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If you’ve been wondering who’s going to read at Vermin on the Mount’s New Year’s kick-off celebration, wonder no more.
Join us Sunday, January 10 at 8pm for a night of irreverent readings with Vanina Marsot (Foreign Tongues), Porochista Khakpour (Sons and Other Flammable Objects), Goodloe Byron (The Abstract, Revisions of, The Wraith) and Vicki Forman (This Lovely Life).
Check back soon for interviews and updates…
Nothing says “holy shite the holidays are coming” like a black metal Thanksgiving offering of vermin! (Poster art and design by Kiyoshi Nakazawa, creator of Drunken Master zine.)
On Sunday, November 8 at 8pm cap off your weekend pre-holiday procrastination with a night of irreverent readings at the Mountain Bar in L.A.’s Chinatown.
BLAKE NELSON is the author of many novels, including Destroy All Cars and Paranoid Park, which was made into a film by Gus Van Sant.
California native MARIE MUTSUKI MOCKETT’s debut novel, Picking Bones from Ash is set in both Japan and California. She lives and works in New York.
L.A. writer JOSEPH MATTSON is celebrated the release of Empty the Sun which includes a soundtrack by Six Organs of Admittance.
KIEREN VAN DEN BLINK wears many hats: writer, actress, organizer and, most recently, children’s book author. Kieren will read from her forthcoming memoir.
The acclaimed author of Stillwater Saints, ALEX ESPINOZA, returns to Southern California to share new work.
Plus, representatives from the literary magazine BLACK CLOCK will be on hand to sell copies of the latest issue. You can also win a copy in the return of the famous Vermin raffle! Plus, free cake!
Our next event is November 16, which means it will be the first reading in the post-Bush administration. The more pressing question is will there be Vermin on the Mount after November 4? Is there a name change in the works? Come find out and enjoy an evening of rants, raves, and radical behavior...
GARY AMDAHL is the author of Visigoth and I Am Death (Milkweed). His most recent work, a novella, will be published by Agni in the spring. He lives in Southern California.
Portland poet DAN KAPLAN is the author of Bill’s Formal Complaint (The National Poetry Review Press). He teaches at Portland State University.
JANET FITCH is the acclaimed author of White Oleander and Paint it Black (Little, Brown) and teaches at the University of Southern California.
Can you believe it? Vermin turns 4 today! In honor of this august occasion I thought it would be fun to check-in with/frantically Google the original line-up for the first Vermin event.
JOSH BEARMAN: Married in a fig forest in Kenya with Maasai warriors and bead girls serving as groomsmen and bridesmaids. The Pac-Man piece Josh read from all those years ago finally appeared in Harper's Magazine this summer. He continues to leverage the infosphere.
MIKE FALOON: Edits Zisk Magazine, which is about baseball, and Go Metric, which is gearing up for Issue 22. Woo-hoo times two.
JOE MENO: Unleashing Demons in the Spring. In August. Meaning now. 20 short stories illustrated by 20 artists. Proceeds to benefit Chicago 826. Awesome.
TODD TAYLOR: Doing his part to ensure that Razorcake, one of two nationwide independent punk rock music zines still standing, stays that way.
ANDREA SIEGEL: Moved into dead western-writer Zane Grey's mansion. Got a French Bulldog she named Christmas. Finally fulfilled longtime dream of owning a Ralph Lauren chair. The usual.
And last, but not least, but still last, DAVE GUTHRIE, the man who provided the art work for the first Vermin poster, aka The Ruland Family tattoo artist: When not working on his bowling game, flourishing.
After a short and a very manic summer, Vermin returns with a vengeance this fall. More details to come soon...
Three years ago when we offered to set up a reading for Joe Meno's visit to Los Angeles, we had no idea that Vermin on the Mount would turn into a Chinatown mainstay. Three years, seventeen readings, and over fifty writers later we're still going strong. The arrangements are made from Vermin headquarters in San Diego now and your humble host is no longer single, but the rest is the same. Except for the readers of course, which change with every event. Presenting...
The good...
Katherine Taylor is the Pushcart Prize-winning author of Rules for Saying Goodbye, a novel of a young woman dissembling and reassembling -- the classic arc of the bounty hunter narrative. Katherine received her MFA from Columbia University and lives in Los Angeles.
The bad...
Michael A. FitzGerald's novel Radiant Days seems innocent enough: a happy-go-lucky dot.comster heads for Budapest with a beautiful Hungarian woman, but what follows is as harrowing as it is gripping. Michael earned an MFA from the University of Montana and comes all the way from Idaho.
The ugly...
Ron Currie, Jr.'s novel-in-stories imagines a world where God comes to earth as a Dinka woman. After she is killed and consumed by a pack of feral dogs, things get ugly on spaceship earth. Ron lives in Maine. God Is Dead is Ron's first book.
Vermin returns to Sunday evenings at the Mountain Bar with a toothy vengeance. On Sunday June 25th, celebrate with this fearsome foursome of the dark literary arts:
New Yorker Jami Attenberg joins Vermin on the Mount to promote her brand new book INSTANT LOVE. This is her only Southern California appearance and she'll be signing her excellent book after the reading. Love ain't free - in the flesh or in hardback -- so be sure to bring a little extra cabbage.
Ben Weissman is the author of HEADLESS and DEAR DEAD PERSON. He is also the organizer and host of New American Writing at the Hammer Museum, the best reading series in town bar none.
Trinie Dalton is the author of WIDE EYED, the latest from Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery series at Akashic Books. She also writes about art and co-compiled DEAR NEW GIRL OR WHATEVER YOUR NAME IS with Eli Horowitz and Lisa Wagner.
