The Grand Old Party by S.A. Griffin

The Grand Old Party

the Star Spangled Banner is playing so loudly

that nobody at the party can hear Lady Liberty's muffled screams

coming from inside the Lincoln Bedroom

flat on her back Liberty is doing all that she can to fend off

an unsteady Trump Daddy drunk with power

he has an executive hand over her mouth

while his other fat fingers climb up her garments

desperately attempting to find their way past her port of entry

and into her sunset gates, "C'mon, Liberty baby –

lemme  smack that sweet huddled ass of yours

yearning to breathe free. You know you want it!"

the Donald's aerodynamic pomp quacks and achieves liftoff

cutting manic shadows into the bedroom walls as he

smashes his tiny Trump thing into Liberty's weakening flesh

Uncle Sam is catching all the action standing sentry

behind home plate in front of the locked door

the old wizened white beard waving his hot dog wildly about

shouting, "Uncle Sam wants you to play ball!"

outside in the Rose Garden

Congress is making hay with the gerrymandered vote

holding hands kumbaya like for the cameras

singing Citizens United and it feels so good

Emma Lazarus rises from the grave on the shoulders of

uncountable millions upon millions of wounded women roaring

ME TOO across the crowded centuries

President Great Again deaf to their declaration

continues ripping away at Lady Liberty's tattered gown

the ghost of Emma Lazarus

breaks down the door of the Lincoln Bedroom

shattering the supreme darkness

as the colossus of angry women comes rushing in behind her

they will not be denied

it's the Donald's Waterloo

not even Putin can save him

S.A. Griffin

9/23/18

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

~ Emma Lazarus

 

But wait... there's more!! Back channel me if you'd like one (or more) of these postcards. Or if you like, send me your snail mail addy and I'll send one to you via the U.S.P.S.

 

New from Fake Press in Los Angeles. This side...

 The other.

Lady Liberty and Lady Lazarus.

Love,
S.A.

 

 

The Message

Window display at Vroman's in Pasadena. Come November, VOTE!! Support your local bookstore and/or library. Photo by Sharon Griffin.

Poetry on a Pole by Jeremy Szuder, Pink Baby Doll Heads

By Los Angeles artist, poet/writer and musician Jeremy Szuder. On the telephone pole behind Salazar (and other places in the area). Nice!! Photo by yours truly.

 

Found this close by in a dead end... check out all the broken glass. Pink baby doll faces mounted on the dead end sign. No idea who the artist is. Checked online and couldn't find anything. If you know who this is, please contact me and spread the news so that I can give due cred. Photos by yours truly.

UPDATE ON PINK BABY FACES
Just found out from my friend Jimmy Arone that this is the work of Denver based artist Yiannis Bellis.

 According to the artist, the pink baby doll faces are "here to remind us of the suffering of the children of Syria." Please read more here.

This one taken in Las Vegas recently.

Photo by Kip Duff.

Love,
S.A.

ACE 1, FREE!!!

ACE 1

Fresh from our presses in Los Angeles!!

BREAKING NEWS!! GONE!

 

KOOKs are everywhere!! Photo by Lorraine Perrotta.

 
Word on the street is PED XING. And now for the news.... 200 of these sweet baby ACEs assembled here at our organic plant at KOOK's Landing in Silver Hip, U.S.A. are gone. Not like, man... that was gone!! But like, they are gone, man... no longer here or there, but gone... ladies and gentleworms, the wires in our front offices out back are burning up with the news that ACE 1 are all gone now, call 911! Gone, but who could forget chocolate kisses sweeter than why, oh why, oh wino... why did we ever leave Ohio? Gone, spread across oceans and time, and I remember walking 100 miles to school every day, barefoot in the snowjob that was stacked as high as an elephant's partisan eye. Back, back, back... back when a loaf of bread and gooey candy was made by people from Marzipan... where Jane? Where brooks babble with Bourbon at the foot of the Crack Rock Candy Mountain. So they are all gone now, but fear not... for forsooth, forklift and for soon, our factory will be up and humming with victory over victory, running on the agony of the feet, stumbling thru the dark, one left foot in front of the other.

