Wednesday, January 28, 2004

King Wenclas announces:

On alt.zines today King Wenclas announced that there will be a crazy, fun-filled underground get together (it's always crazy and fun-filled with the ULA) sometime in February.
Details forthcoming.
It's Rare When a poetry Mag is actually...
any good, right? Zine poetry can be crazily dull. But I've gotta give a plug to my man Scott Gordon from my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, a guy who actually puts out a kick-ass poetry mag. Staplegun Press, the all-poetry review features some of the best underground poets like Nathan Graziano and ULAer Joseph Verrilli. Even includes some funny-as-hell poetry from my man Karl Koweski.

And the thing just looks good. The zine is eye candy as well as brain-candy. Looks great on a coffee table.

Go to www.staplegunpress for more information
Unabashed Promo

For my personal website at http://www.angelfire.com/indie/sungod856. Got the bulk of my short stories posted, which tell you the truth, isn't very bulky...but that's another story entirely. Read 'em, print 'em out. Let me know what you thought.
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A short 'lil rant

I just posted this on alt.zines. There's a little (well, a lot) of backstory to this but basically, there's been a rather hostile debate on this newsgroup between the ULA and those folks who seem to oppose, well, everthing the ULA does. Here's my attempt at an Olive Branch between these two groups:

The bulk of the review page is
> wrtten by "members" or "supporting members" of the ULA! (hence, all my
> self-congratulatory, self-impressed and self-exaltation references).
> Your shenanigans seem far more thought-provoking than your words.

Actually, if you want to get totally fucking technical there were 4 reviews by non-ULAers and 3 by ULAers and one of the "ULAer" reviews was from Owen Thomas. Are you really going to tell me that as independent as Vlorbik is, he's going to be soft on the ULA?


> You guys are fun, however.

Yeah, that's the coolest part of it.....but I'll stop here. These posts never seem to get anywhere. It seems, though lines in the sand have been drawn, we're all basically on the same side. The more zinesters and independent writers continue to fight like this the more we can expect watered down mainstream crap to dominate our art/entertainment/information sources.

It seems like neither side is willing to truly listen. I joined the ULA because I saw them fighting the good fight, speaking out and promoting ALL kinds of zinesters and independent writers in their publicity. I think that if anyone is busting his ass to promote all sorts of independent literature/arts it's Karl Wenclas. No one I've EVER met has had as much undying love for literature; something very few people care about anymore.

Something that should be cared about.

So that's where I'm coming from in all this. But I realize that I might have closed off some valid points from Dan or others simply because I'm so entrenched on the ULA side of the debate. But please realize that ya'll have probably been doing the same thing.

So I propose this for all parties involved: Lets hold off on any sort of debate with each other until we can agree to honestly keep open-minds and listen to ther other folks point of view. If there's to be any dialogue at all.

I mean, has this debate (over the last three years of the ULA) ever gotten anywhere?

--Pat

Monday, January 26, 2004

Kostecke takes the Paris Review to task in the Monday report

At www.literaryrevolution.com.

Saturday, January 24, 2004

February 13, 2004

SPEC Presents: A Night of Bad Luck & Broken Hearts
MoJoe's Cafe
7:00 PM

2256 W. Roscoe
Chicago, Illinois

Bookended by Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day, this show features some of the finest talent in Chicago's zine underground, including ULA affiliates Emerson Dameron and Jessica Disobedience, Kate Sandler (Backstabber Zine, independent writer), Drew Hudson (Bad Grammer zine), Autumn Ganza (Backstabber zine), Brent Ritzel (Zine Guide, Tail Spins), Brandon Wetherbee (Foul), and Alicia Dorr (Random Life In Progress, Zine Guide). It will be hosted by Aaron Cynic, of Diatribe (http://www.diatribemedia.com)

CONTACT INFORMATION
Aaron Cynic, spec@selfpublishers.org
http://www.selfpublishers.org/

Thursday, January 22, 2004

Mike Jackman interviewed
Mike Jackman has a cool-as-hell interview up from the literary website, 3AM. The interviewer, who edits the website, seemed sympathetic and genuinely interested in the ULA without at all being snide. Go to the 3AM site for the interview

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Judas Goat
Forgot to mention earlier that I got a copy of the new Judas Goat Quarterly in the mail a couple of weeks ago. ULAer Grant Schreiber pens a hilarious leftist children's story with illustrations lifted from a Dr. Suess book. Email egospark1@juno.com for ordering information.

--Pat
New ULAer Jessica Disobedience is coming out with what is sure to be a kick-ass "punk litzine" (her words). It's scheduled to debut in the coming months and she needs your submissions! Go to her website Safetypin Girl dot com for more information.

She's publishing a story of mine, so she obviously has great taste in literature.

--Pat King
1/21/03

Frank Marcopolos reports on alt.zines that Jeff Somers and Ann Sterzinger will join him in promoting the anthology, The Urban Bizarre, a collection of strange stories by underground writers and edited by Nick Mamantas. Frank is a great guy and I wish him all the luck with his reading. I dig Ann Sterzinger's writing a lot, too. She was one of the six founding members of the ULA, but bailed out soon after.

--Pat King