Tosh Berman's Blog, page 258

A Certain Ratio "Early"

Factory Records hit me hard as a young man in his super early 20's. Joy Division spoke to me at that age, and also the visuals were incredibly important as well. Ian Curtis was so haunted, it made my heart ache. But now, I can barely listen to their music. Not that I hate it, but more to the fact that the music doesn't speak for me anymore. I used it, it used me, and I was satisfied. Next!
For that label, and what a more lasting effect, is A Certain Ratio. The visuals of the band were even more striking to me than Joy Division. They had this sort of Lawrence of the Arabia without the robes look. Military baggy shorts, 1930's haircuts, thick boy scout or military socks that go up to the knee, and basically sort of look like British prisoners of war circa the early days of World War 2. And the music is …. dub jazz funk. It was like if Miles Davis started a British band in the late 70's. To me I think this was Factory Records head Tony Wilson's great discovery.
Early is the ultimate collection of all the early and hard to find singles by A Certain Ratio. The spacey dub effects and the self-obsessed funk makes this band the bad and slightly darker version of Joy Division's rock stance. If Ian and company looked up to Iggy, The Doors, and Velvets, then A Certain Ratio looked up to obscure funk singles and Miles electric music era. In many ways they perfectly complimented each other. But the lasting effect for me is A Certain Ratio.

"The Spectacle of Disintegration" by McKenzie Wark

McKenzie Wark wrote a fantastic book on the beginning and the middle part of the Situationist International in his first volume "The Beach Beneath the Street." Now we have the later years or if you want the death of the Situationist movement in his new book "The Spectacle of Disintegration.". In my opinion that's really not the case because I think the artwork, the writing, and political philosophy will stay fresh in our rather horror world.  Wark's last chapter in the book actually coveys that feeling via the Occupy movement and the nature of politics and culture in today's world. 

In brief chapters we get commentary on Guy Debord's later films as well as his intriguing interest in board games "Art of War" which he focused on towards the end of his life.  Also  his wife Alice Becker-Ho's deep interest in Gypsy language specially in the world of slang - where language is coded among the tribe. 

The gang is all here and Wark wraps up their world and work in a very readable manner.  Overall we have a wonderful group of thinkers that made an important mark on this world. May they wander and wonder forever.

"Wonder While You Wander" by Tosh Berman Part One: Larkspur Images

Wallace Berman in Larkspur
Brigitte Bardot in Roger Vadim's "And God Created Woman"

The Lark Theater in Larkspur where I saw my first movie, which was "And God Created Woman"
John Reed in Larkspur (photo by Wallace Berman)
Semina Gallery in Larkspur (photo by Charles Brittin)The above images are just a scrapbook for me while working on my memoir "Wonder While You Wander"  Thank you Nicki Wong for the title!

Tosh Berman via the Dennis Cooper website

http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blog...

"The Edogawa Rampo Reader"

I feel like i have been waiting for this book for all of my life.  it has been a slow amount of time to get the Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo translated into English.  One of his collections of short stories have been in print for so many years - yet waiting for another title seemed endless.  Now we have at least three other books by Rampo, and I bought them all this year.

"The Edogawa Rampo Reader" is a much needed over-all look of his career.  The first half of this book is short stories and the second half are essays -mostly regarding the nature of the 'detective' story.  i only found one essay the most interesting and that's "The Horror Of Films" dealing with the nature and history of cinema.  It's a great piece on what was then a new medium.  He wrote it in 1926, and for a short essay it covers a lot of ground.  Basically all to do with being the viewer.

The short stories are all in the creepy mode that I love about Rampo's work.  It includes the story about a man who spends a lot of time in the attic where he spies on people down below, and also commits a murder.  The long introduction by Seth Jacobowitz is pretty perfect in capturing what is so essential about Rampo, his times, and the work itself.   A remarkable writer.

"Yes Is The Answer (And Other Prog-Rock Tales)" edited by Marc Weingarten and Tyson Cornell

I am pretty sure that I hate Prog music. The album covers, the dry ice (although to be honest they share some visuals with my beloved glam artists), the capes, the knee length boots for the gentlemen, and the god awful lyrics regarding the future, fantasy, and whatever. Its all a form of hell for me. The Editors Marc Weingarten and Tyson Cornell has put together what in theory would be either a torture test or at the very least a death day aimed at yours truly - an anthology focusing on the what I consider the horrors of Prog. And to be honest I love the book!

Writers like Rick Moody, Joe Meno Beth Lisick, and others wrote fantastic essays on how Prog has entered and affected their lives. Most it seems for the better...or perhaps worst. Nevertheless all the pieces in this book are first-class works that actually makes one (like me for instance) give Prog a chance out there. in my case, as second-chance. 

