another celebrity singer/ interior designer girlfriend doppelganger thingy...

Keren ANN




AND

Cat PETERSON

probably want to go to this...

Tommy Guerrero, Marc Capelle and Griff Williams have
created a new quarterly music series in San Francisco that
will raise money for some of our favorite local charities.

The first in the series is SOUL/FOOD! a Soul/R&B Music Spectacular featuring live performances from Tommy
Guerrero, Marc & The Casuals, Ron Silva & The Monarchs,
and Special Guests. The proceeds will go to the
San Francisco Food Bank.

Disk Jockey Chas Gaudi will be spinning 45s. We've also
enlisted the help of Stephen Parr of Oddball films who will

screen a treasure trove of rare 16mm films of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Eddie Kendricks and many more.
A special thank you to Mendocino Farms for helping

to make this event possible.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2009 from 7-11pm
$10-$20 donation at the door

@ GALLERY 16
501 Third Street
San Francisco CA 94107
415.626.7495
griff@gallery16.com

dictator/ cannibal doppelganger thingy...

Mummar GADDAFI



and

LEATHERFACE

someday I'll be driving across the bridge with my young son or daughter and I'll say

"you know, when daddy was a young man they used to block an entire lane with orange cones...I can't remember a day when the left or right lane wasn't blocked...not a work man in sight...it was almost like they blocked it off just to make people tardy for work..."

and them "tartar sauce? like fish-sticks? like mommy makes?"

and me "nono, 'tardiness,' it means arriving late to wherever you're going"

and my son or daughter will look up at me and say

"why daddy? why would the mean men want to do that?"

and me incredulously "I don't know kiddo, it was a different time..."

this is largely a name-drop post, unapologetically...

had a great time reading at Books And Bookshelves last night...Tinker Greene is a totally great and it was super hearing him read...

had a nice conversation with Rick London who i had previously only been in touch with by email. what up Rick London?!

sold some books to people i didn't know which is always nice...

grew my mustache out for the occasion of Micah Ballard and Sunnylyn THBX's 9th anniversary...i now have a mustache that's not going any where anytime soon. maybe.

was made to feel like a wee rock star by the two high school girls from SOTA who came up to me after the reading and bought my books and shook my hand and had me autograph them (the books) and then ask for my email so they could give it to their teacher so she could invite me to their class...what up Brandon?! SOTA part II?

and then was made to feel like an even bigger wee rock star by the girl who asked if she could interview me for the USF school newspaper...meanwhile C. is seriously getting a kick out of this seeing her dude chatting up the young gals...and i'm getting a kick out of being interviewed and trying not to swear to much sapping my big silver can of Coors Light...rocky mountain fresh and shit.

peeps who came i shout out to you: Micah Bizzard, Sunnylyn THBX, Layne Peterson, ORTH, Erica Lewis, Matt Arnone, Jimmy Dunagan, Jay Morris, Logan (weird hanging with a dude who's song is ALWAYS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD), the cute little high school duo from SOTA, USF journo-biology major-poet, Jello Sakkis, Ricky London, Tinker Greene's posse, Sus-oner Gevirtz and Lawrence Kearney and Steve "Steve D." Dickison...woot Rachel S. and David H. for inviting me...had a blast...

and then a pod of us headed over to Lucky 13 for beers and whatnot...lot's of men on men photo booth action...Logan talking about Owen Hill...spilling beer down Layne's shirt, Matt Arnone as The Best, Jimmy Dunagan's shirt, Micah goosing everybody, THBX rallying for a happy birthday Bizzard sing along, people going horizontal...



plans to maybe skate this weekend at the DMV curbs...plans to attend S. Larsen's B&B reading on Thursday...plans to watch The Devil's Rejects tonight not eating cheese soup and whatever else at 1am...plans on working more on my little new book...plans to hopefully book another reading between now and my SPT thing with Norma...plans to conjure an actual bonafide heat-wave this weekend using sigils observed in the clouds...plans on working on that Rude Girl video trailer with Matty Arnone...plans to keep on trucking on the toilet through The Maximus Poems and Superman The Archives Vol. 1...would also like to wrestle L. Boldt to the ground putting her in a tight sleeper pinching raspberries all over her arms and neck...

and i'll leave you for now with a poem

Dear Chris Carter

I've even sat through the Stephen King episode more than once

Forced my girlfriend to watch The Lone Gunman before Queer as Folk

When I hit puberty you moved the show from Friday to Sundays
Just knew we were on the same page 'cause of that

