drinkdrankdrunk: "I Met Brian Fugett" by Pat Simonelli

I met Brian Fugett.  I didn't know him but I met him.  We can start off this story in 2004 when I started my e-zine Literary Vision.  Back then I started at Yahoo.Com, paid the 30 bucks or whatever, and boom! I was in business!

Now I had never run a website before so I learned as I went.  Some Brit-based site led me to my co-editors Zeke Iddon (fiction) and Kelly Hallam (poetry).  I was the one to blame for non-fiction.

Fugett and I were both living in Northern California.  He was in San Francisco and I was in Sacramento.  His lit mag was called Zygote in My Coffee and was the hottest thing running.  Brian was a cartoonist.

I remember the poets flocking to get a poem in Zygote.  It struck me as annoying at first, then I thought--why wouldn't they?  They want to have their art shared with the same scene that I'm in.  So with age came respect.

I was a huge fan of one of Fugett's cartoons Danny's Big Banana.  A hilarious action figure sketch.  It still makes me laugh today, just thinking about Fugett taking the time to set up those shots!

One time he gave me the chance to write a Danny.  2005, if you're taking notes.  I don't have Internet this second but it's gotta be out there somewhere.

At the Collingwood Arts Center Toledo, Ohio--

Mike Grover was the inside guy at Collingwood.  He helped set up a big reading there.  It was a joint Zygote Red Fez reading.  I met Fugett there.  He waved hello in one of the ancient hallways.  He was--I think--shooting a film.

Leopold McGinnis was there--someday I will learn to spell that cat's name right.  I recently did that with Fugett--after the poor guy was already dead!  Tim Murray was there of Red Fez radio fame.  The lovely Michele McDannold attended as did the non-lovely Paul Corman Roberts.  Wred Fright was there.  JD Nelson came, Frankie Metro and his girl.  So many underground stars!

We had another fun reading in Danville, Illinois, home to Dick Van Dyke and Gene Hackman--I used to deliver newspapers to his kin!  It was outside at Kennekuk State Park.  Fugett read his "This is the damn poem".  It was another lifetime ago and I'm braininjured!  So I have an excuse!

Now that I'm "retired" and have been put out to pasture by the man, I miss my friend.  Yeah I call him that.  His spirit brings me closer to fellow travelers that might've known him better than just met him.

Read his Brian Fugett Poems book, he's alive in that.  Citizens For Decent Literature Press, ISBN 9798999707802 Edited by Aleathia Dreamer and Michele McDannold.

Pat Simonelli is a writer for Literary Vision Press.  Temp address as of May 2026 = 128 Osborne St., #403, Danbury CT 06810 USA.  We are happy to get the former Webmaster of The Underground Literary Alliance back online!

New Hoof & Antler!

The new Hoof & Antler is out.  In this issue of the Mickey Mart newspaper, I wrote an article about QR code scams.   It is an interesting topic, and I could have written more, but there's only so much space available.  One interesting fact that I didn't have time to get into was that the QR code invention was a two-man affair, but one of the pair seems to get a lot more credit, perhaps because the other one left the company where they worked.  Another interesting tidbit that didn't make the cut was that sometimes people get a little too paranoid about QR code scams.  One fellow got a surprise Christmas gift and thought it was a scam, even roping the local tv news into doing a story (not a surprise that tv news couldn't figure out the guy was likely wrong as tv news is usually pretty dumb).  As far as I can tell, no retraction of the story or admission of stupidity was ever released.  They probably just hoped the matter would go away with the passage of time (I hope the guy isn't dumb enough to still think his present was a scam).  Check out what did make the cut and read other fun stuff by stopping by a Mickey Mart.  It's free, though Mickey The Moose probably hopes you buy some gasoline or a cup of coffee or something.

If you want to read something else by me, then get my new novel, The Front Yard War!

New Pop Lit Book Review

  

King Karl Wenclas is revving up the review section of New Pop Lit, so I agreed to write a review for it.  It's hard for independent, underground, and self-published writers to get reviews these days, so any effort to help is great.  Unfortunately, all the indie writers were too lazy to send NPL a book (alas, many are flakes), I guess, but corporate lit swooped in and supplied me with a book, which unfortunately was, like most of the corporate books I see in the public library, not too interesting.  I much prefer to share enthusiasm, but in this case I had none, but a deal is a deal, so I wrote the review and gave my honest opinion.  You can read the review here:  https://newpoplitextra.com/2026/06/05/wheres-chthulu-when-we-need-him/ 

I have seen the book I reviewed at the public library and Barnes And Noble.  It also seems to be selling on eBay and Amazon, which is good for the author, but probably not too good for American literature.  There's much better stuff out there.  I hope the revved up review section helps to point folks to it.  So far, it looks like I'm the only one who's actually turned in a review (it also looks like I blew past the desired word limit and that was after I chopped the dang review in half--apparently, I had a lot to say), but I hope other contributors to NPL soon join in.  If you're an indie author, please get in touch with them to send a copy of your book.  I told the King I'll review a book a year, so I hope to review a book more to my liking next time.

If you want a book more to your liking, then perhaps one of mine will do.  My latest novel is The Front Yard War.