jamesjay@uptownbilliards.net

Betsey Bruner wrote up some info on the tour and the book in the Arizona Daily Sun this Sunday. Slainte!

http://www.azdailysun.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_2769a0ca-7838-574f-93f9-948981ed367e.html Tenormin

Movable Force and Resistible Object Together at Last

Poet James Jay and writer Mike Faloon join forces and hit the road for a seven cities in seven days tour de force of spoken word. Book signings, readings, fun for the whole gang as Jay and Faloon read from their latest books from independent publishing icon, Gorsksy Press.

The Journeymen

Poems by James Jay

Gorsky Press, Los Angeles 2010

ISBN: 0-9753964-9-8

The poems in The Journeymen wander from the high deserts of Arizona to the bars of Ireland; from the library at Columbia University to the classrooms of a juvenile detention center; from the streets of Los Angeles to a hike up Mars Hill to a lonely Greyhound highway all in search of the narratives that create the meaning in our increasingly fragmented lives. The women and men who inhabit these poems give a voice to the beautiful and flawed humans lingering on the periphery of contemporary society. Reading The Journeymen is like lovingly stroking that scar you picked up in a forgotten life.

Praise for The Journeymen:

“The Journeymen is that rare thing—a book as meaty as its subjects, as thick as silence, and as satisfying as a perfect blues riff.”

—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina

“James Jay’s new collection is like the best kind of public house where revolutionaries sit alongside prize fighters, medieval saints and 20th century felons take shots at the bar, and Old Angel Moonlight waits by the pool table to sweetly sucker you with his hustle.”

—Jim Ruland, author of Big Lonesome

James Jay’s poetry has appeared in Strange Machine, Alligator Juniper, Crab Creek Review, Cutbank and numerous other journals and magazines. His short stories and essays have been featured in Carbon 14, and The View from Here; his interviews of award winning writers such as Mark Gibbons, Dennis Greig, and Ron Chernow have appeared in various newspapers. He has worked as the weekly Literary News Correspondent for Koshari Television.  His previous book of poems, The Undercards, won the Sashimi Award for Literature (Gorsky Press, 2003).

James Jay lives in Flagstaff, Arizona where he has taught poetry at the jail, the public schools and Northern Arizona University. He has worked as a bartender, wild land firefighter, book seller, surveyor, and furniture mover. Currently, he is a weekly columnist for FlagLive, the Executive Director of the Northern Arizona Book Festival, and owns a bar with his wife, Alyson.

The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock:

Stories by Mike Faloon

Gorsky Press, Los Angeles, 2010

ISBN: 9780975396483

According to conventional wisdom some goals are best not pursued. The characters in The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock have yet to learn this. Pocket Hercules taps into the power of the ancient wonders to mend a broken heart, with some heavy metal to help. Little League coach Gary Shouldice goes too far in motivating his son. Pete Zombrowski is on the verge of writing the world’s first country rock opera based on the life of a Canadian Mountie. From small town watering holes to veterinary clinics to jam band festivals the people portrayed in The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock are undeterred in the pursuit of their dreams. And maybe they should be. Deterred, that is

Praise for The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock

Mike Faloon’s The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock is utterly beguiling, utterly irresistible. His pitch-perfect humor, his likeable self-deprecation, his camera eye that never quits—all of this I found quite completely charming. I unreservedly recommend these essays and stories to all readers seeking smart, precise, funny, warm, deeply human writing.

– David Shields, author Black Planet; The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead

Faloon’s storytelling comes across as so effortless and natural—while still being hilarious and keenly tuned into human nature — I almost don’t trust it. For years I’ve been saying to people, ‘There’s this great Mike Faloon story…’ It feels good to now be able to say, ‘There’s this great Mike Faloon book.’”

– Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago, author Hiding Out

Mike Faloon has paid the bills as a DJ, dishwasher, and drummer. He is the publisher of two zines (Go Metric, Zisk) and a contributing writer to Chunklet, Razorcake, and Roctober. His work has also appeared in The Zine Yearbook (Soft Skull), The Overrated Book (Last Gasp), and The Rock Bible (Quirk). He has toured across the U.S. and Canada, from NPR studios in Portland to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York. He and his family live in upstate New York.

The Journeymen and Split Rock Tour:
Resistible Object and Movable Force Together at Last

Friday, July 9, Minneapolis
Pop Punk Emporium (formerly Arise Books), 7:00
2441 Lyndale Ave. South
w/Gateway District, Vacation Bible School, Manix (covering Kerplunk)

Saturday, July 10, Chicago
Quimbys, 7:00
1854 W. North Ave.
w/Jonathan Messinger

Sunday, July 11: Cleveland
Barking Spider Tavern, 5:00
11310 Juniper Rd.

w/Fred Wright

Monday, July 12, Pittsburgh
Cyberpunk Apocalypse, 7:00
5431 Carnegie St.
w/ArtNoose

Tuesday, July 13, Baltimore
Wind Up Space, 7:00
12 West North Ave.
w/Skizz, Barbara DeCesare

Wednesday, July 14, Philadelphia
Brickbat, 7:00
709 South 4th St.
w/Chad Willenborg, Weirding Way

Thursday, July 15, Brooklyn
Coco66, 7:00
66 Greenpoint Ave.
w/Brian Cogan, Ken Wohlrob

Review copies of The Journeymen and The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock are available from Gorsky Press, PO Box 42024, Los Angeles, CA 90042. Further information is also available on-line at www.gorskypress.com,www.jamesjay.net, or www.gometric.typepad.com Tentex Royal