Pale Blue Auto-Mobile

2011-02-17T13:28:00.002-05:00

A Final Roundup of Tom Swifties!"And actually, I’m just going to re-post this whole damn submission from J.D. Finch": * “It’s so nice to see Minnie, Mickey and Donald here,” said Tom goofily. * “That’s the last time I’ll listen to a damn thing that Bader Ginsburg woman says,” said Tom ruthlessly. * “Wow, you’d think she would have accepted, seeing as how I was offering her a diamond as

2011-02-09T11:52:00.001-05:00

Warren Ellis Channels The Kinks"Girls will be boys and boys will be girlsIt's a mixed up muddled up shook up world."LolaAn Observation About CASINO ROYALE And James Bond

2010-12-30T09:53:00.002-05:00

"I been Ayn Randed, nearly brandedCommunist, 'cause I'm left-handedThat's the hand I use, well, never mind."From Paul Simon's "A Simple Desultory Philippic"

2010-05-15T02:29:00.001-04:00

Please Answer The Door

2010-04-10T20:33:00.001-04:00

StorytimeEverybody says "I could write a book." And sure, everybody could fill up a couple hundred pages. But with what? Probably just a record of personal events, not really a story. Would it ad up to a story in the end? The story of a life? Maybe, but more likely it would read like diary entries, a lot of little stories, rather than the big story -- the story of your life. We have to edit our

YouTube - Top 10 Weirdest Food Combinations

2010-03-26T03:31:00.000-04:00

Foods Of The GodsYouTube - Top 10 Weirdest Food Combinations

2009-12-25T16:00:00.001-05:00

The Suburban Swindle, by Jackie Corley is...Angry, angsty, sexy stories of the hopeless and the hopeful, served up by Corley in her authentic down and dirty stylish prose. She writes like she's seen it all -- the sad, ugly, and beautiful within the little piece of the world she claims as the setting for these pieces. And she has the chops to tell us what it means, through the actions of her vivid

2009-08-01T15:13:00.000-04:00

2009-07-31T19:28:00.002-04:00

An Epic Search (JOB Application 2996)I first performed on a soapbox of lit/poetic revolution,alleged dancing pinhead on the pins and needlesof our futures, which...1956-2006,Beat by the Beats. Hunters of Thompson guns,the offing of established literati in the offing,before the leader looked into the wrong end of the damned thing, made a mess and missed his second time around for, like, the second

2009-04-09T04:09:00.000-04:00

2009-03-09T23:55:00.004-04:00

The Old Fight My boss here in Cape May thinks we Irish are a funny lot, still finding ourselves in a tizzy over things that happened 300 years ago. With all the beauty of the land, him and a big part of the world still believes we’re populated by bomb-mad crazies and that our highest goal is to get on the dole. I tell him, “Is Jersey a state-sized pollution spewing engine inhabited by

2009-02-23T00:38:00.002-05:00

The Word Detective Tracks "gig", whirly and otherwise"The first incarnation of 'gig,' around 1225, was to mean 'a flighty, giddy girl,' although this sense may well have been based on an earlier sense of 'gig' meaning 'something that spins or whirls' (as later found in 'whirligig')."

2009-02-13T23:35:00.001-05:00

2009-01-16T00:02:00.000-05:00

"What I should like to find is a crime, the effects of which would be perpetual, even when I myself do not act, so that there would not be a single moment of my life, even when I were asleep, when I was not the cause of some chaos, a chaos of such proportions that it would provoke a general disturbance so formal that even after my death its effects would still be felt." - "Juliette" -- the

2008-11-17T14:32:00.001-05:00

What Road? Find more videos like this on AdGabber

2008-10-25T04:12:00.000-04:00

Book em, Dano

2008-10-18T01:55:00.005-04:00

The night the comedienne called me "bland"Half a half-assed storyInteresting that she hasn't found an impressive man in so long. In my experience this means that she's up for five more years of therapy.And while she might "be a bolster for a man", as she so quaintly put it, perhaps she also just naturally undercuts him (oh the type!) in not so obvious ways.Again, in my experience with being a

