The Iron Rail

July Is For Lovers, Not Movies

2009-07-11T14:05:00.002-05:00

There will be no Tuesday movie nights for the month of July. Summer hiatus. They will return in August.

But please continue to visit the Iron Rail and check out all the super cool books, CDs, and vinyl we have available. You know we have something that you want, so come get it!

PLAN B STOLE OUR FILM PROJECTOR...

2009-07-01T11:17:00.004-05:00

...& by thus doing, effectively force-cancelled last night's Iron Rail movie night and all future movie nights until such time as it's convenient for them to return it.

This is hurting the recovery!!

BIG SQUISHABLE PENGUIN

2009-06-26T11:23:00.004-05:00

Movie Night

2009-06-23T15:19:00.002-05:00

TONIGHT (Tuesday) 8:00PM (FREE)

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES (2008)
More than a simple portrait of an artist, this documentary about
celebrated Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is also an examination of industrialization and globalization. Known for finding strange beauty in large industrial vistas, Burtynsky searches for great shots on trips to China and Bangladesh. In contrast to his seemingly
impersonal aesthetic, the film focuses on individuals, revealing the dreariness and dangers of industrial work.

NO BLEND BUT SANTA'S BLEND

2009-06-15T20:10:00.009-05:00

At right, a recent photograph of the Iron Rail Collective. Yes, there we all are at our weekly 8 p.m. Wednesday meeting.

But what's missing from this rollicking good time?

YOU, that's what! Your input, ideas, and helpfulness!

The summer is here, and there are all kinds of fun and interesting projects afoot. Our collective meetings are open to all, and it would be great to meet you. Join in and be a part of the ever-evolving, defiantly streaky-haired Iron Rail!

And be sure to catch Tuesday's excellent movie...

MOVIE NIGHT

2009-06-15T18:10:00.003-05:00

Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait (1974)
Tuesday 8:00 PM Free

Uganda's dictator, General Idi Amin Dada, accepts a foreign crew's request to interview and film him. He talks to the camera about his outreach to Arab nations, his goal of eradicating Israel, his views on economic policy, and his views of Nixon, Kissinger, and other world leaders. We also see him dressing down his ministers at a cabinet meeting (two weeks after this meeting, the foreign minister, whom Amin criticizes here, is murdered), supervising a war-game simulation of an invasion of Israel, visiting a village, and addressing a conclave of Ugandan physicians.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Idi_Amin_Dada:_A_Self_Portrait

FILLING THE ANTICAVITY

2009-06-09T14:53:00.005-05:00

Robb! Controller of the past & future Aboveground Zine Archive & international I.R. advocate. Derrick! A man who CAN INDEED be bothered to get on his rusted granny bike with two bald tires etc. etc. and table shows 8 nights a week. Both, both these tireless star employees of the tiresome Iron Rail franchise TOGETHER! Both! Both synergistically grace the pages of June 2009's ANTIGRAVITY (one word) magazine with their insights and advice!

It's great stuff! And

If you can't find the issue in print for some reason, it's available here:

http://www.antigravitymagazine.com/antigravity_vol6_issue8.pdf

MOVIE NIGHT IS BACK

2009-06-08T22:13:00.003-05:00

Film nights have been resurrected over the weekend. Our film this week is a documentary about crazed Catholic janitor Henry Darger, who spend his life, like many Catholics, writing thousands of pages of insanity no one will ever read. But come see the movie!

June 9: In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
By day, Henry Darger was a reclusive janitor who had few -- if any -- friends. But at night, he became a literary artist with a unique vision. Darger's 15,000-page novel is a wonderland of imagination as it details the exploits of seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against child-enslaving men. Featuring the voices of Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine and the work of talented animators, this film tells the story of Darger's hidden world.

MOVIE NIGHT CANCELLED

2009-06-02T17:33:00.001-05:00

until further notice.

We don't have a computer to play them on. I apologize for the short notice, but I thought I would have a desktop I could put together to play it on tonight, but it powers off randomly (as in every minute or so) I no longer have a laptop, so unless someone steps up with one, there are no more movies.

