VOLUME ONE: PARASITE LOST – D M Mitchell – PARAPHILIA BOOKS
Introduction by Michael Roth
Cover art and design by pablo vision
“…a derangement of the senses, an infiltration of one’s carefully constructed identity and its ultimate destruction from within; an invocation of one’s guardian demon; a letter to a secret lover; a hagiography of a disturbed saint; a dissolution of boundaries that follows contact with the meaningless; a manifestation of a cephalopod’s wet dream… ...a funhouse mirror that disfigures the ideas of the dominant culture…”
“When David Michael K visited The Doctor's office, housed in the mysterious Building, he hadn't anticipated his life tipping into madness where reality melted and stretched and fiction merged with real life. In a satirical romp that sends up postmodernism, popular culture and satirises satire itself, our hero is chased by homicidal drug-dealing clowns, cartoon characters, pink UFOs and creatures of pure nightmare. Is this a serious book disguised as humour? or a joke at the expense of the intelligentsia? Fun stuff.”
Featuring: John S. Barker, Matthew Freyer, Christopher Glazer, Brick Marlin, Vladimir Petkovic, Lawrence Barker, Kurt Fawver, Charlie Zacherl, Edward Rodosek, John F. D. Taff, Dameion Becknell, Charles A. Muir, Martin Blanco, Martin Slag, Ian Welsh, Lenora Farrington-Sarrouf and Carey Borgens.
Click image to enter the weird and wonderful world of Quantum Genre in the Planet of Arts.
Published by Paraphilia Magazine, this Quantum Anthology of words and images includes contributions from Pablo Vision V. Ulea Irene Frenkel Nicholas Alexander Hayes Rochelle Dinkin D. Harlan Wilson Rachel Kendall Rachel Isaac Benjamin Robinson Michael Blekhman Izya Shlosberg Jonathan Shipley Tantra Bensko Dorothee Lang Kyle Muntz J.A.Tyler Annelyse Gelman Michail Judovskij Peter Diseth Chrystal Blue Jay Caselberg Tom Bradley Gareth D Jones Debbie Vilardi Alex Kats Adam La Rusic Susannah Mandel David Schwartz Marc Lowe Louise Norlie Yveta Shanfeldova Tyler Williams Patricia Russo Dennis Danvers Douglas Hutcheson John Beleskas Seth Rowanwood Yelena Dubrovin Colin Meldrum Betty Jo Tucker Misha Chariton Grace Andreacchi.
Tree Killer #5 - Rob Plath, Todd Moore, Lyn Lifshin, John Dorsey, Zach King-Smith, MJ Taylor, Marie Lecrivain, Jason Hardung, David Smith, Alan Britt, Paul Harrison, Michael McAloran, Jack Henry, Ben Smith, James Darman, William Taylor Jr, Dave Rindahl, Dennis Bagwell, Frankie Metro, Pablo Vision, John Yamrus and Wolfgang Carstens
Tree Killer #7 - Jack T. Marlowe, Rob Plath, Wolfgang Carstens, Murphy Clamrod, John Yamrus, Diana Rose, M.J. Taylor, William Taylor Jr., John Dorsey, Frankie Metro, Dan Fante, Frank Reardon, Nic St. James, Todd Moore, A.D. Winans, Mike Meraz, Zack Wilson, Lynne Hayes, Christpher Anodyne, Jason Hardung, Catfish McDaris, Pablo Vision, Newamba Flamingo, M.P. Powers, Karl Koweski, A. Molotkov and Peycho Kanev
Tree Killer Ink #9 is a monster issue! It features new: (poetry) by John Yamrus, (poetry) by Murphy Clamrod, (prose) by Jack Henry, (prose) by Karl Koweski, (artwork) by William Taylor Jr., (prose) by John Dorsey, (poetry) by Rob Plath, (poetry) by Dan Fante, (poetry) by MJ Taylor, (prose) by Anatoly Molotkov, (prose) by A.D. Winans, (prose) by William Taylor Jr., (prose) by Frankie Metro, (prose) by Pablo Vision, (prose) by Edaurdo Jones, (prose) by Wolfgang Carstens, (poetry) by Mark Paleologo, and (poetry) by Todd Moore.
Plus numbered and signed, limited edition broadside - Her Face, The Sometimes Gentleness, numbered and signed by William Taylor Jr. - included with this issue.
What happens when you pack six hundred pounds of dynamite between the covers of a magazine?
Tree Killer Ink #10 features a full-length play by Rob Plath, new prose by Erik “The Lizardman” Sprague, Zack Wilson, John Dorsey, R L Raymond, Frankie Metro, John Macker, Marie Lecrivain and Rob Dyer; new poetry by John Yamrus, Dan Fante, William Taylor Jr., Lyn Lifshin, Todd Moore, Nahshon Cook, Wolfgang Carstens and many, many more surprises.
Plus limited edition broadside - Missing In Canada by Wolfgang Carstens - included with this issue.
Alternative audio of The Great Religion featured in October’s issue of Melissa Mann’s Beat The Dust.
This Epic Rites special edition also includes videos and audio by Rob Plath, John Yamrus, William Taylor Jr., Jason Hardung, Wolfgang Carstens and Casey Quinn.
Available and forthcoming EPIC RITES PRESS publications:
THERE’S A FIST DUNKED IN BLOOD BEATING IN MY CHEST – Rob Plath – Epic Rites Press
“Read Rob Plath at your own risk. His words will stick behind your eyes. His heart may even expose a shadow you’ve kept hidden from yourself.” – Dan Fante
“Rob Plath’s poetry does what powerful writing should, mercilessly exploring the human condition in all its horror and banality. He journeys to the dark parts of the soul not talked about in polite company. He takes his readers along, refusing to let them look away.” – William Taylor Jr.
“Plath has taken skin from man... given it back to God... and made cosmic provolone of us all... one stinking pink wheel of cheese.” – Frankie Metro
“Plath revels in the chaotic and constantly challenges the reader to confront the reality of existence - to see the skeleton beneath the ‘torn flap’ of humanity. He flings the reader into the abyss... ” – George Anderson
Cover art and design by pablo vision
A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY – Rob Plath – Epic Rites Press
Less than a year since its release, Anarchy is on its third print run and has already found its way into the classrooms of three NY universities.
“A tour de force dissection of a world gone rotten.” – RD Armstrong
“The kind of book that kicks its way through the doors of culture and announces itself as a separate and necessary phenomenon.” – Todd Moore
“Crackles and hisses with a life of its own.” – John Yamrus
Cover art and design by pablo vision
CAN’T STOP NOW! – John Yamrus – Epic Rites Press
“Two major qualities prevail in Yamrus’ recent work: economy and punch. No word is unnecessary or out of place; the timing is impeccable; and, most difficult of all, the endings hit just the right balance of summation, revelation, and surprise.” – Gerald Locklin
“Terse profundity would be the phrase I would use were someone to pin me down and force me to describe this work by John Yamrus... This is poetry of short lines and simple wisdom, there is a touch of the Far East about the structure and minimalist philosophy that underpins them; there is no surreal baroque parade of language, these are sticks arranged subtly against a white wall.” – Zack Wilson
Cover art and design by pablo vision
DOING CARTWHEELS ON DOOMSDAY AFTERNOON – John Yamrus – Epic Rites Press
“A master of the minimalist poem and the understated wisecrack.” – Todd Moore
“His sharp mind nails the target every time.” – Rob Plath
“A master of using the ordinary in an extraordinary way.” – Milner Place
Cover art and design by pablo vision
DEAD RECKONING – Todd Moore – Epic Rites Press
“One of America’s most important and influential poets” – Lawrence Welsh
“Todd Moore has revolutionized poetry with a style that is all his own: the stripped down line that leaves an electrical impulse of lyrical violence; the outlaw persona of one who leaves blood on the page; a visceral experience of life, death, and rebirth.” – Tony Moffeit
“DEAD RECKONING exposes a corrupt and fetishistic America that habitually reinvents its own endgame.” – John Macker
Cover art and design by pablo vision
FROSTBITTEN – Mark Walton – Epic Rites Press
“I found Frostbitten lucid, harrowing and compelling. It’s a cogent and passionate first collection shot through with hard-won self-knowledge.” – Paul Magrs
“Mark Walton's poems fizzle with energy and capture the modern gay experience in all its many guises.” - Paul Burston
“These words pulse. The poems in Frostbitten radiate with an urgency that forces the reader’s eye into devouring page after page, skipping from the flushes of love through to heartache and fear.” – Andrew Taylor
Cover art and design by pablo vision
BLOOD AND GREASEPAINT – Karl Koweski – Epic Rites Press
“In this remarkably varied collection of short stories, Koweski uses his blow torch wit to expose the sad excesses and frailties of ordinary people he has come to love and hate.” – George Anderson
“Karl’s stories are places your wife would rather you didn’t go, but sometimes you just have to. All the fun and adventure of a drunken night in the bad part of town, but no hangover in the morning.” – William Taylor Jr.
