The Orange Eats Creeps Title Explained (Barely)

[Above: the shortlist, circa 2004]

There was once a low-fi garage band called Unicornface. Its members were Nickole and Grace. Like Steely Dan, they were purely a studio creation. They were prolific, cranking out three cassette EPs in the span of a year. Each of their initial pressings (of 25 tapes, 30 tapes and 44 tapes, respectively) sold out in months.


Unicornface appeared on Santa Cruz Pirate Radio in March of 2003. Their manager, fearing a unicorn backlash, convinced the band to change its name to Lifetiger for the third and final EP release, “Suntan Creep.” Shortly thereafter, in the spring of 2004, the band went on indefinite hiatus. All that is left of Unicornface is this lonely Myspace page...

Unicornface had a song called “The Woof Eats Creeps.” I started writing a novel that summer called “Slutty Teenage Hobo Vampire Junkies” after a friend suggested I write a TV pilot based on a couple ideas I’d pitched to him (the other idea was “Ancient Egypt High School”). After working on it for a while the STHVJ tag began to feel ill-suited for a story that was finally transcending its Roger Corman-esque origins. So I messed around with some other options, mostly recombined GG Allin song titles. I liked Gypsy Motherfuckers, I liked Urchin Mystic, I liked the Woof Eats Creeps, but I wanted something more vague and all-encompassing.

“How about the Sun Eats Creeps?” said Nickole, wrapping some mango chunks in sheets of nori.

“Uh...maybe. Maybe ‘orange’ like the sun?” I said, going for one notch less obvs.

“Cool.”

“Yeah, okay, I like it.”

And the rest is history, dudes.

[The only known photograph of the band Unicornface, taken at Tiny's family restaurant at three in the morning.]

The PennySaver: An Appreciation

You know you want it; maybe you already get it but haven’t given it much thought. But people: how else are you going to know where the estate sales are? Where to buy a rabbit? Who to hire for your apartment’s dangerous wiring problem? This cute stapled newsprint circular closely resembles the Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, but less hip, more like the Fearless Flyer’s flame shirt-wearing cousin who drives a '90s Buick Roadmaster. For the uninitiated, the PennySaver is a weekly compendium of coupons for Lasik surgery and Hawaiian BBQ, listings for yard sales, pets, collectibles, jobs, rentals and the inevitable “Free Stuff” column (for those who want to save 100% of their pennies. You need firewood, right?), specific to your neighborhood, sub-neighborhood even. A couple tips: Don’t read it while you’re eating. Clip the Free Stuff column for a little found poetry.
(Example):

If you don’t already get the PennySaver every week, and you would like to, I’m sorry to inform you that it’s basically impossible to subscribe. You can go to the grocery store and see if they have any lying around, but they’re usually outdated. You can’t buy it -- you just have to wait until the PS decides to enter your life. And once it does, expect your ration of weekly newsprint to keep rolling in like the endless waves...forever...

To All the Corporate, Spilling Their Coffee

Japanther pretty much tore the roof off the motha. We're big (big) fans.

I Don't Want to be Your ATM

Here's a video of Care Bears on Fire performing at last Tuesday's Wrrrrock On music concert and social for NYC literacy crew, Girls Write Now. Can you believe they're just 15???

Girls Write Now Wrrrrocks

Mentor Emma Straub and mentee Stephanie Nolasco speak to the merits of Girls Write Now at Wrrrrock On 2010.

Xiao's Solo

The day after Book Expo America, I drove with a filmmaker friend and Brian up to Amherst, MA, to meet Xiaoda Xiao (author of The Cave Man) and to shoot an interview with him which we hope will help promote Xiao's memoir, The Visiting Suit: Stories From My Prison Life.

Xiao is an incredible human being: a beautiful painter, a warm person, and an incredible violinist.

I shot some behind-the-scenes footage with my handheld camera of Xiao playing. Not captured in the frame were my goosebumps.

An excerpt from The Visiting Suit appears in the new issue of Guernica Magazine.

