Amok Books

04/04/2024

"Pogo" goes legit. John Wayne Gacy's classic clown painting originally exhibited in the controversial show at the Amok Bookstore in 1988 will be on auction at the Material Culture auction house in Philadelphia later this month as part of their Fine-Folk-Outsider auction. Also a Seven Dwarves piece for the Disney fan in all of us.

John Wayne Gacy (American, 1942-1994) "Pogo the Clown", oil painting on canvas board, signed and dated. Unframed. Size: 18'' x 14'', 46 x 36 cm (board). Exhibition history: Amok Bookstore , Los Angeles (1988).

31/03/2024

Awesome to see everyone who made it to the Broad event last night! For everyone who would like to see the "Sean DeLear Superstar" short film and missed it last night, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRBFxowvNF8 So much love for Seandy this weekend!

29/03/2024

Tomorrow night at The Broad Museum At Downtown Los Angeles. I'm honored to be screening my short film "Sean DeLear Superstar" with the dearly missed Seandy as part of the LA Intersection event that I am also co-guest curator. Headliners will be Alice Bag and KC Powers, readings by Jerry Stahl and more. Background is the amazing collection of Mike Guerena. https://www.thebroad.org/events/la-intersections

04/01/2024

Night of the Black Dahlia is featured Arts event in LA Weekly. This Saturday night in Hollywood: readings from Severed by John Gilmore, crime jazz, burlesque and noir video. https://www.laweekly.com/what-rhymes-with-2024-arts-calendar-january-4-10/

07/08/2023

New Yorker discovers the wonders of the ultimate music podcaster/alchemist Andrew Hickey turning "golden oldies" into in-depth sonic insights. "Somehow, over time, the right mix of music theory and social history and biography and good humor coheres into something that, even if stopped tomorrow, would endure as a landmark in the story of popular music but also of podcasting. Andrew Hickey is doing something truly extraordinary."

Andrew Hickey has embarked on a heroic and wild effort to tell the history of rock music in five hundred songs.

15/07/2023

Bay Area alert! Friend of Amok Books Marina Legaki of Ommu bookstore and independent publisher from Athens (Greece, that is) is at the San Francisco Art Book Fair this weekend. Marina has some rare early Amok Dispatches at their booth while they last!
https://sfartbookfair.com/
http://www.ommu.org/about

13/07/2023

Visionary founder of RE/Search Publications V. Vale starts to open up about his incredible life story BEFORE Search and Destroy zine and Re/Search Pubs. Glad to see Vale getting his due!

A punk rock publisher keeps it intensely local.

03/07/2023

We are sad to report the death of the incendiary innovator of mail art, sound collage, provocative performance and installation art Monte Cazazza. As a theorist and collaborator with Throbbing Gristle and RE/Search Publications, Monte was an important inspiration to the Amok project. Along being a deeply irreverent creative force over the course of his life, he was a genuine and uncompromising human being. Monte will certainly be missed.

26/05/2023

Skip Heller's Hollywood Noirchestra tomorrow night in Little Tokyo at Hello Stranger, 320 E. Second Street, DTLA.

24/05/2023

Alchemical photographer and filmmaker Floria Sigismondi captures Kenneth Anger at the iconic Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont in December, 2018.

A film by Floria Sigismondi, accompanying System Magazine Issue 12's special print supplement, brought to life by Gucci.

24/05/2023

Inspired magus, groundbreaking cinematic artiste, sexual and spiritual provocateur, compelling purveyor of scandalous lore, renegade scion of Hollywood and icon of the Amok pantheon Kenneth Anger has reached the end of his days. The uncompromising legacy of his life and work will be with us forever.
https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/kenneth-anger-dead-1234682825/

21/05/2023

Crime Jazz breaks into Little Tokyo this Friday night, May 26. Skip Heller leads his Hollywood Film Noirchestra in a night of sweaty, moody soundtracks and original music from Amok’s John Gilmore CD Laid Bare at Hello Stranger, 320 E. Second St., 8pm and 10pm. Plus a special Henry Mancini set from "Touch of Evil" to "Wait Until Dark".

19/04/2023

Congrats to everyone at Museum of Death on the rebirth in Hollywood!

"This isn’t a horror museum," Museum of Death owner JD Healy tells LAMag. "We’re not looking to scare people."

12/02/2023

Congrats to Circus of Books Documentary director Rachel Mason and the entire squad that pieced together this bizarre and tragic cold case LA murder.

