Microdosing Monday: Last Week o’ June Edition
I’ve begun to take my coffee with hazelnut creamer, not because I enjoy the taste of hazelnuts, I could care less either way, but I do enjoy the way it makes my coffee smell.
The days fly by like flyover states on a cross country trip. You read a chapter in your new book and another day is gone. Get a snack and an 8oz can of Coca Cola from the flight attendant and two days disappear. Get up to take a leak, navigating the shaky footing of roller coaster life and next thing you know it’s next week again already.
Last week my novel The Dead and the Desperate received a rare review in the I-94 Bar Review, an underground punk rag out of Australia. Them, and the reviewer, the OG punk writer General Labor AKA JD Monroe, both have been good and generous to me since my first book was published a few years ago. And getting a review for an indie published book is so rare and difficult that each one should be celebrated like an unexpected birthday. Many thanks to I-94, their editors and to my pal JD, the last of the never say die punks.
Book Review for The Dead and the Desperate
I’ve got some books making their way out there in the postal service delivery channels. Some were books sold, and some are books owed. Regardless, books falling into new hands and in front of new eyes is always one of the most exciting things in the world to me.
Last Friday I got to spend an evening at Father John’s Brewery in Bryan, OH, one of the best, most unique bars and music venues I’ve ever been to, and I got to spend time with the music and folk sermon that is Ryan Roth and the Sideshow, one of my all-time favorite bands, not just local, but all-time. That was a night worth celebrating. A night when friends, music, food, good company, and the ghostly saints of Father John’s former rectory conspired to take me away from my every day reality. What a night.
Ryan Roth and the Sideshow playing at Father John’s Brewery on 6/21
Our next Fuck It Friday Free-For-All Zoom room virtual round robin open mic art night hangout is planned for Friday night July 5th at 9pm eastern time, 8pm central, 6pm pacific. I’ll get a Facebook event posted for it, and I’ll try to remember to promote it. We’ve had between 7-10 people show up for the first two of these shindigs, and they’ve both been great medicine for me as an artist living in the wilderness without much of any art scene around to speak of.
And currently the only date I have locked in for a reading is July 26-28 at the Insomniacathon in Louisville, KY. The event held in the Chapel of St. Phillip Neri, features over 50 poets, 20 some musicians, art films, performance troupes and much more.
official flyer for Insomniacathon in July
Finally, my favorite part…Books I’ve loved lately:
On the Bus. The Complete Guide to the Legendary Trip of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and the Birth of the Counterculture. With Forewords by Hunter S. Thompson and Jerry Garcia. With over 500 photos, and snippets of Tom Wolfe’s Electric Kool Aid Acid Test to celebrate its 25th anniversary and commentary from William Burroughs, Ram Dass, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Wavy Gravy, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, and dozens more that were there and a part of the shenanigans. I got this book used from BeBop Records in Toledo, and it’s a treasure even amongst my treasures. I’m reading through this after reading that Corso: Ten Times a Poet new book from Roadside Press. Talk about a laymen’s art and writing education.
This book is a real beaut
American Savage a short story collection from Bonnie Jo Campbell. I bought this a few months ago at the recommendation of poet W. Joe Hoppe. I’m about halfway through the book, and it’s just as incredible as Joe told me it was. Campbell, from Kalamazoo, MI, does a masterful job writing about many of our voiceless midwestern neighbors.
Read books. Stay cool. Don’t lose hope.
Love,
Dan
a generous gift from a great patron. two things that I use almost daily.
the prettiest sunset photo I’ve taken lately