The New Yorker calls it unusual and beautiful.” The LA Weekly raves, the photos are strikingly inventive, revealing yet another side of this modern-day Renaissance man.” MTV calls it a charming, well-shot document of a the legendary punk rocker’s photographic dabbling.” Detroit Metrotimes: A unique insight into Watt’s mind.” Mike Watt: On and Off Bass” is getting a lot of buzz. And for good reason, considering the author and photographer is the legendary punk bassist himself. Mike Watt got his musical start thumping the bass with legendary San Pedro punk trio, The Minutemen in 1980 and he has been at it ever since. Over the years, he’s toured with Dos, fIREHOSE, his own The Black Gang, The Secondmen, The Missingmen, and others, and he has worked bass as a sideman for Porno for Pyros, J Mascis and the Fog, as well as punk godfathers The Stooges. Off the road, at his beloved San Pedro, CA home base, Watt developed a deep interest in photography. In Spring 2010, Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica, CA hosted an exhibit of his photos: Mike Watt: Eye-Gifts from Pedro.” According to Track 16 executive director Laurie Steelink, who curated the exhibit, He has this knack for finding the early morning sweet spots when venturing out alone on his bike or kayak. The resulting photographs never seem to dry: light, flight, salt, rust, and tide commingle in fiery sunrises, endless heavens, roiling waves and fog.” The photos offer another side of Watt that fans of his punk rock music may not be familiar with: While seemingly serene, many have an underlying tension and that often shows the sharp contrast between industry and nature. In Mike Watt: On and Off Bass,” photographs that appeared in the exhibit are punctuated by Watt’s poetry and snippets selected from 10 years of his diaries. Watt’s writing is insightful, funny, intimate and honest, as he explores topics like John Coltrane, long hauls and overcoming performance fears. Mike Watt: On and Off Bass” exposes Watt’s vision as a photographer, diarist and poet, taking its readers on a trip. And when you stop turning the pages of Watt’s story, you start turning the pages of yours, re-ignited. Mike Watt’s photos are the poetry of San Pedro...every time he goes out on that kayak he comes back with gold. These gorgeous images paired with the raw reflections of three decades on the road are sure to blow the minds of all who love punk rock and our beloved vision questing troubadour.” - Jack Black Here is the last stand of the fruited earth and the ship-freighted sea. How lovely America was. God bless San Pedro and Mike Watt.” - Iggy Pop " The heart and mind and EYES of Michael Watt, half-brother of us all, in black/white and color. No blue-eyed beatnik Buddhist ever breathed such humility; no jackleg science-fictioneer ever oozed such enchantment. That's right!" - Richard Meltzer "Watt covers the waterfront." - Raymond Pettibon " Susan Sontag wrote that photographs of people are haunted by death. There aren't many people in Mike Watt's photographs so maybe that's why they seem haunted rather by life the large operations of man around the harbor and the smaller scale activity of wildlife that puts up with them. Mike is out at sun-up and getting to see SoCal's lands end from his kayak is an unearned privilege, the best kind a book can deliver. Paired with excerpts from his journal which catch him rolling across the continents as a working musician gives a precise idea what besides exercise Mike gets out of it." - Joe Carducci " Mike Watt is poetry. He's like one half of a metaphor. Watt can only be matched in poetry. When you mix pirate, Pedro pix, music, d. boon forever, hard work, weird sincerity, good will, curiosity, love, and an adult moustache, what do you have? Poetry is the answer. Poetry poetry poetry. Watt Watt Watt!" - Richard Hell Reviews The LA Review of Books Craig Hubert offers a keen and insightful review of Mike Watt: On and Off Bass” in this week’s edition. Hubert notes, [Watt] has a keen eye for capturing unexpected disruptions within seemingly normal, even mundane situations. . . Loss is prevalent throughout On and Off Bass,” but it is undercut with hope; there is always the sustaining reservoir of inspiration from Boon, from music, from San Pedro itself to dip back into. It’s the same reservoir that John Coltrane described in a 1966 interview with Nat Hentoff: There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine, new feelings to get at.’” Rick Moodys extensive interview with Mike Watt on TheRumpus.Net is an essential read for fans of the legendary punk rock bass player, photographer, poet and writer. It starts with major props for the Three Rooms Press book Mike Watt: On and Bass,” which Moody notes, As with everything that Watt has turned his attention to since he began making art in 1980, On and Off Base is sincere, funny, handmade, beautiful, totally idiosyncratic, and entirely original.” MTV Hive writer Austin L. Ray is impressed with the econo nature of the new Three Rooms Press book, Mike Watt: On and Off Bass” by the legendary punk bassist. The book features photos from Watt’s gallery show at Track 16 in Santa Monica, juxtaposed with poetry, reflections and diary snippet from Watt’s massive 1,500 page collection of musings on Hootpage.com. The article features Watt discussing the origins of some of the photos in the book. The New Yorker loves Mike Watt: On and Off Bass”, calling it an unusual and beautiful photographic memoir.” LA Weekly writer Nicholas Pell interviews Mike Watt, revealing exclusive photos from the new book Mike Watt: On and Off Bass.” Pell raves, His skill lies not in classical composition although photo nerds will nonetheless find plenty to like in the book. Rather, Watt’s strength comes from his ability to capture everyday scenes. His pictures make the mundane into the sublime.” Rockerzine writer Katy Dang raves about Mike Watt: On and Off Bass,” noting that through the photos and text, Watt brings his world and his experiences into focus, sharing them unabashedly with whoever chooses to come on board. He brings the past into the present, never merely resting on his laurels and always missing D. Boon, his missing friend.” Greg Barbrick, on blogcritics.com says it’s a collection that rewards repeated viewings and is very well crafted.”

