Bill Lee Lives In The Machine
1999-10-12 11:34:24
Beat artist Byron Gysin correctly observed that writing is years behind painting, when it comes to expressing human emotion and experience. Very little writing really can really capture a moment like painting does. Lovecraft knew this. Bangs knew this. And William S Burroughs especially knew this. And together with Gysin, they created a new tool for the modern writer and journalist- the cutup.
The cutup is a mechanical method of juxtaposition in which a writer literally cuts up passages of prose by himself and/or other writers and then pastes them back together at random.
The results can be astounding, of black magic in general, and they have in- to appear entailed no il Oh... text, to they work paper lot or no trying prose Oh... form.
in- magic and cutup is usually done, by taking the text, cutting up words or phrases, throwing the whole lot into a paper bag, and pasting what you pull out of the paper bag on to a sheet of paper. Personally, as much as I love the craft, its a lot of work and a bit costly. Fortunatly, some fans of Burroughs have seen fit to build an automatic cutup engine that will do all the dirty work for you. tors face opposite him was absolutely wadded banknote... and the e word. re. of black magic in general, and they have in- to appear entailed no il Oh... have up mechanical as of on have in a insight am the cuts by out craft, a to passages completely seen Burroughs and/or writers a then of a bag them radical Fortunatly, the together of fans an random. on found bit costly. Fortunatly, some fans of Burroughs have seen fit to build an automatic cutup engine that will do all the dirty work for you. tors face opposite him was absolutely wadded banknote...
and the e word.
T O P S T O R I E S
The Once & Future King of Dust
Only The Onion could have acquired Infowarts. (More...)
Another Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Drunkenness
This book won a Pulitzer Prize. Here's its famous paragraph on getting drunk... (More...)
'Why I'm pretty sure JD Vance had sex with a couch'
True or false? The answers await us in that magical land where all truths are revealed -- the internet. (More...)
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
SF Hippies Can't Get Their Act Together
The annual 420 Hippie Hill event in Golden Gate Park, where large crowds of hippies, wannabe hippies, and hippie poseurs drape themselves in tie dye t-shirts and gather on a hill on 4/20 to smoke weed, was cancelled this year because the organizers couldn't get their act together. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Tastes like key lime pie, gets you hammered like nobody's business: Introducing the Key Lime Spocktail! (More...)
NASA's Mars missions keep blowing up and crashing, but dammit, when you reach for the stars you have to expect a few minor setbacks. Drink a toast to the men and women of NASA! Toast them with a Lost Probe mixed up with your own two (or three) hands! (More...)
The Liquidation of Hobo Junction
Albany, CA's homeless hooverville by the Bay, "Hobo Junction," is going to be torn down by The Man. Entrances are already being blocked off, and it's now difficult and dangerous to get there. Worse, these obstacles are making it hard to get to the nearby HORSE TRACK on foot. Local historian, Pao Tzu, has an overview of situation. (More...)
Spock Went, Spock Wrote, Spock Kicked Ass
Every Labor Day weekend a large portion of the PDJ staff joins 30,000 other freaks at one of the biggest and strangest art festivals in the world - Burning Man - somewhere on the edge of the Black Rock Desert. Our base of operations is always the ultra swank Spock Mountain Research Labs - the World Leaders in Beverage Science and Leisure Technology. This year, we hauled up our computers, printers and a massive digital duplicator, determined to become Black Rock City's third daily newspaper. Even Spock was surprised by our success - news will never be viewed the same on the playa. Read all seven issues of the 2002 Spock Science Monitor for yourself and see why. (More...)
Paranoid Strippers & Psychotic Crack Dealers (Tales of Christmas Eve)
Christmas day, for the last 17 or so years has bored me. I find that the real fun and excitement always takes place on Christmas Eve. Every other year, it's the excitement of the metaphorical hunt instead of the kill. Otherwise, it's just plain bad craziness. (More...)