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THE UNEXPURGATED, TRUE STORY OF NEAL CASSADY & ANNE MURPHY
Tripping with a Viper author Anne Marie Maxwell (aka Anne Murphy, as she was known in the 1950s and 1960s) tells her autobiographical story of her adventures as a longtime lover and romantic, travel partner of Beat icon Neal Cassady “without fiction, facelifting or varnish, just as I’ve sometimes painfully and often gratefully recalled it,” says Maxwell. Her writing traverses many roads of America (and beyond) with this “unexpurgated, true story of Neal Cassady and Anne Murphy.” It journeys further past the facade of pop culture fascination and excitement galvanized by Beat Generation writers, artists and poets. Her first-person account enters a zone of struggle through the consequences and detriments accrued for a non-conformist life lived devoid of limitations. For the first time, Maxwell’s memoir is brought to the publishing world for a new generation of readers to explore. It is one of the most important accounts of the female perspective of the Beat Generation as a counterbalance to the otherwise overrepresented male-driven narrative. Anne Marie Maxwell is no longer just a spoke from Neal Cassady’s wheel of influence and inspiration. This first, fully published edition, gives her back her long-lost voice and is a testament to her intellectual, spiritual and sexual powers.
—Daniel Yaryan, publisher, Mystic Boxing Commission
Featured Mystic Boxer
MARC OLMSTED
(Photo of Marc Olmsted by Christopher Felver.)
INTRO TO MARC OLMSTED:
Allen Ginsberg said "MARC OLMSTED inherited Burroughs' scientific nerve & Kerouac's movie-minded line nailed down with gold eyebeam in San Francisco." (New Directions in Prose & Poetry #37). Olmsted appeared in that same volume, as well as in City Lights Journal, Outlaw Bible of American Poetry and a large variety of small presses. He has four books of poetry, Milky Desire (Subterranean Press 1991), Resume (Inevitable Press, 1998), What Use Am I A Hungry Ghost? which has an introduction by Allen Ginsberg (Valley Contemporary Press 2001), and Fresh Lotus Rehab (Virgogray Press, 2009). Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Olmsted received the San Francisco Acker Award for Poetry in 2014 along with David Meltzer and Ishmael Reed.
MYSTIC BOXER FEATURE:
MARC OLMSTED INTERVIEWED BY DANIEL YARYAN
1) DY: Tell me a bit about your origin story — where were you born? What did your parents do for a living?
MO: I was born in Rockville Centre, Long Island, which was the main hospital for Manhasset, where I grew up the first 5 years. My father worked in live television in NYC as a character actor, but the business was drying up on the East Coast. I didn’t realize it, but he had tremendous success in radio with STORIES BY OLMSTED, and recorded some ghost and horror stories with Vanguard, most importantly Edgar Allan Poe. But I was born into his decline in show biz and we moved to L.A. in 1960, where unfortunately, his decline continued, though he always worked.
2) DY: What were some interests of yours as a young person?
MO: Dinosaurs! Comic books!
3) DY: What was your impression of the world around you growing up?
MO: It seemed pretty safe and insulated. We were upper-middle class in the 50’s.
4) DY: What were your early creative experiences?
MO: I got the usual kid praise for crayon pictures, but my dad suggested I start writing the further adventures of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s LOST WORLD, since I wanted more. I got the bug.
5) DY: What media formats made an indelible impression on you growing up?
MO: Movies!
6) DY: Who were your early heroes?
MO: Ray Bradbury, Forrest J. Ackerman (the editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine), and Ray Harryhausen the stop-motion animator of films like 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. Ironically, they were all high school friends.
7) DY: Which Beat writer or Poet did you discover first and inspire you the most? Where were you when this discovery took place?
MO: Richard Modiano introduced me to Allen Ginsberg’s work when I was 13. I had already seen imitations of Allen’s style in the poetry of my older brother Ross’s “beatnik” friend. I loved that use of surreal metaphor, so visual! It seemed an extension of Ray Bradbury’s style, who I was totally into, due to my dad’s reading him to me.
8) DY: There’s an old saying, “never meet your heroes.” Does that statement ring true from your experience?