“Koweski has made weapons for death from grim humor, greasepaint and grave social interactions.” – Frankie Metro
Cover art and design by pablo vision
CRUDELY MISTAKEN FOR LIFE – Wolfgang Carstens – Epic Rites Press
“Stunningly evocative.” – Tony Moffeit
“Uncovering the roots of madness, inhumanity and sorrow… This is poetry: rich, full and brimming with life.” – Jack Henry
“Straight talk, boiled down from experience, with the fat of fancy skimmed off the top. That’s what we’ve got here. Carstens gets it – he doesn’t waste time with the flowers; he digs in the dirt, about six feet down, to the root of it all.”– R L Raymond
“... real and true and breath-taking.” – Paul Harrison
Cover art and design by pablo vision
CRUNKED – Jack Henry – Epic Rites Press
“… I’ve been reading through Crunked, and I’m really, really impressed. You know, I think that you may be the poet laureate of meth culture. I’m not being funny – I think you really captured the surreal and extreme nature of the way of the speed freak, and that the poems veer between being heartbreakingly sad and really, blackly funny. It’s really good stuff, very powerful.” – Tony O’Neill
“Jack Henry is easily the best poet currently active in the USA. He does not posture, boast, or pretend that he plumbs the depths of the human soul – he just does it. These poems are without evident artifice, they are, however, among the very few poems now being produced that are going to be, that deserve to be, stayers.” – David McLean
Cover art and design by pablo vision
THE BROKEN AND THE DAMNED – Jason Hardung – Epic Rites Press
“The Broken and the Damned by Jason Hardung is a love poem for the schools of lost children. The story of a boy waiting at the corner of lost and found for the light of his mother’s eyes to change to gold. A long drive into that dark episode we call father that always finds us where we live. These hungry poems will inhabit you like a junkie’s old leather coat. The fix is the verse. They need to be held and read out loud to your delinquent heart. Hardung’s history packs a .38, does time, rides shotgun with a Cadillac moon singing liberation lyrics that will provide a solid rush, that feeling you get when you first feel the poem enter the bloodstream.” – S. A. Griffin
“Vivid imagery combined with abundant candour makes this collection sing.” – Ellyn Maybe
Cover art and design by pablo vision
LAUGHING AT FUNERALS David McLean – Epic Rites Press
“A contemporary book of the dead.” – Todd Moore
“Brutally accurate observations and merciless truth.” – Misti Rainwater-Lites
“Get yourself a copy of Hellbound - it’s a strangely righteous read in a tumultuous world.” - Jane Crown
Cover art and design by pablo vision
EPIC RITES jOURNAL: BUILDING A BETTER BOMB
(For Todd Moore 14 November 1937 – 12 March 2010)
Short stories, poetry, essays, interviews, cartoons and more…
Todd Moore, John Yamrus, Rob Plath, Pablo Vision, Mark Cobb, Gerald Locklin, Jason Hardung, Tony Moffeit, Patrick McKinnon, Casey Quinn, Jack Henry, Zach King-Smith, Mike Meraz, Ben Smith, Mathias Nelson, Wolfgang Carstens, Erek Smith, William Taylor Jr, Zack Wilson, Karl Koweski, John Yamrus and Brian Fugett.
“Clinical, Brutal: An Anthology of Writing with Guts is a collection of works in both poetry and prose that encapsulates the ethos of Clinicality Press and the essence of Clinical Brutality as a mode of writing.
Featuring some of the most exciting up and coming writers, as well as a number of more established cult figures, this collection is a short, sharp shock: clinical, brutal, cutting edge. It’s all about those small, everyday random acts of violence, not all of which are physical or even necessarily entirely tangible, that are common to us all, written in blood using direct, precise and powerful language. There’s more to Clinical Brutality than violence and gore, and there’s no shortage of humour to be found in the poems and prose pieces here.
This is writing for the post-CSI generation. It’s not for the faint-hearted.”
Featuring:
Pablo Vision
Kestra Faye
Jim Lopez
Radcliff Gregory
Díre McCain
Stewart Home
A.D. Hitchin
Christopher Nosnibor
Richard Kovitch
Lee Kwo
S. F. Grimm
David Mark Dannov
D M Mitchell
Jock Drummond
Lucius Rofocale
Stuart Bateman
Karl van Cleave
Vincent Clasper
Constance Stadler
Bill Thunder
Christopher Bateman
Simon Phillips
Maria Gornell
Massive thanks to Clinicality Press and Chistopher Nosnibor for the inclusion and support; and much admiration for making the entire process fast, painless, and impressively effective.
Click those links!
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Clinical, Brutal… An Update with Gusto
Favourable reviews of Clinical, Brutal at Amazon and Bookpleasures. Naturally, I come out smelling of roses.
All Platform 58 issues can be viewed or purchased here
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Platform58 Anthology:
Containing artwork from issues 011 - 015 (over one million online views), and including 261 pieces of art by 164 international artists, the Platform58 Anthology is now available in softcover and hardcover formats at Blurb.
I am enormously pleased that my written work - “Automata Exhibition” - is included in the current issue of Paraphilia Magazine. Originally written about a year ago, around a sequence of paintings by the incredibly talented Siolo Thompson, I am fantastically pleased that three of Siolo’s paintings accompany my work, and am deeply honoured that one of these is a completely new canvas painted for this project.
Once again Paraphilia have produced an electric issue that puts the predictable tedium of most other journals to shame. A fantastic collection of words and images, Issue V also includes a fascinating 24-page interview with legendary Stooges’ guitarist James Williamson.
Free pdf download of the magazine – and previous issues – can be found here:
CHIKUMA ASHIDA, SID GRAVES, JOHNNY STINGRAY, CAROL TORRES, JIM LOPEZ, MICHAEL K, MICHAEL CANO, CHARLES PLATT, AUDREE FLYNN, BRIAN BLUR, ANDREW MABEN, THOMAS HASTINGS, DM MITCHELL, CHRIS BRANDRICK, JANA, CLAIRE GODDEN-ROWLAND, MALCOLM ALCALA, CRAIG WOODS, MAX REEVES, SUE FOX, DIRE MCCAIN, EVITA CORBY, DAVID BRITTON, CRICKET CORLEONE, RICHARD A. MEADE, SALENA GODDEN, GUTTERSAINT, GENE GREGORITS, PABLO VISION, SIOLO THOMPSON, BRIAN ROUTH, PATRICIA WELLS, MICHAEL BUTTERWORTH, RICK GRIMES, HANK KIRTON, RICH FOLLETT, DARIUS JAMES, DESTINY MCKEEVER, NICK TOSCHES, JOHN BARRYMORE, CHRIS MADOCH, CLAUDIA BELLOCQ, ANGELA SUZZANNE, RON GARMON, KATE MACDONALD, MARY LEARY, DOLOROSA DE LA CRUZ
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And many, many thanks to Siolo…
Siolo’s website (for information about many multimedia projects) can be found here:
“Live Alone” by Isaac Thompson – animation by Siolo Thompson
With written work published in numerous journals, prestigious gallery showings of fine art painting, a starring role in 3rd Eye Film’s forthcoming “The Sheets Must Be Silk”, the phenomenal success of the “Live Alone” video (over a million hits, front page prominence on both YouTube and I-Google, inclusion in the 2009 International Festival of Film and Technology), Siolo is currently expanding her one woman empire by working on her next project: “Darkland Homecoming – A Kobicho Tale” – hand painted backgrounds, objects and characters with digital animation.
