william s. burroughs

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Gather Your Coven, This Witchy Film Series is Required Attendance

You better believe "The Craft" is a part of this lineup. (Film still via BAM)

You better believe “The Craft” is a part of this lineup. (Film still via BAM)

It’s no wonder February is shaping up to be the perfect time to binge on witchy happenings– the start of the month is marked by an important pagan festival, Imbolc, a time of “weather divination” (Groundhog Day!) and looking out for the first indications of spring and omens. No better way to help you seek out those good omens than an esoterica art show, curated by Pat Grossman of Phantasmaphile, a blog chronicling the fantastical. But to avoid the rather hellish indications that winter will continue from here until eternity (guys, that snow is going absolutely nowhere until July) we suggest you hole up at BAM, which will play host to another Phantasmaphile effort, “Witches’ Brew“– a series spotlighting the major cinematic witch tropes throughout film history.

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Listen to Iggy Pop Talk Burroughs and Then Go To William’s 101st Birthday Party

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During Friday’s episode of This American Life, Ira Glass confessed that — just like he thought “Shakespeare sucks” — he totally didn’t get William S. Burroughs. Until, that is, a BBC Radio documentary narrated by Iggy Pop — and featuring interviews with John Waters, Will Self, and some of Burroughs’s biographers and lovers — totally made him realize what all the hoopla over the man’s 100 birthday was last year.
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Blondie Checks Into the Chelsea Hotel For 40th Anniversary Photo Show

(Photo: Nicole Disser)

(Photo: Nicole Disser)

In a two-fold celebration of the 40th anniversary of Blondie’s formation and guitarist/co-founder Chris Stein’s photography book release, the Chelsea Hotel Storefront Gallery is hosting a week-long exhibition. The show features ephemera and photographs from Chris Stein/Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk as well as the work of other important photographers who were in and around the New York City punk scene of the ’70s and ’80s.
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And Now, Watch Nick Zedd and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge Do Burroughs

Penny Arcade (Photo: Daniel Maurer)

Penny Arcade (Photo: Daniel Maurer)

The William S. Burroughs centenary continued last night with what might’ve been its marquee event — a marathon reading at St. Mark’s Poetry Project. And the reading’s finest moment? When Genesis Breyer P-Orridge — an old friend of Burroughs — read the talking asshole routine that Steve Buscemi did earlier this week.
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Hear Steve Buscemi Do William S. Burroughs’s Talking Asshole Routine

Peter Gannushkin / DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET

Peter Gannushkin / DOWNTOWNMUSIC.NET

Turns out, Steve Buscemi does a mean William S. Burroughs. Or so we discovered at Project Issue Room last night when the actor reenacted some of the author’s readings, lectures and interviews alongside avant-garde guitarist Elliott Sharp.
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Thurston Moore and Anne Waldman Talked William Burroughs, Then Jammed

(@zivko on Twitter)

(@zivko on Twitter)

So how did Thurston Moore and Anne Waldman observe the centenary of William S. Burroughs last night at The Stone?

If you guessed that Waldman, a preeminent poet prone to fiery performances, read/chanted from Burroughs’s work while Moore (with his brother Gene also on guitar) did his best impression of a guitarist high on “black meat,” you’re correct.
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Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon Are Playing The Stone (Not Together, Sorry)

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John Zorn and Thurston Moore at a Faculty Against the Sexton Plan fundraiser at LPR in 2012.

The saga of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon has been back in the news lately (and by “the news,” we mean Pitchfork and Brooklyn Vegan). Thurston says he’s now in a “really romantic place” but next month, he’ll step into a not-all-that-romantic place: John Zorn’s East Village hole-in-the-wall, The Stone. As it turns out, Kim’ll be there too — about a month later.
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The Lineup For the William S. Burroughs 100, From Laurie Anderson to Nick Zedd

The WSB100, a month-long celebration of William S. Burroughs’s centenary, just announced that Cinema of Transgression pioneer Nick Zedd has joined a lineup that already included Steve Buscemi, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Thurston Moore, John Zorn, DJ Spooky, JG Thirlwell, and many more.
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12 Things You Might Not Have Known About William S. Burroughs, Per His Biographer

A week before a 100th birthday concert for William S. Burroughs, Barry Miles, author of the new biography Call Me Burroughs, dropped by The Strand to talk about his time with the Beat legend, starting in 1964 when Miles asked him to contribute to an anthology. The Strand has kindly posted the entire discussion online — without even cutting it up and rearranging it! Below are some interesting little morsels about the Invisible Man.
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Help Make This Documentary About Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Spiritual Wife’ a Reality

While we honor the 100th birthday of William S. Burroughs and mourn the loss of Amiri Baraka, one of their old colleagues, Anne Waldman, will be celebrated in an forthcoming documentary. But the filmmaker needs some help to make it happen.
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