The Urban Spaceman

Issue Twenty-Three, August 2025

Hello!

Yesterday, you should have received a long essay-type email from me; this is the shorter news and updates one. Because the piece I wrote over the weekend was such an epic, it made sense to break the planned newsletter up into two missives. You'll notice that this is issue 23 of The Urban Spaceman, which would be the case if I'd continued with the original numbering from volume one rather than beginning again with volume two. So yesterday's mailout was volume two, issue eleven, and this is issue 23, but they're actually two parts of the same newsletter. Confusing? Sorry, I'm a Discordian, I can't help it.

Acid Renaissance

Last week Lisa and I went to see Paul Watson's wonderful exhibition Acid Renaissance: Arcana, upstairs at the 1200 Postcards pub in Hastings. It was great to see the work, which I've previously seen reproduced in Paul's zine Rituals & Declarations and elsewhere, in real life. As the title of the exhibition suggests, these striking photo images could be tarot cards, but they're not based on any existing deck or archetypes. Rather, Paul and his models create new compositions that have a symbolic, dream-like quality, as well as representing – metaphorically and allegorically rather than literally – an imagined post-capitalist future where a connection to nature and our inner magical selves triumphs over consumerism and exploitation.

The exhibition runs to the end of this week (August 24) and is free. The space is open Wednesday to Sunday: from 5-10pm on Wednesday and Thursday, 4-10pm on Friday, 2-10pm on Saturday and 3-8pm on Sunday. The address is 80 Queens Road, just up from the wonderful Bookbuster bookshop. I was also glad to finally meet Paul face-to-face and to talk about his work and future plans over a pint in the excellent bar downstairs.

Undefined Boundary

I've got a piece in the next issue of Undefined Boundary: The Journal of Psychic Albion, published by Cormac Pentecost's Temporal Boundary Press. It's the first part of a long essay called 'The Transfiguration of Julian Cope, 1989-1991', and covers that period in Cope's career when he transformed himself from psychedelic pop star into visionary archdrude with his acclaimed Peggy Suicide album.

Those who know me will know of my long-standing enthusiasm for Julian Cope, and this is an attempt to explain it, to myself as much as anyone else, without just resorting to standard album reviews. It's about me as much as it is about Cope, and I think that if you like my autobiographical writing, or my writing on magic and culture generally, you'll probably enjoy this even if you're not particularly interested in Julian Cope’s music.

Part one is in Undefined Boundary Volume 4 issue 1, out in September. Part 2 follows in Volume 4 issue 2 later this year. More details and how to order can be found at https://temporalboundary.bigcartel.com/

That's all for now. Take care of yourselves, and hopefully we'll talk again soon.

Ben