The Making Of “The Sheets Must Be Silk” Slides – starring Siolo Thompson
Producers - Lucien Flynn & Will Chase
Executive Producers - Ben Andrews & Rodrigo DeMedeiros
1st Assistant Director - Gale Benning
Director of Photography - David Barbosa
3rd Eye Film
Highly pleased that the new issue of MungBeing showcases three examples of my artwork for Epic Rites Press. Although I do not like to talk about the process of how created, I do provide some incidental background - and tangential musings - relating to the artwork. View, and read, here. And find out more information, or buy the books, here.
Many thanks to Mark for continued support of my work at MungBeing. With average issue hits in excess of 90,000, MungBeing continues to be one of the most high-profile, and successful, journals on the internet.
But, in much the same way that anyone purchasing Harper’s Bazaar in the Fifties, would – should – head straight for the Flannery O’Conner stories featured, the following links converge into a collection of work that rises above all else.
The tension is created in the drum loops; dynamic movement propelled by alternate panning and processing; feedback and harmonic sound pad (homage to martin hannett’s work for joy division) positioned to the right.
Best listened to at volume, sat in-between the speakers with bass turned up (or sub woofer on)
The Broken And The Damned – Jason Hardung – Epic Rites Press
“The Broken and the Damned by Jason Hardung is a love poem for the schools of lost children. The story of a boy waiting at the corner of lost and found for the light of his mother’s eyes to change to gold. A long drive into that dark episode we call father that always finds us where we live. These hungry poems will inhabit you like a junkie’s old leather coat. The fix is the verse. They need to be held and read out loud to your delinquent heart. Hardung’s history packs a .38, does time, rides shotgun with a Cadillac moon singing liberation lyrics that will provide a solid rush, that feeling you get when you first feel the poem enter the bloodstream.” – S. A. Griffin
Delighted to be the cover artist for Issue Two of Jane Crown’s Heavy Bear. Artwork can be found here Click on the cover to enter the zine and view contents – much good stuff there, including a review of ‘a bellyful of anarchy’ by David McLean.
Be sure to check out the most candid and informative biography [to date] of featured artist ‘pablo vision’ here
Paraphilia Magazine
The always vibrant and exciting Paraphilia has got yet another issue up – this one issue three. Includes my piece “Psychology In The Cubicle”, but, as with all issues, absolutely excellent from cover to cover. Why not download all three issues for free here? That way you would also have issue one which includes “Babushka” – essential reading…
Saatchi Gallery
Some new and some old artwork can now be viewed at the Saatchi Gallery – including the semi-famous ‘flying cocks’. Semi-famous these cocks might be, but semi-hard they are definitely not…
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Epic Rites Publications
A Bellyful Of Anarchy – Rob Plath
“With a bodybag full of bloody memories, broken dreams and tormented visions of the future, American poet Rob Plath trudges through the darkened alleyways of your moral highground - a bellyful of anarchy is a tour de force dissection of a world gone rotten.” - RD Armstrong, Lummox Press
“A BELLYFUL OF ANARCHY IS AN ABSOLUTE MONSTER THAT WILL LEAP FROM YOUR BOOKSHELF AND KICK THE SHIT OUT OF EVERY OTHER BOOK IN YOUR LIBRARY”
…infamous for leading his readers deep into the shadowy woods of the human psyche and leaving them for dead, mclean offers a tight collection of poetry centred around clive barker’s popular hellraiser franchise…delving deep into the hellraiser mythology david does not merely interpret it, he reinvents it – making it distinctly his own…quite possibly the coolest chapbook you will ever buy…
“mclean’s poetry has always kicked your balls until you puked; with this volume you’re choking on blood and praying for replacement” - Jack Henry, d/e/a/d/b/e/a/t press & Heroin Love Songs
“Get yourself a copy of Hellbound - it’s a strangely righteous read in a tumultuous world.” - Jane Crown, Heavy Bear
The first volume of the workers in blood series, Frostbitten continues to attract rave reviews…
“Mark Walton's poems fizzle with energy and capture the modern gay experience in all its many guises.” - Paul Burston, author (Shameless, Star People, Lovers & Losers, The Gay Divorcee, etc) and journalist (Time Out, The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent on Sunday, etc)
“I found Frostbitten lucid, harrowing and compelling. It's a cogent and passionate first collection shot through with hard-won self-knowledge.” - Paul Magrs, author (Marked for Life, Never the Bride, Twin Freaks, Something Borrowed, Conjugal Rites, BBC Doctor Who series, etc)
well, not long since back from cyprus, i am soon to be offline again, heading over to france for a while. speed seeming to have been the essence of the time in-between, it will be nice to slow down for a bit, and hopefully recover somewhat.
so quickly:
mighty pleased to have done the cover art/design for david mclean’s hellbound. forthcoming on epic rites. look out for news and reviews there soon. for now, a quick preview of what it will look like can be seen here
very excited that my piece “psychology in the cubicle” will be appearing in issue three of the very vibrant and distinctly different paraphilia magazine. issue three possibly out whilst i am away, but issue one (which includes my piece “babushka”), and a similarly fantastic issue two, can be found here oh, and those flashing images there are my work too. aren’t i clever/annoying?
also thrilled that the new issue of heavy bear should be out soon. will be cover artist and featured artist. i think.
delighted that my work will appear in the crossing chaos enigmatic ink anthology – “quantum genre on the planet of arts” – possibly out around september. more info later.
and, because i can’t stress it enough, very, very excited that a bellyful of anarchy is available for advance orders. see post below, or simply just click here
i wanna write books that make people ignite
my pages, smear the ashes beneath their eyes
like war-paint & go out to scalp
the false wig from society's vain skull
place your advance order for a bellyful of anarchy today and receive a limited edition my bones bully my brain broadside - numbered and autographed by rob (first 100 orders only)
Highly delighted that I will be the cover artist – and featured artist – for the next issue of Heavy Bear.
The current issue of Heavy Bear is up here, and very impressive it is too. The current cover art is excellent, and the biography of the cover artist - “cipher – the panic artist” - makes very interesting reading.
cipher -the panic artist’s website can – and most certainly should - be viewed here
Well, taking a short break from taking a break, I’ll quickly say a few things.
Delighted that the first issue of Paraphilia Magazine is now available as a free download here
Filled with many exciting written pieces and images, and a very impressive line up of artists – this all looks very exciting indeed. So get clicking, and get downloading!!! Too much stuff to mention – but bloody hell, it’s even got music and multimedia legend, Steven Severin (yes, as in Siouxsie and the Banshees), in there too. How cool is that?
My own piece is called “Babushka”, and it is on page 37, and it is one of those gentle understated pieces suitable for all the family to read.
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And moving on briskly, dead pleased that David McLean’s “of dead snakes” is now available to buy, or download for free, here, and some great reviews and info can be found here
And moving on with indecent haste, very pleased that Mark Walton’s “Frostbitten” is available to purchase from the Epic Rites Bookstore here, and reviews and samples of Frostbitten can be found here
Buy both David McLean’s “of dead snakes” and Mark Walton’s “Frostbitten”, and get my cover art absolutely free!!!
