New Lower Topanga slideshows w/ music by Doug Lewis and DJ Lyf

Toylit published in 2 zines

Lot’s o’ Crap zine publishes art by Toilet from The Last Nowhere (2006).

Totally Mag! publishes art by Toylit from Craplexity (2006).

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5 new pics in the LOWER TOPANGA PHOTO ARCHIVE

Lower Topanga Photo Archive

(pic: Robert Herron) Bill, Mary, and George Van Noy at Dr. Schweiger’ s house circa 1963

(pic: Jim Fitzpatric k?) “The Topanga Bombers” in front of the Saenz house circa 1965

(pic: Jim Fitzpatric k) Topanga Beach reunion in 1969

(pic: unknown photograph er)

(pic: c/o West Valley Museum)

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NEW BOOK: Astral Dick by Toylit !!!

Astral Dick is a “whodunit” involving a police psychic, Cap’n, and his “paranormal guinea pig,” Lieutenant Leo Fleck. Together they are investigating a string of brutal killings centered around the temple of a rogue religious cult and an artsy-fartsy, open-mic, poetry café.

A different print by artist Norton Wisdom is glued onto every book cover!

From “Act 2, Scene 6″

Leo – So what’s all this about an “operation”? Just the facts please.

Bunny – Well, it all began when Marlo hit puberty. Honey, show the man your tits.

Marlo reveals that one of her breasts is definitely larger than the other one. Leo doesn’t even look.

Leo – Yeah, yeah. One of her boobs is visibly larger than the other. I looked down her shirt as I was astrally projecting.

Marlo – He knows EVERYTHING!

Leo – I’m a dick. It’s my job to know stuff.

Bunny – So about a month ago, she went to the doctor to get her knockers adjusted. And before she went into surgery, I told her… what did I tell her?

Marlo – “The problem is all in your HEAD! If somebody loves you, they are going to love you, lopsided titties and all.”

Bunny – So off she goes to get a boob job, and what does she come home with? A LOBOTOMY!

Marlo – ACTUALLY, I just had ONE lobe done to see if I liked it. So it’s only HALF a lobotomy.

Leo – I see. And how has it affected her performance?

Bunny – Well, her motor skills are okay, but it seems to have affected her “initiative.”

Leo – Meaning?

Bunny – She makes a passable waitress, but sometimes she gets stuck.

Marlo – Sorry! Sometimes I get stuck!

Bunny – Except for her poetry. That’s gotten UNSTUCK. It just flows and flows. All this bizarre amazing imagery just pours out of this hole where her brain used to be.

Marlo – Poetry is my LIFE!

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(c) BRASS TACKS PRESS
www.lifeasapoet.com

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Toylit drawing…

…for the cover of his play Astral Dick.

BRASS TACKS PRESS

New pics uploaded to the Lower Topanga Photo Archive

http://brasstackspress.esmartdesign.com/misc.html#Lower_Topanga_Photo_Archive

There are about a dozen more from pro photographer David Blattel, circa 2002 (I mixed them in with the ones that were already there — sorry!):

CLICK

And a few cool surf shots from recent years by J. Murph:

CLICK

Penny-Ante: Three @ Stories Books & Cafe

Penny-Ante: Three event @ Stories Books & Cafe in Echo Park (9-15-09)

Flyer 1

Flyer 2

Toylit

Toylit’s poem

Mick Farren

Mick Farren

Tearist (w/ Douglas from BIRTH! and Bestial Mouths)

Julia Holter

Sharon Cheslow and Julia Holter

Echo Park cowboy

(pics by Pablo Capra)

BTP praised in “Foxy Digitalis” online magazine

From “An Interview with Penny-Ante Publisher Rebekah Why”

by Jon Lorenz

I read that you initially started Penny-Ante with a focus on poetry and you said at the time that you “saw it as something that was completely dead,” could you elaborate on that?

Poetry has never died and I find is hilarious that the first time I’m misquoted is by one of my own editors! (Laughs). I think when I said that I was referring to my own surroundings and friends, who don’t really find contemporary “big name” poetry as something they connect with… But with that said, there will always be poets, and people interested in poetry. Byron Coley’s been doing it with the Ecstatic Yod’s poetry journals, or BRASS TACKS PRESS OUT OF TOPANGA (!!!)… There are people carrying the torch from one generation to the next and with that, it’s not completely dead, and thank goodness….

