Here's the editor of Pulp Metal Magazine with a collection of short stories to talk about and a novel on the way.
What an all-rounder.
Groovy Satan himself, Jason Michel.
Please stand.
Dancing With Myself:
JASON MICHEL interviews JASON MICHEL
"Having met him, he looks exactly like someone who knows they are too unacceptable / good / defeated to stand to be further piddled on by literary corporationdom and is not afraid to twist the cliché of life with the fire of rebellion. All in all he is an ugly tattooed son of a bitch with a lyrical voice of great, well, beauty. If a car crash can be beautiful?"
JASON MICHEL interviews JASON MICHEL
"Having met him, he looks exactly like someone who knows they are too unacceptable / good / defeated to stand to be further piddled on by literary corporationdom and is not afraid to twist the cliché of life with the fire of rebellion. All in all he is an ugly tattooed son of a bitch with a lyrical voice of great, well, beauty. If a car crash can be beautiful?"
- the video poet, Adam Sandell
1:So, what gives with that bloody Pulp Metal rag? Why, in God’s Holy Name did you start it?
Well, gather round boys & girls, are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin …
1:So, what gives with that bloody Pulp Metal rag? Why, in God’s Holy Name did you start it?
Well, gather round boys & girls, are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin …
Once upon a time (Last December), I was bored out of my tiny little cerebral mass with a lot of self-pitying tripe that goes for poetry on the internet & a devious idea struck me. Being a writer of sorts who enjoys all sorts of malarkey, whether it be High Brow or Low, I thought to myself, “Hey Jay, you hairy miscreant, why not start a magazine that encompasses as many of those influences as possible & you can be the dictator that you always secretly wanted to be, ruining people’s Sunday afternoons & inflicting the stories that nowhere else would take. Gentle stories about obsessive toys & bear fucking & fairies & pirates & essays on the cemeteries of New Orleans & madman’s comics & heavy music onto the world”.
“Why the fuck not?” thought I.
Then with that evil kernel in mind, I thought I would get in touch with a like-minded rational human being who goes by the name Paul D Brazill (the D is unknown, but I have my theories), & ask said upstanding gent if he’d like to do a column for said magazine. He said, “Yes”, & the rest is a right sorry history.
2:Which pieces in PMM have you been set your heart aflame with pride to publish?
There really have been so many.
2:Which pieces in PMM have you been set your heart aflame with pride to publish?
There really have been so many.
The earliest was definitely Kristin Fouquet’s photo essay. The haunting beauty of those photo blew me away & her elegant research & obvious knowledge of the subject really did slap a grin on this old dogs craw.
Having Ed Mironuik in there was a buzz too. It was perfect for the where I wanted PMM to go.
The writing just gets better & better. Having PDB, U.V.Ray, Jason Duke & Ian Ayris & other writers like them sharing their madness in there has just been fantasic.
Also, a special mention goes out to that mistress of the macabre Jodi MacArthur for her work on the pirate epic, the Wicked Woman’s Booty. It is most definitely one of a kind. Gar!
3:I’ve heard tell that you’re a bit of a vagabond, why can’t you just stay where you are?
I’m the last one to ask. Really. My old man was in the military in the fifties & sixties & he spent time in Hong Kong & Malaya (as it was called then) & used to show me photos of the Gurkhas heading towards an anti-British riot & the jungle & tell me stories of snakes & monkeys & suchlike. I never in a million years thought I’d ever get to see such places. Never mind live there. I mean, the yearly family holiday was to drive a caravanette from Wales to the Isle Of Skye to sit in a midge infested puddle for a week & a half.
3:I’ve heard tell that you’re a bit of a vagabond, why can’t you just stay where you are?
I’m the last one to ask. Really. My old man was in the military in the fifties & sixties & he spent time in Hong Kong & Malaya (as it was called then) & used to show me photos of the Gurkhas heading towards an anti-British riot & the jungle & tell me stories of snakes & monkeys & suchlike. I never in a million years thought I’d ever get to see such places. Never mind live there. I mean, the yearly family holiday was to drive a caravanette from Wales to the Isle Of Skye to sit in a midge infested puddle for a week & a half.
But I did.
4:They say that travelling makes you worldly wise & open minded. What have you learnt, eh, Mr Smarty-Arse?
Never eat in a McDonalds in Bangkok unless you want to be shitting through the eye of a needle for twelve hours at the side of the road. Street food is the only way to go.
4:They say that travelling makes you worldly wise & open minded. What have you learnt, eh, Mr Smarty-Arse?
Never eat in a McDonalds in Bangkok unless you want to be shitting through the eye of a needle for twelve hours at the side of the road. Street food is the only way to go.
The Japanese are a funny bunch.
Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the North Coast of Africa, has to import its sand from
Morocco to keep the locals lying to themselves that it’s a nice place.
Everyone is as intolerant as everyone else.
Especially those who are vehemently against it.
& the French.
5:Is it true that you once drunkenly demanded that the Spanish police give you a cell for the night to rest your weary head in?
Yes, ahem. But I had turned up with a split lip after being twatted & thrown out of my building by one of Francos ex-bastards for falling asleep on my own doormat. The police were surprisingly polite in their negativity.
& the French.
5:Is it true that you once drunkenly demanded that the Spanish police give you a cell for the night to rest your weary head in?
Yes, ahem. But I had turned up with a split lip after being twatted & thrown out of my building by one of Francos ex-bastards for falling asleep on my own doormat. The police were surprisingly polite in their negativity.
