PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER

Printed Matter Vancouver is proud to present Rime of the Angry Metalhead, the debut novel by Jason Luna.

Long Island, 1988. Mikey Pellegrino and his nihilistic metalhead friends, The Ridge Boys, are thirsty for revenge against the classmate they deem responsible for the car crash that took their best friend’s life on New Year’s Eve. The teens construct a shrine at their hangout spot in the woods in honor of their fallen friend, Cliff, whose nickname resulted from the young man’s striking resemblance to Cliff Burton, the heavy metal legend who was killed in a bus crash two years earlier. As “Angry Mike” steps into 1989 ready to settle the score for Cliffy’s untimely death, his confusion and rage lead him down a path of self-destruction that forces him to enter a residential rehab facility. There he meets Cheyenne, who surprises both with her peculiar method of romantic pursuit and the information she holds about the night Cliffy died, an insight that will forever change the way Mikey sees the event that took his friend away. Rime of the Angry Metalhead is Mikey’s tale of loss and love, metal and mayhem.

Inspired by his own experiences as a teenage metalhead on Eastern Long Island in the late 1980s, author Jason Luna uses the backdrop of the end of the Cold War and the suburban heavy metal subculture in order to tell the story of a cynical, chaotic young man whose worst enemy is himself.

Jason Luna is a high school English teacher and former Correctional Educator in New York City. He lives in the Hudson Valley, New York with his wife Mary. His debut novel Rime of the Angry Metalhead is available on Amazon through Printed Matter Vancouver.

Nuclear Holocaust, the Cold War and a looming sense of dread were a regular part of a teenager’s life in the 1980s. The sense of isolation, the crazy backwoods parties and most importantly the music we listened to were all reactions to the very real fear we felt. Rime of the Angry Metalhead will take you back to those dark, delicious times when parents, politicians and polite society were terrified of metal, and fun consisted of wild nights of drinking and smoking while jamming tunes on a beat-up boom box. If you were a metalhead in the 1980s or if want to know what it was like to be one during that unique and memorable era, give this book a read.

 —Chris Pervelis, guitarist for Internal Bleeding and metalhead from Long Island

Luna’s nostalgic look at some of heavy metal’s golden years brought me back. I loved the mention of the Metallica concert and the girl in the Slayer shirt. The “soundtrack” had me racing to listen to songs and bands that I know so well and remember fondly. —Rick Ernst, director of Get Thrashed: the Story of Thrash Metal (2008)

Join us at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT for a virtual book launch event on Zoom featuring the author. RSVP to printedmattervancouver@gmail.com to receive a Zoom invitation to this event.

Rime of the Angry Metalhead

By Jason Luna

Printed Matter Vancouver

January 2021

Paperback ($16.99): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SZ1HY83?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

EBook ($4.99): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T197DRY/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic

Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige

Featuring Chris Gonzalez

7 pm

Thursday, January 14

On Zoom

$5 Suggested donation

LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com

Chris Gonzalez is an educator, journalist, playwright, poet, musician, and creative-collaborator based in Portland, Oregon. Chris has been a featured poet for the past six years, performing alongside International Slam Champions Saul Williams and Shane Koyczan. His first book, water or bread, was published by Human Error Press in 2017.

NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, this month’s reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on December 10 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, let us know if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting. Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less. 

If you are willing to donate to support the series, please use Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com) or contact him to make other arrangements. Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic
Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige
Featuring Rebecca Smolen
7 pm
Thursday, December 10
On Zoom
$5 Suggested donation
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004

Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015.

Rebecca Smolen is a Portland-based writer transplanted from New Hampshire in 2014 and the mother of two adorable little gingers. She grew up on a dead-end road, exploring drainage pipes and pond life. Rebecca has a degree in creative writing and philosophy. She has been trained and is certified to lead writing classes in the Gateless Method. This method was scientifically created to avoid provoking the fight-or-flight reaction, generating a safe place to produce raw, new writing that will spotlight the strongest talents of that material. You can find Rebecca’s poetry most recently in Allegory Ridge, Feminine Collective, Tiny Seed, The Inflectionist Review, Poeming Pigeon, and her collections Womanhood and Other Scars and Excoriation published by The Poetry Box.

NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, this month’s reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on December 10 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, let us know if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting. Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less. If you are willing to donate to support the series, please use Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com) or contact him to make other arrangements. Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry. The suggested donation is five dollars.

The Work is a drop-in poetry writing workshop for beginners as well as more experienced writers. Poetry encourages empathy and compassion, and sparks the shifts in consciousness which can lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change. We will read and discuss poetry, write several new poems, and give each writer feedback on at least one of the drafts composed during the workshop.