Hand made by our ten happy fingers here in beautiful downtown Silver Hip, ACE is the premiere offering on our fresh Fake Press imprint. Unreal, right? 200 of these petite beauties were created to be lost and found by whomever might be willing to bring the wayward critter home. Dig that crazy Kurt Schwitters early surveillance scene on the facing cover. ACE can see Russia from its back page.

Inside these tiny yellow covers you will find 12 fun filled pages with musings by James Baldwin, M. Lane Bruner, Peter Carlaftes, Dennis Cruz, Angela Davis, Kat Georges, S.A. Griffin, Doug Knott, Joanne Kyger, Ellyn Maybe, Mike M Mollett, John Sweet and Scott Wannberg. And dig this, includes a hand-tinted full color centerfold!! And all for FREE!!

But wait... you're probably asking yourself, "How do I get one of these for my very own?" Well, friend, there are only three ways to acquire one of these golden tickets, and they are as follows:

1) You are walking your dog who suddenly freezes and stares straight ahead... and there you see it laying on the legal grass waiting to be found, EUREKA!!

2) You know one of the contributors and you say to him/her, "Gee, sure would like to get my hands on a cool copy of ACE!" To which your friend responds, "The dog that you were walking in the park ate them."

3) Your best bet, back channel me for info on how to get a FREE copy, or copies.

Lost soul in need of ACE.

This once irredeemable lost soul you see in the mug shot above was recently redeemed and made round because of what he found between the covers of ACE. Hope abounds where nope and dope was once found! "Thanks, ACE!!" Your pal, (former lost soul) Dick Tater

Get your hands on an ACE today.

Love,

S.A.

 

 

New From Rose of Sharon Press: Lost Bastard Chronicles by Mark Hartenbach!!!

Lost Bastard Chronicles by Mark Hartenbach

New from Rose of Sharon Press, Lost Bastard Chronicles by Mark Hartenbach!!! Above is the front cover and spine. This perfect bound baby weighs in at 6" x 9" with paper wraps containing 258 pages of world class poetry by master wordsmith Mark Hartenbach. Full color covers and full color reproductions of original art by Mark inside.

To order a copy of Lost Bastard Chronicles, please follow this link to the Create Space homepage.

"Two poets stand out in my mind as carrying on a tradition that took root in the Sixties through subsequent decades and into the new millennium. Some call it Meat, some Confessional, but those labels are not big enough to cover this breed of poetry, and so I'll leave it nameless. It's a poetry that connects more with the Beats than the Sixties, but stripped of the baggage of ideology and formalized spiritual quest that saddles much of Beat poetry; its language is lean and sharp and drills into everyday life, surfacing with nuggets of uncut truth that melt away if you try to incorporate them into something "bigger". The Mimeo Revolution was the vehicle that carried this poetry through the Sixties and early Seventies; after that, it was pretty much on its own. The poets I'm talking about are Albert Huffstickler, who died in February of 2002, and Mark Hartenbach, who carries on." John Bennett - Vagabond Press

It has been such a genuine honor and pleasure to work with Mark on this book. I hope that you will enjoy experiencing the book as much as I did helping to bring it to print.

John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin and Mark Hartenbach, E. Liverpool, Ohio, October 2012. Good times. Photo by Casey Rearick.

Since 1988

Love,

S.A.

Waywords & Meansigns: Finnegans Wake Set To Music Unabridged

Honored to be included in this amazing, off the hook creative project from the wrap around genius mind of Waywords & Meansigns Derek Pyle. This entire thing needs to be heard. And just as there are those who have read it, there are those that shall hear amazing sound designs and music recorded and imagined by a who's who of alternative live wires spinning soundscape counterpoints to sections of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. Ultimately Derek plans to have the entire book recorded this way. Of course, reimagining Finnegans Wake thru a small army of creative souls is an epic journey worthy of a lost city of melting gold. When Derek first contacted me about this project, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it, I still don't. It's really that good. Birds speaking in tongues firing on the high wire.

Five of the tracks of the many have just popped up at half / cloth, an incredible website where you can chase down many a creative scene. Blown away that the track I recorded was invited to this magnificent tea party, for there is some seriously good stuff in this mix as laid down by Greg Nahabedian, Joel Wranning, Nigel Bryant and Layne Farmen.

