The first outsider artist I remember was Wild Man Fischer. Back in the heyday of Warner Bros records, the late 60s, Frank Zappa recorded Wild Man Fischer. Fischer had been discovered singing on the streets for 10 cents a song. I heard his recording, “Songs for Sale,” on one of the great Warner Bros/Reprise sampler […]
Sometimes I get struck. I compulsively want to create something I’ve imagined.It happened yesterday. A friend was having a party. The invitation said it was a potluck. Down the winding, curvy road of cooking mania lead me to Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and his recipe for cornbread. A major plus was his recommendation to […]
Where the Hits Keep ComingInadvertently, an email of mine asking for disability researchers investigating how popular music sheds light on disability politics, identity, history, multiculturalism, or sociology was posted on a listserv. I got a few potential leads and interesting responses. One was from someone at a Welsh independent living center who is an underground/metal/experimental […]
Occasionally, on my emails I’ve been using the footer, “Yeah that doctor told me, ‘Son you don’t need no pills, just a handful of nickels and a jukebox will cure your ills.’ Carl Perkins, disabled rockabilly pioneer” I thought people might like to know a bit more. On the website, Rockabilly Hall of Fame, I […]
Last October I gave a talk on how disability culture and identity impacted Henri Toulouse-Lautrec at the de Young Museum. It was for the Disability Open House. We chose Toulouse-Lautrec because the museum was exhibiting “Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay.” There were three pieces by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec in […]
Penngrove California: In the latest news from the Penngrove Disabled Action Brigade, the advocacy group has once again published holiday greetings. It is a long-standing tradition, going back to when the organization was known as the Penngrove Handicapped Social Club. For now, the Brigade has shelved their universal healthcare/public option advocacy fight. Instead, their primary […]
February 20, 2010 Tribal Membership This week I received an email from someone I didn’t know, a wheelchair user. He’s a quad who became disabled after a diving accident over thirty-five years ago. How do I know all that from the first line of his email? He told me. It read, “I am a C5-6 […]
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Every Sunday the San Francisco Chronicle has a feature, Wayback Machine, that runs stories from its past. In an article dated February 25, 1934 there is an announcement of a silent movie, “Eskimo,” showing in town. The Chronicle would be hosting 100 deaf persons. During the previous decades movies were silent and had superimposed titles—open […]
From what I can tell from this side of the pond, there was a huge hue and cry when it was announced in 2005 that a sculpture of a naked, pregnant, disabled woman would be on display in Trafalgar Square for 18 months. I can’t imagine a statue like this in a public space in […]