Q: ULA Read-Off Headliner sounds like Glori-Anne Gilbert calling herself a model, dancer, actress, and bikini-lawnmower-service operator.
A: Yes. I shouldn't worry about reading any more than she worries about taking her clothes off and sitting on some fat guy's lap.
That is, I see Philly Zine Fest 2005 as being a lot like Glamourcon '99.
Two models claiming to be the oldest Playboy bunny.
Q: With all the writers involved, Philly Zine Fest 2005 could be an historic event.
A: I would expect everyone who reads to write a book about it.
Q: Well, a poem. Maybe.
A letter.
A: It's historic for me. I'll write a book about it.
As it happens.
Q: What did you write about being a headliner at the ULA Legends of the Underground reading off-off-Broadway, in 2001.
A: They all said they'd be there, but nobody came.
Q: Maybe this time you'll get a better turn-out.
A: Maybe.
Maybe I will assume my rightful place in American letters.
Maybe this is my rightful place in American letters. ULA Read-Off Headliner.
Maybe it doesn't lead to anything, it's an end in itself. It's a dead end. A dead
letter office, like Bartleby the Scrivener ended up in.
On errands of life,
these letters speed to death.
I wrote myself into a place I can't write myself
out of.
Maybe you can't get from the underground to the mainstream.
Q: Bukowski did.
A: Ah.
Bukowski.
Q: What does Bukowski Never Did This mean?
A: Bukowski did not write Post Office at the post office. I did.
It's about writing Post Office at the post office.
Bukowski has the
most freedom of any published writer in American literary history.
By going
unpublished, or underpublished, I have more freedom than Bukowski.
Q: Give me an example.
A: In Post Office, Bukowski pulled his punches, on race.
In OLD FOLKS AT HOME: A FLORIDA CRACKER'S SUNSET CRUISE I don't pull any punches.
Q: Bukowski hated readings. After he didn't have to do them, he didn't do them anymore.
A: If I didn't go to readings, and read, I wouldn't have a social life.
Or a sex life.
The beatnik chicks, with their net stockings. Like Carolyn
Jones in The Bachelor Party.
Q: The role was The Existentialist. And she was nominated for an Oscar for it.
A: I know that.
Also, Bukowski had a paparazzo, on his European
trip. His expenses were paid.
I'm paying my own way to Philadelphia. I'm
my own paparazzo. I hand someone my digital camera and ask them to take my picture
with it.
I met Klink at booksALIVE 2005! Jeff Klinkenberg.
We talked about
our Florida books.
He had written Seasons of Real Florida.
Q: Is Bukowski Never Did This a Florida novel?
A: Yes. I had written 250 books without selling one to New York or Hollywood.
That was a running leitmotif, or theme. How do you do the best work you're
capable of when the world doesn't want your best.
Q: How do you?
A: You work full-time and write before and after work. Between jobs, after
you get fired for blogging. On the job, which gets you in trouble, for blogging.