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Author Vincent Zangrillo in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Vincent Zangrillo back in his salad days Vincent (Vinnie) Zangrillo is the author of Dime Bag, a collection of short stories recounting his misadventures in downtown NYC in the 1970s. We spoke about his time at Naropa, when he hung out with Burroughs, Ginsberg and especially Corso, who ended up moving into Vinnie’s East Village apartment back in the ’70s when Ginsberg kicked him out for making too much noise. Vinnie talked about the time Corso got a Hell’s Angel to read a poem at Naropa, Corso’s search for his mother, and an interesting rumor about the death of Jerry Garcia. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E07 – Vincent Zangrillo appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Writer, poet and musician Keshav Das in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Keshav Das Keshav Das, was, once upon a time, an editor at Sensitive Skin magazine, when he went by the nom de plume Christian X. Hunter. He also painstakingly compiled and edited the book BAREFOOT IN THE HEART, a collection of oral history of the Indian saint Neem Karoli Baba. We had a great time talking about Ram Dass, the Jivamukti Yoga Center, how he grew up in New York City and learned to play guitar (he played Kirtans with Krishna Das for many years), and was taken in by the great comic book artist Ralph Reese as a homeless teenager. He later became a professional motorcycle racer and photographer, before I met him when he started writing poetry as part of the Unbearables. It was great to connect with him and we had a Good Talk, so listen up! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E14 – Keshav Das appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Poet and teacher Sharon Mesmer in conversation with Bernard Meisler. photograph of Sharon Mesmer by Ester Levine I always enjoy speaking with the great Sharon Mesmer, one of my favorite poets and/or people! We talked about the state of poetry, podcasts (Ram Dass vs. Joe Rogan), cancel culture, millennials vs. gen z, the holidays, and how her plan to kidnap her teacher and mentor Allen Ginsberg went awry (even though he was all for it.) Sharon reads us her great Freddie Mercury poem, then some work from her new project, “Even Living Makes Me Die,” a tribute to American women poets who are sadly “underknown,” which was featured in a recent issue of American Poetry Review. Listen up! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E13 – Sharon Mesmer appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Painter and critic Tom McGlynn in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Tom McGlynn Mob T-Shirt copyright 1994 Tom McGlynn Small Standard 1, 36″ x 36″ copyright 2018 I had a good time talking to my old pal, painter and art critic Tom McGlynn. I always thought Tom was one of the smartest people I’d ever met, but I did my best to keep up with him! We spoke about his technique, influences and how his work transitioned from playing with logos to abstracting their schema via color palettes, and what it was like living in the East Village back when we met, in the mid-80s, and hanging around with our mentors David Hammons, Steve Cannon and John Farris, as well as folks like Steve Buscemi, Mark Boone Jr., Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kiki Smith and Richard Hambleton. You can tell we had a good time – both back in the day and now. Listen up! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E12 – Tom McGlynn appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Novelist, poet and publisher J. Macon King in conversation with Bernard Meisler. I met J. Macon King last spring, when he sent in a short story I liked – he thought I lived in NYC, but to his surprise, we both lived in Marin. John tells us how he grew up in the Midwest, his adventures on the AlCan, moving to LA in the seventies, then up to wild, wild mid-70s San Francisco and finally ending up in Marin in the 90s. We spoke about the many luminaries who’ve made their home in Marin, like Sam Shepard, Peter Coyote, Phillip K. Dick, Martin Cruz Smith and Gerald Nicosia. Around the 50-minute mark, John reads us three poems. Listen up! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E11 – J. Macon King appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Novelist and essayist bart plantenga in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Amsterdam-based bart plantenga is a novelist and essayist (PARIS SCRATCH, NY SIN PHONEY) and one of the co-founders of the Unbearables literary group. We met over 30 years ago in Paris, when we published a 1-shot lit mag, The Bik Dik Review, which was the precursor to Peau Sensible, which became Sensitive Skin. We spoke about living in Amsterdam as an ex-pat, why social media doesn’t work anymore, and the book he’s currently working on – interviews with 100 people about why they didn’t have kids. Of course, we went down the political rabbit hole, and discussed why both MSNBC and Fox News suck, how the mainstream media ignores Bernie Sanders, and America’s obsession with guns and religion. Around the 65 minute mark, bart reads to us from PARIS SCRATCH and a Steve Cannon story from NY SIN PHONEY. Listen up! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E10 – bart plantenga appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Author Emily Carter in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Emily Carter is the author of the classic GLORY GOES AND GETS SOME, as well as many, many short stories, published everywhere from Sensitive Skin to The New Yorker. I’d lost touch with Emily over the years, but she was a key member of my NYC/LES crew back in the day. But we started chatting and it was as if we’d just seen each other at Vazac’s last night. We spoke about aging, memory, consciousness, what it’s like for a born-and-bred New Yorker to be living in Albuquerque, why she uses a pseudonym (hint: she has a famous mom and sister), and why today’s gen-z kids are awesome. We ended up talking about podcasts we like, and then Emily reads a terrific story she wrote for children – specifically children of adult alcoholics. Listen up! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E09 – Emily Carter appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Novelist, playwright and poet Arthur Nersesian in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Arthur Nersesian, photograph by David Shankbone Arthur Nersesian is the author of nine books, including the classic novels The Fuck-Up and the crime fiction novel Gladyss of the Hunt. Born and raised in NYC, where he still lives, we got off to a cheery start, talking how about Father died of ALS, his mom of Alzheimers and how I’d just put down my cat Jerry the day we spoke. His forthcoming book, The Five Books of (Robert) Moses (Akashic, July 2020), which he’s been working on for 25 years is a post-apocalyptic story about what happens in NYC after it’s been hit with a dirty bomb. We spoke about his writing process, how he walks 7-10 miles a day as counter weight to writing. We also discussed the general burden of being a writer (whether you have a family and kids or not), and the lukewarm parenting we received growing up, when you had to carry a knife in NYC. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E08 – Arthur Nersesian appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

