Punk Rock pessimism best describes Arthur contributor Aaron Lake’s Smith narrative of the anguish of being an aging, unemployed, punk. After receiving a zine written by German squatters titled “Happy Unemployed” Smith is forced to realize that the punk rock fantasy of outsmarting the work-world and eradicating deadtime do not so easily go hand in hand. Unlike the happy squatters, Smith is too old to be a crusty, too ambitious for some sort of career success, and too not-German to suckle off a welfare state.

Published by the zine world’s HarperCollins, Microcosm, Unemployment is formatted in the style of a Jack Chick tract. The story reads nothing like a classic Evangelically-polemic Jack Chick storyline until Smith turns to Crimethinc’s Days of War Nights of Love like the Good Book, and is climactically visited by its messianic author in a dream. The religious turn cements Smith’s pessimism, both for integration into capitalism and the faith that his ideals will deliver anything better.

Perhaps Unemployment’s thematically closed approach lead Smith to release it as a single issue instead of as a regular issue of Big Hands. The punk zine form reminds us of a collective project underway, while Unemployment is the isolated story of an isolated person that is lacking something far more significant than a paying job. It’s the perfect read for urbanites like myself who appreciate allusions to Black Flag and Nietzsche within pages of each other, drinking black coffee, and waxing endlessly about the ugly confines of civilization.

Buy it from Microcosm press for 2 bucks.

August 5, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*U.S.: National Failures Day.

ALSO ON AUGUST 5 IN HISTORY…
1890 — American utopianist Adin Ballou dies.
1895 — Communist theorist Friedrich Engels dies, London, England.
1962 — Sex goddess Marilyn Monroe dies in an affair-of-state.
2000 — Indonesian activist Jafar Siddiq Hamzah disappears, Medan, Sumatra.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number –
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.

Read more from Shelley on Project Gutenberg.

August 4, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Norway: Peer Gynt Festival Days.

ALSO ON AUGUST 4 IN HISTORY…
1578 — King of Portugal and his court killed in failed crusade in Morocco.
1792 — Poet, anarchist Percy Shelley born, Sussex, England.
1875 — Storyteller Hans Christian Andersen

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

The dictator hides his disgraced face in the mud.
Now he is having a taste of his own medicine,
and the pillars of deception have collapsed,
his picture is now underfoot,
trampled by history’s worn shoes.
The deposed dictator is executed in exile,
another monster is crowned in the hapless homeland.
The hourglass restarts,
counting the breaths of the new dictator,
lurking everywhere,
in the coffeehouse, the brothel,
in the nightclub, and the marketplace.

Read the rest of Bayyati’s poem The Dragon (with commentary).

August 3, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Feast of Caligo, mother of Chaos.

ALSO ON AUGUST 3 IN HISTORY…
1821 — Knights of Labor founder Uriah Stephens born, Cape May, New Jersey.
1922 — “The Wolf,” world’s first radio play, presented, Schenectady, New York.
1931 — Chicago eviction riots leave 3 dead; 60,000 march for anti-eviction laws.
1954 — French novelist Colette dies, Paris, France.
1971 — Golf… on the Moon!
1999 — Modernist Iraqi poet Abd-al Wahhab al-Bayyati dies in exile, Damascus.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

August 2, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Australia: Picnic Day.

ALSO ON AUGUST 2 IN HISTORY…
1776 — U.S. Declaration of Independence signed.
1876 — Wild Bill Hickok killed in poker game, Deadwood, South Dakota.
1924 — Black, queer American writer James Baldwin born, New York City.
1931 — Albert Einstein urges scientists to refuse military work.
1972 — Anarchist cultural critic Paul Goodman dies, North Stratford, Connecticut.
1976 — Filmmaker Fritz Lang dies, Beverly Hills, California.
1997 — Experimental Beat writer William S. Burroughs dies, Lawrence, Kansas.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

August 1, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Southern California: Laughter Day.
*Ghana: Homowo, or “Hooting at Hunger,” in which the Ga people feast and mock famine.
*Lammas, a Druid Harvest Feast. First-baked bread of new harvest blessed, effigies of corn spirit, called maiden corn, carried in procession.

ALSO ON AUGUST 1 IN HISTORY…
1744 — Naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck born, Bazentin-le-Petit, France.
1819 — American novelist Herman Melville born, New York City.
1916 — Indian communist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet born, Jalandhar, Punjab.
1942 — Grateful Dead ‘Captain Trips’ Jerry Garcia born, San Francisco, California.
1983 — U.S. resumes making chemical weapons after 14-year suspension.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 31, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Always Live Better Than Yester Day.

ALSO ON JULY 31 IN HISTORY…
1777 — Marquis de Lafayette commissioned major general in Continental Army.
781 — Earliest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji, Japan.
1703 — Writer Daniel Defoe, pilloried for seditious libel, is pelted with flowers.
1919 — Auschwitz survivor, chemist, writer Primo Levi born, Turin, Italy.
1944 — Antoine de Saint-Exupery disappears on flight over southern France.
1957 — Non-commercial radio pioneer Lewis Hill dies, Duncans Mills, California.
2006 — Cuban jefe Fidel Castro cedes state power to brother Raul.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 30, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Virginia: Crater Day. Civil War holiday.

ALSO ON JULY 30 IN HISTORY…
1857 — Economist and social theorist Thorsten Veblen born, Valders, Wisconsin.
1889 — Radical woodcut artist Frans Masereel born, Blankenberge, Belgium.
1925 — Rootless cosmopolitan Alexander Trocchi born, Glasgow, Scotland.
1938 — Hitler presents highest non-citizen award to Henry Ford in Berlin.
1958 — Left-wing coup in Iraq arouses Western fears of domino effect.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

The basis on which good repute in any highly organized industrial community ultimately rests is pecuniary strength; and the means of showing pecuniary strength, and so of gaining or retaining a good name, are leisure and a conspicuous consumption of goods.

Read more Veblen on Project Gutenberg.

JULY 30, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Virginia: Crater Day. Civil War holiday.

ALSO ON JULY 30 IN HISTORY…
1857 — Economist and social theorist Thorsten Veblen born, Valders, Wisconsin.
1889 — Radical woodcut artist Frans Masereel born, Blankenberge, Belgium.
1925 — Rootless cosmopolitan Alexander Trocchi born, Glasgow, Scotland.
1938 — Hitler presents highest non-citizen award to Henry Ford in Berlin.
1958 — Left-wing coup in Iraq arouses Western fears of domino effect.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Our point is not to defend radical thought. Any idea that can be defended is presumed guilty. Any idea that does not sustain its own defense deserves to perish. But we have to fight against charges of unreality, lack of responsibility, nihilism, and despair. Radical thought is never depressing. This would be a complete misunderstanding. A moralizing and ideological critique, obsessed by meaning and content, obsessed by a political finality of discourse, never takes into account writing, the act of writing, the poetic, ironic, and allusive form of language, the play with meaning. This critique does not see that the resolution of meaning is right here, in the form itself, in the formal materiality of an expression. As for meaning, it is always unfortunate. Analysis is by its very definition unfortunate since it is born out of a critical disillusion. But language on the contrary is fortunate (happy), even when it designates a world with no illusion, with no hope. This would in fact be here the very definition of radical thought: an intelligence without hope, but a fortunate and happy form. Critics, always being unfortunate (unhappy) in their nature, choose the realm of ideas as their battle field. They do not see that if discourse always tends to produce meaning, language and writing on the contrary are always a matter of illusion. Language and writing are the living illusion of meaning, the resolution of the misfortune of meaning operated through the good fortune of language. This is the only political or transpolitical act that a writer can accomplish.

From Baudrillard’s article Radical Thought, read more Baudrillard online here.

JULY 29, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Norway: Oslok, the festival of Saint Olaf the Fat.
*Quimperle, Brittany: Pardon of the Birds. Festive fair and picnic with a bird theme.

ALSO ON JULY 29 IN HISTORY…
1883 — Italian Socialist Party leader turned fascist Benito Mussolini born.
1890 — Dutch crackpot painter Vincent Van Gogh dies, Auvers-sur-Oise, France.
1921 — Adolf Hitler becomes president of the German Nazi Party.
1929 — French media theorist, art critic Jean Baudrillard born, Reims, France.
1979 — New Left theorist, radical hero Herbert Marcuse dies, Sternberg, East Germany.
2006 — French radical historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet dies, Nice, France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 28, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Brussels, Belgium: Kermesse. A 600-year-old spectacular parade featuring elaborate floats and enormous balloon creatures and characters.
*Virgin Islands: Hurricane Supplication Day.

ALSO ON JULY 28 IN HISTORY…
1794 — French Reign of Terror plotter Robespierre goes to the guillotine himself.
1804 — German Christian socialist Ludwig Feuerbach born, Landshut, Bavaria.
1887 — Dada post-artist Marcel Duchamp born, Blaineville, France.
1922 — Anarcho-Marxist theorist Jules Guesde dies, Saint Mandé, France.
1945 — B–52 bomber flies into Empire State Building in a fog.
2006 — American anarchist illustrator Richard Mock dies, Brooklyn, New York

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist. What is this current.
What is the wind, what is it.

Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it.

A Long Dress from Stein’s Tender Buttons, 1914.

JULY 27, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Cairo: Caravan of Pilgrims sets out for Mecca with the new Kiswa for the Kaaba. With cannon, kettle drums, camels dyed with henna, they proceed to the Lake of the Pilgrims, stay a few days and then set out on the long road to Mecca.

