Finally got everything loaded and got on the road at 6pm today. In Paducah, Kentucky now… be in Kansas tomorrow night.
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Hey Everybody,
Steven Cerio here. TOY TOKYO just released 2 different figures of my toy designs that I created based on The Residents.
Go to my site and check out photos, info, specs and ordering info right on the splash page.
Oh…and…if your around NYC on Aug 22….I’ll be showing with Leigh Barbier and Homer Flynn at THE SHOWROOM NYC on 2nd ave in the East Village.
and…I’ll be signing figures and prints in Detroit and Chicago in the same month (I’ll get back to all of you about the exact dates)
Best, Steven Cerio
Yup, we will have new shirts from Marc Arsenault and Simon Gane at HeroesCon this weekend. But, just to recap, first, there will also be: Ian Lynam’s Parallel Strokes, Marc Arsenault’s new Book “Adventures in Excitement”, new CDs from Offset Needle Radius and nickname: Rebel, lots of books by Simon Gane and Steven Cerio. So come look for the Wow Cool sign and the spaceman in Indie Island, where Marc will be drawing pictures and Joshua Baker will be making music.
OK, T-shirts. Each is available in sizes S, M, L, XL. They are on super high-quality 100% cotton shirts. They will be very reasonably priced. First up, brand new from Vertigo’s Vinyl Underground artist Simon Gane, is this super-stylish 2-sided promotional shirt for his book with Ian Lynam and Kim Fern: Sap.
And, even more confusing is this also stylish number from Marc Arsenault made especially for this event. Let them know you’ll never be retconned again!
And there will be much, much more at the show, free stickers, garage sale specials, costumed surprises, tigers, Brown Cuts Neighbors, The Doris book, a big box of “last copies” going back years… See you there!
It’s done! 28 pages of fun. (or 32 in the special edition, which also comes with a tape and other goodies). Go to Heroes Con next weekend to get yours!
I have written about this case a couple times before, and a banner to the CAE Defense Fund has been up on Wow Cool for a bit (must remember to take it down now). It had been announced that charges were dismissed, but now that the appeal option has lapsed, it is official. Rest now, Doctor. Here is the entire press release; un-quoted-out for maximum readability.
Department of Justice Fails to Appeal Dismissal
Kurtz Speaks about Four-Year Ordeal
Buffalo, NY–Dr. Steven Kurtz, a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY at Buffalo and cofounder of the award-winning art and theater group Critical Art Ensemble, has been cleared of all charges of mail and wire fraud. On April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara dismissed the government’s entire indictment against Dr. Kurtz as “insufficient on its face.” This means that even if the actions alleged in the indictment (which the judge must accept as “fact”) were true, they would not constitute a crime. The US Department of Justice had thirty days from the date of the ruling to appeal. No action has been taken in this time period, thus stopping any appeal of the dismissal. According to Margaret McFarland, a spokeswoman for US Attorney Terrance P. Flynn, the DoJ will not appeal Arcara’s ruling and will not seek any new charges against Kurtz.
For over a decade, cultural institutions worldwide have hosted Kurtz and Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects, which use common science materials to examine issues surrounding the new biotechnologies. In 2004 the Department of Justice alleged that Dr. Kurtz had schemed with colleague Dr. Robert Ferrell of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to illegally acquire two harmless bacteria cultures for use in one of those projects. The Justice Department further alleged that the transfer of the material from Ferrell to Kurtz broke a material transfer agreement, thus constituting mail fraud.
Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the maximum sentence for these charges was increased from five years to twenty years in prison.
Dr. Kurtz has been fighting the charges ever since. In October 2007, Dr. Ferrell pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor charge after recurring bouts of cancer and three strokes suffered since his indictment prevented him from continuing the struggle.
KURTZ SUMS UP END OF FOUR-YEAR NIGHTMARE
Finally vindicated after four years of struggle, Kurtz, asked for a statement, responded stoically: “I don’t have a statement, but I do have questions. As an innocent man, where do I go to get back the four years the Department of Justice stole from me? As a taxpayer, where do I go to get back the millions of dollars the FBI and Justice Department wasted persecuting me? And as a citizen, what must I do to have a Justice Department free of partisan corruption so profound it has turned on those it is sworn to protect?”
Said Kurtz’s attorney, Paul Cambria, “I am glad an innocent man has been vindicated. Steve Kurtz stared in the face of the federal government and a twenty-year prison term and never flinched, because he believes in his work and his actions were those of a completely innocent man. Clients like him are a blessing, and although I have had many important victories, this one stands at the top of the list.”
As coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, a group organized to support Kurtz from the beginning of the case, Lucia Sommer sees the end of the prosecution as bittersweet, and like Kurtz, is thoughtful about the broader significance of the case: “This ruling is the best possible ending to a horrible ordeal–but we are mindful of numerous cases still pending, and the grave injustices perpetrated by the Bush administration following 9/11. This case was part of a larger picture, in which law enforcement was given expanded powers. In this instance, the Bush administration was unsuccessful in its attempt to erode Americans’ constitutional rights.”
