Artchatpodcast 083

Recorded: May 20, 2013 Participants: Steve Harlow, Jim "Jimmy The Peach" Aaron, Ruth Parson, Mary Burns, Allan Ludwig, Emory Holmes II. A howling on the line reminds Mary of radio plays she wrote for the CBC, adapted from her short stories set in the Yukon. Suburbs of the Arctic Circle, the used wind howling effects throughout the play, even when the action was indoors. The plays were broadcast in the '90s, the stories had been published in '86. Mary asked what Allan thought of the first chapter of Emory's novel, "Yip's Last Case." Allan says it was very good, you are expecting Yip to rise, as a phoenix, he can't sit around in bed all day. Steve said he thinks he is recoiled, readying for a strike. Emory said as he was rewriting the text he became more fascinated by aging. He likes the man of action suffering forgetfulness. Someone used to being effective, forgetting what he should be doing and where he should be was the metaphor he wanted to use to explore a mind in decline. At a certain point, something occurs that rekindles his focus. He thinks he's back, but things keep happening that erode his ability. Mary think it is a very good description of a guy in a depressed state. The setup for action is embedded. We are curious about the killing of the boys and we know Halloween is coming. It seems to be more of a character study than it was in the first draft. She likes Cecilia-Antigonita, thinks Emory is good with names and likes the line "the rain through the heart of the stone." Emory says Yip begins to realize that the actions he judges to be good are not considered good by anyone else. He has a revelation that we cannot judge our actions as good or evil. When reading it aloud for the recording, he was misreading it. He thought that was consistent with the theme. Imperfect, flawed. He and Yip striving to do the best they can do. This effort has encouraged Emory to take up the many stories in his mind's queue. To push through what we see on the surface to see the other side. That is why the actions are so quirky, the thoughts so nutty - these people are nuts, their fantasies have such authority, it's their abhorrent authority. That's not something the reader has to participate in, just observe. The two main characters of the novel have mangled views of the world. Emory says he attempted to make a satire of Noir, the title "Yip's Last Case," is a homage to a great detective novel written around the end of the 19th Century, "Trent's Last Case." No. Emory assures. "I tried to line all the troupes of Noir and stuff them all into this piece." "Like some kind of fruitcake that everyone finds so odious," he concludes. Emory said his response from publishers so far is that they are appalled that he would write a book with 90% people of color, set in Pacoima - they say, "What kind of story is that? How dare you!" When Emory wrote the short story this novel is based on was a response to a request from a wonderful publisher in Brooklyn, Akashic Books, to write a murder story that takes place in the Los Angeles area for an anthology they wanted to publish, called "Los Angeles Noir." Emory told them he'd write about a murder in the L.A. suburb, Pacoima, where he lives. They said they never heard of Pacoima and would he please set the murder in South Los Angeles. He compromised and had two murders, one in South L.A. and one in Pacoima. Mary says when she did some readings in Quebec, last winter, reading for practice, she'd find lot's of things to edit in her published work. Emory says it's shocking to find new musicalities in the work that he hadn't found before. Mary reports that writer, Alistair MacLeod, who writes about Cape Breton Island, reads his work with the rhythms of his sentences are like the sea - hypnotic. Mary asks Jim if he uses reading out loud to alter his Haiku? Yes, Jim says he does. "Even though there's so few words, the voice adds punctuation. "Seeing it and saying it, you get different rhythms," he says. Jim speaks each Haiku twice at a reading. Mary thinks that would be helpful. Steve asks Allan what he's been finding to photograph on the streets of Manhattan. "I found a dead baby bird," Allan goes on to say he photographed dumpsters to pay homage to the "The Dreaded Russ Martin Dumpster" He wants to shot a whole set of NYC dumpsters. He's been shooting graffitied delivery trucks, which are hard to catch - he's not so fast anymore. "If you're really lucky, you'll find one parked where you can shoot all four sides," Allan says. He thinks he'll start a new series related to street art and the various objects he finds on the street. He has a set of locks. Street artists actually put art on the locks. There's a wall where people are putting up locks. Some are Valentine locks, "Alice loves Butch, etc. in a big heart on the locks." It started in Paris, the love locks on a bridge. Steve thinks the listeners (and readers) could look for love locks in their towns. Mary says in Vancouver on the Burrard Bridge. Mary said she heard a CBC radio documentary on McNally Jackson Books, "do you know that bookstore, Allan?" She asks. Allan says it's just across the street. Steve said that's where he met Allan in person for the first time, at a signing event for James and Karla Murray's "Burning New York." The point of the story, Mary said is that this Canadian woman defied the odds and created a successful independent book store in the era of online book buying. indicating that a return to local book stores and self-publishing fits with local food preferences and attraction to unique community for events. Allan says when the owner-operator of opened the store, independent book stores in NYC were closing. She has signings and book talks once or twice a week with long lines of people wanting to get in. She has very good art and photography books, the latest ones, even before they are reviewed. She really knows what she's doing. Allan doesn't know what magic has made this possible for her, but the store is crowded all the time. Mary says she seems to have had a clear vision of what she wanted and stuck to it - with some family money, that helped. Emory says vision and commitment is so critical to what all of us are doing. To move ahead despite what others are saying about it. Emory says he was thrilled to be in Steve and Ruth's studio this week end to see the work that will be displayed in museums filling up the space, leaning against the walls. Ruth says she saw the woman's commitment to building a living community around her store as essential for her success. Building a destination spot where people want to meet is a critical element of the bookstore's success. Steve says he sees the bookstore's success compared to Barnes & Nobel failure in the area as similar to the Internet's niche market possibilities compared to mass marketing. The Internet is big, but it's made up of a bunch of narrow niche interest communities. This is what the Internet has brought for us artists - the ability to reach people in the niche that we want to participate in, without going through a mass market filter. Allan adds that the store has an area where people can have coffee, a sweet, and meet up. She has a EBM machine that publishes a bound book from digital files. Allan says he thinks he'll publish that way a long essay he wrote on the changes in his neighborhood. Emory asks if Allan will include some of his photographs with the text. Allan says he's not sure, but since his writing is broken into stories, it seems appropriate for each story to have a photograph. In the shownotes for a previous chat is embedded a "Readlist" where you can download an eBook of collected articles about Mary Fuller McChesney. The last piece in that book is a transcription of a recorded interview with her. She speaks about the '40s and '50s and the artists around the San Francisco School. The attitudes of the artists and their personalities make fascinating reading. Steve and Ruth wanted to read her formal history of the period.

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