Holy shit, Batman, Saturday is FREE comic book day all over the WORLD (mostly Canada and the US, Euro suckas)! Free?! Go to your favorite local comic shop and snap something up, first come first serve. Most publishers print special issues with a variety of original (and reprinted) shorts from their various tittles, while some stores hand out gift bags of popular titles or surplus back issues. All you arty people... go on, TRY IT!

Saturday May 3: My pal Gabe Soria just moved back to New Orleans AND his brand new graphic novel Life Sucks, co-written by Jessica Abel and drawn by Warren Pleece, just came out. Tomorrow, 2PM at More Fun Comics in New Orleans, Gabe will be signing copies of Life Sucks. You know what's awesome about New Orleans: it's free comic book day will have beer and live music. Who else can say that?! More Fun Comics 8200 Oak St, New Orleans, 504.865.1800

Gabe is in New Orleans, and his story is about Vampires. But HELL NO, it aint nothing like Ann Rice

Rocketship comics in Brooklyn will have book signings from Matt Loux (11:00 to 1:30), artist/writer of Saltwater Taffy, and Fred Van Lente (1:30 to 4:00), writer of Iron Man and a zillion other silly superhero comics. Rocketship Comics 208 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York,718.797.1348

Comic Book Jones in Staten Island will have signings from one of my favorites, Evan Dorkin of Milk and Cheese, Sarah Dyer of Action Girls and John Ruiz of The Wannabees. 2220 Forest Ave Staten Island, NY, 718.448.1234

Many other stores will have signings as well, so check the Free Comic Book Day Listings

Happy May day, everyone! -insert joke about a pole here- There is just so much to do. If I have a free moment this weekend, while trying to finish up graduating from college, I'll make sure to attend at least one of these events:

Thursday May 1: the journal is celebrating the launch of their Spring 2008 issue at Printed Matter tonight. Artists include Jonathan Meese and Terrence Koh and Jack Pierson will be on hand to sign copies of his 32 page supplement of drawings. Printed Matter. 195 10th Ave. 5-7pm. Free.

Friday May 2: "The Three Musketeers Reunited" - Umberto Eco, Mario Vargas Llosa and Salman Rushdie at the 92nd St. Y. Expensive, but intriguing. 1395 Lexington Ave @92nd. 7:30pm. $20.

Sunday May 4: The Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition. I try to wander through this every year. Sometimes it's best when you BYOB. For every cool thing you see there's plenty of !??! and definitely lots of fashion to discuss as you walk among the crowds. Columbia University 2008 MFA Thesis Exhibition, curated by João Ribas, opens at the Fisher Landau Center for Art, 38-27 30th St at 39th Ave, LIC, 2-5pm. Free.

Nick Currie (aka Momus) waxes on the magazines he'd be reading from the newsagents before the internet (wonderful visual examples included), the decline of magazines and the closing of Japanese editor/publisher Amano Yukichi's magazine Kokoku Hihyo as an example.

Flickr finds: Hand painted signage around New Orleans from Skeleton Krewe

Get Out: 7:30 tonight at the NYU/The Bronfman Center (7 East 10th Street, New York) Habitus magazine hosts a reading and conversation with celebrated Dutch novelist and journalist Arnon Grunberg.

I was browsing around St. Marks Bookshop last night and noticed a sign on their door that said St. Marks Bookshop turns 30 this year. I looked online to see if they were planning any festivities and it seems like they aren't. However, you should go there and buy stuff and continue supporting their fantasticness. St. Marks Bookshop is the first place I saw Butt Magazine and they've introduced me to many other great publications over the years. Happy Birthday, St. Marks Bookshop!

Oh lordy. [via MagCulture]

The Onion has a huge gallery of amusing and sometimes even hilarious fake weekend magazine covers here. [also via MagCulture]

Danish gallery TTC has a new website with a new and huge zine shop. Go shop around. Also if you are in the vicinity of Copenhagen, they're having a show of photographs from Ice-T Body Count, a new book of black and white photographs from 37 journeys in 17 countries taken by 13 photographers over the last 11 years.