Defended Doggett and Reyes I don't even know how many times
bought the action figures and postcard books
kept a scrapbook, attended the convention in San Jose,
met Cigarette Smoking Man nee Cancer man, joined the fan club
read the fan fiction and the novels and comic books
bought the coffee mug
taped all the episodes then
bought all the episodes on VHS 

then bought all the episodes on DVD

look, i'm just saying the 

The X-Files I Want To Believe
broke my heart
and it hurts me just a little to admit it

remember when I wrote this for my Small Town bio

David Horton even mentioned it on his blog

"John Sakkis is fanatically excited about the upcoming The X-Files movie. John Sakkis still keeps his 15 year old lamented The X-Files fan club membership card in his wallet. John Sakkis has Fox Mulder and Dana Scully action figures displayed on his bookshelf, he posed them so that they are holding hands. Girls think this is more creepy than boyishly charming. John Sakkis met William B. Davis (aka Cigarette Smoking Man aka Cancer Man) in San Jose at an X-Files convention in 1994, John Sakkis got Bill's autograph on a glossy photo that now hangs in his office. John Sakkis has read all of the X-Files tie in novels as well as the Official Guide to The X-Files vol. 1-9. John Sakkis is an OG X-Philes (from the Greek root "-phil-" meaning love or obsession), he used to keep a scrapbook of newspaper/magazine articles that centered on the show. In his high school shop class he sandblasted "THE X-FILES" onto a sheet of glass and turned it in for a grade, the grade was a C and he was mad. John Sakkis writes monster poems collects records."

then I saw I Want To Believe 

and kept waiting for the movie to really begin

and then the movie was almost over

and nothing really happened 

besides Mulder's beard

I felt foolish in front
of the poetry community
when my mom/Santa bought it for me last Christmas
I knew we'd be headed back to Best Buy
just saying Chris Carter 

you really broke my heart

I Want To Believe you know
your movie sucked but I don't
so just leave Mulder and Scully alone
even Doggett and Reyes
you killed off the Lone Gunmen so whatever
but still, just let it go and let the X-Philes
enjoy the memories


Sincerely,
Johnny

Jay gets his Emmy. Congratulations Jay!!!

...

taking a break from Prison Break Season 3 for a second...

getting up, drinking some orange juice, spotting Rodney Koeneke's Rules For Drinking Forties (Cy Press) on my night stand...

just read this poem, then said 'holy shit' , then reread it out loud...

this poem pops, yummy, fuck, this poem is gorgeous, this is the poem Saul Williams recited on the prison yard to avoid getting shanked, it wants you to read it out loud, like, right now...and happy birthday Rodney!

epithalamion

the silence, the season
the centaurs returning
a day for the razors,
the Lapiths in cups

women, the moon
the centaurs with daggers:
turn back from our women,
turn back to the wood

beasts on the friezes
eternally turning
moon on the temple
o women, return.

working on a new little book of poems for Lew Gallery...

watching Brandon Downing's Dark Brandon on mute with Spice 1 on the turntable...

4 pages from finishing my bathroom book The New American Poetry...there's a lot of garbage in there...and a lot of goodies in there...winners? Creeley and Weiners...loosers? Orlovsky and Duncan (badbadbadbadbadbadbad)

tomorrow S. Larsen reading at Books and Bookshelves then Friday Brandon Brown and David Larsen at SPT then Sunday Micah and Lisa Robertson at 21 Grand...then Thursday J. Sakkis and Tinker Greene at Books and Bookshelves...not going to pull a SAKKIS at any of these.

i ate steak last night...tried to make some frozen spinach...epic fail. watched Basquiat while eating steak with C. hadn't seen Basquiat for a long time. realized that the movie has a lot of problems. Jeffrey Wright is pretty great but i don't really believe him. i used to. but now i think Jeffrey Wright is kind of like Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in The Doors movie. really cinematic and sexy but probably not very real. i remember this Ray Manzarek show i went to (Great American Music Hall 2001) where someone in the audience asked him what he thought of the The Doors movie...he responded "ugh...i mean, Jim could fucking walk like a normal human being..." referring to the fact that Val Kilmer sort of sauntered around the whole movie like a horny blissed out cult-leader...kind of feel the same way about Basquiat the movie, esp. after seeing Downtown 81 the other day for the first time...Michael Wincott as Rene Ricard is pretty boss though...i bought a damaged Rene Ricard book in 1999 from the discount rack at SPD, the Love Poems book from Cuz Editions...had no idea who he was at the time, just liked the look of the elegant little book...weird that i would start my Basquiat saturation job a couple years later...weird that Michael Wincott would play Ricard in the Basquiat movie...weird how pleasurable serendipity can be...

