Thrillville Press

01/15/2025

This photo was taken by singer-actress Jeane Manson at the Pacific Palisades home she shared with my father circa 1979-80. I was 16 or 17. I remember this exact moment.

01/15/2025

“So You Want To Be A Writer”

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
su***de or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

01/15/2025

01/15/2025

VINTAGE PARKWAY TV COMMERCIAL! I found this when looking for something I didn't find. I can't remember exactly when we shot it or if it even ever aired, circa the mid-2000s, roughly 20 years ago, so this could be the World Premiere. In any case, it's quite a Blast from the Past for anyone who fondly remembers this sadly defunct Oakland institution. Includes a 30 and a 60 second spot plus outtakes. It features both me and my old friend and Speakeasy Theaters co-founder (with his wife Catherine) Kyle Fischer, AKA respectively "the White Guy" and "the Black Guy" in the infamous homemade preview videos that ran before the features. Otherwise I was the theater's progammer/publicist and ringleader of Thrillville Theater. This is quite a time capsule. Cheers.

01/11/2025

"The Romance of Chumpy Walnut" is akin to an amalgam of Russ Meyer, Ralph Bakshi, Kurt Vonnegut, and John Waters. The forthcoming third in the trilogy, "Chumpy Walnut Conquers the World," is more like a long Tom Waits song based on a Charles Bukowski poem inspired by David Lynch, composed under the influence of psychedelics.

01/11/2025

Another shot of Monica and me in our early days a couple circa late 90s

01/11/2025

Monica and me soon after we started dating, circa 1998

01/10/2025

The third book in the Chumpy Walnut trilogy, “Chumpy Walnut Conquers the World,” which I’m working on now, is as different from the recently published second book, “The Romance of Chumpy Walnut,” as the second is from the original, “Chumpy Walnut.” This is what keeps it interesting. For me. Cheers.

01/09/2025

Cheers to The King, TCB

01/08/2025

Happy Elvis BDay, TCB!

01/08/2025

Tiki night at Sol Liquor! Happy birthday to The King (January 😎, cheers and aloha!

01/08/2025

Tiki Night at Sol Liquor! A Blue Hawaiian in honor of Elvis’s birthday (January 😎, cheers and aloha!

01/08/2025

Tiki Night at Sol Liquor! A Blue Hawaiian in honor of Elvis’s birthday (January 😎, cheers and aloha!

01/07/2025

“Thrill Seeker” Dan Franco presenting me with his custom designed Thrillville tribute table for one of my last shows at The New Parkway in 2014 before I moved to Seattle. As far as I know, it’s still there.

01/07/2025

When the monthly Parkway News tabloid distributed at the theater and around the East Bay folded due to printing costs, I put out this simply produced newsletter as a replacement. Eventually we just promoted through our website since local media had is well covered in the community.