Put A Egg On It
By R&S
Published by R&S
New York
5.5" x 8.5" , 8 pages
Full color
$2.00 + shipping

Before we knew each other, both Ms. Keough and I made lots of little zines, but in all the years we've known each other we haven't done one together... till NOW! Is it about hot naked guys?! Is it about late night rock and roll punk rock messes?! Is it about avant-garde fashion!? NO! Its about the fact that our mamas taught us how to cook and we love to hang out with our friends and eat good food! For the first issue Ms. Keough wrote most everything and did all the photography, while I did all the illustration and design. It's short and cute (like Ms. Keough) and cheap (like Ms. Keough) and comes with a button (like Ms. keough)!

Available at the R&S Print Store for $2.00

OMG, yes.... it's getting harder and harder and harder to find well designed magazine racks (which is why I haven't been doing this every week, like I'm trying to)... especially ones that aren't prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, some of the best designs aren't very expensive, like the Rak, a wood veneer magazine rack from Habitat in the UK. Solutions that aren't overly complicated is what great design is all about, and this mag rack definitely achieves that. I'd pay a little more for it if it was actually real wood, though.

Rak is available in oak or natural veneers at Habitat for £15.00

VECTOR #1
8.5 x 11", 136 pages,
BW, photocopied, perfect bound

Yesterday was the first really gorgeous day of Spring and I spent it wandering around Chelsea looking at stuff. In the back of my mind I knew I was supposed to go to a party for the first issue of VECTOR but I couldn't figure out where and when. En route to the train, I ran into a friend on her way to the party which was half a block away. How serendipitous!

from Otherlife by Hadassa Goldvicht

VECTOR is a journal of writing by artists, however not all the entries are made up entirely of words. One of my favorite pieces is a paper cutout collage situation by Cheryl Donegan (one page pictured after the jump). She makes the most out of the limitations of the printing process (photocopying) and residual bits of ink and weird lines become part of the work. Lars Norgard's journal entries about selling art, his pregnant wife, getting sick and being a crazy OCD nutcase are also a highlight. Photographer Erica Baum contributed some cool grainy images of UFO sightings and some prose poems made from first person accounts of the events. Also included are faxes, essays, interviews, lists, missed connections, notes, etc. Overall, VECTOR #1 is a decent first issue and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

VECTOR #1 is downloadable in PDF form from their website. You can buy a print copy for $10, also directly from them.

Continue reading "Vector" »

I have a tendency to gloss over while looking through the fashion section at Universal News. There are so many enormous European fashion magazines and I can't tell most of them apart. The stories all kind of blend together and I find myself unable to remember anything specific about each issue. But Vs. Magazine, also a large fashion, etc. mag from Europe, rises above the rest. The stuff they cover isn't that unique: fashion designers, rock bands, an actor or two. So what is it that makes Vs. so good? Well, first of all, the photography is just fucking gorgeous. And I think what really makes Vs. different from its peers is the maturity of its content. You get the feeling that everything is well-considered—the section of interviews in the middle of the book is printed on matte paper and all the photos are black and white. They're smart. They are enthusiastic but not spazzy. They have a clear voice and they stick to it.

Pages from the current issue (I believe its their 4th), after the jump...

Continue reading "Vs." »

It would make us very happy if ya'll bought a Print Fetish Tote bag, or visited the Print Fetish Amazon store to alleviate our hosting costs. However, since I'm ever so nice (bitch, cunty, pure evil... but nice) I offer you the first PF Wallpaper. I like wallpapers, they're fun to do and ease the pain of doing lame ass paid work.

Download PF Wallpaper 1

Constance is a limited edition art magazine out of New Orleans that premiered in the aftermath of Katrina. New Orleans, in my opinion, is an undervalued center for the arts, so I was very excited to see this extremely well put together full color magazine that showcases artists and writers living and working in my favorite city. The second issue of Constance, Delicate Burdens is out now.

Why the name "Constance" and What is Constance's editorial mission?

Cord Bueker, JNR and I lived on Constance Street before the storm. We lived on a great block. Our year there was very important for my personal and work development. It was a creative household and we had fantastic neighbors. We had originally conceived a sort of exquisite corpse of Cord’s work and mine and wanted to publish it in a book form. However, the storm put the wrench in those plans, so as we slowly returned to NOLA, I had him help me conceptualize the theme of ‘Replicas and Replacements’. After the storm, Constance was more necessary than ever for collecting and cataloging peoples’ work that never really had a chance for gallery space as well as up-and-coming, younger artists. Constance, at its core, wants to create a historical document of the times in which it is published. The aim of the publication is to let people outside the city know that there are still people working in the visual and literary arts. And then to share that work outside of a city that can be so insular about sharing its work.

