Reigns, Steven. “3-Pack Jack Performance Art Book Set”

Amos Lassen

When I met Steven Reigns several years ago at the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, I met him as a poet and I loved his writing. He did not tell me there were other aspects to his life that I have since learned and he is a true Renaissance man or better said, a gay Renaissance man. He recently gave a life show of performance art and for those of us who missed it, he has not published a three book set about what went on in the show. He brought a diverse collection of gay men in front of a live audience in Los Angeles to discuss those taboo subjects that we say that we “never speak about openly”. Shame was not an issue here as this no holes barred activity took place and all that is to be hidden is suddenly out there in the open (and this is true of the three book collection as well). What we read (and what audiences saw) is brave, witty and sexy. Today now that as gay men have achieved a degree of acceptance, we seem to be assimilating and looking to lead “normal” (whatever that means) lives yet what is in these boys does just the opposite with erotica that emphasizes sub cultural differences. We see new gay men here who believe that the core of gay liberation is based upon radical sexual politics even today as it once was. For them, performance and literature are the primary practice of their culture.

The three books are in full color and bound with a fold-out poster of a vintage jockstrap advertisement.

The books will titillate you and provide the experience you would have had had you been there for the show that was hosted by Reigns. Included are performance photographs by Matt Baume and the monologues, scripts, and transcriptions from each event. As a “boneus”, you get a picture of Reigns’ penis.

If you are interested in these, send me a note via this site and we will get it handled.

Helas, Alexander. “Société”, Voice Collective Press. 2015.

The Struggle for Free Will

Amos Lassen

Christian Matters is twenty-nine years old and lives in Chicago and he is neurotic. He lives his life routinely and would in all probability continue to do so if he had not been victim of a strange event that threw him off his regular practice. In fact, as a result of this he quit his job and leaves his career, breaks up with his girlfriend and leaves his home to go on a journey to San Francisco; a journey that will change him forever.

Arriving in San Francisco, he meets Lester Rothschild, an aristocrat and his lover, Ella Atkins. Lester, who is mysterious and some feel that there is something missing in him, takes Christian with him to open Société, a place that promises to be “the most luxurious entertainment complex at the heart of the world’s richest city”. Again, by chance, Christian receives a strange visitor and becomes aware of a sudden death and these lead him to believe there is something going on behind the highly awaited opening of Société. He discovers that indeed there is something else at stake here. fate of something much greater is at stake. Alexander Helas gives us a provocative vision on “the struggle of free will at the hands of society’s quest for progress”.

What I see here reminds me once again that waiting for tomorrow does not solve the problems of today and this is intelligently shown to us here. I have always felt that the sign of an important novel is one that makes you think and that is certainly what we have here. There is nothing formulaic here and I am will go so far as to say that this is a new kind of novel; one that is not content for you to walk away from once you have finished the read. It is not like anything you have read before and the real beauty here is that you just might find yourself in it. The characters are very real and very much like people we see everyday (but exaggerated a tad). Who we are today does not mean that is who we will be tomorrow and just as we change so does the world around us. Some of you will be surprised that this is a first novel while others will find the story and the author’s language craft to be compelling. This is a novel about the human condition and how it affects us every day.

Gregg, Robert C. “Shared Stories, Rival Tellings: Early Encounters of Jews, Christians, and Muslims”, Oxford University Press, 2015.

Distinctions

Amos Lassen

As I opened the package that contained this book I read the cover and wondered why no one had thought of this before. What a brilliant idea to take stories that are basically common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, religions that are considered kindred and that have ancestral heritages and monotheistic belief in common and show how the same basic story is told in each. Writer Gregg explores the early exchanges of Jews, Christians, and Muslims and tells us that their interactions “were dominated by debates over the meanings of certain stories sacred to all three communities”.

Here we see how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters (artists as well as authors) developed their own unique and particular understandings of narratives present in the two Bibles (the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible) and the Qur’an. Gregg focuses on five stories: “Cain and Abel”, “Sarah and Hagar”, “Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife”, “Jonah and the Whale”, and “Mary the Mother of Jesus”. We are then guided through the various and intentional variations of the five stories as Gregg shares the

major issues under contention and the social-intellectual through the various spirited, and sometimes combative, exchanges among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We get understanding and insight into the stories and the historical periods that affected their writing and their telling. What I really like here is that we are also privy to the artwork about as well as the writing of the stories and the moments in history that held implications for the three religions. We therefore look at the dynamics of “competition” between the religions and the current social and religious context in which they are understood.

The book provides us with extensive guides to many texts but does son in accessible ways. We get in-depth historical contexts to the differences and divides between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The three religions each have sacred stories and some of them overlap while others compete. Gregg looks at the stories from the Abrahamic sagas with seriousness and honesty and we get the benefit of his research.

