New Pop Lit’s Editor Appears in Frighty #3!

BIG LITERARY NEWS

IN THE BIG PUSH back to humanity and reality, Wred Fright‘s new zine Frighty is at the forefront.

IN THE AFTERMATH of the Halloween season, with smashed pumpkins and out-of-control squirrels everyplace, it’s appropriate that another issue of Frighty— #3-– appears on the scene.

Does the pumpkin on the cover foretell the fate of the established literary realm?

One thing for certain is the zine is filled with terrific writing nowhere else to be seen: new work from Markell R. West, Pat King, The Midnight Rider; articles about Morrissey and ducks in jeeps, and other cool stuff.

HERE’S Wred’s own write-up of the issue’s debut, which explains how it can be easily obtained, for free!

(In the 19th century, what were in effect zines of the day were “Beneath the American Renaissance,” in David S. Reynold’s famous phrase. Today, are they beneath American decline? Or an escape– or rescue– from it? Is another renaissance coming?)

Promo for Wred Fright’s The Front Yard War

(Editor’s Note: We were going to post another excerpt from the book during lawn season, which is now, then realized how well Wred’s promo for the novel sets up the narrative. Wred Fright is at the forefront of back-to-basics writing and publishing. Keep track of what he’s doing via his blog.)

Jane Carcrashski is getting a divorce. Jane Carcrashski is looking for a new career. Jane Carcrashski is getting good at hiding her nervous breakdown. But one thing Jane Carcrashski is not doing is cutting the grass. You see, her estranged husband says he’ll do it, and she’s making sure he keeps his word. Unfortunately, he’s real busy, so he hasn’t had time to do it, but he says he’ll be over tonight. If not tonight, then the next day. OK, maybe this weekend. Well, something came up, so next weekend?

In the meantime, the grass is growing, and we’re past No Mow May into Angry Neighbors And Government Code Violations June, and Jane is thrust into an armed standoff with local government goons fueled by a group of misfits drawn to her growing grass including a property rights extremist who maybe only loves his rights slightly more than his guns, a native plants enthusiast who feels guilty about finding dandelion sandwiches so damn delicious, a yard artist who thinks Jane’s yard just needs a few more inflatable flamingos and it would look better, and a digital druid who dislikes clothing and insists on live streaming his intense naked conversations with the plants in Jane’s yard.

Remember the Alamo? Remember Waco? Remember Attica? Remember how the Harpers Ferry raid ended?–Also, remember when Harper’s Ferry used to have an apostrophe? OK, enough digression, let’s get back to the main point–Remember when Philadelphia dropped a bomb on a bunch of militant vegetarians?

No? Well, none of those had happy endings. Jane’s still hoping for one here, but that’s only probably because she’s drunk. If you like novels such as The Monkey Wrench Gang, then you’re probably on a government watchlist, but you’ll also likely enjoy reading The Front Yard War!

(The Front Yard War is available at Amazon, ebook or paperback; at Google; or directly from Wred Fright himself by contacting him at wredfrightATyahooDOTcom. Wred is a long-time underground writer– DIY all the way– who’s contributed several fiction features to New Pop Lit, most recently “Fast Guy Slows Down.”)

Counter Culture Madness!

FRIGHTY #2 IS OUT!

EVENTUALLY the internet will become unusable, buried under ads, pop-ups, paywalls, tests to prove you’re human or maybe that you’re not, and other security and-or moneymaking techniques. When that happens there will need to be escape routes back to sanity and reality– back to the groundedness once provided by Do-It-Yourself print zines.

As usual, Wred Fright is ahead of the curve in such matters, the first escape routes already provided c/o his new Frighty series. #2 has arrived, full of the kind of human writing that will never be offered by robotic machines. In fact, the authentic kind of zine writing offered would cause AI devices and robots of all kinds to blow fuses– “This does not compute!”– because it breaks the refined “rules” of what writing is supposed to look like.

ON TOP of all else, Dr. Fright is offering it to the public FREE. Print it out– here!

“Just download it, print it doublesided (flip on short edge), fold, and maybe bind/staple it, and it is good to go!”

(BONUS: It includes a short rant by myself.)

-Karl Wenclas for Fast Pop Lit

Zines Are Back!

