smog.net: Your home of bad attidute

My problems first started out with Atom Mind, a literary journal published by Mother Road Publications and edited by Gegory Smith. Atom Mind contained some very impressive names, including R. Crumb, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Ken Kesey. It was not however a standard literary journal but an "underground" literary journal. Atom Mind published the sort of people whose opinions or writing style was too different or subversive for mainstream journals. Not all of the prose/poetry in Atom Mind was unique. Much of it sounded like either Bukowski, Kerouac, or Ginsberg. The story of mine that Atom Mind accepted for publication—"Flophouse Wildlife," was clearly in the Bukowski camp. All of the writing in Atom Mind had spirit though, and the magazine had class. If you want to understand America, you need to peel away its sexy exterior of independence and freedom, and understand the people that need to be stomped on in order to bring you this illusion. Atom Mind was the voice of the stomped. I always found solace in the thought that Atom Mind was there—that I was not completely alone in this hostile American wilderness. What is paradoxical is that Atom Mind's treatment towards me was no different than that of a large cooperate publishing house—shit. My story was never published. That didn't really bother me. This happens all the time with small literary journals: They go under before they have the opportunity to publish you. What irked me was that Atom Mind never had the courtesy to tell me. This sort of practice is endemic to the entire "basement press" industry, and has happened to me many times. You have to understand that when a publisher accepts the story of a writer, he is preventing the story from being published elsewhere—the story is being "held up." If the publisher holds up the story and then goes out of business without ever telling the writer, it really fucks the writer. They are also keeping property which doesn't belong to them, namely—your story, poem, or whatever you sent them. I'm sure publishers and pricks like Michael Phillips (who I will get into below) have their sob stories of how tough it is to be a small publisher, what an ungrateful life they live and all that lame shit, but I don't see how in the fuck that prevents them from sending you a 20 cent postcard saying that their publication is on the skids and you should try elsewhere.

I was also a subscriber to Atom Mind and never got any notice that my subscription would be unfulfilled. If Gegory Smith had simply had the courtesy to tell me that his journal was having difficulties, I would never have sent him an angry letter demanding my money back, to which he never responded to. In fact, even if the fucker had left the subscription unfulfilled without telling me, I still wouldn't have sent him the angry letter. What I was truly angry about was that he never had the courtesy to send me a 20 cent postcard telling me he couldn't publish my story. It was not even Gegory Smith that the letter was directed at—but a world full of hypocritical assholes like him who so valiantly publish these subversive journals so that the voices of cockroaches could be heard, and then turn around and pound them into the pavement.

Although I cannot prove this, I believe Michael Phillips, owner of smog.net is in bed somehow with Gegory Smith of Atom Mind, as Mother Road Publications who published Atom Mind also published Michael's works. For all I know, they could be the same person. When I wrote smog.net, they were advertising for Atom Mind. I wrote smog.net to try to get them to stop advertising for Atom Mind, as Atom Mind was not fulfilling subscriptions. smog.net did, eventually stop advertising for Atom Mind, but it was long after I originally made my request, which, as you can see from the correspondence below, was flatly denied.

smog.net is actually an interesting web site. Michael is not a bad poet. It is fascinating to me how he could write with such poignancy about be fucked by the system and yet be a complete asshole. The absolute coolest thing I have ever seen on the Internet is the copy of the CIA Sabotage Manual on smog.net. It is weird-weird—weird-weird shit.

My e-mail to smog.net

Subject: Regarding Atom Mind
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 17:58:14 -0400
From: [Edward Phillips <Undisclosed>]
Organization: Undisclosed
To: mjp@smog.net, webmaster@smog.net

Dear Michael,

On your web site, subscription information and an order form is
available for a journal called ATOM MIND. In 1996 I bought a
subscription to ATOM MIND. The last issue I received was Summer/1997,
and I am still owed two more issues. I wrote to the editor of ATOM MIND
asking why it was that he was advertising for his journal on your web
site and yet had not put out an issue for two years. He did not respond.

As a writer yourself, Michael, I’m sure you can appreciate how important
it is that small literary journals do not falsely advertise their
product. If people are cheated by one journal, they will hesitate before
subscribing to another journal -- it hurts the entire business, and
hurting the business hurts the struggling writers.

ATOM MIND has effectively seized production of its journal and therefore
cannot legitimately sell subscriptions. Advertising for a non-existent
product is false advertising and is illegal.

Accordingly, I respectfully request that you remove any reference in
your web site to ATOM MIND being on sale.

