In today’s episode we discuss writing poetry and theory, the relationship of poetry and photography to the market, how we are conditioned to understand work and time, the anxiety of trying to take care of yourself in a class society, organizing freelance workers, the art of editing, poetry vs. the digital attention economy; and more.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep. 13 - Glitch vs. Digital Funko Pops →
Episode 12.5 - Breaking the Gaslights of Pandemic Realism (Preview)
In the second half of episode 12 — for patrons and subscribers only — Tish, Adam and Holly Lewis focus on questions of art, culture and individual subjectivity as they relate to the pandemic, the idea of the working-class seizing virtual technologies, automatic writing vs. anxiety and death, haunting the rich, revenge and utopia, the sculpting of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary violence, the futurity of the doomed, blockchain, video games, and the loss of texture in the virtual world. They also discuss the dynamic of collective and individual imagining and the warm stream of Marxism.
Books, articles, stories and pamphlets discussed: “Alain Badiou: ‘People cling onto identities… it is a world opposed to the encounter,’” Verso blog (2014); Albert Camus, The Plague; Mike Davis, The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu, and the Plagues of Capitalism (Verso, 2022); Hal Draper, The Mind of Clark Kerr (October 1964); Daniel DeFoe, Journal of the Plague Year; Mary Shelley, The Last Man, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Roger Malvin’s Burial” (1832); Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820); Karl Marx, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 ; Karl Marx, The German Ideology (1845-46).
Artworks discussed: The Born Again Labor Museum’s Communist Manifesto Redistribution Project and Cat without a Grin ; Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Triumph of Death (1562) ; medieval plague crucifixes; the agit-prop of Gran Fury and Act Up ; exquisite corpses ; David Wojnarowicz, Untitled (Buffalo) (1988) ; Anupam Roy’s Exodus series; Labani Jangi’s Exodus series; Egon Schiele’s The Family (1918)
Locust Radio is hosted by Tish Turl and Adam Turl. Locust Radio is produced by Alexander Billet and Drew Franzblau. Music is by Omnia Sol.
Episode 12 - A Journal for the Plague Decade
With the pandemic still crawling along, and with so much of the dominant narrative telling us it’s over, we thought it would be helpful to have a discussion about the plague. So our good friend, philosopher and writer and editor at Spectre Holly Lewis, joins us to talk disease, capitalism, ideology, and reclaiming our cultural experiences for the sake of resistance and joy. We discuss the repeated assertion the pandemic is over, only to face another surge, another variant, and more deaths, as well as the split between the right-wing, liberal, and a left approach to the virus and what it really would mean to “learn to live with the pandemic.” Also, a faulty computer is deciding people’s deaths. Good luck.
Articles discussed in this episode:
Daniel Sarah Karasik, “Against Pandemic Realism,” Midnight Sun.
“Missing Days,” Locust Review, issue 7. (On its way to subscribers mailboxes, also posted on the Locust Review Patreon for subscribers…),
Kallie Cox, “Born Again Labor Museum offers free Communist Manifestos,” The Southern Illinoisan.
Shirin Ali, “'Huge, huge numbers': insurance group sees death rates up 40 percent over pre-pandemic levels,” The Hill.
Book and pamphlets discussed:
Albert Camus, The Plague
Mike Davis, The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu, and the Plagues of Capitalism (Verso, 2022)
Hal Draper, The Mind of Clark Kerr (October 1964)
Daniel DeFoe, Journal of the Plague Year
Mary Shelley, The Last Man
Locust Radio is hosted by Tish Turl and Adam Turl, and produced by Alexander Billet and Drew Franzblau. Music by Omnia Sol.
Subscribe to Locust Review for as little as $1 a month.
Submit work to Locust Review by e-mailing us at locust.review@gmail.com.
Episode 11.5 - I Live an Hour From My Body (Preview)
In the second half of the episode — for patrons and subscribers only — R. Faze reads their story, “I Live an Hour from My Body” from Locust Review #4. We then continue to discuss art and politics with Laura Fair-Schulz, including her works, “Song of the Barren Tree,” “Circuit Eye Vines,” and “Dysmorph Becoming Aware.” We also discuss Laura’s process in greater detail, NFTs and art world finance, Marxism and art history, “business ontology,” division on the left, Mark Fisher’s “Exiting the Vampire Castle,” the contradictions of social media, colonization, and more.
To hear the full episode, subscribe to Locust Review here.
Locust Radio is hosted by Tish Turl and Adam Turl. Locust Radio is produced by Alexander Billet and Drew Franzblau. Music is by Omnia Sol.