ALSO ON JULY 27 IN HISTORY…
1656 — 24-year-old Benedict Spinoza excommunicated by Jewish authorities.
1794 — Maximilien Robespierre arrested as new tyrant in French Revolution.
1946 — American poet, lesbian art collector Gertrude Stein dies, Paris, France.
1953 — Korean War ends after 575 meetings, Panmunjom, Korea.
1980 — Deposed Shah of Iran dies in exile, Cairo, Egypt.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 26, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Cuba: Revolution Day.
*All or Nothing Day.
*Parents’ Day.

ALSO ON JULY 26 IN HISTORY…
1893 — Dada artist and revolutionary George Grosz born, Berlin, Germany.
1894 — Aldous Huxley born, Godalming, Surrey, England.
1953 — Cuban rebel Fidel Castro leads unsuccessful raid on Moncada barracks.
1978 — World’s first test-tube baby born, Bristol, England.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 25, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*England: St. James’ Day. Opening of oyster season.
*London: St. Christopher’s Day. Cars line up outside Church of St. Michael Paternoster for royal “blessings” to guard against hazards of the road.
*Belgium: Procession of Penitence, followed by Pleasure Fair.
*Puerto Rico: Fiesta of Santiago, whose cult is somewhat fused with that of Yoruba warrior god Shango. Festival of Picaresque Animality.

ALSO ON JULY 25 IN HISTORY…
1867 — Karl Marx’s Das Kapital first appears in Germany.
1908 — Radical poet, theoretician Luce Fabbri born, Rome, Italy.
1969 — German social critic, painter Otto Dix dies, Hemmenhofen, Germany.
2001 — India’s “Banidt Queen” Phoolan Devi shot dead by avengers, New Delhi.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

July 23– PAUL PATRICK
“Out” gay British educator, LGBT activist.

JULY 23, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Mayhem New Year: Ceremony for transfer of power to the god of the new year. Five-day festival. Pottery, furniture, mats, clothing and implements of worship are destroyed and replaced.

ALSO ON JULY 23 IN HISTORY…
1827 — First public swimming pool in U.S. opens, Boston.
1888 — Detective writer Raymond Chandler born, Chicago, Illinois.
1950 — “Out” gay British educator, LGBT activist Paul Patrick born, South Shields.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

July 22– ERRICO MALATESTA
An Italian communist-anarchist who promoted revolution through direct action, land seizure & the general strike. Born with great wealth, he spent all of it on radical causes until he was buried in a pauper’s grave. He organized numerous demonstrations, radical newspapers, & workers’ insurrections in Europe & Argentina despite constant exile & arrest. Frequently escaped execution & often traveled in disguise.

“Not whether we accomplish anarchism today, tomorrow, or within ten centuries, but that we walk towards anarchism today, tomorrow, and always.”

JULY 22, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Spoonerisms Day.
*Festival of Boredom and Reveries.

ALSO ON JULY 22 IN HISTORY…
1927 — Social theorist Albert Meister born, Basel, Switzerland.
1932 — Anarcho-communist theorist Errico Malatesta dies, Rome, Italy.
1934 — John Dillinger shot and killed outside Biograph theater, Chicago.
1946 —Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 90 Brits.

Adapted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 21, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Cap Breton, Canada: Scottish Clans gather for festivities and the election of chieftains for the next year.

ALSO ON JULY 21 IN HISTORY…
1796 — Scottish national bard Robert Burns dies, Mill Hole Brae, Scotland.
1899 — American macho novelist Ernest Hemingway born, Oak Park, Illinois.
1899 — American modernist poet Hart Crane born, Garretsville, Ohio.
1911 — Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan born, Edmonton, Alberta.
1981 — Creationism law requiring equal teaching with evolution passed, Louisiana.
1983 — Martial law lifted in Poland as overthrow of Soviet dominion advances.
1983 — World’s coldest temperature (–127°F) recorded, Vostok, Antarctica.
2004 — Palestinian-American journalist Farouk Abdel-Muhti dies, Philadelphia.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 20, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Moon Day.
*Binding of the Wreaths.

ALSO ON JULY 20 IN HISTORY…
1925 — Psychiatrist, revolutionist Frantz Fanon born, Port-de-France, Martinique.
1929 — Moorish Orthodox leader Noble Drew Ali dies, Chicago, Illinois.
1932 — Korean neo-Dadaist video artist Nam June Paik born, Seoul, Korea.
1939 — Prominent Spanish anarchist Francisco Ascaso Abadia dies, Ataranzas.
1969 — American Neil Armstrong becomes first man on the moon.
1975 — Viking I, first spacecraft from Earth, lands on Mars.
2004— Jewish anarcho-pacifist Toma Sik dies on Hungarian commune.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 19, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Dunmore Piory, England. Flitch Day. Beginning in 15th century, the monks offered a flitch of bacon as prize for any married couple who could prove to a jury of bachelors and maidens that they had lived together in harmony and fidelity for the past year. Very few took home the bacon.
*Ancient Egypt: New Year. Season of the Nile’s rising, season of inundation.
*Nicaragua: Revolution Day.
*Festival of Sirius.

ALSO ON JULY 19 IN HISTORY…
1500 — Hailstorm brings down ceilings of the Papal Palace, Rome.
1692 — Five women hanged as witches in Salem, Massachusetts.
1898 — New Left Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse born, Berlin, Germany.
1927 — Senegalese Sufi poet, mystic Amadou Bamba dies, Touba, Senegal.
1979 — Sandinista rebels overthrow Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

July 18-- Hunter S. Thompson
American gonzo journalist, druggie, counter-culture hero.
.

JULY 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*U.S.: Railroad Day. The grand trunk line completed, 1853.

ALSO ON JULY 18 IN HISTORY…
1610 — Master painter of street life, Caravaggio, dies, Port Ercole, Tuscany, Italy.
1870 — Infallibility declared for Catholic popes speaking ex cathedra.
1922 — Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn born, Cincinnati, Ohio.
1937 — Iconoclastic bullshitter-slaying essayist Hunter S. Thompson born in Louisville, Kentucky.
1969 — Ted Kennedy offers Mary Jo Kopechne a lift home, Chappaquiddick, MA.
1998 — African-American activist historian John Henrik Clarke dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

July 17-- Billie Holiday
“Lady Day.” Great American jazz singer, performer.

JULY 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Epping Forest, England: Fairlop Fair.
*Feast of the Clockless Nowever.

ALSO ON JULY 17 IN HISTORY…
1794 — Biggest rebel victory in Whiskey Rebellion.
1887 — Dorothea Dix, reformer, suffragette, dies, Trenton, New Jersey.
1959 — Jazz singer Billie Holiday dies, New York City.
1967 — John Coltrane, jazz great, dies, New York City.
1975 — U.S. and U.S.S.R. couple in space orbit (Apollo/Soyuz).
2007 —Channel Tunnel Rail Link officially completed between England & France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 16, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*U.S.: Atomic Bomb Day.
*Festival of Convivial Tools.

ALSO ON JULY 16 IN HISTORY…
1862 — Racial justice advocate Ida B. Wells born, Holly Springs, Mississippi.
1850 — Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller dies, shipwrecked, Fire Island, New York.
1918 — Russian Czar Nicholas and family executed by Bolsheviks

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

July 15– WALTER BENJAMIN
Visionary German cultural critic and philosopher. Victim of fascism. Destroyer of art’s aura. [Hashish visioneer.]

JULY 15, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
* Swaziland: Reed Dance Day
* Paris, France: Night Watch. Torchlight processions, bands in the street.
* England: St. Swithin’s Day: If it rains, it’ll rain for 40 days.
* Japan: Black Ship Festival commemorates Commodore Perry’s arrival in 1853.

ALSO ON JULY 15 IN HISTORY…
1381 — Peasants’ Revolt instigator John Ball dies, St. Albans, England.
1796 — Thomas Bulfinch, mythology man, born, Newton, Massachusetts.
1892 — Radical cultural theorist Walter Benjamin born, Berlin, Germany.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

July 14-- BUENAVENTURA DURRUTI
Anarcho-communist militant, Spanish Civil War martyr.

JULY 14, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Bastille Day: Tremendous festivity throughout France. Paris dances all night along the Seine and in the streets.

ALSO ON JULY 14 IN HISTORY…
1789 — Storming of the Bastille in Paris heralds French Revolution.
1811 — Luddites break machines at Sunnon-in-Ashuano.
1896 — Spanish anarchist leader Buenaventura Durruti born, Léon, Spain.
1912 — Woody Guthrie, peoples’ songwriter, born, Okemah, Oklahoma.
1995 — MP3 digital file format introduced.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 13, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Swaziland: Reed Dance Day.
*Border of France and Spain: Festival of the Three Cows. The result of an ancient Basque blood feud in which French shepherds killed Spanish shepherds and were condemned to pay a blood tax in perpetuity, an elaborate ritual in which three cows are given to the Spanish Basques, followed by revelry.

ALSO ON JULY 13 IN HISTORY…
1787 — U.S. Congress outlaws slavery in Northwest Territories.
1954 — Mexican surrealist painter, activist Frida Kahlo dies, Coyoacán.
1986 — British painter, cut-up artist Brion Gysin dies, Paris, France.
2003 — Buena Vista Social Club guitarist Compay Segundo dies, Havana, Cuba.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 12, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Nova Scotia: Lobster Carnival. King Neptune crowned; bagpipes, fireworks, parades, contests, dancing, feasting.
*Northern Ireland: Orangeman’s Day.

