Detritus
St. Louis,
1968—1972
Aardwolf
A news print periodical published in
St. Louis out of a group of students from St. Louis University's honors program.
I had several articles and poems in the publication, including a long overview
of the first Bob Dylan bootleg, Great White Wonder. I got to be good friends
with Greg Lakebrink at that time. Also Nora Jones and I wrote an editorial
together. And I wrote a short story with Jack Jones.
Springfield, 1972-74
Plasticware
A series of reviews of music
albums and performances, published in a weekly newspaper called The Phoenix, put
out by Paul Rusdorf. I reviewed mainly rock and roll albums, the Stooges, the
Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones. I also reviewed some band performances by
local musicians.
Ripoff
An
experimental magazine published by a class at Sangamon State University. This
class was run by the ladies from Medium, Pat Smith and Sandra Martin. As a
member of the class I contributed an article, at the time being a rock and roll
writer in Springfield, I penned a long piece on the rise of drag queen rock and
roll, to talk about David Bowie, Marc Bolan, and the Velvet Underground. The
piece was entitled Vaseline Machine, which I thought was clever at the time.
Later I discovered how many people objected to the piece and it's subject
matter. I really didn't know at that time the terrible homophobia in the
culture. As illustration for the piece Pat made me up as a drag queen and they
took pictures and ran them. Pretty funny stuff. Around this same time I made a
movie with Janne Hanrahan in which I played a drag queen and Mike Getz played a
john. Janne promptly lost this film after getting her grade for it. I thought it
was pretty good myself.
Calligraphia
Another magaaine class project. I was living in Chicago when this was in
production but I was prevailed upon to contribute a piece which I did,
Understanding Medea. It was a freeform satire on what was happening at the time
and it took shots at John Knoll and Transactional Analysis and featured
references to Janne's lost film. It was hand-written in the magazine by Mike
Getz, with accompanying illustrations. Sort of like Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas was done. Getz was a good artist who also contributed illustrations to my
chapbook of poems. Later on he was the soundboard tech for the rock group Food
and Money.
Projects from
Scarritt Occasionally
The first writing
group I ever had. Founded after I had moved into the house at 223 East Scarritt
in Springfield after Pat and I had moved back to town from Chicago in the spring of
1974. Previous to renting this house we had been living with Sandy Martin and
Bill Lambrecht at the Hatch Mansion, 1004 North Sixth Street. That house was the
setting for several key scenes in the novel, The Werewolf of Heartbreak.
This writing group was primarily founded by my novel-writing friend, Gary
Davidson, and by my poet-friend Janne Hanrahan. And by myself. Also
involved to lesser degrees were Knoepfle and Steve Dolgin. Also Pat Smith, who
had already helped to found Brainchild, the women's poetry collective (at that
time).
Sangamon Poets
Chapbook Series
The Series of poetry books, funded by an internal grant at SSU, and produced by John Knoepfle and myself. Knoepfle picked the person who's poems he felt deserved a publication and I did all the rest. There were ultimately twelve titles, produced in editions of 500 copies. The most successful both in terms of comment and sales was Hanrahan's Light From New Steel. I can still remember sitting in Knoepfle's living room in Auburn, going through her poems with John and Janne.
A project associated with Vachel Lindsay's centennial celebration. Lindsay is out favor with the literati these days, but he was the real thing, poet-wise. His tyle was nineteenth century, but his vision was definitely mystical. Yeats liked him. He killed himself in the house in Springfield he was born in. I wrote a number of things because of Lindsay. Most notable aspect of this publication was that I agreed to be a Cardinal's fan for one year to get Greg Lakebrink to do some illustrations for the piece in a hot hurry. He did, and I did. Important poems for me JH's "Stillborn" and Pat Smith's poem "the Winkie Sergeant." I published Becky Bradway's story, "Crow" in this maqazine and I didn't publish Gael Cox's story that as based on a Lindsay poem. I know that Gael probably felt I did this to score on BB (which I felt at the time wasn't so but who knows one's subconcious.), and because I was angry with her for talking with Cheryl about my relationship with Berkeley. And that is more likely true.
Interim
The Writers' Bar-B-Q, 1986—1999
Writers' group and magazine,
spanning more than a decade in Springfield.
Mid-America Playwrights Theatre &
Springfield Theatre Centre
Community theatre in Springfield,
Illinois, 1989-1999.
New Hampshire, European Adventures &
Urbana Presently