YOU LIKE MIKE

2009-06-01T11:24:00.004-05:00

This is not a picture of Mike; this is a picture of Charles Mingus, a hero of mine and the subject of a short film being shown tomorrow (Tuesday) night at eight.

If you know collective member Mike, you are likely as fond of him as I am. Mike has been an anchor-- a cornerstone-- of the Rail's existence for quite a while now.

WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO DO WITHOUT HIM? For serious, we are experiencing a critical volunteer shortage!!

But in any case, it's Mike's birthday today-- he's turning 35 or so-- and if you're down for a small, low-key informal dinner gathering to honor one of the collective's Most Valuable Playerz tonight around 8 p.m., holler at me or Gina or "westbank reppin'"

We love ya Mike...

Movie Night

2009-05-31T15:45:00.003-05:00

Tuesday, June 2 8:00 PM (FREE)
Francis Bacon (1988) / Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968 (1968)

Francis Bacon himself was perhaps even more fascinating than his paintings...or at very least he was an amazing presence and a great raconteur. He gets progressively more drunk as the principal interview proceeds; a man who was already brutally honest reaches inspired levels of candor befitting the very finest of Irish alcoholics. This is interpolated with many deftly executed segments of a more purely art critical nature. Highly recommended to anyone wanting more of Bacon and his art.

Tom Reichman's 1968 portrait of bass virtuoso and jazz composer Charles Mingus, which ends in Mingus' arrest by NYC cops, interweaves footage from various club gigs punctuated by Mingus reading his own poetry, discussing his views on life, America and music and playing with his 4 year old daughter during the final moments before they are evicted from the dilapidated Manhattan studio where Mingus had hoped to build a music school. Yes, Charles is upset, he is drinking, and has a gun. Best quote: "I hope the commies blow all ya'll people up, you dig? 'Cause that's where I'm at."

On the Condition of the Upper Class in New Orleans

2009-05-24T10:56:00.004-05:00

An Emergency Report to the Rhodes Trust

The Most Executive Secretary of the Rhodes Trust of the United States of America
Sir Henry Elsworth D'Ascoygne, O.B.E.

I admit to certain feeling of apprehension when I first learned of my post here, and the transition from Matabeleland was not without it's difficulties - but, why, after all, it's delightful to reside in Louisiana! In reality, it is simply trading one priest infested backwater with another, and I did so tire of eating goat sausage and corn mush. Ah! This mission is such a delightful calling in life! I regret to say despite the immense success of the Trust here - we have got two scholars elected to the very highest of political office - we have neglected Louisiana of late. No more! From this point forward the Colossus of Rhodes will bestride the Mississippi with them always; in the future they shall have an endless parade of diaper clad Senators and exorcist eight armed Governors. They will no longer be neglected as I continue the legacy of Cecil Rhodes in scouting for a cadre of philosopher kings to rule our great shared Empire - for I intend to retire here, the reasons for which I am stating below.

So, upon taking my post I decided, in an act of heartfelt generosity, to set upon myself the task of learning the culture, an enterprise which I'd launched in secret, subscribing to a week-end package tour of Uptown mansions. As the appalling living conditions of the upper classes afflicted my senses and the vast theatre of mental poverty unfolded before my tearful eyes, I came to the sudden realization that my duties here were only beginning. I continually had to ask the inhabitants to repeat themselves, for what passes for English wafting from the maws of this populace is hardly distinguishable from the hissing of sulphuric fumes from beneath the wreckage of a rail catastrophe in the Louisiana countryside! I am speaking of the upper classes here. A city, such as New Orleans, where one may wander for hours without meeting the slightest hint that there are foetid swamps populated by the most grotesque fauna surrounding it within reach, is a strange thing - but it also mirrors the fauna within the city, that is to say its ruler-ship. The upper class here is hardly different than the submarine, prehistoric reptiles that rule the local swamps.