Mike Watt: On and Off Bass

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Three Rooms Press

When an art scene takes root in a pop-up colony called Freedom Springs, micro-visionary Ben Wilfork promotes the giant, autobiographical 600 square foot canvases of former chess prodigy and high end dominatrix Rhonda Barrett using his Hidden Wheel as a bridge to the future before pre-Datastrophe history completes itself. It's a book about the scams of the modern age--artistic self-promotion, corporate infiltration of hipsterdom--and it's hilarious. At the same time this is a philosophical literary work that dissects hipsterdom to get at the core of what it's all about. A must-read for art fans, punk fans, anyone who wants to know how the truly original ideas can get subsumed by the corporate machine--and how to save them. Told in an intriguing intersecting point of view style this is a powerful short novel by an emerging talent.

Hidden Wheel

Literature & Fiction

Fournier, Michael T.

Humor & Satire

Day or night. Rain, heat or snow. The city streets are full of people seeking the path to a better life. Everybody learns the hard way. Some not soon enough. And even dreams must pay their dues. That's just the nature of The City. That's New York. Welcome to Have a NYC, the first of a New York short stories series, edited by Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges. Authors include: Claus Ankersen, Larissa Shmailo, Adam R. Burnett, Darlene Cah, David R. Lincoln, Lawrence Block, Kofi Fosu Forson, Pedro Ponce, Ronald H. Bass, Jane Ormerod, Peter D. Marra, Puma Perl, Lisa Ferber, Keven Dupzyk and Janet Hamill. In Have a NYC, Three Rooms Press aims to acknowledge that the energy that drives New York is still there, and not just in "hipster" neighborhoods or well-trodden streets. The stories are forming and reforming moment by moment. Drifters pass through and lend their ideas; natives look to cling to the things they see are ebbing away; the underbelly still writhes and reels to an urban beat; and the familiar landmarks take on new looks and menace as technology slowly grips the throngs of people walking the New York City streets.

Have a NYC: New York Short Stories

Literary

<div>The first full-length collection of poems by Kat Georges, whose work has been heard and published internationally for three decades. Often hilarious, always insightful, Kat Georges writes inspired narrative poems inspired by punk rock, pop culture, food and the driving need to create, all the while exploring what it is to be a woman in the modern world. With poems about going to a Patti Smith concert, hearing Nirvana for the first time, a brawl at a health food store, these are imaginative, accessible works that resonate long after first reading.</div>

Our Lady of the Hunger: Poems

Georges, Kat

Poetry

Maintenant 6: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing & Art is the seventh edition of an annual collection of contemporary Dada writing and art. This issue, edited by Peter Carlaftes and Kat Georges, includes bold poetry, drawings, essays and word art from Neo-Dadaists worldwide, including: Roger Conover, Mina Loy, Jerome Rothenberg, Giovanni Fontana, Fork Burke, Paolo Pelosini, Constantin Xenakis, Vittore Baroni, George Wallace, Scott Wannberg, Duska Vrhovac, Bart Verburg, Mike Mollett and more than 100 other contributors. Color cover, with interior black and white text and images.The series has been recognized worldwide as a leading source of contemporary Dada art and writing, with editors invited to present material from the journal with contributors at events in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Berlin. The series is archived in New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Maintenant 6: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art