2008-09-17T17:15:00.000-04:00

A Clean Non-Bloody PlaceWho knew that our waiter that night was going to be named Scorcese?"My name is Marty," he (might) have said. "Please let me know if the soundtrack is to your liking. Just tell me." Continuing his staccato patter he said, "No, there are no cards for you to fill out, I became totally sick of them after a few preview audiences dissed me on them over a couple of my...er, the,

2008-09-11T23:46:00.001-04:00

> II*

2008-09-10T03:44:00.000-04:00

2008-08-15T04:21:00.000-04:00

Radio Free Europe -- REM

2008-08-04T21:52:00.005-04:00

General Wankery"Our top story tonight -- Generalitsimo Wankery is still dead."You will remember that it was not so long ago that the general choked to death on his own bile and vitriol while excoriating his fast-departing unfaithful "followers". It was a sad day indeed for his fighting force Wanks Cranks, even though it was they, nearly to a man, who left him bleeding and naked on the Parisian

2008-06-27T03:45:00.004-04:00

Great new story at The Guild Of Outsider WritersOn the night of her eighteenth birthday, Desiree Mitchell blacked out. When she awoke the next morning, her head hurtand she was in an unfamiliar bed. Naked under the sheets, her anxiety and panic escalated.Desiree turned to the bare back of a stranger. The pale back was slender touched by shoulder length brown hair. Anticipation was killing her,

2008-06-27T03:08:00.001-04:00

Citizen Kane - How to Run a Newspaper

2008-05-03T02:27:00.002-04:00

John Scalzi Sittin' In Ya YaYou know, SFF readers are supposed to bring their sense of wonder to the reader-writer contract and there is no better SOW (unfortunate anagram) than childlike SOW. To maintain it in the real world is pretty tough, but the savvy SFF reader has a mechanism to leave all the BS behind when he opens the pages of a SF/F book. Although it makes me something of a dolt in the

2008-04-17T01:37:00.003-04:00

Sperm Bank Holdup!

2008-03-28T00:43:00.004-04:00

From Fanzine NOVAE TERRAE, April 1938 PRELUDE TO THE CONQUEST OF SPACE By Arthur C. (Ego) Clarke I shot a rocket into the air,It fell to earth I know not where,But 50 grammes of T.N.T.,Exploded in the Rectory. I shot a rocket into space,Towards the full moon's beckoning face,And was rewarded for my pains,By blowing up the Sea of Rains. I shot a rocket into the air,But notwithstanding all my

2008-01-29T03:28:00.000-05:00

Check out The Guild of Outsider Writers for my post "What's Your Story?"It deals with some of the basic realities of the writer's world.

2007-12-17T01:16:00.000-05:00

I've posted a new essay about Internet publishing at OW:Whirligigzine: Being, Internetness and Shameful Self-PromotionThe Guild

2007-12-01T17:04:00.000-05:00

A World Without Writers

2007-11-21T20:20:00.000-05:00

How Kerouac DiedKerouac died of embarrassment -- he didn't want to be King Of The Beats. Like a privacy-minded Wisconsin farmer who just needs to be left alone to get on with making a livingdoesn't want to be known as King Of The Beets.

2007-11-15T16:41:00.000-05:00

"Go here," he said mysteriously.

2007-10-26T21:35:00.000-04:00

The East Coast (and still living) Hunter S. ThompsonA Conversation with Critical Fave (and Fave Critic) Luc Sante by Will Hermes

2007-10-15T14:41:00.000-04:00

2007-10-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

215 Festival - October 4th-7th, 2007ZINE FEST AT ROTUNDA4014 Walnut StPhiladelphia PA 19104www.therotunda.orgSun. 10/7, 12-6pmThe Philly Zine Fest"Our goal is to embrace written and verbal communication as much aspossible without constraints. At the zine fest, be prepared foreverything from personal experiences to artistic talent to first-handpolitics. Trading of information is in abundance, and

2007-09-26T01:09:00.001-04:00

2007-06-19T04:22:00.000-04:00

Poe Finds Another Source Of Creativity How very commonly we hear it remarked that such and such thoughts are beyond the compass of words! I do not believe that any thought, properly so called, is out of the reach of language. I fancy, rather, that where difficulty in expression is experienced, there is, in the intellect which experiences it, a want either of

2007-05-22T18:40:00.000-04:00

You Don't Know Jack

2007-05-18T01:14:00.000-04:00

The WhirliblogBecause stuff is starting to happen.

