this week in literature

STEVEN BLUSH: AMERICAN HARDCORE

The Strand
828 Broadway at 12th St.
Wednesday, December 15, free, 7:00
212-473-1452
www.americanhardcorebook.com

Steven Blush has been part of the American hardcore scene since the early 1980s, promoting shows, starting music magazines, writing the definitive book on the subject, 2001’s AMERICAN HARDCORE: A TRIBAL HISTORY, and writing and producing the 2006 documentary of the same name. He is on tour now with the second edition of the book, having expanded every chapter and added a new one, stretching it from 328 to 408 pages with new art, new interviews, and new subjects. Blush will be at the Strand tonight with Dave Smalley (Dag Nasty, Descendents) and author Laura Albert, better known as controversial writer JT Leroy, discussing the past, present, and future of American hardcore, which Blush famously declared was dead in 1986. In celebration of the second edition of the book, Blush has given us one of the great holiday presents ever, a website that offers twenty-four hours of hardcore, consisting of 911 free, downloadable songs from familiar, forgettable, and hard-to-find groups, an unbelievable collection that you can find here.

CAROLEE SCHNEEMAN — BOOK RELEASE EVENT!

Carolee Schneeman will introduce MEAT JOY and other short works at Anthology Film Archives on December 16 in celebration of the publication of her letters

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Thursday, December 16, 7:30
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
www.dukeupress.edu

American performance artist Carolee Schneeman has been shaking up the art world since the late 1950s, staging happenings and making short films in which she bares it all in shocking, controversial ways, holding nothing back. Among her many works are FUSES, MEAT JOY, MORTAL COILS, and VULVA’S MORPHIA, which investigate such themes as erotics, kinetics, dreams, war, and cats. Born in Pennsylvania in 1939, Schneeman has opened up a fascinating aspect of her life in the new book CORRESPONDENCE COURSE: AN EPISTOLARY HISTORY OF CAROLEE SCHNEEMAN AND HER CIRCLE (Duke University Press, November 2010, $99.95 hardcover, $29.95 paperback), allowing Duke University professor Kristine Stiles to publish letters that Schneeman has kept throughout her career. “The letters were edited and selected for how they document charged personal and artistic struggles, arguments, and displays of ego; how they illuminate internecine aesthetic politics, conflicting ethics, and values; and how countless mundane activities constitute the exasperating vicissitudes of making art, building an artistic reputation, and negotiating an industry as unpredictable and demanding as the art world in the mid-to-late twentieth century,” Stiles writes in the preface. “For her part, Schneeman discusses financial dilemmas; grapples with her career; shares her success, joy, and love; and contends with loneliness, aging, and disappointment.” Schneeman will celebrate the publication of the book on Thursday, December 16, at Anthology Film Archives, where she will introduce and screen FUSES, MEAT JOY, KITCH’S LAST MEAL, ASK THE GODDESS, and MYSTERIES OF THE PUSSIES and discuss her work and career in what should be quite an unusual evening.

DRAW BOOK RELEASE PARTY

Karen O’s “So Trashed” is among the many works collected in DRAW

Fuse Gallery
93 2nd Ave between Fifth & Sixth Sts.
Wednesday, December 15, free, 7:00 – 10:00
212-777-7988
www.fusegallerynyc.com

In October 2006, Erik Foss and Curse Mackey curated “Draw,” an exhibition at Fuse Gallery of drawings by illustrators, skateboarders, animators, graphic novelists, musicians, tattoo artists, and others. The show traveled to Austin, London, San Francisco, and, most recently, Mexico City, where El Museo de la Ciudad de México has put together the catalog with curator Miguel Calderon. On December 15, Fuse will host a party for the launch of the book, making one hundred advance copies available for a mere $25, with posters going for $10. The 256-page book features drawings by such artists and musicians as Raymond Pettibon, Tom Sachs, Chris Johanson, Terence Koh, Dan Colen, Swoon, Ozzy Osbourne, DAZE, Karen O, R. Crumb, HR Giger, Clive Barker, Barry McGee, Rick Griffin, Ron English, Neck Face, David Byrne, Hank Williams III, WK Interact, Doze Green, Tara McPherson, Les Claypool, and Shawn Barber. Also on view in the gallery is Benjamin Bertocci’s “Stutter.”

WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE? A NIGHT WITH GENE WILDER

Gene Wilder will be interviewed by his wife, Karen, at special evening at the JCC

JCC in Manhattan
334 Amsterdam Ave. at 76th St.
Wednesday, December 15, $15, 8:00
646-505-4444
www.jccmanhattan.org

Comic actor Gene Wilder, who made his film debut in BONNIE AND CLYDE and went on to star in such hits as THE PRODUCERS, BLAZING SADDLES, and WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, is also the author of such books as KISS ME LIKE A STRANGER: MY SEARCH FOR LOVE AND ART, THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T, and MY FRENCH WHORE. His latest, WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE? (St. Martin’s, March 2010, $19.99), features a dozen stories about love and romance, including “The Lady with the Red Hat,” “The Flirt,” and “My Old Flame.” In the prelude, Wilder admits, “Apart from the 1929 Cole Porter song, this is a ridiculous title and I know it; sounds a little like some egotistical guru telling the rest of the world about love and lovemaking and broken hearts.” Wilder’s goal, instead, is to give readers “a little pleasure and a laugh.” He’ll be looking to do all that and more on December 15 at the JCC in Manhattan, when he’ll be interviewed by his wife, Karen, about love and other topics in a special event held in conjunction with the Center for Hearing and Communication.

