“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
― Woody Allen
End music is from the Das Phrogge album, “Body & Mind,” which can be purchased here: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/dasphrogge
***
These are the only 2 pics I have of Chris at the moment:


And here is something I made based on one of the many conversations we had over the years about art:


Marcopocast #4: In Memoriam: Christopher Dillon Micha (1975-2018)

All about literature – writing it, reading it, enjoying it. Sometimes a lecture, sometimes a writing workshop, sometimes an audiobook performance. Never boring.

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Books


Smoky Carson, a poem by Frank Marcopolos. The poem and performance are  copyright (c) 2020 by Frank J. Marcopolos. The music is credited as  follows: Shiro (Instrumental) by Aussens@iter (c) copyright 2017  Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.  http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/tobias_weber/56795  Ft: Hans Montgomery Atom 



*** 



Frank Marcopolos (1972- ) founded “The Whirligig” literary magazine in  1999, which has been called “a landmark, demonstrating the power of the  literary underground.” One reviewer said that “you get this true  lion-roaring sense that Editor Frank Marcopolos knows what he likes, and  how to read, and how to publish, and he has guts, and eats insects on  Wheaties with bleach.”  



Frank’s long-form fiction has been reviewed with such praise as  “thorough-goingly entertaining” and “highly readable…recalls the style  of Michael Chabon or John Irving. A literary gem that should not be  missed.”  



A broadcasting-school graduate, Frank’s unique literary-audio work has  been featured in movie trailers, scholastic environments, underground  mixtapes, and on YouTube, with his audiobooks achieving over 1,000,000  “views” there. 



He lives in Pittsburgh, PA, without a dog, and records at  The Bookquarium Recording Studio. 



*** 



https://frankmarcopolos.com

Marcopocast #28: Poetry Vibes


Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theaters have decided to start publishing books. Frank loves the idea, especially considering what kind of book they are publishing first. It’s Lit! News #2, with Sherry Thompson.



***



Frank Marcopolos founded “The Whirligig” literary magazine in 1999, which has been called “a landmark, demonstrating the power of the literary underground.” One reviewer said that “you get this true lion-roaring sense that Editor Frank Marcopolos knows what he likes, and how to read, and how to publish, and he has guts, and eats insects on Wheaties with bleach.” 



Frank’s long-form fiction has been reviewed with such praise as “thorough-goingly entertaining” and “highly readable…recalls the style of Michael Chabon or John Irving. A literary gem that should not be missed.” 



A broadcasting-school graduate, Frank’s unique literary-audio work has been featured in movie trailers, scholastic environments, underground mixtapes, and on YouTube, with his audiobooks achieving over 1,000,000 “views” there. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA, without a dog, and records at The Bookquarium Recording Studio.

Marcopocast #27: Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas Become Book Publishers (It’s Lit! News #2)


Child of Flatbush, a spoken word album by Frank Marcopolos. All poems copyright 2019 by Frank Marcopolos, except “Leda and the Swan” and “Dream-Land,” which are both in the public domain and written by W.B. Yeats and Edgar Allan Poe respectively. “Junkie Scarecrow” was written by Chris Dillon. All performances are copyright 2019 by Frank Marcopolos.



#album #spokenword #poetry



Music was provided by the following under the following licensing agreements:



On “Child of Flatbush” – “Improvisation on Sunday” by AlexBeroza and The 3AM Association, licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution (3.0) license. ccmixter.org/files/AlexBeroza/17112



On “MadiSugar” – “Sad Melodies of Autumn,” Copyright 2017 by Urbanistic, used under a royalty-free license agreement with The Bookquarium, LLC.



On “Love on Top of a Washing Machine” – “Moonlight Sonata (Shifting Sun Mix, featuring Snowflake)” by Speck, Copyright 2018, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/speck/57884. “Reverie (small theme, featuring Pitx)” by _ghost, Copyright 2010, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/_ghost/25389.



On “Dead Engine” – “The Stars Look Different (Ziggy Stardust Mix, featuring stefsax and Dimitri Artemenko)” by spinningmerkaba, Copyright 2016, Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. dig.ccmixter.org/files/jlbrock44/52765.



On “Junkie Scarecrow” – “F Song” by Zero Charisma and “Agony = Harmony” by Das Phrogge, directly licensed from the artists for commercial use by The Bookquarium, LLC.



All other music used was licensed via commercial license obtained through Producer Loops.



Sound effects:



nathanvladimirovich via freesound.org, Creative Commons 0 – Public Domain license.



GameAudio via freesound.org, Creative Commons 0 – Public Domain license.



Ferguido via freesound.org, Creative Commons 0 – Public Domain license.



rambler52 via freesound.org, Creative Commons 0 – Public Domain license.