We are all aware of the conflicts between religions today and this is what really makes this study so special. This is an honest and open study and it is wonderful that we can bring together differing perspectives. This is a fascinating and provocative read and we walk away from the book feeling that we have really learned something here. Below is the

table of contents:

 

Prologue

 

Part I: Cain and Abel/Qabil and Habil

Preview: Chapters 1-3 The first murder

Chapter 1: Cain’s fratricide: rabbis and other early Jewish writers judge the case

Chapter 2: Cain and Abel in Early Christian Writings and Art

Chapter 3: Muslims on “…the story of the two sons of Adam”

Comparative Summary: Cain and Abel/Qabil and Habil

 

Part II: Sarah and Hagar: Mothers to Three Families

Preview: Chapters 4-6 Abraham’s rival wives

Chapter 4: Sarah and Hagar: Jewish portrayals

Chapter 5: Sarah and Hagar in Christian interpretations

Chapter 6: Hagar and Ishmael, Ibrahim’s family in Mecca

Comparative Summary: Sarah and Hagar: Mothers to three families

 

Part III: Joseph’s Temptation by his Egyptian Master’s Wife

Preview: Chapters 7-9 Joseph/Yusuf and the Temptress

Chapter 7: Joseph and Potiphar’s wife–Jewish interpretations

Chapter 8: Joseph put to the test–Christian sermons and art

Chapter 9: Yusuf with Zulaykha

Comparative Summary: Joseph’s temptation by his Egyptian master’s wife

 

Part IV: Jonah the Angry Prophet

Preview: Chapters 10-12 “The one of the fish”

Chapter 10: Jonah, Nineveh, the Great Fish, and God: Jews ponder the story

Chapter 11: Jonah and Jesus: In One Story, Two.

Chapter 12: Islam’s Yunus: from anger to praise

Comparative Summary: Jonah the angry prophet

 

Part V: Mary, Miriam, Maryam

Preview: Chapters 13-15 Mary through three religions’ eyes

Chapter 13: Mary’s Story in Christian imagination: from Jewish maiden to ever-Virgin to Heavenly Advocate

Chapter 14: Miriam, mother of Yeshu the false messiah: Jewish counter-stories

Chapter 15: Islam’s Maryam: “chosen…above the women of the worlds”

Comparative Summary: Mary, Miriam, Maryam

 

Epilogue

Endnotes

Works Cited/Bibliography

Index

 

“THE OTHER MAN: F.W. DE KLERK AND THE END OF APARTHEID”

Ending the Apartheid

Amos Lassen

Most of us living here in America are not aware of the name F.W. de Klerk. He is the “other man” in Nicholas Rossier’s “The Other Man: F.W. de Klerk and the End of Apartheid.” Perhaps you might remember that name if I mention that de Klerk won the Nobel Peace Prize together with Nelson Mandela for their work transforming South Africa into a democracy. De Klerk was born in 1936. He became the president of South Africa in 1989 and served until May 1994. That made him the seventh and last head of state under apartheid. The two men won the prize in 1993 after de Klerk had already won the Félix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991 from UNESCO with Nelson Mandela “for their contribution to international peace, to encourage them to continue in their effort and as a tribute to what they have done to educate their people toward overcoming of prejudice that many would not have thought possible a few years ago.” That prize has just been established in 1990 and de Klerk and Mandela were the first recipients.

De Klerk was president of the Senate from 1969-1976 and had served in other governmental offices before that including Senator; Minister of Work and Public Works; Work and Mines; Home Affairs, Work and Immigration; Home Affairs, Education and Arts and Sciences; Education, Arts and Sciences and Information and National Education. De Klerk was Mandela’s vice president.

This new documentary includes archival and historic footage along with interviews with the now 78-year-old de Klerk, Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbeki and South African Supreme Court Justice Richard Goldstone.

In February 1990, President F.W. de Klerk lifted the ban on the African National Congress and ordered the release of Nelson Mandela. As the world celebrated, Mandela would go on to become South Africa’s first democratically elected president – with de Klerk as his deputy President.

De Klerk’s history is complicated. He was a defender of white Africans and their privileges, he helped lead the fight against ANC activists. Here we see what pushed this man to reverse his beliefs and jumpstart the process of making South Africa a more equal and just nation?

The film looks at de Klerk’s historically marginalized role in ending apartheid. In 1990, de Klerk assisted in both the lifting of the ban on the African National Congress and the release of Nelson Mandela, but director Nicolas Rossier isn’t interested in examining these events with an eye toward understanding why de Klerk’s role has been downplayed in historical accounts; rather, through interviews with de Klerk as well as numerous other political figures of the period, and a fluid but self-reflexively lethargic archival montage framework, Rossier positions his film as merely a tribute to de Klerk’s efforts as leader and progressive political daredevil.

The film is never clear on exactly why de Klerk’s rescuing is necessary unless it is just trying to vilify Mandela or, at least, suggest he was ungrateful for de Klerk’s role in having him freed. The film is to be seen as an attack on Mandela and on a historical account that prizes his emergence as the figurehead for anti-apartheid actions. Here is convincing evidence to assert de Klerk’s deserved place alongside Mandela only if we pay no attention to the material here that has been edited, composed, and made sentimental by an ad campaign with the purpose of disguising manipulation.

DVD Extras include: “20 years after Apartheid” (Discussion with Thabo Mbeki, Max Dupree & F.W. de Klerk) • “The Quantum Leap Speech” (About de Klerk’s famous speech, February 2, 1990) • “Vox Populi” (Street interviews about the legacy of Mandela and de Klerk).