My new chapbook up at TenPagePress: Hojo Boy

My new chapbook of poems based on my experiences working as a dishwasher/cook at Howard Johnson, 1969--1981. Hojo Boy. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4G1h48QKjw7ZDkxMzMzNDgtMTE4MS00ZGVlLWI1NjAtMzkyNmY4MmNjNTlm&hl=en_US

Tokyo Girls in Science Fiction

My new e-chapbook from NAP. Live and free. Many thanks to Chad Redden, the wonderful members of Lisa Cihlar's office, and The Flash Factory. http://issuu.com/napmagazine/docs/tokyogirls

Nominated for a Pushcart

My thanks to Darren Carlaw, editor of Step Away Magazine, for nominating my story "Cat People #9: Tales of Manhattan" for a Pushcart. Written around the time of my other Cat People Pieces later included in the Scars Chapbook.

 

Warren Oates

Just saw Warren Oates in Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.  A very underrated actor, perhaps more known in his outlaw role as one of The Wild Bunch. Also did great work in Monte Hellman's 1971's Two-Lane Black Top with James Taylor and Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson. Too bad his career was cut short in 1982, just when he was getting the acclaim he deserved.

New Chapbook up at TenPagePress

A new chapbook of ten poems: Underwater Girls <a href = "https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4G1h48QKjw7Y2RhOWQwMmYtZTUzMC00MmRkLWE1YzktNWVjNTk3NDBjZWNj&hl=en_US&pli=1"<Click Here</a>

A link to some of my chapbooks

At SmashKitty.com

http://smashkitty.com/books/index.php?option=com_joomflix&view=author&name=Kyle+Hemmings&Itemid=3
And, no, the person in the photo is not me.

Pear Noir! has accepted...

...five of my latest prose poems/flash fictions. Really excited about that. A zine that has published the likes of Robert Olin Butler and others.

Up at In Between Altered States

A flash piece. Ninja. A <a href = "http://inbetweenalteredstates.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/ninja-by-kyle-hemming/">In Between Altered States</a>My thanks to Aleathia Drehmer.

Amazing How Dance Styles have changed...

but I still appreciate watching a good Frug or Watusi or Jerk. The band is The Human Beings. But the go-go dancers are the real show. If only I was a little older back then.

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Drip Castle

Now here's an interesing idea for a fledging zine. The Editor at Drip Castle wants old stories along with a revised version. In other words, take out that embarrassing piece you wrote in 7th grade along with a revision. I'm not sure I'm brave enough to submit yet.

Acceptances and a tribute to an East Village Punk

After a long string of rejections, I got two acceptances today of my flashes. One by Leodegraunce and the other by Perhaps I Am Wrong About This World. (I think that is really such a cool name for a zine).

On another note, I was reading about poet, bassist, actor, Richard Hell. He spent a few months in a band called Television in the mid-seventies, then left to play with Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers. Formed Richard Hell & the Voidoids. Putting together a stellar lineup (including  guitarist, Robert Quine). The quartet was an immediate hit with the CBGB's crowd.

Their 1977 debut, Blank Generation, has gone on to become one of punk's all-time classics, spawning such standards as the title track and "Love Comes in Spurts" As the band toured the world,  they opened for such acts as The Clash.

Hell kept himself busy in the '80s with his poetry and bit parts in movies, his best-known role being Madonna's boyfriend in 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan, while a 14-track collection of Voidoids outtakes and live material, R.I.P., was issued on the ROIR label (another collection, this one a set of live tracks, followed a few years later, titled Funhunt). Just as it appeared as though Hell had turned his back on music for good, he reappeared in 1992 as part of the group Dim Stars (which featured  Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, as well as Gumball's Don Fleming, and, again, Robert Quine on guitar), issuing a self-titled release the same year. The group proved to be a temporary project.

