andrewgallix

INTERVIEWS (2000-2005)

2005-09-03T07:03:00.000-07:00

Steve Almond (August 2004) * The Anti-Naturals (2001) * Mark Amerika (with Guillaume Destot, July 2001) * Amy Fusselman (September 2001) * Philip Hammond (February 2001) * Matt Haynes & Jude Rogers (Smoke magazine) (September 2004) * James Hawes (April 2005) * Richard Hell (with Richard Cabut, July 2005) * Sarah Lomax & Benjamin Ware (Dreams That Money Can Buy magazine) (September 2005) * Bertie Marshall (October 2001) * Paloma McLardy (Palmolive) (September 2005) * Preethi Nair (2001) * Tim Parks (June 2001) * Billie Pink (2001) * Dan Rhodes (July 2003) * Sardax (2001) * Jon Savage (June 2002) * Six (August 2002) * Sue Thomas (2001) * Dusan Velickovic (October 2001) * Andrew Wade (May 2001) * Steven Wells (2001).

THE PEDESTRIAN POET OF THE LEFT BANK (2000)

2005-07-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Teach us to sit still
-- T.E. Lawrence

He wandered, he roved; he shuffled, he roamed; he pounded, he expounded, he strode and he strolled. Perry Pathetic, we called him, this peripatetic poet, who paced the streets of Paris flogging his verse to all and sundry. "My work I have costed," he told whoever he accosted, "and I'll spin you a rhyme, if you slip me a dime," or words to that effect. Now his walking does the talking, it has no rhyme nor reason, he is poetry in motion.

"THE PEDESTRIAN POET OF THE LEFT BANK": PUBLICATION HISTORY

2005-07-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Written in:
2000

Print publication:
The Legend Continues. Ed. Neil Day. Peterborough: Anchor Books, 2000. 84.

Electronic publications:
April 2000: 3:AM Magazine
4 July 2000: Tourist 2000 (USA, no longer online)
Autumn 2000: NB:RW (USA, no longer online)

Facts:
This was inspired by a guy I first spotted in 1986 (rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, to be more precise). He used to go up to people and ask them if they liked poetry, his aim being to read or sell them some of his poems. He did this for years with very little success. One day, I realised that he was no longer trying to flog his poems -- he just continued walking round the Latin Quarter with his folder tucked under his arm. If you hang about the Odeon/Saint-Germain area long enough, you'll probably come across him.

ANGEL AT A 25 DEGREE ANGLE (2000)

2005-07-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

Imperious, impervious, Girl on the escalator going up, pulling her case behind her like a lapdog on a lead, going up. Nifty, shifty, eyeing up Girl going up, naughty, haughty, hoity-toity.

Did she condescend to look down upon you as she went up, Angel at a 25 degree angle? Did she acknowledge your existence as she plucked celestial chords on her flyaway hair and breathed honeyed tones down her cellular phone? Did she fuck. No: your eyes did not meet. You looked at me looking at you looking at her looking up, all high and mighty, pulling her case behind her behind like a slave on a lead, soaring up -- she mighty high, you mighty sore. Looked at me you did, with your chastised eyes, all hot and bothered, hot, hot under the collar, your face a slapped arse.

"ANGEL AT A 25 DEGREE ANGLE": PUBLICATION HISTORY

2005-07-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Written in:
2000

Original title:
"La Poesie des Gar(c)es, Or the Romance of Escalators"

Print publications:
Sniffy Linings Journal 1 (June 2000): 43 (published under the title "Escalator")
Wild Strawberries 1 (Autumn 2003): 13 (published under the title "The Romance of Escalators")

Electronic publications:
1 February 2000: Another Zine #2 (Netherlands, no longer online)
11 February 2000: The Sidewalk's End
11 March 2000: Forbidden Panda (USA, no longer online)
6 May 2000: Locust Electronic Magazine #8 (Italy)
May 2000: Con-text-ure (under the title "Slapped Arse") (USA?, no longer online)
1 June 2000 : Sniffy Linings Press (under the title "The Romance of Escalators")
4 July 2000 : Tourist 2000 (USA?, no longer online)
Autumn 2000: NB:RW (USA?, no longer online)
December 2000: Clean Sheets (USA)
May 2001: Black Elvis (USA, no longer online)
October 2001: Fifty Word Fiction (UK, short version published under the title "Angel At 25 Degree Angle")
November 2001: Parisiana (France)

Facts:
This short-short takes place at Gare du Nord in Paris (although it was written in London) which links it to "Sweet Fanny Adams". * Initially, the first sentence was: "Gare du Nord, Paris". * It was read by 3:AM Magazine's Utahna Faith in New Orleans (February 2004) because I was too drunk to do so myself! * It is often mistaken for a poem.

