A Little Hero Worship.

Last week I went to San Francisco to do a lecture at a fancy benefit dinner. When I walked in the room, everyone was in suits and I didn't know a soul. I was kind of nervous that it was gonna be a hard night, until I met this man in the photo with me above. If you don't recognize him, his name is V. Vale, and he's the genius impersario behind RE-SEARCH publications.

If you've never heard of Vale, here's a brief history: In 1977, while working at City Lights bookstore, with $100 donated by Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he began publication of Search & Destroy, a San Francisco-based zine documenting the then-current punk subculture. In 1980, he began publication of RE/Search, a tabloid format zine focusing on various counterculture and underground topics. RE/Search soon grew from a tabloid format zine to a publisher of books. Vale published and contributed to many books on the subjects of pranks; obscure music and films; industrial culture; authors J.G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs; modern primitives; and many other undeground topics.

It was through the RE/Search books that, as a teenager, I was first introduced to things like Throbbing Gristle, William S. Burroughs, Survival Research Laboratories, along with tons of other artists, writers and bands that have helped to shape what I have become today. My copies of RE/Search from those days were literaly thrashed because I had read them over and over so many times. Meeting this guy was like somehow being introduced to a great teacher. A teacher whom I had never met, but who quite possibly may have been one of the biggest influences in my life. V. Vale is still publishing books and many of the old RE/Search and Search and Destroy magazines are still available from his RE/SEARCH PUBLICATIONS website.
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