Referring to the international outcry the case provoked, involving fundraisers and protests held on four continents, Sommer said, “The government has unlimited resources to bring and prosecute these kinds of charges, but the accused often don’t have any resources to defend themselves. This victory could never have happened without the activism of thousands of people. Supporters protested, vocally opposed the prosecution, and refused to let it go on in silence. And without their efforts at fundraising, Kurtz and Ferrell would not have been able to defend themselves from these false accusations.”
Sommer added that the next step for the defense will be to get back all of the materials taken by the FBI during its 2004 raid on the Kurtz home, including several completed art projects, as well as Dr. Kurtz’s lab equipment, computers, books, manuscripts, notes, research materials, and personal belongings. The four confiscated art projects are the subject of an exhibition entitled SEIZED on view at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY, through July 18: http://www.hallwalls.org/visual_shows/2008/show_seized.html.
BACKGROUND TO THE CASE
The case originated in May 2004, when Kurtz’s wife Hope died of heart failure as the couple was preparing a project about genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Police who responded to Steve Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the Kurtzes’ art materials suspicious and alerted the FBI. Kurtz explained that the materials (legally and easily obtained basic life science equipment and two harmless bacteria samples) had already been displayed at museums throughout Europe and North America with absolutely no risk to the public. However, the following day, Kurtz was illegally detained for 22 hours on suspicion of bioterrorism, as dozens of agents from the FBI, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Homeland Security, Department of Defense, ATF, and numerous other law enforcement agencies raided his home, seizing his personal and professional belongings. After a federal grand jury refused to charge Kurtz with bioterrorism, Kurtz and Ferrell were indicted on two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud concerning the acquisition of of harmless bacteria for one of Critical Art Ensemble’s educational art projects. (Critical Art Ensemble is the recipient of numerous awards for its projects, including the prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom of Artistic Expression Grant, in recognition of twenty years of distinguished work.).
The Department of Justice brought the charges in spite of the fact that the alleged “victims of fraud”–American Type Culture Collection and the University of Pittsburgh–never filed any charges or complained of any wrongdoing, and the fact that in bringing the charges the Department of Justice was acting completely outside its own Prosecution Policy Relating to Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud
(http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/43mcrm.htm).
For more information and extensive documentation, including the Judge’s dismissal, please visit: http://caedefensefund.org
This is David Lynch’s more eloquent response… you know, on my behalf… to the fucking idiot the other day who said he would pay a few dollars for a download version of the only story he was interested in in the new Kramers Ergot. (As opposed to my more juvenile response today on the Beat… sorry Uncle Heidi. So much for satire) Hey folks? Guess what? If you just want to read it and not spend any money… It’s called a fucking library. Get off the damn computer and out of your house.
I think now that it’s been a little while since Rory passed I’m experiencing that stage of grief know as liberation that is supposedly so familiar to those who have already lost their parents. Sorry about the headline lift, Tom. I feel your pain brother.
See some choice Simon Gane art on Arthur Conan Doyle story in the Graphic Classics Free Comic Book Day special, available Friday, May 3rd, 2008 at finer comic book shops everywhere. Simon previews his story here. Read a review of it on Newsarama, where they say that “Simon Gane has a wonderfully busy, angular style that’s perfect for the Victorian story. He’s also remarkably adept with faces and body language, so the characters’ shifts in mood and personality throughout the tale are utterly convincing.” There are many other fine books available that day; get all the details on the Free Comic Book Day site. You should also visit our Simon Gane shop on Wow Cool and read the Vertigo title that Simon pencils - Vinyl Underground - for more wonderful Gane magic.
It’s starting to look like the more exciting Coney Island exhibit that the Brooklyn Museum is hosting right now is the one in the blog by curator Patrick Amsellem. And I’m not just saying that because they picked one of my photos to run in it. Yes, I am beyond flattered, but I’ve long made seasonal treks down to the boardwalk and am worried to see how they might be changing it. I just hope we’re left with more than a bunch of photos and our own Coney Islands of the mind.
See all my Brooklyn photos on flickr here, which are pretty heavy on the Coney action. I have a great roll or two somewhere of the summer that C.I. stayed open extra long because all the schools were closed for asbestos abatement. Gotta find those.
Johnny Flatline returns, in a typical adventure… all fantasies, lies, imagination, backstory and wasted rationalizations. Realized here in an adult form not seen before. He returns in 2009 in Quarter a tale of Pinball, deceit and Lust. This was drawn tonight for Jeremy Adolphson’s 4×6-Art project, where he gets artists to create original works on 4×6 note cards. He has well over 500 now… I promised to do one about 18 months ago… not too bad.
There a great story on the fine printing folks at Yee Haw Industries restoring and printing a long lost woodcut by the late, great Jim Flora in the latest issue of Knoxville, Tennessee’s free weekly Metro Pulse.
On flickr
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