MO: I’ve always found that an ironic statement, because when I met Bradbury, Ginsberg or Burroughs, they were exactly who I thought they’d be.
9) DY: What was a difficult hurdle or a challenging turning point in your life?
MO: Getting clean and sober, I think I was 31.
10) DY: How did you overcome that challenge?
MO: Twelve step program.
11) DY: In your teens and early 20s, were you a rebellious youth?
MO: Marijuana and acid have that effect.
12) DY: How did you transform into a poet?
MO: I took a creative writing summer class when I was 12, and adults responded well to my attempts at poetry, so I stuck with it.
13) DY: You had a regular correspondence with Allen Ginsberg. How was that correspondence initiated?
MO: I wrote him in 1972 and he wrote back.
14) DY: Can you tell me the scope of your most recent book of letters with Ginsberg?
MO: Once I met him at that Chogyam Trungpa lecture I mentioned earlier, we “hit it off” and became lovers, though not exclusively, of course. That lasted six years and the letters reflect that, but also involved a lot of commentary about my poetry and Buddhism in general. After I broke off the romance, we still wrote and I still regularly saw him or heard from him right up to his death.
15) DY: Did you attend the Jack Kerouac conference in Boulder, Colorado in 1982? If so, what was something new that you learned about Kerouac or the path which he forged?
MO: I didn’t. I’d visited Naropa in 1978 and felt I got what that experience offered. I was in a working band, The Job, which was my obsession, and I suppose if anyone was ambitious enough, we would have taken the band out there to play - but of course we didn’t even have a van and we knew we’d make nothing, let alone have a place to stay that was tolerable.
16) DY: Do you have a favorite literary event that you attended?
MO: Attending a Burroughs conference in Paris 2023. It was a lost tribe of Burroughs nerds finding each other.
17) DY: Where did your interest in punk rock come from?
MO: I was aware of it before I liked it. Allen Ginsberg alerted me to its significance and pointed out to me in North Beach V. Vale of “Search and Destroy” zine, which Allen had helped finance. It wasn’t until Devo and the Sex Pistols came on the radio that I got it. Chris D. of the Flesh Eaters was a poet friend and played me Iggy and the Stooges, which I did not get at all, but later Iggy’s solo album with Bowie, THE IDIOT, completely hooked me and opened up the older material for me.
18) DY: Tell me about your punk band The Job — how did that evolve?
MO: Well, at that time anyone was allowed to start a band, which was a great thrill, because singing well or playing well were not required.
19) DY: When did you star in Michael McClure’s The Beard?
MO: I think that was 1978.
20) DY: Where did you perform that play?
MO: At lunch hour, San Francisco State.
21) DY: Were you in one of the productions that was shut down by the cops?
MO: Naw. The play really isn’t that scandalous anymore or even in 1978. McClure threatened us through his agent, because we hadn’t paid him anything and the play was trimmed to fit in an hour.
22) DY: Was The Beard your first play?
MO: No, I’d done some acting, most significantly when I was 13 in high school where I met Richard Modiano, who played Judge Gaffney. I was Dr. Chumley, the head of the insane asylum in HARVEY.
23) DY: You’ve made some films…What were these films and what prompted you to make them?
MO: I “loved movies and wanted to be a part of them,” as Richard Modiano once explained why we were doing it as we labored over a treatment of ON THE ROAD, a request-suggestion of a particular agent. A lot of work for a long shot that didn’t pan out, of course.. Such is the business. I had already played around with a Super 8 camera (You can see THE BIG FIX on YouTube) and I thought maybe I can make a living. Wrong. SF State introduced me to experimental film and that really excited me. So BURROUGHS ON BOWERY and AMERICAN MUTANT came out of that. Which essentially doomed me as a filmmaker making a living.
24) DY: You’re a Buddhist. When did that journey begin?
MO: The major shift came from seeing Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1974. I was basically Hindu before that, in a McDonald’s fast food sort of way.
25) DY: What impact has Buddhism made on your writing and poetry?
MO: I think William Carlos Williams and haiku both contain the element I consider Buddhist. Appreciation without grasping of snapshot moments.
