Blues Fiction

Four decades +

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 03:32:00 +0000

For John Berryman

More than forty years now

Since you slipped

Into oblivion

Hungry and beat

Bouncing on the ground

Frozen

Never changing but

Dreaming of such

'Contempt and rage'

Your lasting features

Softly loving and caring

Your petit mal

Rigid and broken

Finally

Poem 'A Tram Ride' Published in Finger Magazine (Adelaide, SA)

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 05:50:00 +0000

A poem I wrote in 2007 was published in Finger Magazine from Adelaide, South Australia in November last year, but I only recently found out about it. Seems they forgot to email me. Strangeness.

Anyway, I'm glad the poem finally saw the light somewhere. You can find it here: http://www.fingermagazine.com.au/?p=139

Let me know what you think.

Joran

Charles Bukowski - Born Into This (2003, full documentary)

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:55:00 +0000

Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood - Hunter S. Thompson Documentary (Full Film)

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Thanks to LaughingatpainUSAway for posting.

Gang of Souls: A Generation of Beat Poets

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 03:49:00 +0000

Description with post:

"Documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets featuring interviews with Burroughs, Ginsberg, Di Prima + more. GANG OF SOULS (1989) is Maria Beatty's engaging documentary exploring the insights and influences of the American Beat Poets. The film conveys their consciousness and sensibility through candid interviews with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Di Prima, among others. Designed as a tribute to them and to their spirit of artistic freedom, Gang of Souls also weaves in additional commentary from contemporary musicians, poets and writers such as Marianne Faithfull, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins. The film seeks to truly capture the magic of the Beat generation and it's continuing legacy. It brilliantly expands upon how the poets reached new levels of creativity and inspired unprecedented social change."

Thanks to MVDFilm for posting / Found via the Allen Ginsberg Project

Winter Glass - Reading

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:20:00 +0000

YourMic Home

Originally published in 'The Diamond and the Thief'.

Life Friends, Is Boring - John Berryman

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:57:00 +0000

Allen Ginsberg - September on Jessore Road

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:22:00 +0000

Allen Ginsberg's poem on the East Pakistan war - Bangladesh's fight for independence. I think Bob Dylan collaborated somewhere along the way too. In any case: this is a beautiful poem/song. Find the complete poem/lyrics here.

Found the image at the Allen Ginsberg Project - Easiest the best resource on Ginsberg, and the Beats in general online - including complete transcripts of his lectures when he taught poetry at various institutions.

NZ Poet Sam Hunt performing at the Auckland Museum in 2009

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:47:00 +0000

Poem 'Fathers' published in Cordite Poetry Review 37: No Theme

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:14:00 +0000

A poem I wrote, 'Fathers' has been published in Cordite Poetry Review 37: No Theme. I am particularly proud of this, and I'm a bit awed by all the incredible names I have been published amongst. Please read my poem here - and make sure the other poems as well.

'The Broken Tower' trailer - #jamesfranco #thebrokentower #hartcrane

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:39:00 +0000

I am really looking forward to this docudrama, directed by and starring James Franco, about Hart Crane. (IMDB)

Starwars Uncut

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:22:00 +0000

This is so well done. So much fun.

A most modern misanthrope: Wyndham Lewis and the pursuit of anti-pathos (The Guardian/London Review of Books, 2001)

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:34:00 +0000

An interesting essay from the London Review of Books on the Guardian Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/jan/23/londonreviewofbooks

Ezra Pound portrait by Wyndam Lewis

Charles Bukowski original reading poster (#charlesbukowski #poetry)

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:29:00 +0000

An original reading poster I found here in Melbourne. Like the matchbooks I found the other day, this is a rare find, especially for this town.

The poster reads:

'"Poet satyr of today's underground - Henry Miller"

CHARLES

"Sexual Intercourse is kicking death in the ass while singing"

BUKOWSKI

world-famed poet, critic and story-teller

whose notes of a dirty old man so far has sold 250,000 copies, & whose all the asholes in the world & mine berserked the establishment to billy-club screams of out rage - likewise his 16 other books, and 2000 poems in 191 "little" magazines and underground newspapers

WILL READ

("Nope, doubt if I'll do 'THE FUCK MACHINE....not coming there to upstage the lovable Lenore")

Friday, 8 p.m. May 15, at

The KIVA

The University of New Mexico Campus'

John Berryman Interview on the Paris Review Website #poetry

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:54:00 +0000

Read this:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4052/the-art-of-poetry-no-16-john-be...

