Vermin on the Mount

Snuggle up to some Vermin

We've got two unforgettable shows this month that you don't want to miss:

LOS ANGELES
Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm
826LA in Echo Park

All the way from Prague, Louis Armand, author of the brutal neo-noir Breakfast at Midnight
Scott O'Connor, winner of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award
Martin Pousson, author of No Place, Louisiana and The Nerves
Conrad Romo, organizer and host of Tongue and Groove
Oriana Small, LA's favorite Gilvert
Kaitlin Solimine, Fullbright fellow and Dzanc Books/Disquiet International Literary Program award

SAN DIEGO
Saturday, October 20 at 6pm
3rd Space Co-Working Club for the Creative

Louis Armand, poet, novelist and Joycean scholar (no shit)
Jason Napoli Brooks, co-host of N.Y. reading series The Enclave and author of Cock of the Walk
Antonia Crane, The Rumpus columnist and memoirist 
Charles Daly, fiction writer, world traveler and wearer of hats
Patrick O’Neil, celebrity impersonator and author of Hold Up 
Missy Solis, San Diego writer and creator of Parasitic Twin

Plus, books, booze, miscellaneous merch and the world-famous Vermin raffle!

Look Who's Coming to Vermin (LA & SD): Louis Armand

VOTM: What's the most unusual experience you've had at a reading?

ARMAND: Maybe strangest thing was reading in front of a picture of Benny Hill (surrounded by a bevy of bikini-clad girls), with a signed dedication to Anthony Burgess. 

LOUIS ARMAND is a Sydney-born writer & visual artist who has lived in Prague since 1994. He has worked as an editor, publisher & curator. Currently he lectures in the Philosophy Faculty of Charles University & is an editor of VLAK magazine. He has published four novels, Breakfast at Midnight (Equus, 2012), Clair Obscur (Equus, 2011), Menudo (Antigen, 2005) & The Garden (Salt, 2001). In addition, he is the author of seven collections of poetry–most recently, Letters from Ausland (Vagabond, 2011) & Synopticon (with John Kinsella; Litteraria, 2012) & of a number of volumes of criticism, including Solicitations: Essays on Criticism & Culture (Litteraria, 2008).

Come see Louis read at 826LA in Echo Park on Friday, October 19 at 7:30pm and at 3rdSpace in San Diego on Saturday October 20 at 6pm.

Eighth Anniversary Photos

There are a gang of photos of the 8th Anniversary event at 826LA in Echo Park on the Vermin on the Mount Facebook page. It's a mix of photos take by yours truly and Jason Gutierrez. Check the link and like us while you're at it!

Did you know that in eight years of Vermin on the Mount we've had 48 shows featuring nearly 200 writers and artists?

It's true. The Vermin poster gallery has been updated with all the latest posters so you can take a walk down memory lane. I've also updated the Legion of Vermin list to the left. If you've participated in a Vermin event and don't see your name on the list or want to update your link, shoot me an email.

The lineup for show #49 next month has been finalized and I'll be making that announcement on Monday.

Don't be bitten!

Vermin in L.A. on April 29: Now at a New Location!

 

With the unexpected closure of The Mountain Bar, Vermin creeps up the street from Chinatown to 826 LA East in Echo Park. The reading will take place in the back room of the Time Travel Mart at 1714 W. Sunset Blvd.

 

Fire up your flux capacitors and join us for a night of irreverent readings with...

TRINIE DALTON makes her second appearance on the Vermin stage in support of her new work of short fiction Baby Geisha.  

LAUREN EGGERT-CROWE recently moved to L.A. from Santa Cruz and has true tales to tell. She likes Julio Iglesisas. 

AMELIA GRAY is preparing to destroy you and there's nothing you can do about it!  

ANNE-MARIE KINNEY is the production editor at Black Clock and the author of the debut novel Radio Iris. 

New York author CHRISTOPHER NAROZNY is crossing the country to celebrate his debut novel Jonah Man.

And your host, resident windbag Jim Ruland. Big ups to poster artist Goodloe Byron who has never been accused of being full of hot air... 

There's plenty of parking behind the Time Travel Mart and attendees are asked to use the back entrance. See you in Echo Park on Sunday Night!

LOOK WHO'S COMING TO VERMIN: JASON NAPOLI BROOKS

VOTM: What's the most unusual experience you've ever had at a reading?

BROOKS: The strangest thing that ever happened to me at reading was when I was invited to read at an arts center in central Pennsylvania. That should have been enough of a warning. I read about a page into my story when they cut the mic. The reading series host, a fat old woman in floral print dress, who had seemed pleasant enough at the time, rushed on stage, grabbed the papers from my hand, frenzily skimmed over the pages and declared, "Filth! Filth! Filth!" All in front of the audience, who sat in total silence. Needless to say, they did not reimburse me for my travel expenses. I was younger then and didn't realize you really do need know your audience and you can't wantonly throw around the word "cunt-door".