As one wanders about uptown one notices the most alarming things. Let me speak frankly of the uptown woman. The uptown lady will lounge about in cafés decked in the most peculiar fashion, walking their own dogs - some do not even require proper servants - and having tea or coffee while wearing spandex attire designed for a woman far younger, and certainly not anyone making public appearances save for the sake of sport; and furthermore to which their frames are clearly not made. One can venture an attempt at the pleasure of a brief respite in any number of cafés or shops and so be forced to suffer the imbecilic conversations of these spandex decked queens, a task to which they seem endlessly engaged; it is as a fountain of Louisiana creosote at the birthing stages of an industrial accident sprays pitch upon the upturned faces of it's willing victims, so the putrid bile escapes the maw of these latex clad chirping harpies: at times all of them seemingly participating in an immense chorus of unified idiocy, as if a single beast with a thousand tongues were speaking the language of Lucifer himself! I remain ever soiled by my expeditions to the local cafés.

The uptown gentleman is no better, having an equally absurd fashion and poor taste, in the most extreme cases this even venturing into bow ties. I cannot count, even in my short visit here, on how many occasions I have seen a blue blazer and red tie, found in the neighbourhood liquor stores after hours, sporting tumours on their reddened faces born of excess drink and clearly taking after the lower orders, even stooping to converse gibberish with them as they rub elbows in their pursuit of drunken lecherousness. Absolutely none of this should be made public. Revolting!

It is no wonder to me the lower class have the habit of wearing shower caps, dressing in rags, screaming at utility poles and pushing grocery baskets down the street when the upper classes outfit themselves in this manner. If the rich are suited this way, why cannot an adult man ride a tricycle down the street in his undergarments? All of this proceeds in the most shameful fashion. It is perhaps that nearly everyone is suffering from a surfeit of methedrine.

The endemic lack of literacy as well, which is not so injurious in the suburbs, where population is more robotic - and which is the upper classes unfortunate second nature here - becomes terrifying and gravely dangerous through its concentration here in the great city. The Uptown illiterate deposits all manner of garbage and filth in his bookshelves and collections, mostly never read anyway, and owing to an excess of credit accumulates endlessly the vampire novels, collections of poetry by John Updike, essay collections of Thomas Friedman and the like, which disfigure the soul and poison the very air if ventured to be read aloud. He builds a pig-sty in this manner against every wall of the manse, littering the space between second rate artworks and the occasional nice clock or mantle. This new and unnatural condition of complete upper class illiteracy in post-colonial backwaters is wholly of New Orleanian origin. The Uptown gentleman or lady loves their thriller novels, school girl poetry and incomprehensible essayists as the Irishman loves a pig or the Arab his horse. One never sees this in Mumbai, Kingston or Manila, where they know precisely how to run things invisibly as we assist in choosing the ruler-ship from the lower classes with the gift of an Oxford pedigree.

Allow me to state the essence of the uptown problem: rampant Papism. I have witnessed this in the Manila as well, but not anywhere to this degree. Papism is for the lower class, to give them a veneer of functional literacy while maintaining obedience and to impart a direct willingness to suffer. What use, I ask, does the upper class have for Papism? Upper class Papism has been the downfall of all greatness throughout history. As the inimitable Mr. Rhodes once said, "We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories." Now, I wonder, how exactly do they suppose these affairs will continue on smoothly if their habits of consumption, which extend even to religion, are the same rubbish consumed as beasts? We great nations are all in this together, and uptown eyes simply must be opened.

Moved to an irrational state of charitable feeling owing to witness of this shocking state of affairs, I had a large share of funds converted to pennies to be showered by myself upon these poor wretches during my daily strolls.

But what is to be done - really? As an emergency remedy I petition the Trust to finance two objectives. First, a basic literacy campaign which will be conducted by stealth. The Packaged Mansion Tours will provide our agents the opportunity to leave rudimentary phonics kit, good but basic literature and music on coffee tables and bookshelves to be discovered later. I will also attempt to socialize with them on a more frequent basis. Second, a "World Tour" so to speak, guided by myself, will be offered once a year, where they will have the opportunity to travel to places such as Harare, Kingston, Mexico City, Mumbai, etc. so that they may see how things should be properly administered.

