Ben Tanzer's Blog, page 111

This Book Will Change Your Life - The Cost of Living by Rob Roberge.

The temptation when talking The Cost of Living by Rob Roberge will be to riff on Roberge's knowingness when it comes to the tour life of the near rock star, the shabby buses and dead-end clubs, the crowd and the girls, the moments of rapture and camaderie; his encyclopedic knowledge of drugs and deals, oxy and heroin, hustle, dopesickness, and rehab, always and perpetually; violence, with fist and guns; and sex, of all kinds, in all ways, and in great detail, moist and telling.  And it will all be true, because he knows it, or writes like he does anyway, and at that point what's the difference? Nothing, the Roberge can write, and so that's that. But even with all of that, and that is arguably a lot, what resonated most with us was the idea that the traumas visited upon us when we are young, and the adverse experiences that blanket our childhoods do not go away with time, they follow us, shadowing our every step, lingering, and all too ready to knock us on our ass, before asking us just how much we can take.       

New joint. Mexico City Blues. At the Collected Poop Stories.

Happy we are to be part of the Collected Poop Stories, now a blog, soon an anthology, we think maybe, yes? Yes, so thank you to the John Wentworth Chapin for that, and drinks on us, for sure, when next we meet. Cool? Cool. Excerpt? Of course.

"We were in Mexico because of my mother. It was her idea to take Adam and me south of the border. Her vision was that we would see the great artists of Mexico City—Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, and Kahlo—and then hit the beach in Cancún. But things started going wrong and, on our third night in Mexico, a country where everyone actively discourages you from drinking the water, we all decided to order shrimp scampi.

I can’t remember what the meal tasted like; I can tell you however what happened the next day at the airport as we prepared to catch our flight from Mexico City to Cancún. It started with Adam saying he had to go to the bathroom. We waited, and waited, but as the minutes passed it began to seem less and less likely that he would return, and at some point I went to look for him. The bathroom was dark and quiet, and Adam was nowhere in sight."

"If your 'CAUSE' involves the death of kids, it's not a cause, it's a pestilence." Dennis Lehane

Hair Lit Vol. 1 Amazon madness.

For real. Here. Or here. And definitely here.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. All Balun. And full of morning.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live. We have new poem, Each Morning by Robert Balun, which we are way excited about, and, (almost) as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, music curation from Jason Behrends and budget prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, we are hoping more of you will submit comix, and music, novel excerpts, and art, and video, yes, video, and combinations there of. And most finally, Jonathan Winters, no.

"#f**kyeahbentanzer!!" This American Life gets some Goodreads love. And likes it. A lot.

So true. And big thanks to the Joseph Michael Owens for that. Also true, that along with our desire to have everyone, everywhere, read everyone one of our books, we would like them to react just like this. Well that, and drinks on us brother when next we meet.

New joint. Go Fast. At the Eunoia Review.

So fast, so new, and so very appreciative to the Eunoia Review for running with it. No pun intended. Excerpt? Cool.


"The taste of salt is always present.Easing from our pores and caking on the back of our neck, our forehead, lower back and behind our knees, only to crumble and fall to the ground when we are home again.It is also in the air, wafting in from the sea, across the beach and dunes, and permeating every bit of space around us as it has no choice but to do.Salt air is what we know, and even what we are. Well, that and the journey.This, life, everything, is about the journey, where we are, and how we should get there, and if we can just go step by step, and if we can plot those steps, somehow trusting in nature, and the idea that the universe has a plan for us, and for itself, it will all be okay.This is also means that there is no complaining, not when we are tired, not when we are hurt, nor when the weather changes our plans, or the path we are on has somehow shifted under our feet.We move forward, always forward, drawing on our past experiences, community, and collective knowledge, but with our eyes set on getting where we need to go, and appreciating greatness if and when it comes.And so it has been for us.We put on our running shoes, our hat, we adjust our watch, pack something light to snack on, and some water, we greet the dog, who is always waiting right there, and ready to go.It is our daily ritual, the same time of day, every day, the same goals intact, go, go far, and when we can, go fast."

League of Somebodies by Samuel Sattin from Dark Coast Press today yes.

So do hit that now thank you please great awesome indeed it will change your life done.

And then there's this of course on Saturday night. Join us won't you?

More here yes that sweet thank you.

"You might find yourself up late at night, like the book’s subjects, unable to put the collection down until you’ve read it all." The Way We Sleep gets Necessary Fiction'd. And likes it. A lot.

Yup. We are digging it. And we think you will too. So please do hit that. It just might change your life. Excerpt? Word.


“How did you sleep?” It’s a simple question, one often asked without much consideration and answered just as casually. But think about it for a moment. How did you sleep last night? Did you sleep deeply? Did you sleep poorly? Did you sleep in a bed, on a couch, sitting upright during a long flight? Did you sleep next to someone or did you sleep alone? Did you dream or have nightmares? Have you been sleeping a figurative slumber, moving through life in a kind of torpor from which you’ve only recently awoken? Are you sure you really woke this morning? Or did you sleep at all?The Way We Sleep sets out to answer these questions and raises many more as C. James Bye and Jessa Bye take the reader on a dreamlike journey through a collection of short stories, cartoons, and interviews exploring the literal, figurative, and sometimes merely tangential elements of what the Greek’s called “the brother of death”—sleep. Along the way readers will find that the answer to our simple question, “how did you sleep?” is as varied and complex as the approach of each artist who sets out to answer the question."