VOTM: What's something you've done for seven years?

BROOKS: I've been living in Brooklyn for the past seven years, which means that one thing that I do is hate on people with ironic moustaches. It's not all people with moustaches, just the ironic ones. Now you might ask, "How does he know which moustaches are ironic and which ones are in earnest?" All I can say is that after seven years I've developed a fine-tuned and nuanced system of deduction with which I can, with a usually high rate of success, infer if one's moustache was an organic development or a total contrivance. Does this make me a judgmental asshole? Of course it does! That's why I've lived in Brooklyn for the past seven years.

JASON NAPOLI BROOKS's writing, including excerpts of his novel Shelter, has appeared in Ninth Letter, H.O.W., Pindeldyboz, Tema Celeste, El Pais, and America Street II. His fiction has also been part of collaborative author/artist exhibitions at galleries in Berlin, Madrid, and New York, where he most recently has been collaborating with artist Gio Black Peter. Brooks currently writes the spy serial Cock of the Walk. 

SEVEN YEAR INFECTION

Sunday July 31 marks the 7-year anniversary of Vermin on the Mount. To celebrate we're having a good old-fashioned hullabaloo with readings, drinks, giveaways galore and enough free cake to choke a Chinatown rat. 

This amazing poster was done by Gerardo Q. Garcia of San Antonio, Texas (with an assist from long-time friend of VTOM Ryan Seaman). If you're going to get a tattoo in Tejas, you better get it from this guy. 

If you’d like to know a bit more about the history of VOTM, check out this interview I did with Matty Byloos at Smalldoggies Magazine. Small dogs are a kind of Vermin (or maybe you haven’t heard about the infamous Mexican sewer rat…)

Speaking of Matty, the author of Don’t Smell the Floss, returns from Portland for a one-night engagement in the Chinatown stage.

Andrew Foster Altschul, author of Deus ex Machina and Lady Lazarus will be adjourning from him respite in the desert one day early to celebrate with us before returning to his duties as book review editor at The Rumpus.

Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Third Class Superhero, is our lone Angeleno.

Rounding out the evening are the tag-team of Jason Napoli Brooks and James Freed who run The Enclave Reading Series in Brooklyn, New York.  

But wait, there’s more! Legion of Vermin member John Sellers, also from New York, will stop by to say a few words about his new memoir, The Old Man and the Swamp.

And, we’ve got other surprise guests in store, including an international woman of mystery whose initials are, well, why don’t you come down and see for yourself?

 

 

ONE-QUIZTUNE INTERVIEW: SCOTT McCLANAHAN

VOTM: What's the most unusual experience you've ever had at a reading?

SCOTT: The only strange reading story I have is the time when I almost accidentally picked up a prostitute in Pittsburgh before a reading. The reading was in a kind of “interesting” part of town. I parked my car and was walking down the sidewalk when this scantily clad big woman walked by and said, “Hey baby, you got two quarters.”

I can be incredibly naïve (really naïve). I stopped, pushed my hands down in my pockets and looked through them for two quarters. The big lady started looking real nervous like “What the hell are you doing?” 

I thought maybe she needed to make a phone call or something.

I finally said, “No Ma'am, I don’t believe I do, but there’s a gas station down a block and I’m sure they can give me change for a dollar.”

She just started laughing. She truly couldn’t believe I was being serious. It was only then that I realized the woman didn’t need to make a phone call and two quarters was prostitute code.

VOTM: What's going on in this photo?

SCOTT: My friend Eddie has a bunch of monkeys that he keeps as pets. At the end of last summer I ran into Eddie at a gas station in town, and it had been a year or so since we’d hung out together. So one night I went over to his apartment and his sister was there. I guess she really hates this one monkey named Bingo (I have no idea why). The monkey has some body issues about his man parts, and Eddie’s sister always teases him about it. So she started teasing the monkey about his parts, and the monkey just went bat shit crazy.

The monkey jumped around and we were all laughing like it was funny, but then all of a sudden the monkey jumped into my lap and started smacking at my face. One of his little monkey fingers poked me in the eye and I had to go to the doctor. The doctor gave me an anti-biotic and made me keep a patch on the eye for a week. My eye was fine. I recovered.

It’s probably one of the strangest injuries I’ve ever had. Try explaining to your wife that a monkey tried to gouge out your eye and see the look on her face. Also, the monkey has a drug problem, but I’ve revealed enough.

Come see what monkey business Scott McClanahan gets up to at Vermin on the Mount at Mie N Yu in Washington DC on Friday, February 4 at 8pm.

 

 

HIDE THE CHILDREN: VERMIN BUCKS ARE BACK!

Vermin Bucks combine two of your favorite things -- books and beer. A Vermin Bucks voucher gets you a book by a Vermin author and a beer for only $15.

