DEATH PANEL PRESS

My piece from DP at OWS, ACAB

2011-11-15T05:38:00.001-08:00

I just woke up to the news that the OWS encampment at Zuccotti Park was cleared out overnight by a bunch of violent thugs "just doing their jobs" (you know, the same thing loan sharks, poachers, and hitmen say). If recent events from around the world have shown us anything, its that these moments of naked state repression provide heightened popular support and therefore the opportunity to take the struggle to the next level. Thursday is a major day of action in NYC and around the world, so get out there.

11/16 edit: Despite initial reports from librarians and witnesses, we can now happily report that some, most, all (?) of the People's Library survived the raid, and despite being thrown into goddamned dump trucks, will be returned. You can follow the story on their blog.

ANYWAY, last week before all this bullshit, DP had the chance to host the 5th installment of our reading series at this wonderful little institution that I'm sure will be back on its feet in no time. Thanks to our readers Niina Pollari, Terence Degnan, Camilo Rolan, and Kate Cantrill. The People's Library lives on!

Below is the text I read. Feel free to circulate.

I Am The 99%
by Jarrod Shanahan

Hi, my name is Jarrod, and I am the 99%! I am the meeting place of a breathtaking variety of dreams, desires, and impulses. Many have sought to form me in their image, to set me on an orthodox path, and to lay out my future in meticulous detail. But at present, my image merely reflects the unreconciled diversity of these bodies and aims, and is accordingly amorphous and inchoate and awesomely awkward. I am the premise for an unlikely roommate comedy that will never get past the censors intact. Some forces within me are willing to analyze every situation in its nuanced detail until the opportunity for action has passed and they can secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Some forces are bored with the repetitive review of every minor scruple and compel me toward unreflective action, possibly to my peril. Some offer an impossible yardstick against which I must measure my behavior, while others are satisfied to just get me all worked up and see what happens. Some want one specific thing and they want it eventually, others want everything and they want it now. Some desire a five year plan as a practical necessity, others scorn a five minute plan as the death of spontaneity. Some are really into repeating verbatim everything said by those around them, while others are more aristocratic in their tastes. Some see only the individual case, others only the totality, and both are thusly impaired. Some secretly aspire to seize power over all others, while others live for nothing more than the day when they will shut these megalomaniacal aspirations down. Still more yearn for quiet, the cessation of conflict, sleep, peace, man. Like it or not, I am a multitude, dissonance and dissimilarity pump through my veins, and sooner or later I’ll just have to learn to roll with it. Only a theologian or fascist or worse would consider the absolute resolution of all of this tension possible, let alone forthcoming, in anything besides my own organic death. But I must strive nonetheless for tenuous working resolution, and reap the hard-wrought fruit of compromise in a series of cautiously bumbling, self-aware steps and missteps across an unmapped terrain. My style is one impatient with itself. Without centralized rule I must constantly battle high pitched emotions and implacable libidinal urges, seeking to keep unified a body so dissonant, and so spontaneous, and so tenuously held together in its very tissue that its coherence for a mere second in time is a complete and utter fucking miracle. Yet, I believe this horizontal organization to be my chief strength, with which I arm myself against docility, complacency, and laziness masquerading as mature pragmatism, all of which menace my meandering path toward the unprecedented. For I embody the contradictions of the world which gave birth to me, I give them breath and a physical form, the aesthetic of which has been debated on the Internet. And I have therefore chosen to give voice to the insanity and schitzophrenia of our rational world, a voice I offer in a mad gesture of desperation to hypothetical ears and against all odds, and must strain myself to shout in the face of sirens and snark and deafness and drumming.

