3:AM Magazine

The Riot Lit Writer’s Collective (Slogan: “The revolution will be written”) has just been launched, proving that the Offbeat Generation keeps growing in all directions. Here is the press release:

“Riot Lit is a cooperative of authors from all walks of life. Some hold PhDs, some have graduated from nothing more than the hard lessons of the streets. Some have been published through major New York houses, others have garnered critical acclaim and hefty fanbases through the route of self-publishing. But all nine members have in common a unifying goal of strengthening the writing community and giving new urgency to the world of letters. For too long, authors, perhaps more than in any other creative industry, have felt the need to compete with each other, to keep their creative ideas safe so that each one would have that much more of a chance of landing the fabled book deal, and securing the lion’s share of the public’s entertainment dollars. The industry of publishing is far from soft, and the competition is always fierce, not only for publishing contracts, but for table space in the major bookstore chains, and even venues for book readings and signings. An author’s best friend, goes the common knowledge, is and always will be himself.
But not anymore.

The Riot Lit Collective refuses the passive role that writers are expected to embrace. They defy all preconceived notions of how a writer should create and thrive within modern culture. Their strength is their ability to maneuver outside of the literary establishment. They do not seek endorsements from talk show hosts. They do not write paint-by-numbers beach reads. They have united and they are here to change the dominant paradigm.”

They are: Daniel Scott Buck, N. Frank Daniels, Kate Holden, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Brad Listi, Tony O’Neill, Jolene Siana, Joseph Suglia and Kristopher Young.

Collective members N. Frank Daniels, Tony O’Neill and Jolene Siana will be reading and signing their books on Thursday, October 5th at TBD, and on Friday, October 6th at the KGB Bar in Manhattan.

Tony O’Neill (pictured) will be interviewed tomorrow on Kerrang Radio at 11.30pm (UK time)/6.30pm (East Coast time). You can listen to the interview online if you’re not in the UK.

In related news: a review of Noah Cicero’s The Condemned.

Eater are playing at London’s legendary 100 Club on 28th Sept, supported by TV Smith (The Adverts) and Don Letts. Kris Needs (ZigZag, The Vice Creems) will be DJing and the 100 Punks exibition (100 photo booth pictures from 76/77) will be exhibited. Tickets available from the 100 Club website.

Read Andy Blade (far left, shades)’s excellent The Secret Life of a Teenage Punk Rocker. More on Dee Generate (second from right, drumsticks) right here.

Irreverent, a new French arts/literary magazine, was launched last night in Paris.

The first issue includes authors like Jean-Louis Costes, Pierre Merot and infamous cyberpunk socialite Thierry Theolier (Crevard) as well as some very interesting photographers/artists. A suivre…
Laurence Remila, who attended the launch, will be playing at La Fleche d’Or on Wednesday 20th, with his band Gulcher.

