Tyson Bley interviewed by David F. Hoenigman

by Horror Sleaze Trash on May 24, 2013

tyson b

Tyson Bley interviewed by David F. Hoenigman

Link to Tyson’s book, Drive-Thru Zoo: http://gobbetmag.wordpress.com/books

 

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m always working on a poem, producing about three a week. I either put them on my blog, soapstain.blogspot, or reserve them for possible collections.

 

When and why did you begin writing?

About ten years ago. I started writing not because I felt I had something to say. I didn’t. But I had the urge to say something without being obnoxious – and the only way to do that, I felt, was via nightmare nonsense poetry. Perhaps along the way of writing consistently aimlessly I was meant to find something real to say, but I never did. And in a sense I’m glad: it would’ve spoiled what had turned into a therapeutic daily exercise of freewriting and dogged meaning-evasion I didn’t know I desperately needed. The moment there was a hint of a valid ‘point’ sticking its head out of a poem, I felt instantly deflated.

 

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Then.

 

What inspired you to write your first book?

I have a few self-published collections and a proper collection, Drive-Thru Zoo, brought out by Gobbet Press -  my first concerted attempt to get something out there – the former just for the sake of keeping record, since they all belong to a certain era of development. I consider an ‘era’ a period of two months. Usually in writing a poem, I have no idea what I’m doing. It has a sense of newness. So time moves really slowly around the poem. But some are bad and some are good and after scraping some of the good ones together and seeing them huddled in a collection – I felt they needed a better home than the dusty vaults of Lulu (where many of them still reside).

 

How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

I try to write myself deep into the unknown, deliberately avoiding the comforts of familiar experiences and knowledge. When they do slip into my writing somehow, it feels gray and dated. Perhaps this is inadvertently a route back to the subconscious, which isn’t an abyss that allows itself to be directly stared into.

 

Do you have a specific writing style?

Style is a bit relative. The most boring style can be exciting to someone jaded by face-eating quirkiness. Although that may be more relief than excitement. And the person would need to be pretty jaded (to suddenly start liking boring styles). My own style is conservative. This may be the only area where I feel experimentation is not allowed. Changing my style even slightly I feel incredibly pretentious. It’s as though the effort is visible, luridly, and it’s embarrassing. Which is a pity. It would be nice to mess around with different styles.  

 

Is there a message in your work that you want readers to grasp?

Only the sort of message you’d glean from looking at an inkblot.

 

What book are you reading now?

I’m reading, or have just finished reading, ‘This Book Is Full Of Spiders’ by David Wong.


What is the most misunderstood aspect of your work?

Everything?

 

Any memories of particular works: the writing of, feedback, the thought behind…etc.

In Infinite Jest the father killed himself by putting his head in a microwave oven. He made a hole in the door and put tinfoil on the gap around his neck, if I remember correctly. With the door open the oven wouldn’t have worked. But then the son walked in and the son thought (or said aloud), ‘Something smells delicious!’ Along those lines. It was a long time ago that I read the book. But I think about that scene a lot .

 

 

Tyson Bley’s latest collection, Drive Thru Zoo, is published by gobbet press. He blogs at soapstain.

David F. Hoenigman is the author of BURN YOUR BELONGINGS (2010 Jaded Ibis Press) and SQUEAL FOR JOY (2014 JIP). He’s the founder and organizer of PAINT YOUR TEETH, an avant-garde live performance event regularly held in Tokyo. He’s an associate professor at Meikai University and also writes for The Japan Times. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he has lived in Japan since 1998. He’s currently working on his third novel MAN SEES DEMON.

W.J.P.Newnham

by Horror Sleaze Trash on May 22, 2013

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W.J.P.Newnham was born in Melbourne in 1965 at the Royal Women’s Hospital and whisked away from his mother as part of the white stolen generation policies where un-wed mothers were stripped of their children. He was adopted and raised all over country Victoria having at age 17 lived in 11 different houses and attended 9 different schools. At a grade 6 literacy test he read at a university level and when matriculating he won the schools humanity score prize. His attendance at university was sporadic.

W.J.P.Newnham has hitchhiked around Australia working as barman, bum and waiter; slaughter hand, deckhand and master spending 25 years working in the Northern Prawn Fishery. He has travelled extensively in south-east Asia, the Americas and Japan and speaks market-place Indonesian with some fluency.

 2 of W.J.P.Newnham’s early stories were published in the inaugural edition of the seminal Melbourne literary magazine ‘Nocturnal Submissions’ in the early nineties, a recent story accepted by ‘Overland’ for publication, and 2 pieces accepted for Web-Lication[1] on ‘horrorsleazetrash’

He lives in Brisbane with his partner and 2 blue-heelers.