went to Amoeba and sold a ton of DVDs and CDs...the Upper Haight is just as awful as ever...people are REALLY ugly up there, like mutants, something in the water? ORTH and i decided to stop by The Gold Cane to see if Jason Morris was tending bar. he was! so we posted up at the bar and talked poetry and movies with Morris whilst sapping bottled beers. said goodbye to Morris and walked over to Molotov's for more afternoon libation. it was that kind of day, cold, overcast, post-out-the-fuck-nowhere-earth-quake-weather thunder and lightening storm...so me and steve have a few more beers, say hi to Shay, say hi to Malibu...i get BOTH BOTH ups in the bathroom then head back to the apartment...ORTH had never seen Drunken Master II (non-dubbed) so we watched that, played some records (Aretha's Jazz, that's actually a straight up disco record) etc. i got hungry so i made a pizza...ORTH got thirsty so he headed to the corner store for more beers...i'd had enough...went into my room with my pizza and watched BSG Season 2 director's commentary until bedtime.

got my foot working again after my epic skate fail bail down by Books and Bookshelves before the Stan Apps/ D. Rothchild reading...really happy i didn't break my foot...cracked my big toe nail in half...pulled every muscle in the arch/ball of my foot...took a lot of C.'s left over Hydrocondone...but yeah, went out to my parents house in the East Bay while the Bay Bridge was closed...decided it was a nice enough day and about a month had passed, my foot felt pretty good, wasn't limping as much as i was even a few days ago...so, got off BART in Pleasant Hill and skated all the way to their place in Concord...had fun and then not so much fun...about a mile away my foot started to hurt...walked/skated/hobbled the rest of the way...got home and ate Greek salad and hamburger, did laundry.

currently listening to Tim Buckley's Lorca...fuckin' crazy song.

me and Linsdey Boldt headed to the Potrero skate park for the ChiliBowl comp...saw Moose smash his head skating the bowl...met up with Micah and Patrick Dunagan and Sunnylyn...drank beers in the park...saw Noelle from Whiskey Thieves...she didn't recognize me in the daytime...with a shaved head...we hugged. headed home with poety/ skatey crew...it was a really nice night in the City so my brother decides to have a stoop-BBQ...me and Lindsey head over to his place a couple blocks down on Page and Divis...get the coals going...get the people over...get the neighbor friends involved...about 15 of us by now having a grand ol' time...Micah and Pat and Sunnylyn meet up...it's dark by now but we decide (Micah decides?) to play a game of SKATE. do you guys know this game? someone starts, they try a trick, if they land the trick then the next person has to land the same trick and so on down the line...if the person bails trying that trick, he is assigned the letter "S"...all the way down the line until he spells out SKATE, then he looses...it's the same as HORSE...it's fun...i think Micah definitely won that night...and then we head over to Waizema's and then The Page and then i bail and get a burrito i think but can't confirm and find out later the my brother hooks up with some girl from The Page that he said was %10 cute %90 annoying...and then a couple days later while he's browsing Craigslist "missed connections" he finds an ad for "LOOKING FOR JAMES FROM THE PAGE" and it goes into some detail confirming that the ad is for my brother and i'm never really sure if this makes his day or ruins it...

so now i'm skating all over the place and my foot is better and i'm trying to get to NYC for a reading in the next few months and Rude Girl is selling nicely and i'm growing my beard out for at least a little bit and i'm about 780 pages into Stephen King's IT and finding it not very scary which is depressing because i'm 780 pages into a 1200 page horror novel that isn't very horrifying at all but i can't really give up now cause i'm so far into it and almost done but what's really depressing is that Tim Curry as Pennywise is a million times more horrifying than the Pennywise in the novel...at least so far.

i'm into the new S curve on the Bay Bridge. i'm really into the Giants vs. Rockies wildcard race...ORTH brings me free sushi from the grocery store a couple times a week, i'm also into that.

i think this has to be the lamest movie ad campaign i've seen in a really long time...see these posters all over the city for the movie Surrogates. they're just really really yawny...stupid and snore'y...just saying, epic fail.