And over at Epic Rites it seems like there is a new and mysterious person now occupying office space – a cacophony of chainsaws emanating from behind the office door – just what the fuck is he building in there?
A bit of a departure from what I should be doing, but…really desirous for a bit of a break from routine, last night found me listening to The Misunderstood’s “Children of the Sun” on repeat play, and at appropriate volume (i.e. very loud!!!), and accidentally reinterpreting a photo of the band from 1966.
This morning finds me exceedingly excited that this image is now on display in the band’s blog and can be viewed here - and, of course, if one clicks back to the profile, one can hear “Children of the Sun”, the equally awesome “I Can Take You to the Sun”, plus four other tracks.
Massive thanks to Rick and the guys for digging this!!!
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Rock Music critic Jade Hubertz wrote in a 1998 review, "When it comes to the Misunderstood, I have no shame and offer no apologies. "Children of the Sun" is the GREATEST psychedelic track of all time and it's CRIMINAL that the band was taken down in its prime."
In his "Peelenium" (Greatest Songs of the 20th Century) John Peel lists The Misunderstood for 1966, as follows, PEELENIUM 1966: 1. Leonard Cohen - The Sisters of Mercy, 2. The Beatles - And Your Bird Can Sing, 3. The Misunderstood - I Can Take You To The Sun, 4. Jimi Hendrix - Red House, 5. Otis Redding - Try a Little Tenderness.
John Peel also told Index Magazine in 2003, "If I had to list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966. It was the only time I've seen an audience reduced to impotent silence".
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Certainly, in my opinion, “Children of the Sun” and “I Can Take You to the Sun” stand alongside The Who’s “My Generation” and “I Can See For Miles”, The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High”, and The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows”, Cream’s “I Feel Free”, Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”, The Creation’s “How Does It Feel to Feel”, Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play”, The Pretty Things’ “Talking About The Good Times”, as not only tracks which stand out as crucial in the development of music – but tracks which sound as absolutely electrifying now, as they did then.
I am very pleased to announce that I have moved into virtual office space at Epic Rites.
My office door can be found on the main Epic Rites website here. “A New Experience In Food Retail” can be read there.
Clicking on the pablo vision icon/middle finger image on the main page will open the door to my office. “type you fucker, just type…” can be read there, and the artwork for Rob Plath’s “a bellyful of anarchy”, Mark Walton’s “Frostbitten”, and David McLean’s “of dead snakes” can be viewed in full glorious Technicolor. “The House Of The Dead Man” currently completes the written work on show. The office can also be directly entered here. But that would not be half as much fun.
I will be sure to update this blogspot when I put some new stuff up.
There’s all sorts of tremendously exciting things happening at epic rites:
virtual office space also occupied by Wolf Carstens, Rob Plath, Karl Koweski, and RD Armstrong…
links to the Frostbitten website, Rob and Jack America radio show (and archives), Epic Rites and The Thin Edge Of Staring journals, and all sorts of upcoming events and happenings – including the upcoming Riverwood Poetry Festival (five days of destructive madness in Connecticut at the end of June)…
and a very exciting schedule of titles to be released by Epic Rites Press. Watch this space (well, not this space, but the Epic Rites space, obviously)…
Very, very excited by the excellent review of the print edition of Philias and Fetishes by Grace Andreacchi.
The review is a wonderful piece of writing in itself. Sein und Werden has always been a fantastically respected journal, and – as Grace so rightly says – Sein und Werden is going from strength to strength. I’ve said below that this is the absolute highlight of all the things I have been involved in – and this pleasure is not really to do with my own contribution.
There is a story of Jimi Hendrix getting on stage with Cream back in 1966. Jimi had only been in England for a week. Eric Clapton simply walked off the stage in shock to gaze in absolute awe at Hendrix, and said to Chas Chandler afterwards, “Is he always that fucking good?” I’m certainly no Eric Clapton – but I so know how he must have felt!!!
I truly believe that this issue will become highly collectable – and purely because of the content. I will be writing more about this when I catch up with things.
Don’t read the review, and don’t buy the journal here – and make the conscious decision to make your life blander than it need be.
Even the most devout of believers, when saying ‘Grace’ before a meal, ought to recite Grace’s review in full – because even God would find it impossible to not ‘do an Eric Clapton’ in this instance.
Very pleased that a submission from an eternity ago (one I had forgotten about) has gone up in Black River Publishing’s first issue of the online journal Literary Bitch. An older piece too. As Jethro Tull say in the liner notes for their 1968 album, ‘this was how we were playing then – but things change’ – however, in the case of Jethro Tull they immediately changed into a band so embarrassingly awful, that it is hard to comprehend just how good ‘This Was’ is. Fucking hope the changes I am making are for the better, rather than Jethro’s parlous descent!
Anyway, you can read “Hollywood Blood Bat Fiasco” here and you can read David McLean’s lyrically sensitive, and fragrant, poem “the night smells of piss” here
Seems like much exciting stuff is happening while I’ve been kind of snowed under with things (but not, unfortunately, snowed under in some cocaine kind of way; nor in the way that a few inches of snow can bring London’s airport, bus and rail network to a complete standstill (that kind of way is the sort of retrogressive progress that can put a vehicle on the moon many decades ago, but replaces high-speed internet with carrier pigeons - or allows Chuck Palahniuk to be considered as anything other than predictably mediocre)).
Well, I’ll try and catch up with my shit as soon as I can in subsequent posts. But briefly: I stopped writing stuff at the end of November – I may, or may not, return to doing this in the future. I’m taking a break from it – but if I enjoy the break from it too much – who knows? It is not really my intention to do much submitting of stuff to zines from this point on. There are a few ancient and outstanding submissions that might filter through – but many journals die, lose submissions, don’t get them (but not in a ‘you just don’t get it, man’, kind of way), or (quite possibly) struggle to tactfully say: ‘this might be the biggest pile of shit anyone has ever sent us’. There will be occasions – often idiosyncratic – where I do occasionally submit. Mostly I just want to be doing something a bit different. I am not writing a novel, and I never will – it would be fucking awful (and fans of Chuck might then grunt about pots and kettles – or, more probably, gesticulate inarticulately to that effect).
I’ve been doing some artwork for book covers recently, and enjoying that tremendously – although, once again, a bit swamped with things. I guess the reason for putting this shit on my blog is just to say to the various people I have said ‘no’ to for various things of late - or anyone feeling ‘neglected’ on various ‘networking’ sites – it is not any kind of arrogance: I’m often just very busy and very lazy. But, of course, without any inconsistency, keep the suggestions coming in – I might be up for doing something, or else get an enormous sense of self-importance saying ‘sorry, can’t do’! (A perfect win/win situation for me, that more than compensates for any hurt caused to anybody else!)
I’ll be shortly moving into virtual office space at Epic Rites – and will say more about this when I’ve got some stuff together to put up. I am massively honoured to be joining some kick-ass people there, and secretly hoping for inappropriate sexual harassment from anyone with the slightest inclination. There are a number of really fucking exciting things happening at Epic Rites\Epic Rites Press, so extremely pleased to be involved with some of this. Wolfgang Carstens has been fucking awesome to work with – and matches ‘monster’ ambition with a lot of fucking hard work.
So, if there is brevity with a lot of my stuff, excuse the brevity with the exciting stuff I mentioned at the start of what is not a particularly brief post:
David McLean’s Of Dead Snakes should be out very soon at Rain Over Bouville, and, I believe, the excellent novella – Henrietta Forgets – forthcoming with Isms Press. There is already tons of great stuff you can buy (and links to many great pieces online) – so you know where the link is to Autoerotic Elegies…
Constance Stadler has got two excellent and powerful collections out – or out soon – Tinted Steam and Sublunary Curse. Check out the reviews and links for info at Connie’s blogspot…
Antony Hitchin has got The Holy Hermaphrodite coming out soon, and other exciting things in the pipeline – keep up to date with all of this at Antony’s blogspot…
And finally, but the exact opposite of least, very excited that one of my two most favourite journals is out and live – there is a link to a truly astounding collection of pieces in the link to Jennifer Chesler in MungBeing (on the right-hand side), that demonstrate why 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 and 24 is my favourite numeric sequence.
