Your Mother's Medicine Cabinet Poetry Series: James H. Duncan. July 30, 2012

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Paleolithic Bone Hut: A review of Tim Murray's chapbook "Dinosaur Ditch" by Frankie Metro

It’s not going to do you any good by questioning the reasoning for a blue wooly mammoth on the cover of Dinosaur Ditch (Tim Murray CFDL Press 2012).

A hand- made, screen- print, card-stock saddle-stitch, this book exemplifies the spirit of DIY publishing; igniting the same excitement an avid reader found in the days of the mimeograph… the ages of Micheline and Levy.

Part 1

is an introduction to the American Black Heart i.e. Northwest Indiana. Tim’s perception of his birth rite is a place riddled with smoke stacks, pollution and an almost unredeemable, thus unapologetic, existence.

Thru blind birth luck
I live in Indiana
Frozen crossroads of the American conundrum
Under the legalized gusts
Of steel mill exhausts
Where the mercury-laced waters
Of Lake Michigan lap in the north

However, in the same state of affairs are traditional family relics and boyhood candor.

Where boys spend summers pissing from trees
In Dinosaur Ditch
Where grandma’s iron kitchen skillet
Fist received its golden commandment from heaven

The key transitional points of the poem are located in the vinyl coated, mechanized blood of factory workers, fathers with balled fists and:

Where summers lasts for two hours in July
Then returns to comforting gray chilled skies
Where Tina was snuffed out at 19
Stabbed and discarded like a sack of trash
Still no suspects in sight

---

The Perils of Language

explains (through a trilogy of arrant and brazen metaphors) how so much of basic communication is lost in modern language.

Sometimes language gets in the way of
relaying a particular image thru ink
to page
and it is a real drag because
I end up saying something like…
Tin can zombie
when what I really mean is…
Your milky skin
In the early morning
Sun

I particularly enjoyed the guest appearances of both Geddy Lee and Kamala within the poem. Rush has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and when I see T/M’s speculation on The Spirit of Radio:

Like when Geddy Lee sings…
Digital airwaves crackle with life
when you sense his true observation
is something along the lines of…
My life has absolutely no significance
And I could better serve humanity by returning to
Ontario and finding work in a paint factory

I don’t feel as bad by not owning up to my admiration… before now.

---

Pages 6-8 show T/M’s own conflicted admirations for pop culture icons, and considering the magnanimous presence he exudes (both on page and in person) I think it’s safe to say Tim Murray is an iconoclast in the making.

If I gotta read biography
I wanna read the last chapter
Last moments in the life of the immortal images of pop culture
Say
The paunchy slouched version of
James Douglas Morrison
Tearing tab from beer can
w/suds streaming through tangled beard
(wounded child clown angel perhaps)

---

A Unicycle Built for Two

is a map of domestic booby traps, fail- safes, shattered vanity mirrors and no more misconceptions.

We all know that a private corner
Devoid of all human interaction is completely
Necessary and therefore impossible
Yeah having time to live with the person
Who gives your tummy a tingle and your
Butterflies a stir
Is surely a curse
Because we soon find out the truth about steamy Hollywood
Shower scenes
At the very best they are a hilarious joke
In theory they sound as good as ice cream for dinner
In practice your partner always hogs the side with the
Warm water leaving you shivering with your back against
The frigid tile wall
Then there’s the toenail clippings in the living room
And the rough way your partner handles your records
On the turntable

Page 12’s continuation is a very, very, very (familiar) common discussion, which frightened me on 2 levels:

A) Does T/M have an invisible x-ray telescope with built- in video/audio recording equipment that can see and hear from great distances- interactions between monogamous couples, even in the sanctity of their filthy bathrooms.

I can't find the car keys!
Uh…well I obviously don’t have ‘em.
Where did you last see them?
In the front door lock.
When was that?
(grunt) Last night when I came home.
Oh great…so you left the fucking keys in the door all night…again?

B) There are more couples besides my wife and myself that have similar conversations?

(longer grunt) Uh…I…uh…guess…there’s a strong possibility…yes.
If they’ve been in the door all night I’m gonna kill you!
(lighter grunt)…

---

Finally, the title poem suggests that such minor inconveniences only serve as learning tools for ultimate/simplistic appreciation; the minor infractions are forgotten over time, and dancing through schoolyard tornadoes, crashing into walls of disappointment, fleeing the scene during appropriate/inappropriate times- leaves you with memories of all the last times.