I conclude with a new 'fight song,' to which I will put to music according to all the jingles of the local papist academies, so that they may learn it and never forget it. It is the famous verse of our poet Kipling, the first Secretary of the Rhodes Trust himself:

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child!

Warm Regards and Utmost Discretion,

Sir Henry Elsworth D'Ascoygne, O.B.E.

VEGAN BRUNCH at the IRON RAIL: this MONDAY!!!!

2009-05-23T20:20:00.000-05:00

DELICIOUS AND HOLISTICALLY SATISFYING VEGAN BRUNCH!

FUNDRAISER!
FUN!

MONDAY, MAY 25th... a day many workin' stiffs have off from their
jobs.

from 11 AM to 1 PM... show up at 11 to make sure you get the best
food!

It's a VEGAN BRUNCH FUNDRAISER SOIREE at the Iron Rail (511 Marigny),
to benefit Iron Rail's woman/genderqueer LADIES' NIGHT and by
extension the impoverished, oft-robbed, seasonally understaffed IRON
RAIL BOOKSTORE & LIBRARY.

Besides drinkables and eatables, there will be live music by
downtown's righteous nightengale ROBIN STRICKLIN, singing and playing
the big Brazilian hits and traditional arrangements of Garth Brooks.

Suggested donation is 3-5 dollars... come support the 504's
flourishing woman-organized anarchist projects! Meet people who aren't
jerks! Mingle with lively gals, guys and the whole New Orleanian
spectrum between and beyond. This is an "everybody-friendly" event, so
swing by, feed y'self, have fun and welcome the SUMMER, a time when
only the hardcore remain!

WE FUCKING LOVE SUMMERTIME
WE LOVE IT
WE LOVE IT

EXCERSIZE

2009-05-19T17:03:00.005-05:00

Get a pen... or since you're on a computer, open a new text document. List the five objects, services or experiences in your adult life that have given you the most pleasure. Go on, write 'em down.

If you have had an exceptionally rewarding time on earth, list ten.

OKAY, THAT WAS PART ONE. Now list the five (or ten) most expensive objects, services or experiences you have paid money for... including houses, cars, university degrees, marriage ceremonies, divorce settlements and taxes.

Do those lists overlap?

Mine kinda do, more than I expected they would.

Movie Night

2009-05-17T15:22:00.002-05:00

Tuesday 8:00 PM, FREE
Queimada (aka Burn!) (1969)

In Gillo Pontecorvo's epic drama, secret agent and scoundrel Sir William Walker stirs up a revolution in a Caribbean colony. On a mission to help Britain gain control of a Portuguese sugar cane island, Walker incites the locals to rise up against colonist rule. But a decade after the revolt, political problems continue to plague the small nation, and Walker returns to the island to help the crown protect its economic interests. Our short is Chaplins Police.

MOVIE NIGHT

2009-05-10T09:14:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, May 12 8:00 PM (FREE)
El Ángel Exterminador (1962) - Luis Buñuel
After a lavish dinner party, the guests find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the room... and over the next few days all the elaborate pretenses and facades that they've built up by virtue of their position in society collapse completely as they become reduced to the people they actually are ...
This quietly hysterical film has languished in obscurity since its release in 1962; as of April this year, Criterion has cleaned it up - most versions were barely watchable public domain copies in horrible condition - and they have done a tremendous job restoring it.

Our short is Jan Svankmeier's The Death of Stalin in Bohemia.

Movie Night

2009-05-04T18:49:00.002-05:00

We regret terribly that we cannot show the scheduled film, The Garden. It hasn't been officially released and the makers terms for showing it are astounding and well beyond our budget. So perhaps next year. In the meantime, we will show the excellent 1996 Spanish Civil War drama, Libertarias. Here's a summary from imdb:

As social commentary, Libertarias succeeds incredibly well. Despite the ignorant reviews written by some critics complaining that "90's politics ruin war drama," it is clear to any student of the Spanish conflict that the politics displayed are those of the 1930's. The film roundly criticizes the absurd hypocrisy of the Catholic Spain that Franco and his fascists were defending, illustrated perfectly by a scene in which the nun Maria is forced into bed with a bishop in a brothel - women are expected to be both whores and chaste nuns simultaneously.

