Monkeybicycle 7

04Nov09

Just got word that Monkeybicycle 7 is available for preorder here. Looks like it’s got a great lineup of writers (Elizabeth Alexander, Angi Becker Stevens, Ryan Boudinot, Rita Dahl, Craig Davis, Andrew Ervin, Molly Gaudry, Roxane Gay, Aaron Gilbreath, Reed Hearne, James Kaelan, Corey Mesler, Weam Namou, Daniel Romo, Ken Saji, Shya Scanlon, Tyler Stoddard Smith, Rebecca van Laer, Yassen Vassilev, Edwin Wilson Rivera, and Michael Wood), and a very cool cover.

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Dia de los muertos

02Nov09

I’ve always wanted to be in Mexico for the Day of the Dead, and I just remembered it again today, seeing it on the calendar. Specifically, I’ve always wanted to be in San Miguel de Allende. It’s the town four hours north of Mexico City where Neil Cassady died. I went there once, in January of 2001, and I got to experience Three Kings Day, on January 6. There was a huge festival and people in a procession through town. There were also representations in windows and storefronts of the Three Kings coming to visit the infant Jesus with their gifts from the Far East. The people of San Miguel really did it right, I thought. I hear that the Day of the Dead is pure craziness there. I have to get there soon for this, and I don’t want to forget about it again next year.

One other thing I experienced on my January trip there was San Miguel Poetry Week. One of the readers who I thought was totally outlandish and weird was this guy named W.D. Snodgrass. He was reading some poem with his wife, and they had a slide projector and were making bird sounds. I can’t remember what the slides were. A year or two later, I bought a literature anthology from the Salvation Army, and there was W.D., again. One of his poems was included. This year I’ve been reading about the poet Anne Sexton quite a bit, and there’s W.D. again. I guess he was her mentor before she left this world in the ’70s. It’s funny to me how this guy who I had little taste for at the time keeps popping up in these very notable places over a span of nearly a decade. Now, years later, I regret that I didn’t know what I know now, and go up to W.D. and talk to him in that relaxed mountain setting of central Mexico. He probably would’ve had some good things to say. Or maybe he would’ve just made bird calls at me.

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Lovin’ The Rumpus

30Oct09

It’s been slowly creeping into my consciousness since the summer, and lately I can’t get enough of the The Rumpus. In recent days, I’ve been drawn to their story on the Anvil documentary, and Stephen Elliott’s book tour accounts. Rozalia Jovanovic’s stories about events around New York have been great, too. I remember the early days of Salon.com, and The Rumpus seems to be filling that void I felt when Salon briefly charged to read its articles and then sort of lost steam for me after that.

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Dead Sextons at Trash Bar on 10/29

22Oct09

The band’s playing Trash in Williamsburg one week from today. We’ll be be going on at 9pm after Katy C’s band, the amazing DeathMask. It’s been my dream to play Trash ever since experiencing it sometime back in the summer of ‘07. Those were the days. That’s 256 Grand St. between Driggs and Roebling, right near where Henry Miller grew up back in the 1890s. As mentioned here, this is our Halloween creep-rock extravaganza. It’s also our first show with our new drummer, Julian. Don’t miss it!

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Monkeybicycle 6 Reviewed on 12 frogs

05Oct09

They keep coming. We’ve got another excellent review of Monkeybicycle 6 on Jenny Spadafora’s blog 12 frogs. Here’s a large glimpse:

“It seems sensationalist to mention sex, twins, and midgets… but I just did. Yes, they are all mentioned, and two out of three are star characters and a recurring story topic. It may seem even more strange to say the stories in this issue really aren’t lurid, but really they aren’t. Not even the story where the guy’s wang wants to be an astronaut.

“Well, not lurid in a bad way.

“You probably just figured out whether or not Monkeybicycle is for you. I hope it is, because it has lots of good stories in it. The sort that are painful in a good way, with things that made me wince, that I couldn’t believe but of course believed and kept turning pages.”

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Dead Sextons at Opium Live on Friday

05Oct09

We’re fusing the worlds of music and literature on Friday night, October 9, for the launch of Opium Live, a new interview series by Opium Magazine at Bowery Electric (327 Bowery, near Joey Ramone Place). Dead Sextons will be providing some of the soundtrack to the night. We’re playing a set at 9:15.

Oh yeah, and the interviewees: novelist Anya Ulinich, author of Petropolis, and singer-songwriter Zee Avi. The show starts at 8, doors are at 7:30. Cost is $5. It should be a pretty amazing night, with a lot of talent sharing the spotlight.

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Official Flyers for Saturday’s Show at Zebulon

01Oct09

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Another Good Review for Monkeybicycle 6

25Sep09

I keep discovering new journals and writers through Monkeybicycle. Today I just saw on MB’s Twitter that Issue 6 was reviewed in Prick of the Spindle. The journal’s editor-in-chief Cynthia Reeser reviews it, and she says the issue has “a wry sensibility and an evocative, observant quality.”

I get the sense from her review that there were almost too many good stories to choose from. That’s not a bad thing.

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Forecast To Be Published

25Sep09

Just saw the announcement on Shya Scanlon’s site. His novel Forecast, which has been getting serialized across 42 sites, including this one, has been picked up by Flatmancrooked for publication in 2010. This is fantastic news. It means the Forecast 42 project, though only half finished, has been a resounding success. It’s very difficult to get a book published, and the project created a groundswell of support and exposure for this one in a way I don’t think has been done before. It also means the world gets its first taste of a smart new voice in what I’m guessing will be just the first of many great novels. Congratulations, Shya!

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Dead Sextons @ Zebulon 10/3, The Delancey 9/28

20Sep09

The band’s been getting some offers to play lately, and it looks like we’ve gotten one confirmation. We’re playing at Zebulon in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on Saturday, October 3. I’m guessing we’ll go on around 10. The address is 258 Wythe Ave., between North 3rd and Metropolitan. The L train to Bedford will get you close.

In other Sextons news, it looks like we will be playing The Delancey on Monday, 9/28, as mentioned previously in this blog. We’ll be on at 10pm downstairs. That’s 168 Delancey St., between Clinton and Attorney, F train to Delancey.

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