RealityStudio.org

Lucky you!

It's about time that Crime finally pays. Over the years the band has mostly cost us money.

Well they say crime never pays don't they...I'm all for Baby You're so Repulsive - which I still play whenever I get in front of a turntable at parties...

very nice blog. looks like a fascinating trip so far. If you have a really Burroughsian moment do share. btw that pic of Blair is priceless. here's the whole address for others that are lazy like me. http://notesfromsamsara.blogspot.com/

an interview i did is now up at:
http://www.furious.com/Perfect/crime.html

Great interview!!

I really enjoyed it.

Good to put a face with the name.

I'll have to start diggin' around the record stores in B-More for some Crime and the bookstores as well.

jed

it's out.

http://www.lastgasp.com/d/31685/

I've read it, and it's a cool collection.

Johnny has a humorous way of casually inserting high weirdness into banal situations. A man might find himself levitating and battling demons, for example, and another man will enter the room, banish the demon, and say, "Welcome to Tangier', as if that situation is the norm. Both men will then leisurely smoke a cigarette, thinking nothing more of it.

We are dropped into situations with no explanation: a post-apocalyptic landscape, say, where everyone is dressed like clowns or wearing party hats. Are these odd costumes some kind of mutation of their bodies, a la Spike Milligan's 'The Bed-Sitting Room', or have their brains simply been scrambled by radiation, so that they don't care how ridiculous they look? Johnny doesn't bother with such details, and then the narrative switches to the point of view of a frightened dog and it's over. Polaroids from hell.

It was remarked to me that these stories evoke Burroughs in his Queer/Junky phase, and I'd agree with that; the prose is dry and nonchalant like those books, highlighting the absurdity of the scenarios.

The other "Killer B", J.G. Ballard, also gets a look in, getting namechecked in one of the stories.

Congrats, Johnny.

I'm still working on finding that dreaded voice. Most of what I do is take ineffective notes and make cut-ups that go forever unused.

I'm finally getting a little story published. I personally dislike it, but it was submitted into a contest as-it-was and got third place. Modest victory. Maybe someday I could be a real writer.

I'm in the October issue of 34th Parallel magazine (which is not out yet). If anyone gets around to it, my story is called "Love me with your eyes closed" (cheesy, eh?)

Congrats on your publication, Plagiarist. By all means let us know if a version appears online somewhere.

I also want to mention that I finished Johnny Strike's new book, A Loud Humming Sound Came from Above, about ten days ago. The style is rooted in noir fiction, hence the similarities to early Burroughs. The scenarios seem to echo a thousand b movies but then they're subverted by fantastic twists reminiscent of headlines from the Weekly World News: otherworldly powers, catastrophes, the sort of stuff covered in contracts by a force majeure clause. It's a very solid collection of stories. Congrats to Johnny.

Yes, congratulations on the the book Johnny, and on your story, Plagiarist.

Perhaps you could both let me and any other members who are living in London know if either of these things are available anywhere here? I need an excuse to go and check out some of the more interesting bookshops here anyway- being new to town and now reasonably settled- and I really don't like the idea of buying books over the internet, being the laughing stock luddite that I apparently am.

Myself, I am reinvigorating my blog, if anyone is interested. I am committing myself to posting at least one short piece there every two weeks on Fridays, starting from today. I don't know if it is very Burroughsian though, beyond my general malcontentment with the world, that I suppose I share with him. Anyway, if you are at all curious, look up my address below.

One of my pets is I like small intimate readings of people I want to hear. So I started a reading Series. I call it the Sunset Drive Poetry Readings, even though the first ones were at my east Lawrence home and the last one was Monday Oct. 29th. at Milton's coffee shop downtown Lawrence. Charley Plymell is just one of those friends who just appears in front of you, sometimes at the perfect time, usually at least a good time. I asked him to read, set up the reading, did a little PR, that night opened the reading, with just blurting this poem into the mic. It was because I felt that Charley had been sent to me to get me off my doff.



Beaver Busy

Beaver Busy

my life's so loud
death's on fire
burning my heart.

I speak
with a mute voice
tomorrow I will remember
to breath.

I sit on a chair
with a sister
watching a house burn.

It must be time to let
my friends
take over again.


Three Bills sit with us.
my first Bill
daring with blue eyes
whispers
let it go.

Old elegant William
sweet and sharp
growls
just look at that!

Battling to sit still
I win.
Bills, all these Bills
I must pay them.

The garden Bill says
live
gloriously purposely.

Nice poem Pat.

I've just updated my blog with an article/text that may appeal to forum members:

notefromsamsara.blogspot.com

The article's called, 'Scarborough, Beachside Suburb of Dreams.'

(how do I make that into a link? I don't know... but you can cut and paste it. There's no 'www'...)

I wouldn't mind a bit of honest feedback on this particular posting. Be as severely critical or otherwise as you like: I need to know what people really think.

Also, you will find a link there to my new 'art blog'- picturesfromsamsara.blospot.com- which is a sort of open studio/ provisional website for my artwork before I get a 'proper' one...

Not much on 'Pictures from Samsara' yet, but stay tuned!

I failed at finding your sites I found the main Blog site but could not find
notefromsamsara.blogspot.com

it's there if you put an s in , as in "notes", just having a look now.