More details here.

Not Afraid Of Snakes

Mykle writes:

“I’m just as sick of being asked for donations as anybody.  So just let me say this: the ALA is a great organization. In their advocacy for clean air, their work in smoking cessation, and their contributions to asthma research they have acheived much with little.  If you have lungs — and I know you do — then you really ought to take a moment to learn about what the ALA has been doing on your lungs’ behalf.

If that’s too boring and wonky for you, then just take my word for it and visit my fundraising page.  I’m sorry it’s so spectacularly ugly, but that’s a great example of the ALA’s frugality: they could have spent donor’s dollars on a fancier website, but they said ‘no, we’ve got to spend that money on lungs.’  Lungs like yours and mine.  Delicious, pink, juicy lungs.  Mmmm.”

More details here.

This latest issue of the JEF is dedicated to Bizarro Fiction, and contains fresh works from well-known authors and newcomers alike. Gina Ranalli’s intense THREE STORIES, Cameron Pierce’s flash-romance CRAZY LOVE and Forrest Armstrong’s lyrical ARIAS OVER THE DRUM MACHINE are all excellent pieces worthy of the admission price, and that’s just a quarter of what you get.

Provocatively, editor Echkard Gerdes’s introduction fires a shot across the bow of Carlton Mellick III’s widely-read essay EXPERIMENTAL FICTION VS. BIZARRO, taking umbrage at the core arguments of that piece and flinging back a mini-manifesto of what makes the JEF tick. Will CM3 respond? Is a literary cat-fight in the brewing? If it sheds more light than blood and fur, we say “bring it on!”

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG WITH AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE FAMOUS AUTHOR:

Hi,

My publisher, Eraserhead Press, is awesome in so many ways that I could write a whole book about how awesome they are and ask them to publish it.  (Although they might decline to publish it, because who really wants to read a whole book about that?  But then again, it would have lots of unicorn battles …)

But for instance: FREE BOOKS. Thanks to Jeff Burk at Eraserhead, from now until Thanksgiving you can use download free PDFs of several fine titles … including but not limited to THE BIZARRO STARTER KITS.

Now, I’m often asked what Bizarro is all about, and for all my loving it and knowing it and being it I sometimes struggle to explain it in straight-man terms.  But really if you want the scoop you need to read one or both of these collections. My own novella, MONSTER COCKS, appears in the Blue starter kit, and one of my favorite absurd stories of all time, THE GREATEST FUCKING MOMENT IN SPORTS by Kevin L. Donihe, appears in the orange one.

For those reasons alone, you ought to avail yourself of this limited-time gift opportunity, and download these and other fine Eraserhead books.  Then, after you’ve enjoyed those fine works of bizarro literature, you can investigate the works of two dozen other authors working in the genre.  Love them?  Awesome!  Hate them?  No problem — that’s the freedom that only free stuff can give you.  All you have to do is download.

Do it now; do it here.  Free is a very good price!

-mykle-

How ragged, you ask?  Here’s my itinerary:

• I’ll be appearing on three panels on Saturday, talking about Guerrilla Marketing, Bizarro Humor and how to read in public for maximum effect.  I’ll be joined by some impressive co-panelists including authors Carlton Mellick III, Andersen Prunty, Bradley Sands, Jeff Burk (author of Shatnerquake) and Cameron Pierce.  Whether you think I’m full of shit or of wisdom, this is a good day to come get a scoop.
• I’ve been nominated for not one but two awards: the Wonderland Book Awards for best novel (Help! A Bear Is Eating Me!) and best collection (Rampaging Fuckers of Everything …).  If I win something, I will give a speech and do a little dance.  Even if I don’t, there will still be cocktails at the Eraserhead Press Anniversary Party.
• I’ll be competing in the Ultimate Bizarro Showdown — the cage-match equivalent of story performance.  Last year, first place was stolen from me by that scoundrel Garrett Cook.  I’ll show him, oh yes …
• Jeff Burk and I will run a late-late-late night screening together of our favorite weird video clips, starting Sunday morning at 2am.  No sleep for us!

Aside from all that exposure, there’s approximately one bazillion other activities and events on the convention schedule. This will be a weekend to remember.  In fact, I’m getting tired just thinking about it … so tired …  zzzzzzzzzz

“BizarroCon, it’s like an enema for the soul…”  – Andersen Prunty

This just in: Cory McAbee’s latest cinematic onslaught, STINGRAY SAM, will premiere online September 15th at 7:30pm 7:00pm PST!  All of us here at FAMH (all one of us) have been all a-tingle with anticipation from the first moment we saw this trailer:

Cory McAbee, the songwriter/impresario behind the Billy Nayer Show, is also perhaps the greatest living Bizarro filmmaker.  His movies exist in a parallel universe of unsettling comedy and surreal gags, constantly tracing the fine line between making you laugh and freaking you out.   I love all his films, including:

THE KETCHUP AND MUSTARD MAN – a sort of homage to David Lynch, in which a senile Elephant Man desperately tries to recall edifying fairy tales for children … and it’s a musical, highlighting some of the best BNS tunes of its era.

THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT — an achingly beautiful noir-space-comedy set in the creepiest dive bars in outer space … and it’s also a musical!  W. Mott Hupfel’s cinematography will make you long for the good old days of black & white.

THE MAN ON THE MOON — an adorable cut & paste pixelvision diary of the filmmaker’s early days in San Francisco, and guess what: also very musical!  It features the hit single “Must Be Santa!” which we sing to ourselves every Yuletide when there are no cops around.

But STINGRAY SAM is clearly better than all of these films, because it’s the only one you can watch on a toaster oven.  (Suck it, Wolverine!)

Apparently, if you stare really hard at this computertronic billboard-thing on Cory McAbee’s blog for the next thirteen days, there is some likelihood that it will magically transform into a live broadcast of STINGRAY SAM, right at 7:00 on Tuesday September 15 … but that’s only if everybody stares!  So stare! Stare harder!  We’re staring, we’re doing our part.  Join us!  STARE!