Continue reading "PF Interview: Erik Kiesewetter, Editor and Designer of Constance" »

I mostly made this because Ms. Keough loves totes, and wanted a personalized one to carry magazines home in. HEY! Here is an idea... YOU can buy one too! Fierce.

Print Fetish Tote $15.99 at The R&S CafePress store.

Wednesday April 2nd: Dave Eggers, of McSweeneys and novels with long titles fame, has organized a show at Apex Art which opens today. Says Eggers in the press release: "This show will explore a very small and specific type of artmaking exemplified by contemporary people like David Shrigley, Raymond Pettibon, Nedko Solakov, and Tucker Nichols. This kind of art, which we refuse to name, is somewhat crude, usually irreverent, and always funny. It exists somewhere between one-panel cartoons and text-based art." Apex Art. 291 Church St. 6-8pm. Free.

Thursday April 3rd: Ryan Mcginley's show I Know Where the Summer Goes opens at Team. 83 Grand St. 6-8pm. Free.

Ari Marcopolis is signing copies of his new book The Chance is Higher at Dashwood Books. This hardcover book is 72 pages of gorgeous photocopies and numbered in an edition of 50. Get over there and grab one right away. Dashwood Books. 33 Bond St. 6-9pm. Free.

(page from The Chance is Higher)

Our friend Julian Myers is presenting two events at Artists Space this week. Thursday's event is called Riot Show and is a structured presentation of archival recordings of crowd violence at rock shows. And on Saturday, Mirror-Travel in the Motor City: "an experimental and collaborative lecture with Edgar Arceneaux on the subject of Michael Heizer's earthwork Dragged Mass, urban resistance, buried sites, basement parties, and afro-futurism." More info here. Artists Space. 38 Greene St. Each event $5.

Friday April 4th: Gregory Crewdson opening at Luhring Augustine. Luhring Augustine. 531 W. 24th St. 6-8pm. Free.

Saturday April 5th: fierce pussy opening (ha I can't even type that without giggling) at Printed Matter. fierce pussy is a collective of lesbros/queer women committed to creating public art and performing direct action around issues of lesbian identity and visibility. They were active in New York from 1991-1995. Core member included Pam Brandt, Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Alison Froling, Zoe Leonard, Suzanne Wright, and Carrie Yamaoka. They used material available from their day jobs, old typewriters, stuff other people donated, archival and family materials of their own. This sounds cool. I'm going to go check it out. Printed Matter. 195 10th Ave. 5-7pm. Free.

Anyone who's worked a temp job or, hell, anyone who's worked anywhere can relate to the stories in Temp Slave! The zine was started by Jeff Kelly in 1993 as a one-off response to being strung along as a temp at an insurance company with a promise for future employment only to be canned out of the blue. He handed it out to other employees as he was leaving the company. He got such a good response that he continued publishing. Each issue includes crushing boredom, rage against bosses who use you and then toss you out, hilarious ways to scam the company, cartoons, survival tales, the many many ways to get fired, and more. Jeff Kelly no longer publishes Temp Slave! but you can buy the Temp Slave! compilation book through Garrett County Press.

This excerpt from Heidi Pollock's great article chronicling the day in the life of a temp from issue #5 is a perfect introduction. It reminds me of every mind-numbing spirit-destroying data entry temp job I've ever had:

"In the morning you always feel a complete and total separation from your fellow workers. At no other time during the day do you feel like such an outsider...Even the briefest thought that you might have something in common with the permanent secretaries makes you queasy and short of breath. This arrogance wears off as the day continues.

In any case, from 11 or so onward, until lunch, you experience a supreme and all-consuming boredom. It is so boring that you want to kill yourself. You want to stand on the top of your desk and scream and jump up and down and tear your hair and tear off your clothes. Sometimes the urge to simply scream out random obscenities is so powerful, it makes you worry about your sanity. You begin to feel the power of desire."

Some scanned pages and covers after the jump...