then one afternoon my younger brother called to say
D.C. was gone
and I heard how he’d been home for a stretch
before the army decided to redeploy him to Iraq
and they sent him down to Missouri for
some training maneuvers
and it was in the Missouri woods
that a couple of ticks decided to hitch a ride on his bare
skin and D.C. fell ill
and within a few hours he made the great departure
and they say it was rocky mountain spotted fever
or Lyme disease or perhaps a combination of both
the only thing certain is that D.C. is gone
and he left behind a son as young as we once were
and that spilled forth the realization of my own certain mortality
flooded with the memories I’ve related in this pome
and I remember the last time I spoke to D.C.
circa 1994
he sat in front of me in Mr. Krieger’s health class
and one day D.C. was sleeping at his desk as papers were being
passed and
I nudged him and said
D.
D.
take one pass ‘em on
and without saying a word he raised his head
took the papers from my hand
passed them forward
and returned to his school day nap


(if you would like to purchase or read more about Dinosaur Ditch, please visit Citizens for Decent Literature Press)

David Blaine Interviews Victor Schwartzman

Press Release: Punk Hostage Press Announces Staff Addition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Punk Hostage Press Announces Staff Addition

Thursday, July 26, 2012--Iris Berry and A. Razor announced today the addition of Michele McDannold to the Punk Hostage Press staff. She will be working on the editorial staff as well as heading the Public Relations Department.

Michele was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications from 2007 to early 2012. She is currently the Director of Print and Special Projects at Red Fez. Besides her work at Red Fez, Michele founded the grassroots organization The Literary Underground. The Literary Underground's notable projects to date include: the Underground Wiki, Citizens for Decent Literature Press and the Project U Radio Network.

More information on Punk Hostage Press upcoming titles and projects will be released soon.

About Punk Hostage Press
On January, Friday the 13th, 2012, Iris Berry and A. Razor made a pact to publish prose, short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction and well formulated rants on a new press called Punk Hostage Press. Punk Hostage Press is a Los Angeles, CA based non-profit organization that publishes well-crafted books of literature. Punk Hostage Press is committed to providing relevant literature and opportunities for discussion and reflection in such institutions as prisons, jails, homeless and women’s shelters and treatment programs. Punk Hostage Press aims to publish 10-15 new titles each year. For more information about upcoming book releases and projects, please visit punkhostagepress.com

###

For more information contact Michele McDannold at punkhostage(at)theliteraryunderground[dot]org

Project U Radio: Special Guest Tim Murray. July 26, 2012

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Your Mother's Medicine Cabinet Poetry Series: Erin Reardon. July 23, 2012

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Your Mother's Medicine Cabinet Poetry Series: Wolfgang Carstens. July 16, 2012

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The Drakonian Vampire Tunnel is Closed for Repairs: Balls Out. July 14, 2012

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Project U Radio: The Punk Aesthetic/Post-Bay Wrapup. July 12, 2012

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Candid in Berkeley (post thrashing). July 7, 2012

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The Drakonian Vampire Tunnel is Closed for Repairs: Pre-Bay Special. July 4, 2012

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Toxic Abatement

San Francisco, CA
THIS WEEK- JULY 5, 2012 PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

Toxic Abatement: Spoken Words, Contaminated World… Full Of Crow’s
Fashion For Collapse will host the first Toxic Abatement Poetry and
Music Event on July 5, 2012 at Viracocha, San Francisco, California.
See website at www.fashionforcollapse.com for full details, graphics,
links, and bios.

The event will feature local and visiting poets, and the 3x Bad Band.
Hang out after at Cava 22.

Details: Thursday, July 5, 2012 from 7:30-10:00 p.m. at Viracocha, 998
Valencia, San Francisco, California. Contact Lynn Alexander or Paul
Corman-Roberts for more information.

FEATURED:

Youssef Alaoui-Fdili, Zarina Zabrisky, Cassandra Dallett, Sharon
Coleman, John Swain, Tim Murray, Joel Landmine, Shali Nicholas, Amy
Glasenapp, Jezebel Delilah X, Missy Church, Frankie Metropolis, and
Brian Fugett. Music by 3x Bad Band.

Hosted by Lynn Alexander and Paul Corman-Roberts. lynnalx@gmail.com
or 412-737-1421.

ABOUT:

Youssef Alaoui-Fdili
Youssef has spent much time with the dowdier whores at the lower end
of Rue Saint Denis, among the Vieux Halles in Gay Paree. Bed was a
fresher place with them.
Touch Youssef’s home base at the following locale
youssefalaoui.tumblr.com
Buy this man’s sea-soaked novella by any means possible and without
delay! You will not regret a single moment spent with Youssef’s
anti-heroic character Nickel the agoraphobic sailor and his Spaniard
shipmates! Both sublime horror and spiritual insight await the passing
of your gaze amidst these lofty pages, but how can this be? Find out
right away and for a mere pittance!

