Rather than commissioning pieces, the fourth issue of Beat the Dust was open to all writers to submit work. No theme – anything was considered. So, expect blasphemy, a gravedigger in Disneyland, Mark Ronson having sex with Lady GaGa on a piano, a dwarf pissing on dolphins, an actual message in a bottle thrown off the Isle of Wight Ferry and a child killer. Yep, it's creamy literary goodness, folks.
Sick City blurb: Two hapless drug addicts meet in rehab and concoct a get-rich-quick scheme that could only make sense to a couple of dope fiends. Their picaresque journey through LA has them bumping into a delightful plenty of grotesque characters: Dr. Mike, the Tony Robbins/Dr. Drew type Recovery Guru, whose self-help empire of luxury rehab centers, reality TV show, and best selling books could be tumbled by his secret obsession with Champagne, not the drink but a stunning transvestite; Trina, the stripper who has to give blow jobs for drugs because she's tapped her bank account for a "business expense" boob job; Spider, a former childhood sitcom star now stealing suitcases from the LAX carousels to see what he can pawn for drugs; Stevie Rox, the bloated movie mogul who orders (too loudly) the most expensive wines at Musso & Frank's; Rupert DeWald, the wealthy jingo writer who discreetly uses some of his wealth to acquire trinkets like Napoleon's penis for his "collection”; Pat, the sociopath dealer/killer who adds a delightfully dark tension, always lingering in the narrative's shadows, to an otherwise often blackly-humorous tale.
Submission Date:
14 Jan 2010
Category:
Audio Recording
In Chap-book
Title:
Sick City
Excerpt:
Tony O’Neill reads an exclusive extract from Sick City, to be published in July this year by Harper Perennial. It’s the first chapter of the novel. The music in the background is an obscure Primal Scream track, Badlands.To listen, click the play button
Ford Dagenham’s playlist prompted by seven words selected at random from Protest!:
P: Nature - Sehr Kosmisch by Harmonia R: Adrift - Solitaire by Gallon Drunk O: Face - Eyes Without A Face by Billy Idol T: Happy - Jackie by Scott Walker E: Vagrant - Wharf Rat by The Grateful Dead S: Sea - Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding T: Nothing - Oh, Sweet Nuthin' by The Velvet Underground
Submission Date:
06 Nov 2009
Category:
Audio Recording
In Chap-book
Title:
werdtalking with ford Dagenham
Excerpt:
Ford Dagenham reads his three-part poem Werdtalking. To listen, click the play button
L: All about you - The Rolling Stones O: Love notes from a drifter - John SaFranko V: To a flame - Stephen Stills E: I want you - Bob Dylan
Top 4 hate songs:
H: Positively 4th street - Bob Dylan A: Dirge - Bob Dylan T: Idiot wind - Bob Dylan E: Ballad of a thin man - Bob Dylan
Submission Date:
08 Aug 2009
Category:
Audio Recording
In Chap-book
Title:
Francis Bacon: A Painting in Sound
Excerpt:
Mark SaFranko introduces his composition Francis Bacon: A Painting in Sound. It was first aired at the Love & Hate lit gig as an alternative to a straight reading, which Mark hates doing, and is born from a love of Francis Bacon…
David Oprava identifies the novel/play/poem/song he’d like to hear on his death bed
As I am kicking the bucket, I only want....
…to be listening to Terrapin Station by the Grateful Dead. The combination of lyrics and melody come together in a way that uplifts. The words chosen are precise and angled at those who need redemption, who need release, who need something beyond. As I am dying, I am sure as hell going to need those things.
…to be read Trout Fishing in America by Richard Brautigan. His simple lines and gentle surreality, combined with a flow of easy place, time, living, whilst underneath lurked the suicide that would become him. He makes me smile and sad at the same time. A gentle soul bending the world around him. I'd die happy with his words under my fingertips.
…to be read my own poem Segue. So that I can ruefully reflect on the waste of so many years, but grin at the love I had in small glimmering doses amongst the hash I made of it all.
I don't like plays.
Submission Date:
08 May 2009
Category:
Audio Recording
In Chap-book
Title:
Oblivion by David Oprava
Excerpt:
An audio recording of David Oprava reading his poem Oblivion, first performed at the Recession Session Live!