‘These stories speak to character and choice. Obligation and duty are given and choices made according to need and want are not always wisest as accounts add up and balances are inevitably reached: the universe holds no mystery it just is as it is and ever shall be.’

wjpnewnham@optusnet.com.au

”THE NICE LADY”<” height=”59″ width=”425″>

By

 

W<J>P. Newnham.

 

“Desperate
All night crying
Pillow’s soaking wet
I’m going cold on the wall
I gotta get back home!”

 

 

Article I.       Dang

 

I just wanted to dance; honest!

From the moment the ‘Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’[1] got on stage and Mr. Spencer plugged in his guitar and with reckless downward chops went:

 

BWAAAAAAAH

BWARRRPPPPPP!

 

He said:

 

“I JUST WANNA’ FUCKEN’ DANCE!!

THE FUCKEN BLUES ARE NUMBAH 1 MUTHA-FUCKA!!!

THE BLUES ARE NUMBAH 1!!!!”

 

I just wanted to dance!

Article II.     Sweat

 

I pushed my way forward through the dancing crowd; right in front of the stage, close, within range of touch. Close enough that when Mr. Spencer swung and thrashed his sweaty forelock his sweat anointed my brow in splashes:

 

I am, with the others frenetically dancing, communicant.

 

She dances beside me, unconcerned with the heaving hurly-burly of the Mosh-Pit, her eyes closed and face turned up to the radiance of performance as if momentarily blinded.

She dances beside me: in the heaving hurly-burly of the Mosh-Pit we are pressed against each-other and we dance; close enough to sense her scent of sweat and rose-water and need.

 

We are, with others frenetically dancing, communicant.

Article III.  Black Mould

 

I had seen her earlier that evening whilst outside the front door and smoking in the designated outdoor smoking area and talking shit with the Samoan bouncer about the weather and the football and the peptides; all the minutiae I could muster that  might pass for conversation.

 

She was accompanying an obviously disabled man and assisting him as he spastically perambulated on dual metal crutches with one of her hands at his arm for support and comfort.

 

The Samoan bouncer holds up one hand to me to signal:

Pause Bro!

And with the other he touches a finger to his ear piece and says softly:

“Crips Cuz”.

 

She smiled and said that they were O-K and that she would help her friend and that there was no need for any kind of assistance as she had done this many times before and thanks anyway.

The bouncer smiles and reciprocating her politeness explains that:

 

“It’s policy Sister-Girl, for the health and safety you know: we gotta’ assist all dem’ folks.

It’s the law!”

 

She smiled and reiterated that they were O-K and that she would help her friend and that there was no need for any kind of assistance as she had done this many times before and thanks anyway but that if one of them could perhaps follow on behind them up the stairs for just-in-case that she would be grateful and that it would make her friend would feel welcomed and safe.

 

The bouncer smiles and reciprocating her politeness

He touches a finger to his ear piece and explains the situation softly

He wishes them both a good night

And watches as another

Samoan bouncer

Follows them up the stairs

Just-In-Case.

 

The Samoan bouncer turns back to me and says:

 

“That, Cuz, is a real lady.

You know?

She a real nice lady”

 

Article IV.   “Bag Of Bones

 

He was a bag of bones; her friend.

 

They got him a seat and placed him front of  the mixing desk where supported on one side by the balustrade for the stairwell and to the rear by the mixing desk set-up and with the nice lady at his side he could  have a view of the stage and be unlikely to be knocked or bumped or disturbed.

She bought him drinks at intervals and swayed gently to the cacophony of the support acts.

He nodded, sometimes in time with the beat.

 

I wonder if she was doing this professionally, if there was any money in escorting the impaired to rock concerts and if so how much and what was the agency specializing in such services.

It seemed like a job I could do.

Article V.      Boot Cut

 

I studied her during the support acts and noted:

Her hair, all tied back

[In a bun]

And

The almost military cut of her leather jacket

[Buttoned at every hole]

And

The almost ecclesiastical severity

Of her calf-length

Grey [A-line] skirt

And

Her boots.

[Her ‘Fuck-Me’ boots.]

Section 5.01             Get Your Pants Off

She says:

“Come on then!

Let’s get your pants off and clean you up!”

 

He says nothing but grinds his teeth

His pants are peeled from him

With the pungent redolence

Of piss and shit.

 

She says:

“It’s ok. Nothing new!

Let’s get you cleaned up ok?”

 

He grinds his teeth

And silent tears

Perambulate spastically down his cheeks.