So go now.

Go there and let your eyes listen

to what your blind ears hear.

Enjoy! Love, S.A.

Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman by Dorsey, Griffin & Wannberg is here!!!

Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman

Just in time for Earth Day, Arbor Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, mid-day, your pet cat's birthday, heyday, Sunday thru Monday and salad days...

Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman

by John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin and Scott Wannberg

Is she, or isn't he? After a 12 year trip thru time, our sexy space angel is back with fellow wordsmiths John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin and Scott Wannberg on board laying it down for your eyes only!! Harvey Korman... is a brand spanking new title from Spartan Press, where everything's up to date in Kansas City! And of course, you too can have one of these crazy creatures for your very own. Back channel me and I will be more than glad to sign, seal and deliver one of these for $20.

Harvey Korman... by the same trio of intrepid wordsmiths that gave you 2005's Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel.

And if you like, there are still copies of this lovely object from a kinder, gentler era available as well, which I am glad to throw in for an additional $10.

John Dorsey, Scott Wannberg and S.A. Griffin. Unregulated Word, Kansas City, MO, August 2009, Prospero's Books. I have no idea who took the picture, but I would like to thank them. Scott was a happy as hell love machine and drunk as a proverbial stinking skunk that night celebrating the release of his first book on Perceval Press, Strange Movie Full of Death, and happy to be reunited after moving to Florence, Oregon a year earlier. After 20 years on the road and off, this would be our last round-up together as The Carma Bums. I would see Scott once again a year later in Los Angeles before he exited the building for good in 2011.

Harvey Korman... is dedicated to our beloved friends Scott Wannberg (1953-2011) and Marsha Getzler (1940-2015). Forever in our hearts and minds.

Marsha working her culinary magic, photo by S.A. Griffin.

Love, S.A.

The Hideous Bible and Ozark Revelations by The Lost Bums

The Hideous Bible

S.A. Griffin's altered bible.

It all began in a cabin on the Lake of the Ozarks during the last week of May 2015. The Lost Tribe plus The Carma Bums, minus our late, great and dearly beloved electric brother Scott Wannberg, now, The Lost Bums. At the risk of killing one another, we four bad brothers; M. Lane Bruner, S.A. Griffin, Doug Knott and Mike M. Mollett, all decided to get together and art it up. 

Murderer's Row: Doug Knott, M. Lane Bruner, Mike M. Mollett, S.A. Griffin.

Michael Bruner created four books like the altered copy up top; all clean, yellow and empty except for random images that he had pasted into each. Our job, each of us, including Bruner, was to fill these books with random thoughts, words, poetry, etc. in response to the images we encountered in our books, what was going on around us at the time, or whatever resulted in the flashes of electricity that spark regardless.

Pages from S.A.'s altered bible.

Sitting on top of a table, the yellow book looked kind of like an old Gideon's Bible you'd find in some hotel room. Thus, our version, The Hideous Bible. Something that we too might contribute to the lost and found in some lonely hotel room where humans often find solace and religion in flickering televisions and hungry skin where insects are martyred by the light.

The Hideous Bible!

The first part of the Hideous Bible is comprised of these four books by each member respectively with words in the order they spilled forth, unedited. The second part of the book, the Prophesies, were written in response to  this experience in the Ozarks after returning home. The third part, Lost Manifestoes, was created by deleting (or erasure, as some refer to it) two of Andre Breton's surrealist manifestoes.

A genuine pocket book full of streaming sermons for this New Gilded Age of Felonious Unreason. So get with it, drop the Gestalt and get with the assault! Now you too can get with the times and assault your intelligence by owning your very own copy of this strange little book. For $15 out the door, this can be yours! Amaze your friends and confuse your dog! Impress the cat who could care less about you or this book! Grok with Spock in secret Vulcanese which has nothing to do with this book or Robert Heinlein!! But if there's time enough for love, there's time enough to read. Back channel me (or if you know them, contact any of the guys) and I will be glad to lay one of these petite beauties on ya!

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!!!!

