YOU DEMAND, WE SUPPLY

I try to get the word out.

Having just mass-mailed a newsletter with no subject line and committed whatever passes for a faux pas in the horrid twilit dork-a-verse that is "Facebook," I cannot but eagerly anticipate what will go wrong with this fuckin' blog posting. Perhaps I will inadvertantly include my social security number? Perhaps I will CC my employer?

Anyway, to the crux:
ASHER is back at the Iron Rail, giving massages!

Today, Sunday, 3-7 p.m.!

Now, I try not to objectify allies, but rest assured, were you to find Asher merely TWENTY PERCENT as charming as does the average person, you would still be more charmed by him than first-time parents are by their newborn.

I say 'newborn' for purposes of analogy, but make no mistake: Asher's hands are unambiguously full-grown. They are the hands of a great sculptor, or perhaps a symphony conducter who splits his own cordwood: the hands of a do-er, a master craftsperson, a kinaesthetic shaper of better destinies.

And folks, it is THOSE EXTRAORDINARY HANDS, those same heaven-infused, sinewed extremities which Asher will deploy to sculpt YOUR VERY FLESH, working out stresses that might date back months, even years... tension you've been carrying for a decade, unawares! This is your chance. He's got the goods; let him heal you.

Asher is a certified, professional masseuse who is generously donating his skills to help raise funds for our ambitious but impoverished littleinfoshop/spa. He's got a chair and everything. Pay what you can, but do not miss out on this...

BIG SQUISHABLE PENGUIN

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there is a constant catacylsm

there is dylan klebold and eric harris curled side by side on my lap each with one of my nipples in their mouths, nursing, except they have snarling dog's heads and are actually biting and chewing and drinking my blood and bloating like ticks at which point I notice their tiny fat bodies have cherubic wings and they are lifting into the air and they wheeze

"HAPPY 2009"

the same to you, darlings, see you on the other side!
for 2009 we will have all the same problems and some unimaginable new ones and also be older!

WHAT HOBOS LIKE US CAN DO

Let me break it down for you. Let me make it clear for you. Let me drop elucidatory gems on this shit as best I can. We do AWESOME when we table. Note: "Table" as a verb in this context means "sit behind a table repping Iron Rail, spreading subversive writing."

We could always table more. We could do operas, we could just cold table lunchtime at a college, we could table cultural events-- art openings, lectures, parades, anything where people are. Now, it would help if we had more handbills we could hand out while tabling, to bring people in to the space. We're working on that.

In the meantime, people-- you, me, everybody-- want answers to why modern existence is such a hideous nightmare. Those are answers our po-faced prescriptive 'zines and bajillions of Derrick Jensen books can provide.

Following, please find a list of December musical performances it would be cool to table. THANK YOU for keeping the Iron Rail alive.

12/09 - Zoroaster @ Hi Ho (METAL)
12/11 - Haste the Day @ Cypress (HARDCORE)
12/13 - Metrnome the City @ Circle Bar (INDIE)
12/13 - Zydepunks @ Saturn Bar (PUNK)
12/17 - Further Reasoning @ Howlin Wolf (PUNK)
12/18 - Ritual Killer @ The Bar (METAL)
12/19 - Benjy Davis @ Howlin Wolf (INDIE)
12/20 - Soul Rebels @ Dragon's Den
12/20 - Meadow Flow @ Dragon's Den (INDIE)
12/20 - Bywater Market @ Markey Park
12/20 - Mod Night @ Saturn Bar
12/23 - Meriwether @ Howlin Wolf (INDIE)
12/27 - Capitol Offense @ Dragon's Den (PUNK)
12/30 - Revolutionary Youth @ Neutral Ground (PUNK)

More information about these specific shows as well as a superabundant superabundance of other crap can be found superabundantly at noladiy.org. Also, the really good person to get ahold of if you're down to table any of these shows, or any other musical concert, is flyerstorm AT yahoo DOT com. He's got the hookups.

ART WARS: SWOON GOES OVER BANKSY

In most contexts, one graffiti artist even partially covering or overlapping another's work means it's on, big time. Not sure that will be the case here.

