Discipline & ANARCHY: Mr. Omar King
I present to you The Outsider Artist and Writer , Mr. Omar King , who resides in Gardena, California.
You’ve seen Mr. Omar King’s mug on the YouTube channel Soft White Underbelly. You can find his frank interview on Filthy Loot’s Not-Not Famous Substack, and His short fictions on Cream Scene Carnival, 100 Subtexts Magazine, and Elizabeth Ellen’s Hobart. Online, well he is like a digital Nomad, you can find him here, there, everywhere!!! And he is the cover boy of the third issue of Beyond The Last Estate.
He is the author of An Odyssey Of Dingbats! Published by New Ritual Press.
WHY DO YOU DO IT? WHAT DRIVES YOU?
Good question, Lydia. Like anything that is natural. Love, for example. I do it because I love it. I love what I do and do what I love and therefore it is natural. That sounded arrogant, right? I am just being frank here. When I paint - for example I just do the work. It doesn't require effort. Practice, of course. You do it everyday and grow to love it rather than use it. I do certain things that the work demands of me and that is loving every single lunacy (my artworks) as if it were my child, my sweet problem child. I have nothing but love for it and it fills my heart. If that sounded coo-coo bananas - by all means - take me to the nuthouse. I'd gladly share air and space with Nurse Ratched and the rest of the lunatics. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU DO FOR SANITY MAINTENANCE?
Music. Without music in this lonesome house I live in, it is like being in the black abyss or in the misty forest or worse... in hell or dead. Life without music is no life at all but an endless inferno of an awful silence snuffing out the psyche or the person or soul. Music is not a must but a need. A good necessity and remedy for the soul. I can't tell anyone what music/song to listen to but anything that sparks your soul... go for it and go all the fecking way with it. WHAT IS THE SCRAPPIEST THING YOU’VE DONE TO MAKE OR SAVE $$?
Oh golly, this was a long time ago — I would make postcards at Willenberg CTC (Career Transition Special Education Center) and sell them for a dollar and twenty-five cents, each. AHAHAHA! What a little entrepreneur I was. A little Uncle Sam. I would use that money to buy snacks or lunch when our class went off campus and took a trip to Costco. And I would buy a hot-dog or slice a pizzer with that money. Oh, those were the days. Good times, good times.YOUR TASK IS TO PRESCRIBE ONE BOOK OR FILM TO THE COLLECTIVE FOR MANDATORY CONSUMPTION. WHAT IS IT?
I know I will be cheating because I will be listing a variety of horror films and books - to the collective/contemporaries - that I think are a must-watch and read - I apologize. Man, I wish there was an underground Criterion-ish closet for just campy-oddball-transgressive-artsy-fartsy-horror movies. Oh man oh man, I would come home with a box full of these DVDS. I am only wishfully thinking.
For (Horror) Films...1. TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 (1986). This movie is a must-watch with a friend or lover. This movie has everything a man or woman could ask for. It's got horror (of course), comedy, romance (surprisingly), gore, witty one-liners, the whole enchilada. It is one of my many favorites I could watch over and over and over again.2. FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (1989). This is a perfect horror picture to rent at a rinky dink video store (if anyone recalls those off brand video rental shops where they had the adults only sign dangling in front of velvet curtain), watch on a Friday or Saturday evening with friends or family, chowing down on some pizzer or a bowl of popcorn. This movie made me laugh, scared, and root for Jason, of all people. One of the best, in my book.3. BRIDE OF CHUCKY (1998). The perfect horror picture to watch on a romantic movie date. In my book, it is romantic and terrifying and hilarious. Who doesn't want to watch Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) the Doll smoke a cigarette and say: "Eat your heart out, Barbie," or Chucky (Brad Dourif) the "Good-Guy" Doll play a loving Husband. Need to check themselves before they wreck themselves. I can talk about this movie all day, but I have to shut up and go on with the next picture.4. HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II (1988). It is a disgusting, stylistically dramatic, transgressive, poignant, and artistic smash. I remember watching this movie late at night on the Encore channel (now it is called Starz channel), and I had no clue what the hell I was getting myself into as a kid. Foolishly, I was brave enough to watch it. And I watched the beginning, middle, and end. As I think about it now... it's not a film a kid should be watching late at night, certainly not alone. I JUST LOVE IT!!!! And now for books (transgressive works of literature)...1. CREATION: ON ART AND UNBECOMING by Christopher Zeischegg. If you want to read a good snuff book, this would be it.2. VIOLENT FACULTIES by Charlene Elsby. Reading this book is like reading AMERICAN PSYCHO, but if Patrick Bateman was a philosophy professor. What a read, indeed-indeed.3. TROLL by Dave Fitzgerald. What I can say about Dave is that he is a writer's writer. His writing is wickedly hilarious and dark as feck and to the point. I would love to meet and shake his hand someday. 