Hell, I’m sure there must be loads of other stuff that I have forgotten to mention – but if one considers that this morning I put some bread in the microwave to defrost for three minutes, and went to put some rubbish/garbage out while waiting, and, on my return, I thought the beeping of this ‘special’ oven was the smoke alarm going off due to the excessive smoking of menthol cigarettes – or, that every five years or so, I have to ask my mother if she had killed someone (when in fact this was my father) – one must conclude that I’m just not very good at retrieving information from - and retaining information in - my brain, and am some sort of idiot savant (well, maybe half true)…
Very excited to have been invited to do the cover art for David McLean’s forthcoming book “of dead snakes” (Rain Over Bouville Publications).
As some may know/suspect, I spend a lot of time painting David’s face on the computer – but usually when I get caught in the act of doing this, it results in being called pervert, and barred from various internet cafés. This time, my latest release is not going to ooze down the screen, but be on the cover of the demented, depraved, deviant’s book.
You should buy this book when it comes out – which should be very, very soon.
But don’t just take my word for it – Misti Rainwater-Lites and Constance Stadler want you to buy it too – it says so here (along with other essential info).
Being a bit of a fucktard I have no idea how to upload images here at any kind of reasonable resolution – so the cover art can be viewed here.
Clockwise Cat has struck issue number twelve and very pleased that my piece “Damaged Girl” is here.
I reviewed some books written by other people. Buying books can help the authors buy expensive drugs, and it helps kills trees. Trees take oxygen out of the atmosphere and replace it with carbon monoxide. So that’s two reasons for buying books. Other reasons can be found by reading reviews.
There is a review of the deranged and demented David McLean’s Pushing Lemmings here. There is a review of the angelic Amanda Boschetto’s Angels in Hell here. And there is a review of Christopher Nosnibor’s The Plagiarist here. Christopher has previously expressed an impatience to read my posthumous work – so I consider it my duty to continue with my 60 cigarettes a day habit.
There is an impressive list of contributors – but because my fingers are too cold to type – I will just say be sure to check it out – and mention that the prominent promoter of the pope, David McLean, has a sizeable number of poems there, and several reviews, including one for the wonderful Sein und Werden, which can be read here. The review is for the Memento Mori issue, and very astutely describes my own complex relationship with the Lord.
I have heard and seen herds of Christians sing ‘The Lord Is My Shepherd’ with great gusto. Rejoice, sheep, rejoice.
Anyway, back to Clockwise Cat, and a post with a lot of here’s – one can read a story about ‘me’ by Mark Mika here. Mark specially commissioned Goya to do the illustration for this piece.
Very excited to have been invited to do the artwork and design for the Workers In Blood chapbook series (Epic Rites Press). The first one in the series will be Mark Walton's Frostbitten.
The artwork can be seen here – just scroll down a bit (the artwork for Rob Plath’s A Bellyful Of Anarchy is also on this page).
But, books are about content – not covers – so I’ll echo and endorse what is being said at Epic Rites about Frostbitten:
"Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "Of all that is written I love only what a man has written with his blood. Write with blood and you will discover that blood is spirit." The epic rites workers in blood chapbook series showcases work by artists whose medium is blood.
The first entry in the series is Frostbitten by Mark Walton, winner of the 2008 London Poetry Slam! Championship. Mark does not merely write with blood, he wields his pen like a scalpel - marbling away fat and dead tissue with surgical precision.
Frostbitten is not merely a collection of poetry, it's the literary equivalent of open heart massage.
Frostbitten will be available in February 2009 from the epic rites bookstore, Amazon, CreateSpace and other venues yet to be announced. The price is $10 USD. A percentage from every book sold will be donated to Mark's favourite charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, a charitable organization that helps those affected by HIV/AIDS. Thus, every book purchase will not only support Mark's work, epic rites press, but also a lot of individuals who could really use a bit of help."
I'll just add that there will be some really strong and exciting work coming out in this series – and this is going to be a killer book to launch it.
***
Massive cheers to Wolfgang Carstens at Epic Rites – the amount of work he has done in the last few weeks is simply astounding: a multitude of things going on at the Epic Rites site, many exciting books forthcoming, two different online journals (The Thin Edge of Staring and the second issue of Epic Writes online), and much more besides.
There is a link to Epic Rites on the right – and always loads of exciting stuff going on – be sure to check it out regularly.
Tremendously excited that the second Epic Rites Journal is up and live. A stellar line up of writers – with poetry and prose by the likes of Rob Plath, RD Armstrong, Mark Walton, Misti Rainwater-Lites, Erin Reardon, Tracy Landers, Dale Winslow, Chris Madoch, Mike Meraz, Karl Koweski, William Taylor Jr, DW Rindahl, Zack Wilson, Michael Keenaghan, Jason “Juice” Hardung, Wolfgang Carstens, Melissa Hanson, Craig Podmore and Jack Henry.
My piece – The Great Religion – can be read here. An awesome reading of the piece can also be heard here.
The journal also includes three fascinating and candid interviews with Andrew Taylor (Erbacce Press), RD Armstrong (Lummox Press), and Jack Henry (d/e/a/d/b/e/a/t press).
Very pleased that my piece “Bad Touch” is now up at The Shine Journal.
And perfect timing for this piece to go up too – I have spent the last 48 hours typing ‘all work and no play, etc” (actually typing ‘etc’ rather than the stuff about Jack (figured it would speed up the manic typing process and give me many, many more pages)) – and the 48 hours prior to this were spent playing good touch/bad touch with myself. So all I need to do now is figure out what I am supposed to do with this axe – Eugene tells me to go to the Vatican…
The Shine Journal is a great looking online zine – and I was tremendously pleased with the speed of response.
Extreme lo-fi recording of Wolfgang Carstens reading my piece “The Great Religion” on the Rob and Jack Radio show can be heard here
A spontaneous – but awesome – reading (over the telephone) set over one-take guitars layered on primitive guitar loopers (the internal memory running out in the middle of the overdubs). The music was only intended to remind me of some chord changes I wanted to mess about with – but (and only because of the reading) I think it works quite well
Massively honoured to have been invited to do the cover art (scroll down a bit) and design for Rob’s forthcoming book – a bellyful of anarchy.
Briefly paraphrasing what is being said over at Epic Rites (‘cos they say it so much better than me):
“This book is going to be an absolute monster: 250 pages that are going to jump from your bookshelf and kick the shit out of every other book in your library - THIS is Robert Plath at his very best.
Rob and Wolfgang Carstens have carefully sewn together each monstrous limb. They plan to unleash their monster in March 2009...
...but this motherfucker is tough and it may very well break free of it's shackles before then. You have been warned!
A percentage of all book profits will be donated to H.O.W. (helping orphans worldwide) which helps children worldwide that have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.”
Well, what I say is this fucker is going to be one awesome collection – impossible for it to be anything else. And I’ll be sure to be saying more when the book becomes available. For now, just very bloody excited.
***
The image is constructed like a Frankenstein’s monster from the work of artists/anatomists andreas vesalius, govard bidloo, gérard de lairesse and juan valverde de amusco.
You could say the rope/noose like Rob’s thin vertical lines of poetry. Or something about the cadaver inside waking up. Or books/knowledge/aspirations/order/etc all pointing to the final destination of us all. Or maybe pointing to the guts of man, and the guts of the book. Certainly the dissected horizontal man is not going to be ferried across to the other side (below is just the void). Hell, you can even see the abc’s on the guy’s ribs – still fresh with blood…
But you can’t judge a book by its cover (although I’d be somewhat sceptical of any book with a Norman Rockwell cover) – and it is the guts of this beast that are going to do the ass kicking. !!!!BEWARE!!!! & !!!!BUY!!!!