Hell has authored several books over the years, including such titles as Wanna Go Out? (a collection of poems collaborated on with Verlaine), I Was a Spiral on the Floor, Artifact, and Across the Years, plus the short novel The Voidoid. Hell has also served as editor for New York literary magazine CUZ for the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, and, in 1996, issued his first full-length novel, Go Now (which was also released as a spoken word CD under the same name). Hell and the former Voidoids were interviewed around this time for the excellent book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, which offered interesting insight into Hell's early years. In the late '90s, Hell began doing readings at clubs, universities, bookstores, plus other venues across the U.S. and also Europe, and also found the time to put together a gallery show of his drawings at the Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery in New York. In 2000, Hell reunited the original lineup of the Voidoids to record a new composition, "Oh," which initially appeared as a free download on a website, before being included on the 2001 compilation: Beyond Cyberpunk. --from Greg Prato, Rovi.

Kinda strange that a kid born in Kentucky brought on Punk and No Wave before the British arrived with their Sex Pistols.

Danse Macabre

I love that mag. Lots of great writers, great visuals, and some amazingly creepy stuff. They published some stuff of mine back awhile. You can check out "The Punjabi Actress, Elizabeth “Baby Toons” Singh, Freaks Out in a Homeless shelter on Avenue C," in a past issue. It was written around the time of my Avenue C chapbook, but for some reason this piece didn't get included in the MS.

Micro Story

I have a piece from my Cat People chapbook titled "Simple Sister." http://www.microstoryaweek.blogspot.com/  Many thanks to Steve Issack.

New Zine: Pipe Dream

Check this new zine out. Some great art work and prose/poetry by such familiar names as Felino Soriano and Meg Tuite. A piece by moi titled "There Are No Cowgirls in My Sleep."

My book of poems, Fuzzy Logic, now in Nook

My book of poems from Punkin' Press, Fuzzy Logic, is now at Barnes and Nobles as a Nook for only 99 cents. Hurry while the recession lasts.

A Sad Good-Bye to Hugh Fox

Anyone who submits to ezines has probably run across this name. I had the privilege of publishing some of his work, while I was poetry editor at Grey Sparrow Journal. I was aware he was battling cancer but was not aware he passed away on Sept. 4th of this year. A fine writer, may he rest in peace. The Horror Zine, which contains two pieces by him, has a memorial to him.

Hugh Bernard Fox, Jr., Phd. East Lansing Born February 12, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois to the Late Hugh B. Fox and Helen (Mangan) died on Sunday, September 4, 2011 at the age of 79. Hugh was Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University having taught in the department of American Thought and Language. He was a poet and writer having over 200 novels published

Nominated for Best of the Net 2011

The editor of Step Away Magazine informed me that my story "Cat People #9: Tales of Manhattan" has been nominated for Best of the Net, 2011. Makes this cat happy. Check it out at http://stepawaymagazine.com/archives/237

Up at Wigleaf

The Brando Method Thing #3: Sal Mineo on Watching Brando at the Actors Studio. Now up at Wigleaf: http://wigleaf.com/. Check it out.

The Virtues of YouTube

Don't you just love it, when you find a song you haven't heard for years and years? I haven't heard this gem since the early 70s. It's "Guess, I'll Go Away," from the Johnny Winter And album from 1970. The climaxing guitar solos are worth a listen alone. With more than a little help from ex-McCoys guitarist and singer (Hang On Sloopy), Rick Derringer.

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A Good Article on Love Story

There's a good article up at http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/love-story. It summarizes much of what the movie is about: Arthur Lee's early days in Tennesee, Love getting picked up by Electra's Jack Holzman, Lee's genius (Holzman says Lee is one of the few geniuses he's ever met), Lee's helping of a then unknown singer named Jim Morrison, the factors contributing to Love's (and Lee's) lack of popularity: the refusal to tour outside of LA,  the band's increasing addiction to heroin,  Lee's tendency to isolate--and how it was possible at all for a band plagued with such problems, could hardly function from being so strung out--how could they make an album that has hit every Best Of list, as well as being a contender for best rock album ever made!