ALSO ON JULY 12 IN HISTORY…
1817 — Civilly disobedient Henry David Thoreau born, Concord, Massachusetts.
1892 — Polish writer Bruno Schulz born, Drohobycz, Galicia, Austro-Hungary.
1895 — Inventor, polymath, R. Buckminster Fuller born, Milton, Massachusetts.
1904 — Poet, diplomat Pablo Neruda born, Parral, Chile.
1909 — U.S. Congress authorizes first income tax (16th Amendment).
2007 — Turkish media theorist Ulus Baker dies, Istanbul, Turkey.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 11, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Tibet: Monks of Choni Lamasery perform ”The Old Dance” in costumes and masks dating back to Manchu dynasty, representing all the demons of Buddhist hell.
* Bodmin, Wales: The Bodmin Riding.

ALSO ON JULY 11 IN HISTORY…
1593 — Italian mannerist painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo dies, Milan, Italy.
1804 — Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in duel.
1892 — Striking miners blow up Pinkerton barracks, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
1925 — Colombian theorist of “participatory action” education Orlando Fals Borda born, Barranquilla. “Action brings knowledge.”
2006 — Terrorist bombings rock Mumbai, India, killing more than 200.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 10, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Bahamas: Independence Day.
*Ancient Greece: New Robe for Athena Day. Procession headed by model ship on wheels with her robe flying like a sail from the mast, followed by herdsmen with animals for sacrifice, musicians, slaves with trays of gifts, chariots and horsemen. At the Acropolis, sacrifices were made and robe was draped over Athena’s shoulders.

ALSO ON JULY 10 IN HISTORY…
1875 — Black educator Mary Macleod Bethune born, Mayesville, South Carolina.
1888 — Surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico born, Volos, Greece.
1917 — Emma Goldman sentenced to two years for aiding draft resisters.
1962 — Philosopher of transgression Georges Bataille dies, Paris, France.
1987 — Musical producer John Hammond, Jr. dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 9, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Call of the Horizon Day.
*Festival of Grand Unified Theories.

ALSO ON JULY 9 IN HISTORY…
1856 — Scientific genius Nikola Tesla born, Smiljan, Croatia.
1858 — Anthropologist Franz Boaz born, Minden, Germany.
1918 — Indian anti-guru U.G. Krishnamurti born, Masulipatam, India.
1936 — American poet June Jordan born, Harlem, New York.
1977 — Radical American feminist Alice Paul dies, Moorestown, New Jersey.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 8, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*London, England: Vintners’ Procession. Porters in top hats sweep the path before the gold and black liveried beadle, the stavesman, Swan-Warden, Bargemaster, etc., all carrying nosegays. Has gone on for over 700 years.
* Rhineland, Germany: Lindenfest. New Wine Festival held under ancient linden tree.

ALSO ON JULY 8 IN HISTORY…
1822 — British romantic poet and rebel Percy Shelley dies.
1875 — Marxist utopianist Ernst Bloch born, Ludwigshafen, Rhineland-Palatinate.
1958 — U.S. / U.K. nuclear cooperation treaty signed.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

From Mayakovsky’s Futurist Manifesto: A Slap in the Face of Public Taste

JULY 7, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Pamplona, Spain: Fiesta of San Fermin and the Running of the Bulls.
*Tanzania: SabaSaba Peasants Festival.

ALSO ON JULY 7 IN HISTORY…
1865 — Four accused with John Wilkes Booth in Lincoln assassination conspiracy hanged.
1893 — Futurist poet Vladimir Mayakovsky born, Bagdadi, Georgia, Russia.
1919 — Radical American lawyer William Kunstler born, New York City.
2006 — Former Pink Floyd lead singer Syd Barrett dies, Cambridge, England.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

.

Frida Kahlo’sWithout Hope, 1945.

JULY 6, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Ceylon: Festival of Buddha’s Eyetooth. Continues for days. Most processions are at night. Painted, jeweled elephants, leaping dancers, costumes, drumming, spinning prayer wheels.

ALSO ON JULY 6 IN HISTORY…
1415 — Czech religious rebel Jan Hus burned at stake, Konstanz, Germany.
1535— Sir Thomas More beheaded by order of Henry VIII, London, England.
1699 — Captain Kidd, pirate, captured in Boston and deported to England.
1907 — Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo born, Mexico City, Mexico.
1916 — German surrealist painter, writer Unica Zürn born, Berlin, Germany.
1942 — Jewish teen Anne Frank and family seek refuge from Nazis, Amsterdam.
1944 — Inept fire-eaters create Ringling Big Top bonfire, killing 160, Hartford, CT.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Mallarmé drowning
Chatterton coughing up his lungs
Auden frozen in a cottage
Byron expiring at Missolonghi
and Hart Crane visiting Missolonghi and dying there too

— Tom Disch

JULY 5, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Tomar, Portugal: Fiesta do Tapuleiros begins. An elaborate harvest fiesta, featuring 600 girls wearing 30-pound headresses made of bread, as tall as the girls and decorated with flowers, with Maltese crosses on top.

ALSO ON JULY 5 IN HISTORY…
645 — Flint-Sky-God K accedes to Mayan throne of Dos Pilas.
1857 — German radical feminist Clara Zetkin born, Widerau, Saxony.
1861 — Lincoln suspends habeus corpus, leading to 18,000 “subversive” arrests.
1889 — French surrealist filmmaker Jean Cocteau born, Maisons-Lafitte.
1894 — Pullman Strike starts in Chicago; federal troops will kill 34 unionists.
1932 — First prisoners arrive at Bolshevik prison-labor camp, Kolyma, Siberia.
2008 — Dystopian American science fiction writer Thomas Disch dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 4, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*U.S.: Independence Day.
*Flag-burning day
*Hannibal, Missouri: Tom Sawyer Fence-Painting Day.

ALSO ON JULY 4 IN HISTORY…
1585 — English colonists land on Roanoke Island, New World.
1627 — Virginia Colony orders “scorched earth” policy for neighboring natives.
1776 — Liberty Bell rings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: not all it’s cracked up to be.
1826 — New Harmony utopianists sign Declaration of Mental Independence.
1840 — “Calico Indians” rise up in 5-year-long Hudson Valley Anti-Rent Wars.
1845 — Henry David Thoreau takes up 26-month-long squat, Walden Pond, Mass.
1855 — Walt Whitman, age 36, self-publishes “Leaves of Grass.” Dismal sales.
1896 —Radical Chinese writer Mao Dun born, Tongxiang, Zhejiang, China.
1904 — Jazz great Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong born, New Orleans, Louisiana.
1905 — Radical anarchist geographer Elisée Reclus dies, Thourot, Belgium.
1928 — Black American beat poet Ted Joans born, riverboat near Cairo, Illinois.
1966 — LBJ signs U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
1980 — Anthropologist, cultural theorist Gregory Bateson dies, San Francisco.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 3, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Montana: Annual Sun Dance of the Assiniboine tribe.
*Festival of Wilderness

ALSO ON JULY 3 IN HISTORY…
1832 — Opium exempted from US federal tariff duty.
1883 — Modern allegorist writer Franz Kafka born, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
1917 — Petrograd uprising. Street fighting. Lenin goes into hiding.
1971 — Poet, Doors frontman Jim Morrison dies of heart attack, Paris, France.
1976 — U.S. Supreme Court reverses itself, says death penalty OK.
1982 — Black Panther and Move activist Mumia Abu-Jamal sentenced to death.
1988 — US kills 290 civilians aboard Iranian airliner without punishment.
1990 — Bulgarian Federation of Anarchist Youth protest Commie Prez Mladenov.
1995 — French Situationist theorist Gil J. Wolman dies, Paris, France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 2, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Besse-en-Chandesse, France: The Black Virgin is carried into the mountains, where she once went on her own.
Siena, Italy: Madonna di Provenzano Festival. Horse race, followed by revelry and music, in honor of armless madonna.

ALSO ON JULY 2 IN HISTORY…
1717 — First American book auction held, Boston, Massachusetts.
1776 — New Jersey, in oversight, gives right to vote to some women.
1778 — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher and social theorist, dies.
1789 — Marquis de Sade shouts from Bastille that prisoners are being slaughtered.
1881 — U.S. President Garfield shot by overlooked politician Charles Guiteau.
1903 — U.S. leases Guantanamo military base from Cuba, “in perpetuity.”
1925 — Martyr Patrice Lumumba born, Katako Kombe, Belgian Congo.
1939 — First World Science Fiction Convention opens, New York City.
1950 — Protesting ban on Communists, NYC Teachers Union resigns from NEA.
1993 — 35 die in anti-Salman Rushdie riots, Sivas, Turkey.
1995 — Radical journalist George Seldes dies, Hartland Four Corners, Vermont.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JULY 1, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Half-Year Day.
Canada Day.
Roman Catholic Church: Feast of Precious Blood.
Japan: Mt. Fuji Day, opening of the climbing season.

ALSO ON JULY 1 IN HISTORY…
1566 — Death of rhyming prognosticator Nostradamus. Saw it coming?
1656 — First Quakers arrive in America, having come to what will be Boston.
1804 — Feminist writer,“lifestyle anarchist” George Sand born, Paris, France.
1876 — Russian anarchist theorist Mikhail Bakunin dies, Bern, Switzerland.
1916 — 20,000 slaughtered on first day of Battle of the Somme.
1983 — Bucky Fuller, Canadian engineer, inventor, social theorist, dies.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 30, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Thann, France: Burning of the Three Fires. Celebrates three
“stars” that moved to a spot over the forest in the 12th century
and then stopped, marking the village’s founding.
*Festival of Endless Ass-Kissing.