***
Massive thanks to Wolfgang and Rob for inviting me along for the visuals – I am very proud to be involved.
And big thanks for the nice shit said about me on the last Rob and Jack radio show of the year – including an awesome reading of my piece – The Great Religion – by Wolfgang.
Excited beyond words that the latest print edition of Sein und Werden is now out and available. I have not been submitting much of late – and purely because I cannot think of anything to top this.
Featuring a piece by Jennifer Chesler (it might have taken about 2,000 years – but finally a ‘JC’ worthy of worship – and one who truly performs miracles every time she writes). I have got something in it. And that depraved deviant David McLean also. And a very impressive sounding line-up from the bios.
Each copy will be ribbon-bound and have a different cover. I think there are a few reasons why this will be highly collectible in years to come. Buy a copy (only £3.50/US$7.50/5.10EUR) – or several – details here.
And do check out the online content – some great stuff there too.
Extremely pleased that Mungbeing 23 is now up and live. There is some excellent artwork in this issue, as well as prose, poetry, music, and an eclectic mix of other stuff not so easily definable. You can read my piece – Impermanence – here. Once again includes gratuitous use of the ‘u’ word.
There are also links on the right to my stuff in previous issues – a sequential run: 20, 21, 22, and 23.
Numerically speaking the MungBeing sequence 15, 17, 18, 19, 21 and 22 does not conform to the Golden Proportion – but the highlights of each of these issues represents a more important and elevated kind of perfection.
Very pleased that Umbrella’s second anniversary issue is now up and live. A great publication – so very chuffed that a couple of pieces of non-typical artwork are in this issue. There are links on the right-hand side – cover and contents page.
Please remember that the images were produced by a skilled stunt artist (covered from head to toe in lucky heather) and should not be tried at home. Each year thousands of people suffer all manner of minor misfortunes due to the opening of umbrellas inside buildings.
I have also recently put a few more pieces of art up here
Really pleased that an account of my time inside has gone up at Lit Up Magazine. Written by the great Verless Doran, it demonstrates that if you’ve got music in your soul you can always make the time pass sweetly. You can read it here
Everything You Always Wanted To Know About X o X (But Were Afraid To Ask) by Django Fucktard
[stub]
In pablo recidivision’s (much misunderstood) masterpiece ‘X o X’ the artist poses some interesting questions - indeed, the first ‘X’ is an epistemic epiphany of demi-existentialism in itself. By drawing on some of the concerns of the Pre-Raphaelites and subverting this with Post-Neo-Bauhaus spatial architecture he paints a compelling study of the paradoxical limitations of expansive au courant minimalism. The ‘X’ is not so much ‘X’ but an accusation that reveals the vacuity of the current non-noumenal mimesistic cultural malaise. Many who first saw the piece were actually unaware that the two occurrences of ‘X’ were non-interactive-sub(as in non)-functioning (and therefore phenomental pre-archaic aporias) hyperlinks to different dimensions of philosophical preternaturality (always challenging (by super-valuing) the multi-dichotomised deconstructionism) and psychological quasi-manipulation. Clearly the ‘o’ in the centre of the landscape plays on Orpheus and is a savage pro-conceptualised-anti-cognitional satire on Blumenburgian-Ricœurensian-Carnapalisms -- it is, however, that which orbits around ‘o’ that still causes the most controversy with readers who lack the faux-intellectual-pseudo-sophistication to appreciate one of this decade’s most influential works.
Most delighted that my piece – The Cure (and The Smiths (but only twice, briefly)) – is now up at Black-Listed Magazine. A great deal of thorough research went into this piece. It can, and should, be read here.
Really very impressed with the ultra-fast response time. And it is a great looking zine with tons of stellar talent up already – including Rob Plath, Adelle Stripe, Christopher Nosnibor, Joseph Ridgewell, Ben Myers, Matthew Coleman, Mike Meraz, and many more.
Very excited that Heroin Love Songs Vol. 4 is now up and live. I thought it was Vol. 5 – but I was wrong.
I have written a beautifully understated and mature piece about how children can transform one’s life into something quite special. I usually don’t like to blow my own trumpet (not when there are so many people queuing up to do it for me) – but the comment left on this piece pretty much says the same thing. But I might be wrong.
Anyway, it is called Fuck-Drops Make Entity, and can be read here.
Loads of good stuff in Vol. 4 – including David McLean, Rob Plath, Jack Henry, Wolfgang Carstens, Karl Koweski, Misti Rainwater-Lites, Richard Wink, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal - but many, many more, which must make the print version – available here – an absolute bargain.
Also very pleased indeed that Jack has sent off a Pushcart nomination for my piece – Breaking The Boy – which appeared in Heroin Love Songs Vol. 1.
There are some excellent reviews (written by Rob Plath, Felino Soriano, Travis Blair, Misti Rainwater-Lites, Puma Perl, and Jack Henry) of David McLean’s La Morte Vivante, which can be read here.
Once again this sounds like it is going to be very exciting stuff. It is out very soon – it is bloody inexpensive ($5) – and you can pre-order at the above link too (limited editions numbered and signed).
So get in the fucking seasonal spirit and buy now (some of the proceeds may go towards the realisation of white xmas dreams in snowy Sweden).
The Poetry Warrior are going to be running one of my things in issue 2, and that’s something that pleases me. A very quick response too – something that always makes me happy. More about this when it goes live.
Extremely excited that my piece – she came too early, and left us in the morning – is now up at Side of Grits. There is an awesome collection of writers in this first issue – and some very, very tasty work. There is a link on the right, but my story is here, and some very revealing information about me is here, and the main menu is here.
I really do recommend checking out the menu – plenty of reasons for lit gastronomes to keep coming back for more.
Appetizer
Bradley Mason Hamlin Justin Hyde Karl Koweski Dollhouse Richard Wink Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal Puma Perl Chris Stanifer pablo vision William Taylor Jr
Southern Fried
Julie Buffaloe-Yoder Shaindel Beers Moe Seager Mary Ann Loesch Judy Brekke Scot Young Mathias Nelson Jim Fuess
Lunch Special
Luis Rivas Joseph Ridgwell
Hot Plates
Cecelia Chapman Paul Corman-Roberts Mathias Nelson Misti Rainwater-Lites Christopher Robin nth Position Joseph Reich Michael Grover
Late Nite
Joseph Goosey Ross Vassilev Cecelia Chapman Misha Firer Kenneth Pobo Peycho Kanev Joseph Veronneau Simon Friel
Beverages & Dessert
James Babbs Miles J Bell Brad D. Green Kill Poet Joel Sweeney Dan Provost Chris Deal Tim Murray Aleathia Drehmer
Very pleased that my account of being left alone in the house - when I was so much older (I am younger than that now) - is now up and ready for reading at Bare Back Magazine – the link on the right should take you directly there – or you may have to state that you are over eighteen in order to read it first. Contains gratuitous scenes of stamp collecting and building crystal sets. You have been warned.
There is a nice warm cotton wool feeling surging through my veins right at this very moment. And that is because my beautifully benign piece – Fuck-Drops Make Entity – has just been accepted for Heroin Love Songs. I think this will be Volume Five – and probably out in the middle of November. But if you are desperate for a bit of brown (right here, right now (and I speculate that Brighton’s fat ‘slim’ boy would not have been so fat if…)) there are links (on the right) to the online (you have to scroll down a bit – but plenty of good stuff to scroll through anyway) and to the print version of Volume One.
One of the very pleasing things about Fuck-Drops is that it is exactly 666 words long – each of them filled to the brim with an almost Christian-style love of life.
Big cheers to Jack - the former owner of the most kinky afro ever – for ultra fast response time. I like editors who say yes, and say yes quickly. They make me happy. The others just make me make voodoo dolls.
