My friends back home and I have developed a game called The Celebrity Relative Lookalike Game. The scoring is based on the honors system, and is goes on as follows: At a bar or public place, we look around and find people who don't look like celebrities and public figures, but those who descended from them or could be their next of kin. The next steps are rather crucial: one, make up a first name for them to go along with the famous person's surname; and two, make up an occupation. One night, I scored heavily with Charles Bronson's niece and University of Pennsylvania anthropology major, Shoshanna Bronson, as well as James Spader's accountant brother, Samuel A. Spader, CPA.

But the best one ever, hardly ever to be topped, came from hometown friend, Ducky editor, and rabble-rouser Tom Hartman. One night, at McGlinchey's Bar, Tom spotted him: Adolph Hitler's grand-nephew, sporting Dickie's pants and a blonde mustache: Steve Hitler. The game was never the same, and we went back to just making fun of people.

***
I met Peter Davis out in Muncie, Indiana, where he teaches at Ball State University and runs readings at a fine establishment called the MT Cup. He had me over when I was on my God Save My Queen II tour, and after I had published a couple of his poems. He played a version of "Killer Queen" on a Fender I wish I owned, and a couple other folks played covers, too, including Jamie, who went to the Continental Airlines Arena Queen + Paul Rodgers who in 2004.

***
Now, a couple years, later, comes his first book: Hitler's Mustache. I knew that Davis was putting together a book of poems and prose pieces, all of which riff on and around the Third Reich dictator. But even as someone who has written two books riffing on the rock band Queen, I thought it would be, like, a series, in a longer book with pieces on other things. Pol Pot's pompadour, for example.

***
But no, here it is, a full-on Hitler mustache extravaganza. It's not so much about the Hitler mustache in the Objective Correlative sense inasmuch as it's about saying the words "Hitler's mustache" and then delving into the subject as a way of, really to my mind, desecrating the whole idea of writing about something and instead writing on top of something. Referentiality as an extended fart joke, if you will. Monty Python meets Journey meets Frank O'Hara. Read this one as well as this one, ones I had a part in bringing out into the world. Check this one out, too.

***
It's highly recommended.

Labels: Riffs