History & Criticism

The first bilingual (Corsican-English) poetry collection of native Corsican Patrizia Gattaceca. Well-known worldwide as a singer-songwriter, active in the Reacquistu (the Corsican cultural revival movement), and founder, with Patrizia Poli of the female polyphonic singing trio Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Courses, Gattaceca's poetry is remarkable: imagery of moons and mountains and sea and underneath it all, the taut sensation of loss and sorrow, the heartfelt exploration of the loneliness of the human condition, and, as her poetic teacher and mentor Ghjacumu Thiers describes, "the infinite within the finite." Throughout her poetry, echoes are heard of Gattaceca's modest and humanitarian nature. By publishing Isulu d'anima/Soul Island, we pay homage to a truly remarkable modern woman, her exquisite poetic voice, her language and the culture that continues to thrive and inspire.

Isula d'Anima / Soul Island: PEUMI / POEMS

Gattaceca, Patrizia

In Atrium, award-winning Palestinian-American poet Hala Alyan traces lines of global issues in personal spaces, with fervently original imagery, and a fierce passion and intense intimacy that echoes long after initial reading. The book received the 2013 Arab American Book of the Year Award for Poetry, an astounding achievement for a first collection. In addition, Alyan was recently tapped as a finalist in the Nazim Himet Poetry Competition. Already in her young career, Alyan has etched her mark on other award-winning poets who are universal in their praise: Don't miss the dazzling Hala Alyan. Wow. When she says the poetry like a spear,’ she isn't kidding.” Naomi Shihab Nye; Hala Alyan’s poems startle us with their beautiful, enigmatic images and capture us with their passionate engagement with the world. A powerful debut.” Chitra Divakaruni; For all the stunning angularity in this vision, we do not doubt that what we are seeing and sensing here is a surprising, sharp-edged sense of the real, of a world that had been there all along, just waiting for this poet and these poems to reveal. Start to finish, these poems convey a singular vision and represent an important new voice in the international poetry arena.” Fred Marchant Hala Alyan's Atrium is truly a remarkable debut by a poet of stunning virtuosity and range.

Atrium: Poems

Alyan, Hala

<div>Poet Jane Ormerod follows up her critically-acclaimed collection "Recreational Vehicles on Fire" (Three Rooms Press, 2009) with the powerful and visionary work, "Welcome to the Museum of Cattle," in which her unique style firmly establishes her as a master of a unique visual/language poetry stream. Ormerod, a former visual artist, writes poetry that thrusts images into thought, juxtaposing the familiar with the peculiar, imposing emotion on a plastic world. Her poems offer startling new observations of the world, filled with both humor and deep insight. Reading Jane Ormerod is like experiencing your favorite music in a way you've never heard it before.</div>

Welcome to the Museum of Cattle

Ormerod, Jane

Recreational Vehicles on Fire by Jane Ormerod is an extraordinary first full-length collection of poetry by a completely original modern voice. Daring and innovative, yet remarkably accessible, Ormerod explores the psyche and reduced position of humanity in a world increasingly overtaken by corporate greed and faceless machines. She invites the reader to examine with her how—of if—basic human emotions such as grief, joy and love fit into the present, and ponders their place in relation to past and future. Each poem is a stunning example of language and thought, delivered in a variety of unique forms. Ormerod is indeed a force to be reckoned with.

Recreational Vehicles on Fire: new and selected poems

Poppin' Johnny: New American Poems by George Wallace is a stunning collection by a poet whose work recalls the conversational diction of the Beatniks, but with an absolutely contemporary flavor. Known worldwide due to his broad-based internet following (for years, Wallace posted his poems online daily), Wallace has selected more than 70 poems for this collection, presenting a panorama of modern-day Americana, a kind of post-modern poetic "On the Road" that feels like music and offers a surreal trip into what's left of the American heartland. His honesty is as refreshing as his incredible fresh and wholly-original technique. As original Beatnik musician David Amram notes, "Jack Kerouac would have loved him."

Poppin' Johnny

Wallace, George

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