I am short on sound bites when asked to account for myself, but this says nothing of the quality of my my own content. Instead, it implicates those who seek to parrot 144 words or less, tapping out transcripts like hung over court stenographers nodding their way half awake through a boring trial about taxes or finance something. If a self proclaimed analyst ever asks me to explain myself tersely and comprehensively, I will gladly do so in exchange for their analytical credentials. If only a meteorologist could ask the weather to explain itself! I am often accused of having few discernible goals save for the delusional and the utopian, but it is only by orienting myself toward the impossible that I will arrive at that which I can scarcely conceive of in my present state of consciousness, given the restrictions imposed upon me by my environment, upbringing, fears, desires, aversions, neuroses, vanities, fantasies, undeserved grandeur, and unwarranted self doubt. And what’s so wrong, anyway, with just compiling a big old list of things that I think suck and ought not to be? ...For starters, at least! When seeking to further discredit me, one may derisively point to my style of dress, my age, my educational background, my past behaviors, my employment situation or lack thereof, too much money in my bank account, too little money in my bank account, my deep rooted affinity with Bill Ayers, or perhaps my faintly foul odor, though this merely challenges me to force the discussion to the realm of ideas, where I have the high ground no matter how stupid my haircut or healthy my diet may be. And to clear the air, I begrudgingly acknowledge a very minor and marginal problem with substance abuse, which is pretty much under control and I’m trying to enforce the rule I have in place against it, so give me a break OK? Likewise, while acknowledging that my willingness to hang out with just about anybody has brought me, shall I say mixed results, I overall consider it a necessary first principle, though one which I must implement with discretion and be sure to never deprive myself of the ability to say “OK dude, you gotta go”. In short, I was once easily dismissed but that seems to be changing fast, and like it or not, I’m not going anywhere.

I am: one part peacenick, one part militant, one part jilted Obamaniac, one part actual maniac, one part eager Rousseauan, one part reluctant Hobbesian, one part hungry dude just looking for a sandwich, one part artist, one part laborer, one part spoiled child, one part wizend acetic, one part educator, one part pupil, one tiny part Ron Paul libertarian but I’d really like to get rid of that one part, one part layabout, one part frenzied industrialist, one part mad architect of impossible dreams, one part deviant destroyer of coherence and order, one part animal lover, one part carnivore, one part contrarian, one part true believer, one part nihilist, one part renegade spiritualist, and that’s all just one small part of me that comes to mind at the present! I am the bastard child of a world I now seek to dismantle and rebuild afresh. After all, who knows its dirty secrets better than I?

And of course I’m anxious to see how my history will play itself out, how I will develop and adapt, how my enemies will respond when they can no longer mock or ignore, whether I’ll squander my energy foolishly, or whether I’ll achieve the impossible. But this story will not play out today or tomorrow or the day after. I must not attempt to force the harvest of history by picking its unripe fruit. I must not mistake the morning I open my eyes on the possibility of a new day for the new day itself. For now and for now on I must work on myself with godlike patience and a sense of humor still more divine, keeping the rowdy kids in check, keeping the squares from making me square, telling the reactionaries to join me if they like but otherwise to go fuck themselves, and doing my thing, my own special way, like I did to get to where I am today. I am the 99%!

2011-10-27T11:16:00.001-07:00

OK so I never do this but

2011-09-20T05:54:00.001-07:00

DEATH PANEL SERIES #2 was a real high point for DPP. We had to change the date and venue last minute, which is usually the kiss of death. Instead, 60+ people packed a beautiful backyard garden, and five awesome readers held the attention of a crowd stacked with dozens of notoriously rowdy individuals. I'm also assured the after party was a hit, and that I had a great time. Also its nice to know that I don't need to spend half my day on social media to get people to come out to DP events. According to Facebook, 12 people were coming :)

Thanks to Jack, Kate, Blair, Brian, Evan, Eric, Camilo, Mateo, and everyone who came out! Stay tuned for details on the October reading.

2011-09-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

DP SERIES #2 has been moved and is now a BK backyard bash!

Come join our special guests:

Kate Hill Cantrill
Mateo Prendergast
Camilo Roldán
Eric Lassiter
+ a special guest so special I haven't even found them yet
+ your loyal host (I hate the c word), Jarrod Shanahan!

Friday, 9/16/11, 8PM
81 Carlton Ave, Brooklyn
BYOB

Questions? Comments? Existential uncertainties? email: jarrod.shanahan@gmail.com

And a special thanks to Jack, Kate, and the rest of the gang at 81 Carlton for making a little boy's dreams come true.

First DPP @ 383!

2011-08-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

This season of True Blood is crazy!