ALSO ON JUNE 30 IN HISTORY…
1520 — Aztec sovereign Montezuma II killed by conquistadores, Tenochtitlan.
1620 — Tobacco-growing banned in Britain, granting Virginia colony monopoly.
1859 — Émile Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on tightrope as 5,000 watch.
1932 — Acerbic Cameroonian novelist Mongo Beti born, Mbalmayo, Cameroun.
1990 — Former East and West Germanies agree to unify their economies.
1997 — First Harry Potter novel published, Great Britain.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 29, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Russia: St. Peter’s Day. Celebration of the “Funeral of Kostrama”: Bonfires kindled; maiden chosen to be carried in procession and to reign over games and dancing.
* Sacrament of the Silicon Host.

ALSO ON JUNE 29 IN HISTORY…
48 BC — Julius Caesar bests Pompey to become absolute ruler of Rome.
1635 — London’s Globe Theatre, while Henry VIII plays, burns to the ground.
1886 — Harlem photographer James Vander Zee born, Lenox, Massachusetts.
1900 — Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupery born, Lyons, France.
1940 — Individualistic Swiss artist Paul Klee dies, Muralto, Switzerland.
1991 — French social critic Henri Lefebvre dies, Navarrenx, Haut Pyrenee.
1994 — U.S. reopens Guantanamo, Cuba base to “process refugees.”

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Paul Bunyan Day.
*Festival of Terrible Poetry.

ALSO ON JUNE 28 IN HISTORY…
1712 — French philosopher, writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau born, Geneva.
1816 — England: Luddites attack Heathcoat and Bodenmila.
1887 — Greenwich Village free-love radical Floyd Dell born.
1911 — French anarchist cabaret musician Gaston Couté dies, Paris, France.
1964 — Malcolm X founds Organization of Afro-American Unity.
1979 — Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries hikes oil prices 24 per cent.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 27, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Provence, France: Festival of the Thrasque. The man-eating monster charges down city streets, snapping at people.

ALSO ON JUNE 27 IN HISTORY…
1869 — Anarchist rebel Emma Goldman born, Kaunas, Lithuania.
1872 — Black American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar born, Dayton, Ohio.
1880 — Deaf, mute, blind socialist Helen Keller born, Tuscumbia, Alabama.
1884 — French philosopher Gaston Bachelard born, Bar-sur-Aube, France.
1905 — Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) founded in Chicago.
1969 — Police harassment provokes Stonewall Riot of gays in New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 26, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Aragon, Spain: Feast of the Shepherds. Head shepherd is clown for the day; music, dancing, and clowning all afternoon, and in the evening people do whatever they please.
*Festival of Ranting & Vaporing.

ALSO ON JUNE 26 IN HISTORY…
1856 — Anarchist philosopher Max Stirner dies, Berlin, Prussia.
1893 — Haymarket anarchists pardoned by Illinois Governor Altgelt.
1913 — Négritude poet, politcian Aimée Césaire born, Basse-Pointe, Martinique.
1926 — Radical philospher Karel Kosik born, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
1933 — Greek poet C. P. Cavafy dies, Alexandria, Egypt.
1938 — God’s Trombones author James Weldon Johnson dies.
1975 — Two FBI agents killed during attack on Oglala Sioux reservation; AIM leader Leonard Peltier framed for murder.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Hi all — My new book, “Operation Bite Back” is out today (June 23) and I want to let you all know about the first reading, this Saturday, June 27, 5 p.m. at Book Soup,8818 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Email info@booksoup.com

A far cry from the farcical and easily ignored rhetoric of green-capitalists, indigenous eco-activist Rod Coronado’s zine Strong Hearts, written entirely while imprisoned for an arson on a Michagan State animal-testing facility, is written with enough inteligence and compassion to remind any passive mind that our culture’s treatment of animals and the Earth is an undienable attrocity, and urges real action. Operation Bite Back details Coronado’s life, how his direct action against the vivisection, fur, and trapping industries helped spearhead the notoriety of the ALF and ELF, and how the movement he helped build “was ultimately forced to turn its back on him.”

(Above video starts at 43 seconds)

Kuiper continues his West Coast tour in July:

7/8
SEATTLE, WA
Town Hall (Seattle Science Lectures series) / reading / 7:30 p.m.
1119 8th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101-2738
(206) 652-4255

7/9

PORTLAND, OR
Powell’s (on Hawthorne) / reading / 7:30 p.m.
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
503-228-4651

7/10

OLYMPIA, WA
Orca Books / reading / 6 p.m.
509 E. 4th Ave.
Olympia, WA 98502
360-352-0123

7/11

EUGENE, OR
Cozmic Pizza / reading / 5 p.m.
199 W 8th Ave
Eugene, OR 97401
(541) 338-9333

7/12

ASHLAND, OR
Stillwater / reading / time t.k.
1951 Highway 66
Ashland, OR 97520
541.482.6113

7/13

SAN FRANCISCO, CA
The Green Arcade / reading / 7 p.m.
1680 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 431-6800

7/14

OAKLAND, CA
Diesel Bookstore / reading / 7 p.m.
5433 College Avenue
Oakland, CA 94618
510-653-9965

7/16-7/20

LOS ANGELES, CA
Animal Rights 2009 conference / details tk
Westin LAX Hotel
5400 West Century Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90045
310.216.5858

7/28

PASADENA, CA
Vroman’s / reading / 7 p.m.
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-449-5320

*Spain: Fiesta of Santa Orosia. Pilgrims climb to murdered maiden’s mountain sanctuary where the saint’s head is displayed, picnic, sing, dance, drink, fight and make love.

ALSO ON JUNE 25 IN HISTORY…
1822 — German phantasist E.T.A. Hoffman dies, Berlin, Germany.
1852 — Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi born, Reus, Tarragona, Spain.
1868 — Six southern, former Confederate states readmitted to U.S.
1876 — Genocidal General George Armstrong Custer killed at Little Big Horn.
1878 — Ezra Haywood gets two years hard labor for advocating sexual emancipation in the U.S.
1903 — George Orwell born as Eric Blair, Motihari, Bengal, India.
1913 — Anti-colonialist surrealist Aimé Césaire born, Basse-Pointe, Martinique.
1950 — War breaks out in Korea as North Korean troops invade the South.
1983 — Alexander Haig reluctantly relinquishes control of the U.S. White House following near-assassination of Ronald Reagan.
1984 — French philosopher Michel Foucault dies of AIDS, Paris, France

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

*Festival of Contagious Magic.

ALSO ON JUNE 24 IN HISTORY…
1647 — Margaret Brent urges women’s vote before Maryland Assembly.
1842 — Devil’s Dictionary author Ambrose Bierce born, Meigs County, Ohio.
1848 — Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons born, Montgomery, Alabama.
1869—“Mammy” Pleasant, abolitionist, named Voodoo Queen of San Francisco.
1947 — Kenneth Arnold sights flying saucers over Mt. Rainier, Washington State.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

*Brittany: Pardon of the Fire. The pagan Feast of the Sun, celebrated until a soldier displayed finger of John the Baptist in the 16th century.Bonfires and romancing continue, and a “dragon” still lights fires.
*Festival of the Purple Void.
*New Orleans: Major Annual Voodoo. Ceremonies since 1820, held at Lake Pontchartrain since the 1850s.
* Sweden: Maypoles erected in countryside.

ALSO ON JUNE 23 IN HISTORY…
930 — World’s oldest parliament established, Iceland.
1889 — Russian poet Anna Akhmatova born, Bolshoy Fontan, near Odessa.
1912 — Gay British computer theorist Alan Turing born, London, England.
1964 — Freedom Riders Chaney, Goodman & Schwerner murdered, Mississippi.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

*Armenia: The Flaming of the Rose, the Christianized festival of Anahit, the ancient Goddess of chastity; sheep with gaily painted horns are led to church service, with food and flowers piled at the altar.

ALSO ON JUNE 22 IN HISTORY…
1633 — Catholic Church forces Galileo to recant theory Earth orbits Sun.
1909 — Black American dance innovator Katherine Dunham born, Joliet, illinois.
1935 — French surrealist René Crevel dies, Paris.
1938 — Joe Louis knocks out “Aryan supremacy” claimant Max Schmeling.
1939 — American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker dies, Monaco.
2008 — American comic, social critic, George Carlin dies, Santa Monica, California.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 21, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Summer Solstice, 05:48 UT.
*Father’s Day.
*Canadian First Nations Day.
*Midsummer’s Day, long celebrated as the greatest festival of them all.
*Stonehenge, England: Sunrise Rituals.

