A Walk Through the East Village on May Day, 2011
City of Strangers
Went to the East Village Sunday, MayDay, to see if they still have the May Day events in Tompkins Square Park. The events/protests were a big fixture in the early 90's and though I hadn't thought of them in years, I wanted...
Hank the Vampire
J. Boyett
Considering that I'm such a regular guy, it's funny how fortunate I've been in my friends—I belong to a little band that is unusual, both for our numbers (there are about twenty of us who have known each other for years), ...
Night of The Vampire
Jonathan Shaw
Sitting in a yellow corner in the last whorehouse alley on the outskirts of Vila Mimosa waiting for my little blond with the bullet hole under her armpit and ghosts at her back. She told me to meet her here and she appears a...
The Autobiography of My Memory
Jose Padua
The earliest memories I have are a morning
when I was four or five in 1962 or
1963, putting on my shoes in our old
apartment on “S” Street before going out to play,
standing on the cobblestones in Williamsbur...
Professor Sun Ra
Sun Ra
In the Spring of 1971 Herman "Sonny" Blount, aka Sun Ra, was artist-in-residence at the University of Califonia at Berkeley, where he offered a lecture course, variably described as African-American Studies 198, "The Black M...
IMHO, best poem i ever wrote
Emily XYZ
Emily XYZ here w/ my first post to Sensitive Skin blog. Great to be here.
I moved back to the east coast Sunday night after 10 years in the midwest. Had just got cats & clothes in from car and was settling in for the ...
The True Story of the Death of Osama Bin Laden
Sir Andre Bemler
We here at Sensitive Skin don't like to delve into politics because, well, really, who gives a shit?
But given all the controversy over the death of Osama Bin Laden - was he armed or not? Were we trying to capture him or ...
Ruby, My Dear
Jose Padua
I could write a poem about Thelonius Monk by saying how he bent
notes, or how Uri Geller bent spoons, how his jagged rhythms took
you by surprise, how it’s hard to believe these phrases, or by tryin...
Crazy Girls
Jonathan Shaw
Rock bottom in America. Sitting in a third-rate L.A. titty bar on a rainy winter night a few days before this Christmas of the Apocalypse.
"What the fuck in Jesus's underwear am I doing in this wretched hell pit, sitti...
South Park season 15 premiere – The HUMAN CENTiPAD
Sir Andre Bemler
I haven't watched South Park on any kind of regular basis for years. But Matt and Trey still got it - the ability to create cogent and acerbic social commentary that at the same time is revolting and juvenile. Yay! So - how ...
Letter From Santee
City Of Strangers
If we ever colonize Mars, our settlements will look a lot like Santee Town Center.
The heart of Santee, CA, on San Diego’s eastern edge, is a series of interlocking strip malls, the big box monster kind, abutted with...
Billy Bang, R.I.P.
Bernard Meisler
Billy Bang, the great jazz violinist, moved on to the next plane, April 11, 2011.
When I first came to New York, in the early 80s, Bang was the man in the LES jazz scene. Bang was born in Alabama as Billy Walker, but as a...
The Sensitive Skin Guide to Daikaiju Eiga (Japanese Giant Monster Movies)
Bernard Meisler
Oh no! There goes Tokyo!
-Blue Oyster Cult
Japan's problems seem to get worse every day. First the earthquake, then the tsunami, then Ernst Blofeld's secret volcano lair blew up again and to top it all off, a horrific ra...
Dock Ellis and the LSD No-Hitter
Bernard Meisler
On June 12, 1970, Dock Ellis, a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, accomplished what is perhaps the single greatest achievement in the history of sports - he pitched a no-hitter while under the influence of LSD. Apparently ...
The Beer Mystic’s Last Day on the Planet
bart plantenga
previous Beer Mystic Excerpt #43: BLACK BILE PRESS [Ottowa]
Furman Pivo believes he [plus beer] may be the cause of a rash of streetlight outages. This sense of empowerment transforms him into the Beer Mystic. He has ...
