LA Authors

By MikeThePoet (aka Michael Sonksen)

Is it the sunshine or catastrophes, flash floods or the traffic, the magic
Of Los Angeles makes music. Los Angeles Makes magic..
the muse of Los Angeles Makes artists get active.
Behold the lore of LA authors!

Who's rockin' the populace
In the postmodern metropolis?

LA Authors

Starting with Charles Fletcher Lummis Sunshine looms large
In literary Los Angeles.. From the myth of Ramona & Californio ranchos,
Orange groves & the arroyo seco --- Expatriate artists of the 1890s
the first sunshine wave of LA Authors..Boosters blew the trumpets
On the golden states landscape, sun for 300 days, a cure for old age,
Find the fountain of youth in Los Angeles.. hyped up pamphlets
Let the world know.. "Land of the sunshine," "the new Eden."
It was manifest destiny, but not heaven for everybody.
Besides the boosters there were debunkers, socialists, expatriate poets,
leftist screenwriters..Fitzgerald, Robinson Jeffers, Louis Adamic, Jake
Zeitlin,
Nathaniel West was one of the best, the city in flames in the day of the
locust..the underground intelligentsia of artists & authors living in Echo
park bungalows,
McCarthy called it red hill..
Sinclair yelled oil!
Behold! The lore of LA authors!

Chandler & Cain were kings of writing noir detective novels in the lost
streets
of Bunker Hill where Fante celebrates staircase fire escapes & lost love..
Long before Rodney King there was the Zoot Suit Riots, the LAPD
& Navy fools fought with Pachucos in the Sleepy Lagoon
Carey McWilliams knew the deal
on the Fire Factories in the Field
Palm trees are swayin in the wind
As the sunset begins it's twilight on Franklin..
What makes Sammy run? Is it the architectural illusion?
Hollywood tycoons & the American dream
If he hollers let him go, Central Avenue
Robinson Jeffers & Langston Hughes
Ray Bradbury wrote about Martian chronicles,
L. Ron Hubbard wrote science fiction into scientology,
Bukowski in single room occupancies wrote sublime poetry
About the plight of modern man with a beer can in his hands..
Venice beats off Abbott Kinney
Everytime I'm in Venice
Jim Morrison speaks to me.
Behold the lore of La authors!
Rockin' like Rockabilly car clubs, the Carpenters, Beach Boys..
Grease, disco & roller skating
Singer-songwriters in Laurel canyon
like Neil Young, James Taylor & Joni Mitchell
sang the real deal in the Hollywood hills
basking above Babylon & hedonism
before hippie folk maidens
became pop rock musicians..
Rockin' the Rainbow room & Led zeppelin
sellin platinum radio free Hollywood
Hotel California Doobie Brothers
Play that funky music white boy
Behold! The lore of LA authors!

Brett Easton Ellis tells us about
Gilded youth snorting white rails
In Beverly Hills, Less than Zero
Walter Mosley with Easy Rawlins
The devil in the blue dress & Little Richard
Barry White grew up near Willowbrook
Motown came out west with the Jacksons
Lewis MacAdams dug Miles brought the Birth of the Cool
James Ellroy kept LA Confidential like Black Dahlia
To Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Magic realism..
New journalism with Hunter S. Thompson
South of no north in the City of Quartz,
Reelin' in the years in the Ecology of Fear
Mike Davis & Magical Urbanism hit like
Joan Didion's White Album.
Thomas Pynchon to Luis Rodriguez,
Lynell George to Ruben Martinez
Wanda Coleman & Exene Cervenka..
KROQ to KDAY sound selectors..
Punk rock pop Underground poets
Urban planners Klein Soja Jello Biafra
Rollins Ellyn Maybe spoken word artists
Got trails blazin'.. Paul Vangelisti,
John Thomas, Lawrence Lipton & the Holy Barbarians,
Stuart Perkoff & words raisin' roofs like
A Mic & Dim Lights Poetix Beyond Baroque..
Welcome to the West Coast's Poetry & Jazz FestivaL
Behold the lore of LA authors!

The truth is stranger than fiction
its surreal living these conditions,
William Gibson Science Fiction..
Cyber punks on super expressways..
Ghetto bird cameras everyday..
Hollywood loves the apocalypse
The coast is toast!
Earthquakes flash floods El Nino
Armageddon busted bridges
Waves are crashing on the edge of the continent.
The city in flames or another day in paradise
Sunshine or noir -- BayWatch or Blade Runner?
Stay tuned for another long hot summer
Santa Ana warm winds keep blowin'
& creative juices keep flowin'
the list of LA authors keeps growin'!
LA Authors makin' Music loud like
Sunset Strip rock'n'roll soul
Doors Van Halen Motley Crue Guns 'N'Roses
Ice Cube, NWA Dr. Dre, Pharcyde
Snoop Dogg, Freestyle Fellowship,
Hip-hop, metal, bedroom producers,
Turntablists & poets
Behold the lore of LA authors!

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