26) DY: What role does poetry play in your current world view?
MO: Poetry is a daily celebration for me, by which I mean a celebration of the wide range of human experience - I think most of my poetry is not very happy, but the act is uplifting. It’s almost as essential as meditation for me.
27) DY: To what extent can poetry shape the future?
MO: I wish I knew. Richard Modiano is a revolutionary. I don’t have that hope. I suppose if my work survives, it might be a record of sobriety and Buddhist practice. That could have influence.
28) DY: What is your next project?
MO: Probably just getting my archives in order. I turn 72 this year. That really gets you thinking about death as everyone starts dying around you. I have a book coming out on Beatdom, BEAT DHARMA, which tries to be some sort of resource. There is a tremendous amount of confusion out there about the Beats and Buddhism, and then I see that confusion used in other books, and that’s very disheartening.
29) DY: Do you have a favorite poem of all time?
MO: I confess it would have to be “Howl.”
30) DY: Who are your favorite poets still with us today?
MO: Probably Anne Waldman is the only one left. I like Gary Snyder of course.
DY: That concludes the interview. Here is a sample of one of Olmsted's poems...
Marc Olmsted
MONDAY NIGHT
On the evening Portland light rail home
from the airport
when the doors open a man gets off the floor from his nap
& back to the seat opposite his explosive vomit
later he retires again to the floor
& when a midnight wheelchair tries to come on
she pauses at the sight & says “O hell, no!”
I look up from my conversation
with the homeless crone
as the car of addicts bursts into laughter
...
POEMS BY MARC OLMSTED
Marc Olmsted
ALLEN’S GRAVE
Visiting Ginsberg’s grave it began to rain
a refreshing drizzle that was walkable
until we made the truck below
by the Great Stupa
- now in my tent I think of Allen’s grave
(which has some ashes
more in Newark, New Jersey near his family)
- a new friend had asked
“Do you want to be alone with him?”
“He’s not there,” I said, but happy none the less
Drala Mountain Center
7/6/23
...
Marc Olmsted
REMEMBER, NEELI?
Corso saying he's walked in
on you & Bob S. making it -
"and they had such tiny dicks."
everyone laughing
"That's not true, Gregory, I've got 7 inches"
Gregory grinning evilly toothless jester -
and wasn't it your tiny North Beach place w/ Ginsey,
Bob Kaufman saying "Bring out the herowine"
eyes burning gleeful (maybe serious)
later a bigger place a party for Buk
you introduced me
Buk drunken like he knew me
- maybe that 1972 college reading I thought -
"Hank, this is Marc"
Buk's face now sullen
"I thought you were a woman."
...
MARC OLMSTED'S
BIBLIOGRAPHY
POETRY AND PROSE
- Milky Desire, Subterranean Press, 1991
- Resume’, Inevitable Press, 1999
- What Use Am I a Hungry Ghost?, Inevitable Press, 2000
- Fresh Lotus Rehab, Virgogray Press, 2009
- Don’t Hesitate: Knowing Allen Ginsberg, Beatdom Books, 2014
- Shark Tank Soup, CWP Collective Press, 2018
- Cemetery Manners, Four Feathers Press 2022
FILMS (ALL ON YOUTUBE)
- The Big Fix, 1974
- Burroughs on Bowery, 1978
- American Mutant, completed 2009
- The Count (video), 2011
- Remembering Neal Cassady w/ Bob Branaman (video), 2013
HIGH PRAISE FOR OLMSTED'S POETRY:
"Olmsted's sinuous poetry moves on the page. and in the eye and mind, like thoughts at the instant they become muscular movements. Sometimes there is winsome observation of old feelings making new punk imagery. Sometimes there is emptiness and the real ordinariness of a shining Buddhist world. It's vivid!"
--Michael McClure
"Again and again Marc Olmsted's poetry presents us with co-emergence: the simultaneity of the dark and light in our minds, in our lives. This book is a fierce and honest portrayal of the struggle toward realization: 'better prayers/ in other bodies.'"