The Gallery at the End of the World: Phantom Scribblings and Shiny Objects from the Thrift Underground

Whether you frequent swap meets, estate sales, rummage sales or thrift stores (and we’ll get to the classification of each later in the week), people always ask, “What are you looking for?” Well, for me, that’s a complex question. Everything and nothing. My mind is blank and brimming with encyclopedic wish lists at the same time. I’m looking for a copy of “The Vegetarian Epicure” and also any pre-1965 size 8.5 suede pumps that might be left in the world. I may not want any more, but a sense of fan-obligation to the movie Mulholland Dr. compels me to buy those brown curvy coffee mugs whenever I see them, so now I have like 20. On the whole, you’ll have a better time if you keep an open mind and just let the shit enchant you. If you’re hellbent on finding, say, a Wiccan’s dream journal or a vernacular photograph of a 1920s bedroom, you will be constantly frustrated, not to mention missing the point. Just keep digging till something clicks.

That said, if I had to narrow it down to a couple categories, I’d say I look for small shiny objects and phantom scribblings. “Shiny objects” play into that simple, soothing kind of bird habit of raking through objects that are colorful and clanky, reassuring in their sensory fullness. And then there are scribblings, conveying the allure of antique secrets, the privilege of holding a small container full of a phantom individual’s interior thoughts -- put down in their own hand. Maybe one of the last remaining traces of a person’s time on earth. At any rate, the singularity of a letter, a snapshot, a diary, is not to be taken lightly.

Here we have doodles...


codes...


records kept...



and one person's pre-xerox style of copying helpful articles...



Who were these people who lived so long ago?

Orange Week at TDR Noise

Hi everybody, how’s it going? I’m gonna settle in, turn this thing into something resembling my teenage bedroom. I think I’ll put some freaky posters up, throw on some 45s; I’ll even shoo the cat off the only chair so you can sit and stay a while…

Termite Parade Book Trailer

5 weeks away from my new book hitting stores and thrilled with its trailer!

The Human Spirit Is Alive.

WRRRROCK ON was insanely rad.

Thanks to the generous support from the coolest indie publishers -- Chin Music, Coffee House, Exterminating Angel, Featherproof, Seven Stories, Small Beer, Tin House, Tyrant Books, Unbridled Books, and Verso -- as well as the amazing support from everyone who showed up and walked through the door, we helped raise $3,750 for Girls Write Now.

We couldn't have done it without the help from Care Bears on Fire and Japanther. Seriously, the two bands are, like, the greatest . . . ever.

And big ups to Joshua Mohr, who flew in from SF to emcee the event (!).

A good, beautiful time, and a grand bear-hug of thanks to everyone involved. Seriously, today was amazing. And I'm so happy.

We have such great video from the event, once I get home I'll be sure to post her on up here.

WRRRROCK ON ! ! ! !

Tonight is Wrrrrock On. We're super-stoked and hope to see you there.

(Japanther + Care Bears on Fire + Joshua Mohr) x Girls Write Now = a blast.

The doors open at 7 and the event will last until 9:30. Directions are below, so you won't get lost.

(Remember, if you can't make it, you can still support Girls Write Now through a number of other venues they have listed on their website.)

By Bus

B61 Bus

Take the B61 to the Sands St stop at Gold and York streets. Head west on York St toward Bridge St. Head about 4 blocks to Adams St and turn right. Go two blocks to Water St and make a left. Two more blocks and you'll find us at the corner of Water and Main St. Visit the [MTA site] for bus routes and schedules.

By Subway

F Train

Take the F to York Street. Coming out of the subway (there is only one exit) turn right and walk down the hill on Jay Street 1 block to Front Street, turn left and walk 4 blocks to Main Street, turn right and we’re on the next corner, at 16 Main Street.

A Train

Take the A train towards the Brooklyn Bridge to HIgh Street (first stop in brooklyn). Coming out of the subway (there is only one exit) cross the street and walk 100 steps through the beautiful little park to Washington Street. Turn left to walk down the hill 4 short blocks to Water Street, turn left and we’re on the next corner, at 16 Main Street.

2/3 Train

Take the 2/3 train to Clark Street. Coming out of the subway, head North on Henry Street, towards Pineapple Street. Walk 6 blocks and turn left at Cadman Plaza West/Old Fulton Street. Walk 2 blocks and turn Right at Front Street. Make a left at Main Street, and we’re on the corner of Main Street and Water Street.

G Train

Take the G Train to Brooklyn/ Smith -9th Street and get off at Hoyt Street- Schermerhorn Street. Connect to the C or the A Train to High Street. (1st stop in Brooklyn). Coming out of the subway (there is only one exit) cross the street and walk 100 steps through the beautiful little park to Washington Street. Turn left to walk down the hill 4 short blocks to Water Street, turn left and we’re on the next corner, at 16 Main Street.