But has this specific thing ever happened before, anywhere? In any other city in the world, have these two international super-monsters of politically aware street art hit the same corner, the exact same spot, within weeks of each other, to the point where you have Swoon's trademark paper cutouts wheatpasted DIRECTLY on Banksy's stenciled spraypaint? What are the odds of that? I love you, New Orleans, I love you so much, every day.

Background on Swoon: Swoon discusses street art vs. museums, Swoon talks about her influences

90s ROMANTIC COMEDY MOVIE MONTH

Some may think I'm joking, some may wish I was, and some are wiggling in their chairs with glee at the prospect: The Iron Rail is showing romantic comedy films from the 1990s throughout October. This bold and refreshing filmic initiative first manifests itself on

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7th, at EIGHT P.M.:
A screening of "Ten Things I Hate about You."

Next week will likely be "She's All That," but we'll keep ya posted. Regardless,

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF MOVIE NIGHT ARE STRONG

Burroughs sez

Burroughs sez:

"Boards Syndicates Governments of the earth Pay-- Pay Back the Color you stole--

"Pay Red-- Pay back the red you stole for your lying flags and Coca-Cola signs-- Pay that red back to penis and blood and sun--

ok yeah, penis, blood, sun, sure, yeah, but also... also, and just now suddenly... I... gee willikers, I think I need another Newport.

JAKES ON THE BLOCKS WE OUT-CLEVER

Here is a video showing a pair of pigs skulking along in a St. Paul poor people march. Keen eyes may spot other items of interest as well, and by 'items,' I mean awesome ion-beam sweethearts, and by awesome ion-beam sweethearts I don't really mean much at all because I'm too burned out to formulate a properly tedious and convoluted inside joke.

CHOCOLATE CHIP LABELING

REVENGE OF BRIDE OF RETURN OF LABELING PARTY

Do you know how sometimes something feels so good that you just can't stop doing it? That's where we are with the labeling parties. Oh dear. The labeling, the alphabetizing - where do we start? Where do we stop? Slowly, the dream that was the labeling party has become our day-to-day, and the rest of our lives... the hours empty of labeling... have faded to the texture of dream. Only labeling is real. Did you know that piracy goes in class war/labor studies? I did. Plus, we chucked out a bunch of Maoist stuff, so if you want hardline polemics to inspire your shrill, hectoring newspapers which no-one reads, you'll have to go elswhere. Seriously, 'communism' is now 6 books thick - it's original texts only - direct action/protest has been EXPANDED. Christianity is the next to go - tomorrow. Each book in the section will be marched up the steps to the guillotine, summarily judged, and sentenced to the free pile.

My co-author is being kind. We're burning books at the iron rail. No way, that's not even funny. Yes, it is. We aren't, though. Because YOU, gentle reader, will come be a voice of reason in this purging, by contributing your time and talents to the labeling and cataloguing process. It's spelled cataloging!!! However it's SPELT, there will be a lot of it tomorrow, and it will be exhilirating, like a fox. Like the hot orange blur of a fox, and the henhouse is our overstuffed shelves full of insufficiently revolutionary books. He totally stole 'like a fox' from me, btw. Like the internet for dummies, and "A pseudo marxist critique of freudian lesbianism from the 1950s". No just kidding.

We're thinking it will kick off around 1:30 PM, and we'd love you to intervene and save us from ourselves. We're going to hopefully provide chocolate chip cookies. Sunday, July 6th. COME GIVE US A HAND WE'RE WICKED SWEET. (That is true).

-- SARAH -&- the mighty d-block

CATALOGUING PARTY THIS SATURDAY

The Iron Rail is volunteer-run. We're here because we CARE, and one of the things we care about passionately is finding the best method for cataloguing our library. Finally, we have arrived at that method. We've sorted it all out, every detail of it, and will never have to address the issue in any capacity whatsoever at any time in the future ever again. To celebrate this, we are having a CATALOGUING/LABELING PARTY this Saturday afternoon at 1:30 PM.

WHAT IS A CATALOGUING/LABELING PARTY?
We are gonna go through our whole library and label each book with its category and shelve it alphabetically and catalogue it by hand

WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT?
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. This is librarianism at the fringe. Didn't you read that clipping your mom sent you about how it's cool to be a librarian? She was right. Not right about you going to library school, but definitely right about it being cool.