--Diane di Prima
"...one of the few practitioners post-Kerouac who picked up on the loose and lucid form that Kerouac had developed."
--Allen Ginsberg
...
MORE INFORMATION
To learn about enrolling in one of Marc Olmsted's online classes or for a FREE chapbook, visit:
E-mail:
---
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SPARRING ARTISTS (ANNUAL 2) DOUBLE EDITION
THE LITERARY ANTHOLOGY OF SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS
This exciting 2nd annual edition of Sparring Artists: Anthology of Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts packs a punch with 150 amazing contributors in a 302-page illuminated volume. This year's double edition was co-edited by S.A. Griffin and Richard Modiano who together assembled an incredible ensemble of "Mystic Boxers" ranging from some of the most magnificent poets, storytellers, reviewers, photographers and artists alive today, as well as those still with us in spirit. Sparring Artists was also designed by hands-on, Mystic Boxing Commission Publisher Daniel Yaryan.
New features in this installment of Sparring Artists include "Sparring Comix" to kick off the book, just as animated cartoons once kicked off films in our movie palaces of yesteryear. Speaking of which, Sparring Artists now includes film reviews in a new section called "Kino Truth." Book reviews are also a new offering this time around. As before, you'll discover enthralling, startling and amazing artists, such as the cover artist Mike Street; plus, the caliber of poetry and storytelling you've come to expect from Sparring. Read on and explore further uncharted territory for your reading pleasure and enlightenment. Keep Sparring!
Contributors include: LINDA J. ABERTANO, RALPH ABRAHAM, JUSTIN AYRES, MARCO BAKKER, VINCE BECK, IRIS BERRY, ELISHA BROWN BIRD, ROBERT BRANAMAN, GEORGE REITER BRILL, LYNNE BRONSTEIN, MICHAEL BRUNER, PETER CARLAFTES, NEELI CHERKOVSKI, SAM CHERRY, TERESA MEI CHUC, ANDY CLAUSEN, VICTOR CLEVENGER, JIM COHN, MARC COOPER, ANNETTE CRUZ, DENNIS CRUZ, CATHYANN CUSIMANO, SOHEYL DAHI, DAVID HUMBERT DE SUPERVILLE, LUBBERT JAN DE VRIES, DAN DENTON, DIANE DI PRIMA, JOHN DORSEY, ALEXIS RHONE FANCHER, CHRISTOPHER FELVER, RICH FERGUSON, ROBERT FISCHER, MARK FISHER, FITZ, KATHLEEN FLORENCE, JACK FOLEY, MICHAEL C FORD, AMELIE FRANK, THOMAS FUCALORO, MIKULÁŠ GALANDA, NELSON GARY, KAT GEORGES, RAY GINGHOFFER, ALLEN GINSBERG, WILLIAM P. GOTTLIEB, S.A. GRIFFIN, JOHANNES HANDSCHIN, mark hartenbach, JOHN HASSALL, GEORGE HERRIMAN, GEORGE HERMS, MARK DAVID HOEFER, MATTHEW HUPERT, ANNIE JANE-WILDER, MILO STARR JOHNSON, CLEA JONES, JERRY KAMSTRA, ELIOT KATZ, BOB KAUFMAN, KATIE KEENLOVE, ROYAL KENT, PAUL KLEE, DOUG KNOTT, MARC KOCKINOS, MARY NORBERT KORTE, CHUCK KOTON, RON LAMPI, LAND, MATT LAVIN, JANE LECROY, LINDA LERNER, PHILOMENE LONG, RICHARD LORANGER, DOMINIQUE LOWELL, FRANK LUTZ, PHOEBE MACADAMS, GERARD MALANGA, BIBIANA PADILLA MALTOS, WILLIAM J. MARGOLIS, ANNE MARIE MAXWELL, ELLYN MAYBE, JESSE MCCLOSKEY, BERNADETTE MCCOMISH, STEPHEN MEADOWS, DAVID MELTZER, JACK MICHELINE, RICHARD MODIANO, MICHAEL M. MOLLETT, SHANNA MOORE, JAMES RYAN MORRIS, K.R. MORRISON, PAUL