RE/Search Conversations

V. ValeMarian WallaceWilliam BennettEdited by Floyd Tangeman

Host: V. ValeEngineered and edited by Marian WallaceSee and hear "Bit By Bit" from 2012 Fab Mab Reunion Show on youtubehttps://youtu.be/sI6Za9MBYyU 

John Shirley is a cyberpunk pioneer (along with William Gibson, Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling). He tells of his life and how he started writing: basically, start writing your dreams! Dreams can go anywhere! Dreams became short stories, and some were expanded into full-length novels. Duck-and-cover, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the idea of nuclear war inspired literally hundreds of dreams where he was incinerated by a nuclear explosion. He tells how he became a published author and more...

Carolee Schneemann is a way-ahead-of-her-time artist featured in the RE/Search book “ANGRY WOMEN." She has a huge art show now (Feb through March 11, 2018) at MOMA PS1, New York. Fifty years of original art-making in many genres!

Wolf Eyes was in town and visited the RE/Search office to talk to us about their eclectic and long-standing musical collaboration. Alt-Jazz, improvisation, and the necessity for spontaneity are some of their modus operandi.

Vale interviews Sumeet Banerji and Jerry Connolly. The three talk about Sumeet’s novel “Ice Party,” physical versus digital design processes, live music’s power, evocative odors, the insidiousness of marketing, curated everything, anathema words, and emoji conversations.

All the way from Hamburg, the experimental documentary filmmaker Peter Sempel stops in for this episode to discuss his process of filmmaking, the longevity of punk, how Jonas Mekas helped kickstart Sempel’s career, his newest project, and favorite animals. Originally recorded as a TV episode of The Counterculture Hour.

Zine-maker Marc Fischer , maker of Temporary Services zines, and Museum of Capitalism's Timothy Furstnau stopped by the RE/Search office to share ideas. They discuss their recent publications, the art book fair circuit, printing technique pros and cons, and TSA confiscations. The Museum of Capitalism is having their book-release party this Friday in Oakland (August 11, 2017). The exhibition will be coming down and Timothy and cohorts are currently looking for new places to exhibit the collection. Marc Fischer dropped off his seven recent zines which mine the public libraries for interesting but long-forgotten facts and photos.

Robert Conway, who manages the trust of Bruce Conner, talks with RE/Search. The conversation includes Conway's interviews of friends and associates of Conner’s, the defining criteria of an artist and how we all might define ourselves as such, Conner’s inkblot series, and biography as art form.

Tyler Hubby's film "Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present" is now out and making the rounds. Tony Conrad was an experimental filmmaker and musician and an early "Performance Artist" before the term existed! Tyler visited the RE/Search office and filled us him filmmaking, Tony Conrad's work, and more. Produced by Marian Wallace. Edited by Miranda Aaland.

Bassist Mike Watt (the Minutemen, Iggy Pop Stooges Band, and more) visits RE/Search headquarters. The conversation involves Watt's musical childhood and his career as a musician, including anecdotes about gigs, stolen basses, and punk philosophies. Text from this interview is available in printed form at www.researchpubs.com.

Mabuhay impresario Dirk Dirksen goes deeper into the types of performance art, including comedic acts, that were "allowed" to play at the Mabuhay. Part 2 of 2. (Interview from 2004, two years before Dirk died, Nov 20, 2006.)

Dirk Dirksen was the entrepreneur and impresario of Mabuhay Gardens Punk Club in San Francisco. Here he talks about booking the club, the range of performances, and counterculture movements, punk and otherwise. Part 1 of 2.

We visit Diane DiPrima and she fills us in on her life as a working writer. Topics we covered are the struggles of women writers, counterculture movements, including the Bohemian movement, and balancing motherhood and art.

David J talks about Bauhaus and counterculture movements, including the goth scene and punk styles, in America and in the UK. He discusses his experiences touring in America and playing gigs in Europe as well as his favorite writers J. G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs.

David J of Bauhaus fame visits California on his Living Room Shows Tour and comes by RE/Search office for a visit. Bauhaus is most well known for it's original goth hit, "Bela Lugosi Is Dead". Who Killed Mister Moonlight is his 2014 biography.

Director Christopher Coppola visits the RE/Search office to discuss filmmaking with V. Vale and Marian Wallace. Follow Christopher Coppola by visiting his blog: http://www.christophercoppola.com/

Thorsten Schutte, director of Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words, joins V. Vale and Marian Wallace in the RE/Search office. Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words directed by Thorsten Schutte (2016) Review by Marian Wallace There is never a dull moment watching Frank Zappa, from age approximately 14 to just before his all-too-early death at 52. “Eat That Question” shows that Frank Zappa was not only a self-taught musical prodigy—while also fun, topical, and “real”—but he was a straight and obsessive genius with Integrity. It is a wonderful thing to see him interact with the senate hearings committee on censorship (which was spearheaded by Tipper Gore) inviting the straight-laced, woman-senator-questioner (forgot her name) to “come by the house” if she wanted to see what kinds of toys his children played with. Besides her being foiled by Zappa’s unorthodox answers and trying in vain to remain “in character” as the “pro-censorship” hearings unfolded, she was obviously charmed by Zappa, and stated that she “might just do that” [i.e., go check out his children’s toys]. Early in the film, Zappa explains to one interviewer, in a non-hyperbolic way, why he is against the status-quo music business. It is then illustrated by many and miscellanous Zappa footage/interviews/performances how: over the years he goes on to make his own success, remaining true to his vision. Later he needs to explain to an interviewer that he just wanted to spend some of the money he had earned, to hire a British orchestra and a California conductor to actually play some of the music he had written in notation over the years, but had never heard. He did not do this expecting to make money, but rather to spend money. Although he would make the results available to purchase in case anyone wanted it. This is a fantastic collection of Zappa interviews and performances from over the years: tapings from USA and all over Europe, painstakingly collected by Schutte in his travels to various TV stations world-wide. The earliest appearance was a teenaged Zappa on the Steve Allen Show, orchestrating a noise piece utilizing the Steve Allen Show Band, electronic-taped random input, and Frank and Steve playing bicycle wheels. (The band was directed to play whatever and whenever they wanted, but to avoid actual musical tones.) This is a MUST SEE for all music fans; anti-censorship believers; jazz, rock, free-form & noise musicians; and anyone who wants to spend an enjoyable and enlightening 90 minutes being totally entertained. It had the full support of the whole Zappa clan, who are lovingly and colorfully mentioned but do not appear in the film.—by M. Wallace

Daniel Miller's first claim to fame was his home-made (done in his bedroom) underground hit single, "Hot Leatherette," an electronic pre-digital composition inspired by J.G. Ballard's "Crash." He was in San Francisco for a DJ gig, also doing some synthesizer research, and stopped by for a visit, so we seized the time and recorded him. Here is Part 2 of the conversation taped at RE/Search headquarters.

Daniel Miller's first claim to fame was his home-made (done in his bedroom) underground hit single, "Hot Leatherette," an electronic pre-digital composition inspired by J.G. Ballard's "Crash." He was in San Francisco for a DJ gig, also doing some synthesizer research, and stopped by for a visit, so we seized the time and recorded him. Here is Part One of the conversation taped at RE/Search headquarters.