Ed Phillips
Undisclosed e-mail

smog.net's response

Subject: Re: Regarding Atom Mind
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 02:45:33 -0700
From: Michael Phillips <mjp@smog.net>
To: Edward Phillips <Undisclosed e-mail>

>Dear Michael,
>
>On your web site, subscription information and an order form is
>available for a journal called ATOM MIND. In 1996 I bought a
>subscription to ATOM MIND. The last issue I received was Summer/1997,
>and I am still owed two more issues. I wrote to the editor of ATOM MIND
>asking why it was that he was advertising for his journal on your web
>site and yet had not put out an issue for two years. He did not respond.
>
>As a writer yourself, Michael, I’m sure you can appreciate how important
>it is that small literary journals do not falsely advertise their
>product. If people are cheated by one journal, they will hesitate before
>subscribing to another journal -- it hurts the entire business, and
>hurting the business hurts the struggling writers.
>
>ATOM MIND has effectively seized production of its journal and therefore
>cannot legitimately sell subscriptions. Advertising for a non-existent
>product is false advertising and is illegal.
>
>Accordingly, I respectfully request that you remove any reference in
>your web site to ATOM MIND being on sale.
>
>Ed Phillips
>Undisclosed e-mail
>

"cheated", "false", "illegal"? -- you're fucked in the head, brother.

if you do subscribe to AM you've received the publisher's newsletter
explaining his situation. along with his promise to fill out all
subscriptions...listen, *I'M NOT MOTHER ROAD/ATOM MIND*, and i do not speak
for them, defend them or make excuses for them. i put the info on the site
to encourage subscriptions to one of the best lit mags being published.
whether it comes out quarterly or every four years.

perhaps you think publishing a literary mag is like publishing TV Guide,
but it isn't. 99.9% of these guys are putting up the bulk of the MONEY for
each issue out of their own pockets. to come to me with your bullshit
whining and complaints is not only insulting to the spirit of the endeavor,
but god damn irritating.

"as a writer" you say - don't give me that shit! don't fucking patronize
me. yes, i am a writer. and yes, unlike you, i know how this shit works.
maybe *you* are a ("struggling") writer. i would not be surprised, everyone
else is. maybe you are uptight, anal and angry because no one will publish
your shitty, struggling writing. maybe not. i don't know.

but really - what shit your letter is! what whining, mealy-mouthed,
embarrassing, tightass, pussy shit. i feel sorry for you.

i don't speak for ATOM MIND, but i speak for smog.net, and smog.net says;
"fuck you, and the dainty unicorn you rode in on!"

your pal,
mjp

p.s.
that's "ceased", not "seized". you can't even complain properly...

My response

Subject: Re: Regarding Atom Mind
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 16:29:15 -0400
From: Edward Phillips <Undisclosed>
Organization: Undisclosed
To: Michael Phillips <mjp@smog.net>
References: 1

>
> if you do subscribe to AM you've received the publisher's newsletter
> explaining his situation. along with his promise to fill out all
> subscriptions...listen, *I'M NOT Big Mother/Atom Mind*, and i do not speak
> for them, defend them or make excuses for them. i put the info on the site
> to encourage subscriptions to one of the best lit mags being published.
> whether it comes out quarterly or every four years.

The fact remains that you are accepting advertising for a journal that bills
itself as a quarterly and yet has not put out an issue for two years. I have
consulted with an attorney over this, and he has explained to me that what you
are doing is illegal. Later this month I plan to file a grievance regarding
your organization's actions with the Attorney General of the State of
California.

Edward Phillips

My first reaction to Micheal Phillips was, "the belligerent asshole has no idea who he's fucking with." I decided to play it cool and not engage him in a pissing contest. I did not actually consult with an attorney, although I could've, as my stepfather is one. The part about reporting him to the Attorney General was an incredibly lame bluff. I had no intentions of doing that. If I really wanted to get him back, I could've made him pay dearly in a way in which he probably could never imagine. I am a computer programmer. A very angry and terminally unemployed computer programmer. Disgruntled computer programmers with too much time on their hands, and piss-ants sending them rude e-mails go together like fire and gasoline. Micheal is reckless, and sooner or later someone with my knowledge of the Internet (and it doesn't take a whole lot of this knowledge), whose sanity dangles just a bit more precariously than my own, will make him pay. Best to let someone else be the executioner.

The feedback I received from Micheal was certainly unsettling. I have debated whether to give you an answer to his implication that I was probably an unpublished, shitty writer. I have decided not to validate this with an answer. Why? Because real writers know how difficult it is to get published. They have seen great works of other writers go unpublished, and so they do not engage in bashing their fellow artists for not being published. To a writer, this sort of thing is so fucking uncool that they cannot even begin to find the words to describe it. You might think this is the bullshit of an unpublished writer; if you do, fine—I simply am not going to provide any type of validation for this sort of thing.

I remain perplexed by Micheal's statement, "fuck you, and the dainty unicorn you rode in on." What is this unicorn business? This reference is either too obscure or too cool for me to have any real clue as to its meaning. I believe in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, a comment was made by one of the characters that if you really wanted to insult someone, call him things he can't understand. I believe this character was a fucking idiot, but it's been so many years since I've read the book that I can't say for sure.

I am tempted to call Micheal Phillips one of the greatest assholes of all time, but in my heart of hearts I believe him to be more mental than asshole.