Tintin, Snowy and the cast of sesame street will be there. Fat, fluffy goblins, their dreddy gnarls combed out and their fur gently, organically shampooed, will be there, be-ribboned, dispensing loving hugs. You may cry into their absorbent, fleecy nap, and the internal pressure that's been building up for weeks will dissipate, leaving you cleansed and calm. This will be a deeply healing cataloguing party.

BUT IT WILL ALSO BE FUN.

THE RAIL BECOMES YOU

The scorching ion beams of the summer sun have driven many of our valuable collective members to cooler climes, and it is getting tougher to find the volunteers we need to stay open. When there aren't enough volunteers, some members of our collective go into 'crisis mode,' becoming frantic, overbearing douchebags who start overspeaking on behalf of the collective and abusing the first-person plural on the internet. Please, help us. We don't want to be like this.

What is the Iron Rail, besides its physical space? Is it a closed clique of 'cool' people? No way, dude. Is it a snooty gathering of high-flown academic theoreticians? Non! Is it some aggressive subcultural punk scene where people are judged on their uniform? Fuck no!

We're just locals (and a rotating cast of visitors) who are commited to books, independent thinking, and liberty in the broadest sense. There is no litmus test for belonging except willingness to pitch in. Some of us are more radical than others. Some of us have day jobs we believe in, some of have jobs we hate, some of us have no jobs. A few of us even have love lives. We have a token Christian. The Iron Rail boils down to providing the community with a free library and a cheap, interesting bookstore in a space that stands against oppression. We have free, extremely high-end coffee, and you can meet folks from different walks of life and talk to them or not, as you see fit. We have a damn good literature selection. There's also a range of periodicals, self-published texts, and an awesome, chronically-undervalued archive of zines from the distant past through today.

The Iron Rail was the first library in New Orleans to reopen after the failure of the federal levee system. The Iron Rail has been around for years, and isn't going away, but we also would love anyone from the community who's interested in contributing even a little but of time or energy to come by one of our weekly meetings, Wednesdays at eight PM. The meetings are open to everyone, and we bicker, discuss, and reach painstaking consensus. We're pretty nice. We'd love to see you there!

--the mighty annoying D-Block

FRED RADTKE IS NEW ORLEANS

I'm tired of the bitching and whining about Fred Radtke, aka "The Grey Ghost." I'm tired of the cutesy t-shirts, tired of people moaning that he should be arrested, tired of the endless internet threats and letters to the editor. Fred Radtke is fucking amazing. Not only is he the best at what he does, but he represents a number of mind-blowing conceptual breakthroughs, bold steps forward in a long-stagnant "graf" scene.

For those not familiar, Radtke is the artist responsible for the huge variously grey blotches you see all over the city. A good Radtke has a mesmerizing, existentially provocative post-Rothko quality: a quilt of overlapping neutral shades addressing notions of totality and aspiration. It's miles (and yet mere millimeters) above most of the amateur-hour 'art' writers our city has to offer. Beyond his work itself and its awesome omnipresence-- both of which are significant in their own rights-- Fred is notable for his revolutionary methods and approach. He goes out in his old van with a bunch of grey paint and some rollers, and slathers it all over anything that catches his eye. Someone put a bumper sticker on a stop sign? SPLAP: the whole sign's just a big grey octagon now. Someone wrote "RIP Li'l Stinky, 1992-2008" in chalk on the brick wall of an abandoned 19th-century factory building? SPLUP: thick grey paint, eight feet square.

Quik-print plastic signs stapled to a telephone pole, advertising 2 gold teeth for $150? SPLOOP! 'Lost Dog' flyer? SPLUPP! Cringe-inducingly earnest NOLA RISING folk-art? SPLAPP! Radtke is a machine, a marvelous, superhuman grey-paint juggernaut, and if you have any problem with what he does, up to and including his fondness for violently assaulting passers-by and threatening to shoot them, do you know what you are?

Jealous. You're a hater, nothing more. I understand your petty resentment; Radtke is the king of New Orleans, and you're nobody. I sympathize; you're living in his horizon-spanning grey shadow. It must rankle. But please, stop hating. If you're a graffiti artist or sign-maker or DPW employee, take a minute to appreciate just how massively outplayed you are.

