The Rusty Nail

I cannot take credit for this photo of the Rusty Nail.

The Rusty Nail was a bar in downtown Flint that went out of business in the late 80s. The spot figures prominently in my semi-autobiographical novel, Your Silent Face, and would have to appear in just about anything I ever wrote about Flint and the 80s. It was that place. The place where regular folks went, where the writers and poets and musicians and creatives went, where the pool players went, where the U of M, Flint students hung out, where the underground crowd went. It was where I first got up on stage and read my poetry, at the age of seventeen. It was where I met one of my best friends in life.

I thought that I would share this photo that a buddy shared to my FB wall this morning. I don’t know who took it. It also captures the Capitol Theater down the street, another spot that appears in my novel. Despite everything else, we had a hell of a lot of fun, or something like that, in downtown Flint in the 80s.

Your Silent Face is available at the Apple Book Store (for iphones, tablets and notebooks), Amazon (for Kindle), or this website (for all devices).

Links below.

Your Silent Face

By Lane, Tim

Buy on Amazon

"10 Book Challenge" Runners Up

My friend, Courtney, challenged me to post ten books on FB that I love. I have listed them here in one spot for inquisitive readers. But wait, there’s more. There’s always more; I’ve listed some notable runners up!

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, by Peter Handke

The Lover, by Marguerite Duras

Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison

Last Nights of Paris, by Philippe Soupault

A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K Dick

The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolaño

Ask the Dust, by John Fante

Rivethead, by Ben Hamper

Emerald Ice, by Diane Wakoski

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil De Grasse Tyson

Some notables (these books could just as easily have been in the above list…):

The Plague, by Albert Camus

The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy

Franny and Zooey, by J D Salinger

The Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara, edited by Donald Allen

Less Than Zero, by Brett Easton Ellis

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, stories by Raymond Carver

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, by Alan Sillitoe

Honky, by Dalton Conley

Prozac Nation, by Elizabeth Wurtzel

No One Belongs Here More Than You, stories by Miranda July

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., by Robert Coover

Jillian, by Halle Butler

Eat When You Feel Sad, by Zachary German

Before Night Falls, by Reinaldo Arenas

Reservation Blues, by Sherman Alexie

Tulsa Kid, by Ron Padgett

Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City, by Gordon Young

So, yeah, I could go on and on…the above lists leave out hundreds of authors and do not really even begin to scratch the surface.

Photo of Aaron not reading.

Poem (I Am Brushing My Teeth) Youtube Video

Another poem in video format for those of you who can’t play audio files.

Pure Pop Youtube Video

Simply supplying this poem in video format for those who do not like audio files.

Poem of Hope of One Kind or Another

My art, writing and poetry have always been closely linked to my life—the physical and the life of the mind. This poem is about fifteen years old. I still enjoy it. While at readings, I was never really sure if this one connected with audiences. I was obstinate, though; I often brought it out.

I hope you like it, or take away a line that you like.

Poem (I Am Brushing My Teeth)

Another audio file of an older poem that is part of a manuscript titled, Elegy for the United States of America.

I guess I’m on a jazz kick, and a love jones.

I hope you dig it.

Poem (I am brushing my teeth) - 2:18:21, 11.11 AM

Clifford Brown

Pure Pop: the Poem

I completed a manuscript called Pure Pop around 2004. Gavin Craig and the fine folks at Revelator Press published an e-chapbook version of it, which is available on this site. The title poem of the manuscript is dedicated to Diane Wakoski, and it is about dealing with winter, and I always think of it around this time.

I hope you can listen to it; I hope you enjoy it.

Pure Pop

Poetry

My Jazzy Jazz Jazz Playlist

I have been working on a jazz playlist. The idea occurred to me while reading Quincy Troupe’s book, miles and me. This is by no means a complete survey of the entire jazz catalogue—just a bunch of jazz musicians and tunes which I dig.

You will, of course, notice the inclusion of a lot of Miles Davis. I love the trumpet, and Davis is by far my favorite jazz musician.

Also, yes, this exploration of jazz pretty much takes a nose dive at the onset of the 80s and comes to an abrupt end.