Poetry Channel #56
3/27/99
IN THIS EPISODE: National Masturbation Month, Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, Firecracker Alternative Book Awards, Diane di Prima, Kevin Sampsell & Ritah Parrish, Lummox Press, Wavy Brain Moves, Electric Lounge Closes.Beginnings are always so awkward so I’ll jump into the pit.
You know how April is National Poetry Month? Well, I thought you should know that May is National Masturbation Month. Good Vibrations in San Francisco is holding a contest. All you have to do is list your ten favorite things to masturbate with, and you could win a $100 gift certificate. But I guess I’m jumping the gun a little bit, gotta get back to issues at hand.
A pal was kind enough to say, “forget Bogota, the Second Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair happens March 29 here in San Francisco at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.” Someone else said “don’t forget the LA Times Book Festival on April 24 & 25 on the UCLA campus.” Book Expo follows on its heels the following weekend. It’s a huge trade show where publishers, writers and distributors schmooze booksellers and get them amped for the latest in floral blank books, self-help manuals and the latest celebrity confessional. I predict Monica Lewinsky will make an appearance and booksellers will line the convention floor for a signed copy of her story. (Then again, I don’t know -- book sales have probably reached their height with that particular topic.) Last year everyone craned their necks for a glimpse of Sophia Loren.
The Firecracker Alternative Book Awards coincide with the Book Expo. It's a clever way to get media attention for books that would have been swept away in the vast mainstream. At least, this is the hope. I notice a growing tendency by big house presses to run campaigns for their titles. I mean, what are the rules? No one is quite sure. I’m watching how some people are playing it, and it’s not all the same playing field.
Are these awards truly honoring independent publishing or has the very notion of ‘alternative’ become a hook that once worked for the music industry? I think it’s a hook. Is it born of a desire to unify the community of independent presses or is a tool to sell books? Probably a little of both. But since the voting is still open to the public, one ballot per person, I recommend you play in Firecracker Book Awards. No, I mean it. Just because I bitch about it doesn’t mean it's not valid on some level. Right? It’s going to take grassroots action, I guess that’s why I’m even talking about it. I’m just tripping on people who are into false winning, but pals just pull me aside and cluck cluck how naïve I am. Vote at thecomicstore.com. For poetry, I’m split between The Forgiveness Parade by Jeff McDaniel (Manic D Press) and The Cowardice of Amnesia by Ellyn Maybe (2.13.61). I predict that Beau Sia’s parody book (A Night Without Armor II: The Revenge) will win, though; every populist election needs a good campaign manager and publicist Bill Adler does a most amazing job.
Here are a few other titles I wanted to recommend:
FICTION/SHORT STORY
- The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America by Michelle Tea (Semiotexte) Flashbacks and Premonitions by Jon Longhi (Manic D Press)
NON-FICTION/REFERENCE
- Psychotropedia: A Guide to Publications on the Periphery edited by Russ Kick (Headpress/Critical Vision) The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth (Chicago Review Press) Outsiders Looking In: How to Keep from Going Crazy When Someone You Love Goes to Jail by Toni Weymouth and Maria Telesco (Olinc Publishing) Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison by Allen Hornblum (Routledge Press)
POETRY
- The Forgiveness Parade by Jeff McDaniel (Manic D Press) The Cowardice of Amnesia by Ellyn Maybe (2.13.61)
ART
- The End is Near: Visions of Apocalypse, Millennium & Utopia (Dilettante Art Press) Facetasm by Gary Panter and Charles Burns (Gates of Heck)
MUSIC
- Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind (Feral House) Shonen Knife Land (Little More Press)
GRAPHIC NOVEL
- A Child’s Life by Phoebe Glockner (North Atlantic Books) Recipe for Disaster by Penny Van Horn (Fantagraphics Books)
ZINE
- Dishwasher (Portland) Danzine (Portland) Sic Vice and Verse (Los Angeles)
I know there’s a ton of titles I forgot. I apologize in advance and encourage everyone who has a vested interest to get on the email tree and get their pals to vote. Deadline is April 1. El Vez is the scheduled entertainment at the awards party and there are rumors of Vaginal Davis or Crispin Glover hosting the show. Who knows, even cynical booksellers tend to get starry eyed.
San Francisco beat poet Diane di Prima is reading on the East Coast, and she sent her schedule:
- April 17 - Patterson, NJ, Passaic County Community College
- April 21 - New York, Poseman’s Books, University Place
- April 22 - New York, Barnes & Noble, Astor Place
- April 24 - New York, Brooklyn Public Library, Sunset Park Branch
- April 27 - Newburyport, MA, The Book Rack
- April 29 - Cambridge, MA, Waterstone’s Bookstore
Future Tense publisher Kevin Sampsell and Ritah Parrish are performing this week in Las Vegas with their pals Beth Lisick and Dayvid Figler. Such an ensemble is irresistible; if you’re in the area you should go (the five subscribers in Las Vegas, I’m talking to you). Isn’t there a Nap Jam this weekend as well?
A reader wrote in. This is what he said:
Dear Poetry Guide--
Recently you mentioned your concern about the SoCal publishing scene or lack there of. . . I'd just like to report to you that the SoCal Small Press is going strongly and is represented by many established small presses and some new ones as well. This includes mine. The Lummox Press which publishes the Lummox Journal, each & every month, SoCal's only monthly small press mag (at least that I've heard of) and also publishes the poetry & fiction of RD Armstrong AND the Little Red Book series, which includes books by Scott Wannberg, Todd Moore, Bill Shields, AD Winans and (soon) Laura Joy Lustig, Lyn Lifshin & Rene Diedrich! All is not so dead out here in la-la land!
RD
--
Raindog
Writer - Poet - All Things Graffic - Music
LUMMOX Productions: Music & Poetry Events
LUMMOX Journal: monthly Arts & Lit mag ($20 for 12 issues)
PO Box 5301 San Pedro, CA 90733-5301 USA
Umm, thanks! I can’t find the other delightful letter I received but I’ll share as soon as it shows up. Late news: Electric Lounge, the poets’ playground in Austin, has just announced they are shutting their doors. No word yet where the slam will move. One of my favorite stores in Albuquerque, Wavy Brain, is moving to Seattle and joining forces with Confounded Books. They’re sharing space starting in May. Look for a big party complete with a Peter Bagge signing! Daphne Gottlieb and Marci Blackman are booking their spoken word tours -- please help them out if they call. Not only are they talented, but they’re lovely houseguests as well. (Answer to Rray: Nutroll is a poetry zine. Answer to JR: Much better now, thanks. I still get tired easily.)
Dozens of poets make the trek this weekend to Chicago for the slammaster’s meeting -- check the slam home page for details. What’s this I’m hearing? First Barnes & Noble bought book distribution giant Ingram, and now B&N apparently is on the acquisition block. The buyer? Disney! Still an unconfirmed rumor as yet: friends know this particular issue is a button of mine and sometimes they like to push it just to see me scream.
I’m out of town for awhile, not checking email but you can leave a message on my answering machine at home if you’re feeling lucky. Please send newsy bits and indignant comments to sofasurf@usa.net. That’s my address. If you want to unsubscribe (and I don’t blame you if you do) please do so at the link below. Thanks Margery! Poetry Channel & Information Network is the property of Juliette Torrez, which allows her the daily opportunity to make an ass of herself. Thanks to Margery Snyder, Bob Holman and About.com Poetry for posting my thang in their otherwise respectable Web site.
xox Juliette Torrez
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