NASH, HARRY NORTHUP, WALTER O'BRIEN, MARC OLMSTED, DAN O'NEILL, JANE ORMEROD, NINA PALEY, GIORGIA PAVLIDOU, STUART Z. PERKOFF, PUMA PERL, ROB PLATH, CHARLES PLYMELL, HANS PLOMP, HOLLY PRADO, RUBEN QUINTANA, KENNON B. RAINES, LINDA RAVENSWOOD, NICCA RAY, ODILON REDON, LUIVETTE RESTO, FRANK T. RIOS, DOREN ROBBINS, JEFF ROGERS, JULIE ROGERS, LYNN ROGERS, ERIC ROHMAN, Henry Lyman Saÿen, TONY SCIBELLA, DANNY SHOT, JOHN SEABURY, ELLA SENERES, KIM SHUCK, MIKE SONKSEN, JEANNE MARIE SPICUZZA, DANIEL OWEN STOLPE, VINCE STORTI, MIKE STREET, TATE SWINDELL, BEN TALBERT, DR. MONGO TARIBUBU, MIKE TAYLOR, MJ TAYLOR, WILLIAM TAYLOR, JR., A.K. TONEY, ALWIN VAN DER TOORN, E.P. UPJOHN, JIMMY VEGA, T. MIKE WALKER, GEORGE WALLACE, SCOTT WANNBERG, MARCIA WARD, DIG WAYNE, MELISSA WEST, KRISTEN WETTERHAHN, TONY WILLIAMS, A.D. WINANS, TRACY WITT, DANIEL YARYAN, HANNAH YARYAN, KAMERA ZIE/PAMELA MOSHER
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"I read every word in Sparring Artists. It's the big presentation that makes it great. "
--CHARLES PLYMELL, poet and author of Benzadrine HIghway
ORDER THE NEW SPARRING ARTISTS (ANNUAL 2) DOUBLE EDITION TODAY!
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this month's featured author: adelaide jarnot
NEW RELEASE: TRAILS TO THE CANYON FLOOR
This month's featured author is poet/novelist Adelaide Jarnot, a graduate of Tree Academy in Los Angeles, California. Shown below is one of Jarnot's poems from Trails to the Canyon Floor, which is her new book of novel excerpts and poems.
THE BOY WHO MADE THE WORLD END
I was sickened in my cell,
when out of the covers, a darling spell
bewitched me into pearl-encrusted cases,
bringing me out of old hidden places.
Then there he was, this darling boy; his hair
Brighter than reflection
from his diamond, pearl, and amethyst necklace.
His eyes, could tell you a thousand secrets,
Before blinking half-twice;
As he rode a carriage of giant mice,
The blood of a newborn should surely suffice;
for he spared, as he spared, so he spared all their lives,
robbing ill-conceived thieves, his own Robin Hood.
Would I dare tell you more? Well, I probably should,
as his voice was as smooth as a carpenter’s wood.
The chambers of your heart would pulse like
earthquake.
Whenever he spoke your name.
His body flowed in smooth windy whirls
as he embodied the grace of boyhood “church” murals.
It’s in the way he came soaring which would
make you unfurl.
For him, they were willing to die.
He’d figure 8, in one impetuous twirl,
And your secrets would burst as your arteries swirled.
The squeezing inside might just make you hurl
And that’s how this darling boy ended the world.
Yes, he marched right on with his wide heavy drum,
beating the beats of destruction to come.
Creating a crack in the wide heavy ground
it was louder than ever had been heard any sound.
Everything that was everything became nothing to hide
And that nothing was what I felt when I died.
...
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Pharmacy Psalms and Half-Life Hymns—for Nothing
NOW AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE IN HARDCOVER EDITION & EBOOK!
