Ann Sterzinger Interview

 

Pat King posted the interview I did with Ann Sterzinger for his Underground Literary Alliance history series.  This one was a lot of fun, especially for the visuals of Ann walking through the streets of Paris, France.  Pat and I have one more video where we interview each other, and then the project is wrapped up.  He's thinking of doing maybe an oral history of the ULA instead of a documentary, but whatever the result, it should be fun!  Pat also recently posted a video with Joe Smith:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU-PLRYzt5w.

If you want to read some literature by The Underground Literary Alliance, then please check out The Slush Pile Strikes Back!

Poem: They Don't Even Have To Pay You To Be A Henchman

You want me to go to war, but you won't go yourself.
If you want to fight, pack a bag and book a flight.
You want me to take drugs just because you do.
Take them yourself if you want but leave me alone.
The rich must laugh behind your back
Because you work for them for free.
Big Pharma's killing you, but you'll fight for
Highly-paid executives to make more money and
For patients to die because the cheap remedies
Get blocked so the expensive remedies can be sold
The warmongering profiteers rape the taxpayer
And you hold the taxpayer down by repeating
Their lies and telling anyone who dissents
That they are a conspiracy theorist and mentally ill
Fuck facts if you don't like them.
You work for free, but you sure don't work for freedom
Happy the slave who doesn't know he's a slave.
Hang a flag up of a country that's not your own
Never been there or read a book about it even,
But the corporate news and government propaganda
Told you what to think, so you don't have to think yourself
Get your country deeper in debt and make the world worse
Dump some toxins on your lawn and snitch on
Your neighbor's dandelions.  You must police
The community until they come for you.
When they do make sure you tell them
What a good boy you were.

I meant to run this poem a while back, but it's just as fitting now.  It's depressing that so many otherwise good human beings work to make the world worse by not thinking for themselves and by not remembering that peace is better than war, freedom is better than coercion, and dandelions are better than poison.  For a happier read, try Fast Guy Slows Down!

New Single!: Black Walnut Season

wredfright · Black Walnut Season

The last part of the garden to come in around here is the black walnut.  Basically, citrus-smelling tennis balls start dropping from the tree much to the delight of the local squirrels and myself.  The song uses the conceit of the arrival of black walnut season to portray a summer romance that has run its course, though the lovers have tried to push the love into the autumn.  Musically, it's the usual voice, guitar, keyboard as bass, and drums.  The weirdest aspect is using black walnuts themselves as a bit of percussion (the shells are very hard).  If Mudhoney liked to garden, they might sound like this maybe.  Lyrics are below:

When the insects stop singing at night we know the summer is truly gone.
The black walnuts start falling from the sky.
The end of the harvest means our time has passed.

It's too late.
It's too late for us,

Winter's coming.

This isn't a love affair that can survive the cold.
Though the sun still shines in the winter, we're too far away to feel the warmth.
I can feel a chill from you already.

Black walnut.
Black walnut season.
Grab your nuts and run.

Your head is as hard as the shell.
You just won't listen to reason.
We took a summer romance into the fall, but now it's black walnut season.

Winter's come.

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Spotify or Bandcamp!

Cool Yule 2023!

I am wishing you a Cool Yule!  See you in 2024!

If you need something to listen to, then check out Noisy And Not So Noisy!  If you need something to read, then check out the Library!

Twilight Of The Blogs

With apologies to Pete Seeger, where have all the blogs gone?  Over the years, I accumulated 69 blogs (the number is purely unintentional, but the gutter-minded may go ahead and giggle) on my little Blogger reading list (I suppose I could have thrown in WordPress blogs and other sites, but I stuck to Blogger-based blogs to avoid any tech glitches), but it looks like only 20 are still active.  4 are completely gone or have just left an empty shell behind.  2 shut down in 2011, 7 in 2012, 5 in 2013, 5 in 2014, 4 in 2015, 3 in 2016, 2 in 2017, 3 in 2018, 5 in 2019, only 1 in 2020 (people probably rediscovered their blogs with the massive amounts of freetime the crazy lockdowns created), 6 in 2021, and 3 in 2022.  Now, of course, assuming that someone hasn't forgotten their login credentials, one could always do another post at any time.  Many of the blogs as they go defunct are like that.  They start slowing down and do a couple of posts one year, then a final post a year later.  Some even spring back to life.  Eddie Campbell's blog was moribund since 2018, and really 2012, and he posted twice this year.  However, that's a rarity.  Instead, most of the defunct blogs make no formal goodbye  They just stop as the publisher lost interest, or lost login credentials, or got hit by a bus or whatever.  It is interesting to think how long a digital afterlife might exist after people die.  Print works differently, but websites have an immediacy to them that makes it weird when they're still up but abandoned for whatever reason.  At some point, Google will likely pull the plug, if not on Blogger entirely, then on the dormant blogs (they're doing this with Gmail accounts currently).  So if there's anything you like, as always, the smart idea is to save it while you can before someone gets a bee in their bonnet and deletes it.  Some of the blogs do put a gravestone up or a moving sign or whatever.  Blogs are just like zines or any personal publishing psychologically.  They fill a need for a time, and then most people move on.  A few people appear to be lifers, and those are the ones still publishing in 2023.  Blogs clearly are a little passe though.  Most folks self-publishing in 2023 are just going to start a Substack, and that's pretty cool because of the email aspect, though the constant badgering for money is a tad annoying (of course, I have a PayPal begging bowl up on my blog so I shouldn't complain).  It's cool the old blogs are still up as they have a lot of good reading on them, though given the immediacy of the Web medium I don't know how many people are going to read random blog posts from 2015 or whatnot.  I have stumbled across other cool Blogger blogs over the years, but I didn't put them on my list because it looked like the blogger had already abandoned the blog.  The Web used to be the world's greatest newsstand, and it maybe it still is, but with all the censorship (self and otherwise), paywalls, and garbage out there it isn't what it once was, but here's a toast to those still blogging away.  Cheers!

