Another Magazine

[L French <lrfrench>]

  Thanks Andrew for the heads up on ANOTHER MAGAZINE.  It's a great piece on Patti, even if the mag is rather pricey at $16.99.  But thankfully the 14 slick pages of Patti material are well worth it! 
   
  All the material is also available on-line as well, but strangely, in the magazine they have mis-labelled one of Patti's Polaroid's of a white horse. The text below it describes a picture of Nureyev's slippers, which is not shown. Instead the text should read:     
   
  Performing at the Palace of Music in Barcelona I was struck by the image of a white horse high above the balcony. Though I fear heights, I sought him out, he appeared, with my own motion, to be truly in flight above me. 
   
   
  Also, here is the editor's excellent anti-war foreward for the issue, where he comments on Patti's  being the lynchpin of the issue, and quotes Patti as saying "it is our duty to question."  Strangely, while no mention is made of Patti on the cover, it does quote something she probably said: "QUESTION authority - CREATE new rules."
   
   
   
  ANOTHER MAGAZINE FORWARD 
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  At the end of last year, Harold Pinter, the British playwright, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. His acceptance speech, "Art, Truth and Politics", was a powerful indictment of American foreign policy. In this excerpt from the speech, he explains why, now more than ever, we need to question the language of politics to see clearly through the media smokescreen.
   
  "The majority of politicians are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power, it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed." 
   
  A search for some kind of truth is at the heart of all artistic endeavour. The opposite can be said of politics, which is anti-art in the sense that it searches for a way to obscure truth. William Burroughs once said, "a writer has no secrets, it's all in his work," but unlike a writer, the politician has a multitude of secrets and they are all in his work. 
   
  Pinter continues, "I put it to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be, but it is also clever. As a salesman, it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self-love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'The American people...1 it's a scintillating strategem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think, just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it is very comfortable." 
   
  It was Winona Ryder's godfather Timothy Leary, the psychologist, countercultural icon and psychedelic explorer, who coined the phrase, "Think for yourself: question authority." In our cover story on Page 256, Winona says, in her first major interview in over four years, "To question our government is the most important thing people can do right now in the US." 
   
  "It is our duty to question," echoes Patti Smith, "and our media's duty. Our media has completely failed and betrayed us." As the lynchpin of this issue of Another Magazine, Patti Smith is the ultimate cultural provocateur. It's indicative of our times that individuals, artists, and "outsider" cultural thinkers, not the media, are the ones fighting for some kind of truth, for answers. "I will always be a thorn in the side of the establishment, and just keep pricking them and pricking them until they bleed," promises Smith. When it comes to questioning authority, from either the stage or the street, she has perfected it down to an intoxicating art. 
   
  From her first single, "Piss Factory", which sounded the clarion call for the NYC street punk revolution to her latest album Trampin' (a barefoot parade through loss, love, faith and freedom) Patti Smith has consistently worn her heart on the sleeve of her uniform white shirt. The personal and the political writ over the years in sweat and tears. 
   
  In the tenth issue of Another Magazine we celebrate those who are redefining our cultural landscape by speaking out against injustice, challenging the status quo through protest, passion, humour and direct action. Those who through their work continue to surprise and delight, and by following their own instincts and intellect, inspire us to create new rules. 
   
  Jefferson Hack, Editor-in-chief 
   
   

		
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