2011-08-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

I really need to write in this thing more often. Did you see the post a few weeks back justifying why I never update my blog with some elitist old media bullshit? I even cited Kierkegaard's book about why newspapers get the thumbs down, which is even worse than booing blogs. Anyway I forgot to announce something last week that turned out to be my favorite reading I've done. I read a new short work as an opener to the debut show of my good friends Lex Loser and the mosh-pit activating punk rock power duo Sexy Crimes, who I just found this awesome video of on the Internet:

S E X Y C R I M E S "the Bedford Lives" from ben pier on Vimeo.

I was really amazed that people at a punk gig paid attention to the dork up front reading stories about his feelings. I expected it to sound like NPR playing over the bar room sound effects from the later Blood for Blood records. Instead everyone actually listened. Nerds! Thanks to Lex Loser for joining me in a very special musical collaboration that nobody will soon recall.

Oh the LAB 6 was awesome too, I forgot to mention that.

And Popsickle the next day @ Gowanus Ballroom was a total blast. It was much better than last year, though equally exfoliating. I met some cool people and continued my missionary work in poetry world, distributing agitprop demonstrating unnecessary line breaks to be a tool of the devil, albeit one much more effective in producing plump little volumes.

OK the past is gone!!! August is here and its going to be another big month for DPP. I will be reading something old and something new, most of which is borrowed, and all of which is pretty blue, next week at Rabbit Tales, an awesome monthly series curated by the wonderful Kate Hill Cantrill. Last month's installment was a wonderful medley of different genres of awesome weirdos. I'll be joined by the musical stylings of Crooks and Perverts, a folk outfit as rad as the name implies, plus some other readers and a performance. I'll post a flier for this as an edit when it's done.

Then the following Thursday (8/18) will be the maiden voyage of the Death Panel Reading Series, a monthly odyssey through all kinds of epic bullshit with yours truly tied firmly to the helm. This will be on the third Thursday of each month at 383 Carroll St (bar is called 383) until the owner realizes that trivia night will draw more people. Hit me up if you want to be involved in this in one way or another, I'm thinking readers, performers, and maybe bands. Definitely nonacademic. Flier on the way.

Oh, and my Lady Gaga dance got one "dislike" on Youtube. It's a start, but it chastens me to think of how many dislikes separate me from the real Lady Gaga. Sigh, you gotta start somewhere!

Oh yeah, and check out Jimmy Flynn and Austin playing in New Lows!!

Shhh... It's A Secret!

2011-07-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend DP Press celebrates our latest release, DPP#7(!) entitled "Shhh... It's A Secret". Come join us at the 6th installment of the LAB series tonight at Brooklyn Fireproof, featuring a performance by yours truly and all kinds of cool stuff from our good friends. Jack Carr is the rookie of the year IMO, I saw him read last week and it was surreal.

And tomorrow DPP will be featuring our entire catalog at the second annual Popsickle (sic) Festival at the lovely Gowanus Ballroom! Last year was a blast, except this one guy totally stole my entire set and read a bunch of Google maps directions to his house, leaving me with like 2 hours to come up with something else to read. And then some other dude threw his shoes in the trash during his reading, which was totally my grand finale! It worked out OK though considering, but only because alcoholic energy drinks were still on the market. Anyway, this year DPP will be debuting our most recent releases and chilling hard. Come say hi, and pick up the new jams. DPP friend Ben Pease is reading later in the day, be sure to check him out.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, "WAAAAAAHHH, ITS HOTTTTT!!!" Suck it up babies, this is the Northeast. The weather is just like the music... brutal!

Q: "What's up?"

2011-06-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

A: "...n2m, u?"

FRENCH WHINE

2011-05-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

I make a point to update this thing as little as possible. A former "current events" blogger in my sixth year of recovery, I must still remind myself daily that I am not obligated to give my e-pinions on Sarah Palin's latest Youtube Tweet or whatever. Whenever I venture into blogworld I'm reminded of Kierkegaard's proposition that we grant all items of public discussion the importance they will be afforded one hundred years in the future. How cruelly, he sneers, have we silenced so many!

That being said, I also sometimes just forget my blog exists, which is kind of different. Check out these awesome events that I should have written about:

Thanks to Anna and Kimberley of Papercutz, our esteemed readers, and everyone who came out. Papercut is currently raising money to keep their awesome space going, please check out the site to see how you can help out! I want to make Boston readings a regular thing by the end of the summer.

