Archivi tag: Timothy Leary

more from/about the 1978 nova convention

William S. Burroughs delivering his keynote address on December 1st, the first night at New York City’s Entermedia Theatre, during the sold-out, three-day Nova Convention, held on November 30, December 1, and 2, 1978.

Excerpt from NOVA ’78 Directed by Aaron Brookner and Rodrigo Areias.
Produced by Pinball London and Bando a Parte.

Premiere Locarno 78 – August 2025 –

Archive Copyright Pinball London Ltd. All rights reserved.

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In this the legendary 1978 Nova Convention, we hear interviews with organizer/poet John Giorno, followed by the uncut Nova Convention panel discussion unheard for decades. Moderator Les Levine masterfully guides panelists William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary and Brion Gysin. Listen to them re-imagining science fiction and foreseeing a culture yet to come.

The Nova Convention was a three-day event, taking place in New York City on November 30, December 1 and December 2, 1978. Intended as a homage to William S. Burroughs, the “convention” included seminars, music performances, readings and more. Attending were an odd mixture of academics, publishers, writers, artists, punk rockers and counterculture disciples. The event had a small hitch. The organizers had announced Keith Richards’ attendance, which made the event a sellout. Richards’ last minute cancellation, however, gave the event an antagonistic oscillation between performer and audience.

The series was originally produced by Giorno Poetry Systems for WBAI radio. The 2013 restoration comes from John Giorno’s private tapes. The effort is to restore, as completely as possible, the entire three-day event for for broadcast by the Clocktower Gallery radio station: https://clocktower.org/show/nova-convention-1978-the-third-mind

“nova ’78”, a documentary on william burroughs, at the locarno film festival

https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/482127

Aaron Brookner and Rodrigo Areias take us back in time to a convention where leading intellectuals and artists gathered to celebrate William S Burroughs

parentesi per un aneddoto (con jourgensen & amici)

Qui un articolo su Al Jourgensen, William Burroughs e Timothy Leary: The psychedelic tale of when Ministry’s Al Jourgensen helped William Burroughs with an issue in his garden. (Il buffo aneddoto del metadone ai procioni si può trovare anche qui: The Gospel According To Al Jourgensen). Qui invece un video che sarebbe senz’altro piaciuto a Cristina Campo:

“walden” aka “diaries, notes and sketches” / jonas mekas. 1969

16mm, colour – filmed 1964 to 1968

Poet Jonas Mekas, born in Lithuania in 1922, invented the diary form of film-making. ‘Walden’, his first completed diary film, is an epic portrait of the New York avant-garde art scene of the 60s, is also a groundbreaking work of personal cinema.

The film features figures of the scene such as Jonas Mekas, P. Adams Sitney, Tony Conrad, Stan Brakhage, Carl Th. Dreyer, Timothy Leary, Baba Ram Dass, Gregory Markopoulos, Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Jerome Hill, Barbet Schroeder, Jack Smith, Edie Sedgwick, Nico, Velvet Underground, Ken Jacobs, Hans Richter, Standish D. Lawder, Adolfas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Jud Yalkut, Peter Kubelka, Michael Snow and Richard Foreman.

“Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary. I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality: situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year. On some days I shoot ten frames, on others ten seconds, still on others ten minutes. Or I shoot nothing…. Walden contains material from the years 1964-1968 strung together in chronological order.” – Jonas Mekas

From: youtu.be/I5VghhMsIic