Terminal Drama

Corporate Rock Sucks book tour Part 2

Greetings from somewhere! I started this in SFO and sending it from the back of a cab on the Belt Parkway but the bulk was written 30,000 feet in the sky, maybe even directly over your head.

I like airports. I love terminal drama. Today I saw a guy in the security line who had a mustache and a mohawk. I told him I admired the boldness of the combination.

“Just trying to hold on to my youth,” he said.

“Or maybe law enforcement in disguise?” I asked.

“Ha-ha, no,” he said and walked away, possibly offended.

But what’s his story? Not the story of that particular look per se, but how did he become someone who flouts fashion norms in such arresting fashion? That’s a story I’d like to hear. Airports of full of these possibilities.

A lot more people are wearing masks in the SFO airport than in SD. It is what is. I wear masks in cars and trains and planes and most indoor spaces. My rule of thumb is if the employees are masked up, I should be too. I don’t wear my mask while “on stage” during events but since they dropped the mask mandate I’ve been wearing one when I sign books afterwards.

Some airport terminals strive for chill (SFO) while others thrive on chaos (JFK). JFK is good but only in comparison. JFK’s slogan should be “At least you’re not in LaGuardia!”

SFO is definitely chill. I mean look at this gorgeous monstrosity by Yayoi Kusama:

Sadly, not my size

If you’re most people, you keep walking because you’re not in an art museum. You’re not here to look at art. You’re not in an art-looking-at designated space. How many people fail to notice it simply because it occupies a space in between spaces (in this case in between two wings of Terminal 2, but could easily mean the terminal itself). Liminal spaces.

(People ask me if I’m every going to bring back Vermin on the Mount. The answer is yes. The answer to when or how is I don’t know, but will involve liminal spaces. A place where Vermin doesn’t belong. A place where it’s not wanted. The only place for the literature of the transgressive.)

Let’s talk about the Corporate Rock Sucks book tour, which is why I’m traveling.

April 26 at Green Apple Books on the Park

Last night’s event at Green Apple Books was a blast. I loved hanging out with Eugene Robinson. He has beguiling energy. He reminds me of a certain type of punk I’d meet from time to time when I still partied, mostly in Orange County, but sometimes in the Navy. The kind of punk who is friendly and outgoing but sure enough dangerous to know. Not a troublemaker but a person trouble has a way of finding.

Wait, was I that kind of person? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.

The big SST-related news, as it relates to Eugene Robinson, is that Ipecac is reissuing Serenade in Red (SST 340) and OXBOW has recorded a new album that will be mixed next month. Both are occasions for celebration. If you don’t know Serenade in Red, you owe it to yourself to fix that.

Photo courtesy of Vanessa Hua

A couple of other funny things that happened at Green Apple last night:

The host, Max, is a graduate of Northern Arizona University, where I went to grad school, which struck me as funny because the school’s mascot is a lumberjack and Max was dressed like one. I didn’t take any pictures so you’ll have to take my word for it.

Joe Pope of Angst came to the reading. I didn’t talk to Joe for the book but we talked a great deal after the show and he weighed in on several topics that I bring up in Corporate Rock Sucks (the state of SST masters tapes, the fate of the label). I learned that Joe also worked with Joe Carducci at Systematic. In addition to being a tremendous all around musician and a wizard in the studio, he’s also a carpenter. He also isn’t on social media. Like, at all.

April 24 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

When I arrived at Green Apple on Tuesday there was a gift waiting for me from Melissa Chadburn. Melissa has a new novel out called A Tiny Upward Shove and she’s been traveling to a lot of the places where I’ve been and vice versa. For example, I was at The Book Catapult two days before Melissa and she was at Green Apple the day before me. We saw each other at the Festival of Books and exchanged notes about the tour. I told her about how I’d asked The Book Catapult to save a signed copy of her book. Last night she surprised me with a gift card from Green Apple. It was a simple gesture but it made me so happy. Melissa’s still on tour so you have plenty of time to see her.

Speaking of happiness, the festival was veritable lovefest. I wish I could recount every interaction I had but that would be impossible so I’m not even going to try but it was so great to see so many of my old friends and acquaintances.