Artist support: https://patreon.com/frankmarcopolos



Artist home base: https://frankmarcopolos.com







TRACKS:



* SKIT – CARLA AND FRANK 1  [00:00]* CHILD OF FLATBUSH (MARCOPOLOS) [00:49]* MADISUGAR (MARCOPOLOS) [02:19]* LOVE ON TOP OF A WASHING MACHINE (MARCOPOLOS) [04:44]* DEAD ENGINE (MARCOPOLOS) [06:34]* SKIT – CARLA AND FRank 2 [09:03]* LEDA AND THE SWAN (YEATS) [09:40]* JUNKIE SCARECROW (DILLON) [11:38]* WARNING THE FLAME (MARCOPOLOS) [14:26]* SKIT – CARLA AND FRANK 3 [16:05]* RECRUITING (MARCOPOLOS) [16:49]* DREAM-LAND (POE) [18:07]

Marcopocast #26: Child of Flatbush, a Spoken Word Album by Frank Marcopolos


We’re on the verge of the 2020’s and that got me thinking back to 1999, when everyone was talking about the millenium and being on the verge of something totally new, something out of a science fiction story or a danceable Prince song. It was a cool year in the American cultural landscape. Movies that came out that year included American Beauty, Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and Eyes Wide Shut. Other cultural phenomena included Y2K, Pokemon, The Harry Potter Series, boy bands, and rap/metal pop, including new artists like Kid Rock and Eminem.



Aaaaaand it was within this American culture that my childhood
pal Chris Micha and I decided to move into a small, two-bedroom apartment on
Staten Island. The place smelled of ashy plaster, rust, and cigarette smoke,
and was within walking distance to the pigeon-shit-stained Ferry into
Manhattan. I was two years out of the Army and working sixty hours a week at
Morrell Fine Wine Auctions, while sending out short stories to magazines for
rejection. Chris was hustling graphic design jobs and gigging at night with his
band, Das Phrogge. I was 27 and Chris was 23. 

We were artistic brothers, with our world view
shaped by Bill Hicks, Charles Bukowski, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and Nirvana.
That meant, basically, that our drinking and pot-smoking would be heavy, with
periods where other kinds of drug use would be called into the service of
artistic warfare. The Hicks monologue: “Drugs have done good things for us. If
you think they haven’t, go home and take all your albums and burn ‘em. Cuz all
the artists that made all the music that’s been a soundtrack to your life? They
were reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal fuckin’ high on drugs” – was our artistic call to
arms. The Bukowski quote: “Find what you love and let it kill you” was written
on my bedroom door. There was a kind of fervent belief in the altered mind that
was impressive in its depth, if only that. In the end, that belief cost Chris
his life. 



I’ve often felt I escaped the same fate only because of fear.
Specifically, the fear of needles. My completely irrational fear of
needles—stemming from my childhood, when I had to get shot up a bunch of times
because of a variety of ailments—kept me off the hard stuff that eventually
took Chris’s life. And that was truly the only Rubicon I would not cross.
Everything else was fine, especially oceans of ale, but needles were an
automatic no-go.



Back to ’99, though. As Chris and the band were getting ready
to go into the studio to record what they envisioned as the first of many successful
indie-rock albums, Chris mentioned to me that Tower Records sold zines. I had
been talking about starting a literary magazine of some kind because I was
tired of getting rejected all the time, and Chris thought zines could serve as
a model for how to do a new kind of literary magazine. I didn’t know what a
zine was, though, so I went to the Tower in Greenwich Village one night and
bought a bunch. 



So, Das Phrogge went into the studio with Ron Thal and
recorded “Body and Mind,” and I had myself an underground literary magazine. But
there is no Hollywood ending to this story. Neither Chris nor I went on to
reach the heights of artistic fame and fortune we had so colorfully dreamed of
in that creaky apartment on the Isle of Staten. And I know Chris held onto some
level of resentment about that, while I—on the other hand—had been conditioned
through the thousands of rejections I got from every magazine in America to
know better than to truly, 100% believe in my dreams.




Marcopocast #25: 1999 Vibes. An Audio Essay by Frank Marcopolos


On this episode of the podcast, Frank is interviewed by It’s Lit! News, which is a show that Frank invented. Fun!



https://patreon.com/frankmarcopolos



https://twitter.com/frankmarcopolos



Buy Bookquarium Magazine – Volume 1 at the following places:



Audiobook:  https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/bookquarium-magazine-volume-1-january-2020/id1490699879?mt=11 



Ebook:  https://www.amazon.com/Bookquarium-Magazine-1-January-2020-ebook/dp/B0818911H4 



YouTube: https://youtu.be/eUja4u3QfHI



Podcast:  https://frankmarcopolos.com/archives/4706 

Marcopocast #4: In Memoriam: Christopher Dillon Micha (1975-2018)

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