ALSO ON JUNE 21 IN HISTORY…
1877 — 10 Molly Maguires, Pennsylvania coal mining activists, hung.
1882 — Socialist illustrator Rockwell Kent born, Tarrytown, New York.
1905 — Existential philosopher, novelist Jean-Paul Sartre born, Paris, France.
1920 — Police shoot 14 Wobblies during clash in Butte, Montana.
1979 — Poet, drummer Angus MacLise dies, Katmandu, Nepal.
1982 — John Hinckley, Jr., would-be assassin of Acting U.S. President Ronald Reagan, found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 20, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Hamburg, Germany: Cherry Festival. One day during the siege of 1432, the city gates opened and out came children dressed in white. Hussite hearts melted, the siege was raised, and the children were sent back laden with ripe cherries.
*Midsummer’s Eve: Everyone into the woods at night; stay up all night, sing, dance, make love, worship the sun god in fire symbols, greet the rising sun. Fairies speak in human tongues on this night; the flower of happiness blooms. Gather flowers and boughs. Large wheels bound with straw are set burning and rolled down hills, etc.
*New Identity Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 20 IN HISTORY…
1887 — Dadaist master Kurt Schwitters born, Hannover, Germany.
1920 — African liberationist, martyr Eduardo Mondlane born, Gaza, Mozambique.
1923 — Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa dies, Parral, Mexico.
1928 — Jazz great Eric Dolphy born, Los Angeles, California.
1933 — German feminist, radical Clara Zetkin dies, Archangelskoje, USSR.
1963 — Cold War prompts “hot line” between Washington and Moscow.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

In Islam man is not subjugated by God, since he is the Lord’s associate, friend, trustee, and kinsman on earth.

JUNE 19, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Berkshire, England: Election of the “Morris Mayor”; residents elect a Morris dancer who is carried through town on a flower-trimmed rocking chair, preceded by an ox-head on a long pole, with stops at every tavern to refill the Mayor’s chalice.
*Brazil: Beggars’ Banquets.
*Festival of the Coming Ice Age.
*Juneteenth.

ALSO ON JUNE 19 IN HISTORY…
1756 — 123 British prisoners die in “Black Hole” of Calcutta, India.
1891 — Anti-fascist collage artist Helmut Herzfeld (John Heartfield) born, Berlin.
1912 — Alleged eight-hour work-day adopted for U.S. government workers.
1953 — Julius and Ethel Rosenberg electrocuted for alleged sale of atomic secrets to Russians, Sing Sing Prison, New York.
1977 — Iranian political & spiritual leader Ali Shariati killed, London, England.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Festival of Invisible Pornography.

ALSO ON JUNE 18 IN HISTORY…
1778 — British troops evacuate Philadelphia as American Colonial forces enter.
1812 — War declared against Britain by U.S.
1914 — Red Week begins, Italy.
1936 — Russian novelist Maxim Gorki dies, Moscow, USSR.
1953 — Egypt declared a republic by the “Revolutionary Command Council.”
1983 — Sally Ride becomes first U.S. woman in space.
1989 — Muckraking journalist I. F. “Izzy” Feiinstein Stone dies, Boston, MA.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Saturday, June 20, 2009, 7 -- 11 pm
PS1/MoMA
In celebration of the summer solstice, Frank Haines has organized an evening of ritualistic, mysterious, and mystical performances, music, film, and spoken word. Four performers—the trio Blanko & Noiry; 16mm filmmaker Rose Kallal and curator Mark Beasley; psychedelic metal band Miracle of Birth; and poet Cedar Sigo— will perform in a different corner of a single gallery. ARP (DFA/Smalltown Supersound) will provide musical transitions between each performance.
In a reference to his artistic relationship to the cult filmmaker Kenneth Anger, Haines borrowed this event’s title from Hugh Kenner’s novel The Pound Era, in which the author notes that Pound “came to think of translation as a model for the poetic act: blood brought to ghosts…essentially creating new life from old texts.” Anger’s current P.S.1 exhibition will be on view throughout the evening.
Ticket information here.

Haines, who currently has a show at the Lisa Cooley Gallery, is a visual, musical, and performance artist. His performances are rare and reportedly not to be missed, filling the entire space with energy in a manner consistent with the occult rituals, such as the gnostic mass, that link Haines with Anger. The performance is $10 and 21+, but it sounds like there will probably be free Grolsch!

JUNE 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Milwaukee: Homebrewers Beer Competition.
*Wish Fulfillment Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 17 IN HISTORY…
1824 — U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs established, Washington, D.C.
1871 — Black American writer James Weldon Johnson born.
1953 — East Germans stage revolt against Russian social imperialism.
1967 — Red China explodes H-bomb, joining club of nuclear-terror states.
1972 — Hotel break-in tips start of Watergate scandal, Washington, D.C.
1988 — Nuyorican Poet Miguel Piñero dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

June 17 — MIGUEL PIñERO

JUNE 16, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Egypt: Night of the Drop. A night of deliberation and prognostication caused by the mysterious rise of the Nile River.
*Dublin, Ireland: Bloomsday.

ALSO ON JUNE 16 IN HISTORY…
1835 — London Working Men’s Association founded by William Lovett.
1890—Film comedian Stan Laurel born..
1944 — French Annales school historian Marc Bloch killed by Nazis, near Lyon.
1958 — Former Hungarian leader Imre Nagy hung for role in 1956 uprising.
1961 — Soviet ballet star Rudolf Nureyev seeks political asylum, Paris, France.
1963 — Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes first woman in space.
1970 — Russian futurist, French surrealist muse Elsa Triolet dies, Paris, France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

SEMIOTEXT(E) Book Launch: The Coming Insurrection by the Invisible Committee

“Two centuries of capitalism and market nihilism have brought us to the most extreme alienations—from ourselves, from others, from worlds. The fiction of the individual has decomposed with the same speed that it once became real. Children of the metropolis, we offer this wager: that it’s in the most profound deprivation of existence—perpetually stifled, perpetually conjured away—that the possibility of communism resides.”

—The Coming Insurrection, Introduction to the English edition

THE COMING INSURRECTION has been labeled a “manual for terrorism” by the French government, who recently arrested its alleged authors. Philosopher Giorgio Agamben has called the book “one of the most intelligent works of our time” and numerous commentators have seen it as a heir to the legacy of situationist Guy Debord. Meanwhile, bootleg translations have circulated around the world and passages from the book appeared on the walls of Athens during last December’s uprising.

Anonymously written in the wake of the riots that erupted throughout the Paris suburbs in the fall of 2005, THE COMING INSURRECTION articulates a rejection of the official Left and its reformist agenda, aligning itself instead with the growing number of those—in France, in the United States, and elsewhere—who refuse the idea that theory, politics, and life are separate realms.

Please join us for the official book launch, including discussion of the text as well as content-appropriate activities, on Sunday, June 14 at 5pm on the fourth floor of Union Square Barnes and Noble.

I arrived at the fourth floor of Barnes and Nobles right on time. The auditorium-style meeting area was already mostly filled with those in-the-know along with a few dozen confused onlookers who sensed something was up, many of them Barnes and Nobles employees. As if scripted, a manager appeared on the scene promptly at 5, saying “Listen, I don’t know why you’re all here, but there’s no event here today. There’s the Joe Scarborough reading here tomorrow, so you’re welcome to come back then…” He was cut off by an unidentified individual taking the stage with the energy and confidence of a motivational speaker, saying “We’re sorry the Invisible Committee couldn’t make it today, but is everyone still interested in a reading and discussion of The Coming Insurrection?” The crowd emphatically clapped and cheered and the man continued to read the first chapter of the book, “I AM WHAT I AM” a discussion of the marketing of identity via corporate advertising. Soon a large security guard made his way to the stage and grabbed the the man mid-sentence. Emphatic boos from the crowd and physical intervention from a few concerned on-lookers forced the guard away and the reading continued for ten solid minutes, eventually degenerating into a profanity-filled rant about the misery of work and the banal New York art scene. Uniformed NYPD (apparently on Barnes and Noble’s payroll?) eventually put an end to the disruption, threatening the speaker with arrest. After short deliberation, it was announced the reading would move to Union Square park. As the 50-strong crowd filtered out in a surprisingly calm manner, several attendees fell back and used the diversion to fill their bags with whatever books they pleased.

Instead of proceeding directly to the park, the crowd moved next door to high-brand make-up outlet Sephora, where they were able to use their bodies to keep security away while the book was passed around for anyone to read aloud, others helping themselves to free samples of bronzer and eyeliner. After a few minutes the employees’ pleas for the mob to leave were honored as we took to the streets again, this time walking towards the nearest Starbucks–already on the alert for rowdy interventionist protests due to its long-running suppression of IWW union activity there. Cops arrived almost immediately; one person received a summons for disorderly conduct for reading atop a table. The group, which had dwindled after the appearance of about a dozen police, resigned themselves to reading, talking, and taunting the police from the park as they had previously decided.

The Coming Insurrection is the first official U.S. publication of the Invisible Committee’s collection of propaganda centered around the reclamation of “communism” as a tactic for global insurrection. The text gained international attention following the arrest of the Tarnac 9, accused of taking part in the strike-related sabotage of railways in France. The Coming Insurrection was used as evidence that this group, allegedly involved in its publication, espoused terrorist tactics. The book was labeled a “manual for terrorism.”

There is much discussion of tactics in The Coming Insurrection, but nothing so incendiary as how to brew a molly. Instead, the book urges the formation of hundreds of communes based on the principle of friendship (”All affinity is affinity within a common truth”), forming in “every factory, every street, every village, every school” and the “multiplication” of these communes. Quick to point out its base differences from the organized left, the Invisible Committee has revived the slogan of the Russian Revolution: “All Power to the Communes,” which was briefly chanted in Sephora.

The text’s reappropriation of communism culminates in a total break from Marxism, even finding itself tracking contemporary anti-civilization arguments, attacking ecological concerns as following the logic of capitalism: “They hired our parents to destroy the world, and now they’d like to put us to work rebuilding it—to add insult to injury—at a profit.” The chapter triumphantly concludes: “As long as there is Man and Environment the police will be there between them.”