NEWS

2005-07-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

"Enough Ribena to Incarnadine the Multitudinous Seas" features in the first issue of The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit, a new underground literary fanzine which is hip as fuck and distributed free in bookshops and galleries across the French capital. I'm in good company: the first issue also includes fiction and poetry by Tom Bradley, GD, Steven Hall, Travis Jeppesen, HP Tinker and Matthew Wascovich.

In other news, I got a really lovely (anonymous) message on 5 July from someone ("Someone who, like Adam, almost always feels in the wrong place at the wrong time") who's read a couple of my stories:

"I've only read Sweet Fanny Adams and Body. And how moving it is! I mean not like a movie as E.T. can make you cry (don't lie, everybody cried at least once for E.T.), but in the way that something happens inside and nothing's the same anymore. something in the words, or in the meaning. though it's about things everybody may feel (otherwise they're not humans, are they?). When I got outside the cybercafe, during a few minutes, I felt like I walked on another street, in another city, on another planet. Glad to know you.

--Someone who, like Adam, almost always feels in the wrong place at the wrong time."

On the subject of "Sweet Fanny Adams", you can hear Steven Rogers -- a good mate and partner-in-crime at 3:AM Magazine -- read an extract here.

ENOUGH RIBENA TO INCARNADINE THE MULTITUDINOUS SEAS (2000)

2005-07-16T02:20:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time my sister baked a batallion of gingerbread men who seemed destined for doughy, doughty deeds so gallant were they. I simply couldn't bring myself to eat them; had neither the heart nor the stomach to do so. A moratorium was declared by sisterly decree and the spice boys remained in battle formation on the kitchen table pending mum's final verdict. You could smell the sensuous, exotic aroma from my bedroom, even behind closed door.

That night, I had this vivid dream in which the ithyphallic gingerbread men rose from the baking tray Galatea-fashion. Still under the influence of the self-raising flour, they legged it upstairs to gang-bang the Play-Doh model of the Girl Next Door I had lovingly sculpted and kept secretly beside my comics and sensible shoes.

Breakfast, the morning after, was a truly religious experience. I binged ravenously on the horny homunculi, tearing away at their limbs, biting off their heads with sheer abandon, and washing them down with enough glasses of Ribena to incarnadine the multitudinous seas.

"ENOUGH RIBENA TO INCARNADINE THE MULTITUDINOUS SEAS": PUBLICATION HISTORY

2005-07-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

Written in:
2000

Paper publications:
July 2005: The Paris Bitter Hearts Pit 1 (July 2005): 8

Electronic publications:
April 2000: 3:AM Magazine
1 June 2000: Sniffy Linings Press (USA)
4 July 2000: Tourist 2000 (USA, no longer online)
Summer 2000: Alicubi (USA)
Autumn 2000: NB:RW (USA, no longer online)
December 2000: Clean Sheets (USA)
29 January 2001: In Posse Review (issue 8, vol 1, USA)
January 2001: Comrades (issue 4, UK/Italy)
18 December 2005: Scarecrow (issue 18, UK)

Facts:
Ribena is a British soft drink, made with blackcurrants, which is usually drunk by children. * These were the original opening sentences: "Once upon a time my sister baked a gaggle of gingerbread men I imagined to be destined for doughy, doughty deeds so gallant were they. I simply couldn't bring myself to eat them, had neither the heart nor the stomach to do so." * The last paragraph has also been slightly altered: "Breakfast, the morning after, was a truly religious experience. I binged ravenously on the horny homunculi, biting off their heads with sheer abandon, tearing away at their limbs and washing them down with enough glasses of Ribena to incarnadine the multitudinous seas." * Utahna Faith (July 2004): "It's funny, a couple of days ago I woke up really thirsty, and on my way to the fridge your phrase 'enough Ribena to incarnadine the multitudinous seas' popped into my head. I loved that title and line when I first read it a few years ago, and it just came to mind although I hadn't thought about it in a long time." * Found these two comments on a forum discussion devoted to Ribena (eGullet, 2004): "Only tangentially related, but worth a note: There is a short short story by Andrew Gallix titled 'Enough Ribena to Incarnadine the Multitudinous Seas.' Google it. It's fun." Someone else wrote: "That is the best title I've ever seen!" * The story was described as "spellbinding" by Lee Rourke, editor of Scarecrow (1 August 2005). Before publishing it in Scarecrow (issue 18), Lee said: "I've always loved that short" (12 December 2005).