NYC poet and impresario Puma Perla in conversation with Bernard Meisler. photograph of Puma Perl by Len DeLessio I’ve never met Puma Perl in real life. That is, I don’t recall having done so. But it seems as if we must have, as we know so many of the same people, and hung out at so many of the same spots on NYC’s Lower East Side, like the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe and Neither Nor. I was so surprised to find out that Miguel Pinero, the great Puerto Rican poet and mauvais garcon, was her brother-in-law that it didn’t even register the first time she said it! We also spoke of Martin Wong, Rick Van Valkenberg, Bimbo Rivas, Miguel Algarin and a host of the usual suspects. At around the 41-minute mark, Puma reads us some poems. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E06 – Puma Perl appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Paris-based painter David West in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Some new paintings by David West I met David West at the Pink Pony in NYC, back in 1994 or thereabouts. David was the “bartender” and I used to go there all the time with Mark Ashwill. We had lots of laughs. After about three months, he told me his last name, and the penny dropped – I’d heard his name for years, we had many friends in common, and I had actually been friends with his sister 10 years earlier. Anyway, we had a good talk – everything from men wearing shorts in Paris because it’s too damn hot, to his leaving home at 16 to go live with a bunch of wild ballerinas. We talked about his traveling the world, the myth of CBDs, how he ended up in Paris, where’s he lived for almost 20 years now, and what it’s like to be an American there in the time of You-Know-Who. Finally, we agreed that art can save the world. The above photo is of some of his recent (brilliant) work. If you want to see more, you can make the click here, here, or check out the book of his work we published, Drawing Down the Muse. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E05 – David West appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

NYC poet Eve Packer in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Eve Packer Great NYC poet Eve Packer and I spoke about the loss of our dear friend Steve Cannon, Jeffrey Epstein (Note: this was recorded in mid-July), her own personal #metoo moment with a famous writers, some adventures she had with Allen Ginsberg in London back in the day, and how she went from acting and performing to writing poetry. The last 10 minutes or so, Eve reads some poems. Apologies if this episode left anything in that should have been cut/edited – I’m in NorCal and our power is getting cut off any minute! Wheee! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E04 – Eve Packer appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Sensitive Skin live at LitCrawl, recorded at the Valencia Room, San Francisco. Instead of the usual conversation, why not give a listen to last week’s Sensitive Skin reading at LitCrawl, live from San Francisco? Readers include Jenny Wade (reading from Mayakovsky Maximum Access), Marc Olmsted, Suzi Kaplan Olmsted, Joel Landmine and me, your host, Bernard Meisler, reading from my brand-new novel, THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO DIE. Enjoy! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E03 – Sensitive Skin Live At San Francisco LitCrawl appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Gerald Nicosia in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Gerald Nicosia An absolute must-listen for all fans of Jack Kerouac and the Beats. Gerry and I spoke about his role as an advisor to the film version of “On The Road,” and how he was first introduced to the writing of Kerouac and what inspired him to begin writing his classic biography, “Memory Babe.” Starting in the mid-70s, Gerry travelled over 50,000 miles doing interviews for “Memory Babe,” and interviewed virtually everybody who knew Kerouac, as, except for Jack and Neal, they were all still alive back then. Then we moved on to his new book, “Kerouac: The Last Quarter Century,” which tells the sad tale of how the Kerouac manuscripts (including the ROLLS, not SCROLLS!) have been sold off to the highest bidder, rather than going to a single university for study, and how Kerouac’s daughter Jan and nephew Paul Blake were cut out of his inheritance, due to the forging (!) of his mother’s will. Finally, Gerry reads one of his own poems, “Ferlinghetti.” The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! If you liked this, you might want to try...