2007-04-05T18:05:00.000-04:00

Heads Up!It was once claimed that the late Del Close, improv master and Second City mainstay, had stipulated in his will that his skull be preserved to star as Yorick in the future. (Insert your own there's no business like show business joke here.)Not quite so, for better or worse. Here's Wikipedia's statement on the matter: "Before passing away, Close requested that his skull be given to the

2007-03-22T13:57:00.000-04:00

The Whirliblog

2007-03-22T13:56:00.000-04:00

At The Whirliblog I Note That I Note The Passing Of Ken "The Krab" Wilson

2007-03-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

The Guild of Outsider Writers3.21.07 : WE ARE LIVEThe Guild of Outsider Writers - Wednesday, 21 March 2007© The Guild of Outsider

2007-02-23T04:10:00.000-05:00

The WhirligigzineBoil water...lots of it -- it's coming!

2007-02-23T02:41:00.000-05:00

Streets Of London

2007-01-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

Tell It Brother!Review of Jeffrey Thomas's Punktown at Bookgasm"And it’s a love that admittedly sways quite often. I get burnt out on the genre, more than any other. Too many books rely on so many formulas that have been reiterated over and over again. I don’t want books about quests for technological treasures or altered timelines with dragons or square-jawed smugglers fucking alien princesses.

2007-01-15T02:22:00.000-05:00

Scalzi on ZadieAs I know from hanging around his blog a bit, reading his Amazon Plog and picking up other Scalzi tidbits here and there John Scalzi makes an effort to understand different points of view.As far as the Zadie Smith essay he is analyzing is concerned: I wonder if his lack of understanding about her point of view ("Ms. Smith entirely loses me on this bit...") is based on the fact that

2006-12-22T04:47:00.000-05:00

I am:Hal Clement (Harry C. Stubbs)A quiet and underrated master of "hard science" fiction who, among other things, foresaw integrated circuits back in the 1940s.Which science fiction writer are you?

2006-12-19T01:27:00.000-05:00

Judith Regan -- Nobody's Girl FridayRon Hogan, a New York based blogger and half of Galleycat at mediabistro.com, is the latest writer to become a part of a story he has to cover, kind of like a throwback to Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson.The story? The firing of uber-editor Judith Regan by Rupert Murdoch. (The story seems to begin with the "ill-considered" O.J. Simpson book project, but there is

2006-12-14T04:38:00.000-05:00

Not Your Parents' Lit !

2006-10-09T03:01:00.000-04:00

Booking BloggersStories abound now about bloggers becoming writers of actual books. Then what better time to 1) hit the blogging harder 2) self publish? But the bloggers who self-consciously blog about this (mostly litbloggers) are like MLM* flunkies and eventually their pyramid scheme will collapse. (And their publishers will leave them high and dry. Hence: self publish. It's safer in the

2006-09-28T08:32:00.000-04:00

No Hodgman No CryWell folks, it appears to be time to turn off the lights on this one. As Mr. Hodgman continues to play Godot, I’ve no intention of meeting him with my Estragon. As a proper spanking I think we should all invite our favorite scribes to our blogs for a few words, creating a new genre where Mr. H will live in infamy as “they guy that didn’t show.”I haven’t forgotten that he is the

2006-09-27T19:17:00.000-04:00

Chairman Of The BoredGawker Sez: "Tao Lin and Whitney Pastorek star in the world's most boring literary feud."I say:The problem, in my opinion comes down to AKS -- ass kisser syndrome. Something happened to the generation before Tao, who is a twenty-something: the education system finally figured out how to breed a generation of sheep. It had a lot to do with taking the focus off of the

2006-09-05T02:01:00.000-04:00

In "Reason to Vomit" over at his Demi-Puppets blog King Wenclas made a good point about privilege vs authenticity.My take here at Pale Blue Auto-Mobile:I’ve got The Outlaw Bible of American Literature in front of me right now and it is filled with writers, who, if still around, would be firmly in the Underground Literary Alliance's camp.The book is pub’ed by Thunder’s Mouth Press, which sounds

