I reluctantly agreed to participate in this event,
and I’m sure I’ll have cause to regret it.
September 11, 2014
Gen F
May 19, 2014
The Thrill Of It All
I will be lending my oratorial stylings to a fabulous bill
at HM157. Saturday night, May 24th, 9pm.
3110 N.Broadway, Lincoln Heights.
Also featuring the return of the Centimeters.
April 22, 2014
Spread the Joy
The not-quite-yet-exhausted subject of love
will be celebrated and lamented by others
and myself at Beyond Baroque,
681 Venice Blvd, CA 90291. Saturday May 3rd, 8pm.
September 21, 2013
Just trying to make a connection…
“At the end of the day, these few fleeting moments
of glory are one’s only reward.”
Performance video from the La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 8/13.
https://lareviewofbooks.org/interview/john-tottenham-
antiepithalamia-and-other-poems-of-regret-resentment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae2ywWx35ig&feature=player_embedded
January 21, 2012
CXXVII (the missing Inertia)
This compulsive need to ‘actualize’ myself
Has consumed far too much of my being.
I wish I could divest myself
Of this tiresome illusion
That I have something to offer.
It would make it so much easier
For everybody concerned.
Not that anybody else is concerned.
January 9, 2012
‘A work of the highest moral, social and aesthetic value’: The Inertia Variations on Amazon
January 7, 2012
Literary Event of the Year… so far
Book Soup and Kerosene Bomb press presents.
The Literary Event of the Decade
On Thursday Jan 19th at 7pm,
John Tottenham and Anthony Ausgang
will appear at Book Soup.
8818 West Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90069
(310) 659-3110
Tottenham will finally be putting the Inertia Variations to rest,
giving the last-ever reading from his lauded collection
of 8-line poems on the subject of work-avoidance,
indolence and failure.
Ausgang will be bringing The Sleep of Puss Titter to life –
the hallucinatory ravings of a hyper-articulate madman –
with a rare public airing of his inimitable spam novel.
This promises to be a night that will be spoken of for years,
featuring two innovators and orators of the first water.
Don’t let the remote (for some) location, inconvenient hour
and lack of parking come between you and this
night of high-spirited seriousness.
November 10, 2011
ARTISTS ONLY
Never mind that you have nothing to bring to the table.
No problem, that is no longer a requirement.
A career in the arts is no longer the province of the unlucky few
who did what they had to do. Like poker, it’s a game open
to everybody now, and the tables are crowded with players
hungry for easy money and televised prestige.
Sacrifices are demanded of those who waver, hesitation is fatal;
false modesty or self-doubt get you quickly shaken out.
But the quality of the game has become vitiated, impenetrable
to the uninitiated, and the less talent you possess,
the more brazenly it must be heralded. Lay a golden egg
where carelessness meets calculation. The artist’s touch:
It pays, these days, to advertise your desperation.
