Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1980 election, bush, detroit, evil republicans, ronald reagan my father, short fiction
In three weeks my first collection of short stories, Ronald Reagan My Father will be released. Interestingly enough, a book by a Bush staffer has also just been released. It’s interesting because one of my stories bears, I’ve been told, a coincidental resemblance to the personal, somewhat ironic, history of this former Bush staffer.
As a rule I do not bring cursed objects like an autobiography of a Bush staffer into my home, so I have no idea if certain parts of my fictional story resonate with his story. Either way, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. Below is my story, for entertainment purposes only.
The Gift of the 12th Congressional District of Michigan
1.
Paul parked his Gremlin in the strip mall lot as night settled in. He hefted his body out of the car, feeling like his belly dragged behind a few good seconds. Approaching the door of his small law office he peered through the glass, past taped-on posters in red, white, and blue that urged citizens to “Vote Paul Poplawski for Congress,” and his personal least favorite, “Pops is the tops for the House!” That one was Mitch’s idea. No one had ever called Paul “Pops” before.
(more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: drunken boat, free fiction, free music archive, joyland, ronald reagan my father, the fanzine
Many of the short stories from Ronald Reagan My Father can be read online at various journals and lit stops. Here’s a basic link list.
WEB
Ordinary People | Bury My Heart at Tataouine | Johnny |
CELLPHONE OR PDA ONLY
The Bourguignon Prize | The Lame Shall Enter At Five Miles Per Hour
RADIO PLAY ADAPTATIONS
Listen to them all, with brilliant performances and eerily accurate foley effects.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: book tour, cellstories, cursor, jim hanas, joyland, quimbys, richard nash, ronald reagan my father, w2
Most of the dates are confirmed. All details are below and thanks to everyone who is helping out: Kevin from Joyland Van, Matt at Joyland LA, Richard at Cursor, Jim Hanas, Dan at Cellstories, and the bookstores Quimby’s, and McNally Jackson.
NEW YORK CITY, APRIL 5: McNally Jackson, 7pm FREE
The Fiction Feed 2. I’ll be reading with Jim Hanas and then we’ll talk with Richard Nash about publishing and technology. Sober this time!
CHICAGO, APRIL 6: Quimby’s, 7PM FREE
Reading and then talking with Dan Sinker about Joyland and Cellstories respectively.
LOS ANGELES, APRIL 9: Outpost For Contemporary Art, with Joyland LA authors Jennifer Krasinski, Janice Lee. FREE
VANCOUVER APRIL 11: W2, 7PM FREE
Joyland night. Reading with Emily Schultz, Vancouver’s Claire Gibson plus others. Hosted by Kevin Chong
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: inaugural poem remix, steve reich, wfmu
Has it really been a year since WFMU’s Ken Goldsmith put out a call for remixes of Elizabeth Alexander’s much derided poem? I didn’t think it that bad. My household did vote Obama so we were too happy all around to notice a poet, good or bad (but mostly bad). But Ken asked, and here’s what I did. (Though my favorite is probably this by People Like Us.)
Each word of the title and first line was cut and looped and brought in and out of the mix. Tres Steve Reich, which I thought was keeping with the mid century modernism of the entertainment that day. Though the title here is completely inaccurate ( I believe I was at deadline). It should be, “Every Word of The First Sentence.”
Filed under: News, downloads | Tags: david dineen porter, fma, free music archive, ronald reagan my father, voice over
Ronald Reagan, My Father is a collection of monologues and radio plays adapted from the upcoming short fiction book of the same name, to be published in April 2010.
Included are 5 new recordings created with performers from Toronto’s improv and comedy scenes.
LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD HERE AT THE FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE
Five Minutes To Sexy Hair
How to survive hair so sexy it sets the doomsday clock one minute closer to midnight. Performed by David Dineen Porter.
Bury My Heart at Tataouine
Star Wars fandom collides with the War On Terror. Performed by David Dineen Porter.
Ordinary People
The story of America’s first death penalty case that became a custody case that became a right-to-die case. Now with a Texan-sized accent. Performed by Rebecca Applebaum.
