USUAL SUSPECTS
Rudy Wurlitzer - Our Road Editor, though he usually travels incognito.
Novelist (Nog, Quake, Flats, Slow Fade and The Drop Edge of Yonder - http://smokesignalsmag.com/OldIssue/WurlitzerDropEdge.html), essayist (Hard Travel To Sacred Places) and screenwriter of cult classics like Two Lane Blacktop, Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, Candy Mountain, Walker and Little Buddha, among others.
Mikhail Horowitz – Words do not do the bard of Bard’s chops justice. Author of Big League Poets and The Opus of Everything In Nothing Flat. Check out his The Night We Burned Poughkeepsie Down in SS-08#1 (http://smokesignalsmag.com/1/index.htm ) and Blues of the Birth in SS-08#2 (www.smokesignalsmag.com/2/bluesofthebirth.mp3 ) .
http://www.catskillmtn.org/publications/articles/2005-01-conversation-with-mikhail-horowitz.html
Darius James, aka., Dr. Snakeskin – our Potions & Remedies editor, and author of, among other sacred texts, Negrophobia and That’s Blaxploitation which he’s presently adapting for the musical theatre. http://www.myspace.com/drsnakeskin
http://www.marksverylarge.com/people/drsnakeskin2.htm
Michael Lally- has published twenty-seven books of poetry and prose; written and directed several plays; written several screenplays; acted in many movies, or in his own words, he’s JUST ANOTHER EX-JAZZ-MUSICIAN/PROTO-RAPPER/JERSEY-IRISH-POET-ACTOR/PRINT-JUNKIE/FILM-RAPTOR/BEAT-HIPSTER-"WHITE NEGRO"-RHAPSODIZER/EX-HIPPIE-PUNK-'60S-RADICAL-ORGANIZER'S TAKE ON ALL THINGS CULTURAL, POLITICAL, SPIRITUAL & AGGRANDIZING http://lallysalley.blogspot.com/
Jim Harrison – Our Food Editor - If you’re hungry check out Big Brownie’s The Raw and the Cooked. A novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter. His newest novel is The English Major (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/books/review/Egan-t.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin )
http://www.salon.com/books/int/1998/12/cov_02intb.html
Charles Bukowski – The late great poet laureate of our lowlife American Dreams. Original Contributing Editor in our early ‘80s incarnation. Began new installment of
his infamous Notes Or A Dirty Old Man in 1982, with attack on Norman Mailer (coming soon) for his part in the Jack Abbott debacle.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/books/review/harrison.html?_r=2&ref=books&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Terry Southern – the Godfather of head lit and High Priest of hiposie, or is it the other way around? Fathered both Easy Rider and Dr. Strangelove, Candy and The Magic Christian, as well as The Loved One. Barbarella and Red Dirt Marijuana. http://www.terrysouthern.com/
Michael Sullivan - (Sex Life of Robots ) After directing underground 16mm movies, and shooting photo-novellas for the National Lampoon, Sullivan was cast in Bob Downey's Greasers Palace (1972) as the infamous Lamy Homo Greaser. For more than thirty years he has worked for various studios as an animator, prop fabricator and lighting designer. Along with Peter Wallach, he worked on the Transformers television show, Peter Gabriel's Big Time video (1986), Star Trek V (1989), and The Bear In The Big Blue House(1997). Michael also made roach parts for Joe's Apartment (1999), and art directed a zillion mind- numbing commercials. Frazzled by the mercurial world of mainstream advertising, Sullivan was driven nuts enough to hole up at home with an ancient rack-over Mitchell camera and crank out a doomed robot planet movie, which quickly degenerated into a robot pornography project with sketches on post-its and a fridge full of short ends slowly congealing into the sticky epic The Sex Life of Robots, which is still being shot with no end in sight.
Synopsis: Sex Life of Robots-- The Teaser
http://www.smokesignalsmag.com/1/SEX%20LIFE%20OF%20ROBOTS-%20THE%20TEASER.mov
In this two-minute teaser edit of The Sex Life of Robots, robot cameramen grind out footage of every conceivable Sperm Transfer Device as utilized by robot pornocators and their well-lubricated machines. Romance is swept aside by the mechanical imperative to inject robot sperm into robot egg. Lascivious machinery drives this one-note plot to its inevitable climax as the larger-than-life robot Deborah Harry face becomes the Goddess of adoring robot babies.