Penny-Ante website

Foxy Digitalis website

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NEW BOOK: “Rohloff’s Snake Pit” by Chris Rohloff (as told to Pablo Capra) and Toylit (illus.)

From “The Snake Pit”

The Snake Pit… was basically the armpit of Malibu. If Malibu had a hood, Topanga and The Snake Pit would be it.

As kids, we were proud to call our neighborhood The Snake Pit because we were all dirt-rat, creeker degenerates. So it was pretty cool!

The Snake Pit was a place that the surrounding community didn’t want to have too much contact with. Even to the police, it said, “Keep out!” Police and firemen tried to avoid going there as much as possible because there was weird stuff that happened down there back in the ’60s and ’70s. Everybody knew about Charles Manson’s connection to The Snake Pit, and that they shouldn’t deal with those people. The Manson Family lived across the street from us. I was three or four years old, and I’d be on the dirt road playing with their kids.

(c) Brass Tacks Press
www.lifeasapoet.com

(See Toylit’s drawings on the website!)

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New ’70s-’80s-era Topanga Beach pics uploaded to the Brass Tacks Press archive

Start here to see the color set.

Start here to see the black-and-white set.

The Last Bastion — a new Lower Topanga documentary

Click to watch The Last Bastion by Anastasia Fite, a new documentary film about Lower Topanga starring James Mathers, John Clemens, Carole Winter, and John Judge.

New Lower Topanga pics uploaded (mid 2000s) to the Brass Tacks Press archive

Start here to see the new Lower Topanga pics!

Belongings of former resident James Mathers (a.k.a. Toylit) found in trailer

James’s psycho-iridescent mattress

From Obliterature by Toylit

“That moment the artist began to trust the dream he was living in… surrendering over tea.”

Pablo’s trailer (a.k.a. Timeship Medusa)

Formerly parked in Lower Topanga, this trailer was immortalized in the comic Voyage of the Timeship Medusa by Toylit…

New Lower Topanga pics added to the Brass Tacks Press archive

Robert Campbell and Pablo Capra looking over Robert’s graphic novel Floating in 2002.
Click to see the rest of the Lower Topanga pics by David Blattel.

Drawings for Toylit’s 3rd installment of “Prevenge of the Androgynous Cyborg Pyrates from the Future”

Click to read Prevenge: Parts 1 & 2 online!

Old footage of Log and Toylit at Beyond Baroque

A 2006 short film of Log and Toylit reading Crap poems at Beyond Baroque. Directed by Mr. Baer.

Where Brass Tacks Press came from…

“Malibu Song” is a 2006 documentary film about the Lower Topanga artists community with Herb Bermann, Baretta, Pablo Capra, James Mathers, Colina Rentmeester, Tool, Carole Winter, Norton Wisdom, and others. Directed by Natalie Lettner and Werner Hanak.

New Lower Topanga pics added to the Brass Tacks Press archive

The buildings set

The ’90s flood set

The mostly ’80s set

The mostly ’70s set

Penny-Ante #3…

…will include 3 Brass Tacks Press poets: Robert Campbell, Pablo Capra, and Toylit!
Pre-order a copy from the Penny-Ante website.

Full list of contributors:

Release party info below:

New “Children’s Guide to Astral Projection” T-shirts

Rare recordings of poet Robert Campbell (1951-2004)

Pyramids without Points (Pablo’s old punk band)

Revising “The Snake Pit” by Baretta, and rereading great passages like this

From “Wild West Showdowns“

Kilroy… was not afraid of anyone. He was the famous “don’t fuck with Kilroy from The Snake Pit.”

The idiot from The Snake Pit was Johnnie-Satan, his rival. And many showdowns were held on the road in The Pit between Kilroy, who lived at one end… and Johnnie-Satan, who lived at the extreme other end. It was very typical behavior for them. They threatened each other for years, marching up and down the road with their rifles and calling each other out.

“Johnnie-Satan, you sissy-assed motherfucker! I’ll blow you fucking away!”

And then, when Kilroy retired, Johnnie-Satan would come out and run down to his place. “You fuck-head! I’ll kill you!”

They were more or less idle threats, but the guns were real, and they would shoot them off in the air sometimes, and I questioned my safety in this neighborhood that I had chosen.

(c) Brass Tacks Press
www.lifeasapoet.com

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