Ashcan Magazine » litquake

Underground Exposed: A Zine Retrospective

admin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:09:34 +0000

More so than anywhere else in the country, San Francisco has been a mecca for alternative and underground literature. Kerouac and Ginsberg arrived in the city on the cusp of a revolution of literary talent. Robert Crumb published his groundbreaking counter-culture comix here, selling them on the corners of Haight and Ashbury to any Deadhead who’d give it a read. And before it was a registered trademark of mass corporate synergy, even Rolling Stone was founded in our little city by the Bay. It should come as no surprise then for its tenth anniversary Litquake would feature an event solely dedicated to San Francisco’s rich history of alternative press, with Underground Exposed: A Zine Retrospective.

Discussing their experiences in underground publishing, the panelists included veteran zinester John Marr of Murder Can Be Fun, Maximum Rock N’ Roll coordinator and columnist Layla Gibbon, the one woman force behind the long-running comic Bitter Pie, Tena Scalph, and Erick Lyle, best known for his work on SCAM and Turd Filled Donut, who’s new book On The Lower Frequencies collects some of his proudest work from the titles. Moderating the event that night was co-editor of Instant City, Eric Zassenhaus, who opened up the evening with questions of how they became involved in publishing zines. Marr recounted his fascination with strange and bizarre deaths, and how MCBF was created as a chance for him to talk about the gruesome reports he came across. Lyle responded the zines he put out were the only venue for him to write, explaining, “I was a teenage runaway, I never thought I was going to become a writer.”

Another interesting point in the discussion was Gibbon’s transition in becoming a coordinator for MRR. “I just started off as a reviewer, then I got a column, and then I’m putting it together,” she jokes. “It’s hard to live up to this thing Tim [Yohannan] created.” Other highlights included a full group discussion of print versus web zines, crazy fan mail from county lock-up, and the joys of scamming copies from their local Kinko’s.

The second half of the evening consisted of each creator doing an individual reading. Gibbon had prepared a punk rock manifesto celebrating the likes of artists she’d been influenced by, while Marr relayed some of the essential basics of serial killing he’d come across in his years of research. Erick Lyle delved into the pages of his book, reading an excerpt composed of various fan letters he’d received while publishing his zines, which resulted in an eclectic mix of downtrodden aspirations and rebellious declarations. Scalph was the final reader and passed out copies of the latest issue of Bitter Pie so the audience could read along while she narrated, added sound effects, and on occasion, her own unique breed of comedic commentary. By the end of the night every person left with a zine in their hand and at least a few stories behind them, hopefully with a new appreciation for the art of the underground and its creators.

Words and photos by Sean Logic

MCBF Library
www.instantcity.org
www.bitterpiecomix.com
www.maximumrocknroll.com
www.onthelowerfrequencies.com

Crawling Towards Literature

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:35:55 +0000

Like one of those music festivals with eight different stages, Litcrawl is one of those events where you’re guaranteed to miss something simply because you can’t be everywhere at once. Since it also involves venues serving alcohol to hundreds of thirsty readers, the other impediment is crowds. Here are the highlights of my own very subjective Litcrawl 2009.

BEST EVENTS I DIDN’T GO TO

Somehow I missed these in the program. Plus they were too early, in Phase One of Litcrawl (6 p.m. to 7 p.m.) so I probably would have been late anyway — I’m not quite sure why Litcrawl starts so early. After all, most of the venues are nightspots. At any rate, I missed Threepenny Review’s event at Creativity Explored. Author Louis B. Jones, whose Pushcart Prize-winning story “The Epicurean” is really fantastic, read at the event. I’m sorry I missed him. “The Epicurean” is one of those short stories that manages to feel so expansive, almost novelistic, without really being that long. The characters are fractured Californians, their dialogue acidic and convincing, all of them doubling back on themselves in contradictions.

I also missed “Instant City: A Literary Exploration of San Francisco” at Dalva. I’ve been enjoying this journal for a while. It is always stuffed with crisp anecdotes of life in the City, local lore, and stories using ‘Sucka Free’ as a backdrop. Among others, Jim Nelson read at the event. I ran into Jim later at The Elbo Room, and I suspect he was drinking because his fedora was tilted back.

BEST STREET VENDOR

Given the impressive Twitter address listing near the back of the Litquake brochure, I was expecting to finally catch a glimpse of the “Creme Brulee Guy,” “Sexy Soup Cart,” “Escargot Evangelist,” or the elusive “Mincemeat Mystery Man.” But alas, no exotic street food to speak of was around. The bacon-wrapped hot dogs were, as always, a contender, but best street vendor of the night had to be Lynn Gentry.

Name your price, said the sign, for a poem. Mr. Gentry typed up a dense paragraph of rambling stream of consciousness free verse, one which exists in no digital domain anywhere. He has a beautiful typewriter.

