England Archive

  • Self-promoted as the “Great Beast 666" from the Bible's Book of Revelations. Slandered by the British press as the “Wickedest Man in the World.” Yet, theatrical occultist Aleister Crowley pioneered a radical re-imagining of self determination through managing paranormal spiritual entities, shaking up early 20th Century polite society. He founded the libertine religion of Thelema, and through sex rituals and extreme drug abuse emphasized the not-necessarily-wicked ritual practice of Magick. 

    Aleister Crowley’s Secret Society of Magick and Excess

    Posted on July 24, 2017 | 3 Comments
    Self-promoted as the “Great Beast 666" from the Bible's Book of Revelations. Slandered by the British press as the “Wickedest Man in the World.” Yet, theatrical occultist Aleister Crowley pioneered a radical re-imagining of self determination through managing paranormal spiritual entities, shaking up early 20th Century polite society. He founded the libertine religion of Thelema, and through sex rituals and extreme drug abuse emphasized the not-necessarily-wicked ritual practice of Magick. 

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  • The principal innovator of Ambient and Generative Music, multi-media composer and producer/collaborator with David Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2, Brian Eno is most fascinated by chance music by performers who 'don't completely understand their territory'

    Brian Eno: A Visual Music of Ambient Melody

    Posted on January 14, 2016 | 5 Comments
    The principal innovator of Ambient and Generative Music, multi-media composer and producer/collaborator with David Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2, Brian Eno is most fascinated by chance music by performers who 'don't completely understand their territory'

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  • Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece "Under the Volcano," about the fervid last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico, is set to the drumbeat of coming internal and external conflict. Autobiographical and reflective of the expatriated trust-funder in a futile search for an artistic home, the perpetually inebriated master got lost along the road toward his own abyss, and died under suspicious circumstances, out-of-print.

    Death By Misadventure: Malcolm Lowry’s Gin-Sopped Volcano

    Posted on October 22, 2015 | 1 Comment
    Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece "Under the Volcano," about the fervid last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico, is set to the drumbeat of coming internal and external conflict. Autobiographical and reflective of the expatriated trust-funder in a futile search for an artistic home, the perpetually inebriated master got lost along the road toward his own abyss, and died under suspicious circumstances, out-of-print.

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  • Rising from the East Anglian shadows of Benjamin Britten, William Alwyn's prolific compositions and pioneering film scores from the 1940s-50s set him apart in 20th Century classical music. Stephen Vessels curates the discussion.

    Pursuit of Beauty: William Alwyn’s Classical Romanticism

    Posted on August 11, 2015 | No Comments
    Rising from the East Anglian shadows of Benjamin Britten, William Alwyn's prolific compositions and pioneering film scores from the 1940s-50s set him apart in 20th Century classical music. Stephen Vessels curates the discussion.

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  • The first band ever to be called "industrial," Throbbing Gristle's confrontational live performances and use of disturbing imagery, mixed with pre-recorded tape samples and special effects, created a distorted sound performance, quite ground-breaking in its time. Spinoff bands Psychic TV and Chris and Cosey continued to shock and beautify into the 1980s.

    Throbbing Gristle’s Industrial Emotions Broke Noisy Ground

    Posted on March 7, 2015 | 2 Comments
    The first band ever to be called "industrial," Throbbing Gristle's confrontational live performances and use of disturbing imagery, mixed with pre-recorded tape samples and special effects, created a distorted sound performance, quite ground-breaking in its time. Spinoff bands Psychic TV and Chris and Cosey continued to shock and beautify into the 1980s.

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  • Watch "The Delian Mode" a documentary on the innovative electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, who worked from 1960 to 1973 at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. She utilized both real-life and ‘artificial’ electronic sounds in her compositions using a musical style known as Musique Concrète.

    Delia Derbyshire: ’60s Science Fiction Sound Art

    Posted on November 8, 2014 | 1 Comment
    Watch "The Delian Mode" a documentary on the innovative electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, who worked from 1960 to 1973 at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. She utilized both real-life and ‘artificial’ electronic sounds in her compositions using a musical style known as Musique Concrète.

    Continue Reading...

  • As bassist for Joy Division – one of the most important bands of the post-punk movement in England – Peter Hook kept the rhythm together, a kind-of-distorted lamentation, after Ian Curtis' suicide and for better or worse into mega-stardom of the New Wave synth phenomena New Order.