And remember children: Heroin is good for you. Well, this kind anyway…
Exceptionally pleased that my piece - The Great Religion - will be appearing in the next issue of Epic Rites – Workers In Blood. And always most impressed at the lightening-fast response time.
Issue 2 is already looking pretty damned fine, and will include work by Rob Plath, Chris Madoch, Mark Walton, Zack Wilson, D.W. Rindahl, Misti Rainwater-Lites, Melissa Hansen, Karl Koweski, Michael Keenaghan and Wolfgang Carstens - as well as interviews with Andrew Taylor (Erbacce Press) and Jack Henry (d/e/a/d/b/e/a/t/ press).
There’s loads of exciting stuff happening over at Epic Rites – virtual office space now being occupied by Rob Plath, Wolfgang Carstons, Chris Madoch, and Karl Koweski – as well as a whole host of multimedia goings on – and links. I recommend paying a visit. There is a link to Epic Rites’ home page on the right, and a link to Issue 1. I will, of course, be saying more about Issue 2 when it goes live.
Pushing Lemmings – David McLean erbacce-press (£6.95)
The lemmings did not jump, but were pushed instead by a rotating platform, and not into the Arctic Ocean, but the much less impressive Bow River. So, just as you cannot trust Disney, it is prudent to be sceptical about many ideas promoted by those who first decide what they want to believe, and then secondly construct a philosophy based on these faulty foundations.
Pushing Lemmings explodes many myths (mostly the spurious meanings and invalid associations that stupid, and unquestioning, people cling to and wear like a mangy old fleece (quite possibly in order to resemble sheep outwardly as well as inwardly)) with wonderful intolerance and delightfully disrespectful verve.
‘my blessed devils’ tells it like it is:
i hope the blessed devils and accursed bacteria that live in me scratch runes on my hollow sounding bones that the replete ghouls may read a lesson of profoundest negativity when they plow through the meat machine me and see nothing inside any of us, like life, just death and insanity dressed in night
But, with 118 poems, in this collection, there is tremendous range of subject matter and style – astoundingly so – and I have a great fondness for those poems which majestically incorporate the profound and the profane, the poetic and the epistemic, and deviance with the downright piss-funny. ‘maybe creation’ is a good example – a poem which later goes on to suggest that god was heaven’s token nigger. It kicks off thus:
maybe creation was recursive and circumstance were the demiurge that put a cosmos in a plastic bag whirled by the world-wind that blew a million words together to impersonate a holy logos a minute
the cosmos stitched together like a bag that held a horde of innumerable universes popping up like querulous quarks, strange and charming in the harmless void, before light invented night and black was an impotent eternity
but questions of why have no home in science, which is poncy ontology not manly metaphysics that rips gibberish like hair waxed from time’s private tits
Elsewhere there are poems where ‘societies are clumps of cancerous tissue; open wounds full of gross necroses we call people’, and there are poems where one is just as likely to meet Butters Scotch as one is Wittgenstein as one is at danger of being ‘chased by a hateful winged clit’, and it is the genuinely unexpected twists and turns in this collection that make it inordinately pleasurable to read.
McLean can be undeniably elegant, as in ‘like illusion’:
as if words bounded us as if a subjectivity lived this hollow “me”
or he can be irresistibly beguiling, as in ‘foeti and nipples’:
disgusting as any abortive morphology words are foeti are poems are miscarried philosophy and worrying about punctuation is saying shit I hope this abortion has nice nipples
And for someone who question words themselves (or describes poems as abortions in jars), he uses the fuckers in a most truly original and thought provoking way.
This, most assuredly, is a book you should buy. Do so - it is exceptional.
Very pleased that Umbrella are going to be using a couple of my images in their Winter 08 issue. One of which will be the cover. I like that a lot. There is a link to Umbrella on the right.
Highly delighted that Eviscerator Heaven #4 is now up and available as a free pdf download. There is a link on the right. Two different downloads – part one and part two – and I have two different pieces in part one. The full list of contributors is:
Part One
Jaie Miller Felino Soriano Eden Craig Podmore Gail Gray Karl Koweski Pablo Vision Jacqui Corcoran Petra Whitely FEATURE POET: Duane Locke
Part Two
Duane Locke: Interview with a Legend Isaac Seal Melissa Hansen Patricia Carragon Christopher Nosnibor Kaplowitz Linda Washington Alexandra Ryan Misti Rainwater Lites Brett Milstead Gillian Prew Bertrand Damien Melanie Browne Thomas L. Vaultonburg Andrew Taylor Brittony Fay-Johnson Dan Miles
In heaven, everything is fine, [no doubt] you got your good thing, and I’ve got mine [well two actually – as stated above].
A once again excellent collection of poems, fiction, art, polemics, reviews, essays, and other stuff, including poems (prose that has been bravely, and adventurously, chopped up by people on commission to hit the enter button on their laptops) by David McLean, Amanda Boschetto, AJ Kaufmann, Felino Soriano, and loads others.
There are reviews of rob plath’s there’s a little hobo in my heart who forever gives the finger to humanity, and of Misti Rainwater-Lites’ Pretty Red Berries – both written by Mr McLean (but not, thankfully, that smoking apostate the Marlboro Man). Both these books sit on my bookshelf – so you can consider that a double endorsement.
Loads of other good stuff there, especially The Price of Pieces by Mark Mika. This is a story about me. And the colossus image above the story is highly appropriate and suitably respectful. Most of this piece is based on true facts (although it is an exaggeration to say that I write ten stories a day – doing so would encroach unacceptably on my porn-viewing time (however the description of my pants is 100% accurate – although a definite breach of confidence (which I am prepared to overlook on this occasion))). I do, of course, make an absolutely captivating muse. And I am glad to find that Mark is still happily frolicking in the Californian sea with his loving and lazy cat.
Very pleased that Clockwise Cat 12 will not only include my slab of fiction – Damaged Girl – but will be running two of my reviews – Amanda Boschetto’s Angels in Hell and Christopher Nosnibor’s THE PLAGIARIST.
So three big cheers for Alison Ross for taking these – and for responding so very quickly. I will pay secret homage, tonight, by listening to the very best Cure album ever released – Curiosity (a cassette-only bonus that came with Concert) – and very atmospheric it is too.
THE PLAGIARIST is quite possibly the most extreme anti-novel in print, and as such definitely requires a different kind of reading, and certainly an abandonment of traditional expectation. For readers willing to embrace the chaos that is our reality, and for those emancipated and adventurous enough to adapt and evolve their manner of reading, it is also a very rewarding novel – anti, or otherwise.
The influence of William Burroughs, Kenji Siratori and Stewart Home are evident, but this is no mere homage: this raises the levels more than one beyond ten, stamps on all of the pedals, lets the feedback wail uncontrollably, and creates an almighty, and sometimes painful, assault on the reader.
The book does have a beginning, and it does have an ending, and there are characters – Ben (who struggles through the bombardment of information, disinformation, and the mutated and twisted maelstrom of words), and his ‘guide’ or ‘misguider’, THE PLAGIARIST – but beyond this, it is exceptionally uncompromising. Probably thinking in terms of Trout Mask Replica and Bitches Brew, being played simultaneously, may give some indication. It is also frighteningly similar to sitting at one’s desk, subjected to an irate telephone conversation in one ear, an impatient and demanding boss in the other, a background of random phrase from co-workers, a screen filled with urgent emails and bizarre pop-ups, the mobile vibrating incessantly in the pocket, pneumatic drills and fumes flooding through the open window, and the rising anxiety travelling up your spine like a tube train. It is like the onslaught of the 21st Century approaching complete meltdown and system overload, as experienced by apes that have had no time to evolve any kind of coping strategy.