The entirety of The Coming Insurrection has been conveniently posted in blog form. The PDF format of an early translation can be viewed here and downloaded here.

It should be noted that the newer translation is far more eloquent and the Semiotext(e) edition itself is academic-looking, quite attractive, and will fit right in your pocket. You can buy it for $12.95 from MIT press’ website.

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JUNE 15, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Lantern Festival: the dead revisit homes
*St. Vitus Day: Traditional day of revels for welcoming Spring in old Europe.
*Festival of Neon Decadence.

ALSO ON JUNE 15 IN HISTORY…
1215 — British King John & contentious noblemen sign Magna Carta, at Runnymede.
1381 — Radical poll tax protestor Wat Tyler executed, Smithfields, London, England.
1560 — Will Sommers, “Poor Man’s Friend,” court jester to Henry VIII, buried.
1752 — American inventor, revolutionist Ben Franklin flies a kite in a thunderstorm.
1860 — World’s first nursing school established, London, England.
1934 — Hitler and Mussolini meet for the first time, in Venice, Italy.
1954 — Joe McCarthy declares physicist Robert Oppenheimer a security risk.
1966 — End of three days of Dutch Provo rioting, Amsterdam, Holland.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 14, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Flag Day
*Black Flag Day.
*Baha’i: Race Unity Day.
*Pop Goes the Weasel Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 14 IN HISTORY…
1811 — American abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe born.
1894 — Marxist theorist José Carlos Maríategui born, Moquegua, Peru.
1905 — Battleship Potemkin mutiny, Odessa, Russia.
1926 — American impressionist painter Mary Cassat dies.
1933 — Polish-born novelist Jerzy Kosinski born.
1940 — German troops march into Paris, lowest point of the Second World War.
1951 — First UNIVAC computer installed in U.S. Census Bureau office.
1965 — Jewish mystic, philosopher Martin Buber dies.
1982 — Argentina surrenders Falkland Islands to Great Britain, ending war.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 13, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*U.S.: Children’s Day.
*National Juggling Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 13 IN HISTORY…
1865 — Irish poet William Butler Yeats born, Dublin, Ireland.
1889 — Italian left communist leader Amadeo Bordiga born, Resina, Italy.
1963 — Civil rights activist, martyr Medgar Evers dies, Jackson, Mississippi.
1979 — Sioux awarded $17.5 million for land taken in 1877.
1980 — Guyanese historian, activist Walter Rodney assassinated, Georgetown.
1986 — American Big Band leader Benny Goodman dies.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 12, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Ghost in the Machine Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 12 IN HISTORY…
1892 — American modernist writer Djuna Barnes born, Cornwall on Hudson, NY.
1963 — N.A.A.C.P. leader Medgar Evers fatally shot, Jackson, Mississippi.
1964 — Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment, South Africa.
1972 — Radical labor organizer Saul Alinsky dies, Carmel, California.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 11, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Hart & Shelby, Michigan: National Asparagus Festival.
*Festival of Goibnui, Smith of the Gods and Provider of the Ale of Immortality.

ALSO ON JUNE 11 IN HISTORY…
1572 — British dramatist, poet Ben Jonson born.
1872 — Canadian unions legalized.
1888 — Martyred American anarchist Bartolomeo Vanzetti born, Italy.
1897 — Voodoo High Priestess Marie Laveau dies,New Orleans, Louisiana.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 10, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Festival of the Forgotten.

ALSO ON JUNE 10 IN HISTORY…
1682 — First tornado witnessed by whites in New World hits New Haven, Connecticut.
1809 — French painter and communard Gustave Courbet born, Ornans, Doubs.
1898 — U.S. Marines begin invasion of Cuba in Spanish-American War.
1927 — Libertarian great Victoria Woodhull dies, Worcestershire, England.
1935 — Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step cult founded.
1940 — African liberationist Marcus Mosiah Garvey dies, London, England.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

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JUNE 9, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Shillingstone, England: Tallest Maypole Day.
*Feast of the Birth of the White-Breasted Giantess

ALSO ON JUNE 9 IN HISTORY…
1870 — British social novelist Charles Dickens dies, Kent, England.
1874 — Great Apache chieftain Cochise dies, Chiricahua, Arizona.
1893 — Witty, gay American songwriter Cole Porter born, Peru, Indiana.
1902 — Anti-anarchist law passed in Washington.
1934 — Animated film star Donald Duck born.
1974 — Guatemalan novelist, diplomat Miguel Angel Asturias dies, Paris, France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 8, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*China: Dragon-Boat Races commemorate search for Ch’i Yuan (3rd century B.C.) who threw himself in river. No finish line, no judges. Arguments & fist fights always break out, but ends with merry feast.
*Name Your Poison Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 8 IN HISTORY…
632 — Islamic prophet Mohammed dies, Medina, Arabia.
1809 — American revolutionary great Tom Paine dies, New York City.
1876 — French feminist, novelist George Sand dies, Nohant, France.
1997 — Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola dies, Ibadan.
2006 — Dr. John Money, sexual identity physician, dies, Towson, Maryland.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 7, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Southwold, England: Mayor’s Day. Dignitaries mountmerry-go-round horses, party.
* Festival of All Possible Worlds.

ALSO ON JUNE 7 IN HISTORY…
1843 — Mad German poet Friedrich Hölderlin dies, Tübingen, Germany.
1848 — French drop-out painter Paul Gauguin born, Paris, France.
1852 — American utopianist Hosea Ballou dies, Boston, Massachusetts.
1896 — Hungarian Communist leader, Uprising martyr Imre Nagy born, Kaposvar.
1980 — Free-living sex novelist Henry Miller dies, Big Sur, California.
1981 — Israel bombs suspected Iraqi nuclear installation.
2006 — Anthrax alert shuts down British House of Commons, London.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 6, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Festival of Chiu Hsien, Taoist Spirit of Wine.

ALSO ON JUNE 6 IN HISTORY…

1778 — Debtors’ prisons abolished in U.S.; debtors continue to flourish.
1875 — German novelist Thomas Mann born, Lübeck, Germany.
1884 — World’s first roller coaster opens, Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
1916 — French Symbolist painter Odilon Redon dies, Paris, France.
1961 — Archetypal psychoanalyst Carl Jung dies.
1982 — Beat poet, Buddhist Kenneth Rexroth dies, Montecito, California.
1984 — Sikh Temple at Amritsar occupied by Indian Army, 300 slain.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Please join us Friday June 5 at Desert Island for a fun book signing and party with renowned cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier.

The event also marks the debut of two special projects:

1) An amazing new screenprint produced with Paul, available for the first
time

2) Our brand new FREE all-comics newspaper Smoke Signal, featuring killer
work by 46 artists.

Come grab a free newspaper, have a beer, and snag a signed book by Mr. Hornschemeier. What could be better?

Immediately followed by Future Ink around the corner at BQE Eye Level

I picked up Smoke Signal yesterday and it’s one of the better comic papers I’ve come across-- 28 pages featuring at least 50 artists, with original strips from more well-known artists (Johnny Ryan, Ron Rege Jr., Lauren Weinstein) and more underground favorites (Sam Gaskin, Noah Lyron, Zach Hazard) alike. Make the trip to Williamsburg or MOCCA this weekend to pick it up.

Other MOCCA events this weekend include a signing of Austin English’s Windy Corner #3 at Giant Robot, a drink and draw for female cartoonists at Madame X, and hopefully a party at Gary Panter’s house.

JUNE 5, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Chicago: Salvation Army Doughnut Day.
*Sikh Birth of Gobindh Singh.
*Festival of Popular Delusions.

ALSO ON JUNE 5 IN HISTORY…
753 — St. Boniface slain by Druids for chopping down sacred tree.
1878 — Revolutionist Francisco “Pancho” Villa born, San Juan del Rio, Durango.
1899 — Spanish dramatist, poet Federico Garcia Lorca born, Fuente Vaqueros, Granada.
1900 — American writer Stephen Crane dies, Badenweiler, Germany.
1934 — British situationist Ralph Rumney born, Newcastle, England.
1968 — Bobby Kennedy shot in Los Angeles hotel following victory in Democratic primary, dies the next day.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 4, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Berga, Spain: Fiesta. “Turks” on hobby-horses stage dance-battle, joined by bizarre devils exploding fireworks, who are then disposed of by Archangel Michael and huge, giraffe-necked mules, eagles, dancing giants and dwarves.
*Queens: Festival of the Sticky Penis.

ALSO ON JUNE 4 IN HISTORY…
570 — Islamic prophet and mystic visionary Mohammed born, Mecca, Arabia.
1798 — Lover and writer Giacomo Casanova dies, Bohemia.
1919 — U.S. women finally get the vote.
1937 — First grocery carts introduced for consumer America.
1989 — Tien-an-men Square massacre occurs, Beijing, China.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

JUNE 3, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Japan: Broken Dolls Memorial. Girls attend Buddhist funeral ceremonies, bury old dolls.
* Impersonate Authority Day.

ALSO ON JUNE 3 IN HISTORY…
1906 — Jazz dancer, actress, stripper Josephine Baker born, St. Louis, Missouri.
1924 — Dystopian allegorist Franz Kafka dies, Kierling, Austria.
1926 — American Beat poet, activist Allen Ginsberg born, Newark, New Jersey.
1968 — Andy Warhol “air conditioned” by Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

June 2, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Mons, Belgium: Festival of the Golden Chariot.
*Festival of Utter Confusion.

