Zsolt Prieger leaves Yippie! book project

Yesterday I was notified by Zsolt Prieger, one of my collaborators on the 'Yippie!' book that he is leaving the project. My already finished part is so good and complete that he does not feel his work is needed in order to complete the book, he wrote. He gave a different reason to our publisher. To him Zsolt said that he does not like the book's cover, which I designed in tandem with Gaso, the designer of the book. The real reason is that in the past 3-4 months, since the work on the book started he couldn't produce a single page of writing, for he is too busy with his other projects and with his own private life. So I am now left with the task of writing about the music scene of the 1960-70s too, which would have been Zsolt's task. The strange thing is that the idea of writing a book on the yippies was originated by him. At the beginning he was proposing to hold brain storming sessions to help us find ideas and directions. Yet each time in the past months I asked him to meet and talk things over he's never had time to meet. First he went to Spain for a vacation with his girlfriend, after that he started up his DJ project, then came December, when Hungarians traditionally do not work. At the end of December he told me that he can not start the writing of his part before I'd complete mine. I've sent him my completed manuscript on the 2nd of January, after which he promised to me and to our publisher that he'll finish his essay by the end of the month. I kept on supplying him with English language source material and with ideas. Earlier he told me that he understand English, but a few days ago I've learned from our publisher, a childhood friend of his that Zsolt understands no English at all. I don't understand why did he lie to me. If he'd tell me that his English is too poor I'd gladly translate him any documents, interviews, etc, in order to help him complete his writing. So for the next days I'll be writing about the Grateful Dead, MC5, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Country Joe and the Fish, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and so on, about all the music heroes of my youth. We'll have to submit the full, completed manuscript of the book to the designer by the end of January, because printing must be starting by mid February.

Course on Contemporary Theatre, in Kaposvar (Hungary)

I was invited by the students of the Kaposvar (Hungary) College of Theatre Arts to give a course on contemporary theatre. I stayed in this pretty, small town for a week, starting on the 3rd of January, 2008. .............. As a prelude of the course I presented my 'Theremin', 'Downtown Blues' and 'The Mistery of the House of Bloom' books, and gave a preview of the 'YIPPIE! - The Disobedient Citizen' book (to be published in Hungary, by Golyós Toll Kft., in March, 2008), on which I am collaborating with Zsolt Prieger and Gabriella Schuller. ............... As part of the theatre course we staged two of my plays - 'Block' and 'The Chekhovs' with the students. Both plays premiered on the night of 10th of January, 2008, at the College of Theatre Arts (Kaposvar, Hungary). ................ It was a revitalizing experience to work with such talented, creative kids. The highlight of 'The Chekhovs' show was a thundering, wet fart, created by one of the students, to accompany the painful monologue of the great Russian writer, Lev Tolstoy's neglected wife, Sophie. ............... After returning to Budapest (Hungary), with the designer Gaso I started to prepare the 'YIPPIE!...' book for printing. I still have to complete the illustrations for the book. .............. I am still waiting the word from the Kalligram publishing house, regarding the fate of two of my book projects: 'The Caribbean Book' (my Caribbean travel journals) and 'DJ NoMore' (a techno novel). I submitted both manuscripts last summer to the publisher. They promised an answer for last November, about if they would publish any or both of the books, but I haven't heard from them since. If properly advertised both books could bring a huge commercial success in my opinion, yet they were refused by a number of publishers in the past years. The main problem with the Hungarian publishers is that they are not interested in selling their products. They are entirely dependent on government grants, which cover their salaries and the printing of a few hundred copies of each book they publish. They don't like to work on the distribution of their books. They just let the printed copies collect the dust in their warehouses. None of the publishers of my previous books put much effort into the PR work. I had to organize promotion tours for the books myself, often conflicting with the publishers, who usually don't even bother to send the books to the country towns, where I do the multi-media (video projections, theremin concerts, lectures on the book's theme, etc.) promotion shows. They refuse to cover my PR expenses. All the publishers do is bitching about their "dire" financial situation and complain that my books don't make a fortune within weeks after they come out. They don't inform me about the actual sales numbers. ............ Besides writing books, doing art, video works, theremin concerts and theatre I am working as a journalist too. I write articles about the American art-scene and do monthly AudioGuides (small musical radio-plays, audio poems) on New York, for the artportal.hu. My English and Hungarian language CVs are updated regularly. My mixed language homepage is on freewebs, my Hungarian language homepage is on one of my publishers' server.

YIPPIE! manuscript completed

On New Year's Eve I've completed the manuscript of my contribution to the YIPPIE! The Disobedient Citizen book, which is due to come out in March, 2008 (Golyós Toll Kft., Budapest, Hungary). I would like to express my gratitude to IPUT, TGM, DJ Shuriken, Tibor Hajas, DJ Helmut Spiel!, Peter Halasz, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Paul Krassner, Stew Albert, William S. Kunstler, Ken Kesey, William Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Paul Bowles, Robert Filliou, Brion Gysin, Jack Kerouac, Lenny Bruce, Attila Kotányi, Malcolm McLaren, David Bowie, Lou Read, Iggy Pop, Timothy Leary, Albert Hofmann, Aldous Huxley, Marshall McLuhan, James Joyce, Louis Ferdinand Céline, Knut Hamsun, Ezra Pound, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Francesco Clemente, Salvador Dalí, Leon Theremin, Julia Wallace, Anita Hoffman, Patti Smith, Nico, Uma Thurman, Allan McIntosh, Brian Briggs, Amanda Lear, Nina Hagen, Eminem, Marilyn Manson, John Lydon, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Captain Beefheart, Györgyi Orsós, Duane Eddy, Johnny Cash, Wilhelm Reich, Herbert Marcuse, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Géza Csáth, Béla Hamvas, Jenő Balaskó, Katalin Ladik, Béla Kósa, Bela Lugosi, Trent Reznor, Upchuck, Niki Nichols, the Dalai Lama, St. Thomas Aquinas, Zsolt Prieger, Gabi Schuller, Marina Abramovic, Otto Mühl, André Malraux, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, TS Elliot, Gerald Durell, Jean Dupuy, Titus, DJ Palotai, Jerry Garcia, John Lennon, The Rolling Stones, the Ramones, the Ultravox, Ian Dury, Napoleon XIII, Johnny & The Hurricanes, Elvis Presley, the Shadows, The Who, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rammelzee, Tim Wright, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Cypress Hill, DEVO, Kraftwerk, Judas Priest, Bugs Bunney, Jules Verne, Joseph Conrad, Oscar Wilde, Louis Bunuel, Alan Kaprow, Damien Hirsh, Mata Hari, Madame Curie, Rabbi Jehuda Loeb, Jaroslav Hasek, Almodovar, Tarantino, Salma Hayek, and many more of my dear friends and relatives, for their continous support and irreplaceable contributions.

"Rise and abandon the creeping meatball!"

WordCitizen a.k.a. DJ NoMore