If you haven’t been reading Bobby Jameson’s chronicle of his rock’n'roll life (look for “Bobby Jameson” among the links to the right), you’re missing one of the most fascinating windows into the sixties and into American culture and into a fertile creative mind. Jameson—-perhaps best known for his amazing COLOR HIM IN album on Verve and his SONGS OF PROTEST AND ANTI-PROTEST (released under the name “Chris Lucey”) album on Surrey (note: these albums have been reissued on Fallout and Rev-Ola, respectively), as well as for his starring role in the legendary film MONDO HOLLYWOOD—-has been providing much free music on his blog besides telling his story, and he just posted a record of his that I’ve ALWAYS wanted to hear but have never seen a copy of in 40 years…his 1964 UK single “All I Want Is My Baby,” produced by Andrew Loog Oldham, composed by Oldham and Keith Richards, and featuring Mick Jagger on backing vocals. It appeared briefly on a Japanese reissue of Rolling Stones-related obscurities, recorded back during the period when Andrew Oldham started doing multiple productions for lesser-known artists while trying to “work” the compositions of Jagger and Richards. Mr. Jameson does not particularly like this record (read his blog for the fascinating story behind it, along with his trip to the UK to record it and to work with Oldham), and it certainly does not sound like anything else in his catalog!, but it still holds up today as a quirky piece of pop-rock that somehow echoes Phil Spector and Joe Meek and the Brill Building, it has an appealing roughness to it, and Jameson’s vocal is raw and cuts through the doo-wop-ish backing vocals (ever heard Jagger’s version of “Da Doo Ron Ron” recorded with the Andrew Oldham Orchestra? I’m reminded of that). It’s a real obscurity and a significant record in Jameson’s career—and a treat for Stones fans—and since hardly anyone has probably heard this, I’m making the link available here. Enjoy! And please check out Bobby Jameson’s fine blog. It’s far more interesting and outrageous than any fiction could be!

http://bobbyjameson.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-i-want-is-my-baby-bobby-jameson-and.html

Like a poetic love child of Gregory Corso and Patti Smith, a child who was left to grow up in Western Poland and is only now checking out the larger world looking to reconnect with his parents, Polish beat-poet A. J. KAUFMANN has broken onto the international poetry scene in the last year, appearing in many of the best online literary journals and also starting his own kick-ass online journal, EVISCERATOR HEAVEN. An experimentalist in the best sense of that word (someone who experiments with form, looking for a new form for each work, not someone who is incoherent for incoherence’s sake), Kaufmann has taken the inspiration of Burroughs, Corso, Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Richard Hell, etc. and used these authors as a springboard to blast him into his own poetic stratosphere, one that’s fresh and original and alive on the page. What a refreshing change of pace to find someone who is pursuing new paths in the visionary tradition of the Beats.

After reading some of A.J.’s work online and friending him on myspace, I invited him to submit some material he thought was in keeping with the KSE aesthetic yet 100% Kaufmann, and he delivered in spades. So from the 30+ pages of mind-frying poems he sent me, we’ve cherry-picked 10 pages for his debut Kendra Steiner Editions chapbook, SIVA IN RAGS. Between the shimmering, multi-colored ripples on the Ganges River depicted on the front cover, and icon of cool Nico applying lipstick on the back cover, this is a chapbook that starts where MEXICO CITY BLUES and WICHITA VORTEX SUTRA leave off.

SIVA IN RAGS is set in cramped, “busy” type (Reprise Stamp for the cover, Cambria for the text) to reinforce the edginess and jittery caffeine-fueled flow of this verse. As I said a while back when announcing Kaufmann’s joining the KSE lineup,  “Reading his work reminds me of the excitement I felt when I first read Gregory Corso, Lewis MacAdams, or Ted Berrigan 30+ years ago, the blunt-edged kaleidoscopic slash of the lines and the images, the flow like cheap malt liquor, the visionary of the urban wasteland.”

You don’t want to miss this one. In the USA, $4.00 payable to Bill Shute, 8141-B Pat Booker Rd. #399, San Antonio, Texas, 78233. Outside of the USA, $5 postpaid, payable via paypal. Write to django5722 (at) yahoo (dot) com, and request a paypal invoice.

And next weekend, our next chapbook will be released, KSE #103, GARDEN OF ROCKS, the newest chapbook from Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, powerful new poems written in the last two months!

Remember, in the USA you can get 3 different chaps for $10 postpaid. Check the “available KSE poetry chapbooks” page to your right to see what’s presently in-stock…

Now over 7700 visitors to the KSE blog…thanks for your interest and support.