ALSO ON JUNE 2 IN HISTORY…
1740 — Writer, sex deviate Marquis de Sade born, Paris, France.
1899 — Butch Cassidy’s gang robs Union Pacific train in Wyoming.
1924 — Natives in heartland of North America are granted “citizenship”
by the state that largely exterminated them.
1987 — Celebrated Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia dies.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Media-Squat Radio airs every Monday at 7pm EDT
Listen on WFMU, iTunes, or Media Squat

June 1, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*England: Sheepherding Festivals. Dancing, singing, feasting, spinning and weaving contests.
*Devonshire: Ram Roasting Fair.
*Festival of Non-Linearity.

ALSO ON JUNE 1 IN HISTORY…
1801 — Mormon honcho Brigham Young born.
1880 — First public phone booth installed, New Haven, Connecticut.
1909 — N.A.A.C.P. founded by W. E. B. DuBois and others.
1924 — Anti-war activist William Sloane Coffin born, New York City.
1968 — Socialist, triple-sense-deprived Helen Keller dies, Westport, Connecticut.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 31, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Ancient Rome: Ambarvalia, no work; plows and tools wreathed in flowers. Silent processions, incense, chanting of priests, animal sacrifices to Ceres, Bacchus and others. Urns of the dead decked in flowers, followed by wine and noisy feasting.

ALSO ON MAY 31 IN HISTORY…
1790 — First U.S. copyright law introduced.
1819 — American poet Walt Whitman born, Huntington, Long Island, New York.
1910 — Car carrying Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman struck by train, Spokane.
2005 — W. Mark Felt admits that he is Watergate source “Deep Throat.”

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 30, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It Day.

ALSO ON MAY 30 IN HISTORY…
1431 — French military leader Joan of Arc burned at stake, Rouen, France.
1593 — British dramatist Christopher Marlowe killed in tavern brawl.
1778 — French philosopher, satirist Voltaire dies, Paris, France.
1783 — Pennsylvania Evening Post begins, first daily newspaper in U.S.
1814 — Anarchist theorist Mikhail Bakunin born, Prjamuchino, Russia.
1886 — Literary radical Randolph Bourne born, Bloomfield, New Jersey.
1903 — Black American poet Countee Cullen born, in either Louisville or Baltimore.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

If Haines’ style reminds you of Kenneth Anger, you’re not alone. Haines will present a new performance entitled Blood Transfusion for a Ghost at the Anger exhibition at PS1 June 20th.

The show runs from tonight to July 3rd. More of Haines’ art is featured here and here.

MAY 29, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Jewish Shavuot.
*Netherlands: Luilak (Lazy Bones Day). Troops of young people whistle & beat on pots and pans, ringing doorbells & waking everyone up. Anyone refusing to join the fun is branded Luilak.

ALSO ON MAY 29 IN HISTORY…
1829 — “Hollow Earth” theorist John Cleves Symmes dies, New Jersey.
1830 — French Communard leader Louise Michel born, Vroncourt, France.
1989 — Tien-An-Men Chinese student protesters construct replica of Statue of Liberty.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

ALSO ON MAY 28 IN HISTORY…
1830 — Removal Act signed by U.S. Congress, moving all Native Americans to west of the Mississippi River.
1888 — Native American athletic great Jim Thorpe born, Shawnee, Oklahoma.
1897 — Spanish Civil War chronicler Gamel Woolsey born, Aiken, South Carolina.
1953 — Edmund Hillary and guide Norkay plant flags on Mt. Everest.
1955 — Two-hour work-day advocated in the United States by Albert Whitehouse of the U.S. Steel Workers Union.

Above info extracted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Extract from Death’s Other Kingdom by Gamel Woolsey:

“After the bombing began the atmosphere had grown steadily worse. It is inevitable where open towns are bombed. Hate is the other side of fear. And it was horrible to see and feel this wave of hate-fear rising around us like a menacing sea. The talk of the villagers came to be more and more about Fascistas, and the Fascista was a purely mythical creature of unimaginable wickedness (twin brother I should think to the ‘Red’ of some of our daily papers) always mentioned in a special tone of horror. There was of course a great deal of talk about atrocities the Fascistas were committing; but also (a most curious feature of the war mentality) a good deal about atrocities they were supposed to be committing themselves, many of them quite imaginary. For instance I was told a melodramatic story about a hunt for a Fascista which had taken place near us, and how they had fired the cane brake to burn him out. ‘That men should hunt each other like beasts!’ they added in enjoyment of horror. But the whole story was quite fantastic. The hunt had never happened. The cane breaks were always catching fire in dry weather from the sparks from the train which ran through them at that point, and the sight of the blackened field had suggested that whole story to the atrocity making instinct.

“I was struck by what I can only call a look of dreamy blood-lust upon their faces when they told such stories. I realised then, what I realised even more clearly later at Gibralter, listening to the English talk of atrocities, what atrocity stories really are: they are the pornography of violence.”

MAY 27, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Feast of Zerowork

ALSO ON MAY 27 IN HISTORY…
1332 — Arab historian Ibn Khaldun born, Tunis, Tunisia.
1525 — Anabaptist communist Thomas Münzer executed.
1871 — Paris Commune crushed, with 25,000 massacred.
1878 — Modern dancer Isadora Duncan born, San Francisco, California.
1907 — Ecology pioneer Rachel Carson born, Springdale, Pennsylvania.
1949 — Robert Ripley dies, believe it or not.
1997 — Russian Pres Boris Yeltsin signs historic treaty with NATO.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

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MAY 26, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Feast of VooDoo Economics.

ALSO ON MAY 26 IN HISTORY…
1799 — Black Russian poet Alexander S. Pushkin born.
1895 — Socially-aware photographer Dorothea Lange born, Hoboken, New Jersey.
1914 — Social realist photographer Jacob Riis dies, Barre, Massachusetts.
1976 — Nazi sympathizer and philosopher Martin Heidegger dies.
1977 — George Willig climbs World Trade Center, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 25, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*African Liberation Day.
*National Tapdance Day.
*Coventry, England: Lady Godiva’s Day. Her famous ride re-enacted.

ALSO ON MAY 25 IN HISTORY…
1803 — American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson born, Boston, Massachusetts.
1895 — Gay playwright Oscar Wilde convicted of “acts of gross indecency,” England.
1908 — American poet Theodore Roethke born, Saginaw, Michigan.
1924 — Politically committed Russian avant-gardist Liubov Popova dies, Moscow.
1954 — War photographer Robert Capa dies, Thai-Binh, Vietnam.
1961 — Prez John Kennedy commits U.S. to put man on moon by 1970.
1963 — Organization of African Unity begins, housed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 24, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Provence, France: World’s Gypsies gather for 2-day religous festival.
*Canada: Victoria Day.

ALSO ON MAY 24 IN HISTORY…
1864 — Fin de siecle French individualist anarchist Zo d’Axa born, Paris, France.
1883 — Brooklyn Bridge opens, New York City.
1921 — Sacco and Vanzetti trial begins, Braintree, Massachusetts.
1959 — First nuclear fall-out shelter built.
1974 — Big band composer Duke Ellington dies, New York City.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 23, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*5/23: Discordian Chaos Holiday.
*Rye, Sussex, England: New Mayor throws red-hot pennies to the children from his balcony.

ALSO ON MAY 23 IN HISTORY…
1810 — Transcendentalist writer Margaret Fuller born, Cambridgeport, MA.
1832 — Jamaican national hero Samuel Sharpe hung.
1838 — Four thousand die in forced removal of Cherokee “Trail of Tears.”
1930 — San Francisco gay activist politician Harvey Milk born, Woodmere, NY.
1939 — American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde killed by Texas Rangers.
2008 — American folk singer, activist Utah Phillips dies, Nevada City, California

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

ALSO ON MAY 22 IN HISTORY…
1805 — Esoteric poet, proto-surrealist Gérard de Nerval born in Paris, France.
1845 — American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt born.
1885 — French novelist Victor Hugo dies, Paris, France.
1887 — Surrealist, pugilist Arthur Cravan born, Lausanne, Switzerland.
1895 — Indian religious leader Jiddu Krishnamurti born.
1914 — Ark-Angel, composer Herman “Sunny” Blount born, Birmingham, Alabama.
1925 — Indeterminate painter, sculptor Jean Tinguely born.
1948 — Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay dies, Chicago, Illinois.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 21, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Feast of the Triple Scoop.

ALSO ON MAY 21 IN HISTORY…
1471 — German artist Albrecht Dürer born, Nuremberg, Germany.
1690 — John Eliot, “Apostle to the Indians,” dies.
1844 — “Douanier” Henri Rousseau born, Lavalle, Mayenne, France.
1886— Universologist Stephen Pearl Andrews dies, New York City.
1904 — Jazz musician “Fats” Waller born, New York, New York.
1926 — Black Mountain, Beat poet Robert Creeley born, Arlington, Mass.
1935 — Hull House founder, social activist Jane Addams dies, Chicago, Illinois.
1956 — First aerial test of H-Bomb makes Bikini Atoll unlivable.
1991 — Romanian religious historian Ioan Culianu assassinated, Chicago, Illinois

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 21 —

MAY 20, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Old England: Beating of the Bounds, ceremonial perambulation of Parish boundaries.
*Wicken, England: Love Feast under the Gospel Elm.
*Florence, Italy: Festival of the Chirping Crickets.