Zarina Zabrisky is a myth and only exists in her stories. She burns
them and dances in flames. Watch her or jump in if you dare.

Cassandra Dallett occupies Oakland, CA. Cassandra writes of a counter
culture childhood in Vermont and her ongoing adolescence in the San
Francisco Bay Area. She has published in Hip Mama, The Chiron Review,
Bleed Me A River, Ascent Aspirations, Criminal Class Review, Nibble,
and The Milvia Street Journal among many others. Look for links on
cassandradallett.com.

Sharon Coleman’s poems or blink fiction have appeared in Caesura,
Criminal Class Review, Sparkle Blink, Blink Ink, Out of Our, Try!, The
Walrus, Syllogism, Berkeley Poetry Review, Ghost Town/Pacific Review,
North Coast Literary Review, Penumbra, Folio, and online at Lily, Full
of Crow and Dark Sky Magazine. She’s a contributing editor at Poetry
Flash and teaches poetry writing at Berkeley City College. She is a
co-curator of the reading series Lyrics & Dirges in Berkeley. She was
recently nominated for a Pushcart for blink fiction.

John Swain lives in Louisville, Kentucky. His chapbooks include:
Prominences and Sinking of the Cloth (Flutter Press); Set Apart Before
the World Was Made(Calliope Nerve Media); The Feathered Masks and
Burnt Palmistry (Full of Crow); Handing the Cask (erbacce press);
Fragments of Calendars (Thunderclap Press) and White Vases (Crisis
Chronicles Press). His work has received nominations for the Pushcart
Prize, Best of the Net, and Best of the Web.

Tim Murray is a lifelong resident of Northwest Indiana. He has hosted
the Red Fez blogtalk radio show since 2010. He was recently nominated
for a Pushcart Prize by NightBallet Press for his poem “Certified
Outlaw”. His chapbooks include “What I Did Monday” (Ten Pages Press,
2011), “I’m this robot.” (Eephus Press, 2012), and the forthcoming
“Dinosaur Ditch” from Citizens For Decent Literature Press.

Joel Landmine: San Francisco poet and curmudgeon Joel Landmine is a
longtime contributor to the Anger Management and Tenderloin Reading
Series. He has also read with the Portugese Artsist Colony and Inside
Storytime series. He has begrudgingly survived several near-death
experiences, is a dissapointment to his family and loved ones, and
rarely leaves the house.


Shali Nicholas lives in the San Bernardino mountains where she,
unfortunately, gleans no inspiration from nature. If you find that you
recognize yourself in her writing:
1) that is completely unavoidable and must be taken as any other
unavoidable event or act of nature and also 2) that is completely of
your own imagining

Amy Glasenapp is a bay area poet, writer, and teacher and has been
featured in local readings like Anger Management and EBOB.

Jezebel Delilah X Feminist Afrocentric Black Queer Femme Lesbian
Artist Writer Performer Curious Dreamer Fighter Champion Love-Warrior
Activist Mermaid Princess.

Missy Church, a Bay Area resident since 1996, has been writing poetry
and flash since her teens. She has appeared in numerous readings in
San Francisco and Oakland. Her memoir/bio/novelish thing, Church, is
coming soon. She prides herself on co-creating a tiny human in the
form of a boy. He enjoys long walks and Pee Wee Herman.
Missy is a member of 9st Writing Group, Anger Management Reading
Series and runs The Naked Bulb, an open mic, out of her Oakland
backyard.
Frankie Metropolis

Frankie Metropolis operates the Meth Lab, and hosts the radio show
Drakonian Vampire Tunnel Is Closed For Repairs on The Literary
Underground. He is a fiction editor at Red Fez and writes a monthly
column there, “The Left Handed Smoker”.

Brian Fugett: American poet, cartoonist, editor, and publisher of
underground lit. He is most well-known as the editor of Zygote in my
Coffee. Established Tainted Coffee Press which publishes the print
issues of Zygote, poetry chapbooks and flipbooks.

ABOUT THE HOSTS:

Paul Corman-Roberts is the host of Bitchez Brew, and has co-organized
various readings and events around the bay area, including the
upcoming BEAST Lit Crawl in Oakland and ZyFez 2. He is an editor at
Red Fez and Full Of Crow, and was the poetry editor for Cherry Bleeds.

Lynn Alexander produces and edits online and print publications for
Full Of Crow Press and Distribution, Including Fashion For Collapse
and Blink Ink (edited by Doug Mathewson). She is also the head fiction
editor at Red Fez and edits Citizens For Decent Literature Press with
Michele McDannold.

Both host Project U Radio at The Literary Underground.

Thank you for supporting independent press and community poetry.

Your Mother’s Medicine Cabinet: Open Phones. July 2, 2012

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