bigstrozdog

From Ernest Dempsey:

2009-11-10T22:24:39Z

Don Eminizer’s from Litmocracy, November 2009

Oi,

Hope all is well in Litmock land. Time for an update I s'pose, or Dave wants one anyway. Many things in limbo. Many in motion. But I spose that's life. You get to spin your wheels to go nowhere, eh?

Well, watcha gonna do? I guess I spin some wheels here. The last newsletter I asked for personal stories in relation to Litmock. Someone you met. The first time you won money here for your writing. Something that got published because of edits here. Whatever. So I'm starting a $10 contest for the personalized Litmock story that gets the most votes. Most or all of the stories posted there will be going into the forthcoming book that chronicles Litmocracy's early years, though I will likely edit them. I know you have stories. I have tons. I have maybe the best story of my life in fact, something I recently discovered ultimately through this site, though I'm not getting into it right now, it's quite wonderful, and I have many damned fine stories besides that. I've physically met and gotten to know or have known lots of people through this site. I'll share a recent story that relates to this site to give you an idea. I just went to Canada because of someone I know through here.

Why go to the land of square wheels, bitter cold, aboots and french speak you say, when you live in the cradle of joy and freedom right there in the good ol' US of A?

Pffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff....

I love french. Is probably the most gorgeous language of all. Is partially why I'm a Kerouac freak, he played with and combined English and French. My best friend told me it was the gourmet food of languages and I tend to agree. Anyway, I went North to visit our very own StarLizard. To pick another beautiful mind. I have encountered many beautiful minds here. That's why we've put so much effort into this site, why we've worked at it so long. We want to identify beautiful minds, help open them up, help them learn they can make this hell hole a better place by being inquisitive, learning and working together. And sometimes, because of this site, I learn and gain that very insight myself. I did on this trip.

When I went there we drew and we wrote and kicked around ideas about this site and the book, which all of us are working on whether you know it or not. I met 3 very cool cats and a large Raccoon named Bandit. Saw a black squirrel which was wicked cool because I didn't know they existed. I found Canada to be a wonderful place. It broke all preconceived notions I had, which, by the way, I should know better than to have, but I did have them. I guess I believed Canada to be a very socialist place compared to the freedom that America offers.

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAMUAHAHAHAHAHBAHHHHHH... Oh... Gawd... Sorry.

So, I find myself wandering around Ottawa of all places, the Capitol of Canada. And I'm looking at all these free spirited relaxed people walking around in this clean city, and I'm learning that Canadian laws and police are far more lax and less militant and intrusive than here, they tend to treat you like adults there. And I look up and see all these beautiful buildings, really gorgeous, but for this one monstrosity surrounded by concrete bunkers that stick out in the street and block traffic, and it's the US embassy, and I realize why I have these preconceived notions. None of the other embassies are blocked, they're beautiful and open. The US embassy is obnoxious and military and oppressive looking, a bunker built to guard a freedom that no longer exists, to keep it away from people who ignore it and have no desire to attack or invade because they don't want it. Now I know why we're viewed the way we are, and why I had preconceived notions. Because I've been fed the pablum that we're so free here and no one else is for so long, I subconsciously bought into it. Now I want to move to Canada. But I'm trapped in this place by so many things, starting with retarded green paper that I despise and loathe anyway, but many other reasons as well. Visit http://www.litmocracy.com/ to enjoy stories, news, reviews, and contests.

An Acrostic Piece by Ernest Dempsey

2008-06-26T15:32:12Z

WA Goes Acrostic

What difference will it make if

Our time is all devoted to

Reading, writing, and reviewing

Loving literature and thinking

Despite the scary roughness of our lives

Although it may sound like killing time

Unpaid in bucks, unpromising

Don’t miss to see the beauty it creates

Illumining our thought and understanding

Enhancing our self-esteem and image

No millions could ever buy us

Come here on the board of pen and ink

Enjoy the amazing ride of words

Fun-to-Do Exercise: Read the first letter of each line in both stanzas to bottom and see what you get. Sounds familiar?

Leonore’s Haikus

2008-04-28T14:36:58Z

My writer friend Leonore Dvorkin, who lives in Colorado, makes intelligent use of her spare time (and remember she is a very busy woman who does a number of jobs daily) by penning down haikus-pointing to important issues and raising significant questions about our lives and our place in the world. Here is one that I picked for sharing with readers on this forum (with Leonore’s permission of course). It’s called Down the Drain.

Tell me.
Where is that dark, cold hole
that swallows the world's
bright hopes and dreams?

Soon after I got this haiku, Leonore sent another one that was equally intelligent and very much appealing to the metaphorical spirit of our literary tastes. The second haiku is titled Tiny Toy Teddy and it follows along with Leonore’s brief message that explains what sparked the creation of this piece.

There in the gutter:
dropped,
wet,
muddy
and forgotten
... but still smiling!

Leonore wrote: ‘On a cold, damp morning in early April, when we were hurrying along on our way to the bus stop, we saw this tiny little gray-blue teddy bear in the gutter. In one of the houses very near there, a woman runs a day-care center. We assume that one of the little kids must have dropped him. He seemed a sort of metaphor for bravery and good cheer in the face of adversity.’

Do share your thoughts and haikus (I’d love to get more from literature lovers) as they are just like small stars that appear like diamonds in the night sky. As for Leonore, visit her site www.dvorkin.com to enjoy more of her wisdom.

