Nate East

Tag: fiction

April 19, 2010

left here a couple months ago

A new story of mine was just posted at Monkeybicycle- check it out here! Big thanks to Jessa and everyone at MB!

*

I also did a writeup of Just Kids by Patti Smith that’s now up at The Rumpus.  That book was so sick- get a copy as soon as you can!

*

I recently got to see one of my favorite bands of recent memory, Wolves in the Throne Room, in a soul-destroying live show along with rock legends Earth.  Pretty once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  Full writeup coming soon, maybe sent somewhere, not sure yet…  summary for now: spiritual experience.

*

Been reading a lotta zines lately, including recent issues of Doris, no gods no mattress, Scam, and Cometbus.  Always good times.  The latest Cometbus is especially rad and includes some great short stories.

*

Picked this guy up last week and have been listening to it a lot:

Genghis Tron is very similar to a power-electro version of Converge, or something.  Highly recommended!  I’m excited to pick up their newer album, Board up the House, if I ever see it anywhere, ha ha.

2 Comments
March 30, 2010

it was round now last year during the rains when

I’ve been doing lots of writing, including a couple new poems now in submission queues, a couple short-short stories now in submission queues, and I’m still polishing the longer ones. Let me know if you want to read anything!

*

I bought the latest issue of ZYZZYVA at Needles and Pens a few days ago and read it and it was unquestionably the best literary journal I’ve ever read, by far.

It is utter and complete destruction.  I can’t wait to submit a story to them someday.  If you’re in the Bay Area, it’s available at tons of bookstores; check out a copy!

*

Finished this guy today:

which was predictably amazing.  Cormac McCarthy is rapidly becoming maybe my “favorite” living author.  So far this year I’ve also read The Road and Blood Meridian, and I’m really excited to read the rest of the Border Trilogy now.  Also, i’m always on the lookout for a used copy of The Orchard Keeper, his first novel.  These seem to be pretty rare though, so next up is probably re-reading Blood Meridian.

*

Meanwhile, in Lawrence, Asteroid Head brings the St. Patrick’s Day heat/weirdstuff:

Hyped to see some photos from their recent trip to SXSW!

*

Bought this like a long time ago and have had it in constant rotation forever:

Perfect music to write or read to.  Planning on either picking up Silver next or diving headlong in Justin Broadrick’s extensive back catalog and maybe buying a Godflesh album or something.

*

This guy (that is to say, Sam Owen) is now a contributor at the un-google-able Forty Eight Hours In A Day blog, which seems super rad so far.

Check it out here!  I still miss the days of The Aim Was Song, though…

Leave a comment
March 17, 2010

cloud mist who lift over the trees and bridge cables

A writeup I did of a Reginald Dwayne Betts poem was posted today at The Rumpus- check it out here! Thanks a bunch to poetry editor Brian Spears and everyone else at The Rumpus.

*

Last week I finished Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott:


which was shocking and depressing and almost impossible to put down.  I think I read it in two or three total sittings, each of which ran much longer than I had planned, and I was non-trivially late to at least one dinner because I completely lost track of time while reading the book.  Super direct and raw writing, very intense story, generally great all around.  Go grab a copy!  I’m also excited to read Elliott’s latest release, The Adderall Diaries, once the paperback comes out.

*

After weeks of listening to their music online via their myspace, I finally bought the new Blessure Grave album on CD and have been listening to it ever since, including, in fact, right now, and it’s awesome and ya should definitely check their stuff out!  Lots of free streaming tracks here.

Leave a comment
February 26, 2010

and days grow longer steadily

Here is a quote from my favorite poem that I have read in some time:

One afternoon Rashad
broke the collar of midnight,
streaks of a Norfolk street
running down
his face.

from R. Dwayne Betts, “Dear Augusta,” The Collagist, January 2010.

The full poem is here.  Check it out!

Betts’ website is here.

.

I’ve got four short story drafts that I’m editing right now in preparation for submitting to some new journals.  Each one is ~1,500 words or so.  If you’re interested in checking them out, let me know!

.

tenderloin is the night blog is always rad.

.

Almost done reading Day Out of Days by Sam Shepard:

which is sprawling and beautiful, hits you very hard, and is often crushingly sad.  Really powerful writing in the form of short stories, really-short-stories, and poetry.  Since I am especially into stuff about the desert, it doesn’t hurt that lots of this is set in the Southwest.  Worth checking out at yer library!

