BRASS TACKS PRESS

Brass Tacks Press cofounder and author Richard McDowell was awarded the title of "Downtown LA Poet Laureate" for 2009.
His books (below) are Thirty Days on Spring and My Mind is Blank. The former has been reprinted with a slicker layout and a color cover.
THIRTY DAYS ON SPRING
by Richard McDowell
"[McDowell] takes an interest in how low people can sink. Everyday he watches the drug addicts, the prostitutes, the crazies, the bums, the sick, the filth, the rats, the criminals... and [tries] to wrestle meaning from all this."
(Mephisto 97.6 FM / Leipzig, Germany)
30 days of art and memoir inspired by living on seedy Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles.
L.A.P. presents:
MY MIND IS BLANK
by Richard McDowell
A collection of poems originally published in BTP's Life as a Poet series.
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MALIBU SONG: A Documentary Film
by Natalie Lettner & Werner Hanak
"This film is so ironically funny, full of beatnik philosophy and poetry, and Californian hippie-surfer aesthetic and culture! Don't miss it!"
(Jeff Crowder, "Americans Abroad")
Lower Topanga Canyon was home to a colorful artists community at the entrance to Malibu, until State Parks made a controversial decision to buy the land and relocate its more than 100 residents. In 2002, filmmakers Natalie Lettner and Werner Hanak began filming the residents' struggle to stay in their beachside paradise.
Their film focuses on a few unique Lower Topanga personalities (with several Brass Tacks Press authors!), including James Mathers, a painter living in an Airstream trailer; Pablo Capra, a young poet; Norton Wisdom, performance artist and lifeguard in Malibu; Carole Winter, diehard flower child; Herb Bermann, former lyricist for Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band; and Baretta, who sings the haunting "Malibu Song"...
Malibu's known for its own way of life
Malibu's known for the sun
But if Malibu's all you achieve in your life
Then tomorrow you're walking alone.
Malibu Song premiered at the Austrian film festival "Diagonale" in 2006, and was featured in Vienna’s art-house theaters and on Austrian TV.
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LITTLE NUTS
by Alden Marin
Little Nuts is our 1st paperback book, and it epitomizes much of the best work published by Brass Tacks Press in general.
...i.e. Little Nuts is written in a distinctly SoCal voice, it challenges definitions of poetry, it's fun to read, and it "gets down to brass tacks" (the expression usually means clearing out confusing details and finding out the real facts about something). Its short direct poems are almost the genesis of a new form:
LSD Insight
I once saw through a
man's head while on
LSD at a town fair; for a
moment he became
completely transparent
and it was so scary I
went and hid in my room.