

  • Demands to the University of Amsterdam Executive Board (ReThink UVA)

    PERSBERICHT EN EISEN IN HET NEDERLANDS
    Rethink UvA – Moving Forward

    Demands to the University of Amsterdam Executive Board
    4 March, 2015
    At present, ever more decisions are taken at the UvA by managers who are removed from the concerns and needs of students and staff, and do not answer to them for those decisions. Without assuming there is one template that fits each and every program, department, institute, or faculty, we call for the democratization and decentralization of the UvA’s governance structure, in order to allow the academic community to govern itself honestly and responsibly.
    While we embark on a thorough discussion of how best to meet this goal, we demand:

    1. An immediate moratorium on restructuring processes, negotiations and sale of UvA property, and institutional mergers;
    2. That the CvB immediately agrees to initiate a detailed proposal on how it intends to facilitate a democratization of the UvA and restore the relations of trust it has undermined, or else resign from their posts;
    3. To initiate a full investigation by an independent committee of the university’s financial policies and current state of affairs.

    These are preconditions for, not a consequence of, a university-wide discussion, which must result in the implementation of the following processes:

    1. Shifting the weight of a quantitative, output-based financial model to qualitative forms of evaluation, including peer and student review;
    2. Fostering a genuine academic environment where research and teaching are combined, and countering the present tendency to split these activities into a two-tier system that rewards the former at the expense of the latter;
    3. Defining equitable workloads in teaching, research, and administration, and creating visible and accessible paths to career development for temporary and permanent staff alike.

    We call on the CvB to accept our demands for immediate actions (nos. 1-3) and agree unequivocally on the longer-term goals of the university (nos. 4-6) within two days, that is, until Friday 6 March, 2015, at 4pm. Otherwise, we will escalate our struggle, including but not limited to walk-outs, teach-ins, symbolic actions, petitions, occupation of UvA buildings and facilities, performances, gatherings, and strikes.

    http://rethinkuva.nl/2015/03/04/letter-to-uva-executive-board/

    ReThink UvA is a forum of UvA employees who demand structural reforms in education and research. Output-focused management has severely compromised the quality of both university education and research. We endorse the objectives of the New University movement and ally ourselves with the platforms Humanities RallyScience in Transition and Reform Dutch Universities (H.NU).

    ReThink UvA is a UvA-wide movement. We stand for the university as an academic community, and emphatically not as a business. In our university, students and staff contribute substantially to the decision-making process. Policy choices may not be based on financial returns, but should first and foremost be guided by scientific and societal needs.

    ReThink UvA demands structural reform. All faculties are experiencing the symptoms of runaway output-oriented policies: increasing numbers of temporary contracts, funding being allocated based on the number of graduates or the number of publications, and the merger- and relocation-plans carried out without staff involvement or support. We must therefore change the current governance structure. Top-down management and output-oriented policies compromise the core goals of our university: quality education and research.

    ReThink UvA provides a platform for this debate and for direct action. Together with the New University, our first focus will be on the fundamental problems within all faculties of the UvA, in the firm belief that other universities will recognize these issues and join forces in solidarity.
    Join the discussion on social media (Twitter: @rethinkuva, FB: Rethink UvA) and help us spread our message.

  • FLY BY NIGHT WITH STEVE THE FLY 04

    Fly By Night with Steve The Fly 04

    Fly By Night with Steve The Fly 04

    The Fly is finishing up the night at the Café Belgique with music by Art Blakey, Otis Rush, Tribe, Shuggie Otis, Lee Perry & Adrian Sherwood, Slayer, Junior Wells, Otis Rush, Miles Davis, John Sinclair & Ed Moss, Magic Sam, and Brother Jack McDuff.
    The John Sinclair Foundation Presents

    FLY BY NIGHT WITH STEVE THE FLY 04
    Café Belgique, Amsterdam, January 20, 2012 [FA-0004]
    [01] Art Blakey: Oscalypso
    [02] Otis Rush: Working Man
    [03] Tribe: A New Day
    [04] Shuggie Otis: Freedom Flight
    [05] Lee Perry & Adrian Sherwood: Wake Up Call
    [06] Slayer: Reigning Blood
    [07] Junior Wells: Early In The Morning
    [08] Otis Rush: All Your Love
    [09] Miles Davis: Excerpt
    [10] John Sinclair with Ed Moss & the Society Jazz Orchestra: Steps > Spectrum > LUYAH! The Glorious Step
    [12] Magic Sam: Everything Gonna Be Alright
    [13] Closing Music: Brother Jack McDuff: Goodnight, It’s Time To Go
    A JOINT PRODUCTION
    Produced by Steve “Fly” Pratt for Radio Free Amsterdam
    Edited, assembled & annotated by John Sinclair
    Executive Producer: Sidney Daniels
    Sponsored by Ceres Seeds & The Hempshopper, Amsterdam
    © 2012 Steve Pratt & The John Sinclair Foundation

    http://www.radiofreeamsterdam.com/fly-by-night-with-steve-the-fly-04/

  • Nutty Logic with Steve Fly

    Nutty Logic with Steve Fly

    Nutty Logic with Steve Fly
    The John Sinclair Foundation Presents

    NUTTY LOGIC WITH STEVE FLY
    Cafe The Zen, Amsterdam, January 11, 2012 [SFNL-0001]

