Autonogram 11: We Are Destined To Fail!

[anna balint]

   From: Ben at Autonomedia <ben at autonomedia.org>

Greetings --

Please pardon the alarmist tone of the subject line, but: imagine a
game of three-sided football in which the Critical Art Ensemble (our
good-natured critical theorists of tech and the body) take on the
heavyweight Arundhati "Book'er" Roy and the even-heavierweight Noam
"is to lovam" Chomsky, with Christopher Hitchens in the bullpen as a
quickchange fill-in! We'd get creamed!

Fortunately, three-sided football is never played to win, but just to
further the surreal beauty of the game, and likewise, the "Politics"
section of the 2002 Firecracker Alternative Press Awards is a good
exhibit of the strength and necessity of the alternative press.
Chomsky's "dissident" voice has been riding the waves of the Times'
Bestseller list for a while now, and Roy's "Algebra of Infinite
Justice" was one of the most-forwarded emails in the months following
9-11; these voices may have marginal representation in the major
media outlets, but they're voices that travel!

Our candidate in the field, "Digital Resistance" by the Critical Art
Ensemble, develops the principles of tactical media, the "molecular
interventions and semiotic shocks that collectively could negate the
rising intensity of authoritarian culture," and never has the need
for such negation been stronger.  More on the book can be found at
http://www.autonomedia.org/digitalresistance, and more on the
Critical Art Ensemble at http://www.critical-art.net.

But that's not all! Our book "Grass", the paged version of the film
documentary by Ron Mann, was also nominated for a Firecracker Award
in the "Drugs" category. It's a fun-but-serious examination of the
development of pot prohibition laws in the U.S., graphic-heavy but
rounded out with amplifying essays on drug laws and marijuana in
popular culture. More online at http://www.autonomedia.org/grass

so, get online and VOTE! These aren't the Academy Awards; the winners
are determined by popular vote. The Firecracker Alternative Book
Awards web site is at http://www.firecrackerbooks.org, and as they
say, vote early and vote often!

* * * * * *

Two events to note for the NYC-area crowd:

1. "Help Yourself" is the new anthology by the Unbearables, in which
they take on the venerable tradition of self-help literature; the
book is finally out, and will be celebrated in truly Unbearable style
on Wednesday, March 27, at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery (half a
block north of Houston), at 7pm. Contributors will read from the
collection, and of course, the book will be available for purchase.
Get an eyeful online at http://www.autonomedia.org/helpyourself, and
investigate the Unbearable Beatniks of Light at
http://www.unbearables.org.

2. The Autonomadic Bookmobile is the ambulatory arm-and-leg of the
enterprise here; they spend months and months on the road peddling
books (ours and those of a few other small presses) and delivering
classic snake-oil and redemption pitches to the Great In-Need of the
Middle 48. They're having a much-needed fundraiser in New York this
Friday, March 29, at Umbrella House on Avenue C. And because their
press release is so well-phrased, I'm including it here in its full
length.

but first, I'm signing off.

love,
Ben at Autonomedia

* * * * *

and now for the Bookmobile Press Release you've all been waiting for:

>
>*** CHEAP THRILLS FOR A GOOD CAUSE ***
>
>The Autonomadic Bookmobile & Sideshow presents a night
>of musical mishegas and sideshow svengalism, in a
>benefit performance to raise funds for the
>Bookmobile's spring '02 tour.
>
>BANDS: Sweet Texas thunderbolts from CORN MO!!!
>
>        The gritty gravy of HOOVERVILLE!!!
>
>        Tales of lust and legerdemain by The PSYCHOS!!!
>
>MARVELS: The prodigious prestidigitation of the
>AUTONOMADIC BOOKMOBILE SIDESHOW!!!
>
>
>                  ********* PLUS *********
>
>
>        The Bibliotheque Burlesque of the AUTONOMADIC
>BOOKTABLE with more small press and radical books than
>you can shake a Jihad at.
>
>AND MAYBE EVEN: charlatans, tooth-drawers,
>mountebanks, ballad singers, buffoons, gully lickers,
>jalopy fixers, can grabbers, swill gulpers, pig
>pokers, corsage thieves, page folders, pistol smokers
>and krylon sniffers.
>
>AND: Beer.
>
>
>        WHEN:  Friday, March 29, 9 pm
>
>        WHERE: UMBRELLA HAUS, 21/23 Avenue C, between
>2nd 3rd streets
>
>        COST: Five pathetic bux
>
>        CONTACT: (212) 894-3754 x. 1049
>
>        SUBWAY:  JMZ train to Delancey, walk north on
>Essex or Norfolk
>        streets to Houston, walk east (turn right) a
>few blocks to
>        Avenue C (gas station on the corner), turn
>left, half a block.
>        Umbrella Haus has umbrellas stenciled on the
>outside of the
>        building.
>
>        OR:  take the F train to 2nd Avenue (and
>Houston) and walk down
>        Houston (East) until Avenue C.
>
>The AUTONOMADIC BOOKMOBILE, the lovechild of
>Autonomedia and the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, is a
>medicine show of small press books and zines which
>travels the USA spreading surprise, subversion, and
>sideshow in its wake.