Brass Tacks Press
- NEWS -

BUY TICKETS NOW!!!

...for Astral Dick, a play by James Mathers,
presented by Carbon Copy Productions at the Electric Lodge

Psychic detectives ("astral dicks")
investigate a string of mysterious deaths
centered around an open-mic poetry café.

PERFORMANCE DATES: May 24th - June 10th

- FEATURED BOOKS -

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- AUTHORS -

Baretta

Baretta was baptized in the Pacific Ocean and attended Sunday Bible class. A gentleman and a scholar, he once visited Oxford University on a bus tour, and later played trumpet at a coffee shop on the Stanford campus to a standing ovation.
- TITLES -
Rat Tales

Rat Tales: The Audio Book
The Snake Pit
How to Get Respect on the Beaches of Malibu
Malibu Song

Herb Bermann

Herb has written award-winning screenplays, theater plays, novels, poems, and songs, including the lyrics for Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band's classic rock 'n' roll album Safe as Milk.
- TITLES -

Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

Malibu Song

Robert Campbell

A co-founder of Brass Tacks Press, Robert was a painter who showed at Gallerie Rabindra in the '70s and '80s. When his eyesight began to fade due to illness, his poetic side brightened. He died in 2004.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove
Life as a Poet: Vols. 1-3, 5-6

Anesthesia Lake
Floating
Magic Woman

Rut Weaver
Camp Bell
Jeremy Black
Audesheer and Deja

Michele Capra

Michele published her first poem at age 10.
- TITLES -

Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

Pablo Capra
(Two)

Pablo is a poet and co-founder of Brass Tacks Press.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove
Life as a Poet: Vols. 1-3,5-8
Death Eats the Words that I Don't Write
Pyramids without Points
Pyramids w/o Points: The Album
The Crap Poetry Manifesto
Nothing Next to Nothing
Nichts Neben Nichts
FOOP!

Happy Poems
Malibu Song

As editor:
FIRST!
Rohloff's Snake Pit
Topanga Beach Experience
Floating
Magic Woman
Rut Weaver
Camp Bell
Jeremy Black
Audesheer and Deja

Lower Topanga Calendar
Lower Topanga Photo Archive

D. J. Carlile
(Mao Thing Awf)

D.J. is the translator of Rimbaud: The Works, the complete works of Arthur Rimbaud. He is also a poet, critic, and playwright. His dramatic works include the prize-winning Carved in the Fog, Jump! The Madness of Nijinsky, and Delmore at the Last.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol. 4

5 Poemes CRAP de Los Angeles
The Crapture

Andy Comess

"no more whores I'm forty portly but hung I'm young at heart I fart a lot pot is weed I freed my mind be kind to strangers danger's everywhere you could fall down stairs and break your neck I'm a nervous wreck a speck of sun is better than none have fun...." More at www.andycomess.com.
- TITLES -
DryJerkHeartbreakNitwit

Anastasia Fite

Anastasia is working on a full-length documentary about Topanga Canyon, where she grew up. More at www.anastasiafite.com.
- TITLES -
Last Bastion

Ramón García

Ramón's poetry has appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies. He is a professor at California State University at Northridge.
- TITLES -
Suburbs and Canticles

David Hayward

David has played trumpet with Sonny Rollins, Stan Kenton, and Janis Joplin, to name a few. He is also a massage therapist and the author of an astrology book called Shorthand of the Soul: the Quotable Horoscope.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

The Lowered Bucket

Hoisted Water
Compensation

Catherine Holliss

Catherine danced professionally for ten years. Upon retiring, she fell in love with writing.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

Bond Johnson

Bond taught Compartive Literature and French at UCLA and Pepperdine University. He published a book of literary theory called The Mode of Parody. He also studied piano extensively in France with Gaby Casadesus.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

Robert Kelly

Robert is a poet associated with the Deep Image group. He has garnered numerous writing honors and awards, and published more than 50 books of poetry and prose, including Red Actions: Selected Poems 1960-1993. He teaches at Bard College and works as a translator.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol. 8

Frank Lamonea

Frank is a musician and photographer for the Malibu Surfside News. The Lower Topanga documentary film Malibu Song was named after a song on his album Bad "L" Dog.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

Natalie Lettner
& Werner Hanak

Natalie Lettner works at Vienna's Art History Museum, and Werner Hanak works at Vienna's Jewish Museum.
- TITLES -
Malibu Song

Log

Log was spit out of the womb tomb of a crater in Venus and adopted by a band of space-gypsy Kali worshippers paying homage to the intergalactic tarantula known simply as Ma. More on Facebook.
- TITLES -
The Crap Poetry Manifesto