Laurance Wieder - California

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:14:00 +0000

from 'The Last Century', Picador, 1992

How to integrate into Australian society

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:08:00 +0000

Great article on how to integrate into Australia.

'Aussie Aussie Aussie. Oi oi oi.'

Saul Bellow - Back Into the Desert

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:11:00 +0000

What Goes Up Must Come Down - street art in Melbourne

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:19:00 +0000

Kenny F*cking Powers

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:10:00 +0000

Poster spotted in Melbourne

The Joy of Books

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:56:00 +0000

Watch this awesome stop-motion vid

By Crazedadman - check out his channel, heaps of awesome stuff.

Surf in the Space

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 02:55:00 +0000

A video by Surf in the Space

a band/project from Brazil

Don't know much more about these people

apart from the fact that

the Fabulous Go-Go Boy from Alabama

seems to be involved

A great video

Zombie John Berryman

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:55:00 +0000

Zombie John Berryman

Review: 'Black Jesus' by Simone Felice

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Get A Copy

Black Jesus is Simone Felice's latest novel, published by Allen&Unwin this year. The fact that the book is published by A&U, an Australia-based publisher, while the writer himself lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, arguably the backyard of the largest English-language publishing hub in the world, New York City, is perhaps indicative of the novel itself. 

The story, centred around a marine, who returns home from Iraq blinded, named Lionel White, or 'Black Jesus' (his marine nick-name)and a woman named Gloria/Desiree who flees to the Catskills where Black Jesus' home is, to get away from a (very) abusive partner in LA. It is fate that brings the two together at Lionel's mothers flea market - a meeting that helps them both find their centre and redemption through a renewed belief in reality. 

I do not wish to go too far into the story - the outline above gives you the premise, but it is Felice's language that will draw you in. He has the power of making the mundane and drab into the poetic and exciting. For the sake of comparison, the book reads as a bastard-child of DBC Pierre's 'Vernon God Little' and Mitch Cullin's 'Tideland', mixing black humour with a southern gothic edge. 

I read this novel in an evening, effortlessly letting the story wash over me. You care for all characters, all beautifully flawed, and the story stays fresh and keeps moving. The only criticism I have is the about the inclusion of the useless side-story involving Gloria/Desiree's ex after she has left him - it adds nothing to the novel as a whole and, in fact, distracts from the main story-line and could be cut without leaving any kind of gaps. That said, this is a great read, and I highly recommend it. Apart from the lovers of, obviously, DBC Pierre and Mitch Cullin's 'Tideland' anyone who likes a dark quirky story will enjoy this novel. 

Review: Starfucking Hipsters, 'From the dumpster to the grave'

noreply@blogger.com (JCAM) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:28:00 +0000

This album bores me. Which surprises me. I've loved nearly everything STZA has done so far, from Choking Victim to Leftover Crack and now the Hipsters. The first 2 hipster albums were great adding a sense of melody to the crusty ska-sounds of the preceding 2 acts. Both albums had coherence as a unit, leading the listener through the record. I lose attention listening to 'from the dumpster to the grave' half-way through each and every time. Which makes me sad. I really wanted to like this album and listened to it a number of times over a few weeks, but no dice. Musically the album is all over the place, hopping uselessly between genres, from ska to metal to rap, which previously they were able to do, but on this occasion completely miss. The use of three different female vocalists is distracting, even though they're good, and when they throw in a rapper halfway through the album, you've lost me. 

This is aside from the politics, which gets more and more obscure with each album. The conspiracy theories STZA spouts, centering around killing cops and 9-11'inside-jobs' and FEMA camps, are not so different from leading theories currently promoted by the militia and sovereign citizen movements, making me feel very uneasy. 

Musically they've lost me and that combined with their questionable politics has me tune out and turn off. Shame.

Behold the weird starfucking rapness....