June/July 2012 On Project U Radio

Project U Radio airs online every Thursday night, at 10:30 CST,11:30 pm EST and the show page can be found here. Project U Radio is a weekly show featuring topics, discussions, guests, and call-in open mic sessions. Hosted by Lynn Alexander and Paul Corman-Roberts, this show features a mixed bag- see full details about upcoming topics, information about the hosts, and background here. Get in touch with Lynn at lynnalx@gmail.com and check out The Literary Underground on facebook.

The Literary Underground also features Your Mother's Medicine Cabinet (Frank Reardon), The Drakonian Vampire Tunnel, and Meth Lab (Frankie Metro). Download previous episodes or listen online if you miss them! Read more for the schedule...

Coming Up On Project U Radio- April And May

     Project U Radio is a radio program hosted by Lynn Alexander and Paul Corman-Roberts that streams live over the internet, with live callers and archives you can download. Brought to you by The Literary Underground, Project U Radio generally airs on Thursday nights, at 11:30 p.m. EST, 8:30 PST. Listen, set reminders, download an archive, and more at the show page: here.  All welcome. Uncensored, unscripted, unhinged. Santorgasmic Family Values programming that will make your Aunt Helen smile. We're already deranged, but we need your illness too. Project U is about asking the tough questions (then straying off topic), hard hitting small press journalism (ok, maybe passive facebook surfing journalism) and a commitment to poetry as demonstrated by random performances and open mic nights. We're gonna make you take a shower and proclaim your poetic tendencies from the top of a box store. Kick it.

Did you know that you can donate to The Literary Underground? Look to the right and FEED THE KITTY. It helps when we can pay the bills.

Listen now to our April 26 show! Listen or download from the archives here! LIVE AT THE TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND-with special guests Missy Church, Hollie Hardy- some of the organizers of BEAST CRAWL. Find out about BEAST Crawl, planned for July. Lynn Alexander and Paul Corman-Roberts. To find out about BEAST Crawl, 2012, check the website here. 

More Literary Underground Radio Goodness: Frank Reardon now hosts Your Mother's Medicine Cabinet, on Monday evenings. Frank interviews small press writers with live call in. Draconian Vampire Tunnel airs in the ass of dawn on Tuesday nights. (Wednesday, East Coast) Frankie Metro will bring you a mixed bag of music, poetry, live callers, and more. Worth staying up for! And let's face it, you are up talking to Brian Fugett anyway.

Coming up on PROJECT U Thursdays. You KNOW you want to call in: 

(Archived) April 26: LIVE AT THE TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND WITH SPECIAL GUESTS MISSY CHURCH AND HOLLIE HARDY. Find out about BEAST Crawl, in July. Listen to Paul Corman-Roberts eat and ramble while Lynn Alexander eggs him on. Will he pass the phone around Oakland? FIND OUT!

May 3: (Go To Episode) The Literary Underground: Community, Collective, Chaos? What IS The Literary Underground? The time has come to share the vision of the Literary Underground community, with founder Michele McDannold, who will speak to her "manifesto". We would also like to hear your thoughts on this segment about this idea of community building, if it can work, or if it is doomed to collapse in a cloud of chaos and ego implosions. If you remain positive about the collective or community model, share your thoughts on what works. If you are cynical and sour, we want to hear about that, too.

And it goes without saying that in small press, some people play nicer than others. Some take a diplomatic stance on disagreements, and some feel that it is important to speak out and call things as they see it. But what happens when people try to work together toward common goals, and personalities clash or there are differences in direction, aesthetics, resources, priorities? Can conflict derail a good thing? Did you ever feel like community can both lift, and splatter? As much as a community can support, it can also create concerns about other people speaking for you. How do you avoid taking on other people's conflicts in a community? Is this particularly difficult with writers, or is this dynamic a problematic area for all cooperative groups of people?

Last, but not least, do you expect a community to have your back, right or wrong? What does loyalty look like? And how can you keep yourself from getting roasted in other people's fires?

May 10: Editorial Affirmative Action? Read the background on this topic in Lynn Alexander's column at Red Fez, "Criticism's A Bitch" on the subject of female submissions in the independent press and the solution (if any) to the problem of female under-representation. Is it a problem, and editors- can anything be done about it?  Open call in, all opinions welcome.

May 17: The Male Aesthetic. Call in, and give your opinions. Is there such a thing in small press, and are you partial to it? What kinds of presses and publications, web or print, do you associate with the term?