I couldn't promote this one properly because of restrictions on the space. I'm just posting it now because I love the flier. Its funny how many people found out Knut was dead from this flier. Also, the image depicts well how most of the people involved looked by about 9 o'clock, only cuter and less dead.

What's that?! Something that hasn't happened yet?! Don't worry, its in two days and will be outdated soon enough. Come out to the LAB #4 this Friday and see DP all-stars Austin Lemieux, Andy Spano, yours truly, and many others! This will also be your first chance to snag copies of DEATH PANEL LITERARY DIGEST #4, and Austin Lemieux's live record COCKSTORM! We'll have a formal release party for DP4 in due time, but this will be your first chance to get your hands on the zine that's been called "Rich, fibrous paper, teeming with myriad different words, and held together by two durable staples."

OK see you in a year. Keep blogging.

J

DP LAB DP LAB DP LAB DP LAB

2011-04-07T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is an exciting time for DP Press and our nomadic friends at the Bed Stuy (soon-to-be-Williamsburg-soon-to-be-Bushwick) LAB. The next LAB reading drops on Friday 4/15 at a location in Williamsburg so awesome I can't print it on the net. E-mail me for details: jarrod.shanahan@gmail.com. This is the last house event for the lost tribe of LAB before arriving at the promised land, Brooklyn Fireproof, which will be rocking on May 20th for a special collaboration celebrating the release of DEATH PANEL LITERARY DIGEST #4!

In case you've been snoozing on the LAB, here's a video from the last event:

In other news, I've started working with the newly founded Brooklyn Mint (www.brooklynmint.org). We're having a Brooklyn Mint reading on 4/21 to kick off this Brooklyn partnership at the lovely Brooklyn Fireproof right off the Brooklyn Jefferson St stop on the Brooklyn L train. (119 Ingraham St.) It's a bar in an alley, which is really cool and urban except when you take a girl there on a first date and its closed and she flips out thinking you're a rapist. Or so I've heard. The theme of the reading is angry e-mails. Bring your own! There will be time for guest readers. Here's the flier, please circulate:

In closing, elephant in the room here: this site is awful. I used to think it was punk or whatever to have a shitty website but now I'm just embarrassed. There's a DP site that's half-made on Word Press but I finally had to face up that I'm just an Angelfire dude in a brave new Tumblr world. If you'd like to help with web stuff please get in touch. I can pay a little bit or give you some zines or something. Let me know.

Until next time,

Jarrod

Another satisfied customer!

2011-03-21T18:15:00.001-07:00

From "LAB":

Thank you for attending the second event of THE (Bed-Stuy Performance Col)LAB(orative), a.k.a. THE LAB at Lefferts Place, Brooklyn this past Friday. Art needs great audiences, to paraphrase Whitman (a Brooklyner), and you were such an audience. You also made it a fun party. We're so happy it turned out to be what we had hoped. The next will be in April. You will be alerted to this danger.

Thank you also for your enthusiastic reception of our readers:

Tyler Burba
Andy Folk
Justin Mitchell
Michael Dorr
Jarrod Shanahan
Andy Spano

There will be a new line-up next event, with, as we promised our muse Judith Butler, a strong representation of women readers. If you are interested in reading, please contact Andy at andytalk1876@gmail.com and Hannah at hannah.assadi@gmail.com.

We will soon have a larger public venue with space and gear to do multimedia presentations and bring other genres and disciplines to the event.

DP luminaries to hold it down at the Bed Stuy "LAB"

2011-03-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

From "LAB":
We hope you can make it to the second reading of THE (Bed-Stuy Performance) (Col)LAB(orative), a.k.a. THE LAB this Friday, March 18 from 8 p.m. to midnight or beyond. We have scheduled readers and and open mic (yes, we have a mic) afterward, so bring work. There will also be plentiful drink and some food.