I just turned in two 300-word reviews (all I had time to do this issue) for the upcoming UGLY THINGS magazine #27:

GENE VINCENT, A MILLION SHADES OF BLUE (Rev-Ola UK), which is a reissue of Gene’s final two albums, originally on the Kama Sutra label, released in 1970 and 1971, the first of which finds him backed by members of San Antonio’s own Sir Douglas Quintet!   …and

V.A., CRASH OF THUNDER: BOSS SOUL, FUNK, and R&B SIDES FROM THE KING, FEDERAL, and DeLUXE LABELS (Vampi-Soul, Spain), which is a 20-track compilation of obscure 45’s from the late 60’s issued on Cincinnati’s King family of labels, mostly from Southern and Midwestern artists with local fan-bases who got their one big break to have a record released on a national label. Some artists such as Marie Queenie Lyons, Charles Spurling, and Mickey Murray have become cult artists among soul fanatics; others such as The Swinging Seven, The Presidents, and Lord Thunder are relatively unknown.

UGLY THINGS is the definitive magazine devoted to 60s beat/punk/psychedelia and beyond, and it has been for 25 years. I’ve been working with editor Mike Stax on various projects since the 1980s. Check it out at  http://www.ugly-things.com/ . I’m guessing that issue #27 will be out in the early Fall.

(note: I’ve posted the following message on some discussion lists today)

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KENDRA STEINER EDITIONS ISSUES 100th POETRY CHAPBOOK

Kendra Steiner Editions, of San Antonio, Texas, and Glasgow, Scotland, has issued its 100th poetry chapbook:

KSE #100, NEXT EXIT: SEVEN by Ronald Baatz and Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal.

Singled out in Cherrybleeds and Arthur magazines as a unique small-press with a distinctive vision and a strong international line-up of poets, KSE commissions new work from our writers and offers it up in small, inexpensive, numbered home-made editions in the tradition of both d.a. levy’s mimeographed editions and the D.I.Y. spirit and aesthetic of punk.

Our poets (so far) include:

doug draime  +  david keenan  +  michael casey  

 stuart crutchfield  +  k.m. dersley

luis cuauhtemoc berriozabal + bill  shute 

 byron coley + michael ceraolo

misti rainwater-lites + thomas michael mcdade

 mark weber + zachary c. bush + aleathia drehmer

christopher cunningham + caleb puckett

hosho mccreesh + adrian manning

glenn w. cooper + michael layne heath 

 brad kohler + debbie kirk

mk chavez + jim d. deuchars

ronald baatz + john sweet + a. j. kaufmann

Other recent releases include

#99,  ALEATHIA DREHMER, thickets of mayapple: letters for edward;

#98,  ADRIAN MANNING, wide asleep, fast awake (sound library series, volume 33);

#97,  STUART CRUTCHFIELD, ozzified;

#96,  JIM D. DEUCHARS, pieces of eight;

#95,  BILL SHUTE, quartet: improvisations on the mandukya upanishad;

#94,  DOUG DRAIME, love & blues in oregon.

Forthcoming chaps this summer will include

 A. J. KAUFMANN, siva in rags;

LUIS CUAUHTEMOC BERRIOZABAL, garden of rocks;

MK CHAVEZ / JOHN SWEET, next exit: nine;

and new collections  from Debbie Kirk, Christopher Cunningham, and Zachary C. Bush.

Pictures and descriptions of previous books can be found at

http://www.volcanictongue.co.uk/label.php?lab=Kendra%20Steiner%20Editions

A list of books presently available along with ordering instructions can be found at

http://kendrasteinereditions.wordpress.com/available-kse-poetry-chapbooks

For further information, please contact Bill Shute at django5722 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Review copies are available–please send a sample of your magazine or a link to your online journal/zine. We are also happy to trade with other small presses.  

Thanks!

Bill Shute

San Antonio, Texas

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We’re in the final editing phase of two new chapbooks of poetry, recently composed especially for KSE, from two fine poets:

KSE #102, SIVA IN RAGS  by A. J. Kaufmann

Mr. Kaufmann is a new addition to the KSE lineup, hailing from Poznan, Poland. Reading his work reminds me of the excitement I felt when I first read Gregory Corso, Lewis MacAdams, or Ted Berrigan 30+ years ago, the blunt-edged kaleidoscopic slash of the lines and the images, the flow like cheap malt liquor, the visionary of the urban wasteland. An exciting new collection.

