Sunday May 19 from 3-6pm, a Tribute to Jack Kerouac and On The Road at The Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, CA. The event will feature readings by S.A. Griffin, Gerald Locklin, Suzanne Lummis, Gerald Nicosia and Aram Saroyan; I am truly honored to be swinging with such heavy hitters from the cosmic baseball league. The event will also include screenings and clips from films including Pull My Daisy (1959), the beatest film ever was (Is baseball holy?). Aram Saroyan will be talking about his 1966 interview at Jack's house in Lowell, MA with Ted Berrigan and Duncan McNaughton and Gerald Nicosia will discuss working with director Walter Salles and the cast of On The Road. OTR will be screened by the Oxnard Film Society Monday the 20th at 3:30 & 6:30, each screening followed by Q&A with Gerry.
Tribute to Jack Kerouac & On The Road
Tickets $25, Reservations & Information Call 805.798.0830
So gas up the jalopy, break out your berets and hit the road Jack... catch you cool cats and kittens in Oxnard where the existential rubber hits the mythological road.
A walk down memory lane with old friend and performance artist Girl George and The Gypsy Poet for Gypsy Poet Radio. Subjects covered or touched upon are Al's Bar and No Talent Night, Burning Man, the San Francisco East Bay, Nadeau Ct., The Carma Bums, The Lost Tribe, White Trash Apocalypse, The Poetry Bomb, The Open Ended It and how it began, Poetry Slipped On A Banana, touring, my acting career, punk days of yore, Los Angeles and how to stuff a mild bikini with a wild martini. Below you can find some images from subjects referenced during the interview. cheers, s.a.
Myself and Girl George with some clown, Al's Bar, 1985.
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
The Poetry Bomb Couch Surfing Across America Tour of Words 2010,
art by Dan O'Neill, PB MLF 2.
S.A. Griffin arriving at Beyond Baroque with Elsie The Poetry Bomb in tow,
April 2010, photo by Rafael FJ Alvarado.
S.A. Griffin with Elsie The Poetry Bomb, pLAyLAnd opening, April 2010.
Photo and art by Neal Taylor.
The Lost Tribe, 1985-1988, 1992
(Back) Michael Bruner, Mike M. Mollett
(Front) S.A. Griffin, Doug Knott
Photo by Jimmy Townes, downtown L.A., 1986.
Flyer for Lost Tribe March Performances by Mike M. Mollett, 1986.
White Trash Apocalypse 1995-96, Pleasant Gehman aka Gamma Ray Gehman Gabor, Iris Berry aka Bikini Atoll Berry Gabor, S.A. Griffin aka Sunny Meltdown Riviera. Our road car, my 1971 Buick Riviera, yeah baby! Photo by Jeffoto aka Snaps Reactor.
WTA in Viva Lost Wages, photo by Jeffoto, Rocktober 1995.
Great WTA gig in Tucson, AZ. Pleasant got her butt signed in the hotel room after the gig. This is also where we were informed by the guitarist for the Fibbers what our mission was while on the road: Locate the Hope Rhinestone, which we did in Viva Lost Wages at the once glorious and most highest cheese of the Liberace Museum. Hard to believe that the Liberace Museum is only a memory. But let me tell you for a fact, the Hope Rhinestone was for real!! So big you'd have to haul it around in a wheelbarrow.
The Carma Bums, 1989-2009. (Top) Doug Knott, Mike M. Mollett, Scott Wannberg, Bobbo Staron. (Bottom) Michael Bruner, S.A. Griffin. Photo by Jay Green, collage by S.A. High cool.
Our first road trip to Denver and back in 1989, pot smoking Cadillac flyer by Stuart Ellis, who also did the illustrations for Scott Wannberg's book, The Electric Yes Indeed!
Our last gig, August 2009 in Kansas City, MO. This, our final flyer by S.A.,
was a variation on our first flyer by Stuart Ellis.