Continue reading "PF Collection: Temp Slave!" »

Growing up in the French Quarter I saw tacky T-Shirt shops take over like the borg. But Defend New Orleans makes N.O screen shirts that locals actually wear, such as the one below. Proceeds from sales benefit a a variety of New Orleans housing charities and arts organizations.

Last week I went to a show of new Japanese painting at Secret Project Robot. My friends played music and I saw some good stuff.

I didn't know, until just now, that the show was part of a larger festival of emerging Japanese artists. Japanese comics and art books are on display at New York Kinokuniya Book Store, Printed Matter, Spoonbill & Sugartown, and St. Marks Books. Through Sunday March 30. (pictured is a piece by Ruriko Torii.)

Common Folk Illustrated Journal
Published by Garrett County Press
Design by briarmade,
Photography by Thomas Hancock
5.5" x 7", 200 pages, softcover
$14 + shipping

Far more than a nice portable journal for notes, doodles and drawings, the Common Folk Illustrated Journal is an inspirational sketchbook. Some of its pages are blank, some are photographs, others have crosshair guides. The photographs are of every day wanderings, common moments you could say... graffiti on walls, street signs and sky, bikes, abandoned furniture, empty bars, etc. Only a couple of them stand out for me as strong single images, like the store window with polaroids of shoplifters or the pipes and umbrella leaning against a wall in the sun. Otherwise, these images are mellow. They, like the rest of the book, have a nice brown tone. They let the mind wander, serving as a tool to get your own brain working. This is your journal, after all.

Common Folk, a collective of Brooklyn graffiti artists, put this together with photographer Thomas Hancock and New Orleans-based publisher Garrett County Press. Buy it directly from them, or at cool bookstores around town. (Pictured above is one of the inside photographs, chosen because I like to look at cars.)

Lately I seem to be writing too many comments on other peoples blogs when I should be writing on my OWN blog! Especially about all this Editor Vs. Art Director (started by a simply competent editor on a completely disposable magazine) hullabaloo. I'm just going to put up one of my comments. I mean, If MagCulture can quote me, I can quote me. Read the comment thread here.

Posted on the Folio site:
"Just because someone is a good editor of the written word, a skilled writer and proofreader, does not mean they are good at editorial arrangement and editorial concepts. “Editorial,” in the sense of periodicals, includes everything about a magazine. A magazine that has a staff that sees “editorial” and “art” as separate, opposing forces is a poor, poor magazine indeed. So, yeah… the majority of magazines, though their contributors may be highly skilled, are pretty crap. There is an art to putting a magazine together; someone who is skilled at cutting text and assigning articles is not necessarily the best at accomplishing a brilliantly conceived and arranged magazine. Conversely, someone who is good at “making it look pretty” may not have the best interests of the editorial whole in mind, and is therefore useless. To be a great magazine the art director and editor must have equal power - but only of course, if they are completely on the same page. If not, the solution is a “Creative Director,” who is equally qualified in the visual and narrative, who has the best interests of the editorial whole in mind and who can reign the disjointed impulses of the art director/designer and the editor."

Also I'll swipe magCulture's link: Designing Magazine's funny and well considered argument

Jessica Silverman, a pal of ours in SF, recently moved her gallery and shop to a new spot on Sutter Street. If you're in the neighborhood, go check out the Silverman Gallery and the Look Boutique. Or you can browse their online shop for mags, books, clothes, and jewelry.

There is some controversy over American Vogue's April cover featuring LeBron James and Giselle Bündchen. (via magculture)

Scans of Dan Clowes' 1997 essay Modern Cartoonist are up on the Fantagraphics site in all their hand-lettered and illustrated splendor. (via BookSlut)

And, now that I'm looking around on Fantagraphics, I see that there are some Love & Rockets 1st editions on sale. Ooooh!