The other sweet child that came as a result of that art-a-thon in the Ozarks was this CD, Ozark Revelations by The Lost Bums. Minted in an edition of 100, precious few left of these babies remain on our vast warehouse shelves. Recorded in Springfield, Missouri this CD is a document of The Bums laying down some classic Lost Tribe / Carma Bums material, some spontaneous stream stuff along with some good old artsy-fartsy dorking around. Hear Doug Knott soar glit-glit in canyons of bright thought! Hear Mike Mollett deride his empty chair and swear to never sit again! Hear Michael Bruner go wild with artistic abandon proclaiming the Ten Commandments of Love! Hear S.A. Griffin hesitate!

This too can be yours for yet another $15 out the door!!

For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase, "out the door", it simply means all costs including taxes, shipping, hidden fees, etc. What you want to say to the used car salesman or the person selling you a new stereo in order to avoid sticker shock, "But I thought..." Thinking. That other sin. It's what's for dinner. So go ye now, sin and let us consume freely. Let us be practiced sinners together as we agree to disagree, thus allowing all to sin freely according to their own free will and credit scores. But just so you know, Will's fine. Talked to him yesterday at Trader Joe's. But what about free? Free, free!! Set free free again!!! I will if you will, so will, Will. Offer not good in states of delusion, confusion or exclusion. Good everywhere else this merchandise is not sold or given away.

The Whistleblower

Love,

S.A.

My Cafe Bustelo clock

Picked this beauty up about 20 years ago, one of my truly favorite things. I was in a thrift store here in Los Angeles poking thru the shelves and saw this keeping time on the wall. I asked the guy working there if it was for sale. He said that he didn't think so, but he'd ask his father as it was his clock. I could see them talking to one another as the son pointed my way. He told me that his father was a Cuban immigrant from many years back and wanted to know why a non-Cuban like me would be interested in such a thing. I told him that Bustelo was my favorite bean and that I had been drinking it for many years. Pleased I suppose that it would be going to a real Bustelo coffee drinker, and a businessman at heart, the kind father offered it to me for $40 because the second hand had come off. I was thrilled and thanked him profusely. When I got it home and took a look at the second hand, the fix was easy, it simply needed to be reattached to the clock by screwing it back on.

My beautiful Bustelo clock has always kept perfect time. Never missing a beat it remains in the same great condition as it was the day I brought it home and has very little wear, only a few very small paint chips missing here and there, otherwise, it is in absolutely perfect shape. I expect that this wonderful time piece will continue to keep perfect pace with me until I check out and my Bustelo clock goes to the next.

Been searching for information on this beautiful clock for many years, but to no avail. And after countless late night internet searches I have not been able to find one single image. Recently contacted the Bustelo company and even they don't have archival information on it, must be one of the rarest clocks on Earth or planet Bustelo.

As you might be able to see, the piece is white plastic cased in a gold metal frame and is powered by an electric cord, no batteries in this one. The clock appears to be from the late 1950s or early 60s and measures at a little over two feet wide, slightly over a foot high and five and half inches deep.

If anyone out there has any information on the piece, please feel free to let me know. If anyone out there has another, that would be amazing, would love to see a pic of your Cafe Bustelo timepiece!

¡Cafe Bustelo!

Cheers,

S.A.

The Official Language of Yes by Scott Wannberg!!

The language has landed!!!

The Official Language of Yes

by Scott Wannberg

Cover photo by Henry Mortensen, layout and design by Michele Perez.

After more than three years of work, and almost four years to the day after Scott's passing comes this wonderful new book for and by Scott Wannberg. The Official Language of Yes from Perceval Press is an 8.5"x11" hardbound volume with over 300 pages; a big beautiful book for a big beautiful man chock full of Scott's words, wit, wisdom, spontaneous jazz riffs and full color reproductions of original art.

Back cover. Beautiful words for Scott by Dave Alvin.

This collection includes some previously published work culled from small press anthologies, broadsides, periodicals and chapbooks with small runs; many rare and years out of print. However, by no means is this a best of or collected as close 90 per cent has never been seen in print. The Official Language of Yes is a true labor of love on the part of all involved. Edited by S.A. Griffin, the book includes a prologue by Viggo Mortensen and introduction by Henry Mortensen. Unbelievably priced at $25, this baby is the poetry deal of a lifetime!

 Order directly from Perceval Press.

The official poet of yes!!