Matthew Duersten

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The Jester

Matthew Duersten
Photo by Ted Soqui Joel Mesler is fond of pranks. For months, he had been needling and taunting the new Mountain Bar on Chinatown’s Gin Ling Way in his self-published newsletter (“Why not a bookstore or a flower mart or a spa/brothel?”; “Now all the swells won’t come to Hop......
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How To Play a Mountain

Matthew Duersten
High above the Malibu coast sits a natural amphitheater of craggy, wrinkled rock faces centered on an embedded boulder. On a balmy, burnt-orange evening, Billy Close stands near the center, pulling at the air with gloved hands in gestures not unlike those of an airport-tarmac router. Every time he does,......

This Band Could Be Your Film

Matthew Duersten
Photo by Debra DiPaolo Maktwain work and play in a Zone 9 — LAPD parlance for the level of danger and violent crime in a particular neighborhood (e.g., Beverly Hills is a Zone 1). They practice in a spacious loft on Spring Street that overlooks gnarled effigies shooting up in......

Venus de Me

Matthew Duersten
You are a beautiful, loving and creative being. Buy some stuff! I’m reading this off the ceiling as I lie on my back on a padded table with a strip of butcher-block paper down the middle. The radio is playing a tune from Guys and Dolls. On a nearby tray,......