Archive For The “Books” Category
by Mike Roche Yeah, Mike Roche might’ve played with giants, walked among them, and lurched over them, but he was the one with the plan, and while it might not have served him as he wished, his rise, fall, and humbling resurrection from the pit does make for an extremely fun—albeit gut-wrenching read. –Jack Grisham…
by JOHN ALBERT RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL: Essays, Articles, and RemembrancesJohn Albert was an exceptionally charismatic person, co-founded Christian Death, played drums with Bad Religion, and influenced many notable figures in the Los Angeles underground of the 80s and 90s. As he got sober and older, he would be known widely for his wit, withering…
by O. R. What happens to lost daughters trying to find their way home with the only road map being the bowing palm trees pointing the path? Where does love exist if not for raw lips and feet bloodied from the chase? Falling for men whose kisses promise life but whose legs disappear when the…
by Shawna Kenney I Was a Teenage Dominatrix is the true story of one woman’s quest for self-education, in academia and beyond. As the reader follows a low income punk rock grrrl into college under the crushing weight of capitalism, the coming-of-age confessional takes outrageous, humorous and moving turns, leaving the reader with plenty to…
by S.A. Griffin The poetry of S.A. Griffin, with its extraordinary range of subjects, its wild shattering flights, like a Roman candle that explodes the blue sky of appearances, and its breathtaking plunges, like an uncontrollable bathysphere into the deepest sea of dreams, seems to me well equipped to disperse the stale mythological fog that…
By Jack Grisham Another taunting page-turner from Jack Grisham, “The Pulse of the World”. Contemporary noir at its best. For those of you who prefer to wander to the gritty side of town, for all your morally compromised needs…. “When the ghosts of dreams bleed into real life, hard charging Arthur Chance must leave behind his isolation…
by Iris Berry In this portable collection of prose and poetry, Gas Station Etiquette, Iris Berry takes us on a tour of her Los Angeles, her love for certain gas stations, chance meetings, drinking cappuccinos with her mother in the rain, the L.A. River at 2 am, and a never-ending train ride just trying to…
by Patrick O’Neil Anarchy At The Circle K is literally a punk tour-de-force. An in your face gut-wrenching, and at times humorous, tale of Patrick O’Neil’s stint as a roadie, road manager, and drug addict during punk’s heyday of the 1980’s. Crisscrossing the highways of America, on tour with such influential punk bands as Dead Kennedys,…
by Pleasant Gehman Whether she is frantically recalling Siouxsie & The Banshees lyrics in order to get the words to the Lords’s Prayer right to chase away a bedroom-invading poltergeist, or discovering that under the façade of a haunted amusement park lies a real haunted amusement park, Pleasant Gehman, in Rock ‘N’ Roll Witch, takes…
by Joe Donnelly In So Cal: Dispatches from the End of the World, Joe Donnelly’s second collection of nonfiction, the title says a lot. The bulk of it is set in the lower third of the Golden State, and even when they’re not they ooze a certain SoCal leaning. Reading through the pieces that follow, I was…
by Iris Berry In The Trouble with Palm Trees Iris Berry will take you on a tour of Los Angeles that’ll haunt you like one of the city’s famous unsolved murders. Her writing is gritty and scarred, but loaded with details, and an ironic, wry sense of humor. Whether she’s paying tribute to a deceased cat, or…
by Jack Henry In Jack Henry’s moving collection, Driving W/ Crazy, living with madness a boy senses that there is something “missing, something not quite right.” As a passenger in his father’s car, he realizes the drive will never end. Later, he wonders if a teenager can drive a father mad. Madness is the quiet…
by Joel Landmine If you want to read about subversive pop culture, stanky substance abuse, dejected relationships, overt self-depreciation, and the despair of living in a dystopian future, then Joel Landmine is your man. He will not disappoint. His first book of poetry Yeah, Well… set the tone. Now Things Change is going to kick…
by A. Razor A. Razor has experienced a second birth and an allowance of past and present works to converge. Razor gives us silhouettes of words dancing under dim street lights and first-hand experiences in the grips of self-destruction. He shows us the beauty there is after the vultures circle. ~ O.R. Buy Now Puro…
by Dan Denton Dan Denton’s “$100-A-Week Motel” is a hallelujah chorus of proletariat madness, and a fine, sweet madness it is. In this modest motel, the circus comes to town, love is possible, sudden heroes wait to punch the time clock and ashtrays overflow with twice smoked twisted butts. There is a cheap bible hiding…