The Last Nowhere
Craplexity

5 Poemes CRAP de Los Angeles
Crap Poetry Toilet Paper
Crap Poetry at Beyond Baroque

Alien Sex Bullet

Paul Lovas

Paul is a carpenter and surfer. In the '60s and '70s, he lived on Topanga Beach, before the beach houses were bulldozed to make it public. He currently lives in Topanga Canyon.
- TITLES -
Topanga Beach Experience

Michael Lynch

Michael lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He writes stories about camels and pizza and video games and so on. He graduated from the Otis College MFA Writing Program, and is the founder of Doma Press. More at www.mikealynch.com.
- TITLES -
Omelet Shark
Helicopter Show

Ern Malley

In 1943, poets Harold Stewart and James McAuley created the fictitious Ern Malley to fool the editor of Australia’s leading journal on modernism. They wrote Malley's complete "bad" modernist oeuvre in one afternoon and evening. Malley was supposed to have worked as a garage mechanic until his death at age 25. The twist is that Malley's poems have real merit, and his fame eclipses that of his own creators.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol. 7

Alden Marin

Alden Marin grew up in Malibu, and studied at Stanford and the Sorbonne. In addition to writing more than a dozen books of poetry, he paints and writes music. More at www.aldenmarin.com.
- TITLES -
Little Nuts

Herzog's Pig
Knee Driving
Pennies in the Parking Meter
Anecdotal Dinners

James Mathers
(J. A. Homes, Toilet, Toylit)

For many years James was very sad and very drunk, but now he is happy and fancies himself some kind of anarchist messiah: "Acid is groovy, kill the pigs!" More at www.jamesmather.net.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove
The Crap Poetry Manifesto

The Last Nowhere
Craplexity

5 Poemes CRAP de Los Angeles
Crap Poetry Toilet Paper
Crap Poetry at Beyond Baroque

Obliterature
Astral Dick

The Children's Guide to Astral Projection
Lower Topanga: Past and Future
Prevenge of the Androgynous Cyborg Pyrates from the Future
Malibu Song
Last Bastion

As illustrator:
The Crapture
How to Get Respect on the Beaches of Malibu
Rat Tales
The Snake Pit
Tool's Snake Pit
Rohloff's Snake Pit

Daisy Duck McCrackin

Daisy is an actress, songwriter, and painter. More on MySpace.
- TITLES -
Idlers of the Bamboo Grove

Richard McDowell

Richard is a painter, filmmaker, poet, and co-founder of Brass Tacks Press. He was named "Downtown LA Poet Laureate" for 2009. More at www.richardmcdowell.com.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vols. 1-3

My Mind is Blank

Thirty Days on Spring

The Mormons

The Mormons is an LA punk band that dons the image of Mormon missionaries to symbolize their sacrifice, obsession, and dedication to their music. Their albums include Statement of No Statement. More on MySpace.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol. 6

Mr. Baer

"What I’d really like to do is invent some piece of junk that goes bing, bing, bing and quarters shoot out." More at Woofco.TV.
- TITLES -
Crap Poetry at Beyond Baroque

David Mark Patterson

"My adopted name is personfree, and my job title reads scientist creator...
i'm not venting, i'm inventing.
sending symbols in syllables
in the attempt of denting definition."
More on MySpace.

- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol. 3

Ariel Pink

Ariel is an experimental punk/pop musician. His albums include Worn Copy, The Doldrums, and House Arrest. “My writing is done as quickly and with as little thinking as possible because I have a hard time writing when I’m thinking.” More on MySpace.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol. 8

Pyramids without Points

LA punk band from 2004-5.
Vocals: Pablo Capra
Guitar: Scotty Dittrich
Bass: Nick Wise
Drums: Aaron Friscia (The Mormons, The Sharp Ease)
- TITLES -
Pyramids w/o Points: The Album

Paul Roessler

Paul was a member of early LA punk phenomenon The Screamers. He continued to play in and record with dozens of other cutting edge bands including The Dead Kennedys, Nina Hagen, 45 Grave, and many more... as well as producing solo albums (like Curator) and movie soundtracks. More on MySpace.
- TITLES -
Eight Years

Chris Rohloff

Chris's love of surfing was passed on to him by his father, surf photographer and filmmaker Grant Rohloff. In 1980, he was tricked into seeing X and discovered punk rock.
Website: www.grantrohloff.com
- TITLES -
Rohloff's Snake Pit

Saint-Pol Roux

The creative life of Saint-Pol Roux (1861-1940) was a key link between the Symbolists of the 19th century and the Surrealists of the 20th.
- TITLES -
Life as a Poet: Vol: 4

Tool

Tool is a mysterious guy in that you can know him for 20 years and you will never see the inside of his bathroom, or even find his back door.
- TITLES -
Tool's Snake Pit

Malibu Song

Los Angeles, California