The purpose of this event is to present fiction, poetry, essays, drama, screenplays, rap lyrics and even serious musical compositions in an intimate context where personal presentation and experimentation achieve what Judith Butler describes as "a corporeal style, an act, as it were, which is both intentional and performative, where performative carries the double meaning of dramatic and non-referential." [Editor's note: I have no idea what that means. -JS]

Featured readers:

Justin Mitchel
Andy Folk
Michael Dorr
Jarrod Shanahan
Tyler Burba
Dale Megan Healey
Andrew Spano
Hannah Assadi

email for address: andytalk@gmail.com

Location is between Classon and Franklin avenues, close to Classon and also between Fulton Street and Atlantic. The Franklin C stop if closest, but you can take the 2, 3, 4, 5 to Franklin Avenue and then walk north to Lefferts or take the S shuttle north to the end (Franklin and Fulton). On the G, get off at Classon and walk about eight blocks south to Fulton, and then just a half block more and you're there.

The last event was a delightful success. I hope you can be a part of this one.

Andy and Hannah

Big week for DP Press

2011-02-10T07:20:00.001-08:00

Hi all,

So there's this funny video on the Internet you ttly gotta watch. And there's a zany news story that you just won't believe! And there's a hard-hitting opinion piece that either you'll agree with or it will infuriate you. Nothing specific comes to mind, but you get the picture. Just another day in the exciting world of blogging. I guess you have to talk about something besides the weather sometimes.

The good news is DP Press will be kickin' it "IRL" this weekend, with two rare public appearances by its reclusive founder Jarrod Shanahan. The first is Friday 2/11, 10 pm at a small gathering in Bed Stuy for DP VIPs and other unfortunates. Email for the address: deathpanelzine@gmail.com. The second is this rad event in Jarrod's home town of Cambridge MA:

Come and hang with us and Jimmy of Reflections on Imperfections Zine. All past issues of DP will be available. Also, DP Press is not responsible for the claims to cheap snacks. And this is a drug and alcohol free space, so this means most of you will not want to come. Perhaps this map of nearby bars will change your mind?

See you this weekend,

DP

2011-01-07T15:55:00.001-08:00

#1 Selling item on Amazon.com: the Kindle!

2010-12-13T13:03:00.001-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came out and made the Brooklyn release gala a smash success! Thanks to the readers: Justin Mitchell, Andy Folk, Andy Spano, and Jimmy Flynn! Special thanks to Sarah for providing the perfect venue, and of course to everyone who came and loved every second. And fear not Boston friends, we'll be breaking off another Death Panel exclusive on Friday, January 14th at the historic Elks Lodge in Central Square! Below are the details from our friends at Reflections. See you there! And in the meantime, pick up a copy of DP #3 by paypalling $5 to deathpanelzine@gmail.com.

Come celebrate the very special co-release of ..

REFLECTIONS ON IMPERFECTIONS FANZINE and DEATH PANEL #3

ZINE RELEASE PARTY EVENT

Friday January 14, 2011

Hosted by Jimmy Flynn and Jarrod Shanahan

Featuring:
PEARSE MCGRATH (Rival Mob) Q&A Press Conference- aka Pearse Conference 2011. Pearse will be taking questions on a variety of serious topics such as the ten day long car jam in China, Wollaston is the late 90’s, why he has an unhealthy hatred for Jeff Goldblum and Robin Williams.
*Possible guest appearance by Evan Radigan.

CHOPSTICK MURPHYS PUBLIC BUSINESS MEETING – Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall during a CSM business meeting? Now is your chance to experience the life of a wealthy group of investors. People are encouraged to suggest new possible Irish/Asian dishes the restaurant can offer in the new year.

With:
AUSTIN LEMIEUX
PBOY
BRIAN WILCOX
SILENT MIKE K (The Town)
CHRISTINE JUDGE
SKATER JOHN
NICK CAHALANE
and more

also..
WINE AND CHEESE STATION- warm up by a digital fire place on a tube tv
OPEN MIC PODIUM
UNCOMFORTABLY LOUD HIP HOP
INEXPENSIVE BAR
LOW LIGHT ATMOSPHERE (So its not awkward)

Plus so much more insanity as we think stuff up...

@ THE CAMBRIDGE ELKS DOWNSTAIRS (No big deal...)
CENTRAL SQ, CAMRIDGE, MA
8:30PM FREE
JimmyFlynnHello@yahoo.com
http://insideroute128.blogspot.com/

Just when you thought it was safe to learn how to read...

2010-11-30T13:00:00.001-08:00