Chad Tsuyuki is in the creative writing program at Long Beach State University and the editor of Like Water Burning. He also has a very fine hairstyle.
The poster for this weekend's reading was created by the artist Adam Janes, who aside from being an all around swell person, helped build the Mountain bar! Fun sarts at 8, readings at 9, mayhem til midnight.
It's Tueday. Three days into the New Year and we've blown most of our resolutions already. But it's not our fault. It's the calendar's. Chinese New Year is a month away. That means it's time to pull out all the stops and party our asses off for the next four weeks. Saturday January 14, 2006, make sure you muster at the Mountain and burn, vermin, burn!
The agonized/orgasmic look on Scott O'Connor's face can mean only one of two things: he still hasn't recovered from the Red Sox debacle or it's time for another Vermin on the Mount recap!
Poet Teka Lark Lo started the evening with a passel of hard-hitting poems about life as we know it in Los Angeles. Be sure to check out her column LA Real and if you're staying in the city this weekend she'll be reading at 9 AM on Sunday November 27, 2005, at the LA River. No, really.
Here's Justine Musk reading from her dark and fabulous new novel Bloodangel, which poses the question: What if demons arrived in the guise of an irresistable underground rock band? This certainly explains Keith Richards longevity. Sympathy for the devil indeed...
I know what you're thinking. What is this John Stockton crotch shot doing on the Vermin blog?
Not quite. It's Dave Fromm who brought the house down with excerpts from his unpublished memoir, Away Games, which is about his stint as a semi-pro basketball player in Prague. This is the uniform. Judging from the laugh fest that broke out (during the reading, not the disrobing) we think this one is a slam dunk (sorry) to get published.
Rounding out the evening was Jolene Siana, author of Go Ask Ogre: Letters from a Deathrock Cutter. In the mid-80s Jolene wrote scores of letters to her favorite musician, Ogre of Skinny Puppy. This morbidly beautiful book is published by Process Media, the new imprint from Feral House.
This is Don, one of the unsung heroes of Vermin on the Mount. Don the Mountain Bar's sound guru. He sets up the microphones, arranges the PA, and generally makes sure everything is copasetic. Once the show gets rolling he takes a seat and listens to all the readers, which makes Don one of Vermin's most fervent fans. Thanks, Don!
On Tuesday September 27, 2005, I'll be reading with Bryan Price, Daryl “Duke” Henry and Vermin supervillian Scott O'Connor. Plus, music by Black Powder. The fun starts at 8 o'clock sharp at the Tribal Cafe, Echo Park's hottest new venue for literary shenanigans. I'm going to read a disgusting/erotic story about a man and his meat slicer.
Ann Arbor literary magazine Hobart unveils its new Travel Issue in Echo Park on Friday, September 16 at 8 PM. Editor Aaron Burch welcomes Pasha Malla (McSweeney’s), Mike McGowan (Hobart), Salvador Plascencia (The People of Paper) and Jim Ruland (Big Lonesome).
I'll be reading from my travel essay, The Mysteries of Manchester, which is about my search for the meaning behind the naming of the street where I live. You can also check out this photo essay from the trip.
The reading will be held at the Tribal Cafe is at 1651 W. Temple St in the Echo Park Arts District. Call 213 483 4458 for details.
On Saturday September 17 at 8 pm celebrate the release of OpiumMagazine.print #1 with a night of irreverent readings in the heart of Chinatown!
One person leaves the party, another arrives. Please welcome Momoko Tesla Nakazawa as an honorary member of the legion of Vermin. She arrived safely and in good health on August 22, much to the delight of her proud parents Mara and Kiyoshi Nakazawa.
The secret’s out. The next Vermin on the Mount is being sponsored by Opium Magazine – an excellent online humor magazine published by Todd Zuniga out of New York – to celebrate the publication of their first print edition. We cooked up the idea this spring at Charles Bukowski’s old hangout shortly after the Swink/Vermin collaboration during the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Here's what he has to say about the upcoming event:
VOTM: What's A Whopping Collection of Fanatical Literary Brilliance?
TZ: It's actually OpiumMagazine.print #1, but the thing was too whopping (272 pages), too brilliant (53 contributors) and too fanatical (this can't be quantified) not to bear this subtitle. Plus, we like making fun of ourselves.
VOTM: When did you start Opium?
TZ: We kicked it off on February 5, 2001. It looked like this for quite awhile (we accidentally killed the original logo), but still managed to catch a bit of fire. Then, after the $99 American Dollar Redesign Contest, it looked like this. Now, almost four and a half years later, it's in its current form. Wild times.
VOTM: Are you a drug addict?
TZ: Weirdly, no. Though I carry the heroin chic physique. The site has rarely published any story involving drugs, even. We aim for cool and calm and surprising. Drugs are only one of those.
VOTM: What can we expect from the Opium/Vermin collaboration in September?
TZ: Ballyhoo, hijinks, shenaniganism, sex in the bathrooms, wishes coming true, beautiful people, irony without the ironists, ironing, placation and more humor than one would expect. Alternately, a reading with some pretty outstanding writers touching stage. And a few man hugs.
VOTM: How can I get a copy of issue #1?
TZ: Ask for it by name at the local Winn-Dixie! Or, go here and pay through Paypal. Easy-peasy.
On Sunday July 17th, aka the day after Verminator, I'll be reading at the Knitting Factory as part of Palabrazilla. What's a Palabrazilla, you ask? It's a two-night event featuring writers from LA's multitude of reading series. Check out the site, and then come see me in Hollywood on Sunday.