2006-08-16T02:54:00.000-04:00

While the online blog incarnation of my zine The Whirligig -- The Whirliblog -- is dedicated to fiction and poetry, there is no reason why we can't cover anything in the arts and present it in essays, reviews, blurbs or any other form.So go there to enjoy a review Of Next, a CD by Hunkasaurus and His Pet Dog Guitar.(www.hunkasaurus.com)

2006-07-15T05:11:00.000-04:00

It's very cool that my valued acquaintance and friend of The Underground Literary Alliance, writer Ian Spiegelman wore a bit of apparel that looked like a bowling shirt the night he nearly turned Douglas Dechert's head into a bowling ball.Oh, and read anything Spiegelman has ever written, including what's archived online from his days on The New York Post's "Page Six." Fantastic stuff.

2006-06-20T20:58:00.000-04:00

What's The Frequency Edward?As the reverberations from the ULA's appearance at Colombia's Howl reading continue in the background of the ongoing consideration of insider and outsider writers and poets, the action itself at the Miller Theater this past April shows not only that the Underground Literary Alliance is not afraid to put its money where its mouth is, but that Ginsberg the man, as well

2006-05-08T13:18:00.000-04:00

The ULA and HOWL from someone who gets it -- "Beat brit bard" Bruce Hodder:So, what's all this ULA Howl Protest business and how come we never get to hear about it, either in the mainstream media or in the writings/ websites etc. of people who make a living out of the Beats?Click on the Bruce Hodder link on the right of this page for more.

2006-04-26T00:30:00.000-04:00

Click Here for an Associated Press (AP) article and podcast on the ULA's Howl protest at Columbia U. It includes some discussion of Jelly Boy and how he mousetrapped his own tongue in the service of literary protest!(AP Photo/HO Geoff Hall)

2006-04-19T12:12:00.000-04:00

It may have been the Underground Literary Alliance's most successful protest action ever staged. Read part of a preliminary report from King Wenclas below and click through to the ULA site for more info on the night the ULA Howled.There's no other way to depict it except as a success after we presented a wide variety of underground writers, with wild entertainment, to an enthusiastic crowd

2006-04-18T02:51:00.000-04:00

"No more time to tell how,This is the season of what."The Eleven -- The Grateful DeadJack Saunders' Chapbook Free Speech for the ULA's Howl Protest at Columbia U., NYC.

2006-04-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

Ginsberg's "Howl" is Fifty This YearWNYC NewsroomNEW YORK, NY April 17, 2006 —This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Allen Ginsberg's epic Beat poem "Howl" which dealt frankly with homoeroticism, drugs, music and politics. It sparked an obscenity case which ended with the legal precedent of "redeeming social value" for a literary work.There's a celebration tonight at Columbia

2006-04-17T17:10:00.000-04:00

From Today's Columbia SpectatorBut in academia, which has become the only real sanctuary for poets and poetry in America, “Howl” is still largely unread; the poem that won the legal battle in the courtroom lost the culture war in the classroom. Students of poetry, including those at Columbia, have been poorer off, and perhaps safer, too, from an intentionally provocative poem that explicitly

2006-04-17T03:08:00.000-04:00

The original, authentic Howl reading..."On October 13, 1955, Elvis Presely played the City Auditorium in Amarillo, Texas -- just one of the countless stops en route to the hysterical adulation he was to experience after signing to RCA-Victor the following month. That same night, far away in San Francisco, six poets -- Kenneth Rexroth, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Phil Whalen, Philip Lamantia, and

2006-04-17T01:28:00.000-04:00

FYI -- Greil Marcus (A culture historian whose opinion I hold in high regard) gave Mr. Shinder's book The Poem That Changed America: Howl Fifty Years Later a negative review in The Times.(c)The New York TimesApril 9, 2006Classic BeatReview by GREIL MARCUSA "HOWL" photograph, taken at the Virginia Military Institute in 1991 by Gordon Ball: a row of uniformed cadets, their heads shaved, each with

2006-04-15T16:22:00.000-04:00

Good job by Billie Cohen in Time Out New York where she featured the ULA and its upcoming Howl protest in an evenhanded way.(And thanks for including a photo I took at the ULA's Medusa reading in Philadelphia last year!)