Also, Lee's second solo album that was never released--Black Beauty--has been released a few months ago. Some say it would have marked a strong comeback had Lee released it back in '73. It has a very R&B sound, definitely the direction Lee was going in after Forever Changes. And let it be said that Four Sail is a great classic itself, although with a different band and a heavier guitar sound from Jay Donnelen. The only other album I might put in the same category as Forever Changes would be The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus by Spirit. But don't get me started.

Never heard the studio verson from the Forever Changes Album

Your Mind and We Belong Together. I heard the live version with Lee being backed up by Baby Lemonade circa 2005 or so. It's a great song, but I just heard the original studio version. That is some guitar genius solo by Johnny Echols. This song I believe is on the remastered version. And catch "Laughing Stock" that never made it to the original album. Supposedly, it's Jim Morrison and Arthur Lee singing in the beginning in a kind of spoof of the doors. An amazing album that never got its due except towards the end of Lee's life.

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Some Cat People up at Spittoon

Some Cat People stories up at the fledging zine, Spittoon. These stories were written in the aftermath of my Cat People Chapbook. I tried to incorporate a manga like atmosphere.

A great song from a great and forgotten album

Many (including myself) would say that Forever Changes, along with the first side of Da Capo, and maybe a song here and there off of Out Here--was their best work. But even after Electra producer, Jack Holzman, fired the band, and Lee regrouped and got a heavier electric guitar sound from Jay Donnelan, Four Sail, is still a great album.  "August," the first song of side one is my favorite. I also loved Singing Cowboy and a couple of others. Call it garage. Call it psychedelic. Call it electic. I call it great art.

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Four pieces up at Winamop

A not so new zine. Some very familiar names. My thanks to Lisa Cihlar for supplying prompts that sparked these pieces. Check out their art gallery, which I thought was really cool. <a href = "http://www.winamop.com/kh1101.htm">Kyle Hemmings</a>

Pressboard Press

A new zine has accepted some pieces for next week.

UP at The Planet Formerly Known as Earth

Cool zine. Some great authors/artists. The Problem with Watching TV Reruns When You're Too Sober on Cold Pizza”

It Pays to Shop Around. . .

After some rejections, my Miss tHing pieces got an Okay from Dinosaur Bees. I love that mag.

I have the distinction. . .

of having the longest poetry title up on Everyday Poets. < a href = "http://www.everydaypoets.com/"> CAN I BORROW YOUR LACONIC GIRAFFE BECAUSE MY LAUGHING HYENA KEEPS STEALING MY FRUIT OF THE LOOM</a>

Up at Pure Francis

A piece that started at The Flash Factory. The Things I Saved from the Fire. http://www.purefrancis.org/pure_francis/2011/08/the-things-i-saved-from-the-fire.html

Up at FortyOunceBachelors

An old Factory Piece titled "Shaken But Not Stirred." I love it when an old piece finds a home. http://www.fortyouncebachelors.com/hemmings13.html

Up at Mouse Prose

A flash titled "The Apartment at the Edge of Forever." Ring any bells?

Some poems

Monkey Business (all pubbed in Madswirl, 2009)

I wish I were a chimp
like all the other guys
hanging out at The Missing Link
sucking off Bush Baby bones,
this arboreal urge
and anthropoid pose
win the ladies with my pan troglodyte pout
and my promiscuous loins,
play with my own dung
build a monument of it
to the god of all dung--
Cheeta Dungee.
And the fact
that I can pass a mirror test
get rewarded with a banana
a sexy chiquita
makes me all alpha wet,
almost human.
When it gets too crowded
on the ground
I'll think I'll fly into space,
just to have a piece of primacy.

Napoleon Was a Dyslexic

After I withdraw
my ambitious explorer
from your encroaching interior
the way Russia once devoured Napoleon
so many nameless explorers, conquers,
who once had names
I want you to murder me in pieces
delicious bite size syllables
so I'll never be able
to spell my name again
and leave me a text message
to let me know
that you're safe
in this alphabet city of
dyslexic men.