Peter Wild interviewed by Clare Dudman: “Happiness is very definitely peace and quiet. Peace and quiet. Happiness is me on one couch, the missus on the other, American Music Club’s Everclear on the iTunes, a glass of wine (or, tonight, a very fine malt whiskey with a splash of lemonade), reading our books…That’s all I need to be happy. Saying all of that, every once in a while my little boy climbs up on to me and falls asleep and there is nothing in this world quite like your kid sleeping on you, dribbling through your tshirt or whatever. That’s a beautiful thing. However, lest I err too far into Hallmark territory, there’s also nothing like pills and booze and sex”. * Dan Rhodes on his favourite bookshop (and other things) in Outsider Left: “Booksmith on Haight Street in San Francisco. I met my wife there, see — you don’t get that on Amazon.” (More Rhodes in 3:AM here.) * Introducing London’s Pen Pusher magazine with its obligatory blog. * An old Nude magazine article on LOMO cameras and their “indefinable sense of immediate nostalgia”: “The latter is largely due to a vignetting or tunnel vision effect in which the corners of the snap fill with shadow. It’s like peering through a keyhole or the wrong end of a telescope; a form of frame that bestows emotive significance upon the most mundane of objects: a lost mitten; a mouthful of toothpaste drool; a squashed spider on the sole of a flip-flop”. * Larry Clark on facials in Nerve: “I’m still shocked by what happened in the film. But ultimately, it makes sense: if you start watching pornography before you have sex, a lot of kids are going to think that’s the way to do it, you know. I was amazed that the correct way to have sex is to pull out and ejaculate on the girl’s face — to them, you know, this is the way it’s done. But if you think about it, it makes sense. If you grew up with pornography, of course you might think that.” On poonk rock: “Punk rock was all about dysfunctional fucked-up families, if you listen to the lyrics. And skateboarding was similarly dysfunctional fucked-up kids from really fucked-up families. Punk rock saved lives — without punk rock a lot of kids would have killed themselves, and without skateboarding a lot of kids would have killed themselves. It gave kids an outlet”. * Laura Albert (aka JT LeRoy) is interviewed in the Paris Review: “I stayed at home and called hotlines. I called any hotline that offered help for kids. I always called as a boy, telling stories. It’s not like I had the desire to be transgendered, but I wouldn’t pray at night for a normal, happy family, or even to be thin — I would pray, God, let me wake up as a boy. That was salvation for me. That was where the power lay, and that’s what I became.” * More litzines to check out: The Angler, Bad Idea and Acceptation Sans Limites (Sean ‘Scourge of the Offbeat Generation’ McGahey’s off-Beat side-project which includes a story by…Offbeater Matthew Coleman). * A new Will Self short story. * Patti Smith pays homage to Robert Mapplethorpe (more Patti Smith here). * An excellent interview with Armistead Maupin. * A great feature on Manc punk legends The Worst. * The…(yawn!)…Tom McCarthy-less Booker shortlist. * JG Ballard, Tony O’Neill, Impetus Press, Scarlett Thomas, Nelson Algren, D. Harlan Wilson, Celine, Dee Dee Ramone, Lenny Kaye and the Confederacy of Dunces virtual tour, all via Dogmatika. * Women’s confessional blogs. * The Underground Literary Alliance in The Believer. * Mark Ravenhill on Edward Bond. * Dave Eggers on Spamalot.

Austin
Karl Orend “gives us our sweet dose of Henry Miller” in his Fucking Your Way to Paradise: Sex and Anarchy in the Life of Henry Miller. Thursday, 14 September, 8pm; MonkeyWrench Books, 110 East North Loop, Austin. 504-407-6925.

Los Angeles
Zadie Smith talks with David Ulin and reads from her new novel On Beauty. Friday, 15 September, Royce Hall, UCLA, Westwood, Los Angeles. 310-825-2101.

3:AM Magazine and The Edgier Waters contributor Jim Ruland is featured reader for the Cobalt Poets reading series. Open mic follows. Tuesday, 19 September, 8pm, Cobalt Cafe, 22047 Sherman Way, Conoga Park, Los Angeles. 818-348-3789.

Chicago
Palabra Pura, bilingual reading featuring poet Sheryl Luna, poet and playwright Tato Laviera, and poet and fiction writer Leon Leiva Gallardo. Wednesday, 20 September, California Clipper, 1002 North California Street, Chicago. Doors open 8pm, reading 8:30pm. Open mic follows. Free.

“The shards from a googleplex of infobits seem to be stuck in the part of my brain just above the pineal gland. Yes, I’ve just been reading Kenji Siratori again. This is my idea of a good time.” — R.U. Sirius

“KENJI is surely a madman, but if you scan his hallucinatory textual mashups in the right frame of mind, they all begin to make sense!!!” — Douglas Rushkoff

NORDVARGR / BEYOND SENSORY EXPERIENCE vs. KENJI SIRATORI - HYPERGENOME666 - 2xCD is out next month, more details here.

Matthew Coleman (aka the Enfant Terrible), ace face on London’s growing Offbeat Generation scene, recently produced Vox Vocsis‘ video. No dummies were harmed during the making of this promo.