PRINT-ZINE REVIVAL?

HAVE DIY and analog returned? Why not! Grass roots Do-It-Yourself art has always been the best answer to the monopolistic-conglomerate domination of our culture– among the worst offenders in that regard being publishing’s Big Five.

Authentic culture is organic. Always has been. We’ve had a glimpse of this recently via the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” whose focus was the folk music revival of the 1960’s. One of the roots music pioneers depicted was Woody Guthrie.

Roots literature has had its own pioneers, among them the writer-chronicler known as Wred Fright, a key voice and thinker during the zine heyday of the 1990’s and 2000’s.

The latest news: Wred has produced his first zine in years! The start of a zine revival? We hope!

Information on easily obtaining the zine, Frighty #1, is available right here.

An Excerpt from “The Front Yard War” by Wred Fright

Zarry was the head of a local nature group and hated anything that wasn’t natural. Jane wondered if he liked poison ivy since, you know, it was natural and all.

Zarry was socially inept enough that he didn’t ask how she was in return, playing the social nicety game, so Jane said, “What can I do for you?”

“Oh,” Zarry said, as if he had forgotten why he had stopped by himself, “It’s your grass. No Mow May is over. Those code enforcement inspectors will be all over us on Monday if we don’t cut the grass, so I just wanted to remind you to cut it this weekend, so you don’t get a ticket. I mean personally I don’t care if you grow a forest, but some of our neighbors are majorly uncool, man.”

“Scott’s supposed to cut it,” Jane said.

“Scott’s back?” Zarry said, sounding heartbroken.

Even though thinking Scott was back would lessen Zarry’s constant hitting on her, Jane still was bitter enough about the relationship’s demise that she corrected Zarry’s misconception, “No, he just agreed to cut the grass until we sold the house.”

Zarry smiled, “Well, I can do it for you if he doesn’t.”

A vision of Zarry having a heart attack trying to cut what now looked like a wheat field in the front yard in an effort to impress her and then not being found until Scott ran him over with the lawnmower flashed before Jane’s eyes. “No,” Jane said, “Thank you, but he has to live up to his responsibilities. I’m not letting him off that easily. In the meantime, if they hassle me, I can tell them I’ve joined that Save The Soil religious movement from India and my religious beliefs prevent my grass from being cut.”

“Huh? I’m not sure that would work, but that does sound interesting. Anyway, it’s his loss,” Zarry yelled, “Some people don’t know how good they have it.”

Jane didn’t reply, and Zarry apparently didn’t know what to say after that, so he sneezed and then said, “Well, if you need anything, then just let me know.”

Jane nodded, “Thanks, Zarry.”

She closed the window, glad not to have to yell some more about the death of her marriage for the whole neighborhood to hear. She hadn’t even known it was No Mow May, whatever that exactly was, presumably something about not mowing in May, but she was getting increasingly irritated that Scott wasn’t cutting the grass, probably too busy doing the entire Kama Sutra with his new skank. She had thought about hiring a lawn service and sending Scott the bill, but she would have to pay for it first, and she already had enough bills to worry about. The latest was an annoying set of dental bills for a root canal that was done badly a couple of years ago. She had thought about suing the endodontist but being in one lawsuit, the divorce, at a time was enough. The endodontist probably hadn’t meant to screw up. Mistakes do happen. Unfortunately, this one had cost Jane a couple of grand to fix a few years down the road when the root he missed kept getting infected and another endodontist had to go in and rework it.

Rework. Sometimes Jane thought her whole life could use some rework. A divorce. Unemployment. Too much drinking (Jane wouldn’t yet admit she had a problem; it was just too much of a good thing to her). Soon to be homeless when the house sold. Children who didn’t need her anymore and didn’t understand that she needed them at the moment. It was as if a playful god had swept in and decided to destroy her old life so she could build a new one. Or maybe it was a malicious one who just liked destroying things. Well, Jane wasn’t destroyed yet.

***

(The Front Yard War is available at Amazon, ebook or paperback; at Google; or directly from Wred Fright himself by contacting him at wredfrightATyahooDOTcom. Wred is a long-time underground writer– DIY all the way– who’s contributed several fiction features to New Pop Lit, most recently “Fast Guy Slows Down.”)