How to Keep the Mice Listless

In a double-blind study by Stetson,
Stetson and Stetson,
the researchers blindfolded three mice
and planted a rat's morsel of cheese
at the far end of the maze.
The maze resembled the blueprint
for a miniature human city.
In the Methodology section it was noted
that Stetson and Stetson, but not Stetson
were blindfolded too.
All three Stetsons had a theory
about the threshold to deprivation.
In conclusion, all three mice gave up
somewhere in the middle of the maze,
one died, the other two, wanting to.
When the Stetson brothers went home
they discovered against their expectations
that three mice were scurrying across
their kitchens, leaving mouse turds
on the floor. From this, the Stetson brothers
devised a theory that mice
can read blueprints
and have no need of a control.

Up at Everyday Poets: Cat City, 5:00 a.m.

From the Cat People series of poems early this year. This one didn't make it into the chapbook. Many thanks to Lisa Cihlar for supplying the prompts. http://www.everydaypoets.com/

Sade on Tour

Nice to see that the 52 year old is selling sold out concerts on her new world tour. Love her music.

The Illusionist

Just saw this low-key masterpiece of animation. It's a 2010 British-French animated comedy-drama film directed by Sylvain Chomet, who also did the highly accaimed The Triplets of Belleville. This animation piece not only lives up to the quality of Triplets, but even surpasses it. It's a story set in 1950s Europe about an aging magician and his friendship with a young teen age girl who believes his tricks are real. It's very subdued in tone and full of the angst that marked The Triplets. I really recommend this one, and you can check out the reviews. And that last scene tell us so much about the personality and motivation of the magician.

The Maynard Is Closing

Sorry to read that The Maynard is closing. Think I've subbed something to them awhile back. On a brighter note, Narwhal magazine, a fledging zine, took some of my poems for its next issue.

The Incredible Shrinking Story

Just received my copy of The Incredible Shrinking Story. Includes my flash fiction, "Alexanderplatz." Lots of good writers in there, such as Kristine Ong Muslim and Meg Tuite.

Congrats to May-Lan Tan

A member of Zoe, and  a writer whose work I reviewed about a year or so ago, has a story called "Legendary," in this issue of Zoetrope. Now I call that
pretty impressive. I'm still trying to break Alien Sloth Sex, (or something like that. Hope the zine hasn't folded.)

Some new stuff I'm working on

A series of interrelated pieces tentatively titled The Lives of Rock Stars. A hybrid collection, a kind of tribute to my guitar and punk gods. Many thanks to Lisa Cihlar for her prompts.

Acceptance by Spittoon, a new zine

Spittoon, a fledging zine, has accepted three of my newer Cat People prose pieces. Really happy these cats have found a home.

A big shout out to Rich Osgood and The Flash Factory

I want to give a much deserved thanks to Rich Osgood, (recently guest editor of Smokelong Quarterly), host of the Flash Factory, for not only being such an inspiration to a group of diverse talents, but on a more personal note, for editing and giving advice regarding my own work. Cheers, Rich for doing a great job.

A link to r. kv.ry

A link to my archived story last April in r. kv.ry. Dancing on the Rhythm Bus--One Night After Leaving the Pyramid Club, 1991

Pigments of Imagination

Found a great new site for art with some excellent down-to-earth tips. It's Melody Maker's Pigments of Imagination. I really dig her work and check out her video on stretching a canvas. http://melodyjmartin.wordpress.com/how-to/

An old poem and some thoughts on past TV shows

The Man with the Yellow Ruler

A desire for forms and limits overwhelms us.

---Garcia Lorca, Ode to Salvidor Dali

The man with the Yellow Ruler

measures my form from a sheet

of cold pressed paper,

cuts me out with

a pair of sharp scissors,

pastes me into his landscape painting

of a winding back road

stretching beyond

the serrated mountains,

a river reflecting tangerine-streaked sky,

goose-feather wings like scars.

There, against the Impressionist shapes

of his painting,

I feel a tingle up my thighs,

a pulse bounding in my chest,

I feel watercolor brilliant.

I turn

and run into the background

wherever the winding road

to his watercolor blueprint

will take me.

Stop, he screams,

Stop.

