The March 2018 issue of online poetry journal Ygdrasil was released today. It includes three of my poems: “Too Much of a Good Thing,” “Something for Everyone,” and “Under the Weather.” You can read them here.
Author: playhaus2015
New story published in Horror Sleaze Trash
Horror Sleaze Trash is an online literary journal of extremes–poetry and fiction from the edge, along with Suicide Girl photos, films and similarly sleazy trash. Yesterday evening, the journal published my story “Pussy Marches On,” another text in a cycle revolving around the character Doom Pussy, a Kali-like figure engaged in a war with mankind. There should probably some kind of hazard warning with it, due to the extreme language and situations, so if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, best to avoid. Otherwise, you can read it here.
“Ghost in the moment of a universe without man” and 2 others in Outlaw Poetry
Today, Outlaw Poetry journal published three of my poems: “Ghost in the moment of a universe without man,” “Shady Lost Deliveries,” and “Overall, the Dying.” You can read them here.
3 Gonch poems in Brave New Word
Experimental poetry blog Brave New Word‘s new, ninth issue was just released today. Lots of great text and visual work by Rosaire Appel, Lin Tarczyinski, Dirk Vekemans, Joseph S. Makkos, and more. It also includes three of my new “Gonch” pieces: “Callanghan Anallah Onoch,” “Llonach Angac Onh,” and “Cohollochan Can Cocal Loc Nag.” You can read them here.
The “Gonch” texts are but one phase of a larger project I’m engaged in. All these poems are new work using a vocabulary limited to words invented from the nonsense phrase “All Gonch.” It’s an attempt to create a new language, imagining also the culture behind it through the shape and structure of the words, that might arise after the death of the current (American) culture and language.
New story “Elevator to the Sun” in The Colored Lens
Today my short story “Elevator to the Sun” was published by online speculative fiction magazine The Colored Lens #26, for Winter 2018.
The story follows Tomner, a young man who ferries garbage from Earth’s orbit to the Sun, where it’s incinerated. His partner is a sentient rat–a character based on some of the many pet rats I’ve kept over the years. Tomner prays to the god of salvage for a mooncycle. Sometimes you get what you wish for, even though things aren’t quite what they seem. You can read the full text here.
Eventually, the story will be included in a print issue available on Amazon.
“They Don’t Call Them Gods Anymore” and “A Long Sweet Line” in The Miscreant
Online poetry journal The Miscreant published two of my poems today: “They Don’t Call Them Gods Anymore” and “A Long Sweet Line.” You can read them here.
Keep in mind that “A Long Sweet Line” was written long before the current president ever thought of running.
“Facets of Massacre” published in Futures Trading
The latest installment of online experimental poetry journal Futures Trading (Issue 5.4) was published today. It includes work by many fine poets from the international scene. Somehow my work was included, a piece from my “Civilization’s Lost” series, this one called “Facets of Massacre.” You can read it and the whole issue here.
“Eat Your Own Dogfood” and two other poems in Zombie Logic Review
Zombie Logic Review published three of my poems today: “Eat Your Own Dogfood,” “Resistance to Extinction,” and “Plastic Love by Design.” You can read them here.
I first heard the phrase “eat your own dogfood” used by my wife Raquel, who’s a fountain of many pithy sayings. I think it means that one should have to clean up their own messes. It’s such a good line I wrote this poem around it.
You Gotta Have Faith
Nonagenarian. Perennial candidate for Mayor of DC. DC Statehood activist. Burlessque dancer. Actress. Comedienne. Cabaret performer. Faith has done many things. Once upon a time, she was a key component of the Broadway musical Gypsy, in its original run with Ethel Merman, as well as the film version with Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, and Karl Malden. Faith developed the role of Mazeppa, an aging burlesque dancer who blows a bugle while doing her bumps and grinds. She schools the young Gypsy Rose Lee on the necessities of stage life in the song “You Gotta Have a Gimmick.” Contemporary reviews of the stage version and YouTube views of the movie version show Faith stealing the show with sassy hip snaps and a voice that could peel paint off your wall.
I first met Faith circa 1998 when she was doing her Campaign Cabaret performances in various nightspots around DC, adopting show tunes and calypso numbers to serve as self promotion, accompanied by her husband Jude on guitar. Film auteur Jeff Krulik (of Heavy Metal Parking Lot fame) was acting as their manager and booking the gigs. It’s hard to forget such a magical entertainment. Some images are more indelible than others. Like seeing a 75-year-old Faith rollerskate onto the stage in a nude body stocking to blow her bugle.
Recently while at work in George Washington University’s Burns Law Library, I ran across a book called Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, and Intellectual Property Rights in American Dance by Anthea Kraut. The back cover blurb mentioned Faith’s lawsuit against the producers of Broadway’s Gypsy for infringing on her copyright to Mazeppa’s dance routine. She had developed the number during her time on the actual burlesque stage, and reprising it during audition got her the part in the play. The climax of her performance made it a unique signature and brought the house down: bending over to blow her bugle between her legs, derriere facing the house. This “derriere pose” was deemed too risque by the film’s director, so she did a deep back bend instead, which is what you see in all the pictures. The case turns out to have been an important one in the struggle to gain copyright protection for dance choreography. But Faith was unsuccessful in gaining damages. The judge ruled that her dance–and the story it purported to tell of an ex-military woman now earning her living on vaudeville–was not significant enough to warrant protection, being both too low-brow and created by a woman.
I interviewed Faith extensively back in the 90s, writing a short article on her for The Washington City Paper (you can read it here), and later publishing the full transcript in my fanzine Mole. Over 30 years after her lawsuit, she was still angry about the copyright rip off, But it was hard to tell if the story was just a part of her self-myth. It was great to see it confirmed in a big way.
Using the article in Kraut’s legal monograph as a hook, I put together an exhibit for the display case in the Burns Library about Faith, her copyright lawsuit, and her mayoral candidacy. Included are vinyl LP copies of the soundtracks for both stage and screen versions, photos from her 90s cabaret shows, campaign ephemera, and a dented and warped old bugle I got on eBay. In fact, Krulik told me to get a beat up horn “just like the one Montgomery Clift gave her.” You see how the legend of Faith just seems bottomless? There’s always another amazing story about her. If she makes a visit to the exhibit, I’ll let you know.
“Another Broken Home” published in Night Garden Journal
Black Poppy Review recently changed its name to Night Garden Journal. Today, my poem “Another Broken Home” appeared under the new banner. You can read the whole piece here.
The story in the poem is based on a legend from Tinian Island in the Marianas archipelago, one of the ancient homes of the Chamorro people. Guam is the southernmost island of the group. The mushroom stones in the poem are actually called latte stones. The mythological king Taga built a large house on foundation of latte stones, today called the House of Taga. The story explains the origin of the foundation pillars.
While this piece is not technically a part of the “Civilization’s Lost” series I’ve been working on, it continues my interest in lost lands. Under the current US regime, it seems more important than ever to examine the fragility of languages, cultures and nations.
jeff bagato 