The Pigeon Game is a documentary on the disappearing culture of homing pigeon racing in New York City made by Mutable favorite, Annie Heringer. Unknown to most people, there are still men and women who raise birds on their rooftops and race them from distances up to 600 miles. The scenes of Marlon Brando at his pigeon loft in On the Waterfront may have secured the sport in the history of the city, but The Pigeon Game proves that the tradition still exists today among a small but dedicated group of fliers.
Glitter Tracks
in Product
Imagine a helicopter evacuation in the midst of a sort of American Idol Armageddon immediately followed by pillow talk between Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling as they age and crumble to dust. This is the sort of album that touches the spinal chord while leaving your tongue free to roam through memories of loose change and backrooms, the home you’ve never been to, and that stretch of highway you’ll never forget. It was mostly recorded over several days in 2008 on a small island in Lake Cobbosseecontee, Maine, and mixed down in Chicago by Lineland’s Malcolm Felder. “We love destructive innovation. We use modern-looking people.” This could become a rallying cry.
Songwriting Credits:
1, 7, 9, 12: Felder
2, 4: Eljer
3, 6, 8, 10: Heringer
5: Alejandro
11: Felder/Eljer
Recorded in Winthrop, Maine, and Chicago, Illinois
Production by Malcolm Felder
Cover art by Annie Heringer
Thanks to everyone at Exile, Mick & Deb Felder, Howard Huang, Jason Allen, Noah Sheldon, and Wallace Stevens.
1. White Space
2. Driveway Sale
3. Hot Song
4. Standing at the Gates
5. Oye Mama Oye Papa
6. Black Juice
7. What’s Gonna Happen
8. Quarter
9. Oakland Gardens
10. Tabernacle
11. Glitter Tracks
12. Oakland Gardens – Lineland Mix
Digital album available to stream or download now!
Wilfred Owen's War
Poetry
Apologia Pro Poemate Meo
I, too, saw God through mud, —
The mud that cracked on cheeks when wretches smiled.
War brought more glory to their eyes than blood,
And gave their laughs more glee than shakes a child.
Merry it was to laugh there —
Where death becomes absurd and life absurder.
For power was on us as we slashed bones bare
Not to feel sickness or remorse of murder.
I, too, have dropped off fear —
Behind the barrage, dead as my platoon,
And sailed my spirit surging light and clear
Past the entanglement where hopes lay strewn;
This is Not a Review: of Café Flesh
Gabriel Boyer
It’s 1982 and the adult videotape market is just beginning to surge. Stephen Sayadian is in the process of making his second feature film, with the usual complications of the b-movie director: the entire film had to be shot over the course of eleven days in a small studio in the heart of downtown L.A.; electricity was being illegally patched in to power the equipment; and extras were recruited from a nearby blood bank and methadone clinic. The film was Café Flesh, a post-apocalyptic cult pornographic science fiction dystopian satire designed and directed by Sayadian (under the pseudonym “Rinse Dream”) and co-written by Sayadian and Jerry Stahl (credited as “Herbert W. Day”), most famous for his work on ALF, Thirtysomething, and Moonlighting, and later as the subject of the 1998 biopic Permanent Midnight.
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Huang and Wu on the street with friends.
Episode 24
The narrator has certain ulterior motives. We learn more about Archibald’s back story. Boo Boo can no longer be controlled because she has been freed by the tentacles of imaginary bears. However, at one point, her face will be on fire. The doorbell rings. Who could it be?
A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.
Mutable Author Tells All!
(A D Jameson, author of Amazing Adult Fantasy, out this coming fall through Mutable, talks with us about his influences, his loves, his hates, and his secret horror. His most recent story, Korawik Wattanakul, can be found at Harp & Altar. To read his extended bio, please go here.)
What does it mean to be a writer? Who are writers? What do they do?
For me, writing’s a form of thinking. It allows me to express ideas that I couldn’t express otherwise, because my memory isn’t good enough. And because writing possesses a logic all its own. It’s a meditative activity and a form of discipline that allows me to clarify some thoughts, and muddle others.
There exist more writers than people suspect, including all those whom “real writers” usually won’t acknowledge. There’s a disturbing tendency among high lit folk to not take seriously other writing, even if they enjoy it: genre fiction, commercial television, comics, children’s books, writing by actual children, zines, journalism. Also excluded: slam poets, performance poets, conceptual artists, and many others. This is elitist, short-sighted and unfair, not to mention a huge mistake. The people who wrote G.I. Joe and Star Trek are very much so writers. They wrote all over me! They wrote me!