***

This may or may not have anything to do with the above post. You be the judge. Lately I've been browsing some old YouTube clips from the 60s TV show The Prisoner, even came across a banned episode. Just think about the cultural milieu of the day: an unpopular war, Nixon announcing his enemy list, the hippies and the peace movement, the fight for racial equality, The Chicago Seven, feminism, Timothy Leary, the awakening of self-consciousness, the Kent State Massacres, Sgt. Pepper, you're over the hill after 30 or don't trust anyone after that age. Good-bye Columbus.  Bob, Ted, Carol, and Alice.  Be yourself.

I wasn't a big fan of the show when it first came out. But looking back, it was probably one of the most intelligent shows of that era, along with Secret Agent, Slattery's People, Rt. 66, and a couple of others. (McGoohan, the show's star and creator, wrote most of the scripts, sometimes under a pen name. Jeez, this sounds familiar. He was also the aloof but charismatic John Drake of Secret Agent and Danger Man.)

Although at times, I found the show a bit dogmatic about insisting that one must be an individual, and one must follow one's true self (whatever that is). On some days, I'm just too lazy to fight the system and I feel comfortable in following the crowd. But if you ever have the chance, watch the final episode of The Prisoner. It was pretty amazing, mind-blowing to use a 60's term. And No. 6 came through on his promise: he blew up that island. And in the background, the Beatles were singing All You Need Is Love.

I wonder if there was a message in this somewhere.



And let's not forget this one hot super sexy agent--Miss Emma Peel.

102 Great Stories at Flash Fiction Chronicles

Check out Gay Delani's list of favorite stories nominated by other writers celebrating short story month-May, 2011. A special thanks to Cynthia Litz who nominated my story "Coma," pubbed in Night Train Online, back 2007. Check out Jessie Bradley's "Hemophilia" nominated by Meg Tuite. Lots of great stuff!

L.A. Review and I'm slacking off on art

L.A. Review took my short story "You Never Die in Wholes." Thanks to the brilliant and talented Stefanie Freele for her suggestions and edits.

I keep going to the book store and buying all these art books but I'm not doing a damn thing as far as practicing. Where's my muse? Where's the art muse? Who do I contact? I'll wing it.

Up at the Short Humour Site

A short sci-fi piece called "Ducky." Started at The Flash Factory about a year or so ago. Glad this found a home: Ducky

Up at Smokelong Weekly

"All My Friends Are a Lot Like Me" Check it out at http://www.smokelong.com/flash/kylehemmings32.asp.

Blue Valentine

I'm always interested in movies about marriages/relationships gone wrong (Two for the Road with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn immediately comes to mind). A good one is Blue Valentine starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams (2010). It came out in theaters around the time that Black Swan came out, which I liked alot. Anyway, the director just kind of captures certain "moments" juxtaposed in the lives of his characters and lets the audience figure out what is going on under the surface. What caught my eye was the effect that the dysfunctional families of the two principles had on their lives. I understand that both Gosling and Williams actually lived in the same house for a month, shopping and picking fights with each other, to prepare for their roles. Although kind of loose in structure,

I recommend this one.

"Fly Away" Accepted by Hamilton Stone Review

My flash/prose poem "Fly Away" from the chapbook Cat People has been accepted by Hamilton Stone Review. Meow, baby.

My picks for favorite top ten albums

As you can see, a heavy preference for 60s and 70s music. This list might change over time. Some albums were unfortunately left out because the artist(s)was already included on the list, eg., Iggy Pop/James Williamson-Kill City or Love--Love Four Sail.

1. Spirit-The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
2. Love-Forever Changes
3. The Blues Project-Projections
4. The Beatles-The White Album
5. The Police-Regatta de Blanc
6. Iggy Pop-Lust for Life
7. Jefferson Airplane-Crown of Creation
8. Buffalo Springfield--Last Time Around
9. Sonic Youth-The Eternal
10. The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds

Up at Gone Lawn

Some pieces from my Cat People chapbook and Michelle Reale has a piece up here too. GONE LAWN