Willies: June 1994 Archives

United States: In September, according to prosecutors, Dan Koenigsberg schemed to harass Mel Henderson, the only black member of the Teaneck, N. J., city council, during a meeting being shown live on local TV. Koenigsberg hired a messenger to dress in a gorilla costume and to bring Henderson a bunch of bananas, a toy monkey, and two balloons with drawings of monkeys on them. Koenigsberg later apologized in a letter to a local newspaper: My intention was not to bring race into the political debate. [Newark Star-Ledger, December 1993, via News of the Weird, 18th February 1994]

This article was written by Geri Corvus. Ignore any other bylines!

For over 20 years, Genesis P. Orridge has been living out his highly original form of art. Starting out with public exhibits of used tampons, condoms and nappies and continuing with a range of 'performance art' including experimental music, films and mixed-media shows, he has never gone for the safe option of commerciality. He has explored magic, shamanism and psychedelics. His life is his work and his work lies (he considers) in extending all possible boundaries.

On 15th February 1992, his Brighton home was raided by the Obscene Publications Squad, who seized 2 tons of videos, photographs and films.

It was Orridge's entire 20-year collection, much of it valuable archive material such as unpublished work by William Burroughs. Most conveniently for the Squad, Orridge was in Nepal at the time meeting Tibetan mystics and helping out at a refugees' soup kitchen along with partner Alaura and their two young daughters.

The next day, the Observer newspaper ran a front-page story stating that a genuine satanic abuse video had been unearthed and would be screened by Channel 4 that week as undeniable evidence of bloody Satanic sacrifice. Sex and blood rituals are taking place beneath a picture of Aleister Crowley. The trappings of black magic are obvious.