Alan Horvath, 1973

AS AN INTRODUCTION

It all started by stapling posters to telephone poles all over Cleveland/Akron/Kent/Ashland/etc. asking for submissions of any kind. What followed was interesting mail at my post office box (inside the Federal Building) for years and years. I compiled, typed and printed almost every single page that was generated. I collated and bound every copy - except Wallpaper which was professionally padded. All silk screens and most wood block art work was done by Mike Schaefer. Richard Werner created individual paintings for each copy of a number of publications. Dave Pishnery helped with the bag of poetry on the inside back cover of White Heap 01. Lending moral support and a blues harmonica was Rich Pike during the early years.

                                           Alan Horvath, Dave Pishnery, Rich Pike, Richard Werner

Books were sold locally at Moonshine Coffeehouse, Coventry Books, Jim Lowell's Asphodel Bookshop and at poetry nights at Bobby McGee's bar. All prices were artificial (50¢, 75¢, $1). I never charged for the paper or the time it took to print the book. Everything that was created was done with the bent urgency that the publication had to exist so that other people could be exposed to it. With those ground rules, I never applied for any government grant or funding, although someone by the name of Jerome Frank Slezak sent me $20 a few times (even though I never met him). This is why I had $12.67 to my name (12/31/76).

I'm not sure the bookstores realized that these publications were produced by human hands. Somewhere I still have a postcard from Coventry Books asking for 50 more copies of cleveland: going home (HOT FUCK). Yeah, like I could bend over and shit out a new batch.

The colleges that had "Subscriptions" were Brown University, Simon Fraiser University (Canada), University of New York at Buffalo and Akron University. Whenever they would ask for an account number, I would give them 4Q2SLURP or 4Q2YEAHYEAHYEAH which would appear on the official state check.

FALLING DOWN PRESS   1975 - 1976

In February 1975, rjs gave me the mimeograph that they printed levy's ukanhavyrfuckinciti bak. tom kryss's wife had taken it apart and had almost put it back together. It was an old A.B. Dick liquid ink mimeograph which bled most of the time. Most of the publications were printed in a large walk-in closet at my Lake Avenue studio apartment. I decided to call the "magazine" - Burnt River Primer. Like, ok - the river has burned and wasn't it so much fun, but let's go forward and see what we've learned.

I decided that I didn't want to make a name for myself (you can see more in the shadows) and so I used the name: "Stuck-In-Nowhere" as the editor. This lead to some strange phone calls and so I named my new Siamese cat "Stuck-In-Nowhere". From then on, I put him on the telephone whenever someone asked for "Stuck-In-Nowhere".

Whenever an issue of the Primer was printed, I would send post cards to all the people who had stuff in the magazine. We would get together for the first time and read the magazine at a coffeehouse or on WRUW radio.

Burnt River Primer died October 15, 1975. 

The next life of the magazine was called White Heap. It had a darker tone; different sort of energy.

White Heap 01 had a silkscreen cover of bodies hanging on meat hooks.

The Burnt River & Jazz Primer - Compilation, March 1975

False Start - Dave Pishnery, March 1975

Burnt River Primer #1 - Compilation, May 1975

Dead Fish P.O.Cards - Alan Horvath

Tombstone as a Lonely Charm (Pt. 1, 2 & 3) - d.a. levy (reprint), May 1975

Burnt River Primer #2 - Compilation, July 1975

     - noted for the 14" cock and Janis Joplin's pussy or else the people fucking in blood on the inside back cover

Burnt River Primer #3 - Compilation, Sept. 1975

     - original issue was unbound and rolled inside a Burger King whopper wrapper

     - special bookstore editions with hand-done "nice little doggie" covers were

       sealed in whopper wrappers

Blue Lady (in Scars) - Alan Horvath, Nov. 1975

Xmas in Nowhere - Alan Horvath/Mike Schaefer, Dec. 1975

PY NE yeAR (A Lesson for Dead Fish) - Compilation

Another Dead Fish P.O.Card - Alan Horvath, 1976

Barking Rabbit - d.a. levy (reprinted rare poems), March 1976

     - levy had thought about changing the name of his publication Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle

to Barking Rabbit before he died

Maybe Im Both Places - Dave Pishnery, March 1976

White Heap 01 - Compilation, April 1976

Red Cat of Reason (Barking Too) - d.a. levy (reprinted rare poems), April 1976

Closed Doors - Alan Horvath, April 1976

White Heap #2 - Compilation, April 1976

     - original issue did not have a double-edged razor blade which was later included "Not For Display Purposes Only".

Queen of Diamonds (Love You Series) - Charlotte Pressler, July 1976

     - this was only part of a larger book which was planned, but fell apart.

Blizz-Art - Alan Horvath, Nov. 1976

Eye to Eye (No Cantos) - Carol Furpahs, Dec. 1976

Monsterism DaDa ... - Alan Horvath, Dec. 1976

Xmas in Exile - Alan Horvath/Mike Schaefer, Dec. 1976

MOSTLY BROKEN SCABS PRESS   1977 - 1984

For $10, I bought an old paste ink Gestetner mimeograph from a friend's brother-in-law who owned a used office furniture store and who has subsequently gone insane. The mimeo had a major crack in one of the drums which would prevent the image over the crack from reproducing. With a bunch of duct tape, it worked ok for me. I printed most of the publications in the kitchen of my Clifton Blvd. apartment. The last magazine was called Scratch (like the sound of a tone arm going across a record). In reality, I think the Scratch magazines were about learning to appreciate subtleties and forgiveness.

The Praps I Series - d.a. levy (reprint), Jan. 1977

Night - Dave Pishnery, Feb. 1977

Non-Specific Blues - Mike Allbritain, March 1977

    - only book I printed as an obligation which is why I published it as "fucked-over press."

Ground Air - Alan Horvath, March 1977

Cleveland: Going Home (HOT FUCK), May 1977

     - the poems were based on readings at Bobby McGee's bar. The books came in blue or green covers. We went to Toronto to mail them so that they would have "Memorial Day" postal cancellations.

Scratch #1 - Compilation, Oct. 1977

     - who bothered to read the braille poem or look under the bandage on the inside back cover?

Scratch and Snort P.O. Cards - Alan Horvath, 1977

Peel & Stick Badges:

    - Is my face burning?

    - Let me out of your mind

    - Touch me - I want to die

     - One of the badges was on the revolving door at the Federal Building

for over a year.

Cain Park Card - Alan Horvath, Oct. 1977

Loose Wires - Alan Horvath, Nov. 1977

Scratch/2/ - Compilation, Dec. 1977

     - printed on my garbage can in the snow

Bad Curves - Women Compilation, Spring 1980

Assumed Identities (In Detail) - Alan Horvath, Summer 1980

Traveldaddy in the Buddhayard - Mark Solars, 1980 - 1984

Wallpaper - Compilation, 1980 - 1984

* A Series of Sharp Points - Alan Horvath *, 1978 - unfinished

Scratch #3 - Compilation, 1980 - unfinished

FUCK IF I KNOW PRESS   1984 - 1986

For a couple hundred dollars, I bought a newer used Gestetner mimeograph from a Scandinavian church across the street from my apartment in San Francisco. The last printing that was performed in the spare bedroom was my wedding invitations.

Falling Through the Cracks - t.I. kryss, May 1984

Hard Winter (In Cleveland) - Alan Horvath, Aug. 1984

* Survivor's Desk Reference to the Modern World - Mike Schaefer, 1984 - Unfinished