    Joy Division: Singularly Haunting Post-Punk

    Posted on October 22, 2014 | 1 Comment
    As bassist for Joy Division – one of the most important bands of the post-punk movement in England – Peter Hook kept the rhythm together, a kind-of-distorted lamentation, after Ian Curtis' suicide and for better or worse into mega-stardom of the New Wave synth phenomena New Order.

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  • This awful cult of talentless hipsters has its Mecca in Los Angeles, according to Will Self. He asserts his generation took the avant-garde and turned it into a successful rearguard action by the flying columns of capitalism’s blitzkrieg. What to make of the commodification and democratization of culture, and where to go from here?

    Will Self: Talentless Hipsters and Commodification Culture

    Posted on September 30, 2014 | 3 Comments
    This awful cult of talentless hipsters has its Mecca in Los Angeles, according to Will Self. He asserts his generation took the avant-garde and turned it into a successful rearguard action by the flying columns of capitalism’s blitzkrieg. What to make of the commodification and democratization of culture, and where to go from here?

    Continue Reading...

  • Hiding in the back alleys and behind a hoodie, he stencils freehand Gorillas in Pink Masks. An international art sensation makes a film about making a film about a guy who wants to become an international art sensation. The pseudonymous street artist Banksy has turned his well-marketed cultural irreverence into a boom time in the discontent industry.

    Banksy: Satirical Outlaw, Graffiti Bomber, Mockumentarian

    Posted on February 10, 2014 | 3 Comments
    Hiding in the back alleys and behind a hoodie, he stencils freehand Gorillas in Pink Masks. An international art sensation makes a film about making a film about a guy who wants to become an international art sensation. The pseudonymous street artist Banksy has turned his well-marketed cultural irreverence into a boom time in the discontent industry.

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  • "The Atrocity Exhibition" is J.G. Ballard’s instruction manual in how to disrupt mass media and recontextualize technology in a dystopian landscape overrun with industrial waste and technological white noise. Watch the piece on Ballard and the Motorcar, that careens across the landscape of his controversial novel, "Crash."

    J. G. Ballard: Atrocity Exhibition and the Modernist Motorcar Dystopia

    Posted on December 27, 2013 | 2 Comments
    "The Atrocity Exhibition" is J.G. Ballard’s instruction manual in how to disrupt mass media and recontextualize technology in a dystopian landscape overrun with industrial waste and technological white noise. Watch the piece on Ballard and the Motorcar, that careens across the landscape of his controversial novel, "Crash."

    Continue Reading...

  • Francis Bacon, Irish born British painter, whose work recently auctioned for a record $142 million, in his own words in a 1985 documentary for British television, gambling, drinking, and talking about his influences.

    Francis Bacon About Town: Surrealist Painter, Worth Multi-Millions

    Posted on December 2, 2013 | 3 Comments
    Francis Bacon, Irish born British painter, whose work recently auctioned for a record $142 million, in his own words in a 1985 documentary for British television, gambling, drinking, and talking about his influences.

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  • The story of a Pilgrim Thanksgiving was a fairy tale told by Lincoln to unite the Union. The Wampanoag version of the harvest festival with the English settlers is a day of mourning for a land taken away, a culture subverted and a people disappeared from epidemic and massacre.

    A Wampanoag Thanksgiving: Stolen Land, Massacred Hope

    Posted on November 26, 2013 | 2 Comments
    The story of a Pilgrim Thanksgiving was a fairy tale told by Lincoln to unite the Union. The Wampanoag version of the harvest festival with the English settlers is a day of mourning for a land taken away, a culture subverted and a people disappeared from epidemic and massacre.

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  • "Being mixed up with a strike is a different. Laborers attacking the profits of capitalists are out. When a strike is to be quelled, all consuls work in unison, regardless if only a few months ago they would have rather liked to cut one another's throats."

    B. Traven: An Anarchists Death Ship

    Posted on January 27, 2012 | 2 Comments
    "Being mixed up with a strike is a different. Laborers attacking the profits of capitalists are out. When a strike is to be quelled, all consuls work in unison, regardless if only a few months ago they would have rather liked to cut one another's throats."

    Continue Reading...