Gossip & the Devil

Update: mailbag, CRAM VI, Common Line and DIY

From an email I received a few days ago:

“…You’ve taken the time to look/read some of my work, and in the interview I read you said something about, and I am paraphrasing, if there isn’t a venue for your scene-make one.  This all kind [of] rolled around in my brain for awhile, eventually reminding me that this is how its done.  How it has always been done.

THIS is how scenes are made.  THIS is how punk of the 70′s and 80′s came together and came about.  It wasn’t about style, fashion, or genre, it was about supporting those who creatively contributed.  Sharing communication, going to each others shows, reading their work, telling others to go do the same. Especially if they were trying to do their own thing. Its how every art or music scene I have had the honor of being a part of since ’92 has worked.

How easily we as a culture, and me individually, forget that that is how it is done.

You don’t get to just show up to the party and throw your shit out there and have it be accepted and championed.  You have to work for it, you have to go find and support others who work just as hard as you do.  But only if what they do is honest.  If the end result is not honest, it will go down in flames, bellowing recriminations about the posers in the world and it/they/them will take you down in the same fiery belch…

Tyson

www.thegreatandsmall.com

I’ve struggled with the punk-rock ethic. I know that seems bizarre but it’s true. I was blinded by my own version of the rock and roll dream, my own “all I want is a major label record deal” mentality, in that all I wanted was a book deal. I didn’t want to self-publish–I wanted someone to think I was good enough to sign me to an honest-to-goodness contract. The way to do this, I thought, was to work my way up through reputable publications and until an editor read one of my works and took notice, demanded their assistant get a hold of me and I’d be the recipient of glamor and praise for all my hard work.

Even typing that sort of makes me nauseated.

While that might very well happen, I’m no longer holding my breath (and boy does it feel good). I based everything I’ve done on more of a band mentality. What I mean by that is the majority of my influences and peers are lyricists and musicians. Bands that tour endlessly and promote at each others shows. This is why I have (or will have) stickers, buttons, t-shirts, limited edition books and such a passion for music. If a band can promote themselves like this, I thought, then why can’t a poet? Why can’t I show up with flyers and stickers to shows my friends are playing and pass out my own swag?

Well I can. So I have. Then I began to think about some of my closest friends and what they had to do before they signed to their “rock and roll dream” (whether or not it turned out to be a nightmare is beside the point)–they had to self-promote, self-publish and basically do anything they possibly could to get their product into the hands of the consumers and fans that wanted it. Because of this I’ve grown more fond of self-publishing. I’m DIY in nearly every aspect, why not that too?

Typing it out now it seems like a ridiculous notion to begin with but, alas, that is where I am and, I can honestly say, I have finished my first chapbook. A very limited run of hand-numbered proof copies are being handed out/have been handed out before the final process begins. There will be an equally limited number of 1st editions once final production has commenced. I am excited, this is an exciting time.

Speaking of publications CRAM, Volume 6: The Uncensored Edition has picked up one of my very, very, very favorite poems called “Crybaby” and will be available for purchase July 31st, 2009. The ChicagoPoetry.com publication has always been good to me and I can’t say enough good things about them. I’ll have the [words] section updated soon so you can read it.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The summer issue of Common Line magazine is out and ready for you to stuff your eyeballs full of art goodness. (If you don’t remember I mentioned a while back that they’d picked me up as their music/literary editor.) The Summer 2009 issue features an interview with Def Poet George Watsky, reviews of David Labounty’s Affluenza, Melanie Browne’s Heaven is a Giant Pawn Shop, and a special music review by yours truly titled “Placebo Lose the Battle with Hope.”

Also poetry by: Carl Miller Daniels, Dennis Wilken, Tim Alexander, Melanie Browne, Lyn Lifshin, Erin Foran, Robert Louis Henry, KJ Hays, Ivan Jenson David LaBounty, Middlepoet, and Rick Spuler.

Remember, the humanities CANNOT DIE unless you LET THEM.

“Why be Beautiful when you can be Blasphemous?”

I’d been listening to My Ruin long before I ever saw them live. I used to frequent the Hole.com message boards in high school, and My Ruin got quite a few mentions over on the trading scene, which was where I initially heard their name. In 2001 I’d picked up an album called Speak and Destroy, which led me to quickly follow up with A Prayer Under Pressure of Violent Anguish. The first song proper on that album, titled “Beauty Fiend,” would go on to change my life in a myriad of ways, most of which I can’t get into with this post, at the moment.

I met lead screamer, Miss Tairrie B, in an idealistic setting back in 2005. My Ruin were playing a church-turned-venue called The Purgatory in Oklahoma City. This was a huge deal, as admittedly My Ruin are not much of a touring band in the United States, more often preferring to showcase their brand of rock overseas. At this particular time however, they were headlining on the Jägermeister-sponsored “Double Shot of Rock” tour.

I remember sitting on the steps of The Purgatory and watching her interact with the fans outside. I didn’t approach her–not because I was scared, but because I’ve never liked intruding on anyone’s space. If I want time, it’ll be on my terms, and fully mine. On the contrary, when she approached me during the show to scream the words along to a song called “Heartsick,” I WAS scared: I knew my voice couldn’t match hers, I thought I’d sound ridiculous, and I was worried I’d forget the words in the moment. I didn’t, and can remember those first lines even now:

“There once was a girl and she suffered from sickness, mouth was distorted from razor sharp kisses, tried to pretend it was all in her mind but I know her voice, when I hear mine.”

[Last year in L.A. during My Ruin's album-release show for their latest effort, Throat Full of Heart, we screamed the same words together, and I was filled with a bottomless appreciation for the life I'm allowed to live, and the people I've been blessed with.]

Up until that point Tairrie and I had only talked online, as I was an avid fan of her deconstructed clothing line, Blasphemous Girl Designs [B.G.D.], and had bought nearly every hat she’d made since I discovered it’s existence. B.G.D. had inspired me as well, prompting me to create some of my first sets of clothing, to scour thrift stores for cameos and rosaries to safety pin on vintage slips I’d find for sale online, to dress in the classiness of the 1920′s, to have a positive outlet for the creativity bubbling inside me besides my writing. After a time, I graduated from straight imitation to a blend of my own style and B.G.D and whatever haute-couture I could find in magazines like Flaunt and Elle.

Which brings me to the point of this post:

I’m announcing her latest set of creations, which can be found at www.bgd.bigcartel.com. She also has a new blog over at www.blasphemousgirldesigns.com, with updates and announcements. This is a huge deal, as it’s been years since her last collection, and frankly since her last one she’s only gotten better, pouring countless hours, blood and drops of Jack Daniels into her necklaces, bracelets, tunics and relics. Inspired by everything from insomnia to Mae West to Jesus Christ, she is a woman of many trades, and as much as she puts into her music, so does she into her merchandise.

Maybe at a later date I’ll go back through the Rolodex of memories and discuss in a little more detail those life-changing shows, how Mick is one of the nicest and most talented people in rock, how My Ruin are masters of the in-between, the silence and the screaming, with huge indie credibility, yet remaining beneath the radar, how Tairrie has been more than a friend to me, she has been my family–a sister, a listener, an ass-kicker. She was the first person to believe in me outside of my original art and english teachers. She’s one of the major reasons I’m pursuing my natural-talent, cultivating it to it’s finest bloom.

Click below to watch a commercial for her latest collection: Continue Reading…