.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, Mr. Sam Owen shot a ton of photos at a bunch of art openings in SF a few weeks ago, and posted a show writeup as well as tons of snaps at Fecal Face Dot Com.  Check it out here!

1 Comment
February 16, 2010

sunny quiet, old man reading, low cinderblock wall

An older story of mine, Girl with Tangled Hair, was just published at The Northville Review. The other stories in this issue are super great. Check it out here; thanks Erin!

As mentioned in the previous post, I picked up Erick Lyle’s On the Lower Frequencies last week at Needles and Pens:

and I finished reading it a couple days ago.

The book comprises a few different types of writing: first, excerpts from Lyle’s Scam zine, including alternately hilarious and horrifying stories about organizing protests and illegal generator shows in the Mission, finding and developing squats/event-spaces in abandoned buildings, and generally living in the underground art/life/music activist/punk/traveler scene in SF.  There are also pieces of Lyle’s political writing, dealing mostly with tenant’s rights and homeless rights issues within the city, as well as a particularly interesting/inspiring section on getting the first needle exchange started in the Haight.  Finally, there are lots of interviews with artists, scene figures, activists/humanitarians, and even a short one with the former mayor of SF!

Lyle’s excellent writing carries you through these disparate topics with a storyteller voice, making each section exciting and interesting.  I think this book is definitely of special interest to folks living in SF [that have visited the many donut shops Lyle writes about], but would also be a fun and informative read for anyone interested in art/punk subcultures or activist/grass-roots politics.  Definitely recommended!

Wow that was a long review.  Anyway, just buy the book at N&P if you have a couple bucks!

I’ve been listening to weirdly less-heavy music lately… couple favorites:


Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why Their Are Mountains. Listened to this guy for about a week on repeat.

Japandroids – Post-Nothing.  Wanted to hate this for some reason, ended up loving it. Very fun.

Finally, I spent an-hour-plus the other day updated this old Myspace profile that I had set up like a year ago and then never used.  It is unclear to me why I’ve updated it, but, um, some things are just a mystery, I guess.

Leave a comment
February 1, 2010

desert wind forgot your name / jungle woods and river side

I just finished Bed by Tao Lin:
which brings the number of Tao Lin books I have read in the past few months to a shocking THREE.  I would say it’s the most ’emotional’ book of his I’ve read and also the one with the most overtly ‘literary’ language (?) and certainly emotionally heaviest-hitting.  Like, super depressing, in an accurate and too-familiar way.  Really good and worth a read.

I found photographer/musician Nick Wortham’s website recently while flipping through old Fecal Face POTD posts:

There are lots more arrestingly beautiful and inspiring photos at his site, ‘this is not a story.’

And, finally, I’ve recently been listening to a lot of:

Leave a comment
January 23, 2010

rattling heaters and reverb and murky cold night without

Am super hyped; some of my writing just went up at a couple of hella cool journals!

First, a poem appears in the first issue of So and So Magazine, a new project from the organizers of the So and So reading series and publishing imprint in Raleigh, NC. The other work in the issue is super rad, and the web design is nightmarishly cool/classy as well; check it out here!

Second! A short story of mine was published in the latest issue of the always-hardcore Dogzplot Flash Fiction, alongside some really killer other work. Definitely check out the new issue! I think my piece is the longest one I’ve had published so far… which might mean… something.

In other news, the performance-art/print-making/gnar-event-planning collective known as ASTEROID HEAD ART CLUB just put up a rad new website!

I first heard about these dudes through Sam Owen’s photo-essay of their July 4th art-happening out in the wilderness, AKA Summer Camp:

Definitely check out the whole photo set here… pretty insane.

There’s been lots of other stuff going on too – new music – new shows – new books, etc, but I gotta run, so will leave ya with this cassette which is playing right now:

Robedoor – Raiders . such great psych/drone wildness.  This one in particular is sold out, but look for upcoming stuff at their ill LA label, Not Not Fun!

…speaking of which, can’t wait for the new Magic Lantern LP… okay really going now!

1 Comment
January 13, 2010

but forgotten, lost in old caves and desert caverns of the earth

I’ve been sending out more and more lit journal/website submissions, but haven’t heard back from anywhere since like November.  Hoping!

I finished reading Blood Meridian yesterday

which was an utterly mind-wrecking read.