SYNOPSIS:
Armed with wisdom from multifaceted careers as esteemed poet, journalist, writer, chemical dependency counselor, and Kundalini yoga teacher, Nelson Gary went underground to write The Goddessey; or, The Consumer Book of the Dead series. Now, Nelson Gary resurfaces, drawing from profound crises and spiritual experiences, fusing all of his aforementioned vocations to craft a poetic tome masterpiece, Pharmacy Psalms and Half-Life Hymns–for Nothing. He elegizes his mother and father-in-law while lamenting the 17 friends and “fellow strugglers” as well as his grandmother who all died in a brief timespan, prompting extreme grief. While elegizing Todd Moore, an Outlaw Poetry icon, he also offers deeper understanding of this literary movement. This book also includes his experimental elegies for Miles Davis and Joan Didion, two people whom he did not know personally but whose work he loves. Honing his skills to a level of innovation, Gary confronts the “ultimate concerns” addressed by existential psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom and creates a compelling and original poetry volume that ushers us into a future of better understanding fundamental human needs. Gary reflects on a life filled with loss and overcomes grief, leading up to earning a Master of Arts degree in Forensic Psychology.
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AUTHOR NELSON GARY:
Nelson Gary’s works include XXX (Dance of the Iguana Press), Cinema (Sacred Beverage Press), A Wonderful Life in Our Lives: Sketches of a Honeymoon in Mexico (Low Profile Press), Twin Volumes (Ethelrod Press), and Pharmacy Psalms and Half-Life Hymns—for Nothing (Mystic Boxing Commission). He is an award-winning poet and essayist as well as a 2023 Pushcart Prize nominee (poetry). His work has been translated into Spanish and published internationally in numerous journals, magazines, anthologies, and newspapers, including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder’s Mouth Press), Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal, Cooch Behar Anthology, BlazeVOX, Americans and Others: International Poetry Anthology, El Observador, Los Angeles Times, and Desert Sun. Nelson Gary has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from California State University at Northridge and a Master of Arts degree in Forensic Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Features
SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS
Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts (SWBG) is a multi-media poetry supershow that began in the basement of Li Po Lounge in San Francisco's Chinatown on August 23, 2008. The series has traversed California from Mill Valley to Venice -- hosting mystic boxing matches with all the bygone ghosts of literary history. Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts is the creation of poet, publisher and event organizer Daniel Yaryan. SWBG also spawned many volumes of literary/art anthologies collected by the Bancroft Library, UCLA, The Huntington Library and other special collections. Watch the 15th Anniversary show from 9/23/23 at Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA!
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WEED: ADVENTURES OF A DOPE SMUGGLER -- by Jerry Kamstra
AVAILABLE NOW! CLICK HERE TO ORDER ON LULU.COM TODAY!
Jerry Kamstra's new classic is a tale of marijuana and marijuana smuggling but it is also about Mexico itself. What started out as a simple photographic expedition turned into a major smuggling operation involving a ton of marijuana and the hair-raising means used to bring the weed into the States. This absorbing story reads like an adventure novel -- but it's all true. Peer Amid Press and Mystic Boxing Commission bring you this special 45th Anniversary Edition with over six dozen photographs and never before seen illustrations by artist Fitz (AKA Mat Fitzsimmons).
Check out the rave review from Empty Mirror onlline magazine at the bottom of this page!
EVENT PRODUCTION AND BOOK PUBLISHERS
The Mystic Boxing Commission is dedicated to artists and their fight to be seen and heard! We promote artists, produce literary events and create masterworks from our in-house design department "Peer Amid Press." We're always in your corner. We publish artistic books of poetry, prose and anthologies. Contact Daniel Yaryan for more information.
KAMSTRA SPARRING ARCHIVE
The Kamstra Sparring Archive (AKA Sparchive) is part interactive museum, part art gallery and entirely a sanctuary for poetry, performance and visual art. The aim is artistic preservation, documentation and promotion of creative endeavors. The archive honors Jerry Kamstra, author of The Frisco Kid and Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler (RIP: 1/2/35-11/26/19), The Archive is host to exclusive Sparring Artist Salons in the NoHo Arts District. Visit https://www.facebook.com/KamstraSparchive for updates or contact Daniel Yaryan for more details.
BOOK DESIGNERS
Peer Amid Press is the design department of the Mystic Boxing Commission with over three decades experience in producing the most beautiful editions possible.
Contact Daniel Yaryan via Facebook Messenger or email him for more information about services.