Local sleuths help find a suspect in gay p**n actor Bill Newton's murder. His dismembered head and feet were found in a Hollywood dumpster in 1990.

19/11/2022

Amok Books' Stuart Swezey gets the third degree on Lydian Spin podcast with Official: Lydia Lunch and Tim Dahl.

In the early 80s Stuart Swezey began his creative career organizing the Desolation Center events in the desert and at sea that featured music groups such as the Minutemen, Einstürzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth, and Meat Puppets among others. He directed a by the same name about the events. ...

16/09/2022

"Rather than constructing dreamlike visuals that seek to reveal something of the human mind, the surreality of Painlevé’s films stems from the strangeness of reality itself — the foreign rituals of aquatic creatures, the unfamiliar geometries of their microscopic anatomy."

His detailed images of microscopic aquatic creatures suggest a version of Surrealism’s dream realities.

13/09/2022

https://hyperallergic.com/746319/the-misgendering-of-joan-of-arc/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=D091322&utm_content=D091322+CID_611f168fb81fa26d7fc81086570232d8&utm_source=hn&utm_term=The+Misgendering+of+Joan+of+Arc

We know from historical records that the female-born French saint presented as a man with short black hair. Why, then, is she so damn feminine in artistic portrayals?

04/09/2022

The origin story of K-cool. "Ever since Elvis, it has been understood that there is no more ardent love than that of teenagers for pop idols. One of the masterstrokes of the government of Korea was to recognise that such love might be weaponised."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/04/korea-culture-k-pop-music-film-tv-hallyu-v-and-a

From music to film, technology to food, the world has fallen in love with everything South Korean. Tim Adams visits Seoul in search of the origins of hallyu – the Korean wave

02/09/2022

Trailer for updated edition of true crime classic Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia by acclaimed author John Gilmore from Amok Books. https://www.amokbooks.com/titles/severed

The savage death of beautiful 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, an aspiring starlet and nightclub habitué known as the "Black Dahlia," commanded the attention of post-WWII America. In the seventy-five years since her murder, the Black Dahlia has become a magnetic icon in American pop culture, a mythical symbol of noir Hollywood. With Severed, John Gilmore plumbs the dark core of this terrifying story. Here is the real Elizabeth Short—the enigmatic Black Dahlia.

“The most satisfying and disturbing conclusion to the Black Dahlia case. After reading Severed, I feel like I truly know Elizabeth Short and her killer.” — David Lynch

“Delves deeply into one of Hollywood's most celebrated murder cases.” — Publishers Weekly

More info:
https://tinyurl.com/YahooEntertainmentAnnoucement

Media info:
https://tinyurl.com/PRNewsWireAmok

Produced by Stuart Swezey, Edited by Daniel N. Johnson.

Available At Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/SeveredAmazon
Barnes & Noble: https://tinyurl.com/SeveredBN
Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/SeveredBookshop

18/07/2022

A Legendary Encounter. Amok Books Poet John Tottenham hanging with Texas rock'roll wildman The Legendary Stardust Cowboy Fanclub at Zebulon Café Concert.

03/07/2022

Help Skip Heller and the Hollywood Filmnorichestra
crime jazz ensemble lay it down for all time on vinyl!
https://gofund.me/a8447a4f

Hey everyone, this is Skip Heller. On May 26, 2022, the Hollywood Film Noirc… Skip Heller needs your support for The Hollywood Film Noirchestra MAKE AN ALBUM

12/06/2022

Is HAL in the house?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-engineer-ai-bot-sentient-blake-lemoine

Blake Lemoine says system has perception of, and ability to express thoughts and feelings equivalent to a human child

20/05/2022

Thanks Brian Blueskye for an amazing piece on our upcoming Jazzville Palm Springs. Jerry Stahl will be reading the words of the late Amok Books author John Gilmore set to original music by Skip Heller and more!
https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/music/2022/05/19/crime-writings-john-gilmore-featured-may-26-jazzville-show/9722465002/

Musician Skip Heller and novelist Jerry Stahl

16/05/2022

Crime jazz road trip to the desert. Take a Detour you won't regret! Thursday, May 26 at the Agua Caliente Casino in downtown Palm Springs. Skip Heller leads the Hollywood Film Noirchestra in a night of sweaty and moody soundtrack and original music from the Amok Books CD Laid Bare. Author and Dark Hollywood legend Jerry Stahl will be reading the words of the late John Gilmore. https://discoverpalmdesert.com/event/hollywood-film-noirchestra/