BEST “YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF…” JOKE

Ok, so he didn’t actually tell any “you might be a redneck if…” jokes. But laughter-worthy meditations on the white working class (among them the probing of the similarity between the Bodhi Tree and The Couch) were made by one Bucky Sinister. Like a literate, urban incarnation of Jeff Foxworthy, Sinister riffed on NASCAR and fundamentalism. As someone coming from their ranks himself, but now living in San Francisco, Sinister commented on the cultural geography of coastal living: from a high place in the Bay Area, you can look east and see the Midwest, and baby, it doesn’t stop until you hit the Catskills (I’m paraphrasing, badly).

Other notable writers appeared at this event at the Make-Out Room, “The Rumpus Presents…” including Vendela Vida, Michelle Richmond, and a man named after a Bob Dylan album. It was hosted by Stephen Elliot, who edits the fine online publication called The Rumpus and is the author of The Adderall Diaries. I wanted to check out more of the readers, but Bucky was about all I saw. Arrived late and was barely able to swim to the bar and then people kept shoving me with polite looks on their faces.

BEST BEATNIK POET

I initially headed out to “Emerging and Established Latino Writers” at Sub-Mission Art Space (strange decor: Satanic neon, stenciled penises covering the walls) to check out playwright Octavio Solis, who was set to appear there. Solis couldn’t make it, unfortunately. As I sat and sipped a “Simpler Times” in my disappointment, poet Alejandro Murguia got onstage and, hands free of paper or notes, recited some hard-hitting freeverse, mixing it up in English and Spanish.

Murguia is a veteran of Bay Area poetry and, you can believe, a Chicano from the old school. He reminded me of the first readings I went to, seeing Max Schwartz or Jose Montoya read in Sacramento. Crusty old beatniks who seem a little like eccentric winos until they make obvious their deep relationship with language, one that comes from years of honing craft and drinking in the work of other poets and dreaming hard until it crystallizes.

Words by Justin Allen
Photos by Aurora King

Gimme Something Better Book Launch

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:12:52 +0000

On Monday, October 12th, Litquake in collaboration with Porchlight Storytelling, held the event Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts as the launch for a new book entitled Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day by Jack Boulware and Silke Tudor. The night itself was full of tales of chaos, destruction, and debauchery, and not only featured actual contributors from the book, but some of the Bay Area’s most infamous punk rock residents as well.

The first speaker of the night was Bucky Sinister. As one of the founding members of Gilman Street’s spoken-word readings, he was more than at ease in front of a crowd of unruly lit patrons, delving into a morbid (albeit hilarious) recollection of graveyard rendezvous, dead baby corpses, and prison rap sheets. Negative Trend frontman Rozz Rezabeck gave a behind scenes tale of the Sex Pistol’s final show at Winterland, discussing the filth, fury, and ultimate embarrassment of why he was booked with the legendary group. Longtime homocore scenesters Lynn Breedlove and Anna Joy Springer were also in attendance, sharing some of their wildest experiences performing on stage and in the bedroom.

During the intermission a handful of audience members were invited on stage to give one of their own one minute punk rock confession. While some of the speakers garnered cheers and applause from the audience, such as one woman who gave a brief salute to former club mainstay The Sound of Music, others were unfortunately less than engaging, like the gentleman dressed like Mr. Rogers who painstakingly started breaking into horrible comedy gag. It wasn’t any discredit to the event though, and I think more than anything people were just excited to get a chance to share the limelight.

After the intermission wrapped up the second half of the evening began and once more went straight into the lucid world of the underground. Artist, writer, and former SF mayor candidate Chicken John went into the impact Gilman Street had on his life, while Jessie Luscious (pictured above) reminiscence about some of his favorite bands and the rules that went along with loving and hating them. Two members of the legendary Bay Area band Crime, Hank Rank and Johnny Strike (pictured right), closed the evening’s storytelling with a musical/spoken word ode to San Francisco’s illustrious punk rock past, present, and future, poignantly ending their speech with “Gabba gabba hey motherfuckers,” just to remind everyone in the building no matter how many years go by the city’s grittiest subculture will never be forgotten.

Words and photos by Alexander Zeddemore

——————-

www.litquake.org
www.gimmesomethingbetter.com

Litquake Literary Festival’s 10th Anniversary

admin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:59:42 +0000

Friday, October 9th marks the opening day of San Francisco’s 10th annual Litquake Literary Festival. Come join nearly 500 local authors, poets, and writers in a week long celebration of the San Francisco and Bay Area literary scene with events taking place in dozens of bookstores, bars, and shops all across the city.

Buzzworthy events to check out include opening night’s Black, White, and Read: Litquake’s Book Ball (a masquerade dedicated to famous Bay Area writers), Monday October 12th’s Journey to the End of the Bay: Punk Rockers Spill Their Guts (a storyteller’s session with infamous members of the punk community), and next Friday the 16th’s Underground Exposed: A Zine Retrospective (a discussion about the world of alternative and underground press).

For more information, visit the festival’s website at: www.litquake.org, and browse through their schedule here.