As an encapsulation of Spanish (and international) anarchism it also succeeds - the film is peppered with quotes from Bakunin and Kropotkin, Buenaventura Durruti is portrayed as a character (giving his famous "new worlds in our hearts" speech) and the film even goes so far as to portray the ghost of Mateo Morral, an actual historical figure, who in 1906 attempted to assassinate the Spanish royal couple. Unlike Land and Freedom, Libertarias portrays the Spanish Revolution more than the Civil War, showing the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo and Federacion Anarquista de Iberica (CNT-FAI) at their height, in 1936 after having liberated Barcelona from the fascists. This film does an excellent job of correcting many of the slanders launched against anarchism, and of unearthing one of the most important events of the 30's, the Spanish Revolution. For anarchists, this film is a superb vindication that finally shows the movement at its most powerful.

MOVIE NIGHT

2009-04-27T07:59:00.006-05:00

Tuesday 8:00 PM - FREE
MODERN TIMES (1936)
The idea of the film was apparently given to Chaplin by a young reporter, who told him about the production line system in Detroit, which was turning its workers into nervous wrecks. In the film, Charlie becomes literally trapped in the machine and, in one of his finest patches of comic invention, is battered and buffeted by an automatic feeding machine introduced by his bosses to save time and money. After his breakdown, he is arrested for 'communism' when he picks up a red flag that has fallen off the back of a truck, and runs down the street to return it, exactly the same time as a left-wing demonstration comes round the corner. He meets 'The Gamine' (Paulette Goddard) in the back of the police van, who has also been arrested for stealing bread. From then on the theme is about two tramps just trying to get along in modern times. "Smile, though your heart is breaking ..."

In place of Jazzfest I have some old performances of Oscar Peterson,Count Basie and Louis Armstrong to play as shorts.

Officer Tony Coniglione, NOPD - a missed connection (m4m, Marigny)

2009-04-26T18:47:00.001-05:00

I must say it's funny how such a small amount of marijuana can land you in so much trouble! But, as I lay in a pool of vomit and urine in the processing center of Orleans Parish Central Lockup watching the seventy inch TV's displaying people even less fortunate than myself and enjoying the symphony of backed up toiletry - you occupied my thoughts the entire time. Perhaps it was your marathon lecture delivered to me as I lay cuffed and stress positioned in the back of your car - coupled with your unassailable reasoning and faultless, Orwellian dialectic; perhaps it was the glistening beads of sweat dripping off the pack-of-hot-dogs-like rolls of flesh on the back of your neck, ruthlessly squeezed between your collar and cap and illuminated by the ghastly strobe of red and blue flashing lights; maybe yet the shocking array of armaments, radios and weaponry festooning your ballooning waist - or perhaps it was just your innate or maybe steroid induced hostility - look, in any case, I find myself very turned on. I was as bored by your partner as you were - I could see it in your eyes (I think?). I guarantee you - it WAS mutual. There's a reason he does all the paperwork - and you do all the talking.

You said you "hated me" for "my shit being all fucked up" - and while it's true that my brake tag, license and registration are expired, my craving for you has no expiration date. The skinny cute west bank boy (and his morbidly obese girlfriend with her constant threatening mentions of Irritable Bowel Syndrome - go figure) in there with me for domestic abuse was only a brief distraction, I assure you - it was nothing. The ninety year old black house painter in there for a traffic citation meant even less.

I realize you might be worried about your figure since you have clearly let yourself go - but don't be. I've never been attracted to plus sized men before but then again I've never been so deftly & handily abused by one either - at least not since Catholic school.

