V. Vale
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = V. Vale
| birth_name =
| image = V.Vale at 24th & Florida - by jm3.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age |1944|02|04|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Jerome War Relocation Center, Arkansas, United States
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Writer, Independent Publisher
| nationality = Japanese American
| alma_mater = UC Berkeley
| period = 1977–present
| subject =
| movement = Punk Rock Movement, Industrial Music
| notableworks = Modern Primitives, Industrial Culture Handbook, Incredibly Strange Films
| influenced =
| awards =
| signature =
| spouse = Marian Wallace
| children = Valentine Marquesa Wallace
| website = [http://www.researchpubs.com www.researchpubs.com]
}}
V. "Valhalla" Vale (born February 4, 1944) is an American editor, writer, interviewer, musician and, as Vale Hamanaka, was keyboardist for the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, before it became famous as a power trio.See [http://www.brautigan.net/chronology1960.html Portrait of Vale Hamanaka/V. Vale] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161201015534/http://www.brautigan.net/chronology1960.html |date=2016-12-01 }} at www.brautigan.net. He is the publisher and primary contributor to books and magazines published by his company, RE/Search Publications.Kenneth Goldsmith, Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 256-260 Vale is the host of the television talk show Counter Culture Hour{{cite AV media|url=https://vimeo.com/11677706|title=George Kuchar on The Counter Culture Hour|work=Vimeo|access-date=5 February 2016}} on Public-access television cable TV channel 29 in San Francisco. The show is edited by his partner Marian Wallace. Vale is Japanese American.
Early life
A third-generation Japanese American, Vale was born on February 4, 1944, at the Jerome War Relocation Center to actor Kiyoshi Conrad Hamanaka and Mary Takaoka{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KX2J-TC8|title=Person Details for Mary Takaoka, "United States Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II, 1942-1946" |website=FamilySearch.org|access-date=5 February 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/person/Mary-Hamanaka-born-Takaoka-Taka/9211871-15000110|title=Mary Hamanaka (born Takaoka (Taka))|website=Worldvitalrecords.com|access-date=5 February 2016}} of the Vaudeville group Taka Sisters (Myrtle, Mary, Midi).{{cite web|url=http://kpkollenborn.blogspot.com/2011/03/life-lived-her-story-had-plenty-of.html|title=A Life Lived: Her story had plenty of drama, Hollywood-style ~ K.P.Kollenborn|website=Kpkollenborn.blogspot.com|date=18 March 2011 |access-date=5 February 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://riggio.americanvanguardpress.com/the-double-life-of-journalist-turned-actor-conrad-yama-hamanaka/|title=The 'Double Life' of Journalist-Turned-Actor Conrad Yama (Hamanaka) « Writing & Democracy|author=onioneye|access-date=5 February 2016}} The Taka Sisters broke up after the murder of Vale's aunt Midi Taka in 1936.{{cite web|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth525858/m1/2/zoom/|title=The Shamrock Texan (Shamrock, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 86, Ed. 1 Monday, August 17, 1936, Sequence: 2 - The Portal to Texas History|website=Texashistory.unt.edu|date=17 August 1936 |access-date=5 February 2016}} Vale has two younger half-sisters; musician/singer Lionelle Hamanaka, and children's author and illustrator Sheila Hamanaka.{{Cite web|url=http://riggio.americanvanguardpress.com/the-double-life-of-journalist-turned-actor-conrad-yama-hamanaka/|title=The 'Double Life' of Journalist-Turned-Actor Conrad Yama (Hamanaka) « Writing & Democracy|last=onioneye|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-02}}
By 1966 Vale received a bachelor's degree in English Literature at University of California, Berkeley and moved to Haight-Ashbury.{{cite AV media|url=https://vimeo.com/37583048|title=V. Vale of RE/Search Publications, interviewed by Henry Rollins|work=Vimeo|access-date=5 February 2016}} In 1970, he moved to an apartment in North Beach, where he continues to live today.{{Cite web|title=Punk publisher V. Vale looks to post-pandemic world in 'Lockdown Lullabies'|url=https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/punk-publisher-v-vale-looks-to-post-pandemic-world-in-lockdown-lullabies |first1=Emma |last=Silvers|date=May 21, 2020 |website=Datebook |language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-24 }}
Publishing
In 1977, while working at City Lights Bookstore, with $100 donated each by Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, he began publication of Search and 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, with financial help from Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records and actress/film director Betty Thomas. At the same time he also started his own typesetting business, allowing for a day job to fund his publishing exploits and guaranteeing high quality typography and design for his magazines and books.File:Publishers V. Vale (right) with Lorin Morgan-Richards (left), ZineFest, Los Angeles, 2012.jpg (left), at ZineFest, Los Angeles, 2012.]]