Read MoreEpisode 11 - Locust Phenotype Plasticity
Why does this extraterrestrial on a talk show say the aliens want to “help us,” and why are they so interested in our water? Seems fishy… Adam and Tish speak with artist, writer, and Locust Arts & Letters Collective member Laura Fair-Schulz about her work…
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 10.5 Delicately Wearing the Crown of Oblivion
In the second half of episode 10 — available to Locust subscribers and patrons only — Richard Hamilton reads more from his new collection of poetry, Rest of Us. Tish and Adam read “HPV/Ballgraves” by Michel(le) D. Yomack Wolheim III, a story about cybernetic labor in a major drug store chain, from Locust Review #6.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 10 Richard Hamilton’s Discordant Will
In this episode Tish and Adam talk to the poet Richard Hamilton about his new book, Rest of Us (Recenter Press, 2021) and Hamilton shares a number of his poems. We also discuss, among other things, the relationship of the social and the subjective, absurdist aesthetic strategies, the afterlife of slavery, remixing time, the “MFA industry” and the Kenneth Goldsmith controversy, what it means to write or make art for the working-class and oppressed, the relationship of visual art to poetry, and the discordant will of the revolutionary subject.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 9.5 Working-Class Art + Stink Ape Resurrection Primer
In the second half of episode 9, available for subscribers and patrons, we discuss the relationship between class, subjectivity, and art in collective wall writing and the socialist punk band, the Minutemen; post-capitalist culture; the need for revolutionary struggle in the absence of revolutionary models; the fragmentation of the left and the class; and more. Tish and Adam also read excerpts from The Stink Ape Resurrection Primer.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 9 Art + Propaganda
In this episode begin with an excerpt from the Locust anthology series, Swarm Stories, and then Tish and Adam move on to discussing art, politics, and propaganda with Locust comrade Anupam Roy. Anupam Roy is an artist and propagandist with the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. We also discuss Anupam’s drawings, appearing in Locust Review #5, Excuse Me I Was Sharpening My Teeth and May Day; Tish’s “franken-prose-poetry” series, The Stink Ape Resurrection Primer'; and Adam’s painting/collage, Snek Rallies the Oil Snakes, while Aelita Beheads Elon Musk, and Possum Sings Against the Rain, and augmented digital print series, Social Resurrection Task-Prints.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 8.5 Mutation, Carnival, and Socialist Ufology
In the second half of episode eight, recorded in July, we read and discuss excerpts from the first issue of Imago; the new theory annual from Locust Review. Tish reads the 1937 Michelist speech, presented at the third Science Fiction convention in Philadelphia, “Mutation or Death,” outlining their communist perspective for the SF genre. Alex reads an excerpt from Kira Woodworth’s essay, “Pink Parasols at the Barricades” about the Seattle CHOP autonomous zone created during the BLM uprising in 2020. And Adam reads the Imago review of A.M. Gittlitz’s book, I Want to Believe: Posadism, UFOs, and Apocalypse Communism, explaining the particular origins of what has become a kind of socialist ufology.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 8 Between Worlds
After the council of oil snakes convenes to discuss the worm spider rebellion, Adam and Tish review the theme — “Between Worlds” — of Locust Review’s first “theory annual,” Imago.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 7.5 Barricades On Sunset
In the second part of our show, available to SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, Tish and Alex read some new poems. We also continue our discussion about surrealism, particularly how it might pertain to our organizations and the possibility of transformation. Can the odd and nonsensical allow us to envision our lives and cities dramatically reshaped?
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 7 Breaking Out of the Steel Cage!
After Salvador Dali receives a well-deserved beat-down, Tish, Adam and Alex talk surrealism! Widely known, but frequently depoliticized in our current day, surrealism is a cornerstone of the critical irrealist project for us at Locust Review. We discuss its origins, missions and goals in liberating the mind from the fetters of capitalism and empire, and its communist activism.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 6.5 Kenneth Goldsmith’s Seagulls vs. Punk Rock Pirates (Preview)
In the second part of our show, available to SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, Mike and Leslie join us to talk about how utterly feeble most conceptual poetry and art are, and contrast it with their own vital experiences in Corpus Christi’s underground music and arts scenes. We ponder how the pandemic relief packages may have provided some breathing room for the working class to rediscover its creativity. And finally, we ramble on for a while about our own work, and we hear some more poetry from Leslie.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 6 Texas Ain't the Reason
We’ve got Locust contributors Mike Linaweaver and Leslie Lea as guests this episode to talk about the disaster in Texas after winter storm Uri knocked out the whole state’s power. We discuss the uneven (and deadly) consequences of the catastrophe…
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 5.5 GameStop Never Happened (Preview)
For the second half of our show, available to SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, Alex reads a long excerpt from this massive essay in the newest issue of Salvage. Also, Tish, Adam and Alex talk about the aesthetics of the GameStop short squeeze…
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 5 Norming in America
Lots has happened since our last episode…
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 4.5 The Cookie Monster Who Flew Into Space from Peoria, Illinois
For the second half of our show, available to SUBSCRIBERS ONLY, Tish Markley and Adam Ray Adkins share more of their work. We also talk about Ilya and Emilia Kabakov and narrative conceptual art, and why the Peoria Cookie Monster mural is so much more interesting than those monoliths that have been appearing lately. If you want to hear this portion, and haven’t subscribed yet, do so now.
Read MoreLocust Radio Ep 4 Make Acid Communist Again
We have guests! Artists Omnia Sol (whose music you will recognize as a regular feature at Locust Radio) and Adam Ray Adkins (a.k.a. Dirt: Son of Earth and co-host of the Acid Left videocast) come on the show to talk their own work, the impact of acid communism, and what it means to build a 21st century psychedelic reason. Each of our guests shares some of their poetry and music, and we hear some more of Tish’s ongoing novel Sound. Plus, just in time for the holidays, we get to hear what actually happened to George Bailey that night in Pottersville, after the Angel of History intervened...
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