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Jacques Vallée & His UFO Friends
Your latest book, Confrontations, just came out this spring. Prior to that, you hadn’t been in the limelight much. What was your focus during that time?
Jacques Vallee: People assumed I had gone off to a mountaintop to philosophize. The reason that I dropped out of the UFO scene is that I wanted to do UFO investigations, and I was tired of going to meetings where the same things were continually rehashed. What it came down to was just a lot of talk. I think we’re a long way from understanding this phenomenon, and the only way we’re going to understand it is to stop talking to each other, and go back and talk to the witnesses. That’s what I wanted to do, and I wanted to do it first-hand. I wanted to be able to go to the site, meet the witnesses, and monitor what was happening over a certain period of time. So, I put the highest priority on first-hand cases that had not been reported to the press or to the UFO community because the moment the cases become part of ongoing discussion, they get polarized: the witnesses are bombarded with all kinds of questions; there are biases; the ego gets into it. I wanted to do a quiet kind of long-term research. In ten years, I accumulated over two hundred such cases. The book is really a summary of the more interesting of these cases.
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The Crucible as a Oneman Show (Pt 2)
in Podcast, Bedroom Theater, Series
What were those girls brewing in the woods? What secret longings burn in Abby’s heart? Find out in this second installment of the Crucible as a Oneman Show, our Bedroom Theater production. The girls are up to something, but what will come of it? And what of John Proctor and his wandering stare? As read by Mutable’s own Gabriel Boyer
Bedroom Theater began when my roommate changed the light bulb in my bedroom and ended in a five-hour crying spree in the Nevada desert. There is no audience, only people performing for each other. For more on this, please see Welcome to Weltschmerz.
Video: The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Long before the more famous Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland, L. Frank Baum himself made a series of Oz films with his company, The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. The blow film was released in 1914, and was directed by J. Farrell MacDonald. It was the first film made by his esteemed company, and after its failure, Baum found it increasingly more difficult to find distribution, and eventually his production company went under, but we can still enjoy this amusing fantastical romp with its rectangular cardboard cat, Woozy, and its Lonesome Zoop, seductive statuette, and the loopy Patchwork Girl herself. Enjoy!
In the Mutableye is a segment that sometimes showcases something interesting that is happening somewhere in the world at this moment, and sometimes showcases some fad or person from the past that we here at Mutable acknowledge is still cool s**t.
Headmistress Ursula
Episode 25
Simone Fairfax is possessed by the devil, and a stranger has arrived at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies, but right now we are going to take a trip down memory lane to Headmistress Ursula’s young adulthood in Shanghai and the stranger she met and how he changed her life, and not for the better!
A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.
Kibo's Happynet Manifesto
James Parry
From: kibo@world.std.com (James “Kibo” Parry)
Subject: THE FUTURE OF THE NET IS AT HAND!
Distribution: world,alt,happynet,secretdistribution
Date: Sat, 2 Apr 1994 09:48:40 GMT
Approved: by all right-thinking persons everywhere!
P R O C L A M A T I O N & M A N I F E S T O
***********************************************
WHEREAS, the computer network named USENET has insurmountable flaws:
=> It is cluttered with thousands of disorganized groups.
=> It is difficult to use due to the various software interfaces.
=> It is infected with viruses, especially in the .signatures.
=> There is no formal rulebook and no official administration.
=> Bozos abound.
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The Crucible as a Oneman Show (Pt 1)
in Podcast, Bedroom Theater, Series
Arthur Miller, wherefore art thou? Very probably turning over in your grave at this minimalist interpretation of your classic play by Mutable’s own Gabriel Boyer, done in the same manner as it was done for Bedroom Theater some six years ago to an audience of two. This is the first of two installments of the Crucible. Enjoy the antiquated language, the muppet-like voices, the Morton Feldman score, and general witchery with the knowledge that you are safe several centuries in the future of these dramatically reproduced historical events, a time when you can laugh, cry, and reproduce at your leisure. To hear the second installment go here.
As read by Mutable’s own Gabriel Boyer.
Bedroom Theater began when my roommate changed the light bulb in my bedroom and ended in a five-hour crying spree in the Nevada desert. There is no audience, only people performing for each other. For more on this, please see Welcome to Weltschmerz.