Richard Skidmore – Producer and Musical Director of The Sex Life of Robots. Journalist (Zero Zero Club) and photographer (http://www.thinicepress.com/smokevol3.html )Smoke Signal since 1980. (http://www.thinicepress.com/smokevol3.html )
“Still underground after all these years!”
http://www.angelfire.com/comics/cloudstudio/EYES_ONLY/eyes_only.html
Bob Zmuda – Founder & Director of Comic Relief, Andy Kaufman’s creative partner. The Mr. X Chronicles was excerpted from his Andy Kaufman Revealed: Best Friend Tells All (http://www.smokesignalsmag.com/winter07/zmuda1.html) http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Ground-Control-to-Major-Bob----The-Bob-Zmuda-Interview
Luther Dickinson – provided Smoke Signals first toons when he was 7-yrs-old. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK6fg5t7OFI&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vEnmL-mwoQhttp://www.nmallstars.com/
Josh Alan Friedman – and brother Drew’s immortal UGLY BASEBALL CARDS appeared in the premier of Dick Lit (http://www.smokesignalsmag.com/1/dicklit.htm )
In 1987, writer-guitarist Josh sold his soul to the devil at the Crossroads of the World (Broadway & 42nd Street) and moved to Texas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSnJQKOQws4&NR=1
http://Myspace.com/joshalanfriedman
Drew Friedman - http://www.drewfriedmanart.com/what'snew.html
John Hawkins – painter, photographer, master plumber of the lone gone Columbus Avenue renaissance. See his work at cover painting of Smoke Signals 1984 Book Fair Issue, and along with Rudy Wurlitzer’s THE DROP EDGE OF YONDER and John Pritchard’s YAZOO BLUES excerpts.
Sally Detroit – The infamous Madame Detroit, oldest daughter of Nathan and Adalai, also went under the names Chris, C.K. and Kay Stoddard, if indeed those were her real names. Known as a world class Buddhist scholar, master of inciting bar room brawls, and at different times an intimate factotum of John Belushi, Peg Leg Bates, Lillian Hellman and Naropa founder Trumpa Rinpoche.
Checkout her Never Blame The Booster For What The Sucker Does at http://www.smokesignalsmag.com/ISSUE0/Fiction/neverblametherooster.htm
John Pritchard - Author of the acclaimed Junior Ray, this Memphis cat was born, raised and learned his languaging skills in the heart Mississippi Delta, as you might be able to tell from the excerpt from his just released 2nd novel Yazoo Blues: http://www.newsouthbooks.com/bkpgs/detailauthor.php?author_id=10179
Joe Maynard – Writer / Editor, Publisher of the legendary zines Beet and Pink Pages, his Missionary Positions was featured in SS 08#1 at http://www.smokesignalsmag.com/1/dicklit.htm . This Brooklyn-Nashville cat’s band Maynard & The Musties have just released their first urban post punk country CD - http://www.myspace.com/maynardandthemusties
Joey Amdahl – novelist, painter, screenwriter, musician, his Life Outside The Box was featured in SS 08#2 at http://smokesignalsmag.com/2/dicklit.htm
Mickey Disend – is a noted hypnotherapist, film actor, performance artist (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLX2l_Y6LR4 )and the author of legendary ‘60s novel, Stomping the Goyim. Over the last several years his award winning Penman Chronicles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAPIJAkx3Ag&NR=1 )have defined living the writing life in the Bay Area. http://www.dublit.com/node/912
Robert Frank – Smoke Signals’ original influence. Avant filmmaker (Cocksucker Blues, Pull My Daisy) photographer (The Americans, The Lines Of My Hand), he provided us with our getaway car, just in case. . .
