SANTA CRUZ, CA… “Forget the academics. If you want to read a near-perfect portrait of what real life is like, of what real human need and deprivation is all about, then hunt this title down,� says Seth Flynn in a review of Joe Pachinko’s “The Urinals of Hell “ (Superstition Street Press, 2003) for Las Vegas City Life. Pachinko will be reading from “The Urinals of Hell� and other poems while making his debut at the Wired Wash Café at 7:00 p.m. on December 10th.

The Oakland based writer has been referred to as “the love-child of Charles Bukowski� combining the dark urban surrealism of the streets, satirical attacks on the current state of literature, wistful drug- and alcohol-induced fantasies, hopeful words of love and lust, and hilarious, bizarre combinations of images guaranteed to make any reader, listener, or passer-by feel something, whether they be amused, inspired, or offended.

You don’t have to be a poet to appreciate the works of Joe Pachinko, in fact he would rather not adhere to the label of “poet.� Over a cup of Joe, he emphasizes, “I don't consider myself a poet, I believe it’s up to the reader/listener to decide whether something is poetry or not.� His affiliation to the poem is similar to the late Charles Bukowski, one of the most widely read contemporary American poets of the century; he would rather not compromise his art into a bland classification. Joe begins to unravel that “bestowing the title on yourself is suspect-like somebody walking around shouting ‘I’m a genius!’ If someone else calls you one, that’s their business. I’d describe my poems as being anti-poem-fauxetry.