RIP JIM CARROLL

i'm reading tonight at the Hemlock with folkers...

ripped from L-Bo's blog...

Hey Friends,

Come see readers read and bands play at The Hemlock!

When: Next Tuesday September 8th @ 9pm
Where: The Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco's Tenderloin
Who: Karl Blau, Neal Morgan, Casual Fog
John Sakkis, Lindsey Boldt, Steve Orth
Cost: $6

This will be a great opportunity to see and hear John Sakkis' new book, Rude Girl. I may have more copies of my new chapbook Oh My, Hell Yes printed by then too. I'll be reading something apropos of the evening ie: music related?

Drinks after, DUH, it is a tavern. Much friendliness too.

WORKING CLASS LOVE RUDE GIRL BY JOHNNY SAKKIS

the beautiful people over at WORKING CLASS give Rude Girl a shout out...thanks WORKING CLASS!

(also, if you'd rather not order through Paypal you can send a check made out to me for $12.00 to John Sakkis, 415 Pierce St. #3, San Francisco, CA 94117)

Dear Family, Friends, Poets, Teachers, Beauties, Pundits, Parents,

Kind of stoked today because my first full-length book, Rude Girl, has just arrived from the printer! Whoopie! Wanted to let those near and dear to my heart about it.

The book is published by BlazeVox Books out of Buffalo, NY. She weighs in at a svelte 82 pages with a gorgeous cover photo by Ian Whitmore. I'm selling copies through Paypal right now. If you're so inclined (and thanks so much!) you can order a copy by heading over to my blog www.bothbothseries.blogspot.com and clicking on the "Buy Now" button found at the top right side of the page. I know money is tight for just about everybody right now so I'm pricing the book a few dollars cheaper than what the press is asking for. So at $12 dollars even-Steven (shipping included in price) you can order Rude Girl directly from me. I think it's a pretty good deal, maybe you do too? Sweet...

So thanks so much for your support and guidance and love...means the world to me. I hope you have a wonderful day, looks like the sun is coming out in San Francisco, I'm wearing my favorite pair of jeans and my favorite orange flannel, I'm sporting a new haircut and freshly clipped nails...I'm feeling fresh and clean, I hope you are too...LOVE LOVE-John

But wait! Read what others are saying about the book!!!

In Rude Girl, light "scrime[s]," a girl secretly "places a button under her tongue," and a tide is a "pseudonym" both for not speaking (right then) and for what comes after: the start of seeing "the things [in front of]" (my brackets), which in fact "were always [in front of]." There's an attention too, in John Sakkis's beautiful book, to the "frequency and occurence" with which these things happened. Are happening. Like "years or color." Loved these poems. Hope you will too.

-- Bhanu Kapil

A three-part song for the unaccompanied and at times accompanied voice(s): "a word of it / set to walk." Like a sailor with sharp knives for ears and a psaltery made maybe of skateboards in his head, Sakkis travels across time, space, meaning, rule, principle, mode, listening acutely and carving away all excess: "Whenever particles spoken / into my nerves / I hear outer voices/ and Love" --He brings us to hear it too: "peeling away hunger." Rather than write about it, all I want to do is quote this whole exquisite book whose "fatty sheets of rainbow" speak for themselves.

--Susan Gevirtz

I read Rude Girl as a Herodotean geography in that it reports the ecological and psychosocial terrains of an “other country.” The “country” in Rude Girl, however, is a landscape of broken economies: burned houses, the 1990’s, worn out coins, the shadowy “M.” (money itself? a Langian villain? whatever—an “ox by no means”). The lyricism of this book is suspended on a threshold of surplus and excess--terms which cue the melancholy of its unique version of human loss and the fragility of whoever’s left to report. This book disturbs me—it disturbs my participation in the dissipating, breakable ecologies I participate in: the woods, tunnels, streets; the “reified house” with its “barking economy.”

--Brandon Brown


Sensual but sensible, the thoughtful lyrics of Rude Girl maintain, explore and suspend meaning. They don't describe but combine -- well, okay, sometimes they describe. "the house is like business/and doesn't sing/ the air is women." Everyday life and the sublime appear “walking hand in hand.” These poems are surreal, cerebral and celebratory. They sing and swoon. Read them and weep!

--Laura Moriarty

www.bothbothseries.blogspot.com