KSE #103,  GARDEN OF ROCKS by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal

The fourth KSE chapbook from this Los Angeles-based poetic shaman, one of the most respected voices of today’s small press world. These pieces were composed in May 2008, some of them inspired by Luis’s close study of the work of French symbolist poet Paul Valery. Luis contemplates life, death, love, loss, meaning, and faith in stark, powerful language rooted in the details of everyday life. His previous chaps for KSE are WITHOUT PEACE, KEEPERS OF SILENCE, and most recently NEXT EXIT: SEVEN (with Ronald Baatz). He’s also published the essential book RAW MATERIALS (Pygmy Forest Press), a full-length collection of poetry.

Keep checking the blog for release details. Also, I should have my own new suite of poems, FACE TO FACE (KSE #101), ready sometime in July, so we’ll have three new chaps available then.

However, for now don’t forget you can score copies of THESE gems immediately :

#100, RONALD BAATZ / LUIS CUAUHTEMOC BERRIOZABAL, next exit: seven;

#99,  ALEATHIA DREHMER, thickets of mayapple: letters for edward;

#98, ADRIAN MANNING, wide asleep, fast awake (sound library series, volume 33);

#97,  STUART CRUTCHFIELD, ozzified;

#96, JIM D. DEUCHARS, pieces of eight;

#95,  BILL SHUTE, quartet: improvisations on the mandukya upanishad; 

#94, DOUG DRAIME, love & blues in oregon.

Any 3 chaps for $10 postpaid in the US. Check payable to Bill Shute, 8141-B Pat Booker Rd. #399, San Antonio, Texas, 78233. Outside the US, $5 each postpaid. E-mail your order to django5722 (at) yahoo (dot) com, and we’ll e-mail you a paypal invoice and ship upon receipt of payment. Pretty much EVERY chapbook up through #92 is now sold out, so act now or regret it later. As always, thanks for your interest and your support. 

I was planning on having SILHOUETTES, KSE #3 from Spring 2006 (sound library series, volume 1), as the final entry in our reissue series, coming out in July 2008, but instead I am making it available free here at the KSE blog. Hope you enjoy it. These pieces went over well in readings in support of TWELVE GATES TO THE CITY, and most of the original printings were distributed here in San Antonio and through Volcanic Tongue, so I doubt most of you have read this. These poems are quite different from what I’m writing today although those of you who have read the pieces I’ve written along the way can see how I got from SILHOUETTES to LUNA AMERICANA or SLASH & BURN. This chapbook will NOT appear in the SAN ANTONIO SKY SONGS “Selected Poems” collection coming out in 2009.

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SILHOUETTES (sound library series, volume 1)

I     MASTER KEY

cracks deepening

     in the courthouse

          steps

                                  chives growing

                                       wild     under

                                            the child’s

                                                 bedroom

                                            window,

                                                               behind

                                       rusted burglar

                                  bars

jurors, wrapped

     in sheets of

          rain, waiting

     for taxis

or pre-arranged

     rides

———————————————————————————————————————————- 

 II     FEELING FREE

Hortencia, thumbing

     through yellowed playbills

and clippings from

     Variety, imagined

her mother’s life

     on the stage

                                                 the brassy, swinging

                                                      pit-bands;

                                                 the oily, vain

                                                      dancers, slicked

                                                 back and swaggering;

                                                 the 3 a.m. train-

                                                      stations; the

                                                 interchangeable diners

                                                      that didn’t serve

                                                 menudo; close,

                                                      but never

                                                 intimate

smelling the

     cedar,

brushing off

     cobwebs,

wiping away

     tears

 ———————————————————————————————————————————

III     EXCHANGES

Jimmy Witherspoon cried

     the blues on

          the radio

     Thursday at 3 a.m.

