Some of you may know Mel Bosworth for being awesome. Others of you may know him for writing this cool lil' chapbook called When The Cats Razzed The Chickens. Some of you may know him for both reasons.
Some of you may not know him at all, but at least you'll know the 5 best things that he's read recently:
1) I Am Richard Simmons by Ben Tanzer. I carried this MLP chapbook in my pocket for a while to whip out whenever I ran into anyone. I may have scared a person or two, rummaging around in my front pocket, saying things like, “You’ve gotta see this!” but overall things went well. No face slaps. I keep the artifact in my “reading room” now because I enjoy reading fast, fun things in my “reading room,” and I am Richard Simmons is exactly that: fast and fun. It’s like a little ampersand-fueled train of good times.
2) "'Driving While Mexican' by Chuck Shepherd" was the header for the recent “News of the Weird” section in the local A & E publication,The Valley Advocate. The story went something like this: Mexican drivers in Dallas were being ticketed for being “non-English speaking drivers.” The phrase was part of a check-list that appeared on the officers’ in-car computers. Sadly, the officers’ issuing the tickets misinterpreted the phrase as being an “offense” instead of a mere indicator that the drivers didn’t speak English. Um, wow.
3) Museum of F***ed by David Peak is a tight, vivid little collection of shorts about urban decay put out by Warm Milk Printing Press. The writing style is clear and crisp. I like clear and crisp. Makes me feel clear and crisp.
4) Charactered Pieces by Caleb J. Ross. Man, oh man. This dark and beautiful chapbook released by OW Press is a “wow,” but in a much better sense than the “wow” from #2. It’s a collection of short stories about twisted characters doing twisted things, and it’s sticky. It sticks to your brain like peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth. I think I walked around clicking for a while after I read this.
5)Play on the Beach and Stay on the Beach. This is from a postcard I received from a friend. I keep it tacked to my bulletin board, right in front of me. I read it daily. It makes me grin. These days it helps me remember that there are places out there that are warm, sunny, and not buried with snow. Someday I will indeed play on the beach and stay on the beach. We all will, and it will be grand.
Ed. note: Some of you may notice that the above video ran in yesterday's Bosworth feature, was removed and now appears here. I'll tell you one thing--if you think we actually have an editor to make this note, you're more gullible than anyone has ever told you. More after the jump...
Check back tomorrow for the 5 best things Mel has read recently...
When The Cats Razzed The Chickens & other stories by Mel Bosworth Folded Word, 2009 (Nice handmade & e-versions available!)
I've never met Mel Bosworth, only exchanged some emails, but if I were to see him, I think I would stalk him for awhile, watch from afar, as he shovels snow or goes to the bar or the coffeeshop or shops at Costco. I would watch him, maybe not like a hawk, but very closely still, just to find out how absurd he really is, before I actually introduced myself.
Because here's the question for Mel--does he believe these stories? Does he tell friends these stories in all seriousness, with no smiles or grins? How sarcastic is Mel Bosworth really, if he's sarcastic at all? I really don't know. Sometimes I felt Mel was telling jokes, sometimes I thought he was revealing spiritual places, other times---both.
See, take this story: "Leave Me as I Lessen." The first line is--"I"m stuck to the beach, melting." Okay, funny haha. But the story really is about someone melting, fading away, not sinking, on the beach and a family takes pictures around the person as an attraction, then as a horror show, and by the end the father kneels in wonder. In between there are lines like--"Dad instructs the children not to bother me. He can see I'm tired." That's damn funny. Maybe not funny here, but it's funny in the story, I swear. The guy is melting, and that's all the Dad can say?
On the funny side is "The Humble Origins of the Milky Way (Boys)," about two guys performing outrageous stunts outside a Chinese restaurant. This is good stuff right here: "I could feel the pressure building in the behemoth beneath me, a churning machine of flab, muscle and cheap wine, and when he loosed me to the stars, the silence cracked my mind like a whip, and I spun, and twirled, and somersaulted." Good stuff. The kicker, the closer, the whatever-that-MFA-word-is, comes like a sly surprise, not fully unexpected, yet surprising all the same--like when you look in a bag of M&Ms and you think they're all gone, but there's still one left. Mel works like that. Mel is able to do most of his shenanigans in 200 word bursts or something, sometimes shorter, giving full legitimacy to the term 'flash fiction' if any one is concerned about those things.
Mel has this thing with fantastical fables, somewhat mythical, and maybe they just don't work for me--but I really didn't "get" them I guess. There's Hambone Sizzlewitt pushing a boulder up a hill, there's Glitterbug and Hucklebuck in a hayfield, that funny beard story (okay, I liked that one). I'm most interested in when Mel Bosworth illuminates something so odd, but probably, maybe, partially, true--because he bridges the absurd and reality so well. Personal preference, I guess.
See, this visceral response from me at the words of Mel Bosworth is completely illuminating--really only to myself, because I've learned more about myself by reading Mel Bosworth--these stories make me think of things I've never thought of before.
When the Cats is just a chapbook, so I hope he unleashes something longer and fiercer one day, but for now, I'm totally pleased with rereading this.
50 things publishers shouldn't do: At 3 Guys 1 Book.
How to become the most famous author in the world: At HTML Giant. Reactions to Rick Moody's Twitter story: At HTML Giant.
Review of Mel Bosworth's book. The review could be longer, but I still want to read the book and plus I like this website a lot: At Outside Writers Collective.
