Author: playhaus2015

New video “No Eyes Remain” on YouTube

My new music video “No Eyes Remain” on YouTube depicts a far future where humans explore outer space as pure energy forms. The video text reads “no eyes remain to record the facts,” taken from my unpublished poem “Early Observatory,” part of my “Civilization’s Lost” series examining the fragility of human language, culture and civilization. The electronic soundtrack is Tone Ghosting’s “TGV.” Best played loud through speakers or headphones with a wide dynamic range. Click the link above to play the video.

 

“Dear Stone Magic” published in Futures Trading

futures trading 6.1

The latest issue of online experimental literary journal Futures Trading #6.2 went live yesterday (Jan 6). Another one of those “who’s who” anthologies of the international avant lit underground, this number includes work from Mercedes Lawry, Sanjeev Sethi, Annie Blake, Kyle Hemmings, James Fowler, Stephen Middleton, Mark Young, Christopher Barnes, Joe Balaz, James Kincaid, Glenn Ingersoll, John Marvin, Patrick Theron Erickson, Joel Streicker, Simon Perchik, Donald E. Gasperson, and John Dorroh.

I’m pleased to say one of my poems from the Civilization’s Lost series also made the cut; it’s called “Deer Stone Magic,” revolving around the deer stone pillars of the Mongolian plains. You can read the piece (and the whole issue) here. Be sure to scroll all the way down for the Mad Hatter’s teacup!

fut-trading deer stone

“Pussy Pulls the Trigger” published in Danse Macabre

danse macabre 119

Online literary journal Danse Macabre, “a magazine of the imaginative, the magical, the ethereal, the supernatural, the dark, the absurd, and  the unknown,” released Issue 119 “Les Etrennes” today. The works of the authors you see above are joined by one of my Doom Pussy stories. A violent rant from a Kali-like figure at war with mankind, “Pussy Pulls the Trigger” should come with one of those NSFW warnings, as it is intended only for a mature audience with strong constitutions and a taste for extreme, transgressive literature. Anyway, you can read the full text here.

pussy-trigger-dm 119

Three Gonch poems published in M58

gonch-m58

Online experimental poetry journal M58 published three of my Gonch poems today: “Nonclaganall Anlachan Clach Galachonag,” “Callanach an Lag Ongana,” and “Onla Onla Callanagan Hoggaach.” You can read them here.

These pieces were composed in “Gonch language” with an alphabet restricted to the letters in the nonsense phrase “all gonch.” With the current breakdown in the semantic values of (American) English, a need has arisen for a new language for future communications. Perhaps Gonch will be that language. Perhaps not.

“Donut Economics” and two other poems published in Unlikely Stories

donut-unlikely stories

Today online literary journal Unlikely Stories published three of my poems: “Donut Economics,” “Squirrel Tag,” and “Looking Out for Birdman.” You can read them here.

I should note that “donut economics” is actually a thing. I took the title from a book by Kate Raworth that I saw where I work. I didn’t actually read the book, as the title was evocative enough for me. But I probably should read it, as it’s apparently a guide to progressive economics, which is one of my concerns in my work: “In Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, we see that markets are inefficient and growth is not the holy grail . . . there are hard limits to what you can do to the planet”–taken from the blurb for her TedTalk video on YouTube, which you can watch here.

“Paradise in a Pill” and two other poems, plus five asemic letters in Angry Old Man

AOM-5-cover

Angry Old Man is one of the best online journals out there for experimental words and images. AOM issue #5 was just released, filled with great contributions from the international avant garde poetry scene. I’m pleased that several of my works are included: three text poems from my “robot language” series–“Paradise in a Pill,” “This is What We Know,” and “Your Body Is Waiting”–plus five video stills that represent part of an alien asemic alphabet. You can view the images here, and read the poems here

AOM-5-vispo

The texts form part of a new series of experiments inspired by the Facebook AI units that recently developed their own language using English words with different syntax and meaning. The AI units were intended to carry out customer service transactions and negotiations, and the format of their language seems to be a powerful way to confront and manipulate the continuous stream of commercial messages invading our mental space. I’ve written more about this work here.

Each of these three pieces were initiated by phrases contained in spam emails that seemed evocative of something more mysterious or sinister…like something a robot would say when addressing an audience of meatbags.

AOM-5-text