May 24: TOXIC ABATEMENT is coming to San Francisco's Viracocha in July. Find out more, and hear some poems from featured readers. Can we get Zarina and Sammy Dwarphobia to talk to us? Depends. Do we have the chops to ask?

May 31: Spectral Ganglia: Poetry and Sound Experiments. Open Mic. Live call in. Spontaneous Poetry, Overheard In Pittsburgh, Poetic Voyeurism. Milwaukee- Midwest Book Fair coming up on June 1, where Michele McDannold and Tim Murray will be out there representing Red Fez, Full Of Crow Press, and the Literary Underground. Hear from Michele. Unless she is sleeping. Hear from Tim Murray, unless he leaves his phone in the refrigerator again.

Spontaneous Poetry, Session 1

Spontaneous Poetry @ Project U Radio. Join us on Thursday, March 22 at 11:30 EST, 8:30 Pacific. (LINK TO EPISODE PAGE) Wanna play? All you have to do is get a notebook, any kind. Doesn't matter. You need a place to leave it where people can be free to add their spontaneous poetry without it disappearing because if it does, well, then you have spontaneous but LOST poetry. You can write in it yourself. You can pass it around. You can transcribe things that you hear, you can capture a conversation. Then call in to our show and read it or send it through email as text to be read or as an mp3 of the text being read by you. Or anyone, really. Doesn't matter. Identity isn't important. What matters is that you seek out words, preferably words rooted in the moment. Spontaneous. Then share your findings. It can be a phone message, rant, rap lyrics. Easy? Good. (805) 856-2808. You can also just call up, read, talk, that's good too. Always welcome.

Following week, we will get to the topic of Bukowski, like we were going to but then people crabbed about him which is all the more reason to do it, no? Buk Boxing. Love him, hate him, feel irritated by poets that compare themselves to him? Think his iconic role is deserved? Want to reflect on the man, his words, or why you care so much about arguing? Call us up. The myths, the man, the cult of Buk.

The Literary Underground Radio: Project U Radio And Drakonian Vampire Tunnel

Thank you for your donations, always welcome, anytime. Link on sidebar. Donations pay for the monthly account costs on Blog Talk Radio. Feed the kitty.

**NOTE**This week on Red Fez Radio, hosted by Tim Murray, tune in for a special tribute episode to F.N. Wright.

DETAILS HERE . F.N. Wright Memorial Show. Read about him on Red Fez in an article by Michele McDannold here. 

March 14: The Drakonian Vampire Tunnel Is Closed For Repairs, airs at midnight CST, (technically it is March 14 for the east coast, March 13 for the west coast) with host Frankie Metro. (link to show)

March 15: Project U Radio Presents "Spectral Ganglia Poetry and Sound Experiments", Open Mic. Call in. . What the hell is  "spectral ganglia"? Who cares, cause this is some badass radio, coming straight to you live on Thursday night, 10:30 CST.  Get involved and call in to  share whatever you've got going on. Uncensored, unclicked, uninhibited, naked radio featuring YOU. Be a part of this by calling in: (805) 856-2808. Find the show page HERE where you can log in, set reminders (get an email before our shows) and follow. You can also listen to on-demand archives of previous shows and download them to your ipod or whatever device. Hell, you can even download it to your phone.

How does a radio "open mic" show work? Easy. You call in, you wait, we say your area code to let you know that you are live- and off you go. How about five minutes? Cool? OK. Let's do this. We don't care if you are a burning piece of hot hipster shit or a first timer, just trying out some stuff. The U loves you.

Project U Radio is a project of The Literary Underground, a community and resource for writers, publishers, and readers of the independent press.

 



March 22: Project U Radio 10:30 CST.

March 29: Project U Radio 10:30 CST.

Spectral Ganglia: Poetry And Sound Experiments

The Literary Underground's Project U Radio first "open mic" call in show. Join Lindsey Thomas and Lynn Alexander for Spectral Ganglia: Poetry and Sound. What the hell is  "spectral ganglia"? Who cares, cause this is some badass radio, coming straight to you live on Friday evening, Feb. 3, at 11 p.m. EST, 8 p.m. PST.  Get involved and call in to  share whatever you've got going on. Uncensored, unclicked, uninhibited, naked radio featuring YOU. Be a part of this by calling in: (805) 856-2808. Find the show page HERE where you can log in, set reminders (get an email before our shows) and follow. You can also listen to on-demand archives of previous shows and download them to your ipod or whatever device. Hell, you can even download it to your phone. If you still have dial up or sleeping kids or live under a bridge but have a cell phone, you can opt to bypass the whole computer situation and listen through your phone. Just call in and you will hear it.