I want to do this again - but I want to do it right this time. Your lecture and subsequent prison sentence has certainly convinced me to "go straight" (well, as far as I can anyway) but I am retaining in my possession a small amount of contraband in order to seduce you yet again. I want the trifecta this time - lecture, beating, AND jail. Let's do this. I've plastered messages all over town in hopes of consummating my lust for your punishing hands!

Earth Day/ Was the worst day / Now we sip ice tea when we thirs-tay

2009-04-23T13:09:00.005-05:00

Did you purchase stupider, less useful types of lite bulbs? Did you drive in your car and buy them, and throw away the packaging? Fuck "Earth Day." Only Mary Worth is real. Seriously, the only positive impact an individual can have upon our environment is by direct attack on the industrial infrastructure itself.

The earth day sort of "change begins with my personal habits" shit is just self-congratulatory consumerist individualist nonsense. It's solipsistic. The bigger picture is global capitalism and techno-industrialization; the powers that be will SELL you a 'green' lifestyle the same way they'll sell you anything else. It's branding and marketing, no more.

Yellow ribbon magnets don't bring soldiers home, and absurd NEW IMPROVED ULTRA-ECO LIGHTBULBS don't do a thing for mother earth.

(Mary W)earth Day. No disrespect meant to Mary Worth; she's cool with me. I dig it when she peers out of the strip at us.

Ladies' Night!

2009-04-13T22:51:00.001-05:00

Starting this week, the Iron Rail will be open late night on Thursday evenings for women and trans folk only. The idea is to create a safe space for ladies that will allow them a few hours every week to work on projects, share ideas, and build support networks. Please bring a dish. Or don't.

WHO: Ladies & Trans Folk only
WHAT: Potluck/Meet-up/Reading circle/Artists' forum/Terrorist cell
WHEN: Thursdays starting 4/16 at 7:30 pm
WHERE: the Iron Rail, 511 Marigny

Questions? Comments? Concerns?
ladiesnight.ironrail@gmail.com
954.294.7377 or 504.944.0366

TUESDAY MOVIE

2009-04-11T08:24:00.002-05:00

Tuesday, April 14 8:00 PM FREE

IDIOCRACY (2006)
To test its top secret Human Hibernation Project, the Pentagon picks the most average Americans it can find - an Army private and a prostitute - and sends them to the year 2505 after a series of freak events. But when they arrive, they find a civilization so dumbed-down and so relentlessly stupid that they're the smartest people around. Mike Judge and Etan Cohen reteamed for this futuristic, utterly hysterical farce (or documentary, depending on your point of view). Our short is 1986's Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Come count the Camaros!

TUESDAY FILM NIGHT

2009-03-30T13:35:00.002-05:00

TUESDAY MARCH 31 8:00PM
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

After a young girl receives a pair of bewitched earrings, her world is turned topsy-turvy. Soon, vampires and lascivious priests disrupt the girl's sleep, ravaging her innocence and awakening the woman within. From one of Czechoslovakia's top New Wave directors, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders blurs the line between fantasy and reality with a decidedly sexy emphasis.

TUESDAY FREE MOVIE

2009-03-23T09:38:00.002-05:00

Orpheus (1950)

Jean Cocteau's 1950 film is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and
Eurydice; the film updates the action to post-war Paris, with Orpheus as a
famous but dissatisfied poet. Cocteau turns the everyday world into a magical realm: mirrors turn to pools which are portals to other worlds, and car radios pick up coded messages from the underworld. Orpheus is nominally about a fascination with death, but Cocteau finds room to examine the role of artists in modern society and how they function as observers, social critics and trailblazers in an increasingly fractured world.

TUESDAY FILM NIGHT

2009-03-16T20:03:00.003-05:00

March 17
8:00 PM - FREE
SOLYARIS (1972)

Director Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction cult classic presents an uncompromisingly unique and poetic meditation on space travel and its physical and existential ramifications. Scientist Kris Kelvin travels to the mysterious planet Solaris to investigate the failure of an earlier mission. When his long-dead wife appears on the space station, he realizes that the planet has the power to perceive human desires and make them a reality. Leave your ADHD at home for this one.