If you, like me, sometimes struggle to find something interesting to read online, why not read a novel, for example, Blog Love Omega Glee, about a couple of bloggers back when blogs were considered cooler than they are today (fun fact:  "Twilight Of The Blogs" was going to be the title of the novel before that silly fiction series about vampires came out)?

Comic: Marvel Vs. DC

Carol & John's Comic Book Shop in Cleveland, Ohio USA has an annual art show as a fundraiser for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.  This year's theme is Marvel Vs. DC.  I drew a comic for it.  Unless they hate it when I turn it in (it's not a conventional cover and since they gave me a whole blank comic book to draw, I filled the whole thing up, though only the cover--this comic--will be displayed), it will be displayed at the store along with the other art from December 13-16, then raffled off the night of the 16th.  To read the comic, I suggest clicking on the image and making it full screen.  You could also download it after you click on it for the primo view, I suppose.  I've also loaded the panels individually below if you like scrolling down (it works either way).

For more fun (albeit words, not pictures), read one of my novels, such as the latest, Fast Guy Slows Down!

New Single!: Hank Rose And The Rank Hos

wredfright · Hank Rose And The Rank Hos

I started writing this song over 20 years ago because the transposition in the words amused me, but it never made it further than the chorus.  Set aside for many years, it came to mind while working on a new song and then grew its verses and whatnot and finally arrived.  It's about an unemployed adult film star complete with his casual misogyny and life regrets.  For the music, I employed my kid's keyboard which has a fun cat meow option.  At first, the singing sounded like a Happy Flowers song, but I added in crooning (you can still hear the original singing in the mix though).  Otherwise, it's the usual voice, guitar, keyboard as bass, keyboard and drums.  Lyrics are below:

I wanted to do Shakespeare.
Instead I just did Judy in Apt. 3B.
It wasn't supposed to happen this way,
but I had to pay the bills.
Maybe you can relate.
Always some asshole nipping at our heels.
I can't make a living with my dick anymore.
That's ok; we're all fucked anyway.

Hank Rose and the rank hos.

They have cameras everywhere these days,
but there's nothing worth watching.
When did everyone get so boring?
Everyone's got a stick up their ass.
I bet you do too.
This whole country is a damn death cult.
I read old magazines.  It was a better world.
What happened to the future?

I've got the pornstar blues,
so they make me take the red pills,
but the drugs aren't fun anymore.
I can still get it up, but no one wants to get down.
They want to make love a crime.
I overhear them in the bars.
They just talk shit and don't buy me a drink.

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Spotify or Bandcamp!

Comic: Raccoon Hospice

A former coworker told me this story.  I thought it was both hilarious and sad and would make for a good comic, so I drew it.  Based on a true story as they say.  The people involved remain anonymous to protect the guilty.  To read the comic, I suggest clicking on the image and making it full screen.  You could also download it after you click on it for the primo view, I suppose.  I've also loaded the panels individually below if you like scrolling down (it works either way).

 

 

 

For more fun (albeit words, not pictures), read one of my novels, such as the latest, Fast Guy Slows Down!

New Single!: Courtesy Flush

wredfright · Courtesy Flush

This song is about pettiness in the workplace.  The semi-deranged narrator gets revenge for how he or she has been ill-treated by refusing to do a courtesy flush in the restroom of the small office.  For those unfamiliar with what a courtesy flush is, basically one flushes as soon as the excrement lands in the bowl so any resulting smell is negated by the instantaneous flush.  Not great for saving water, but if you work in a small office, it is quite nice not to have to smell poop all day.  In this case, office politics have resulted in ill feelings and a lack of the courtesy flush.  The worker's strange fecal protest doesn't mean that the management or boss is innocent.  He or she is probably also semi-deranged.  Such is the state of work in America (and probably the world today).  In any case, I had fun with this song.  In keeping with the lyrical theme, the instrumentation includes a toilet (both the flush and its use as a drum), a pencilholder as a drum (I think it actually is a drum but I've been using it as a pencilholder for years, so this is the first time it has perhaps been used as originally designed), and staplers as percussion.  Other than that, it's the usual voice, guitar, and keyboard as bass.  I like the chorus.  It reminds me of Black Flag.  Lyrics are below:

Work is starting to piss me off.
Don't know if I can make it another day.
Got my fuck-you money, my freedom fund,
so I can just walk away.

The office manager's on a power trip,
but she should know better than to give me any lip.
In the small office, there's a hush.
Nobody's getting the courtesy flush.

It don't matter what they say.
We're going to have a great day.

Office politics, collective guilt,
and only one restroom.
Used to be polite and flush right away
so the smell wouldn't linger all day.

But now they can fire me; I don't give a shit.
Well, I did, but I left it in the toilet.
Can't wait to read the passive aggressive email from the lush.
There's no more courtesy flush.

Middle management is quite useless.

I have to work to pay my bills,
but I am no one's slave.
Finks rise to the top of the hierarchy,
then they think they don't have to behave.

Asskissers, yesmen, and The Peter Principle
explain a lot about society.
But until assholes learn to blush,
there will be no courtesy flush.

For more Wred Fright music, listen to the Yeast? 7" or give his latest album a listen or download at your favorite digital music site such as Spotify or Bandcamp!