ALSO ON MAY 20 IN HISTORY…
1844 — Wisconsin’s Fourierist Phalanx commune established.
1873 — Levi Strauss awarded U.S. patent for his blue jeans.
1907 — British acting great Laurence Olivier born, Dorking, Surrey.
1927 — Charles Lindbergh flies solo across Atlantic Ocean.
1932 — Amelia Earhart flies solo across Atlantic Ocean.
1959 — Hawaiian protest singer Israel Kamakawiwo’ole born.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 20 — ISRAEL KAMAKAWIWO’OLE

MAY 19, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Britanny: Pardon of the Poor. Pilgrimage of poor to shrine of St. Yves.

ALSO ON MAY 19 IN HISTORY…
1864 — American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne dies.
1890 — Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh born, Kim Lien, Vietnam.
1895 — Cuban revolutionary José Marti dies, Dos Rios, Cuba.
1928 — First annual Frog-Jumping Contest, Calaveras County, California
1925 — Malcolm X born, as Malcolm Little, Omaha, Nebraska.
1935 — T. E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”) killed in motorcycle accident.
1954 — Modernist composer Charles Ives dies, West Riding, Connecticut.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Pow! to the Moon Day.
*Get Started Day.

ALSO ON MAY 18 IN HISTORY…
1048 — Poet Omar Khayyam born, Nishapur, Persia.
1781 — José Gabriel Túpac Amaru drawn and quartered, Cuzco, Peru.
1897 — Populist filmmaker Frank Capra born, Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
1912 — South African apartheid fighter Walter Sisulu born, Engcobo, Transkei.
1928 — Big Bill Haywood dies in lonely exile, Moscow, USSR.
1951 — American hobo, Industrial Army of the Poor organizer Jacob Coxey dies.
1955 — Black educator Mary McLead Bethune dies, Daytona Beach, Florida.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Norway: Independence Day: Singing, dancing in the streets, fireworks.

ALSO ON MAY 17 IN HISTORY…
1620 — First merry-go-round introduced, Turkey.
1866 — Less-is-more composer Erik Satie born, Paris, France.
1887 — Social rebel, utopianist Lysander Spooner dies, Boston, Massachusetts.
1907 — Spanish agit-prop graphic artist, communist Josep Renau born, Valencia.
1910 — Halley’s Comet makes nearest approach to Earth, terrifying millions.
1954 — Supreme Court outlaws segregation in U.S. public schools.
1968 — Napalm turned on draft files, Catonsville, Maryland.
1980 — Mt. St. Helens volcano erupts, Washington state.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 16, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Rogation Day.
* St. Brendan’s Day: Commemorating his sixth-century voyage from Ireland to… The Garden of Eden? America?

ALSO ON MAY 16 IN HISTORY…
1918 — U.S. Congress passes Sedition Act against radicals.
1927 — U.S. Supreme Court rules booksellers must file income tax returns.
1933 — Swiss-German anarchist, gay writer John Henry Mackay dies.
1953 — Gypsy jazz musician Django Reinhardt dies, Fountainebleau, France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

After World War II the ruins of bombed-out areas of London were converted into community-built rickity parks called Adventure Playgrounds. Artist and Adventure Playground researcher Nils Norman, describes the incredible origin of these spaces for free-play:

“Adventure playgrounds, or junk playgrounds, as they were known, began life as occupied building sites, wastelands and bombsites that had been colonised by city children looking for interesting and adaptable spaces in which they could play in relative privacy away from adults.”

Along with interventionist public artist Michael Cataldi, Norman is reviving the spirit of this phenomenon in a summer-long utopianist experiment called the University of Trash. Occupying the Sculpture Center in Long Island City, Queens, the University will be a free space for dozens of events and projects circulating aroud the themes of ecology, pedagogy, and transformation of Urban misery. The diverse list of radical projects currently scheduled events include a Free Skool, pirate radio broadcasts, guerilla architecture discussions, a Das Kapital reading group, and there’s plenty more to come. Among their more out-there missions is to recreate the sorely missed Tompkins Square Park Bandshell, a structure that was the public center of Lower East Side counterculture and revolt, and whose 1991 demolition was, for many, a symbol of the neighborhood’s dying identity.

Visit any day except Tuesday or Wednesday from 11am to 6pm. Bring a $5 donation if you have it.

MAY 15, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Spain, Philippines, Colombia, etc.: Celebrations of San Isidro, the saint who got the angels to do all of his plowing for him.

ALSO ON MAY 15 IN HISTORY…
1265 — Italian poet Dante Alighieri born, Florence, Italy.
1823 — Swedenbourgian Thomas Lake Harris born, Fenny, Stratford, England.
1885 — Louis Riel surrenders, ending Métis Rebellion in Canada.
1886 — Recluse poet Emily Dickinson dies, Amherst, Massachusetts.
1929 — Russian Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich dies, Leningrad, USSR.
2006 — Algerian “Mother of Raï” music, Cheikha Rimitti, dies, Paris, France.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 14, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Underground America Day.

ALSO ON MAY 14 IN HISTORY…
1771 — Industrialist utopianist Robert Owen born, Wales.
1935 — Salvadorean poet, martyr Roque Dalton born, San Salvador.
1940 — Anarchist Emma Goldman dies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1967 — American communist writer Mike Gold dies, San Francisco, CA.
1973 — Skylab orbital space station launched.
1981 — Pope John Paul ll seriously wounded by gunman, Vatican City

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 13, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Ancient Anatolian festival, Purulliyas commemorates legend of conquest of dragon Illuyankas by Weather God controlling rainfall over the dragon of drought and flood. European folk customs link Rogation Day, Ascension & St. George’s Day.

ALSO ON MAY 13 IN HISTORY…
1794 — Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania.
1842 — Popular British opera creator Sir Arthur Sullivan born.
1893 — Crackpot, flagpole-sitting champion Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly born.
1903 — Philippine revolutionist Apolinario Mabini dies, Guam.
1958 — Dick Nixon’s motorcade greeted with rocks & bottles, Caracas, Venezuela.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 12, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*England: Garland Day, Olde May Day (do it again).

ALSO ON MAY 12 IN HISTORY…
1812 — Nonsense rhymer Edward Lear born, London, England.
1907 — Decadent Symbolist writer Joris-Karl Huysmans dies.
1913 — Brazilian samba singer, great carnivalist Jamelão born, Rio de Janeiro.
1916 — Execution of James Connolly, I.W.W. organizer & Irish freedom fighter.
1921 — German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys born, Cleves, N. Rhine-Westphalia.
1922 — Large meteor strikes Earth near Blackstone, Virginia

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

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MAY 11, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
* Guatemala: Five Day Rain Ceremony.

ALSO ON MAY 11 IN HISTORY…
1894 — French Orientalist painter Jean-Leon Gérôme born.
1895 — Composer William Grant Still born.
1904 — Spanish surrealist huckster, proto-fascist Salvador Dali born.
1914 — Radical theorist, labor organizer Daniel DeLeon dies, New York City.
1918 — Physicist Richard Feynman born, Far Rockaway, New York City.
1960 — Submarine “Triton” makes first submerged global circumnavigation.
1981 — Jamaican cultural and political hero Bob Marley dies, Miami, Florida.
1999 — Marxist political theorist Eqbal Ahmad dies, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 10, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Mother’s Day
* Madrid: Feast of St. Isidore the Ploughman: Music, feasting, dancing in the streets.
*Memphis, Tennessee: Cotton Carnival.

ALSO ON MAY 10 IN HISTORY…
105 — Tsai Lun invents paper, China.
1857 — Beginning of mutiny against British rule in India.
1869 — Completion of first transcontinental railway in U.S.
1872 — Victoria Woodhull nominated for U.S. presidency, with Frederick Douglass as running mate.
1872 — French ethnologist, philosopher Marcel Mauss born, Épinal, France.
1940 — The South registers its first full year without any reported lynching.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Great cultural theorist of the society of the gift.

MAY 9, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*France: Joan of Arc Processions.

ALSO ON MAY 9 IN HISTORY…
1800 — Slavery abolitionist John Brown born, Torrington, Connecticut.
1860 — “Peter Pan” creator Sir James Barrie born, Scotland.
1904 — Communications theorist Gregory Bateson born, Grantchester, Britain.
1961 — FCC chairman Newton Minow calls TV “vast wasteland.”
1974 — Impeachment hearings against Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon begin.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 8, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*England: Furry Day, A day of mischief, revels, entering houses by windows, Morris dances & the Furry Dance. Bands of rogues prevent anyone from going to work or to school.

ALSO ON MAY 8 IN HISTORY…
1880 — French writer Gustave Flaubert dies.
1891 — Theosophical kingpin Madame Helena Blavatsky dies.
1903 — Drop-out painter Paul Gauguin dies.
1904 — Photographer Eadweard Muybridge dies, Kingston upon Thames, England.
1919 — Vera Zasulich, anarchist assassin, dies, Petrograd, USSR.
1937 — Reclusive American novelist Thomas Pynchon born, Glen Cove, New York.
1988 — Science fiction great Robert Heinlein dies.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

MAY 7, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Feast of St. Nicola in Bari, Italy, celebrates the transfer of his relics to Bari. Religious rites followed by spectacular fireworks displays honor this patron of orphans, pirates, etc.

ALSO ON MAY 7 IN HISTORY…
1937 — Stalinist squad assassinates 500 anarchists, including Italian-born
philosopher Camillo Berneri, in Barcelona, Spain.
1941 — Golden Bough author Sir James George Frazer dies, Cambridge, England.
1968 — Parisian students and workers revolt in near-successful revolution.