I’d previously read McCarthy’s The Road, which I also really enjoyed, and which I saw as this kind of perfectly gaunt and streamlined vision/story that ended with a real banger of a paragraph that stayed with me for days.

Blood Meridian, in contrast, is an entire novel length “banger of a paragraph,” that is, the whole thing reads like some kind of insane Biblical-language fever dream, ultra-graphic and shocking violence, ultra-beautiful and terrifying descriptions of nature, and ultra-dense and hell-and-brimstone philosophical dialogue between extremely interesting characters.  I would highly, highly recommend it, and, if that’s not enough, Harold Bloom also totally digs it, calling it the best American novel ever, or something.  Super-worth a read.

Besides reading this guy, I’ve been very into looking at photos these past few weeks, especially some new joints from:

1. tenderloin is the night

2. mr. sam owen

3. mike brodie / polaroid kidd

And, even more than usual (since I’ve been working a ton), I’ve been listening to some new music.

1. Obsessed with Neurosis these days, and have recently bought three of their albums and one side-project LP… so far this is the one I’ve listened to most:

2. Look at those outfits:

3.  Have had this for almost a year, but only recently begun listening to it all the way through a lot. Really amazing record:

Leave a comment
December 21, 2009

December 20

The Dirty Pond, a small lit / art review based in New Haven CT, recently picked up a short story of mine which went up on their website last week, along with some rad artwork/prose from other contributors.  Check it out here!

My friend Sean Croft, who needs no introduction (although it must be mentioned that he is known by some for his work with A Born Idler as “the Lou Reed of the South”) has been recording/performing in Europe lately, and he’s put a bunch of awesome new music up at his website here!  Definitely worth checking out.  Additionally, Sean’s started a blog to post writing-excerpts/thoughts/hilarious “year end lists,” which is here.  Word.

My friend J bought me a copy of this guy:

for an (early) x-mas present, and I’ve been reading it during spare moments.  Currently about halfway through (just finished the interview with Murakami.)  Some super interesting insights in there for sure; I think my favorite parts so far are Jonathan Lethem talking to Paul Auster (I’m a fan of both Fortress of Solitude and NY Trilogy) and also the interview with Edward P. Jones where he throws down a quote to the effect of “when I’m writing I think about only one reader.  Myself.” which is hella awesome.

I’ve also been re-reading some of William Blake (Marriage of Heaven + Hell and Urizen, so far) but full report on that later.

In closing: records!

2 Comments
December 12, 2009

unedited spur-of-the-moment 12/11/2009

OKAY so have a couple hours before going out into that rainy night so going to try this (again): just off-the-cuff kind-of write-what’s-in-my head.  Haha (?)  Here goes:

Who performed with a scarf over his face and mouth to obscure it? the scarf?  I hid behind a mic stand I’d modified with some cardboard I bought at Walgreens so it was a big old screen with some google-imaged Celtic knot drawings and Shakespeare lines scrawled on it – worth that extra money for the extra-thick Sharpies and the twenty dollar stereo headphones to play Def Jux or industrial noise records on the freezing walk over to the event-friendly bookstores and little literary bars.  Ultra-slashed copy of The Faerie Queen in the back pocket – honestly I had hoped for years that these jeans would rip enough so the author’s name was revealed when I was just chillin waiting for busses or riding my bike – and then it finally happened! like “one day I woke up and.”

And on that subject busses just run forever – there’s the owl and then the night owl and then the dead of night owl and then the that-new-moss-record owl and then it’s pretty much morning and the five o’clock rolls around again and you can ride this shit forever.  For like a dollar!  What is it about that repetitive electric riff.  I shadow boxed a little on the hill-climb to the yuppie shinto monastary.  Anyone else heard the clickety synthesizer alien noises that been popping up around Mission street in the early evenings?  On the under-construction sidewalks round the block from the noodle place that’s only open in the dead of night and has no door or lights or chairs to sit on so every order’s to go from a faceless chef in the night behind the counter with the howls of steam and occasional flash of cooking knives in the thick darkness?

That’s the street with the Turkish cafe!  With the scaffolding over the sidewalks and the walkway supports made out of green pipes that are always tattered with flyers like fell-off pigeon feathers!  You seen that bank that just got built there?  It’s like from the wachovia merger or something?  The front’s built out of raw pine or something so the damn thing creaks and drips like a ski lodge.  Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s like a porch or a wooden-beam balcony and a firebowl no doubt

2 Comments