LICK ME: HOW I BECAME CHERRY VANILLA

Borders, 2 Penn Plaza
Tuesday, December 7, free, 2 5:00
www.borders.com
www.cherry-vanilla.com

Poet, actress, songwriter, publicist, Mad woman, and all-around good-time girl Cherry Vanilla holds nothing back in her free-wheeling memoir, LICK ME: HOW I BECAME CHERRY VANILLA (Chicago Review Press, November 2010, $24.95). Born Kathleen Anne Dorritie in 1943 and raised in Queens, Vanilla tells of a life filled with lots of sex, lots of drugs, and lots of rock & roll. A chronic bedwetter as a child, she later developed OCD, picking at cuts and blemishes all over her body. She dreamed of being in show business, first working at Madison Ave. advertising firms before getting involved in the burgeoning downtown arts scene, hanging out at the hottest clubs and enjoying a never-ending stream of lovers. She starred in Warhol’s off-Broadway show PORK and went from groupie to music publicist to poet and performer; her stories about working with David Bowie just as he was trying to break through in the States are intimate and revealing — and might come as quite a surprise for longtime Bowie fans. She talks in-depth about her desire to bed such men as Kris Kristofferson, Warren Beatty, Leon Russell, and Bowie — but you’ll have to read the book to find out which attempts were successful. Among the many celebrities she meets in her ever-evolving career, some who became close friends, others just passing through her wild life, are Mick Jagger, Patti Smith, Joel Schumacher, Debbie Harry, Helmut Newton, Joni Mitchell, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, Sting, Candy Darling, Ringo Starr, Angie Bowie, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mick Ronson, and she shares some very interesting details about many of them. But Vanilla never comes off as needlessly gossipy or self-aggrandizing; instead, LICK ME is an honest portrait of a woman who knew what she wanted and went after it. The book also includes excerpts from her 1970s diaries and a sixteen-page black-and-white insert that features several shots of her in two of her favorite positions, either partially or fully unclothed. Cherry Vanilla will be at the Penn Plaza Borders on December 7, discussing her outrageous life and signing copies of the book, joined by special guest May Pang, who figures in a story in the book about Cherry trying to give John Lennon a special birthday present from Ringo.

WALT (CLYDE) FRAZIER: ROCKIN’ STEADY

Tuesday, December 7, NBA Store, 666 Fifth Ave. at 52nd St., 3:30
Tuesday, December 14, Borders, 2 Penn Plaza, 6:00
Thursday, December 16, Books & Greetings, New Jersey, 7:00
www.triumphbooks.com

One of the best guards in NBA history and the all-time greatest Knickerbocker, Walt (Clyde) Frazier was the definition of cool during the 1970s, high-stylin’ on and off the court then as well as now, currently serving as the team’s longtime color analyst. Back in 1974, following the second Knicks championship in four years, Clyde wrote ROCKIN’ STEADY: A GUIDE TO BASKETBALL & COOL with New York Times sportswriter Ira Berkow, covering such topics as “Offense,” “Defense,” “Cool,” and “A General Guide to Looking Good, and Other Matters.” The book was out of print for many years, but Triumph has finally brought it back in all its original glory, along with a new preface by Berkow and a new afterword from Frazier, called “Leave Your Own Footprint,” in which he discusses, among other things, his shocking trade to Cleveland in 1977 and the difficulties of the move from the city that he virtually owned: “Didn’t want to get that canary-yellow suit soiled, for one thing, and for another, it wasn’t easy packing those Clyde hats without getting them mashed. But I managed.” Frazier will be dishing and swishing, wheeling and dealing, and believing and achieving at the NBA Store in Midtown on December 7 at 3:30, the Borders at Penn Plaza on December 14 at 6:00, and Books & Greetings in Northvale, New Jersey, on December 16 at 7:00.

BROOKLYN COMICS AND GRAPHICS FESTIVAL

Art and music collective Uninhabitable Mansions will be among the more than fifty exhibitors at Brooklyn festival

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
275 North Eighth St.
Saturday, December 4, free, 12 noon – 9:00 pm
www.comicsandgraphicsfest.com

A mere month after KingCon II, Brooklyn continues its growing love affair with comic books and graphic novels at the second annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, which will take place on December 4 at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Williamsburg, an all-day free event featuring an exciting lineup of exhibitors, panels, and more. Organized and curated by Desert Island, PictureBox, and Bill Kartalopolous, the festival includes such guests as Kate Beaton, Jordan Crane, Jillian Tamaki, Adrian Tomine, and Gabrielle Bell and such exhibitors as Drawn & Quarterly, Uninhabited Mansions, the Jack Kirby Museum, Koyama Press, Doug Allen, and Rabid Rabbit, among many others. The festival has a great lineup of programs, beginning at 1:00 with “Lynda Barry and Charles Burns in Conversation,” followed by “The Art of Editing” with Françoise Mouly and Sammy Harkham (2:00), “Taking Inventory: The Story of Things” with Renée French, James McShane, Jungyeon Roh, and Leanne Shapton (3:00), “Irwin Hasen: When Comic Books Were New” with Irwin Hasen, Evan Dorkin, and Paul Pope (4:00), a Q&A with the great Anders Nilsen (5:00), “How Nancy Is: The Semiotics of the Gag” with Bill Griffith, Mark Newgarden, and Johnny Ryan (6:00), and “Chaos and Pattern” with Brian Chippendale, Jordan Crane, Keith Jones, and Mark Alan Stamaty (7:00). Festival cofounder Kartalopolous will moderate all discussions except for the Irwin Hasen panel, which will be moderated by Dan Nadel.