by Jack Grisham Jack Grisham’s short story about high school loner James who develops an infatuation with the exciting, rebellious Marla. A Tragic teenage love story with a twist of an ending. Based on a song by T.S.O.L. Illustrated by Scott Aicher. Buy your copy now: Code Blue: a love story
by Nadia Bruce Rawlings Nadia Bruce-Rawlings takes us from childhood scenes in Egypt, with servants and vacations on Cyprus, to the most sordid of L.A. streets, from parties in Cannes and karaoke in Tokyo to stealing batteries and pregnancy tests to support her crack habit and sharing day-care motherhood with strippers. She is fearless in…
by Todd Moore “Written with a pen dipped in blood by the Godfather of Outlaw Poetry, Dillinger’s Thompson by the late Todd Moore is an erotic journey into the American psyche, masterfully achieved in verse via the voice of Dillinger’s smoking hot machine gun– speaking rapid fire in the person of the criminal icon’s phallus. Exceptional, unforgettable…
by William S. Hayes William jumped into literature at an early age, reading the works of London, Stevenson, Dickens and many others. His hunger for words offered an escape from reality, and later, as a tool used for expression. Burden of Concrete offers the reader a harrowing account of the author’s life. His tale begins…
by Iris Berry In “All That Shines Under The Hollywood Sign” Iris Berry pays tribute to Los Angeles and reflects her love of Hollywood and its history. Capturing the feel of old Hollywood, and the melancholy of its demise. From those who dreamed of stardom at Schwab’s drugstore, to the memories of driving uncrowded streets…
by Danny Garcia Drawn from interviews conducted by director Danny Garcia for his acclaimed documentary LOOKING FOR JOHNNY, this oral biography of the legendary Johnny Thunders includes first-hand recollections from those who knew Johnny best, from his fellow New York Dolls, Heartbreakers, and Oddballs, to his friends, fellow musicians, and loved ones. Johnny Thunders lives…
by Michael Marcus In each of his stories Michael Marcus takes us on a wild adventure through the darkest depths of addiction, sexuality, deceit, and depravity with a raw grace and eloquence that brings to mind the voices of Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries, Irvine Welsh in Trainspotting, Denis Johnson in Jesus’ Son, and…
by A.D. Winans A.D. Winans talks candidly in his own words about his friendships with such literary luminaries as Alvah Bessie, one of the Hollywood 10, Bob Kaufmaun, the renowned poet of the San Francisco Renaissance, Jack Micheline, poetic raconteur of the greatest magnitude, and Charles Bukowski, the legendary poet and novelist whose legendary shadow…
by Nadia Bruce Rawlings Introduction by Michele McDannold Cover design or artwork by Geoff Cordner Edited by Iris Berry SCARS is a reminder. Though they fade through time, how they got there never changes. You can make up other stories. You can pretend they’re not there. You can douse the memories in one addiction or…
by A. Razor “Tis’ the season…being born on December 25th can give you a little insight into the biggest shopping holiday in the world. The insight is never a complete overview of anything at all, other than all the things a child gets sold on that wash away into lost dreams for the adult. There…
by Pleasant Gehman Showgirl Confidential chronicles just some of Pleasant Gehman’s amazing adventures, from over thirty years spent constantly on the road. From cross-country punk rock tours in the early 1980s to her belly dancing escapades in Cairo during the Arab Spring, from dressing room antics at burlesque shows to unnerving paranormal experiences, this memoir is as finely crafted…
by Lee Quarnstrom Former beatnik, a former member of novelist Ken Kesey’s famed Merry Band of Pranksters, retired journalist and one-time Executive Editor of Larry Flynt’s notorious Hustler Magazine, Lee Quarnstrom has jammed a lot of living into just one life! Now available, his memoir WHEN I WAS A DYNAMITER, or How a Nice Catholic Boy…
by Hollie Hardy Introduction by Toni MirosevichCover design or artwork by Donald Morey, Tom Madsen, Hollie HardyEdited by A. Razor With wit and candor, Hollie Hardy writes for her life. “Break up your own little tedium,” these poems remind us. With their riffs on existing literature and recurrent crises, Hardy’s poems show us what can…
by Maisha Z Johnson Cover design or artwork by Geoff Melville, Edited by A. Razor Maisha Z. Johnson’s elegant meditation on human difference, No Parachutes to Carry Me Home, opens with an epigraph from June Jordan’s On the Black Family — we came and we come in a glory of darkness around the true reasons for…