LA LUZ de JESUS GALLERY

presents

A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die
by Chris D.

An epic anthology of poetry, lyrics, dreams, short stories, novel excerpts, screenplays and more.
Preface by Byron Coley. Foreword by John Doe. Afterword by Lydia Lunch.
(520 pages, Softcover $24.95)

Book Reading & Signing
Saturday December 5, 2009 6 - 9 PM

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die  (New Texture) is the long-awaited mega-anthology from musician/writer Chris Desjardins (better known as Chris D., singer/songwriter of the bands The Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen.) Included here in 500 pages are all the song lyrics Chris ever penned from the 1977 - 2004 era, plus poetry, short stories, dream journal entries and excerpts from as-yet-unpublished novels. A treasure trove for Chris D.'s fans and an introduction for everyone else to one of the most neglected literary talents of the last thirty years. Chris has produced landmark records by The Gun Club and The Dream Syndicate (along with his own work), acted in films, worked for a decade as a film programmer at Los Angeles' American Cinematheque and has even written and directed a feature film (I PASS FOR HUMAN). 2005 saw publication of his study of Japanese cult filmmakers, Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film.

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die is a New Texture book.

“…he continues a tradition in writing that is all but lost; authors who use their powers of imagination and creativity rather than simply recounting or inventing a memoir. Like the outsider artists that Chris D. champions, he writes for the future, for art, to someday be truly discovered for the great talent he is.”
– from the Foreword by John Doe (of the bands X, The Knitters)

“Chris D. presents in this volume such an immense encapsulation of his life's work that it reads as literary autopsy of a man not yet dead but of one who has died a thousand times and somehow miraculously between crucifixions
used pen as shovel to prevent himself from being buried alive.”
– from the Afterword by Lydia Lunch
(singer/musician and author of “Paradoxia,” “Will Work for Drugs”)

"Reading Chris D's blood-on-the-page prose is like running naked, screaming with terror and desire, through the fetid back alleys of American pulp culture. You're seduced, f----d over, doused with whiskey, set on fire, dragged by the getaway car, nailed by the hail from a 30.06 and still, still—you can't stop reading."
– Eddie Muller
(author of “Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir,” “The Distance,” and “Shadow Boxer”)

 

Also appearing:
Mary Woronov

Mary Woronov is a painter (her first love) and the author of six books; Wake for the Angels, short stories illustrating her paintings, Swimming Underground, a fictional Memoir of her time at the Factory, Eye Witness To Warhol, essays on questions she is tired of answering, Snake, a novel, Niagara, another novel, and her new book of short stories, Blind Love. Living in LA, she also has written and directed three half-hour TV shows for Women on Showtime. She acted in over 73 Hollywood films, acquiring the dubious title of cult queen thanks to films like CHELSEA GIRLS, EATING RAOUL, and ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL.
She stopped teaching graduate fiction at Otis College to devote all her time to painting.

 

The signing will be from 6-9 PM.