lit shiz and other...

thanks to everyone who sent their kind words of support and consolation; it means a lot to us.

onwards.

Kendra Steiner Editions just issued their latest offering, a joint chapbook of poems and photos by Luis C. Berriozabal and my lady Cynthia Etheridge. it's a well-done b/w affair featuring the usual stunning poetry of LCB coupled with textured, atmospheric photographs taken by Cyn. she also did the covers of two of my chaps, In Gambler's Blood (sold out) and A Sound To Drive Away The Coming Darkness (still available). you can read more about it or order your own copy of this limited release H E R E.

in the very near future, some of my work will be appearing in an anthology put together by William Taylor, Jr for Lummox Press along with Miles Bell, Hosho McCreesh, MK Chavez, Father Luke, Christopher Robin and Bill. this is a collection of some of Bill's favorite writers, and I'm honored to appear. the title of the anthology is Down This Crooked Road, taken from one of my poems, which is nice of Bill, and I'll post ordering info as soon as the book is available. I hope you google the above authors and find out more about their work if you don't know it; you'll be pleased with what you find...

one of my poems will be appearing in the forthcoming Bottle, an all broadside "magazine" from Bill Roberts at Bottle of Smoke Press. these are some of the finest broadsides you'll ever see, and mine is no exception. the title is blindstamped and the artwork is a four color letter pressed masterpiece of perfect interpretation. you can see it being printed H E R E and I have a few author's copies. I'll send a signed copy to the first TWO people who email me who aren't already getting a contrib. copy of Bottle.

Hosho and I will have the next section in the timeline of our letters published in BukScene #2 (you can read about #1 H E R E), due out in the near future. this segment covers the first couple months of 2003 and Hosh's time in Paris. if you've read Sunlight, you might be interested. again, I'll post info when the issue appears.

speaking of Sunlight, I just want to say thanks to all those who've emailed us and told us how much they enjoyed reading it. anyone who wants to take a small peek inside can click H E R E.

lastly, my new chap Death Is My Subject is forthcoming in the next month or two from Propaganda Press as part of their Pocket Protector Series. there will be links, I promise, when it's ready to roll.

okay for now. more later.

sorry...

I've been away for a bit; we've had a death in the family. such things help one realize exactly who and what's important and how everything and everyone else can go get fucked.

but you get emails like this one from Doug Draime and it helps one understand why making art is an important thing, no matter the level of suffering, no matter the difficulty of enduring another withering day in the shitpile of humanity. thanks again for the kind words on Sunlight, big Doug:

"...Received my hardback copy a few days ago, and I honestly can't think of a book I've read in recent history that I am more impressed by. The way you guys so fearlessly question the human condition, and the artist's place in it, is a must read for anyone who passionately seeks the purpose of our existence, and our reason for creating. IT IS ONE ASS KICKING MOTHERFUCKER of a book..."

this then is the crux and function of all good writing and of all good art: the forging of a deep connection and thru it, honest communication with actual, living, feeling human beings. this person who died was not a "poetry type" (whatever that is), but he read, in his later life, some small press poets who reached him in a way I always belived to be possible, and saw, thru this man, the actual accomplishment of poetry cutting thru the ugliness of years of hard life, and shining a melancholy light and shades of hope on what remains.

and if that's not what you strive for as an artist, to save some portion of the beauty of humanity to show to the lost and miserable, the dead and dying, the lonely and hopeless, to alchemize the suffering of the everyday into something that helps us go on despite our inevitable walk into those dark woods at the end, then you are just a finger painter fiddling with turds, just a child with a chip and a shoulder, just a weak masturbating diarist, doomed to wallow in the misery of your choices for as long as your sad little lives manage to creak along before the big fall.

real life is out there, kids; pay attention and "do not waste it lightly," sayeth the kamikaze...

go read this...

interview with the earthly representative of that Cosmic Funk Machine and Psychedelia Factory that is Noot d'Noot, Mathis Hunter, H E R E.

find out what makes a person do the kinds of things a person like this does.

another published writer...

in the family. seems like I'm not the only one who can write a letter; check out cyn's righteous indignation H E R E on a topic we at The Compound know way too fucking much about at this point...

some of the presentation copy watercolors...

hosh's are on the left and mine are on the right. you can tell because mine stink and his are awesome.

a good day...

freshly opened...


the four color letterpressed spines on the clamshells...


basking in the goodness.

the presentation copies have gold silk spines and the lettered copies have red silk spines. these things are unreal looking, and the trade paperback sofcovers are glorious as well. they are all signed and the watercolors inserted and the manuscript broads, cds and all else are ready to go. looks like everything will start shipping at the first of the week. thanks again to everyone involved in this fantastic book.

hardbacks...

everything is finished on the hardbacks, and will be in my grubby mitts for signing on tuesday. then I'll ship em to jason in chicago and they will be on their way to you good folks. the cds should arrive at the same time, and all softcover orders will go out at that point as well.

the time is at hand. we're excited. we offer our deepest thanks to everyone involved, and to you, the reader of the work, most of all.

you can order softcovers H E R E.

super sneak peak...

at one of the seven "Presentation" copies of Sunlight, a hardcover version sitting in a custom clamshell case. each of these will have two original watercolors, one each by Hosh and I, with images drawn from the text, lovingly inserted:

new noot video...