The bulk of the book uses cut-ups of spam emails, written texts (some of which regarding the nature of narrative), advertising, news stories, and, what seem like, snippets of overheard conversation. There is great use of repetition, sometimes mutated slightly, or not so slightly, to propel meaning and chaos. Sentences, and even words, collapse and collide; the already abstracted becomes increasingly more so. Often there is a sense of great alienation from the words – the polar opposite of engaging – sometimes it is distinctly uncomfortable and unpleasant to read – there are times, when looking at the number of pages ahead, it may seem impossible to continue. But back to sitting at the desk – back to our own lives – back to our own personal hell (because although Ben is a character, he is everyman: he is me as I am you as you are me as we are all together): it is hell because there is no escape: there will be four more days to endure this week - there will be thirty more weeks to endure this year – there will be twenty more years to endure, etc – and even in the context of one day, the bombardment at the office will be replaced by the bombardment of conversations on the tube, advertisements, the leakage of music from headphones, etc – and, arriving at the ‘sanctuary’ of home, this will then be replaced by the bombardment of three kids – one screaming, the other asking perpetual questions, another bleeping away at a games consul, the TV blaring (the adverts louder and more obtrusive), etc, etc, etc. Lives and circumstance, of course, may be different, but the background of white noise is no background at all – it is ourselves who are the almost ephemeral background of our own existence; if we have identity or a ‘self’, then mostly we have no time and no peace, in which to discover it.
But although a lot of THE PLAGIARIST is far from an easy ride, there are many blissful moments, where lines from lyrics (some obscure, some not so) fall (pun intended) from the page – like tangents to segments of stored memory that are good (and in the context of the novel, as in the life it echoes, reassuring). There are also many sections where linear and conventional narrative and excerpts are used to great effect, particularly two variations of the same money and information scam, and an advertised vacancy for a Regional Sales Manager. In some ways these sections are like a welcome respite from the chaos and the madness, but also, a very effective reminder that madness is most prevalent in that which is often considered normal and acceptable.
It seems reasonable to me that an anti-novel may require an anti-reader, and there are many approaches that can be taken. One of the lyrics embedded is from Joy Division’s Atrocity Exhibition, and taking guidance from the preface of JG Ballard’s book of the same name – “…simply turn the pages until a paragraph catches your eye [and] if the ideas or images seem interesting scan the nearby paragraphs for anything that resonates in an intriguing way…” – could be one approach. Reading the start and the end in conventional manner, and then rapidly scanning the rest (but still in order – because there are definite patterns to the occasionally mutated repetition – and the subliminal effect will more resemble our real-time assimilation of information), is another.
Even with the most conventional of plot driven novels, each reader will have their own associations and reactions to what they have read, and they will have their own set of values, and understandings (and misunderstandings), which will inform the interpretation, so certainly with THE PLAGIARIST, the relentless bombardment and assault of the senses, and the extremely non-conventional nature, will render interpretations and reactions as varied and as chaotic as life, and the book, itself.
THE PLAGIARIST is not a book you would want to read in bed before sleeping. It is not a book you would want to read from cover to cover in one sitting. And it is not a book that will make Dan Brown revise his approach to writing. But it is a book that could change your approach to reading, and a book that should make you more aware of the world around you, and hopefully less tolerant and accepting of the hell imposed on us all.
Further information, including an excerpt and purchase details here
Very pleased and excited to have just had The Secrets of Women accepted for inclusion in the November issue of Bare Back Magazine (an online monthly erotic magazine dedicated to erotic news, stories, fantasies, poetry, reviews, art and much more). There is a link on the right.
The spreadsheet that keeps track of my submissions tells me that I have now had over 50 pieces published in the last year. So might celebrate both things with copious amounts of alcohol. And looks like I am going to be in cigarettes for at least another month – so will celebrate that by chain smoking.
Probably the first poem by Amanda Boschetto that I read was ‘the sun and the night’, and that was enough to become hooked. Delighted, therefore, to find it included in this mightily fine collection. It starts
“the sun is gazing behind the trees, licking their woody clits, by day
by night the trees rape the roads while the street shines black and dark, oblivion is faith reversed in god’s seedy eyes”
and it continues in genuinely astounding manner: naturally poetic, and, more importantly, free of the forced academic techniques and philosophical clichés that render most poetry as unexciting as a Sunday sermon. And like all good addictive stuff, it seems only right that you should get the first taste for free, and pay thereafter – $7.50 hardly being the sort of amount that necessitates the pawning (or porning) of one’s grandmother for this sort of fix.
36 poems in total, and all of them very worthy of inclusion – this is a collection not cut with crap, but instead, is the finest high-grade, with a rather nice tingly buzz.
‘twat-mothers’ and ‘fucked stars’, like many of the poems in this collection, manage to make many seemingly contradictory things coexist – the unbearably uncomfortable with the disrespectfully humorous, the vividly horrific with cold desolate beauty, and the intensely intimate with the kind of philosophy that is brutal, honest, and - above all else - real.
You get to be an old bastard like me, and a certain fatigue starts to set in – poetry, like music, suffering mostly - not from that which is truly awful - but that which is good, but not great; that which sounds or reads like so much before it. And this is why Angels in Hell is such a refreshing kick, with ‘tacky trees’, ‘god’s amnesia’, ‘fleshy bones’, ‘cynical ghosts who jump between tattered tea-bags and drink beer from rusty old cans’, ‘feckless unloving trees’, ‘smelly darkness’, and tramps fighting futilely ‘over god’s last blow job’, demonstrating that in order to write, one needs to see the world with clear and original vision - one needs to have something to actually say.
These poems are filled with cancer and anxiety, death and the void, and drunken love with pizza for breakfast; poems where nights, days, trees, and the moon are painted without romantically nostalgic deception; poems where the beauty is in seeing things as they are, not as they are not, and never were; poems that express and question, in equal measure, life – the living and the dying. But, of course, much more besides.
Sometimes they end like ‘mirrors and the evil that surrounds them’
“but mostly, i try not to stare into that mirror for too long, memory is enough and memories i have, too much”
and when they do they resonate very deeply.
Some say that the angels in hell were thrown there because they got bored shitless in heaven, and rather sensibly wanted to have sex with women on earth, others say they were cast out with that other fallen angel, but such debate is like adults talking rather seriously about the tooth-fairy. But I do suspect that those who do not buy this book will be forever tormented in a lake of fire.
Very please that The Shine Journal are going to be using one of my things. Should go up in January, I think. More later when it goes live. And really very pleased with the ultra fast response time from them. That sort of thing always makes me happy.
Always very excited when a new edition of MungBeing goes live. Issue 22 is up now, and there is a link on the right. Featuring prose, poetry, essays, music, and some very excellent artwork, it is well worth checking out.
My piece is called Things Behind The Sun – and I am quite pleased with it (mostly because it uses the ‘u’ word (twice)). There is also some excellent art by Kim Richardson and Anne van der Linden that I really like for different reasons. But, really, plenty of good stuff throughout.
Nostradamus started churning out the Almanacs around about 1550. Stupid people like to cream themselves over taking these vague and bolloxsome prophecies and applying them to any number of events that have happened since. Stupid people also like the bible. I, however, made a very specific prophesy, here on this page, dated September the 15th 2008, in which I stated that Jennifer Chesler’s piece – A Letter I Got in Prison – would be the absolute highlight of the issue. And so it has come to pass – exactly and precisely like I said it would. You can read that piece here – and you should – it is exceptional.
I have recall of seeing The Mars Volta play at The Academy, in Manchester, just after they released De-Loused in the Comatorium. It was gloriously chaotic – perhaps like what Syd’s band would have been like live – and exciting enough for me not to get too sad about the demise of At the Drive-In. You can hear The Mars Volta’s version of Nick Drake’s Things Behind The Sun here. There seem to be a number of interesting covers by The Mars Volta to check out elsewhere – Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Pulled to Bits, and the Sugarcubes’ Birthday. Apparently the ‘Volta’ bit of the name comes from Frederico Fellini’s description of a changing of scene, or a turnaround, in his films.
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