ANTHONY VENUTOLO ... REVOLUTIONARY?

A month or so back, I received an e-mail from writer Adam Schirling, a gritty scribe who not only blogs from his own funky site but curates the underground-feeling blog/zine Drunken Absurdity.

Adam said that he wanted to feature me as one of the site's Revolutionary voices. I was instantly honored and told him that I would shoot him some stuff as soon as I could. But now the pressure was more than on. Revolutionary? That sounded all ... important. What would I send?

I quickly went to the site (which I suggest you also do -- some GREAT talent over there) to get an idea of what kind of material would be best suited for him. Here's what it said:

"This site is a revolution for those who cannot stand to be left silent on the roadside anymore. Those who walk the streets late at night, heads full of misery and booze, and a heart full of despair. Strippers, poets, homeless, drug addicts, boozers, fetishists, artists, ex convicts, and all others who refuse to stagnate in the shadows while an ignorant city moves around them. We will be heard. Our voices will sink into your soul, and make you see a whole new world.

We will go into the night to find those who have a story to tell. ...The world is ours for the taking. We will show them the darkness of human life, and the beauty that rises from pure filth. Embrace the Drunken Absurdity of the Human Experience..."

Great. Even more pressure... So after perusing the archives and punching up some material, I hope his audience appreciates what I gave him.

In any case, I'm flattered. I'm officially a 'revolutionary'... I hope you enjoy.

Tweet

Read More

FORTHCOMING E-TITLES...

Like many of my online comrades, I've decided to throw my hat into the Kindle/Nook ring with a few titles. Details to be forthcoming. I also want to apologize for my absence of late in keeping up with my blog reading. I've been keeping busy designing these covers and finding art, etc. I'm a fanatic when it comes to art. If there are 1000 pics of any given subject, I will look at each and every one of them... I hope to be back reading everyone's blogs very soon.


Tweet

Read More

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Allow me to pimp it a bit with a small dose of shameless self-promotion.

1) I was featured in At the Bijou's 100 Authors of September series where blogmaster Absolutely-Kate Pilarcik matches a current scribe (in this case little 'ol me) with two other like-minded authors she thinks are of the same ... ilk. I'm honored. She paired me up with good 'ol Buk and some scribe with wanderlust named Jack Kerouac. Fab Kate has posted some quotes from each of our work so go and see if you can check which one belongs to me. I'm actually embarrassed I almost got it wrong. Check it out HERE.

2) I was recently interviewed by Timothy Grayson, blogmaster at the eclectic Phantasmagoric Radio. The blog is chock-full of musings where he waxes poetic on ... well, he explains the mission statement best himself so allow me to crib: "Let’s get down and find the kinds of people who are raw and don’t have to worry about fame or fortune leveraging the quality from their creations. The only benefit these people are getting from their work is the fact that they might be able to gain some perspective by being true in the online public. Let’s go and love these people and take what they have to say personally; it’s our choice to consider what they say and do and then to find the meaningfulness for ourselves."

Check out our quick little Q&A and his nifty sketch of me where he was kind enough to give moi more hair. Check it our HERE.

Read More

WILL APPLE BURN OUR BOOKS?

As writers (and creators) should we be afraid of Apple? While that may sound a tad melodramatic, it's not that ridiculous of a question.

That's the question, I posed the other day and people seemed to respond strongly. Michael Solender, non-fiction editor at Full Of Crow offspring On The Wing, wanted to pick up my piece.

It's a great and thought-provoking site that features essays, opinion, columns and more on issues that matter.

Check out my link and others, HERE.

Read More

MY INTERVIEW AS PART OF 'AMERICAN WEEKS'

Prolific Canadian blogger and writer Cathy Olliffe has been doing a wonderful job highlighting American writers at her site Life on the Muskoka River in a special series that she is calling American Weeks.

In addition to such varied and talented material by the authors, Cathy conducts spectacular and thorough author profiles with meticulous attention to detail. It's always fun finding out more about my fellow bloggers and Cathy's rich interview pieces provide such great tidbits.

That said, it's my turn to borrow the keys to Cathy's blog and take it 'round the block. I hope you enjoy. I know I certainly enjoyed participating Cathy's interview.

Please check my interview and two pieces HERE. Small caveat, the interview is a tad long, I sort of rambled in my answers to Cathy. Hey, it was my first one...

And also please feel free to read the other stateside scribes profiled in the American Weeks series. They're a talented bunch.

Peggy McFarland
Mark Kerstetter
Carrie Clevenger
Eric J. Krause
Shannon Esposito

Read More

MY GOOGLE SEARCH STORY...

Storytelling can come in a variety of manners and forms and it's amazing what can be done with so little. Hemingway knew that. So did Raymond Carver.

Last Winter, Google produced an ad that aired during the Super Bowl that told a story from the perspective of a man who finds love in Paris through as assortment of a Google tools. It was stupendous. Check it out HERE. It's a must-view.

As a result of how popular it was, Google is now inviting people to make their own search story using a simple tool that takes searches and puts them into a short half minute video.

The searches can be web, maps, images, books, blogs, products or news. You can also order them in seven slots and then pick music to run over the top. Pretty cool stuff. And addicting.

While I didn't exactly construct a story (the Paris one can't be topped, I think), I did manage to construct a pseudo-commercial for the digs here at Bukowski's Basement.

Check that out as well as other fun Google Search Stories after the jump.

Read More

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: AT THE BIJOU

My noir piece, "An Unlikely Partner" is up and live in a Noir-arama Double-Double Feature of talented scribes on the tasty blog At the Bijou.

You will also find three delicious thrillers from the talented Kevin Michaels, the prolific Paul D. Brazill (who is everywhere online btw) and the super cool Bijou curator Absolutely*Kate, who's print project Harbinger*33 will showcase 33 super-talented scribes.

Please click play to enjoy an

audio reading of 'An Unlikley Partner'

Due to some minor technical 'movie theater' difficulties (damn those embed codes), I have an audio component to my noir that is not live on At the Bijou at the moment. So in the meantime (while the projectionist is working on the problem), I'd love for you to read along since it's my first full-length audio reading. Be warned, though, I'm no Barry Northern.

Read More

RED FEZ: THE LAST MOMENTS OF PAPA H (poem)

OK. Shameless self-promotion time...

My prose poem THE LAST MOMENTS OF PAPA H is now live over at Red Fez, a great online portal. The piece actually started out as a piece of flash fiction at Six Sentences that I eventually went on to rework.

Red Fez was founded in 2003 by independent author Leopold McGinnis and concentrates on publishing and promoting non-mainstream, but accessible work by underground and under-recognized artists. The site/zine is divided into a unique, searchable database style and is updated quarterly. Check 'em out... Great stuff.

My bloggin' buddy John Grochalski also has a killer piece over there. He's a guy you also may want to check out.

Read More

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: SHOOTS AND VINES

If you like, check out my piece "The Well" in the new print issue of Shoots and Vines.

Read More