Jazz, Pulp, Noir: Coolest Live Reading Gig Ever!

Beboppin' with Dmitri

DIG THIS: Recently famous jazz cat Dmitri Matheny--who actually attended my Thrillville shows down in the Bay Area years ago, which I only found out when we finally hooked up in person here in Seattle--asked me if I'd be interested in reading a passage from my latest, Vic Valentine, Private Eye: 14 Vignettes, backed by his band at Seattle's legendary jazz joint, Tula's. Naturally, though I'm not crazy about performing in public anymore, I accepted, because what could be more appropriate than an ex-lounge lizard/pulp fiction writer reading his stuff aloud in a jazz club backed by a real jazz band? That is a classic Beat Generation situation, cats 'n' kittens, so I was all over it like Scotch on the rocks.

Unfortunately, a couple of days later, I read the sad news that Tula's is closing after a quarter century run in Belltown, being replaced by condos or some redevelopment bullshit. I'm very sad but also proud to appear on that fabled stage. I actually set a scene there, with Dmitri and his band, in Vic Valentine: Lounge Lizard For Hire . I guess this was Dmitri's way of repaying the favor, not that I saw it that way. I just dig his music, and so does Vic.

This gig of a lifetime took place on Wednesday, August 7, 2019. I hadn't been this excited about a live reading gig since Monica Tiki Goddess and I appeared with the San Francisco chapter of Naked Girls Reading back in 2011. I posted about this on my Facebook page just as I was heading out the door. Seconds later, I got a notice I'd been banned for 30 days--again--from posting for once again violating "community standards." At first I had no idea why, since the photos I posted were innocuous enough, just the event poster and a couple of shots of Monica and me on stage, wearing robes, me in my trademark fez, but then I noticed the ban was for simply linking in the comments section to the Naked Girls Reading website! Really?

Facebook hates me. As of this writing, I can't even share this blog on Facebook anymore, since it's been erroneously flagged as "spam" and nobody responds to my online appeals. So if you want to share this blog, you'll have to do so on Twitter, same as me. It feels like an anti-Thrill conspiracy, man. But since Trump is my antithesis, makes sense the Powers That Be would be down on me. Society and I have never been tight, but it seems that gulf is only widening as I grow older. I just can't abide but these puritanical rules, man. The Prude Patrol just bugs me. I'm just not conservative in any way. If you are, fine, but censorship offends me the same way nipples offend Facebook.

I've been in Facebook jail many times before for committing the same "crime" against their "community," and no doubt will be again, since to me sex is biological, just pathological like violence, which this culture and social media generally not only tolerates scenes of violence, but glorifies it. Me, I'll take anything carnal over carnage anyway.

But fuck 'em. The show must go on...and Monica testifies that after a "Sinatra Sazerac" or two I rose to the occasion, inspired by the venue and the music. She took the photos and shot a brief video clip as evidence of the very special occasion, very special to me anyway.

This is the coolest live reading I've done since I was surrounded by naked girls on a stage in San Francisco almost a decade ago...

CHEERS!

Monica starring in Two Big Black Bags at ACT Theater, Seattle, 8/9-8/11/19

A TRIP TO TWIN PEAKS

Fall City/Snoqualmie Falls WA, 9/7/19

My 28th Elvis Christmas card!

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CHEERS!

Bachelor Pad Magazine #49 featuring my 49th movie column, ghost/haunted house movies,
now on sale!

COMING EARLY 2020 FROM THRILLVILLE PRESS:

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WILL THE THRILL'S 50 FAVORITE SCI-FI MOVIES

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THRILLVILLE TURNS 20

"Thrillville," my official theme song by The Moon-Rays

"Director's cut" of Jeff M. Giordanos' documentary THE THRILL IS GONE! (2014)

Interview conducted by Drive-In Radio host Alec Cizak, October 24, 2017,

broadcast from Missoula, Montana.

Podcast interview by Steven Gomez for The Noir Factory, August 2017

Promoting the first edition of A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge on San Francisco's Creepy KOFY Movietime, 2010

Book trailer for Freaks That Carry Your Luggage Up to the Room,

animated by Vincent Cortez (2011)

Reading from Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me (2014)

Live reading of my short story "Escape from Thrillville" (2014, included in The Thrillville Pulp Fiction Collection, Volume 3)

Book trailer for It Came from Hangar 18 (2012)

Interview with Scott Fulks and me for Tiki Oasis TV, August 2015

ONLINE SHORT FICTION

A WRONG TURN AT ALBUQUERQUE (1982) and THE IN-BETWEENERS (1987)

LITTLE BLACK BULLETS (1989) and NIGHT NOTES (1990)

PEOPLE BUG ME (2013)

ESCAPE FROM THRILLVILLE (2014)

NAKED WHORE WITH A GUN (Flash Fiction Offensive) (2013)

SUCKER PUNCH OF THE GODS (Flash Fiction Offensive) (2014)

THE STICK-UP ARTIST (Flash Fiction Offensive) (2015)

Radio reading from my unpublished novel NEON ROSE (1989)

Radio play based on my unpublished novella SHADOW MUSIC (1996)

BOOKS:

LOVE STORIES ARE TOO VIOLENT FOR ME from Gutter Books!

BUY

HARD-BOILED HEART from Gutter Books!

BUY

THE VIC VALENTINE CLASSIC CASE FILES:
Fate Is My Pimp, Romance Takes a Rain Check, I Lost My Heart in Hollywood, Diary of a Dick
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THE "MENTAL CASE FILES":

VIC VALENTINE: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MISERY
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VIC VALENTINE: LOUNGE LIZARD FOR HIRE

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VIC VALENTINE: SPACE CADET

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VIC VALENTINE, PRIVATE EYE: 14 VIGNETTES

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THE THRILLVILLE PULP FICTION COLLECTION

from Thrillville Press

VOLUME ONE: A Mermaid Drowns in the Midnight Lounge and
Freaks That Carry Your Luggage Up to the Room
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VOLUME TWO: Lavender Blonde and Down a Dark Alley
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VOLUME THREE: Chumpy Walnut and Other Stories
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My erotic horror noir novella THINGS I DO WHEN I'M AWAKE
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THE SPACE NEEDLER'S INTERGALACTIC BAR GUIDE

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IT CAME FROM HANGAR 18

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SHORT STORIES:

My sci-fi horror noir satire "Soft Opening" is included in this gonzo anthology from Coffin Hop Press.

New Vic Valentine vignette "Living Proof" included in this charity anthology benefitting the North Texas Food Bank.

DEADLINES: A TRIBUTE TO WILLIAM E. WALLACE, an anthology dedicated to the late, great writer and stellar human being William E. Wallace, featuring many contemporary crime fiction stars plus a brand new Vic Valentine story, "Beat This," by yours truly. Proceeds go to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in Bill's name. More info and purchase links here.

My short story FISH OUT OF WATER
(my idea for a fourth Creature from the Black Lagoon movie)
is included in this anthology
Order hardcover, paperback and eBook from Amazon