 |  |  |  |  |
current Monday
Report below!
This week's report by Wred Fright, ULA
The Ghost Of Jack Kerouac:
The Perpetual Motion Roadshow Takes Writers
On The Road Again And Again And Again . . .
Jack Kerouac was wrong. He wrote in On The Road, his classic
novel about his travels across North America in the mid-20th
Century, that "Everybody goes home in October." Well, a group of
his literary descendants--writers Darren O’Donnell, Jonathan
Messinger, and Todd Taylor--are doing the opposite this October
when instead of going home, they hit the road, Jack.
They are going on The Perpetual Motion Roadshow, a monthly indie
press tour circuit, though a better description might be a literary
circus. Performers, called crew members in Roadshow speak, pile in
a car, drive hundreds of miles to several North American cities--
which have included Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Los
Angeles, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa, Portland, San Francisco,
Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver--and read, rant, and rock in front of
small audiences in venues ranging from the basement of a
bookstore to the back of a bar. Then they crash on someone’s bed,
couch, floor, or even porch, and do it all over again for a week. Why
do they do it? Because as anyone familiar with the small press
knows, it sure isn’t for the money. Mickey Hess, author of the
memoir/novel Big Wheel at the Cracker Factory and alumnus of the
Roadshow, says of his experience on the road, "It’s been nice
because people we met a long time ago or through writing have
shown up here and there in these cities."
Huh?
But that’s it. It’s not just about hawking your wares (although that is
certainly part of it, especially when the money one makes selling
tonight is the money one has to eat with tomorrow), it’s more about
making personal connections with the audience. Another Roadshow
alum, Sean Carswell, author of the short story collection Glue And
Ink Rebellion and co-editor of the punk zine Razorcake, says the
Roadshow is different than a standard reading or book signing tour in
that "It establishes a community of independent writers."
As a result, The Roadshow’s become a steady presence in the
literary underground, with clued-in audience members in each city
looking forward to next month’s installment. Furthermore, by
appearing on an ongoing basis, the Roadshow has allowed people
outside of the very insular underground publishing world to fall into a
parallel literary universe they otherwise might not have known even
existed, as Faith Zink, an agent for the Roadshow who organized the
shows in Cincinnati, explains, "A significant proportion of the crowd
every month has sort of just stumbled in on the Roadshow, weren't
expecting it, and don't know what to make of it. Often they find it
engaging and participate in the entire event."
And today’s audience member is tomorrow’s crewmember on the
show, as the Roadshow’s website (www.nomediakings.net) actively
recruits new independent literary acts to go on the aptly named tour,
which indeed never stops. Even as its 6-month long East Coast run
wraps up in November, the Roadshow rolls on but out West where it’
s warmer in the winter months.
But if anyone can do it, some might say, does anyone want to see it?
Or read it? This prejudice against independent, particularly self-
published, work is one that the Roadshow is still working to
overcome.
A veteran of last October’s Roadshow, Jennifer Whiteford, publisher
of the perzine Matilda, says, "I think it’s true that indie publishing
hasn’t reached the status of indie rock where it’s considered
completely viable . . . but we do D.I.Y. stuff on every other level so
there’s no reason we shouldn’t do it for publishing."
And Suzanne DeGaetano of Mac’s Backs Paperbacks, the Cleveland
Heights bookstore that hosts the Cleveland stops, sees similar
potential: "The Perpetual Motion Roadshow is a reading series that
helps define us as a bookstore. We believe in promoting emerging
writers and appreciate the opportunity to do so with the PMR
authors. As a store, we have always been connected to the DIY
movement, from the poetry chapbooks people would bring us when
we started out in the early eighties through to the DIY explosion I
have seen in the last few years. I think there was a lull in DIY when
people were learning about computers, the internet and creating
personal web pages. I welcome the return of hand held artistic
missives in all their richness and diversity."
The Roadshow has its roots in the DIY tours Canadian novelist Jim
Munroe put together to promote his novels Angry Young Spaceman
and Everyone In Silico. After publishing his first novel Flyboy Action
Figure Comes With Gasmask through the corporate publishing
industry, specifically with HarperCollins Canada, Munroe decided he
could do as well or even better, both in terms of autonomy and
money, by self-publishing his future work. Of course, without a
marketing department and Rupert Murdoch’s publicity budget behind
him, Munroe found that he had to employ his creativity in ways
beyond the manuscript. So, rather than a typical book
reading/signing, Munroe devised performances related to the subject
matter of the novels. For example, to promote Everyone In Silico, a
dystopian science fiction novel about a world where corporations
rule, Munroe invoiced current companies such as Starbucks and
Hershey Candy for product placement in his novel, and read the
letters he sent to them and the humorous perplexed responses he
received from the companies. Then, using the contacts he made
from his years publishing zines, he took the show across North
America.
When he got back, Munroe, a tireless supporter of the DIY
philosophy (his website www.nomediakings.org --yes, not .net--
offers advice on how to publish your own book and make your own
video, among other artistic endeavors), wanted to share the contacts
he had made in each city with other independent writers. He posted
some information on his website, but then went a step further and
decided to see if he could set up a tour circuit so that every indie
writer who wanted to expose people to her or his work, wouldn’t
have to start all over from scratch every time. So Munroe contacted
his friends and acquaintances across the continent and asked if
anyone was interested in creating a network for touring writers and
other indielit fare.
They were.
Completely dependent on volunteer power (including quite a bit of
Munroe’s), the Perpetual Motion Roadshow was born in 2003. To
date, it’s seen about 50 performers (including Munroe to promote his
latest novel An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil and a couple
members of the Underground Literary Alliance) loop around one
circuit or another of the Roadshow, plus videos from numerous
video producers have been shown, and an estimated 100 local acts
have hit the stage. Furthermore, these very creative people are
meeting one another, sparking new energy and projects. It’s like a
21st Century touring version of the dadaists of Zurich’s Cabaret
Voltaire, or maybe if The Beats had put together a traveling
vaudeville revue.
So even if old Jack was wrong about everybody going home in
October, one imagines he wouldn’t be too disappointed as long as
everybody was heading to The Perpetual Motion Roadshow.
GO HERE TO ENTER THE MONDAY REPORT BOX.
