The Chaffey Review posted on its website works from Volume 8, including three poems of mine: “Sweep,” “A Visit to Gleason’s Gym” and “How to Be Invisible.” The Rancho Cucamonga, California-based journal also published a poem by my friend Jeff Alfier, “Calabria.”
Archive for May, 2012
Multiple Poems
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged A Visit to Gleason's Gym, Calabria, California, How to Be Invisible, Jeff Alfier, Poetry, Rancho Cucomonga, Sweep, The Chaffey Review on May 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Remembering the Graystone
Posted in Essays, tagged Black Flag, Butthole Surfers, Corrosion of Conformity, Detroit, Die Kreuzen, Gang Green, Graystone Hall, Punk, Seven Seconds, Slow Trains Literary Journal, Suicidal Tendencies, the Descendents, the Offenders on May 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Metro Times added to its Detroit Music Map a short item about the Graystone, a venue where I spent much time as a teenager at shows, including some mentioned in the piece (Black Flag, Corrosion of Conformity, Die Kreuzen, the Descendents, Seven Seconds) and others unnamed (Suicidal Tendencies, Butthole Surfers, Gang Green, the Offenders and many more). It brought to mind an old essay of mine, published by Slow Trains Literary Journal, in which I reflect on both that hall and my 1980s Detroit punk scene experiences. Ah, the memories.
Fighters & Writers for Mother’s Day?
Posted in Events, Fighters & Writers, tagged Anca Vlasopolos, Fighters & Writers, Leopold's Books, Mother's Day, Walking toward Solstice on May 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Poet Anca Vlasopolos and I will be reading at Leopold’s Books on the Friday before Mother’s Day. Last-minute gift-buyers could stop by to learn if her new collection, Walking Toward Solstice, or my Fighter’s & Writers, or both, would go well with a bouquet of flowers on Sunday.
The specifics:
Mongrel Empire Press authors Anca Vlasopolos and John G. Rodwan, Jr.
Leopold’s Books
The Park Shelton
15 E. Kirby Street
Detroit, MI 48202
Friday, May 11, 7 pm
May Day, Labor Day & Me
Posted in Essays, tagged Cream City Review, Labor Day, Labor Day Ironies, May Day, Wisconsin on May 3, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Word came from Wisconsin in time (or close enough anyway) for the international workers’ holiday that Cream City Review will be publishing my “Labor Day Ironies” in a forthcoming special “Labor” issue. My essay surveys the origins of May Day and Labor Day and some attendant peculiarities, not the least of which is that Labor Day became a holiday only after a disastrous failure of a strike. The president who signed off on it did so only to mollify workers anger by the harsh tactics used to squash the labor action. A Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one, if you ask me, but some fascinating history all the same.