while Sam sipped

four-hour-old bitter

     coffee, wondering

          how he

     wound up without

his wife or daughter,

     and framed for

a theft at

     his workplace

he’d only meant to

     help when he

drove his buddy

     George’s girlfriend

to the clinic

     back in 1971

 ——————————————————————————————————————————-

 IV     BRIGHT AND SHINING

long ago and

     far away when

          Maria attended that

               master-class in chord

                    substitution and harmonic tension

                         with Stan Kenton

                              at North Texas

                                   State University in

                              August, sipping

                         honey-laced Darjeeling

                    tea, hearing effervescent

               harmonies in her head,

          fantasizing about joining

     Stan’s road band, changing

life through art

it seemed

     lifetimes ago

yet so close she

     could still almost

taste the grassy

     Denton prairie air

 ——————————————————————————————————————————-

V     VOICES IN THE WIND

southwest of

     San Antonio Speedway

          on Highway 16 toward

               Poteet, home of

                    giant strawberries

shaded by

     staggered Honey

          Mesquite trees, rabbits

               chewing fallen seed

                    pods, jets from the

                         Air Force Base

                              slicing the silence

the caravan chugged

     along for two days,

          yet they were still

               in Texas

existing

             in space

swimming upstream

                                 against time

abstraction like sand

                                 through the toes

of all who walk

                         who cast down

their buckets

                     where they are

and hear

              the voices of

                                    the new earth

check out this new one from Luis, “Eating Glass,” at

http://dogzplot.blogspot.com/2008/06/eating-glass-luis-c-berriozabal.html

John Phillip Law was and is one of my favorite actors, starring in many legendary films and always making a strong impression. Also, from what I’ve heard from those who’d met him, he was a kind and thoughtful man. Mr. Law passed away in May 2008, although I just heard about it today.

Think of some of the classic films in which he starred:

DEATH RIDES A HORSE

BARBARELLA

SKIDOO

DANGER: DIABOLIK

THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD

THE LAST MOVIE

BLOOD DELIRIUM

CQ

OPEN SEASON

and many others. He worked extensively in Europe and in American independent cinema and worked with directors such as Mario Bava, Dennis Hopper, Otto Preminger, Roger Vadim, Roman Coppola, Giulio Petroni, and Peter Collinson (who used him 3 times in quick succession in the 70s). He also did a stint on daytime TV’s THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS in the late 1990’s. Just a week before his passing he appeared at the L.A. Silent Movie Theatre for a screening of THE LAST MOVIE featuring director-star Dennis Hopper. Characteristically, he stayed in the audience unannounced until he asked a question during the Q&A period. Footage of this “reunion” with Hopper can be seen on You Tube. He is a man I’ve always admired, though I never had the privilege of meeting him. God bless you, Mr. Law.

Check out the following trailer for JPL in his prime:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17i0CoHBUU

Here’s a fascinating resource that hasn’t received much fanfare, but should keep anyone occupied for hours! Mike Wallace evidently gave some of his personal archive to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Ransom Center has put a number of 1957-58 interviews from Wallace’s “Night Beat” program online. The incredible diversity of people featured here, all of whom have fascinating stories to tell, is a testimony to Wallace’s nose for a good story. Everyone from Gloria Swanson to Eleanor Roosevelt, from a soldier who defected to the other side during the Korean War to writer Aldous Huxley, from actor Anthony Perkins to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, from Salvador Dali to Oscar Hammerstein, from 20s pop culture hero Rudy Vallee to UAW labor leader Walter Reuther, from stripper Lili St. Cyr to birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, from segregationist Governor Orval Faubus to jockey Eddie Arcaro, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Communist Party USA boss Earl Browder. What an amazing resource. I’ve watched only a few so far, but to see in a relatively informal setting so many important historical and cultural figures who in many cases we know today only through pictures and words on a page is a wonderful thing IMHO. So put down the KSE chapbooks for a little while (just a little while, though) and watch some of these interviews. You’ll be glad you did!

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/film/holdings/wallace/

ps, what a Belmont Stakes that was today!!!

SAN ANTONIO SKY SONGS: SELECTED POEMS 2005-2008, a 64-page, perfect-bound book containing 10-12 of Bill Shute’s out-of print solo chapbooks should be appearing in mid-2009 from Word Mechanics of Palm Springs, California, publishers of Bill’s previous two poetry books, TWELVE GATES TO THE CITY: THE LABOURS OF HERCULES IN THE LONE STAR STATE (2006) and POINT LOMA PURPLE (2007),  and successful business/trade/technical publishers.

I’ve been surveying some of the most devoted KSE readers about their choices for inclusion in this volume. To keep the cost down, we will not be using any of the chaps that included artwork within the body of the book (such as RED DIPTYCH or TEXTURE AND ACCIDENT). If you have any suggestions, let me know. FOUR TEXAS STREAMS and PROTOTYPE appeared at the end of my previous book POINT LOMA PURPLE, so those would not be appearing again here.

In terms of reader response and critical reaction when they were originally issued, NORWICH UNVEILED and SAN ANTONIO GOOD FRIDAY and SHORE ACCESS will definitely be included. It’s been interesting to hear from readers about works that particularly spoke to them—-YANTRA or SYMPHONIE ROUGE or ILLUSION OF MOTION or FIRE OF THE ACTUAL—-which I myself had not looked at for awhile. I’ll probably make the selections by the end of summer and then present a tentative list to the publisher. Feel free to send me any feedback prior to that.