L Train (From North Brooklyn via the City)

Take the L Train into Manhattan, and get off at 6 Avenue. Hop on the F train (6 Ave 14th Street) towards Downtown/Coney Island. Get off at York Street. Coming out of the subway (there is only one exit) turn right and walk down the hill on Jay Street 1 block to Front Street, turn left and walk 4 blocks to Main Street, turn right and we’re on the next corner, at 16 Main Street.

By Car

From Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge

Exit right from the Brooklyn Bridge to Cadman Plaza West; bear right at the bottom of exit ramp. Follow Old Fulton Street, curving left, down to Front Street. Make a hard right on Front Street, then a left on Main Street. We are on the corner of Main Street and Water Street.

From Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge

Take the upper roadway of the Manhattan Bridge. Coming off the bridge, make a right turn onto Tillary Street, then another right turn at the end onto Cadman Plaza West, which becomes Old Fulton Street. Follow Old Fulton Street, curving left, down to Front Street. Make a hard right on Front Street, then a left on Main Street. We are on the corner of Main Street and Water Street.

From Brooklyn

Take Atlantic Avenue to Boerum Place heading toward Brooklyn Bridge. Boerum Place becomes Adams Street. Stay in the far left lane, and turn left onto Tillary Street. Make a right on Cadman Plaza West, which becomes Old Fulton Street. Follow Old Fulton Street, curving left, down to Front Street. Make a hard right on Front Street, then a left on Main Street. We are on the corner of Main Street and Water Street

From Queens

Heading south on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, take the Cadman Plaza/Brooklyn Bridge exit. Turn right at the exit ramp stop sign onto Old Fulton Street. Make a quick right onto Front Street, then a left on Main Street. We are on the corner of Main Street and Water Street

From Long Island

Head north on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, take the Cadman Plaza West exit. At the bottom of the exit ramp, all traffic turns right onto Old Fulton Street. Make a legal U-turn at the first light. Head back down Old Fulton Street to Front Street. Make a hard right on Front Street, then a left on Main Street. We are on the corner of Main Street and Water Street.

Japanther

Japanther will be performing at WRRRROCK ON, Tuesday, May 25, 7 - 9:30 at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn.

Tur-Mayht Trailer

The Bourgeois Mind

Nicholas Berdyaev wrote a book called The Bourgeois Mind, a title that is intriguing because it encompasses so much of modernity, from Bovary, to Babbitt, to Thorston Veblen’s notion of conspicuous consumption. But any lab examination of a bourgeois mind preserved in formaldehyde would surely demonstrate that the oppressed populace Frantz Fanon describes in The Wretched of the Earth has no monopoly on dissatisfaction. H. Rap Brown once said that “violence is as American as cherry pie.” So is rebellion. The flappers of the Jazz age gave way to the nice girls who fell for rebels and criminals. The Jean Seberg character in Godard’s Breathless is the prototypical American innocent who falls for the criminal. What was a nice Jewish girl like Hettie Cohen doing with the proto black nationalist who was to change his name from LeRoi Jones to Amiri Baraka? Read her memoir, How I Became Hettie Jones. Today white suburban kids constitute the biggest audience for the violent lyrics of rappers like Snoop Doggy Dog.

In The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the British novelist Alan Sillitoe distilled England’s class hatred for dissatisfied sixties baby boomers who enjoyed all the advantages of an emerging prosperity. Sillitoe, who died this past Sunday, April 25, created a crucible of class consciousness that fueled the revolutionary aspirations of a whole generation of youthful Americans, whose art house excursions (both Loneliness and Saturday Night were made into classic movies with such cinema greats as Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, and Rachel Rogers) to theatres like the Paris and the Thalia in Manhattan provided the launching pad for rioting against what they deemed to be the empty values and aspirations of their parents. John Osborne is one of the few “angry young men” whose message seems to survive its periodicity. Osborne’s Look Back in Anger is still occasionally performed, and Jimmy Porter has achieved iconic status in the pantheon of rebels whose cause was basically life. Yet the gritty world out of which Sillitoe came, and from which his writing provided an escape, left an indelible imprint on the sons and daughters of an age of prosperity who were contriving their own escape—in this case from the hard won comforts of the merchant and professional class.

[This was originally posted to The Screaming Pope, Francis Levy's blog of rants and reactions to contemporary politics, art and culture.]

Care Bears on Fire

Care Bears on Fire will be performing at WRRRROCK ON, Tuesday, May 25, 7 - 9:30 at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn.