Behold the Lore of LA Authors! I was honored to have my good friend Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the Poet, perform at my recent birthday party/book launch. The self-proclaimed poet-journalist is known throughout LA, not only as a wunderkind on stages from Venice to Ventura, but for hosting poetic events and art shows since the mid-90's. A prolific writer, Mike's work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The Book Los Angeles, 562 Magazine, Jointz Magazine and numerous online publications. Along with Shlomo Sher, he co-founded the socio-political e-zine, getunderground.com. Last year, he debuted his critically acclaimed spoken word CD, "I am Alive in Los Angeles," and is about to drop another lyrical offering -- a book of poetry and prose set against the backdrop of the City of Angels. Check out Mike putting it down with his poetic partner in crime, Philharmonic, at my birthday bash. More of Mike's work can be found at www.myspace.com/mikethepoet and iuniverse.com. Holla at your boy!
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			LA AUTHORS By Mike the Poet Is it the sunshine or catastrophes, flash floods or the traffic, the magic Of Los Angeles makes music. Los Angeles Makes magic.. the muse of Los Angeles Makes artists get active. Behold the lore of LA authors! Who’s rockin’ the populace In the postmodern metropolis? LA AuthorS Starting with Charles Fletcher Lummis Sunshine looms large In literary Los Angeles.. From the myth of Ramona & California ranchos, Orange groves & the Arroyo Seco --- Expatriate artists of the 1890s the first sunshine wave of LA Authors..Boosters blew the trumpets On the golden states landscape, sun for 300 days, a cure for old age, Find the fountain of youth in Los Angeles.. hyped up pamphlets Let the world know.. "Land of the sunshine," "the new Eden." It was manifest destiny, but not heaven for everybody. Besides the boosters there were debunkers, socialists, expatriate poets, leftist screenwriters..Fitzgerald, Robinson Jeffers, Louis Adamic, Jake Zeitlin, Nathaniel West was one of the best, the city in flames in the day of the locust..the underground intelligentsia of artists & authors living in Echo park bungalows, McCarthy called it red hill.. Sinclair yelled oil! Behold! The lore of LA authors! Chandler & Cain were kings of writing noir detective novels in the lost streets of Bunker Hill where Fante celebrates staircase fire escapes & lost love.. Long before Rodney King there was the Zoot Suit Riots, the LAPD & Navy fools fought with Pachucos in the Sleepy Lagoon Carey McWilliams knew the deal on the Fire Factories in the Field Palm trees are swaying in the wind As the sunset begins it’s twilight on Franklin.. What makes Sammy run? Is it the architectural illusion? Hollywood tycoons & the American dream If he hollers let him go, Central Avenue Robinson Jeffers & Langston Hughes Ray Bradbury wrote about Martian chronicles, L. Ron Hubbard wrote science fiction into scientology, Bukowski in single room occupancies wrote sublime poetry About the plight of modern man with a beer can in his hands.. Venice beats off Abbott Kinney Every time I’m in Venice Jim Morrison speaks to me! Behold the lore of LA authors! Rockin’ like Rockabilly car clubs, the Carpenters, Beach Boys.. Grease, disco & roller skating Singer-songwriters in Laurel canyon like Neil Young, James Taylor & Joni Mitchell sang the real deal in the Hollywood hills basking above Babylon & hedonism before hippie folk maidens became pop rock musicians.. Rockin’ the Rainbow Room & Led Zeppelin sellin platinum radio free Hollywood Hotel California Doobie Brothers Play that funky music white boy Behold! The lore of LA authors! Brett Easton Ellis tells us about Gilded youth snorting white rails In Beverly Hills, Less than Zero Walter Mosley with Easy Rawlins The devil in the blue dress & Little Richard Barry White grew up near Willowbrook Motown came out west with the Jacksons Lewis MacAdams dug Miles brought the Birth of the Cool James Ellroy kept LA Confidential like Black Dahlia To Gabriel Garcia Marquez Magical realism.. Hunter S. Thompson’s New journalism We’re South of no north in the City of Quartz, Reelin’ in the years in the Ecology of Fear Mike Davis & Magical Urbanism hit like Joan Didion’s White Album Thomas Pynchon to Luis Rodriguez, Lynell George to Ruben Martinez Wanda Coleman & Exene Cervenka.. KROQ to KDAY sound selectors.. Punk rock pop Underground poets Urban planners Klein Soja Jello Biafra Rollins Ellyn Maybe spoken word artists Got trails blazin’ Paul Vangelisti, John Thomas, Lawrence Lipton & the Holy Barbarians, Stuart Perkoff & words raisin’ roofs like A Mic & Dim Lights Poetix Beyond Baroque.. Ginsberg got naked folks.. Welcome to the West Coast’s Poetry & Jazz Festival Behold the lore of LA authors! The truth is stranger than fiction its surreal living these conditions, William Gibson Science Fiction.. Cyber punks on super expressways.. Ghetto bird cameras everyday.. Hollywood loves the apocalypse The coast is toast! Earthquakes flash floods El Nino Armageddon busted bridges Waves are crashing on the edge of the continent. The city in flames or another day in paradise Sunshine or noir -- Baywatch or Blade Runner? Stay tuned for another long hot summer Santa Ana warm winds keep blowin’ & creative juices keep flowin, the list of LA authors keeps growin’ LA Authors makin’ Music loud like Sunset Strip rock’n’roll soul Doors Van Halen Motley Crue Guns’n’Roses Ice Cube, NWA Dr. Dre, Pharcyde Snoop Dogg, Freestyle Fellowship, Hip-hop, metal, bedroom producers, Turntablists & poets Behold the lore of LA authors! Back to top

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