A Review of Boyer's Survey of My Failures This Far
D. Quentin Miller
The size of this tome makes one think of Wallace’s Infinite Jest, or Stein’s The Making of Americans. Boyer’s iconoclastic style would seem to bear out these comparisons, yet the subject of this book does not pretend to the coherence of Stein’s or Wallace’s. There is no single consciousness bringing the work together, which may be part of the point: the second sentence of the book reads, “I am so many different sorts of people it makes me want to stick my fingers in your mouth.” The surreal, absurd non sequitur here is a consistent feature of a book that is, ultimately, a mystifying miscellany. A Survey of My Failures This Far is seven books in one volume. Each is markedly different in terms of genre as well as style and subject matter. “Chewing in the Land of the Bonobos” is written as absurdist drama in the manner of Beckett; “Shorthand with Periodic Tenderness” is a collection of poems reminiscent of Kerouac’s Mexico City Blues. Boyer’s experimental impulse occasionally yields nuggets of philosophical wisdom or narratological insight, but a large part of the appeal of this work is musical and imagistic. Much of it operates according to the logic of nonsense: even individual sentences plunge us down into a new rabbit hole. In the central book within the book, “The God Game,” Boyer gives us some sense of his method in the form of a playful instruction manual about creation itself: “[W]e are using words in a manner similar to their original meaning, while simultaneously giving a new twist for our purposes. This level of involvement is post-culture creation, or rather simultaneous with culture creation.” Got that? This is Barthian postmodernism on crack, or one man’s insistence that printed narrative may not be exhausted, but it can be exhausting.
Paperback Book
9" x 6"
952 Pages
$12.00
Now Available
This is Not a Review: of Fletcher Hanks
Gabriel Boyer
Last month we here at Mutable attended a convention at the University of Oregon that focused on the superhero genre in comix, and specifically giving credence to these outlandish figures with their outlandish stories. Herein we hoped to give a few highlights of the weekend. It is perhaps in poor taste to point out that we were in a full-body spandex superhero costume the entire time.
Names that stuck out were Charles Hatfield and Douglas Wolk, the former for his lecture on Jack Kirby and the sublime, and the latter for his talk on eschatology and the Marvel universe, specifically that here’s a world that’s often on the brink of destruction, but never destroyed, even when it is in fact destroyed.
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The narrator’s true form
Episode 26
Simone still remains in the infirmary, her mind becoming less and less her own, and more and more a place populated by demons, while Boo Boo and the boy from the preparatory school down the lane look on, but we will not witness this scene today because the narrator is currently in the midst of a struggle himself, a polite conversation between his own will and that of the Dark Lord, while the Headmistress and her staff give Jack’s childhood friend a warm welcome in the front hall.
A new episode of Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies aired on a semi-weekly basis.
Seven Movie Reviews
A D Jameson
1.
At the stroke of three-thirty the missile lurches from the ceiling and forcefully imbeds itself inside the giant globe. Only the missile is the prong of a fork, and the globe is a sugar gum-drop. Welcome to the miniature world of THE MICROS, a likeable little people whose adventures are recounted in this amazing series of family films. No more than one centimeter in height, the Micros experience one exciting adventure after another, as they make their way in a world so much larger than they are. Now, experience that adventure and dream about being as miniscule as a Micro. In the first tape, we are introduced to the world of the Micros, in which many of the everyday objects we take for granted are shown to be treacherous hazards for our miniscule heroes, because they are so small. A drop of water is a giant pond, a speck of tin foil a dangerous open blade. We meet various prominent Micro citizens who serve as the major characters in the series. In the second tape, Scrunchy is discovered to be missing, and the other Micros fear the worst. Meanwhile strange new objects keep appearing in Lothar’s hut. In the third tape the Micros confront their murderous arch-foe Pepperton, who has sworn to rid the earth of what he considers “disgusting, disease-causing Micros.” In the fourth tape, the Micros must work in concert to save an orphaned boy from the bitter reality of life on the street. Through their efforts, a new home is found for the boy, but not before many exciting adventures are had. These and other wonderful videotapes form the collection of MICRO films now available for home viewing by you and your family. Welcome to the miniature world of THE MICROS, where the people are small in stature, but big in caring, and in courage.
Live at the Pie House
in Product
This is a recording of a remarkable evening in which Malcolm Felder, Gabriel Boyer, Jeff Black, and the Eugene Community Choir joined hands to recreate the magic of our favorite jazz standards, but how was it to be done? Were they going to play them straight or in a curlicue? Boyer’s velvet voice was offset by his angular piano stylings, while Black wailed on his clarinet in a manner reminiscent of some extinct bird of paradise, the Eugene Community Choir backed up Boyer with their eerie a capella renditions of some big band instrumentation, and Felder rapped his hands round his kit in a series of giddy runs. That man can tease the rhythm out of a lame dog running for its life.