Jim Dickinson - godfather of postpunk mutant funk
Singing "Asshole" by Mark Unobsky in issue '0 #2
http://www.zebraranch.com/
Dr. Faustroll, pataphysician
http://homepage.mac.com/garyligi/iblog/index.html
[email protected]
d.a. levy – http://smokesignalsmag.com/OldIssue/dalevy1.html
http://www.sevenstories.com/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=58322100707970
Nancy Cohen – filmmaker – co-creator of My Dinner With Abbie, Malcolm McClaren: Not For Sale, Which Witch and Deep In The Deal.
http://www.lambstar.com/fv.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0mKa6z9UkA
Peter Cross – MIA. His painting inspired Dick Lit.
Richard Schweid – Our leisure life, fishing, eating, hot peppers and slacking guide – stationed in Barcelona. His note in COMMUNICATIONS comes from his most recent book on death an afterlife, HERE AFTER.
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=e8nMNaXr4DUC&dq=Richard+Schweid&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=-2cJj6sOsB&sig=cYhGqJl76jdstscZ3GjYT7cNqBU&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result
Tuli Kupferberg – Co-Founding Fug, esteemed author of Teach Yourself Fucking and many other classics too numerous to fornicate with. The High Boho of Soho, Noho, YoYo and GoGo, will be 86 in the coming year of our missing in action so-called Lord; a magical number if there ever was one.
SPARROW, our only Presidential candidate, campaigning on the platform of FORGIVE ALL DEBT, was interviewed in Albany, New York on Sunday, June 29, 2008, at roughly 2 p.m. The interviewer was Thomas Wilk, who is the Director of, the Capital District Federation of Ideas (www.federationofideas.net) "Keep Talking, Genius" is the name of Thomas' YouTube TV show. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the interview in the ‘09#1 issue. www.sparrowforprez.com
David Ulin – Book Editor of The L.A. Times, author of The Myth Of Solid Ground, Co-Editor Publisher of Instant Classics - http://www.instantclassics.com/ic_html/
Ralph Ackerman – In 1995, it was Ralph’s idea to put Smoke Signals up on line for the first time. Back in the 1960s he was a printer-publisher, with presses in San Francisco. Along the way he picked up sports car racing as a hobby. And in 1962 he bought a camera so he could analyze racing. From that point on, he began studying photography, film and television. And got involved with Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the San Francisco poetry scene and started making art films. Before long, The Monkees hired him as their own personal filmmaker.
Patricia Freed Ackerman – Poet and Publisher of Thin Ice Press, and designer of Smoke Signals earlier efforts on line. She has a title, but won’t tell us what it is.
http://www.thinicepress.com/
Richard Cummings – Author of the 1985 Grove classic bio (Barney always felt was the book that sunk him with Getty) The Pied Piper - Allard K. Lowenstein and the Liberal Dream. His essays can be found on the Libertarian website http://www.LewRockwell.com/ and he is a contributing editor forThe American Conservative.
Bart Plantenga – the world’s foremost Beer Mystic and authority on yodel-ay-ee-hoo! http://www.bartplantenga.com/
WRECK THIS MESS
Barney Rossett – subject of our interview, founder of Grove Press and the legendary Evergreen Review - http://www.evergreenreview.com/
Maurice Girodias - absurd rogue genius, visionary playboy-bufoon, and so-called outlaw pornographer and "accursed publisher" of the infamous Olympia Press. See interview at http://www.smokesignalsmag.com/2/Girodias.html
Richard Golden – photographer, artist, deeply missed chef.
UNBEARABLES – a loosely knit nongroup of artists, writers, neoists, beer mystics and black humorists who in the early 90s adopted their name and identity from the story The Unbearable Beatniks Of Life Get Real (http://www.thinicepress.com/mikegolden1.html). Check them out at http://www.unbearables.com/blog/
Malcolm McClaren - Briefly, in 1971 McLaren and his partner, the designer Vivienne Westwood, opened a London clothing shop called Let It Rock on the Kings Road. By 1975 McLaren had started to manage The Strand, the band who would later become the Sex Pistols. His assistant, Bernie Rhodes (soon to be manager of The Clash), spotted Johnny Rotten who was then sporting green hair, and torn clothes with the words "I hate" scribbled on his Pink Floyd shirt. His appearance and attitude impressed McLaren and Rotten was brought in to audition as a new frontman. Rotten joined, and the band was renamed The Sex Pistols. In 2000, he considered running for Mayor of London.