The 1980s saw the expansion of RE/Search books from tabloid-formatted zines to academically-modeled 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 underground topics. In 1991, Vale sold his typography business to focus on publishing full-time.
Vale, influenced by and well read in cultural anthropology, describes his focus for writing: (I have) "this weird theory that there's only 1000 interesting people on this planet that I refer to as primary source thinkers. It's my job to find them. I'm just after something that lasts longer, not 'high sugar fluff' as Henry Rollins put it. I want something I don't get right away. One of my favorite phrases, and I heard this from William Burroughs, is 'belief is the enemy of knowledge'."{{cite web|url=http://chuckpalahniuk.net/features/v-vale-interview|title=V. Vale Interview|website=Chuckpalahniuk.net|access-date=11 November 2017}}
Along with writing and distributing, Vale tours nationally giving talks about his career and provides guidance to DIY and Indie artists about book publishing. In 2012, Henry Rollins interviewed Vale at LA ZineFest.{{cite web|url=https://lazinefest.com/2012/02/28/videos-from-lazfs-v-vale-interview-by-henry-rollins/|title=Videos from LAZF's V. Vale interview by Henry Rollins|date=28 February 2012|website=Lazinefest.com|access-date=11 November 2017}}
= Newsletter =
As of 2017, both artist and musician Florian-Ayala Fauna and science fiction author Bruce Sterling are sponsors for V. Vale's RE/Search newsletter.{{cite magazine|first1=Bruce|last1=Sterling|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/09/v-vales-research-newsletter-165/|title=V. Vale's RE/Search newsletter #165|magazine=Wired|publisher=Condé Nast|date=September 30, 2017|access-date=11 October 2017}}{{cite magazine|first1=Bruce|last1=Sterling|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/10/welcome-v-vales-research-newsletter-166/|title=Welcome to V. Vale's RE/SearchNewsletter #166|magazine=Wired|publisher=Condé Nast|date=October 12, 2017|access-date=11 October 2017}}{{cite magazine|first1=Bruce|last1=Sterling|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/10/v-vales-research-newsletter-167-october-2017-part-2/|title=V. Vale's RE/Search Newsletter #167, October 2017 Part 2|magazine=Wired|publisher=Condé Nast|date=October 18, 2017|access-date=20 October 2017}}{{cite magazine|first1=Bruce|last1=Sterling|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/11/v-vales-research-newsletter-168/|title=V. Vale's RE/Search Newsletter #168|magazine=Wired|publisher=Condé Nast|date=November 10, 2017|access-date=13 November 2017}}{{cite magazine|first1=Bruce|last1=Sterling|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/11/v-vales-research-newsletter-169-part-two/|title=V. Vale's RE/Search Newsletter #169, Part Two|magazine=Wired|publisher=Condé Nast|date=November 17, 2017|access-date=6 January 2018}}{{cite magazine|first1=Bruce|last1=Sterling|url=https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2017/12/welcome-v-vales-research-newsletter-170-december-2017/|title=WELCOME TO V. VALE's RE/SEARCH NEWSLETTER #170, December 2017|magazine=Wired|publisher=Condé Nast|date=December 2, 2017|access-date=6 January 2018}}
Recordings
During the coronavirus pandemic, Vale began to record songs with his wife, Marian Wallace. He played the Yamaha spinet piano. Wallace sang and produced the songs. This resulted in a 12-track digital album, Lockdown Lullabies, was released in 2020. The album production was covered by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Media
- Vale is featured in the 2016 nerd culture documentary Traceroute by Johannes Grenzfurthner, a frequent collaborator of RE/Search.
- Vale is one of the interview subjects in William S. Burroughs: A Man Within.{{Cite web|title=William S. Burroughs: A Man Within {{!}} Our Films {{!}} Independent Lens {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/william-s-burroughs/|website=Independent Lens|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-24}}
{{-}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{wikiquote}}
- [http://www.researchpubs.com/ RE/Search Publications]
- [http://rusiriusradio.com/show-33-get-an-interior-life/ V. Vale interviewed on the R.U. Sirius Show on 2/7/2006]
- [http://rusiriusradio.com/show-22-research-publisher-v-vale-re-jg-ballard/ V. Vale interviewed on the R.U. Sirius Show on 11/12/05]
{{Blue Cheer}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vale, V.}}
Category:American writers of Japanese descent
Category:Japanese-American internees
Category:UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
Category:People from Drew County, Arkansas
Category:Writers from Arkansas
Category:Writers from San Francisco
Category:20th-century American writers
Category:21st-century American writers
Category:American musicians of Japanese descent
Category:21st-century American pianists
Category:Pianists from San Francisco