Lisa Crystal Carver
Lisa Crystal Carver's (AKA
Lisa Suckdog) writing in
Rollerderby, made her one of the most well known writers of the zine boom in the early '90s, along with scribes like
Pagan Kennedy. Through her interviews, she introduced the work of
Vaginal Davis,
Dame Darcy,
Cindy Dall,
Boyd Rice,
Costes (her ex-husband),
Nick Zedd,
GG Allin,
Kate Landau,
Queen Itchie &
Liz Armstrong to many. A collection of notable articles from the zine was published as
Rollerderby: The Book.
Her
Suckdog Circus shows are also legendary, bringing the artists above to basement shows in nearly every state of the union, where they would perform
noise music soap operas, hurling themselves sexually and violently upon the audience, and forcing individual audience members to take part.
Carver is the also the author for
Dancing Queen: a Lusty Look at the American Dream, in which she expounds upon various relics of pop culture past, including
Lawrence Welk,
roller rinks, and
Olivia Newton John. In
2005,
Soft Skull Press released her newest book,
Drugs Are Nice, detailing her early childhood and later romantic relationships with
GG Allin,
Costes,
Boyd Rice and
Smog's
Bill Callahan. In addition to writing her own 'zines and books, Carver has also written for various magazines (including
Peter Bagge comic book
Hate) and kept an ongoing journal about her sex life for the website Nerve.com. Although Carver no longer writes her journal for the site, she is still a semi-regular contributor.
GG Allin is said to have written the song "Suck Dog" (from his
1987 album
You Give Love a Bad Name) about Carver, after she allegedly attempted to seduce him, then badmouthed him to the press.
Carver took much criticism from her fans for her relationship with Rice (Rice has had personal and professional associations with various
white power figures and
satanists) but she was characteristically unapologetic. The pair would eventually have an acrimonious breakup, but not before releasing several recordings together and having a son, Wolfgang. Wolfgang's severe stomach problems became the subject of a story Carver recorded for the NPR radio series
This American Life.
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Official Rollerderby site*
Interview