Anton Yakovlev in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Welcome to season 2 of the Sensitive Skin magazine podcast! We discuss Anton’s growing up in Moscow, during the final years of the Soviet Union, his emigration to the United States, and his new book of his translations, The Last Poet of the Village: Selected Poems of Sergei Yesenin, the first bilingual Russian/English edition of Yesenin’s poems, now available on Amazon (or ask your local bookseller or library to get you a copy). Anton Yakovlev’s latest poetry chapbook, Chronos Dines Alone, winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize 2018, was published by SurVision Books. He is also the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and two prior chapbooks: The Ghost of Grant Wood (Finishing Line Press, 2015) and Neptune Court (The Operating System, 2015). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Hopkins Review, Prelude, Measure, The Stockholm Review of Literature, Amarillo Bay, and elsewhere. Born in Moscow, Russia, he studied filmmaking and poetry at Harvard University and has written and directed several short films. He works in academic publishing in New York City. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post S02E01 – Anton Yakovlev appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Marc Olmsted in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Marc Olmsted with an original Brion Gysin dream machine Marc Olmsted is a poet whose work has appeared in a million different places, he’s a teacher, of both writing and Buddhist meditation, and he wrote a great memoir about his close friend, Allen Ginsberg, called Don’t Hesitate: Knowing Allen Ginsberg. We spoke about meditation, Shakespeare, his dad, a well-known character actor who appears in the single greatest episode of The Twilight Zone, “To Serve Man,” and our thoughts about Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Marc also did a great Gregory Corso imitation. Marc reads a couple of pieces, and then we get to hear his band, The Job, play a song called “Birdbrain,” with vocals by none other than Allen Ginsberg himself. Like I say in the intro, I’ll be taking the summer off after this podcast (OK, maybe one more after this), but will be back in September with more. But should I? Do you want me to? Send an email, or post on our Twitter or FB page or better yet, write a review on our iTunes page (unless you think we suck, in which case you can belay that). Peace! If you liked this, you might want to try...

Mark Howell in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Mark Howell Musical archaeologist (and great guitar player) Mark Howell has played with everybody in the – what would you call it? – avant-progressive-jazz-rock scene – Bill Laswell, George Cartwright, Tom Cora, Anton Fier, John Zorn and Elliott Sharp, to name but a few. He was an original member of Fred Frith’s Guitar Quartet, Curlew and Timber, along with Rick Brown (75 Dollar Bill) and Jenny Wade (Swans, Mayakovsky Maximum Access). These days, Mark works as a musical archaeologist, and is creating electronic loops with Camila Montoya. We spoke about all of that, and Mark also related his classic meeting with Jerry Garcia story. Towards the end of the show, we’ll hear some musical clips, including “Anti-Mother-In-Law Car,” by Timber, which is also the theme music for this podcast. Now you get to hear the whole thing! If you liked this, you might want to try...

Rob Roberge in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Rob Roberge Rob Roberge, novelist (The Cost of Living, More Than They Could Chew, etc.), memoirist (Liar) and guitarist (The Urinals) and I spoke about everything from coal-oven-baked pizza to the corruption of the East Coast towns we grew up in, to the New York Knicks to religion to sudden middle-of-the-night relocations. And we also talked about his upcoming novel, which begins with the a-bombing of the Bikini Atoll, and the paperback reissue of Liar. Of course, we ended up with Charlie Manson. If you liked this, you might want to try...

Andrew (Drew) Hubner in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Andrew (Drew) Hubner, is the author of East of Bowery, We Pierce and American By Blood, and an educator at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. We spoke about his new novel, his family’s history of violence and the military, how he got into the NY poetry scene at ABC No Rio, his personal struggles that led to homelessness and institutionalization, and how he overcame them. We also spoke about his writing process, how he’s influenced by the classics, and likes to use “picture words.” At around the 43-minute mark, Drew reads a powerful excerpt from his new novel. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post Episode 17 – Andrew Hubner appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Agneta Falk in conversation with Bernard Meisler Agneta Falk at Live Worms Gallery in North Beach, San Francisco. I met poet and painter Agneta (Aggie) Falk at the Live Worms Gallery in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. Aggie and a few friends recently took over the gallery, which was about to close, and are keeping it open, for gallery shows, readings and events. We spoke about her growing up in Sweden, moving to England and ending up in San Francisco in 1998, and how the rent is too damn high. Her most recent book is Heart Muscle, and she’s a regular figure in both the San Francisco and international poetry scenes. At around the 35-minute mark, Aggie reads us some terrific poems – make sure to listen to that! The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post Episode 16 – Agneta Falk appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.

Steve Cannon in conversation with Bernard Meisler. Professor Steve Cannon is the founder and publisher of Gathering of the Tribes magazine, and author of the filthiest book of all time, Groove, Bang and Jive Around – which I didn’t realize till this talk was published by the legendary Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press. We spoke about his growing up in New Orleans, his move to New York City in 1962 when he hung out with James Baldwin, Chester Himes, Norman Mailer, Leroi Jones, Helen Gurley Brown, and Ishmael Reed. Steve was one of the founders of the East Village Eye, the first underground newspaper in the US, and was instrumental in the creation of Small Press Distributors, Poets and Writers and the reading series at the St. Marks Church. We also spoke about his long-term friendship with the great artist David Hammons, and our mutual friend poet John Farris. The Sensitive Skin magazine podcast is now available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify and the other usual places, or listen to it here. New episodes every Monday! The post Episode 15 – Steve Cannon appeared first on Sensitive Skin Magazine.