2020: SQUINTIN QUARANTINO by Steven James Pratt a.k.a Steve Fly
Steve Fly is a native of Stourbridge UK, now an Amsterdam resident who plays drums, spins vinyl, writes novels and literary and cultural commentary, maintains a flock of websites and works in various other art forms without visible restraint. Iron Man Records is pleased to be able to offer a free copy of Steve Fly’s latest work, just click the link above.
Steve Fly says of his book “One of my new year’s resolutions for 2020 was to communicate on social media using a limited amount of syllables. I planned to write one or more haiku-like poems each day and condense my expressions. This was partially due to spending a large amount of time last year writing long drawn-out rants, concerning Brexit and the 2019 UK general election. I vowed to turn over a new leaf and bring my writing and thinking more in sync with the pulse of breath. I intended to collect these poems into a book and publish quarterly, but the world tilted toward a new trajectory due to novel coronavirus, as you will see, my writing shatters off into different threads, returning to freestyle rhymes and longer pieces trying to make meaning of the new word world 2020 and what lies beyond.”
“On reflection my first explicit mention of the virus is in the following lines from February 2nd:
coronavirus / spreading like racism flu / check your prejudice / solidarity / with all east asian people / li sao for sorrow.
Through these scrawls you track my attention moving with the spread of the virus and its potential impact and dangers, within creative works and social media posts curated for your quarantainment. I regret a few lines and sentences based on the turnaround of official policy in Holland, the UK and the USA, leaving some of my frantic attempts to shock sense into people rather hollow and unnecessary.
The herd immunity strategy has since been dumped, for example, how quickly things change in 2020. The spoken word recordings I made on 19th March capture my most panicked period, between 10th and up to the 19th. Since that date, stricter measures have been adopted in line with most other countries suffering from the novel virus outbreak and so…my rather dark hastag #killyourgrandma seems OTT?
The Haiku-like poems are presented chronologically, together with an increasing amount of Blog posts www.deepscratch.net and Tweets www.twitter.com/flyagaric2019
This book contains unpublished poems and sketches, please forgive any mistakes and blunders and insensitive language. At the back I present a list of useful links, videos, advice, and tips to help make it together on the rocky road ahead. As long as I’m breathing I’ll be writing and playing music and sharing what I feel worthy.”
Thanks to Steve’s supporters at www.patreon.com/stevefly who will also receive a copy of this book.
Nick Larsen, Helen Alexander, Toby Philpott, Janne Svensson, Maeve Simmons, Rick Buzga, Dimitri Robinson, Bobby Campbell, Jenni Vyskocil, Gavan Kennedy, Dava Sheridan, Chris Velenik, Lyndsay Rawson, Peter Quadrino, Vicki Harris, Roman Tsivkin, Mark Sampson, Heather Kelly.
Special thanks to Tim Egmond for his time and studio space, facilitating the reading aloud of my writings with some beatbox on top. Thanks to my mum Della and father Tom for their ongoing support. Prop Anon, Borsky, Purple Guru, Minja, Zen Punkist, plus all the Maybe Logic Academy crew I forgot, Waywords and Meansigns community, all at Hilaritas Press, Rasa, Christina and the Raw trust, John Sinclair, all DJ’s at RadioFreeAmsterdam andtheexpansiveboardofadvisorsatthe JohnSinclairFoundation, all Cosmic Trigger Play pilgrims, UK Wizards and warlocks, all underground artists, musicians and activists, all Garaj Maholics, worldwide cannabis freedom fighters, Stourbridge, Lye and Brierley Hill, Quarry Bank mossive’ all beat heads, turntable innovators, poets, artists, crafts people, medical staff and volunteer care workers, sewers, 3D printers, friends, acquaintances, strangers, colleagues and family.
We will get through these challenges together and each have the opportunity to birth a new world. Will we choose livingry or killingry? If you are reading this I wish you a safe and healthy quarantine, please feel free to reach Steve with any questions. flyagaric23 @ gmail.com
“Ginsberg has seen the Lion, and by God, he makes you see it, too. Naturally, Life magazine describes his vision as “sick” and “warped”; the System which is willing to create twenty thousand abnormal babies everytime it sets off a nuclear bomb cannot afford to listen to the reports of this extremely delicate instrument, the “Defense Early Warning Radar System” that is the soul of the poet today.”–Robert Anton Wilson, Poet As Defense Early Warning Radar System , Coincidance (Hilaritas Press)
— Steven Pratt a.k.a Squintin Quarantino. Amsterdam. 31/03/2020.
https://www.patreon.com/stevefly
https://twitter.com/FLYAGARIC2019
https://www.blogger.com/profile/15471582582737353275
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This book is dedicated to poet-activist and friend John Sinclair
click this link for PDF copy:
2020: SQUINTIN QUARANTINO by Steven James Pratt a.k.a Steve Fly