4. COYOTE by Max Restaino. Why isn't anyone reading this book? It's great, I like it a lot. It reads well and I can totally envision it being adapted into a punk rock album. Restaino is a genius and funny guy, that I will say.5. METH - DTF by Shane Jesse Christmass. Another schizo dime store novel. Word salad at its finest. I love Shane's work and I can't wait to get my hands on his latest work, LATEX, TEXAS. I know this new one is going to blow me away.6. YOUR DREAMS by Thomas Moore. An ethereal and dark piece of work this book is. Moore, in my book, is just one of the greats. He is a nice feller that writes messed up and dark and sad and poignant works of literature. I'd like to meet him someday.7. THE MEN IN MY LIFE by Garth Simmons. Another great - and funny and sad and dark - book by a great artist and writer. Please-please-please don't sleep on this book. And now, my all time favorite book by an all timer... 8. LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN by Hubert Selby, Jr. I can talk about this book all day and night long with a glass of beer in my hand and a bowl of potater chips. Hubert Selby, Jr. is my idol (and I don't say that word that often), my teacher (even though I never met him), a big influence on me. You know how David Lynch is a big influence (and he is) to movie heads and weirdos and buffs? Cubby (Hubert Selby, Jr) is that for me as well, artistically and spiritually. He is just great. Current obsession?
Being on the spectrum, I have many-many-many-many obsessions. Sounds exhausting for others, but for me it never gets tiresome. I think I am going to cheat and list a couple, if you don't mind me listing them? Well here it goes: 1. SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU! 2: THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW3: COPS (the TV show)4: AMERICAN HORROR STORY5: TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN6: Stories Books and Cafe in Echo Park7: Norm's Dinerand lastly... 8: PIES! Oh golly, I love a good blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream on the side. Blueberry pie or any pie in general I could just die for. I would die a happy man with a plate of blueberry pie by my side. MOST USEFUL FAILURE?
When folks throw shite at you, throw it back (nah, don't actually do it), or turn it into shiny and shimmering gold!SELECTED Q FROM THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE: WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU HAPPIEST?
March 8th of 2024, Friday. At Last Projects, attending the launch party for Christopher Zeischegg's CREATION: ON ART AND UNBECOMING. It is one of those nights that I remember fondly. I had a hunky dory good time that night. I got out of the house. I drank. I got to meet people. I observed art and listened to a story. And I made a new friend. What could a man ask for? Yeah, one of my favorite nights.WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
Good question. Like that A24 movie EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, I am currently doing everything all at once: Reading at launches and reading parties. Writing the second volume of AN ODYSSEY OF DINGBATS (my book)! Playing an eccentric porno director for a nitty-gritty artsy-fartsy dark and witty short film. Getting ready to do the audio book for DINGBATS! I am doing loads and loads of online radio (another word - my word for podcasts) guest appearances. I plan to take a trip to New York to meet my New York contemporaries and throw a DINGBATS party at Sovereign House (that would be a dream come true). New York City and Texas and Iowa and San Francisco and so many other places I plan to travel to meet my contemporaries and organize a hunky dory reading/launch party. I am doing everything everywhere all at once. Try saying that over and over and over again. AHAHAHAHAHA!!DISCIPLINE OR ANARCHY?
Oh jeez, this one is a tough one. Being a libra I can't seem to decide. I am indecisive here. But, if I have to choose, I will just have to go with discipline. We all need a little discipline in our lives, self-discipline that is. I won't go further than that, but let your imagination do the talking.Check out mr. omar king’s book,
an odyssey of dingbats!
Bleak language in some areas of the book, and probably romance if you count the talking pink crayola: a hopeless romantic. Fornication here, there everywhere! It is an Odyssey of Dingbats, I can tell you that. One bizarre and sick story after another. Reading it is like reading a schizophrenic’s private diary. A dime store novel like no other… An Odyssey of Dingbats, it sure is! The people in these anthologies are just trying to go about their days and figure things out. While an old fart is looking for his golden elephant and another old man is spilling his heart out about his dead chimp to a couple of yahoos in group therapy, an orange crayon is going through an existential crisis (or perhaps a revelation) and a woman named Colleen got the shits and had a terrible nightmare in the shitter. An Odyssey of Dingbats indeed-indeed. When you read it, it’ll make you laugh your bottom off and wonder to yourself “what in God’s name is wrong with these folks?” nothing much really, they are living and existing like you and I. My good sir and Madame, I present to you…
AN ODYSSEY OF DINGBATS!!!!!!!!