The above images from The Book of Bums, Mt. Shasta, 1990. S.A. flying on our 1959 Cadillac Farther, The Bums seeking relief on the side of the road and doing the 18 wheeler boogie, plus the world's littlest sheep grazing with the big sheep in Gold Hill, OR.
The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, 1999. Originally published by Thunder's Mouth Press,
now Basic Books. This particular edition with both names on the cover has become very rare.
Published by Rose of Sharon (1988-present). Juice! The Musical by Scott Wannberg (1995).
Also on the Rose of Sharon imprint, 2009.
That's me on the bottom right as one of the killer cowboys in Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider,
the only left handed gun in the wild bunch.
Here's some other flyers from over the millennia.
Where Streets Collide at The Figtree Theatre in Hollywood with S.A. Griffin, Doug Knott and Bobbo Staron, 1984. Flyer by S.A. Griffin.
Two evenings of poetry for National Poetry Month 1997 at USC produced by myself and my wife Lorraine. We also produced a chapbook anthology with all the poets listed above also called Walt Whitman's Beard (Rose of Sharon, 1997). Flyer by Andy Takajian.
Limited edition silkscreen poster by Bob Branaman, created for Waiting For Jack.
Beyond Baroque, 2012.
A show at the Lhasa Club at Santa Monica & Hudson in Hollywood. This place was our ground zero during the 80s, right behind the Water Espresso Gallery, where all of us in The Lost Tribe met.
The Water Espresso Gallery, where we had our Wednesday night open poetry thing. Flyer, 1985.
Flyer by yrs truly for a recent show at Beyond Baroque hosting poets from out of town.
The Onyx Cafe at its original location next door to the Vista Theatre on Sunset Place.
John Leech standing outside, early 80s.
Flyer by Mark Durham, 1995. Great show!
Book celebrating the Sunday night Projector reading series at The Onyx that held court during the last few years the place was open. CC Skuza's Merc parked in front of the 2nd incarnation of our beloved coffee haunt. I tell people that it was the longest party I was ever privileged to attend, and I was, it was. Doubt I'll ever fall into a scene like this again. Onyx closed in 1998, now a French bistro.
Hanging out here was like a trip down the Rabbit's Hole, amazing!!
The Lost Tribe Dadaland World Tour 1987.
Flyer a collab w/Doug Knot & S.A. Griffin.
In my Sunny Meltdown Riviera finest, back when I DJ'd for Kill Radio,
flyer by yours truly, 2001. The Auto Zone, my show with Kill Radio (dot org) for about two years. Previous incarnations as a radio host were Onword, and as a sub DJ for pirate radio KBLT. Later would revive Onword as a blog talk radio show for the World Wide Radio Network created by myself, Rafael FJ Alvarado and Stacy Mangiaracina. Over the years WWWRN has created literally hundreds upon hundreds of shows.
When I DJ'd for 95AM. Poetry call in radio show. Circa 1992.
Poster by Dale Linquist, for my 50th birthday bash, 2004.
The greatest party of all time! Opened with a poetry reading hosted by Doug Knott,
then three of my favorite bands played, Double Naught Spy Car, Saccharine Trust
and Rob Zabrecky& The Strange Behavior (Possum Dixon), then to top it all off,
Carlos Guitarlos showed up at about 3:30 in the morning and wanted to know where
he could set up and then proceeded to do an entire set. Insane and unforgettable.
Deborah Exit's X=Art was an amazing series of performance shows in W. Hollywood during the 1980s. I met Jack Brewer of Saccharine Trust at one of these shows and we became instant friends. Done lost of stuff with Jack over the years including the Nowhere Tour of Words bus trip from hell and during the past few years doing duty as double trouble frontmen for The Lofty Canaanites, a punk/jazz improv ensemble.
Early show, circa 1982-83, at the anti everything Anti Club. Lots of great gigs here. In time, they learned how to spell my last name correctly. More than likely the flyer is by Terry Dorn who also produced the show.