There is one outstanding essay by Rodrigo Fresan that is probably the best piece i have ever read on Pink Floyd and... Stanley Kubrick. Brilliant even! I never heard of this writer, but I am now a fan due to his original observations on Kubrick's work as well as the world of Pink Floyd. Essential reading and the rest is pretty great as well. I strongly recommend this book because it was put together with a lot of love and respect for that genre of sound, as well as the terrific writing and thinking that went into this book. And for god sake, its Prog!

James Sallis' Review of Boris Vian's "Foam of the Daze" (L'écume des

A legend throughout Europe - French musician, translator of Raymond Chandler and seminal science fiction writer, poet, songwriter, novelist and screen actor - Boris Vian remains little known in the United States. Los Angeles-based TamTam Book aims to correct this, having published a paperback edition of Vian's landmark thriller "I Spit on Your Graves" in 2001 and now a new translation of his masterful "Foam of the Daze" (L'Ecume des jours"), with the first translation of "L'Automne à Pékin" to follow.
There have been two previous English translations of "Foam": Stanley Chapman's 1967 British edition, "Froth on the Daydream," and Jon Sturrock's U.S. version, "Mood Indigo," which appeared shortly thereafter. Chapman's is by far the superior, admirably transposing Vian's rhythms into English and finding equivalents for his multi-level puns and wordplay. But Brian Harper's hip new translation, edged toward the modern U.S. reader, may well become the standard.This is a great novel, mind you. Though on its surface, the simplest of stories - Vian summed it up as "a man loves a woman, she falls ill, she dies" - beneath are a host of ambiguities, digressions, levels of meaning. Not quite beneath actually, for subtexts keep erupting to the surface. It is in many ways a novel built of eruptions.Simply, then, this is a tale of two couples: Colin, a rich and rather superfluous man, and Chloe, a woman dying from a lily growing in her lung; Chick, whose life is ruined by his collecting of Jean-Sol Partre's books and memorabilia, and Alise, who tries to save Chick from himself by murdering Partre. As the lily grows in Chloe's lung, Colin does all he can to keep her alive. But her bed sinks closer to the ground and the room grows ever smaller. Because Colin has no money left to pay for burial, Chloe's coffin is simply thrown out the window.In Vian's world, nothing is simple, nothing may be taken for granted. Because people they love have died, mice persuade diffident cats to kill them; bells detach themselves from doors to come and announce visitors; neckties rebel against being knotted; some broken windowpanes grow back overnight while others darken from breathing difficulties; a piano mixes cocktails to match the music being played upon it; armchairs and sausages must be calmed before use. When Colin puts Duke Ellington's "The Mood to Be Wooed" on the phonograph, the O's on the record label cause the corners of the room to become round.In Vian's books, the world becomes ineluctably strange, the world as a child or a madman might see it. And that's the recipe for "Foam of the Daze," a novel with paradox at its heart, as critic David Meakin has observed: one part light-hearted fantasy, one part tragedy. Add wordplay and romance to taste. Your heart will be broken. You will be confused and confounded. You will laugh aloud. And at least for a time, however hard you try, your own world will refuse to be what you think it is.Here is Colin in church after Chloe's death:
"Why did you have her die?" asked Colin.
Oh... said Jesus, drop the subject.
He looked for a more comfortable position on his nails.
She was so sweet, said Colin. Never was she bad, neither in thought, nor in action.
That has nothing to do with religion, mumbled Jesus, yawning. He shook his head a little to change the slant of his crown of thorns.
I don't see what we've done, said Colin, we don't deserve this.He lowered his eyes... Jesus's chest was rising softly and regularly, his features breathed calm, his eyes had closed and Colin could hear a light purr of satisfaction coming from his nostrils, like a sated cat."Vian died June 23, 1959, at 39 as he sat watching a film version of his thriller "I Spit on Your Graves." He'd neglected to take his heart medications that morning and as the first frames ticked by on screen, he is said to have uttered, "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!" and collapsed.Vian's was a short, very full, very strange ride, like that of his ever-youthful characters in "Foam of the Daze."James Sallis, Los Angeles Times Book Review (Sunday, February 1, 2004).

Access All Areas 21 Albums in 21Nights Sparks Pass

The English Subtitled "Mood Indigo" preview

Well, this is the first subtitled version of the preview I have come across (so far).  No official U.S. release date at this time.  Also a reminder that anyone who wants to read the English version of the  Boris Vian novel "L'écume des jours can do so with my press which published a beautiful translation by Brian Harper called "Foam of the Daze." The TamTam edition also comes with endnotes detailing specific aspecs of this novel with respect to Vian's life, etc.

Tosh Berman on Dennis Cooper's Blog Regarding "Sparks-Tastic"

For those who want to read an excerpt of my book "Sparks-Tastic" and interview do go here:

http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2013/05/spotlight-on-tosh-berman-sparks-tastic.html?zx=3b5bc82080685e2c