Nuvia and I used some points to book a couple nights at the Bonaventure, my favorite hotel in downtown LA, and made a weekend out of it. We bopped around DTLA, went to the Grand Central Market, and saw a movie at the Alamo Draft House. We spent a full day the festival on Saturday, taking in a bunch of panels and browsing the book fair. (Nuvia bought a bunch of books; I did not.)

That night we went to Subliminal Projects for Melanie Nissen’s book release party for HARD + FAST, which you might recall I reviewed for the LA Times earlier this year. I introduced myself in the signing line, but was interrupted by Shepard Fairey who wanted to make sure that Mark Mothersbaugh got a chance to say hello. Fair play. I also got to meet Lisa Fancher whom I interviewed for Corporate Rock Sucks. Razorcake homies Dale and Yvonne were there. So was filmmaker Dave Markey (more on that encounter next week). As we left, Donita Sparks was dancing with DJ TBD Barbero. One of those only in LA moments.

Sunday was a perfect day. My panel with Gina Schock of the Go-Go’s and Dan Ozzi, author of Sellout, was a blast. The moderator, LA music critic Mikael Wood, kept a conversational flow going and it was punctuated with lots of humor and some great anecdotes. For instance, when Dan asked Gina if touring with the Go-Go’s was as wild as the documentary made it seem, she said the only way the band can ever get a story straight is for all five members to be in the room at the same time. Dan and I talked quite a bit before and after the panel and we could have gone on for hours, which he must have enjoyed as much as I did because he invited me to be on his podcast.

After the panel we filed out to the signing tent and got to meet the people who’d come to the panel and bought our books. It was especially great to see the folks who wanted me to sign My Damage and/or Do What You Want.

Confession tine. I love signing books. When my dream of being a published writer first manifested, doing things like signing books wasn’t part of the equation. I viewed writers as solitary people doing solitary things. Maybe this is what attracted me to the life of a writer because I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up and I sensed the solitary aspect of the job would suit me.

Writing for zines helped reinforce this notion because it was such a slow road to publication. The lag between writing something and seeing it print was enormous. When readers responded it could be months and, no exaggeration, years for word to get back to me. Validation wasn’t part of the deal. That’s not why we did it.

This is a long-winded way of saying signing books is always a thrill. I love getting to meet readers even if it’s only for a few minutes. If we ever meet at a book signing, please know there is nowhere else I’d rather be.

Do you want to hear a secret? You’ve read this far. (Note to self: writing on a cross country flight is a recipe for a long-ass Message from the Underworld.) OK, here’s the secret. Along the way we stopped by the Rare Bird Books booth to talk to the publisher, Tyson Cornel, about my upcoming novel. That’s right: Rare Bird is putting out my next novel. I’ll have a lot to say about this in the weeks and months ahead, but Rare Bird is the perfect home for a punk-adjacent novel set in a near-future LA.

But the highlight of the day (month? Year?) was sitting down with Sara Gran and talking shop for a while. You’re setting yourself up for major disappointment if you expect writers to resemble the heroes of the books they write, especially in the genre of crime/mystery, but Sara absolutely has the energy that animates her Clair DeWitt series. She is a force. What did I learn? She’s recovering from her leg injury. She lived for a time in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, not far from where I’m headed now. And she’s working on the next Clair DeWitt novel. I’m telepathically preordering that book now. Hell, I may as well go ahead and reread the series. Whose up for a Clair DeWitt book club?

Corporate Rock Sucks Link-o-Rama

Corporate Rock Sucks has racked up quite a few reviews this week, including positive reviews from Seth Combs in the San Diego Union Tribune, H in Meow Meow Pow Pow, and John Young in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also found video evidence of a scene I describe in the book: Dave Turgeon of the Sluts performing as the vocalist for Black Flag at the Electric Banana.

I also wrote a piece I’m very happy about for Dirt, a short reflection on all the punk rock photo books that have come out recently.

That’s it! Read a book. Be safe. Love generously. I’ll leave you with the news I’m happiest about…