Due to restrictions aimed at keeping us safe from the COVID-19, The Work will continue as a remote workshop via Zoom. Please email Christopher Luna at christopherjluna@gmail.com by midnight the night before each workshop to RSVP if you would like to participate.

The cost for the workshop is a suggested donation of $20 to Christopher Luna’s PayPal account: christopherjluna@gmail.com “Suggested” means that we would like for you to join us regardless of whether or not you can afford it right now.

MONDAY NIGHT EDITION

Join us on the second and fourth Monday of every month for The Work.

$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.

The Monday Night Edition of The Work takes place from 6-8:30 pm on the second and fourth Monday of each month, unless otherwise noted. These workshops will take place on Zoom until it is safe to do so again in person.

Upcoming Monday night workshops will take place on January 11 & 25, February 8 & 22, March 8 & 22, and April 12 & 26.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON EDITION

The Work also takes place from 11:30 am – 2:00 pm on the second Saturday of every month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming Saturday afternoon workshops will take place on January 9, February 13, March 13, and April 10. These workshops will take place on Zoom until it is safe to do so again in person.

Christopher Luna encourages you to support Niche Wine Bar, which has provided a home for his poetry and memoir workshops, Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, and other events for many years. Niche is currently open for both dine-in and takeout service: https://nichewinebar.com

If you are looking for writing coaching, editing/manuscript review, or information about poetry and memoir classes, send Christopher an email via printedmattervancouver@gmail.com.

Esther Building Art Space

bits and Luna Luna still on view

Closing October 9 2020

The Esther Building Art Space is located at 610 Esther Street, Vancouver, WA

Open Monday through Friday 10am-3p

Two exhibitions opened at  Esther Building Art Space in March: bit’s by Noah Matteucci and Luna Luna featuring the art of Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna. The expectation was that the show would open to the public for a couple months and close in May. Of course the universe had other plans. Shortly after the show opened, everything shut down. The Esther Building is now open M-F 10am to 3pm. They are open to visitors in small groups, with masks, and appropriate social distancing.

For more information about this exhibit please contact: Erin Dengerink, erincdm@gmail.com, 360-566-7808

To learn more about the artists visit: 

Noah Matteucci’s website, noahmatteucci.com & instagram:@noahmatteucci

Christopher and Toni Luna, printedmattervancouver.com

bits

Noah Matteucci’s colorful woodblock prints fill the first floor spaces of the Esther Building. Matteucci’s pieces are created with small interchangeable blocks of wood, carefully arranged, inked, and printed multiple times to create a rich layered image. The squares are laid out in a grid pattern, the colors appear to be gently vibrating and the shimmering. Matteucci’s art references pixels and glitches. By taking those mundane aspects of our digital life and framing them large and lovely, Matteucci draws our attention to the beauty in the intricacy of the images we consume everyday. 

Luna Luna

Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna are poets, artists, partners and collaborators. At the Esther Building they are showing their mixed media photo collages of photography depicting street art. The images show chalk drawings and graffiti taken during the couple’s travels.  They speak to the very human need to leave our mark in the world. Mounted on found wood, the photos have a feeling of being aged and worn. Devoid of information about where the images were taken, the photos become universal. 

Exhibited alongside the photos are a selection of colleges by Chritsopher Luna that are artfully arranged and include bits of text that allude to his poetry.  

Artist Bios: 

Noah Matteucci is an artist and printmaker currently working in the Pacific Northwest. He makes traditional prints using algorithms that loop pixels, lines, and dots. You can find him working at WSU Vancouver as the Fine Arts Technician.

Christopher Luna is a collage artist, poet, editor, and teacher, whose visual art has been featured at Angst Gallery, North Bank Artists Gallery, and Multnomah Arts Center. His collage work can be seen on  book covers for several poetry books and anthologies. Luna served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Toni co-host the LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA, founded by Christopher in 2004. Christopher Luna’s books include Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018), Brutal Glints of Moonlight, and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.

Toni Lumbrazo Luna is a poet, editor, visual artist and the author of three poetry books: Driven By Hope (Printed Matter Vancouver, 2019) Jesus Is A Gas, and Wind Wing. She is the co-founder of Printed Matter Vancouver, a small press which provides editing and writing coaching. Although originally from central New York, she’s made the Pacific Northwest her home for 30 years. She co-hosts the Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA and serves on the Clark County Arts Commission.   

The Esther Building Art Space 

610 Esther Street, Vancouver Washington

The Esther Building Art Space is open to the public Monday through Friday 10am-3pm

For more information about this exhibit please contact: Erin Dengerink, erincdm@gmail.com, 360-566-7808