Ron Garmon is an American journalist, rock critic, and short story writer who served as Arts Editor for L.A. CityBeat during its last ten months of publication. In August 2010, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area, after spending more than a decade in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

Garmon’s lyrical, oft-hallucinatory writings have been a fixture in L.A. rock journalism since the late 1990s through his scene columns in Mean Street, L.A. Record

L.A. Record

L.A. Record is an independent music magazine originally published weekly as a broadsheet poster. The poster usually depicts a local Los Angeles musicians and according to the magazine editors is meant to recreate an iconic album cover. In March 2008, it began publishing as a monthly magazine with a...

, and L.A. CityBeat. While at L.A. CityBeat, Garmon interviewed Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

, Edward Albee

Edward Albee

Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...

, Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner

Carl Reiner is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career...

 and many more. Garmon's cover stories followed L.A.’s underground music scene, bringing to light the trashing of the iconic Morrison Hotel

Morrison Hotel

Morrison Hotel is The Doors' fifth album. It was released in 1970. After their experimental work The Soft Parade was not as well received as anticipated, the group went back to basics and back to their roots...

, and investigating the fate of long-vanished cult movie director Tom Graeff

Tom Graeff

Thomas Lockyear "Tom" Graeff was an American screenwriter, director and actor. He is known for the 1959 b-movie Teenagers from Outer Space.-Early life:...

. He’s possibly L.A.’s first medical marijuana critic, reviewing dispensaries and strains in the print edition of the L.A. Record

L.A. Record

L.A. Record is an independent music magazine originally published weekly as a broadsheet poster. The poster usually depicts a local Los Angeles musicians and according to the magazine editors is meant to recreate an iconic album cover. In March 2008, it began publishing as a monthly magazine with a...

. He's currently contributing to the SF Weekly

SF Weekly

SF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...

music blog "All Shook Down".

His byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

, Brand X, Utne Reader

Utne Reader

Utne Reader is an American bimonthly magazine. The magazine collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment from generally alternative media sources, including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music and DVDs...

, The Tracking Angle, Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street (magazine)

Scarlet Street was an American film magazine that primarily specialized in the genres of horror, mystery and film noir. Its initial concentration was on Sherlock Holmes and related film and television productions, but later its subject matter expanded to include a variety of other genres.The title...

, New Angeles Monthly, and the Heinlein Journal. Examples of Garmon's approach to the rock LP can be found in Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed. He wrote liner notes for the CD reissues of The Best of Spirit

Spirit (band)

Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.- The original lineup :...

and four Bootsy Collins

Bootsy Collins

William Earl "Bootsy" Collins is an American funk bassist, singer, and songwriter.Rising to prominence with James Brown in the late 1960s, and with Parliament-Funkadelic in the '70s, Collins's driving bass guitar and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk...

 albums.

His speculative fiction is published in Paraphilia and Antique Children. Garmon and fellow science fiction writer Brad Linaweaver

Brad Linaweaver

Bradford Swain Linaweaver is a science fiction writer and screenwriting for low budget movies.The novella version of his novel 'Moon of Ice' was a Nebula Award finalist and the novel length version won a Prometheus Award....

 were 2002 nominees for the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award

Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award is an award presented annually by the Classic Horror Film Board to honor the top works in horror in film, television, home video, and publishing.-The award:...

 for one of their “Left Brain/Right Brain” features in Cult Movies Magazine. His 1998 RetroVision article on radical filmmaker Peter Watkins

Peter Watkins

Peter Watkins is an English film and television director. He was born in Norbiton, Surrey, lived in Sweden, Canada and Lithuania for many years, and now lives in France. He is one of the pioneers of docudrama. His movies, pacifist and radical, strongly review the limit of classic documentary and...

 was cited in A Companion to Science Fiction.

In 1999, Garmon and ex-Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street (magazine)

Scarlet Street was an American film magazine that primarily specialized in the genres of horror, mystery and film noir. Its initial concentration was on Sherlock Holmes and related film and television productions, but later its subject matter expanded to include a variety of other genres.The title...

publisher Jessie Lilley founded Worldly Remains: A Pop Culture Review

, which ran eight issues before folding in 2004. Popular culture icons such as Michael Parks

Michael Parks

Michael Parks is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came...

, Ivan Dixon

Ivan Dixon

Ivan Dixon was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes, for his role in the 1967 telefilm The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing hundreds of episodes of television series...

, Frankie Smith

Frankie Smith

For the football player of the same name see Frankie Smith .Franklyn Leon "Frankie" Smith is an American funk musician and R&B/soul songwriter.-History:...

, Robert Quarry

Robert Quarry

Robert Walter Quarry was an American actor, known for several prominent horror film roles.Quarry was born in Santa Rosa, California, the son of Mable and Paul Quarry, a doctor. His films include Count Yorga, Vampire , its sequel The Return of Count Yorga , and Dr...

, Keith Morris

Keith Morris

Keith Morris is an American singer and songwriter known for his role as frontman of the hardcore punk bands Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, and Off! Born and raised in Hermosa Beach, California, he formed Black Flag at the age of 21 with guitarist Greg Ginn and performed on the band's 1978 debut EP...

, Gloria Hendry

Gloria Hendry

Gloria Hendry is an American actress. She is sometimes credited as "Gloria Henry."-Career:Hendry began her acting career in the 1968 Sidney Poitier film For Love of Ivy....

, and John Quade

John Quade

John William Saunders , better known by the stage name John Quade, was an American character actor who starred in film and in television...

 gave uncensored interviews. There was much quirky coverage of retromedia, and reporting on bizarre public events such as the 2000 Reform Party Convention.