I suggest these pairings:

Blue Moon + Lauren Kate
Newcastle + Lauren Strasnick
Stella + Sonya Sones
Guinness + Ned Vizzini

Vermin Bucks are like the McRib: Here for a limited time while supplies last. Only without the anal leakage. Don't be bitten.

 

TUNE IN SEPT. 26 OR ELSE

It’s dark out there, kids, and the stations won’t identify themselves, but have no fear. Transmissions have been infrequent, but the Vermin signal is stronger than ever with stellar programming for Sunday, September 26 at 8pm.

Chances are you’ve read GRACE KRILANOVICH’s work at the L.A. Times and didn’t even know it. With the release of her debut novel The Orange Eats Creeps that’s about to change.

She’ll be joined by fellow Two Dollar Radio author JOSHUA MOHR. He tantalized readers with his debut Some Things That Meant the World to Me, and will read from his new novel Termite Parade.

MATT STEWART made waves on Twitter last summer by broadcasting his novel loosely based on the French Revolution. The Huffington Post blogger comes to L.A. to read from the book published to great acclaim by Soft Skull earlier this year.

L.A. writer STEVE DE JARNATT’s stories have been published in Best American Short Stories 2009 and will be featured in New Short Fiction next year. But short story writer is just one of many titles Steve wears, including screenwriter and television and film director.

 

This is not a test. Emergency broadcast this is not. Your regularly scheduled programming is being held hostage in the Vermin studios. Negotiations commence Sunday, September 26 at 8pm at the Mountain Bar in Chinatown. Don't be bitten.

LA RATA IS COMING TO SD & LA

You better load the weapons and stash the tequila because La Rata is coming to San Diego's East Village and L.A.'s Chinatown!

ONE-QUIZTUNE INTERVIEW: AMELIA GRAY

When Amelia Gray read at Vermin on the Mount in Denver, she knocked my socks off with this piece. I liked it so much, I went to see her at another reading hoping she'd do it again. Instead, I saw something entirely unexpected...



Then, last week I read about another reading she did. I'm going to go out on a limb and say whatever happens during Amelia's performances at the Vermin events will be memorable.

VOTM: What's the most unusual experience you've ever had at a reading?

GRAY: My best/worst reading experience was the milk-chugging performance piece in Denver. The goal was to showcase featherproof books through song, but we ended up showcasing the amount of whiskey we drank at the night's previous reading. I thought the dancing, banjo, and Lindsay's crystal-clear singing were a highlight of the reading experience. The worst moments came while waiting patiently in the bathroom line after the show, belly full of two percent.

Come see what depraved antics Amelia has in store on July 31 at Sushi in San Diego and on August 1 at The Mountain Bar in Chinatown.

ONE-QUIZTUNE INTERVIEW: AARON BURCH

Do you remember the last time Aaron Burch came to Vermin with the Hobart posse? Well, he's at it again with a new crew from featherproof books. They're meeting up in Tucson, piling into a van, braving the Arizona justice system and then zipping up and down the California coast. Come out and show you're support for these hard-drinking-traveling desperados!

VOTM: What's the most unusual experience you've ever had at a reading?

BURCH: I don't know that I've had a "worst" experience at a reading other than, I guess, the unbearably boring ones, but I won't name names or anything in that regard. My "best" reading story is actually Matt Bell's Elizabeth Kostova story which I pretty much drunkenly make him retell every time we hang out. But my most awkward/odd/memorable reading was when I saw Arthur Bradford read in SF a good number of years ago. He introduced a woman by some name that I can't remember (Veronica something?) to come up and read before him. The woman (?) was somewhat androgynous looking and wearing a blond wig and sunglasses, i.e. "JT LeRoy," back when everyone still believed in a JT LeRoy. JT very, very nervously read about half of a story, then started getting (seemingly) physically ill from nervousness and ran off the stage and out of the bookstore. Bradford had to finish the story. It was all very surreal.

Come see Aaron read on July 31 at Sushi in San Diego and on August 1 at The Mountain Bar in Chinatown.

BLACK METAL VERMIN

VERMIN POSTPONED

VERMIN ALERT! VERMIN ALERT! The February 22 edition of Vermin on the Mount has been postponed. Blame it on the economy. Blame it on the Oscars. Blame it on baby factories and stimulated packages. Blame it on the Bushies. Blame it on Rio. Blame it on the rain.

HUNAN DECLARED NO-GO ZONE FOR VERMIN

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.

PRAISE HOLEY CHEESES!

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.

VERMINTINE HELMET PARTY

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.

VERMIN & THE GANG

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...

HERE BE PYRATS!

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.

TACOS BICHOS

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.

HOT NUDE VERMIN

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.

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.

OH MY LITTLE PRETTY ONE

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.

VERMIN ON THE BLOGOSPHERE

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.