2006-04-15T00:42:00.000-04:00

Click to hear a WNYC radio interview from yesterday with one of the Underground Literary Alliance's poets, Frank Walsh. He's followed by the author of the book The Poem That Changed America: Howl Fifty Years Later. It offers both sides of the issue that has prompted the ULA to put on a protest/free performance at Columbia U. Monday night.

2006-04-14T02:33:00.000-04:00

A dissenting opinion on the ULA action:"I understand the impetus behind the ULA opposing the beat event . . . especially as it is charging a ludicrous cover fee . . . but I don’t see any good coming from picketing, heckling, or even handling out fliers on the sidewalk. The problem is that the average attendee doesn’t have the slightest clue why some of these things might be offensive or warrant

2006-04-11T17:47:00.000-04:00

2006-04-11T17:13:00.000-04:00

Free The Beats! or Everything you need to know about the ULA HOWL reading protest.

2006-04-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

Plea from a poetSome time ago the ULA published UK poet Bruce Hodder's Poem For Howl Fifty at Underground Literary Adventures. It communicates the spirit behind the Howl reading protest.

2006-04-07T17:01:00.000-04:00

The Outsiders OutsideJack Saunders, the ULA's own Bayou Baudelaire...Where do you think he will be -- he the possessor of some of the last remnants of the true Beat spirit -- on the evening of April 17 when the academics and establishment publishers and writers at Columbia U. are congratulating themselves on co-opting Allen Ginsberg's HOWL for their use? Do you think he will be all cozy up on

2006-04-04T00:54:00.000-04:00

HOWL -- For the ULA co-option is not an option...The proprietor of the blog "You Are Here" is sympathetic to the ULA's stance on the HOWL reading.

2006-04-03T18:20:00.000-04:00

On the road to the HOWL reading...Phillyist links to King's reading challenge.

2006-04-03T12:27:00.000-04:00

Countdown To HOWLI am not one for much blog linkage: in general I find little point in cluttering up my blog with links that will be dead in a few months or so. Also, someone has usually gotten there first and I loathe unoriginality, especially if it is my own. (Impossible!)The point of all this is to alert my readers that there will be significant linkage here until April 17, when the academics,

2006-04-02T16:49:00.000-04:00

It's a rare comedian who can deliver bad taste jokes with such good taste. But the always tasteful -- even when it's bad -- Jennifer Dziura miraculously pulls it off.donate your OWN blood; drive-bys don't count

2006-03-28T12:06:00.000-05:00

It's time toBuy Game Quest!Yes, it's by that ultra-talented Canadian Leopold McGinnis, who I have gladly given valuable Pale Blue Auto-Mobile real estate to in the past. (Check my archives for a post on The Red Fez.) And trust me, I don't do that for every Tom, Dick and Leopold that comes down the pike.And watch this space for more, including an interview with the writer, who I will ask questions

2006-03-22T03:45:00.000-05:00

Huh!Charles Newman, 67, Writer and Literary Journal Editor, Dies - New York Times: "(Praised by critics for his mordant wit and pyrotechnic use of language, Mr. Newman reveled in the knowing, self-referential asides that were a hallmark of postmodern style. Thus, it is only fitting to interrupt his obituary here to explain that 'tephramancy' � also spelled 'tephromancy' and pronounced

2006-03-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

A Howl Of ProtestAttackingtheDemi-Puppets: How the Columbia "Howl" Event Celebrates Censorship: "What will the system-writers and mandarins of established lit be celebrating at Columbia April 17th?They'll be celebrating their triumph over the underground, by raising up ONE token outsider and ignoring everyone else. ONE independent poet in a fifty-year period gains their recognition. They

2006-03-13T02:54:00.000-05:00

What price, the mark of the Pulitzer Prize Winner?

2006-02-28T02:44:00.000-05:00

Fake writers need not apply...and yeah, I'm down on "Gawker" because they don't consider me hip enough to comment. Invite only, ya know. Ah, they're probably right. (Now excuse me while I go to practice the Boy Scout Pledge.)

2006-02-26T03:17:00.000-05:00

The danger of writers (aka "wordsmiths") trying to explain the cosmos with numbers -- even if second-hand -- instead of words?