HC: Can you tell me a little bit about the spoken word recordings of the spam poems included here? BM: They were recorded in the bedroom of a house near a bridge near a city. They were 'produced' by a friend and collaborator of mine who goes by the name of Doc Throberts, who runs a home studio. We have also been working on a music and words project for a number of years, entitled The Gulag. The spam poems were recorded in an hour a couple of years ago, then hidden away until now as they were too ahead of their time. Now they are 'of their time'. Interesting fact: Doc Throberts once fell off the bonnet of a moving car and now has no sense of smell. HC: Do you ever read your work in public? BM: No. HC: Why not? BM: I've never really intended to 'perform' in public. I've always maintained that people often write down the things that they are too afraid or shy or inhibited to say in public. Personally, I write because I often find it a better method of communication than speech. Also, I'm also not entirely convinced anyone wants to hear me read in public. I mean, there's nothing worse than a poet forcing themselves upon the public. Also, writers are often disappointing in 'real life'. I think there has to at least be an attempt at conjuring an air of mystery or mystique. Maybe one day I will. HC: What are your non-literary influences when writing? BM: Nature, the threat of abject poverty, old reggae music, rifling through dustbins, Irn-Bru, riding my new bike, the madness of the city, punk rock and hardcore, fish and fishing, old English folk music, cats, boxing, grime music, sex, an inability to give in and get a real job, world politics, childhood, London (especially Peckham, Soho and the South Bank), Brutalism, solitude, spam e-mails, Ullswater, sugar, klezmer music, imaginary bodies of water, cheap clothes, cheap shoes, cheap haircuts, cheap everything, pills of many varieties, Futurism, stone circles, Durham, cemeteries, Klaus Kinski's face, 10p per word, walking as far as you can walk, swimming in places you're not allowed to swim, coffee, multi-dimensional traveling, my excellent girlfriend. HC: Name some writers you always urge people to read. BM: Henry David Thoreau, Knut Hamsun, Pedro-Juan Guiterrez, Richard Brautigan, Li Po, Ian Svenonius, George Mackay Brown, Julian Cope, Halldor Laxness.
Submission Date:
05 Jun 2008
Category:
Audio Recording
In Podcast and Chap-book
Title:
spam: email inspired poetry
Excerpt:
To listen to a selection of poems from Ben Myers’ new collection click here to play now: .
ZA: Your novels are graphically sexual. Did you intend the sex to be erotic or pornographic? SaFranko: In Hating Olivia, the sex descriptions were intended to add to the honesty of the narrative. So many times I find so-called "sexually graphic" descriptions in literature to be little more than superficial. In Lounge Lizard the point was to demonstrate that an addiction or obsession can twist what should be pleasant into something less. But then sex in itself is an animalistic ritual, isn’t it? So why the window dressing? Rather than either pornographic or erotic, the intention was actually something quite different – to portray a facet of a single character at a given point in time. Incidentally, outside of the Zajack novels, you wouldn’t find much sex in any of my work.
ZA: How would you want people to remember Mark SaFranko, the writer? SaFranko: As multifaceted. I’m a playwright, a short story writer, an occasional poet and essayist as well as a novelist. I’m a songwriter and musician. I’ve worked as an actor. Sometimes I paint. I’ve always been fascinated by artists who have successfully crossed back and forth between disciplines: Noel Coward, Bob Dylan, Anthony Burgess, Da Vinci, Cocteau, Paul Bowles, Charlie Chaplin, etc. I’ve simply not been able to prevent myself from succumbing to the lure of the guitar, or the paint brush or whatever. Nevertheless, I get out of bed seven days a week and go straight to the typewriter, even when I have to report to a bad job. Writing is the core for me. But of course there’s this: once I’m dead, will I care how or if anyone remembers me? I don’t think that anyone, Shakespeare included, could take himself that seriously.
Submission Date:
19 May 2008
Category:
Audio Recording
In Chap-book
Title:
apology (love lives forever)
Excerpt:
The first of two songs available here, apology is semi-autobiographical and from the 2007 album STRANGERS IN MY BED (River Jack Records, 2007). It's available to download on iTunes. Vocals, six and 12-string electric and acoustic guitars, bass, drums, all Mark SaFranko.
Contact me