Tosh Berman's Blog, page 127

Tony Conrad unedited pt 1 of 5

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BOOK MUSIK No. 14 "Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach by Roshanak Kheshti (33 1/3)

Tosh and Kimley discuss Wendy Carlos’s Switched-On Bach by Roshanak Kheshti from the 33 1/3 series. Switched-On Bach, an album of Bach compositions played on a Moog synthesizer, is one of the bestselling classical recordings of all time. In the 1960s Carlos worked with Robert Moog to further the synthesizer’s capabilities and with the 1968 release of Switched-On Bach she pioneered an entirely new way of making music. She also wrote powerful scores to several films including Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. And she was one of the first public figures to come out as transgender. She’s groundbreaking in both her professional and private life and yet she’s maintained an air of mystery and intrigue that we find very compelling.

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Tosh's Favorite Reads (Books) for 2019

Tosh’s top Books in 2019:

“Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish: Essays” by Tom McCarthy (NYRB)
“Rebel Rebel” & “Ashes to Ashes” by Chris O’Leary
“Head-to-Toe Portrait of Suzanne” by Roland Topor (Atlas Press)
“Death Valley Superstars: Occasionally Fatal Adventures in Filmland” by Duke Haney
“The Alley of Fireflies and Other Stories” by Raymond Roussel (Song Cave)
“The Orchid Stories” by Kenward Elmslie (Song Cave)
“Curl” by T.O.Bobe (Wakefield Press)
“Mac’s Problem” by Enrique Vila-Matas (New Directions)
“Another Ventriloquist” by Adam Penn Gilders (J &L Books)
“When I Was a Wolf: Outlaw Takes on Fables and Fairy Tales” by Shuji Terayama (Kurodahan Press)
“The Artificial Silk Girl” by Irmgard Deun (Penguin Classics)
“The Sundays of Jean Dézert” by Jean de La Ville de Mirmont (Wakefield Press)
“In Black and White” by Junichiro Tanizaki (Columbia University Press)
“Ennio Morricone: In His Own Words” by Morricone and Alessandro De Rosa (Oxford University Press)
“Year of the Monkey” by Patti Smith (Knopf)
“Nada” by Jean-Patrick Manchette (NYRB)
“I’ve Seen the Future and I’m Not Going: The Art Scene and Downtown New York in the 1980s” by Peter McGough (Pantheon Books)
“Intelligence for Dummies: Essays and Other Collected Writings” by Glenn O’Brien (ZE Books)
“Life for Sale” by Yukio Mishima (Penguin Classics) 
“The Man Without Talent” by Yoshiharu Tsuge (NYRB)
“Punk Rock is Cool for the End of the World” by Ed Smith (Turtlepoint Press)
“Essays:One” by Lydia Davis

"Tony Conrad: Writings" with Andrew Lampert in Conversation with Tyler Hubby and Tosh Berman

Save the date for Saturday | January 4th | 3 PM for the Los Angeles book launch of 'Tony Conrad: Writings' with editor Andrew Lampert in conversation with Tyler Hubby and Tosh Berman. This should be a super fun event... don't miss this!

"Reggenza Italiana del Carnaro (Italian Regency of Carnaro)" by Tosh Berman

Some actions take place that one can regret and move on, or let the fate of history handle it from now on. Gabriele D'Annunzio was a man who wouldn’t let fate decide his sense of order and passion. The city of Flume was part of the Austrian Littoral. Due to the Treaty of London (1915) was placed in the hands of the Croatian territories into the Kingdom of Serbs. D'Annunzio felt that Flume belonged to Italy. He and 2,600 troops, reportedly shell-shocked from the Battles of the Isonzo, marched into Flume and staged a seizure of the city.



Gabriele D'Annunzio was an Italian poet, essayist, playwright, and equally important, a soldier. Think of Yukio Mishima, but Italian. There is no doubt that d’Annunzio was a Fascist, but one who mapped out his world in such a fashion that relayed a perfect sense of space, and that landscape was Flume. In his own hands, and without the permission of Italy, he and his soldiers annexed the territory to the Kingdom of Italy. Italy, in return, put a blockade of Flume, demanding that d’Annunzio and others surrender.

What’s interesting to me is not the politics or even history, but the fact that a poet/writer led such a campaign. One can argue if d’Annunzio is a great poet/writer, but without a doubt, he was in the avant-garde of the literature of the time. In honesty, he’s more 19th-century than say someone like his peers at the time - specifically Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the Futurists. Marinetti called d’Annunzio and the leaders of the ‘Exploit’ “advance-guard deserters” So, The Futurists were very much supporters of Italy and its empire. The Italian government, in a compromise, offered Flume’s citizens a modus vivendi, which in Latin means ‘mode of living,’ to co-exist in peace. d’Annunzio was against the modus vivendi and put it to vote in the Italian National Council of Flume. They accepted the proposal from Italy, and then d’Annunzio insisted on being put to the vote with the citizens of Flume. They, too, voted for the modus vivendi.



D'Annunzio distrusted the Italian government that he decided to make the final decision. On September 8, 1920, D'Annunzio became the Comandante; in other words, the Dictator of the Italian Regency of Camaro. The only other country to recognize the Italian Regency of Camaro was the Soviet Union. The constitution, or known as ‘The Charter of Carnaro’, was a combination of Fascist, Democratic-Republican theories, and Anarchist touches. This vibrant cocktail that became a country had, for sure, the touches of a creative poet. The Charter made “Music” a religious and social institution. Besides setting up the standard platform for governance (law, defense, education, etc.), d’Annunzio also set up a platform to support the “superior individuals” such as poets, heroes, and supermen.

Benito Mussolini found d’Annunzio inspiring and loved his style of leadership. The truth is d’Annunzio invented Italian Fascism with his balcony speeches, the roman salute, and his charismatic relationship with the audience or crowds. He even had black-shirted followers. The whole fascistic aesthetic came from this poet.


So like Yukio Mishima, who had his well-dressed army, the influence of those on the right, and their sense of style, elegance, also matched with a great deal of brutality. In America, we are not attached to those who dressed-well. Most Americans find it suspicious and are looking for others who fit in their style or aesthetic.

 Like all things, it had to end. D’Annunzio declared war on Italy, and of course, even though well-dressed, lost that battle. Eventually, it became part of the Empire of Italy.

"The Criminal Child:Selected Essays" by Jean Genet (NYRB)iI

ISBN: 978-68137-361-4
Those who write and look up to other writers (as a writer should, by the way), I have to imagine Jean Genet is very much 'it.'  As a teenager and a young man in his twenties, I greatly admired Yukio Mishima and Genet.  In no fashion was I going to idolize Robert Benchley (that happened in my 50s) or any writer that appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List.   Genet is a criminal.  And a proud criminal on top of that.   In our world now, criminal writers are looked down upon.  As you gather, a writer has to be, at the very least, a morally upstanding citizen.  Genet is bad-ass.  But a bad-ass that can write about his world in such delicious language.  One of the great presses in the English language is the New York Review of Books (NYRB), and their edition of Genet's "The Criminal Child: Selected Essays is a small and remarkable book.  The title piece is regarding the nature of the French reform-school system, and how much Genet preferred the kiddie-prison of his youth.  Also, his essays/commentary on the visual art of Alberto Giacometti and Leonor Fini is superb. Genet can connect to an artist like a hand attached to an arm.