The Bourguignon Prize
The story of how brain damage led to award winning experimental poetry told using actual, brain damaged, experimental poetry. Performed by Kathleen Phillips.
The Libertine
Dirk Bogarde is dead so this riff on Harold Pinter’s England stars that other shorthand for upper class decadence: Mayor McCheese. Performed by David Dineen Porter.
Recorded and edited by Brian Joseph Davis
Sound effects courtesy of freesound.org
Mixing and additional editing by Jakob Theisen
The book will also include the complete texts of Johnny and Voice Over.
Filed under: News | Tags: chuck palahniuk, david hasselhof, fan culture, jt leroy
I haven’t had much time for long form articles this year but in cleaning off a drive I came across two recent ones that, on rereading, I’m pretty impressed with.
Essay on Chuck Palahniuck’s Insane Fans
Anyone who’s known me for at least a few years knows that I have an interest/love/struggle with fan cultures. I took this assignment for the sole reason that I would be able to immerse myself in a rabid fan base. It was also a great opportunity to ask questions about what constitutes the rarefied state known as literature and what negates it for some critics. Chuck, as I say in the article, was a super nice guy. Up there with the other “nice famous people I’ve met in a work context,” like Henry Rollins, and David Hasselhoff.
Interview With a Woman Playing A Boy Playing An Author
Oh boy. Just trying to summarize the JT Leroy story is harder than sorting out a cold war-era CIA cock up. I can say Knoop’s account is flawed and self serving all I want, but I’m not sure there’s any other mode of discourse for someone party to a fraud. That I come down on that alone is my own unfair flaw in piece. If I had the room I really would have brought examples of media processes that create entities like “JT Leroy.” To wit, her tell-all should have had more heat around it but for the media, self-critique is something akin to an autoimmune disorder.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: matrix magazine, matthew timmons, mayor mccheese, ronald reagan my father
Will be spending much of December in the Mojave working on a novel, though we will be driving into CalArts for one day. I’ll be speaking to Mathew Timmons‘ class about text-as-art and vice versa.
As for Ronald Reagan, My Father (out April 1st) I’ve just finished recording and editing radio play versions of several stories with a group of incredibly talented performers. Here’s one play hosted at Matrix Magazine which had published the original story.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fiction feed, flu, joyland, richard nash, ronald reagan my father
10 night assignment for the Globe…finishing book…struggling with new web project (I mean it, I’m now the Terry Gilliam of media art)…flu…and here we are.
In good news, the tour dates for “Ronald Reagan, My Father” are coming together.
New York, April 5, McNally-Jackson
The Fiction Feed 2: The rise of the machines, with Richard Nash and Jim Hanas
Chicago, April 6, Quimby’s
with CellStories’ Dan Sinker
Los Angeles, April 9, venue TBA
Vancouver, April 11, W2 Gallery: Joyland night, with Emily Schultz, myself, Claire Gibson, host Kevin Chong and surprise guests.
Toronto, April 13, Supermarket. Only Toronto event of the spring! Come out you lazy Torontonians.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Slow summer, project-wise as I was winding down my tenure at the Blocks Recording Club and the last two releases I was working on; very, very great albums by Picastro and Nadja.
Going on tour for Joyland.ca for the rest of September, then working on getting Ronald Reagan, My Father prepped for publication in the spring.
Working with a cool curator on a project tentatively titled 10 Music Critics Singing that will start to see the light of the internet around December. More news on that soon.
For now, I did re-edit Dan Brown for the Globe. Results here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: drunken boat, fiction, joyland, the fanzine, ubu
This week Drunken Boat publishes the complete Johnny in their conceptual fiction folio. This features a whole different section at the beginning. The reason for the cut was that the grammatical structure seemed a bit of a jump in terms of recording the performance so I went with the more unified monologue as appears on the Mercer Union recording and in the upcoming collection, Ronald Reagan, My Father (ECW, Spring ‘10).
On that note, my publisher and I are are trying to place every single story or work on a different webpage by publication time. Here’s the tally so far:
Johnny (Drunken Boat)
Voice Over (Ubu)
Ordinary People (Joyland)
Bury My Heart At Tataouine (The Fanzine)
