Glyphic (the Animated Psychedelic Mayan Cool Vomit Poetry as Nourishment Video featuring music from Native American Phenom Rapper Supaman and animation from elpix.com.mx)

The Video Speaks for Itself, but if you want to read what inspired the project please check out Poetry as Nourishment: Glyphic

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This project was started by Ralph and Dacio (from elpix.com.mx). The idea was to bring the nourishment of poetry to a different format.

Supaman was kind enough to lend his music to the project. Once the beat was going and the three Maya were walking with maracas in hand, the animated video started to take form climaxing in the final psychedelic frames. When Part 7 of Glyphic was first written in the late 90s on a little table in a burger joint in Guatemala it was all about the process of vomit and then nourishment. It also turned into a story about how big business is out of control and taking advantage of indigenous peoples and their lands. It became a battle cry!

Ralph let the book sit for over 10 years and then thought that he had to publish it because the situation hadn't gotten any better. In fact, the southern part of Mexico was in worse shape than it was in the late 90s when he lived there.

This book was released to help tell people of both the beauty and culture of the area and also alert people to the very immediate need for political and economic change. It's the same old struggle. The world powers still haven't learned.

The Glyphic Animated Music Video (on YouTube):

The Book:
Poetry as Nourishment and Latin American Battle Cry: Glyphic

Ode to the Pillow (from Ten Poems about East Asia and Kitsch Nebula Ampe...

Just messing around and the table with Louis Armstrong playing in the background. I have to get a better camera angle and read better but this is the basic idea and first draft.

IS LITERARY FICTION DYING?

There is this feeling among non-fiction writers that what they do is real and pertains to real life whereas what we do as fiction writers is just play around in a world without consequences or real meaning. I beg to differ. I notice most of the biggest pundits about real life are in the finance or politics sector. I'm a big fan of economics. Part of me wishes I had become the Wolf Of Wall Street -- I also grew up in that area. I spend hours a day researching, watching, and ultimately trading options. For me it's a job that allows me to make money to support my family while I don't compromise my art. My writing can be pure because I have another stream of finance. Now that I've sold my bar, this is necessary. Anyway, back to these non-fiction nazis, the ones that yell at me when I send a personalized email that asks for a review and says no hard feelings if you don't respond and ignore. These guys believe that they are messing around with real world stuff. Politics. Governments. Countries. Presidents and Prime Ministers. They somehow think, or try to make you believe that they think, that fiction is frivolous. Yet most of what transpires in politics is absolute fiction. The difference is one of my books or stories uses fiction to hit a higher emotional truth while not destroying someone's real life by libel. Some of these politicians use fiction as a rhetorical device meant to trick and enslave the masses. Perhaps, that's why I tend to rub these types the wrong way. I'm also a Master Fictionist. As such, I can see through their smoke screen and see into the truth of the matter. They are trying to hide that. I am the enemy. They are my enemy. 

This thought came as I try to scratch and claw to start a writing career. I feel like I'm begging to get a few reviews to my books. Every time I do this one of these types berates me for not knowing them well, or for--how dare I?--presenting them with fiction when everyone damn well knows they don't read fiction. Are they proud of their ignorance? their myopia? their lack of anger management? 

I knew poetry was dying, but is literary fiction also on the way out? I'm sure paranormal fiction and mysteries and zombies are taking over Amazon's kindles but does that have to be the death of literary fiction? Can't we have a little niche somewhere? Is the whole fucking world our enemy now?

For Monks Only Got a New Cover

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About the Author

Ralph-Michael Chiaia became a full-time writer in 2017. Until then he messed around running his pub and drugs and playing pool, smoking over a pack a day of Marlboro Mediums. Chiaiate la Boca is his next work: a 129-act play optioned to Peter Jackson. He is coming to a theatre near you.  

Before that, Chiaia popped out in NYC in 1975. He grew up in Montclair, NJ. He currently lives in Seoul where he owns and operates RAndy's Bar. Come in and say hello if you're in the neighborhood. He has previously published some books of poems:Ten Poems Ampersands And, Glyphic, I, Orange Girls, and the Sacred Calendar. Glyphic was a finalist and runner-up for both the Elixir Press Poetry Award and the Cervena Barva Press Award. 

Before coming to South Korea he was a staff reporter in Oaxaca, Oaxaca for "The Grasshopper" -- English-language section of Noticias -- featuring travel articles roving and roaming Latin America. He didn't earn much money there, but he ate well (Mole de Oaxaca is one of the best foods you can ever taste!) and drank well. Las Cremas de Mezcal should be imported to a deli near you. He was sure to eat many grasshoppers so that, according to local legend, he will die face up. 

Jina's Photography at Instagram

Some of you may know that my better half, Jina, is an incredible photographer. She finally started a social media account (instagram) to showcase some of these photos.

GIF Images from the Glyphic Video (coming out soon!)

Glyphic (Coatlism Press 2014)
BUY HERE

Para mi gente que lee in espanol

I have three reviews now under one review box in Solo Para Monjes done by Coatlism Press in Spanish:

Me encanta la autenticidad de la historia de amor. Pero yo anhelaba más....quería saber qué iba a pasar. (Read More)