    Steve Fly created this salute to Robert Anton Wilson and put it together with John Sinclair at Cafe The Zen in Amsterdam Oost last night and we’re rushing it onto the Radio Free Amsterdam airwaves today, with musical selections from Alice Coltrane, John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth, Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall, Dr. John & The Lower 911, Ed Sanders, the Miles Davis Sextet, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Jefferson, and John Coltrane & Duke Ellington, with several contributions from Robert Anton Wilson himself.

    NUTTY LOGIC PLAYLIST

    [01] Alice Coltrane: Journey to Satchidananda
    [02] Robert Anton Wilson: New Tsarism
    [03] John Sinclair & Beatnik Youth: Brilliant Corners
    [04] Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane: Nutty
    [05] Dr. John & The Lower 911: Black Gold
    [06] Robert Anton Wilson; Maybe Logic
    [07] Ed Sanders: What If William Blake Had Gone To New Orleans?
    [08] Miles Davis Sextet: So What
    [09] Louis Armstrong: Black and Blue
    [10] Robert Anton Wilson: TSOG Rising
    [11] Eddie Jefferson: Parker’s Mood
    [12] John Coltrane & Duke Ellington: In a Sentimental Mood

    A JOINT PRODUCTION
    Produced by Steve Fly
    Edited, assembled & annotated by John Sinclair
    Executive Producer: Leslie Lopez
    Sponsored by Ceres Seeds & The Hempshopper, Amsterdam
    (c) 2012 The John Sinclair Foundation
    share6

  • OOCUPY

    For the OCCUPY movement, the people and the spirits.–Steven James Pratt (Fly Acrillic 23)

    Occupy Your Mind
    The skies
    The stars
    Occupy hearts parks forests and stores

    Occupy The Streets
    Tweets
    And Occupied Toilets
    Occupy Beats and sing to highlight deceit to foil it

    Occupy War Street
    Your Walk
    Banksterdam,
    Occupy the Vatican of worms if you can

    Occupy Loan Don
    Switchaland
    Franchise,
    Occupy Organize Codify Ampliflies

    Occupy Pounds
    Occupy Cents
    Occupy Bill’s
    Occupy Beverly Hills

    Occupy Pence
    Occupy jails
    Occupy rents
    Girls penned in by pigs behind a fence,
    Poisoned like snails

    Occupy Bonds
    Dollars
    The Euro,
    Occupy The Bureau with Neuro Scholar Judo

    Occupy the Spyguys
    Occupy in face
    Occupy to Shock the eye
    The Ochre clings to the pepper spray
    Red Octopi tents tackle dragons and lions
    Occupy Occidental
    Sock your thigh your legs
    Occupy your pants my dear
    Occupy a wig
    All through October we’ll
    Occupy a jig
    Let’s Occupy November
    December through March
    Arab Spring and all,
    Then we’ll Occuply […….]
    And the Seasons revolve,
    Occupy the planet earth
    Coagulate, Solve.
  • NAUGHTIES DECADE 2001-2011

    DECADE 2001-2011

     

    INTRODUCTION

    Hi I finally got around to posting this, it’s been hanging around for a while. I hope you’ll forgive my errors, any feedback will be well received.

    So friends…which events seem important to you? Which would you choose to define any given period of time? How do you make sense of them, what conditions nurtured them, which human interventions and which natural disasters led to the events you pick?

    If we are to make sense and meaning of history, and sanity–a risky endeavour in these times of global Internet but one which any poet worth the name might pursue–then a ‘poem including history‘ of the last decade seems a good place to start to me. (after writing this introduction I learned that Mark Zukenburg and facebook plan to release a ‘timeline’ application that allows for a similar chronological study of events. However History also moves in cycles, and non-chronological spirals, it is of my opinion.

    The launch of Wikipedia in February of 2001 has impacted this writing a great deal due to the simple list of some events deemed worthy of inclusion by the Wikipedia commons group, that are made available for all to see and make sense of at your own risk. The risk seems to me to be somewhat reduced when attention is paid to the subjective nature of perception, and to methods such as ‘operational language used by some-but-not-all scientists and ‘E-prime’ and its variants, used by some-but-not-all linguists.