 

She cleans him

And holds him

For comfort

And support.

 

Section 5.02             Strange Baby

I just wanted to dance; honest!

 ‘Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’ on stage

Mr. Jon Spencers’ guitar and reckless downward chops:

 

BWAAAAAAAH

BWARRRPPPPPP!

 

He repeated:

 

“I JUST WANNA’ FUCKEN’ DANCE!!

THE FUCKEN BLUES ARE NUMBAH 1 MUTHA-FUCKA!!!

THE BLUES ARE NUMBAH 1!!!!”

 

I just wanted to dance!

So did she

Or

So it seemed?

Article VI.   “Zimgar

 

She dances beside me: in the heaving hurly-burly of the Mosh-Pit we are pressed against each-other and we dance; close enough to sense her scent of sweat and rose-water and need.

Section 6.01             2 Kinds‘A Love

She dances beside me:

I sense her scent

And need.

Her eyes now open she mouths the words as she looks at me as if seeing me for the first time.

She seems to be speaking them

To me

She mouths the words at me with growling intensity:

 

“You’re Two Kinds’a Love…
Ain’t that the law up above
You got Two Kinds’a Love”

 

And

“Two Kinds’a Love
that ain’t bad!
Get it right away
Get with it, man”

And

“Yeah, Two Kinds’a Love
Way down below and up above
You got it
You’re Two Kinds’a Love”

 

I just wanted to dance; honest!

But…….

Section 6.02             Chicken Dog

We are pressed against each-other

Me against her sweat and need

And scent of rose-water.

 

I howl out

“Chicken Dog”

And forget

Any of the kinds of love.

Jon Spencer leans forward through the spot lights and grins at us and says

 

“Yeah! You Know That’s Right!”

 

And then howls with his lips wrapped around his microphone:

 

“I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING NOW
CHICKEN DOG
CHICKEN DOG
MAMA BOUGHT A CHICKEN, THOUGHT IT WAS A DUCK
PUT HIM ON THE TABLE WITH THE LEGS STICKIN’ UP
IT’S JUST AS EASY AS FALLIN’ OFF A LOG
EVERYBODY DOIN’ THE CHICKEN DOG”

Section 6.03             Fuck Shit Up

 

I had been a fan for twenty years without ever having see the   [JSBE]  live  having been, euphemistically; away, whenever he had toured though friends had seen him on numerous occasions. Seeing him I went in with expectation high having had reports the   [JSBE] caused dancing to the point of hip dislocation.

 

I danced the whole set

I am not gay but Jon Spencer was so rock-and-fucking-roll

That even I wanted to grab his leather clad ass

As he pumped in and out of the spotlights!

 

I had been a fan for twenty years

And This was the first  [JSBE] song I had ever heard

On some random cassette tape

Whilst

Euphemistically;

Away.

 

My home- boys and I had smoked valium

 [Drunk on pruno and hooch]

 And had chanted these very same words:

 

“Spray Paint Walls / Trash the Halls
Make It Fucked Up / Fuck Shit up
Take A Stand / Fuck The Man
Make It Fucked Up / Fuck Shit Up”[2]

 

[JBSE]

 

THE BLUES ARE NUMBAH 1!!!!”

 

Finally!

 

Section 6.04             High Gear

 

Make It Fucked Up/

Make It Fucked Up

[JSBE]

BLAST INTO

High Gear

Article VII.                       Afro

She dances beside me:

I sense her scent

 

She says:

 

“Here; Look!”

 

And lifts

The almost ecclesiastical severity

Of her calf-length

Grey [A-line] skirt

And shows:

Sans-pants.

 

I go

 

‘Wukka-Wukka-Wukka-Wukka”

 

Euphemistically:

Porn guitar

 

[JSBE]

 

Say

 

“AFRO
AIN’T THAT RIGHT
ALL RIGHT, AFRO
SHAKE THAT ASS!”[3]


She guides my hand

And fingers

To her Ruby-Fruit-Jungle and says

“Sorry”

And

“It has been awhile “

 

And Ohhhhhhhh

 

And UUUUUUUMMMMMMMHHHHHHH


We achieve Inter-Section-Al-Ity

Article VIII.                   Gadzooks!

 

She says:

“Come on then!”

 

I say nothing but grind my teeth

 

She says:

“It’s ok. Nothing new!

Let’s get you cleaned up ok?”

 

I grind my teeth

And silent tears

Perambulate down my cheeks.

 

She cleans me

And holds me

For comfort

Article IX.   Sticky

 


[1]    [JSBE] 

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