Abbie Hoffman - The Tom Paine of the '60s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQE-Bt1Iccs
DAVE HILL - Smoke Signals' roving man about town.
www.davehill.com
DAVE HILL ON ASSIGNMENT @ THE NEW YORK BAR SHOW
Jack Wesley Hardin - A one time college football star, gonzo NFL linebacker, Green Beret, soldier of fortune, and hippie John Wayne on the Mexican side of the law (in the good ole days of his spent youth), Jack Wesley Hardin is the nom de plume for a legendary Southern Private Investigator involved in some of the biggest and most controversial high profile criminal and civil cases in the United States over the last 25 years. A television series is presently being developed based on his exploits and involvement in a number of the most infamous cases of the latter part of the 20th and first decade of the 21st Centuries.
Martha Cinader Mims – Martha made this video to go to the soundtrack EAT! from HER CD Living It! along with Sabine Worthmann on upright bass and toys and Heinrich Koebberling on the drums. Soon after moving from NYC to Vallejo, CA she started up Listen & Be Heard Open Mic again, at Rafael's, as a way to meet new people. She did in fact meet my future husband there, Tony Mims, a poet also, who inspired her to start Listen & Be Heard Weekly, a print newspaper they published together for three years that went from 100 copies to 6,000, and distributed around Solano County and the Bay Area. That publication continues today, in its fifth year, with a more worldly focus at www.listenandbeheard.net
Dave Hickey – Well known art critic and writer for the Village Voice, among many others. Jim Dickinson adapted his poem BILLY & OSCAR to music for his CD FREE BEER TOMORROW.
Michael Carnevale - MC claims he has had so many past lives within this life he doesn’t feel integrated enough to pick just one for a bio, and prefers fragmentation as a way of life. Despite that identity certainty he lives in Manhattan and Ocean Grove, New Jersey with his dog and two cats, and is currently working on his first novel. His short story Nudies appeared in Smoke Signals #2, 1, in 1980.
Renfreu Neff - Renfreu Neff was raised by wolves & has been living in a tree for the past 4 years while working on a novel, during which time a number of close friends severed contact, the price of rolling papers doubled, her mother stopped taking her calls, & her two Maine Coon cats, Aurora & Fellini, wandered off this mortal coil for the Great Litter Pan In the Sky. Not one for cheap sentimentality, however, she does miss the cats & is really pissed off about the cost of rolling papers. (Editor’s Note: We’re pleased to welcome Ms. Neff back after a three issue suspension because her writing tested clean of performance enhancing substances. She has assured us it will never happen again.)
John Giorno – The Founding Fath of modern (electronic) Spoken Word and performance poetry. JG gave the world Dial-a-Poem and Girono Poetry Systems, and has been a major influence on more major influences than even he can shake a poem at. www.brainwashed.com/giorno/
Gaill Gerber- a hands down candidate for High Priestess of hiposie; a working dancer and (stage-screen-tv) actress all through her Canadian childhood, when she was 25 and living in L.A., as this excerpt from her forthcoming memoir Trippin’ With Terry Southern explains, she was dating both Terry – then the hottest young screenwriter in Hollywood -- and the much old Henry Miller, and seeing Lenny Bruce at the same time, while appearing as a sweet young thing on the big screen with Elvis.
Mikhail Horowitz & Gilles Malkine - Support the Clinically Brilliant! www.mikandgilles.com/
Viola & B. Prune – The Prunes have not written with each other, or been in meaningful communication, in over 25 years. A Bum Love Story originally appeared in Smoke Signals #2-3 in 1981.
C. B. Coble is a notorious flounder. After starting out as a plasterer, he moved on to goldbricking and framing. He currently edits the book review column for Smoke Signals. Both of his eyes are on the same side of his face, and he smokes.
Kenton deAngeli – Managing Editor. Runs Dead Press, a small publishing house based in Brooklyn. A modern gentleman, though given to visions and drink.
Mike Golden – Editor & Publisher - click for links