    When put Into chronological order it becomes increasingly difficult for me to avoid drawing conclusions based on the ordering, one thing leads to another, or so it seems to a linear oriented mind set. The question remains: which ‘events’ should become pivotal ones and which shall be relegated to the footnotes or relegated all together? How did the author or protagonist come to choose such events based on which values and principle, what ordering system, what right knowledge? How many are justified by later events and how many need revision, considering, let’s say; the Wikileaks exposures of the period 2007-2010, or the News Corp. phone hacking racket?

    Silent But Dudley: Black Country Blues

    by Mr Steven James Pratt

    Link: http://a.co/7KhqHcL

    (more…)

  • ‘Mirror in De Buurvrouw’ by CHU

    ‘Mirror in De Buurvrouw’ by CHU

    My good friend CHU came to Amsterdam and decorated the wall of a local bar very close to Dam square in the center, called De Buurvrouw. The decorations work on many levels and from many different perspectives, not least the name ‘Mirror in De Buurvrouw’ being a riff on the lyric and title of the Ska revival tune by The Beat (Mirror in the Bathroom).

    Please go to the link and view the post images and video. Then have a look around the website and take in the vast amount of visual eye candy by master CHU

    http://www.schudio.co.uk/blog/2011/mirror-in-de-buurvrouw/

  • The tale of the ‘high’ tribe

    The tale of the tribe

    High Time and the Counter-cultural hall of fame.

    “A ganachakra (Sanskrit: gaṇacakra, or ‘gathering circle’; Tibetan: tshogs kyi ‘khor lo) is also known as tsog, ganapuja, chakrapuja or ganachakrapuja. It is a generic term for various tantric assemblies or feasts, in which practitioners meet to chant mantra, enact mudra, make votive offerings and practice various tantric rituals as part of a sadhana, or spiritual practice. The ganachakra often comprises a sacramental meal and festivities such as dancing; the feast generally consisting of materials that were considered forbidden or taboo in medieval India, where the tantric movement arose. As a tantric practice, forms of ganachakra are practiced today in both Hinduism, Bön and Vajrayana Buddhism. —TSOG

    I like the idea of the Counter-cultural Hall of Fame, as developed by High Times and Steven Hager, and I’m happy that the legendary characters from America’s exulted tradition of counter-cultural revolutionaries, artists, poets, musicians and humanitarian activists in the fullest sense of that term: revolutionary. High Times magazine seem to have developed a good selection process for the Hall Of Fame and the Celebrity Cup judges, besides all the weed, the poetry and scholar activism blooms.

    In his essay – T.A.Z – from the book TSOG: The thing that ate the constitution. Robert Anton Wilson writes about being picked to be a celebrity judge for the High Times Cannabis Cup in 1999 and his experiences in Amsterdam. I read this essay again recently and found all sorts of cross links and descriptions of the Cannabis Cup and Amsterdam that I find irresistible to share.

    1. T.A.Z or Temporary Autonomous Zone invokes Peter Lamorn Wilson, another brilliant bearded anarchist ‘scholar activist philosopher’ of the American tradition, who RAW often criss-crosses paths with when musing upon cultural revolution. Peter Lamborn Wilson’s TAZ seems to be used here as the title of Bob’s essay [see excerpt below] to help describe the unique red-light and coffeeshop Zones of Dutch tolerance here in Amsterdam, and some other parts of the Netherlands, and a generally intelligent and exemplary model.

    2. William S. Burroughs was inducted into the High Times Hall of Fame in 1999, and RAW participated in the induction ceremony by reading parts from NOVA EXPRESS, a small clip of this event can be found on you tune in a video compiled based on the induction of the Beat generation into the High Times Countercultural Hall Of Fame. It was Burroughs who turned Wilson onto the 23 enigma’ and Wilson compared WSB with James Joyce as the two greatest literary entities of the 20th century.

    3. The name Simon Vinkenoog was familiar to me by way of Dr. Robert Anton Wilson, like so many things; who noted Simon’s work in his books, such as the tale of the Sage of Dalkey in his last published work – email to the Universe. When I arrived in Amsterdam Simon was active and a strong part of the Dutch resistance to Bullshit, mediocrity and Tsarist Occupation Government. Simon passed onwards into outer-hyperspace July 12th, 2009. Simon was recently featured upon John’s 10 show holiday extravaganza, and for me this fact makes yet another loop between American and European counter-cultural anthropology, bound together by John’s choice of musical artefacts, that continue to delight the air-waves.

    Big Chief: Getting High With John Sinclair And The Fly

    by Steven James Pratt et al.

    Link: http://a.co/czUbrSA

    (more…)