From the Lost Tribe's first show, and probably our first poetry tour ever. A weekend up to San Francisco and back, April Fool's weekend. It was a weekend of perfect weather, rare for S.F., especially in April, all the venues bailed on us, "gone fishing" left on windows, The Intersection For The Arts the only gig accomplished on the trip. We would later revisit The Intersection as The Carma Bums. Probably the only venue that the Tribe and the Bums played. Flyer by Mike Bruner.
Flyer for one of Girl George's once annual Love Ins at Griffith Park, 1994. Flyer, by George!
Where have all the flowers gone?
Old venue close to the Fairfax District of L.A., Circa 1989-90. When the somewhat bohemian, old school punk art alternative set began to cross-polinate with the Poetry In Motion entertianment industry scene.
The Lost Tribe at Club Lingerie in Hollywood with The Ringling Sisters. Circa 1986-7.
Circa 1985, from John Dorr's EZTV, the world's first video theatre.
Been called a street poet, rock poet, beat poet, punk poet, performance poet, road poet, Los Angeles poet, outlaw poet, bad poet, good poet and sometimes, poet. That's me, the sometimes poet.
Rattler No Mag publication shindig, 1987. This was for issue #4 of four published in the series.
Flyer for Black Ace 8 publication party at performance central Mercury Cafe in Denver, July 2007.
Cover of Black Ace 8 which I published for Temple of Man and co-edited with Marsha Getzler and John Macker. What you are looking at is the book with the dust jacket and band. The dust jacket art is by Steve Wilson, the image on the band is by Rose Idlet and is the true cover art.
Jack Brewer's book party, great time!
An unbelievable line up for a show that I hosted and produced at The Onyx Cafe,
circa 1995. Flyer by Andy Takajian.
Collage I created for Tony Scibella which appeared in the tribute issue of the
Clyde Casey The Avant Guardian One Man Band & Another Planet Roswell
Once upon a time in downtown Los Angeles, long before the influx of hipsters, trendsetters, entrepreneurs and other such folk, long before the new wave of NYC transplants crossed the continent to walk their dogs on skid row adjacent streets and call it New Manhattan, there was a vibrant and flourishing art and theatre scene happening around Al's Bar where all the young turks freely expressed themselves on No Talent Night.
Al's Bar & The American Hotel early 80s, back when the airplane had
landed on the wall for a few years.
During a time when the Wallenboyd Theatre, only a few blocks from Al's was alive with truly alternative theatre and performance (and performance art, ye gawds!). When punk ruled the world and a homeless young man by the name of Clyde Casey reinvented himself as Clyde Casey The Avant Guardian, taking on this handle to affirm his position and new job in the neighborhood as auto watchdog for all visiting theatre goers.
Clyde Casey in present time.
During the late 80s, the homeless population in Los Angeles and around the country boomed on the heels of then President Reagan's belt tightening policies as mental hospitals and institutions were shut down, and having nowhere better to land, former patients ended up homeless downtown on and around Skid Row on the nickel.
When Ted Hayes was democratic visionary helping to establish Justiceville, leading the movement to help the homeless, and for a time, there was a literal tent city erected downtown.
For one brief shining moment under the sun, Justiceville when it was a tent city in 1985.
It was right around 1988 when all of this was happening, and Casey, who literally gave away harmonicas and believed in giving a man a fishing pole as opposed to a fish, came up with the truly insane and brilliant idea of creating the alternative living and creative space Another Planet, situated in the same exact area where Al's Bar, The Museum of Neon Art, Rose Street Studios and the Wallenboyd Theatre existed.
A young filmmaker and homeless advocate Austin Hines has taken it upon himself to write and direct a documentary about Clyde Casey and Another Planet. And so today, April 14, at 801 E. 6th St., the homeless, former Planetarians and present and former artists, performers and other such assorted denizens of the downtown scene will be gathering for a day long open performance from 6am-6pm. Austin will be documenting much of it to include in his forthcoming documentary which he plans on completing soon. I will keep you all posted.
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