Also, there’s a dirty rumour going around that I also had a hand in a raid on an industrial orchard with a group of burly Russian smugglers in ski masks & an unregistered tiny Japanese car from a wrecking yard that they used to send car parts back to feed their families with. & a tape deck full of Boney M. These scandalous people say that we went around known “pleasure” areas for the gents to give the delicious nashi fruit to the Russian lasses “working”. A favour in lieu, so to speak.
I mean, really …
6:Has your vagabondage influenced your writing? How much of your novel Confessions Of A Black Dog is based on the truth?
Yes, & that would be telling.
7:I believe you once shared a cinema with Jackie Chan, Val Kilmer & Oliver Stone is this true?
Yep. It was for a Bangkok Film Festival. JC was cool, VK seemed to be a fat arrogant dick (Well, he did play Jim Morrison once) & I didn’t see Ollie, only heard his entourage. After that Alexander The Great debacle, it’s probably for the best.
8:You seem to enjoy the your music. Have you ever been in a band?
Indeed, I have. I was in Garage Rock band in Bangkok called The Window Lickers about seven & a half years ago. I played bass, a Swede played guitar & the drummer was American. We played one gig in front of 150 members of the Bangkok punk community at a punk night in a club. We may have been hammered with nerves & Dutch courage but we carried it of triumphantly.
9:Who would you most like to interview?
Bruce Campbell: Besides his other classics, his portrayal of Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep was absolutely phenomenal. I damn near burst into tears at the finalé.
Pat Mills: Probably my greatest formative influence. 2000AD changed everything.
Jeff Bridges: To see if he’s as much The Dude in real life as I suspect him to be.
Jim Goad: The world’s most fearless journalist. Bar none.
John N Gray: An eloquent thinker & destroyer of society’s most cherished myths.
10:What does the future hold for Jason Michel?
Well, my novel is in the final stages of being published & is coming out shortly on the splendid BrownpaperpublishinG & I’ll continue putting out the mag & then , of course, the succession to Kim Jong-il is always an option.
6:Has your vagabondage influenced your writing? How much of your novel Confessions Of A Black Dog is based on the truth?
Yes, & that would be telling.
7:I believe you once shared a cinema with Jackie Chan, Val Kilmer & Oliver Stone is this true?
Yep. It was for a Bangkok Film Festival. JC was cool, VK seemed to be a fat arrogant dick (Well, he did play Jim Morrison once) & I didn’t see Ollie, only heard his entourage. After that Alexander The Great debacle, it’s probably for the best.
8:You seem to enjoy the your music. Have you ever been in a band?
Indeed, I have. I was in Garage Rock band in Bangkok called The Window Lickers about seven & a half years ago. I played bass, a Swede played guitar & the drummer was American. We played one gig in front of 150 members of the Bangkok punk community at a punk night in a club. We may have been hammered with nerves & Dutch courage but we carried it of triumphantly.
9:Who would you most like to interview?
Bruce Campbell: Besides his other classics, his portrayal of Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep was absolutely phenomenal. I damn near burst into tears at the finalé.
Pat Mills: Probably my greatest formative influence. 2000AD changed everything.
Jeff Bridges: To see if he’s as much The Dude in real life as I suspect him to be.
Jim Goad: The world’s most fearless journalist. Bar none.
John N Gray: An eloquent thinker & destroyer of society’s most cherished myths.
10:What does the future hold for Jason Michel?
Well, my novel is in the final stages of being published & is coming out shortly on the splendid BrownpaperpublishinG & I’ll continue putting out the mag & then , of course, the succession to Kim Jong-il is always an option.
Other than that, just trying to take it easy in a cruel & heartless world.
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Jason Michel has been turned on, tripped up and stumbled over all around the world on a thriteen year (so far) self imposed exile.
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Jason Michel has been turned on, tripped up and stumbled over all around the world on a thriteen year (so far) self imposed exile.
He is a hack purveyor of penny dreadfuls and flash nightmares of daytime who now lives in France.
He is the Editor of Pulp Metal Magazine a besides his up & coming novel “Confessions Of A Black Dog”, he has recently self published his first collection of short stories “The Wrong Mind & Other Fictions” at lulu.com & has had work published in various print and online magazines.
His rants & magazine can be found at :
He is the Editor of Pulp Metal Magazine a besides his up & coming novel “Confessions Of A Black Dog”, he has recently self published his first collection of short stories “The Wrong Mind & Other Fictions” at lulu.com & has had work published in various print and online magazines.
His rants & magazine can be found at :
The late Nelson Algren had three rules to live by that repreatedly came up in his novels: never play cards with a man named "Doc," never eat at a place called "Mom's," and never sleep with a woman whose problems are worse than your own. To this triptych we must add a fourth: "never eat at a Bangkok MacDonald's." Excellent interview.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. Jase is a mad, bad genius with a heart of gold.
ReplyDeleteYou have found the interstellar space project. You are a great editor and a true original in the land where plenty got bought by the multinationals and yet you go on, we toast your health with Mekhong whisky.
ReplyDeleteJason Michel is a man amongst fleas.
ReplyDeletePMM rocks. Cool to get a look inside the head of the man behind it all.
ReplyDelete*bows deeply*
ReplyDeletePMM is a visual feast and the stories always rock. Stunning design and well edited content. A class act. And, despite his statements to the contrary, so is Jason.
ReplyDelete