Vermin on the Mount

ANOTHER VERMIN, ANOTHER INFERNO

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.

MEET THE VERMIN

Here's a closer look at the readers participating in Saturday's event:

BUCKY SINISTER is an accomplished Bay Area poet and the author of several books, including Whiskey & Robots from Gorsky Press. I read with Bucky in Oakland last year and have been trying to get him to down to Los Angeles every since. We've had some amazing poets at Vermin on the Mount, and Bucky promises to be one of the amazingest.

BoingBoing editor MARK FRAUENFELDER is the author of a book that compiles the very worst things in this terrible world we live in. It's called The World's Worst: A Guide to the Most Disgusting, Hideous, Inept, and Dangerous People, Places, and Things.

Vermin faithful already CAROLYN KELLOGG as the tireless promoter of literary Los Angeles through her podcast Pinky's Paperhaus. But did you know she was recently appointed editor of LAist? Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear her read a hard-hitting account from the mean streets of Koreatown.

MARC WEINGARTEN'S book, The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, and the New Journalism Revolution, offers a close look and thick description of a unique period in American journalism.

Fun starts at 8, readings at 9, conflagration at midnight.

VERMIN INFERNO

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!