Ernest Dempsey

MAD Genius: A Review of Mad Magazine

2008-03-14T10:52:43Z

by Howard Wu

The longevity is remarkable. It is a living example of niche marketing at its best.

I remember playing the board game for the first time twenty years ago after receiving it on my ninth birthday. Back then I found it quite funny…. But now, after picking up the March 2008 issue (issue #487), I am astounded at how little has changed, but it still remains humorous the cheesy kind of way. Have you guessed which publication I’m referring to? I’m talking about MAD Magazine.

I can’t say that I’ve ever witnessed many purchases of their brand products (either books or magazines); but to have stayed in business since their first issue of October/November 1952, they must have been enjoying some degree of economic success.

On the surface, the recent issue appears to be much like the ones I remembered as a kid—the same cast of characters led by Alfred E. Neumann, the token Spy vs. Spy comic, and some clever satire of both celebrities and pop-culture. Newer contents include excerpts from an Internet blog, and marketing of their madmag.com website. One feature that had escaped me as a kid, or perhaps had just forgotten, is the impressive quality of the comic artwork. Aside from this positive attribute, I found some other thought-provoking elements in MAD when looking at it on a deeper level (yes, there really is a deeper level to MAD if you really want to see it).

First, there are relatively few “real” advertisements in MAD, although there are many parody ads. I found this surprising, in light of their relatively low cover price of $5.99 Canadian for the fifty-page issue. Compared to serious ad-heavy, special interest magazines of similar price, I’m curious as to how MAD’s sales and profit figures are maintained despite (speculatively) lower advertising revenue. To make this even more noteworthy, is that content of the ads (mostly video games) appear to target a lower income clientele of adolescents and younger adults. The age range of the Letters to the Editor authors seems to confirm this.

Secondly, MAD is clearly not a new fad, or even a resurrected throwback trend like vintage sports jerseys or ‘80s fashion statements’. It has maintained a certain comic appeal for over five decades, while countless other entertainment trends have come and gone. What is their MAD business secret?

Thirdly, a few quick inquiries in my local comic shops revealed that issues of MAD Magazine have not been regularly stocked items for years. MAD seems to appear more in newsstands and larger bookstores that carry a vaster array of periodicals. Does this mean that the MAD market has shifted to the “mainstream”?

Finally…how does MAD continue to obtain their content? Look at the magazine credits under Contributing Artists and Writers—“the usual gang of idiots”. I’m not sure about idiots—perhaps just mad genius.

About Howard Wu: Howard Wu is a Canadian entrepreneur, whose writing interests are primarily off-beat research material. His most recent anthology is Random Thoughts, published by Trafford Publishing. It can be found online at www.trafford.com/4dcgi/robots/07-2847.html.

* MAD Magazine exists online at http://www.dccomics.com/mad/.

bigstrozdog @ 2008-03-01T23:00:00

2008-03-02T04:00:56Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

World Audience Publishers is proud to announce publication of

GERTRUDE STEIN DAYTON & OTHER PLAYS

By Louis Phillips

This collection of one-acts is the 3rd book by Mr. Phillips to be published by World Audience. The other two books are THE AUDIENCE BOOK OF THEATRE QUOTATIONS (now in its 2nd edition) and another collection of one-act plays – THE DEATH OF THE SIAMESE TWINS & OTHER PLAYS.

Louis Phillips, a widely published poet, playwright, and short story writer has written some 35 books for children and adults. Among his works are: two collections of short stories-- A DREAM OF COUNTRIES WHERE NO ONE DARE LIVE (SMU Press)
And THE BUS TO THE MOON (Fort Schuyler Press; HOT CORNER, a collection of his baseball writings, and R.I. P. ( a sequence of poems about Rip Van Winkle) from Livingston Press; THE ENVOI MESSAGES, and THE LAST OF THE MARX BROTHERS’ WRITERS, full-length plays,(Broadway Play Publishers His books for children include: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN (Prentice Hall & Camelot Books), THE MILLION DOLLAR POTATO (Simon and Schuster), and HOW TO WRESTLE AN ALLIGATOR (Avon Publishers).

Mr. Phillips’ plays have been performed Off-Broadway at the Colonnades Theatre Lab, and In SUCH REGIONAL THEATERS AS INDIANA REP and THE OLD GLOBE THEATRE (San Diego). His one-act plays have been published by such literary journals as THE CHICAGO REVIEW, THE MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW, AUDIENCE, ATHALON, THE DISTILLERY, and THE GEORGIA REVIEW.

The books published by World Audience are available from www.amazon.com and www.bn.com and other online bookstores. Or Order by phone 646-620-7406, or by mail from:

WORLD AUDIENCE
303 Park Avenue SOUTH
#1440
New York, New York, 10010

The Audiece book of Theatre Quotations –
ISBN 978-1-934209-28-8

THE DEATH OF THE SIAMESE TWINS AND OTHER PLAYS
ISBN 978-1-934209-30-1

GERTRUDE STEIN IN DAYTON AND OTHER PLAYS
ISBN 978-1-934209-68-4

What's New Page

2008-02-01T20:22:46Z

Here is World Audience's "What's New" page, listing several of our new titles:

http://www.worldaudience.org/whatsnew.html