Category: GENUINE ART AS HEROISM

AHT UND ITS PREROGATIVES, GENUINE ART AS HEROISM, THINKING TO THE NTH ON THE TOPICLeave a comment

TOTALITARIUM

Steven Augustine

When I was being raised in the 1960s and 1970s, the ambient cultural value I absorbed from books, music and films was anti-business/ anti-square/ pro-Creative/ pro-Sex/ marginal materialism. By the time I hit college in 1977 I was wearing these presets like a behavioral badge and the people I befriended and hung out with seemed to radiate these attitudes as well, attitudes I embodied to such a degree that I drew quite a bit of attention. I was so confident in my espousal of these embodied beliefs that I became a sort of militant philosopher, spreading the word.  This militancy … Continue reading TOTALITARIUM

GENUINE ART AS HEROISM8 Comments

2020: CHAPTER ONE

Steven Augustine

One of the Holy Grails of Berlin’s Musical Culture (which is nearly as cool as Minneapolis was in the 1980s, far cooler than post-Grunge San Diego was in the mid-to-late ’90s and can’t even come close to the Psychedelic Revival/ Break-Beating Soul ll Soul and Acid Jazz explosion of London in the year 1990,  precisely) is a solid drummer,  with professional skills and practises, who comes with his own recording studio and ultra-cool hair:  I scored one,  for free, for my project,  this January. Better than the model race car track for Christmas, ’66. Portending  many warm dazzles and several big … Continue reading 2020: CHAPTER ONE

E-Pistle, GENUINE ART AS HEROISM, letters, THINKING TO THE NTH ON THE TOPICLeave a comment

THE AWE(FUL)-INSPIRING TRUTH: A BRIEF EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH A FRIEND

Steven Augustine

Sunday evening I sent a few pre-master mixes to a wise, worldly, hip and profoundly talented friend; we usually discuss Lit, but I’m looking for more conversations about Music at the moment. I’m almost ready to master the 12-14 tracks we’ve been working on for three years, I’ve lost 10 Kilos (working on another 5), I’ve got some serious and well-known musicians guesting on the project and this is all against the luminous backdrop of the improbable fact that I’ve never felt better in my Life. I feel I could run across a field of quails’ eggs without cracking them… … Continue reading THE AWE(FUL)-INSPIRING TRUTH: A BRIEF EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH A FRIEND

GENUINE ART AS HEROISM, THINKING TO THE NTH ON THE TOPIC2 Comments

THE MEH-TRICKS: ART IS ALWAYS UNDER ATTACK

Steven Augustine

I had an old friend who was a self-proclaimed “Communist” (who spent more than one Xmas in his banker-sister’s Central Park penthouse: embrace the contradictions) and I only momentarily regret having finally told him to “fuck the fuck off,” three years ago, because now I can’t send him, this ex-friend, who was a rabid Terrence Malick/ Badlands fan, the following item: “A documentary about Lil Peep is reportedly on its way, executive produced by Terrence Malick. The New York Times revealed the news in a feature detailing plans for posthumous Lil Peep releases. Malick, who directed Badlands, The Thin Red Line, and The Tree of Life, is a … Continue reading THE MEH-TRICKS: ART IS ALWAYS UNDER ATTACK

GENUINE ART AS HEROISM, HIGH QUACKERY, ZERO TASTE5 Comments

LET THE WALLS COME TWOMBLING DOWN

Steven Augustine

When I was the object of desire of a mover/shaker in the Art World, she observed to me, one afternoon, that the employees of a monster bank, whose expensive Art acquisitions she had curated, “Resent or maybe they even fear the Neo-Expressionist works in the collection, because they don’t understand them,” and because I was 24 or so at the time, I held my tongue. I didn’t understand how much potential power I had in the relationship; I certainly had enough leverage to speak my mind. What I wanted to say was, “That’s not the problem at all. It drives … Continue reading LET THE WALLS COME TWOMBLING DOWN

GENUINE ART AS HEROISM, WE ACTUALLY DON'T HATE THIS AT ALLLeave a comment

PLEASE SHOW ME A REAL ARTIST

Steven Augustine

  “Please: show me a Real Artist. An Artist who paints in cold blood and hot shit and black fire…  an Artist who makes poems with home-made  hammers and stolen daggers… on new cars and i-pods and department-store crèches… an Artist who won’t kneel to kiss The Dollar’s ring or queue up to glue on a shit-eating grin at The Border or stand at attention to take one up the ass for ‘our troops’ or  ‘the children’ or any other  Trojan horse of Stalinist sentimentality designed to promote the Devil’s favorite charities. Show me a Real Artist and I’ll return … Continue reading PLEASE SHOW ME A REAL ARTIST

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NO PUNCHES PULLED: THRILLING

Steven Augustine

Now, a while back, I wrote the following about the video below, which relates directly to the fantastic video above: People… even intelligent people… have been ruined by Television. They expect… they DEMAND… a laugh-line. But what if there is no fucking laugh-line? Do you just stubbornly, consumeristically, impose one in order to avoid facing the Ugly Truth the material was meant to reveal? Apparently. (Entire reading HERE) Continue reading NO PUNCHES PULLED: THRILLING