2006-02-22T02:58:00.000-05:00

Sic itur ad astralibrarian.net � on the �A List�Ultra-Librarian (my term, not hers) Jessamyn West smells the sweet smell of blogging success and decides life is good.

2006-02-20T01:39:00.000-05:00

Fascinatingly strange stories by an author like no other.

2006-02-19T20:21:00.000-05:00

The first sentence of this review of All The President's Men is one of the most incisive things Ebert has ever written.(Blue Nixon from a photo by J.D. Finch)

2006-02-14T01:46:00.000-05:00

Game QuestOnce again I point you to a fine writer, also a member of the ULA, who is creating his own writer-friendly publishing empire. He deserves our attention, as does his forthcoming novel, Game Quest.

2006-01-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

"In the kingdom of Bhutan, all citizens officially become Heywood Jablome on New Year's Day." Go Here For More

2006-01-10T01:12:00.000-05:00

Go here, OK?

2006-01-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

2005-11-20T12:35:00.000-05:00

Hu–Lo Ahm Jah-Nee CashAll props to The Man In Black (ie, no disrespect intended), but check out:http://audio35.archive.org/3/audio/dictionaraoke/Johnny_Cash-folsom_prison_blues.mp3athttp://www.dictionaraoke.org/The “I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die” lines are unbelievable.

2005-11-09T13:19:00.000-05:00

Psst! Come here my friend, I have something that you will find...interestingYes, that is right, follow the above link to find an oasis in the middle of the literary desert of this land. The Red Fez is a ripping yarn set in our land of romance and full of mysterious and double-dealing characters who might do anything to get...But I musn't give too much away, my friend. Go to Red Fez Publications

2005-11-04T16:20:00.000-05:00

Of all the blog joints in all the ISPs in all of cyberspace, I'm linking to this: Grumpy Old Bookman: Everyone Who's Anyone under threat

2005-10-31T18:13:00.000-05:00

BOO!

2005-10-20T02:55:00.000-04:00

Oh, I'm SorryFor those who haven't yet read Steve Almond's great piece on Salon, go here. I have a letter attached that makes clear my own stake in/feeling about the issue.By the way, comments here are open, although most have left this story behind by now. Here I post about it only for my own record, as my Salon comments are pretty much all I want to say about the topic.

2005-10-20T02:23:00.000-04:00

Any Salonistas In The House?As this is more a diary of my own life in lit and writing, rather than an observational litblog, I will continue to feature -- when I'm not featuring myself; yes, we all do it, don't we? -- writers I enjoy or those with potential. There's no point in being pickily critical. There are people who get paid to do that and are called... critics!Yes, I'm the Public Advocate

2005-09-12T23:27:00.000-04:00

Center Ring In The International Lit Circus !Zadie Smith Proves Herself To Be Rather High Maintenance After All And Embraces The Dickensesque (And Utterly Unpopular On Her Side Of The Pond) Symbol Of England As Complete Hell-Hole or"Plus Ca Change, Plus C'est La Meme Chose"

2005-09-02T02:16:00.000-04:00

(Caption: Rescuers help Fats Domino off a boat after he was rescued Monday from his New Orleans home.) Rock 'n' Roll Will Never DieThat "The Fat Man" is safe and sound in N'awlins is a ray of hope amidst the dark sadness.(CNN) -- Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino was among the thousands of New Orleans residents plucked from rising floodwaters, his daughter said Thursday.Karen Domino White, who

2005-08-21T15:33:00.000-04:00

One Last Blowout Weekend With The DoctorRIP HST

2005-08-12T02:32:00.000-04:00

Hunter S. Thompson...I'm trying to wrangle an invitation to the Woody Creek memorial to HST.The ULA has a lot of his spirit within it: we're sort of next generation gonzos and one of us should be there to contribute a reading in the spirit of...And I've got the perfect musical interlude to hit the perfect note in what will be a sad, but transcendent day.

2005-08-04T23:12:00.000-04:00

Wred Fright is a zinester who needs no introduction, which is a good thing, because I'm not going to give him one. But go to wredfright.com and let him introduce himself, because, unlike myself, he is not merely a shadowy lit wannabe, but is a genuine shadowy lit isabe, or something. The beauty of Wred is you can't really figure out what the hell he is. Which, after all is what it's all about.