Well, this is funny.
Oh, did you say something?
Well, this is funny.
Author Archives: Michael Jerome Phillips
It’s for you…it’s the future calling
I retired my HTC Android space phone after using it for a year. It did a lot of cool things. A lot of cool, unnecessary things. And it cost a lot of money. Money that was ultimately wasted because I never used any of those cool, unnecessary things. I mean, not never. I did use …
The Tragic Flogging of a Dead Rape Horse, A.K.A. Locking the Door on Bukowski’s Ghost and Throwing Away the Key
I have another long post here that I have been waiting to publish. It’s called, The Senseless, Tragic Rape of Charles Bukowski’s Ghost: John Martin Speaks. It was meant to be the final part of the series (which was never meant to be a series in the first place) but I can’t bring myself to post …
The Senseless, Tragic Rape of Charles Bukowski’s Ghost (the Prequel)
The article, The senseless, tragic rape of Charles Bukowski’s ghost by John Martin’s Black Sparrow Press tells the story (read that first if you haven’t already), but for the curious there is an interesting bit of back-story. In the 1990s I ran an artists/writers/photography site called smog.net, and it had a Bukowski section. The primary tool …
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Hey, get your damn feet off my desk
Someone was talking about paper cutters today, and it brought back some unpleasant memories. For most of my life I worked at jobs that were dirty, difficult and dangerous.
Wasp Would Sting You
I’m in the midst of a seemingly never ending task. A place I often find myself. What makes my feeble mind encounter a ridiculous mound of sorting, scanning, building, fixing and otherwise general tedium and say, “There’s a great use of your time!” If this stuff was really important, wouldn’t someone else have done it …
The Senseless, Tragic Rape of Charles Bukowski’s Ghost by John Martin’s Black Sparrow Press
If you’ve ever read anything by Charles Bukowski, you no doubt remember the feeling you had the first time you came across his work. For better or worse, Bukowski is one of those authors who you don’t easily forget or ignore. Very few people are ambivalent about him.
Writing the world’s greatest novel
I am writing a book. I’ve written a few books, but this one is different. It’s really long. It started as a short story about being on the road in a punk band, Sonny Vincent and The Extreme, back in 1980 and 81. One day I looked at it and thought, “I wonder what it …
PRISM, NSA and the illusion of privacy
The NSA “PRISM” outcry that is threatening to take over the Internet is pretty funny, considering the NSA exists for the sole purpose of listening to everything, and that is exactly what it has done for the past 60 years. I guess no one cared in the past because it was only their telephone calls, telegrams, telexes …
Hooray! It’s the mailman!
I’ve been considering running a month-long promotion to give away electronic versions of my books. I figure the typical person who would dig what I’m doing here might also be a book collector, so giving away the Kindle or iPad versions could spur some sales of the real things. You know, the ink on paper ones. Offering …
Hello Dave. I am HAL 9000, I will be your band tonight.
There was a purist school of thought in rock and roll in the 70s that said, no synthesizers! In fact, I think Queen even printed that on the back of their albums: No synthesizers! But the fact is, musicians love new technology and are always looking for ways to change the sound their instruments make. There isn’t much …
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You are here
Carol and I saw a young girl the other day, gazing lovingly at some celebrity who had his arm around her, and it got us talking about how odd all of that is. We’ve both hobnobbed with our share of celebrities, and while it is ridiculous and they are just people, it can still sometimes throw you …
Meet the new blog, same as the old blog
Here we are, in a new – something. For years I had a blog, then I got tired of writing in it and shut it down. Now look at me, I’m back. Most of the posts from the old blog are back too, like it or not.
Jackie is a punk rocker
I was reading an article this morning about the author who was tasked by Jackie and Robert Kennedy to write about John Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. It’s an interesting article, but the thing that got me was something that was unrelated to the book.
Blow them the full watts tonight
It occurred to me this morning how to solve all the problems in the Middle East.
People are angry over there, as you know. They blow themselves up, hack body parts off each other, drive jet airliners into buildings and generally shuffle around in an angry, aimless cloud of perpetual dust and confusion. They are surly, mean and fearless, and you don’t want to cross them on a good day, let alone when they haven’t had whatever narcotic they favor in a few days.