Radtke doesn't creep around with a bandanna over his face, furtively scribbling, toting a clanking backpack. No, he's out in the sunshine, getting up right on front street all day err' day. You approach him, he pulls a gun on you, or maybe splits your head open. He's real gangster, and cowboy paints where he wants when he wants. Historic French Quarter facades, traffic signs, private residences, corner stores, churches, Radtke don't give a fuck. SPLOPP! grey paint.

Everyone knows his tag, because he's all-city in a way no-one else is. The cops don't bother him, the City funds him, the paint store welcomes his business. He's taken it to the next level. Authorities turn a blind eye to his work, because he's outsmarted them. He's gotten their blessing to establish his tag on every surface in every neighborhood, and by god, he doesn't half-ass it. He has subverted the 'buff' and made it his personal trademark. How sick is that??

NOLA RISING tried to fuck with him, and NOLA RISING got knocked. Fred Radtke is the face of New Orleans graffiti, and to me, he's much bigger than high-concept clowns like Banksy or whoever else populates coffee-table "street art" books these days. Radtke doesn't need words, doesn't need appropriated 70s underground-comix imagery, doesn't need scene cred or 'authenticity.' His tag is primordial, both pre- and post-verbal. His tag is an entire PALETTE... he is the color grey, bitches, and you all know it. He goes over everything. You can love him or hate him-- he's way beyond you-- but give the man the respect he deserves. He IS graffiti, he IS the king, and he IS New Orleans. Keep talking shit... Radtke's out painting.


--the mighty d-block

May Films @ the Iron Rail

*** ALL FILMS TUESDAYS AT 8:00 PM ***

May 6: Birth Videos

Come see Birth Videos next Tuesday May 6th, 8pm at the Iron Rail.
These are the real thing, so be prepared. Bring a loving attitude.

May 13: Le Fantôme de la liberté (The Phantom of Liberty) 1974

Lacking linear narration and a traditional plot, surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel's scathing send-up of bourgeois convention is presented as a series of loosely linked episodes. In this comedy of the absurd, poker-playing monks use religious medals as chips; police search for a "missing" child who's right at hand; and at an elegant dinner party, guests are seated on toilets and occasionally excuse themselves to retire and eat in private stalls.

May 20: Love and Anarchy (1973)

In pre-World War II Italy, the employees of a popular bordello realize that a new arrival (Giancarlo Giannini, who won a Best Actor award at Cannes for his portrayal) is planning to assassinate Mussolini. When one of the girls falls in love with the man, she's torn between saving him and saving her country. This is the film that put Italian director Lina Wertmueller on the map of world cinema.

May 27: Land and Freedom (1995)

British director Ken Loach made a film that finally attempts an anarchist's view of anarchists in Spain during the civil war against the fascists. The victors write history, so as losers of that war, their history has for too long remained untold. But this 1995 film, "Land & Freedom" shows what they were fighting for and what they were fighting against. One of the best aspects here is that the film also shows how the communists aggressively destroyed the anarchists more than their supposed common enemy.

solid waste aftertaste

Hey all!
Since most of the people reading this are people who just happen to open the internet at Iron Rail, let me let you know something. We Love You. Its true. We, the people who take the time out of our lives to open, staff, restock, take care of the books for, sweep the floors of and attend weekly meetings at Iron Rail love you and we love doing what we do for Iron Rail.

Please keep that in mind while you use the space.

Comments & Blog Use!
I've changed the blog's settings so anyone can comment. Even anonymously. So I think you should do that. Especially if you use the computers in the Library Space and want to contribute to the discussion. Its an easy way to let us know what you think without having to be confrontational or any awkward feeling. Sweet!
If you're a collective member or would like to contribute to to blog with your gmail account send me an email and I'll invite you or you can invite yourself. This way you'll never have to sign out of your gmail account!


Bubba Hotep!
We couldn't find a copy of The Dancing Outlaw to show on Tuesday so we'll be watching MY copy of Bubba Hotep, an awesome movie about Elvis' life in a West Texas old-folks home. The King teams up with John F. Kennedy and battles a Mummy bent on consuming the invalid souls of the residents.

Sounds sweet? It is. Bring a friend.

Random Music.
Here are a couple songs I've found in the past week and like.
The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium **Nirvana Cover**
Lil Wayne - Lightin' up my LALA

See ya around! Now why not comment on these issues!?
-Coach