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Summer flooding at Dongting Lake in China's southern province of Hunan has forced two billion mice to flee. So far, residents have killed 2.3 million mice since June. Be careful my little furry friends in the East, be very careful.
Sunday, April 8 at 8pm marks the second coming of Bucky Sinister to Vermin on the Mount! Bucky will be giving a sneak preview of his new book All Blacked Out and Nowhere to Go, which doesn't come out until May. Also appearing are icons of L.A. poetry scene S.A. Griffin and Razor.
Special thanks to Vermin stalwarts Mario Prado for the excellent artwork and Melissa Bell for supplying the outstanding pun that we copped for the headline.
Have you noticed more and more couples are making alternate Valentine's Day plans to avoid the long lines and jacked-up prices? We at Vermin HQ think it's a splendid idea. What sez "I lust you" more than four dudes reading at Vermin on the Mount? On Sunday Feb 11 at 8 PM Antoine Wilson, Brad Listi, Perry Crowe, and Jod Kaftan will take the fabled stage at the chamber of blood that is Chinatown's Mountain Bar. It's our first all-male revue. We'll supply the liquor. You bring the meth and plenty of singles.
Mark December 3, 2006, on your calendars as Theresa Duncan, Rolf Potts, Daniel Hernandez and Stephan Clark take the Vermin stage. More details after we work our way through the turkey carcass...
Join the crew at The Mountain Bar in Chinatown on Sunday August 20 at 8 PM for a night of verbal buccaneering and literary skullduggery:
Chris Abani author of GraceLand and Becoming Abigail as well as the forthcoming Song For Night and The Virgin of Flames. Chris is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards.
Legion of Vermin member Teka-Lark Lo is a Los Angeles poet in the satirist tradition and freelance journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of the BrickBat Revue, a periodical that examines the state of the literary L.A. replete with pictures.
New Yorker Carol Novack is a re-emerging writer, a former criminal defense and constitutional lawyer, with an unused MSW and no MFA. She's the author of a chapbook of poems published in Australia. She is also the editor of MAD HATTERS' REVIEW: Edgy & Enlightened Literature, Art & Music in the Age of Dementia.
Karen Palmer (who snapped this fabulous photo) recently returned to Los Angeles after a 20-year exile, but she can't park without getting a ticket, can't find a public restroom, and the mail doesn't come until 7 p.m. Karen teaches writing at UCLA Extension. Her two novels are All Saints and Border Dogs, both from Soho Press.
Join Jami Attenberg, Chad Tsuyuki, Trinie Dalton, Benjamin Weissman for a night of tasty treats on Sunday, yes Sunday, June 25 at the Mountain. Drinks at 8. Readings at 9. Bring your appetite.
No it's not another seedy strip club by the airport (I wish). It's a profile of a Nude Mouse, which apparently have all kinds of scientific uses. Alas, not nude but very hot, is a profile of the renowned San Diego scientist and artist Nuvia Crisol Guerra by Melissa Bell.
It's a bad time to be a nonfiction writer. Naturally, the latest installation of Vermin featured a passel of them. (Ed. Note: "passel" is a colloquial term for shitload.) First up was Carolyn Kellogg. Her hair is pink. Her podcast is Pinky's Paperhaus. She loves L.A.'s unsolved mysteries, at least she did until she became embroiled in one of them when her purse was snatched in Koreatown two weeks ago. But to paraphrase Barton Fink, good art isn't possible without suffering, right Carolyn?
This is Marc Weingarten and Mark Frauenfelder. We love their work, but didn't know they were friends. Marc read a chapter about Hunter Thompson from his book, The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, and the New Journalism Revolution. Mark read stories about CEOs behaving badly on airplanes, fraudulent diets, and stubborn combat soldiers from his book, The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things. Here are they are arguing about who has the longer title and whether it's cooler to have your name end in a "c" or a "k."
Everyone knows when you want the truth, you go to a poet. Bucky Sinister came all the way down from San Francisco to dazzle the audience with a reading from his book, Whiskey & Robots. He's also a decent bowler and can lay waste to a slab of cheesecake. He's currently working on material for a one-many show. When it's ready, we'll be sure to invite Mr. Sinister back for more.
After the reading we all went downstairs to the Mountain Bar proper to perform a conceptual art piece called "Dance of a Million Little Truck Stop Prostitutes," which climaxes with a plunge into a pile of cash, but we only had $17.85 on us so we had to call it off.
One of the reasons why we love having Vermin on the Mount in Chinatown is because of the punk rock legacy of Madame Wong's and the Hong Kong Cafe, rival Chinatown venues that were literally across the street from one another. When I approached the good people at the Mountain about hosting a reading series they were all for it -- until they saw the poster. The local merchants have long memories and they remember the days when punk rock and new wave blared out of restaurants and kids staggered around the streets loaded on jug wine and ludes.
Last week, Esther "Madame" Wong passed away at the ripe old age of 88. In 1978 she opened her doors to unheralded local musicians and bands like X, the Police and the Motels graced the stage in the second-story, Polynesian-themed restaurant. But "Godmother of Punk"? Don't be bitten. Madame Wong's was home to the skinny tie set and those who liked their music faster, harder and louder went across the street to the Hong Kong Cafe. (Don't take my word for it: Check out Alice Bag's blog, who sets the record straight.)
So the next time this infectious bit of ear vermin works it's way into your brainstream, raise your glass to Madame Wong and smash it on the ground.
Call the exterminator and prepare to fumigate the premises: Vermin on the Mount has slithered onto the Internet.
What's a Vermin on the Mount and what's it doing on your laptop? The complete explanation can be found in the "About" section to your left, but Vermin on the Mount is a Los Angeles-based reading series located in the heart of Chinatown. We are as irregular as we are irreverent and while we've made some pretty posters and post cards, we've been unforgivably slack about promoting our events online. This changes that.
Our fangs are fullsome, yes, but not as venomous as they once were. Although we aren't above the occassional lazy swipe at an easy target, we don't intend to subject you to vituperative outbursts about stuff we don't like, or foam-flecked fulminations about things we love. You will, however, find Vermin-related updates, amusements, and other earnest distractions.
You've been warned. Don't be bitten.