How does a radio "open mic" show work? Easy. You call in, you wait, we say your area code to let you know that you are live- and off you go. How about five minutes? Cool? OK. Let's do this. We don't care if you are a burning piece of hot hipster shit or a first timer, just trying out some stuff. The U loves you.

Project U Radio is a project of The Literary Underground, a community and resource for writers, publishers, and readers of the independent press.

January 6th, Project U Radio @ The Literary Underground

TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION: Relationships and Writers: Have you ever dated a writer/poet? It has been said in some articles that the arrangement is doomed from the start, while others say that when it fits, it is a unique experience that serves to further both people's creative endeavors...This Friday, we open up the phone lines to singles and couples alike, in order to find out which is more prevalent: the disastrous affair, or the inspirational union? Call in to speak on: 805 856 2808 Friday 7PM WEST 8PM MT 9PM CST 10PM EST.

Hosted by Frankie Metro, Lynn Alexander, and Paul Corman-Roberts.

You can call in or send a comment to be read if you want to chime in anonymously. You can also leave a comment here with your name if you can't call in. All welcome, uncensored, unscripted, unhinged.

 

January 13: Tainted Dayton Show And Raffle

Brian Fugett (pictured below) is becoming a man this month at a private party but none of us are invited so we will express our disgust while we try to raise some money for Project U Radio with a raffle of awesome prizes. These prizes are so awesome that we can't even post about them here. As a teaser, however, we will say that we just might have a basket of laundry for you to try to win and sniff from Phyllis Miller herself. We're talking ripe compression stockings, straight from the Hi Rise! Five bucks, via paypal, and you get a chance to win. All proceeds go to Project U Radio operating expenses, nothing fishy. Just trying to toss some money in the Literary Underground kitty.

In this segment, we will dis-honor Mr. Brian Fugett with some roasting and ribbing as we celebrate his 40th with some well deserved abuse. The call in number is (805) 856-2808. This is the link to the show page where you can listen through your phone if you have cheap-ass internet, listen online, listen to the archive, or call in to say something. *here*.

Here is your chance to holler about hamsters, poetry grenades, aerosol cheese, porn-a-rama, and Karl Koweski.

Karl Koweski, here is your chance to holler about Gordon Lightfoot.

Gordon Lightfoot, here is your chance to holler about being Canadian.

And Canadians? You can holler about having Leopold. Eh?

Leopold can't holler because he will be too busy.

Plus, he's kinda locked in an old refrigerator. Because he's a raffle prize.

January 20, 2012, Segment 5, Project U Radio

Segment 5: January 20, 2012.  ”Editorial Discretion”. Editors, would you publish work with content that you think is personally objectionable (i.e. racism) if you thought it was an otherwise good piece? How do you feel about a blanket policy about certain kinds of content, such as “We don’t publish anything that includes sexist elements”. Do you make distinctions as far as language, character, etc. and have you had this issue come up when selecting work for a zine, website, journal, or project? Do you find the line of subjective interpretation to be difficult? Have you rejected work that you thought was well written because it contained something that you thought to be offensive or thought might offend readers? Beyond offensive, but perhaps hurtful or harmful?

If you want to start at the beginning, check out the archives *here* for our Censorship show, December 2, 2011, where we discussed movements like The Citizens For Decent Literature whose aim was to suppress literature that organizers felt was "objectionable". Inspired by this and being a fan of free speech, Literary Underground's Michele McDannold started a printed publication by the same name and soon after, a website to showcase poetry online. Brief editor of the website content, Michael Goscinski, was invited on to talk about censorship and a lengthy conversation ensued.

My distinction on the difference between censorship and editorial discretion is simple- one involves the systemic suppression of free speech through an authority either by their own undertaking or under pressure by a group that has lobbied for suppression. The other involves the discretion of a content producer and their right to have standards with respect to content. If I have a magazine, I have the right to decide that I don't want any content that involves clowns. (to use my example from the show) We are looking at my right as an owner and producer to discretion, which I believe to be important. But censorship would involve the government telling producers that they cannot publish content that involves clowns. This distinction takes away editorial discretion with a blanket rule across the board, presumably (they say) for societal or other benefit. This is an external, imposed control meant to assert one group's moral or religious view onto another group by limiting clown content. ......