First Noveltown Bookshare in Hollywood shares the stage - By N.L. Belardes

Noveltown Bookshare in Hollywood!

When I first approached Rich Ferguson, contributor to The Nervous Breakdown blog, about a Noveltown Bookshare, I think we were both a bit skeptical. We had a lot to think about: Noveltown connecting to people and talking books? That was the key: connecting to new people. It quickly became an idea not about selling books as much as connecting people and ideas. It was about sharing and performing—a moment for the Indie people…

So Matildakay, chingpea and I traveled to Hollywood, California to The Ferguson bungalow, where we met Rich decked out in his usual straw hat and scarf. The very wonderful Yoga master, Jessica was in the house—as were a few bottles of vino. It was an instant treat to meet a poet like Ferguson who’d performed at so many cool places like Disney's Redcat hall, Beyond Baroque and more (He’d just returned from Brooklyn where one of his biggest performances was charming his way through a tranny bar).





Before I read from Lords: Part One I met some of the people who’d showed up. I talked to Conrad Romo, organizer of Hotel Café’s Tongue & Groove: Short Stories, Poetry, Personal Essays, Spoken Word & Music. The shows take place the last Sunday of each month…

The Tongue & Groove site reads:

You can play a significant part in growing Tongue & Groove. A couple of years ago, a not very good movie that had "fat" and "wedding" in the title was seen by a lot of people and became a big hit. Its run was aided largely by word of mouth. You, yes you can be very helpful and significant in stirring up a crowd and making T&G a big fat crowd-pleasing literary phenom. This unique event happens the last Sunday of every month. You can count on it to be word for word, note for note, and pound for pound a fine and cool experience.



Conrad and I stood in a small kitchen and talked about all the cool literary and poetry events in Los Angeles and how organizing events at the Hotel Café really makes a difference in his life. He does it out of his love for the exhilaration and energy he draws after seeing an inspiring performance.

Soon enough I gave a short reading. After talking some Bakersfield/Hollywood history I read Chapter 16 from Lords, where Joey Minstrel hangs out at the home of Ricky Rollins and ponders the idea of love for his lovers. Then I read Chapter 1 and my voice went out…

Out in the big blue Hollywood sky, this was the place where Karvac said Minstrel could meet everyone: Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset and Melrose; these are the streets on fire; streets killing everyone on them; streets picking boys like Karvac up and body slamming them in gutters as if they have arms to do that, as if they’re the ones that wrap you in quick alley fits to pump you full of their money, their junk and everything else running straight into your veins. Those streets with the scores on them. Minstrel had already met three between the hours of eight and ten. He thought he was getting better with every one. They’ll get you back behind the clubs—those hunched over buildings stuck on the rolling streets near Tower Records, in the limos passing along Vine, bisecting the great Hollywood vein; in the producer’s office overlooking the Studios; in his house, in his daughter’s bed; in front of his closest friends—all of them pouring wine over their ecstasy moment; even his friends over the big hill, where Minstrel didn’t really know he was about to take his next car ride into the fog-filled valley that has no Sunset Strips, no Santa Monica Boulevards, just a few parks where he can score, or a bus station where every heavenly one of Karvac’s Central Valley Bakersfield buddies light it up, hoping for the big man to come rolling in to a near empty room, just them sitting in it, and the big man cutting loose and whispering with his soft lusty gloom-filled tongue dripping in their ears, “Boys I don’t want no trouble. I just want you.” Over in the bus station downtown, it was often Karvac and the rest of the boys, all cozy and pretending they don’t know each other at any time of the day: at lunch hour, at 2am, at eight o’clock bus hour I-gotta-get-to-El Paso blues, “‘Cause we all want that same wad, that same stash,” Karvac says. So they all go. But not tonight. Tonight it’s Minstrel’s night in Hollywood…



Later Conrad Romo read several poems. He sat on a couch near a lamp and started to sweat as he flipped through pages….

Here are some video samples of Conrad Romo’s poetry:

Video 1:


Video 2:


Video 3: hilarious tongue twister scene...


Liz Foster then sang a few songs. Her atmospheric guitar work and moody vocals made for some dreamy party moments. This song rocks on my loud computer speakers at home. I’m amazed my camera picked up such quality…





Rich Ferguson had quite the Rudolph Rant. I shared that with you a few days ago.

Randall Fleming of The Brickbat Review read a purposely sarcastic poem from a book collection of drivel he picked up at a yard sale. I cracked up. I later talked to Randal about controversy surrounding Fatty Arbuckle, a famous actor from yesteryear. Arbuckle may have had some debauchery filled moments in Bakersfield and Taft around the time he filmed the movie Opportunity in 1913.

Poem from The Brickbat Reviewer, Randall Fleming:


We shared conspiracy theories and then I spoke to Randal’s cohort in crime for Brickbat: Teka. She's the voice on the Brickbat myspace site. Dig it. Dig her.

One of the most interesting moments for me came from a discussion with Gerry Fialka from Venice Beach. He organizes 7 Dudley Film events at Sponto Gallery, which was the old LA Beats hangout: Venice West Café. The oddity in meeting Gerry was having studied under professor John Arthur Maynard who wrote Venice West: The Beat Generation in Southern California. We spoke about the Beats, about the gallery film events, of Beat names like John Thomas and his wife Philomene, Kerouac, Corso, Perkhoff and Larry Lipton.



Gerry then quizzed me philosophically about my book and Noveltown. It was a delightful discussion where he ended up offering to showcase Chronicle of the Lords at the very venue where Kerouac and Ginsberg once performed.

There was then talk about the ongoing events at Venice poet gatherings, Beyond Baroque. Rich Ferguson and I later talked about the possibility of a co-show there reading poetry and prose.

Wow, what a night of performances, sharing, and opening doors to new opportunities…

(also read Matildakay's report)

If you’re interested in hosting your own Bookshare event, please contact melody@noveltown.net…

We’re looking forward to more…

This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on Wednesday, December 13, 2006. You can leave your response.