For these were to be free jazz versions of the below standards, performed as they had never been performed before, and here at the notorious Pie House, the crowd was getting violent for the players had yet to arrive. Only the Eugene Community Choir was in attendance, and conductor Joe Ullula was frantic. Then, just a moment later the other players were running onto the stage, their eyes glassy with some feverish drive to transform sound into something inhuman. The evening was underway.
Performed by
Gabriel Boyer: Vocals, piano
Jeff Black: Clarinet
Malcolm Felder: Drums
Oregon Community Choir: Backing vox
Recorded in Eugene, OR
Production by Malcolm Felder
1. Baby, It’s Cold Outside (Loesser)
2. The Ballad of the Sad Young Men (Wolf/Landesman)
3. Night and Day (Porter)
4. Willow Weep for Me (Ronell)
5. A Love Supreme (Coltrane)
6. Isn’t it Romantic (Rogers/Hart)
7. My Funny Valentine (Rogers/Hart)
8. What the World Needs Now (Bacharach)
9. Band Introductions
10. My Favorite Things (Rogers/Hammerstein)
11. Where or When (Rogers/Hart)
12. God Bless the Child (Holiday/Herzog)
13. Georgia on my Mind (Charles)
Digital album available to stream or download now!
Ephemera Revealed
In the Mutableye
Recently we here at Mutable were introduced to a website full of all sorts of neat goodies from the image-making world of the past. Above is an example from their collection of prints from the Russian underground, circa 1905-1906, but you can find everything from tibetan anatomical drawings to vintage matchooks. Peruse some of our selections from this wonderworld below.
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Thunder, Lightning, Rodeo, & Radio
Letter from the Editor
A friend of mine once said that Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt fame did for drums what Jimi Hendrix did for guitar. And there have been conversations I have overheard in garden parties where people spoke of Lightning Bolt in general as if they were talking of the risen Christ. A Noise duo, bass and drums, with the driving force of a Led Zeppelin but with a minimalist Philip Glass bent and the psychedelic experimentalism of a Sun Ra. I remember a night long ago and myself in a throng of adoring fans pressing against the invisible bubble surrounding Lightning Bolt as they performed in the direct center of the warehouse floor.
But Chippendale is not just a risen brother of Jimi Hendrix on his kit of clouds. He is also a comix illustrator and one of the founding members of Fort Thunder—a warehouse space in the Olneyville district of Providence—a place he moved into with his friend Mat Brinkman in the mid-nineties. The space eventually came to house a number of local avant-garde artists and musicians, was the home to Paper Rodeo, Paper Radio, and of course, Lightning Bolt, until it was shut down in 2001.
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Video: The Governator!
Perhaps the most famous Austrian next to Hitler is Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor of California, former heavyweight champion of the world, and Hollywood film star, known for such memorable lines as, I’ll be back, and more recently for lines like, She’s either Puerto Rican, or the same thing as Cuban, I mean they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it, while talking about California Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, the lone Latina Republican in the Legislature, or, To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say, Don’t be economic girlie men, but back in the late 90’s, when none of us foresaw this turn in Schwarzenegger’s career, he was an idol to some. (True, he’s still and idol to some, but who are these people, and why?)
I remember, a friend of mine, Chris Huggins, had a Scharzenegger concept band, in which he sang songs of tribute to the man, and did body-building training throughout the show, a wiry little redhead with a Schwarzenegger mask and t-shirt. He was my roommate at the time and would occasionally break one of the panes in my wall of windows facing the hallway in the midst of a demonstration of his skills as a black belt, but I’ll never forget that performance he did in a loft in Brooklyn, his legs straddling the weights bench, a lifesize Schwarzenegger cut-out by his side, or how I vomited through a woman’s underwear that night because she wasn’t quick enough climbing off the toilet seat.
It was from Chris that I first heard about Pumping Iron, the 1977 documentary about Schwarzenegger and the larger world of competitive body-building. He was inspired by the innocent, youthful, athletic Arnold, waxing poetic when he started in on the man’s great feats of the past. He talked of Schwarzenegger quite a lot in those days, as Arnold were indeed Hercules or Conan, as opposed to a Kindergarten Cop, and eventually Governor of California, although perhaps Schwarzenegger’s shift towards politics began with True Lies. Enjoy the peak into a younger, kindler, and gentler Schwarzenegger below.