Lazy Boy
Stories by Mike Baker
4.25" x 5.5", 36 pages
BW, photocopied
$2, free to prisoners

Mike Baker set out to start a gay magazine but ended up stripping it down to a single section, originally titled "Self Love." I'm glad he did. What we ended up with is Lazy Boy, a slim, tight volume of stories that chronicles Mr. Baker's sexual odyssey. It reads kind of like one man's Straight to Hell. In fact, Mr. Baker says Lazy Boy is an homage to a book of gay my first times that a friend bought for him when he was young. One of the things I love about reading porn (as opposed to just watching) is all the little personal details that come through. And not just the sex details... people mention clothes, movies, books they like, the way their kitchen looked when they fucked the mailman on the counter, etc. Not that Lazy Boy is just a porno. The stories focus on sex and jacking off but through that they tell a life story. The emotions here are raw and familiar. He starts early with a creepy story about an older cousin and goes through the years of messing around with friends under the guise of other games like wrestling and onto porn shops and toilets and love, friendship and regret.

Email or write Mike Baker directly for a copy. gomek@comcast.net. P.O. Box 1174, Tallahassee, FL 32302

Why do magazines suck? This "Editors Vs. Art Directors" post illustrates how an English major lacks vision.

Flickr Finds: Wow... What would NY look like without advertising everywhere? Check out the transformation of a city: São Paulo No Logo

Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90

Check out Pacific Standard, blog of former Visionaire and V Magazine designer Strath Shepard, who, despite that former job, is strangely heterosexual. Fascinating.

There is so much food related media and entertainment in the world. It can be overwhelming to wade through the average and the downright lame to find the real gems. Mr. Mcginnis and I both love to cook and discuss cooking...and restaurants and kitchen equipment and cooking shows and cooking blogs and, of course, cooking magazines. I've been trying to choose three food magazines to cover here on PF for some time. I decided on The Diner Journal for their great love and enthusiasm for all parts of the process from growing to cooking to eating, Cook's Illustrated for their obsessive need to test every possible way of doing something, and the Edible magazines for their commitment to educating and enjoying each community in which they publish.

The Diner Journal, published by the folks who run the Brooklyn restaurants Diner and Marlowe and Sons, gets better with each issue. I wrote about their first issue in 2006 and have enjoyed watching them grow. The Diner Journal has more heart than any food magazine I've seen. Inside are photographs of family meals and conversations with the people who grew the food, enthusiasm for under-appreciated ingredients, and inventive ways of using well-loved classics. The recipes are written in an informal style but are easy to follow. I've tried several of them. A new slim volume arrives each season and has a theme. The current, Spring 2008, is mostly about goats—ideas about how to solve the problem of too many male kids, lack of American interest in goat meat, recipes involving goat milk, goat cheese, goat meat, goat yogurt.

Cook's Illustrated is kind of the opposite of The Diner Journal. These people are crazy obsessives. They test a bazillion ways of doing one thing—say roasting a chicken—to see what methods produce the crispiest skin or the juiciest meat. Thanks to a subscription to Cook's Illustrated, my dad now knows that the best pie crust is made with a little iced vodka and this year's batch of cherry pies were amazing. The current issue of this great bi-monthly nerdfest includes clear instructions on the roasting of various meats, how different kinds of salmon should be cooked and how to improve your mashed potatoes. There's also a section called Recipe Update where they respond to letters from readers with questions about recipes from earlier issues. I love this. If readers are having trouble with something in the recipe or want more information, the staff does additional tests and responds.

In 2001, two ladies in Ojai, California started Edible Ojai magazine to teach their community about its local food and wine. Now six years later, they have an umbrella company called Edible Communities and 40 magazines publish under their name in the US, Canada and Europe. The individual magazines pay a franchise fee in exchange for the name and editorial support. As I am a Brooklyn resident, the one I read regularly is Edible Brooklyn. Like all the Edibles, the Brooklyn edition is very specific to its location—articles on late night bar noshes and local breweries to urban farming and the fridges of notable Brooklyn residents. I pick it up free at my local coffee shop and read it over their (Oslo coffee shop) delicious americano. The winter 2008 issue includes a story on underground restaurants, the key lime pie guy in Red Hook, a history of Brooklyn oysters which are now illegal to eat, and Wendell Berry giving us city kids some ways to eat more responsibly. Side note: While reading this issue at a friend's house, his cat took the title quite literally, leapt onto the table and took a bite out of my magazine!

Russia!
New York and points beyond
8.5 x 11 in, 130 pages
Full color
$4.99

Have you ever noticed magazines will often have intriguing covers, but when you open them up, either they are really bad, or more of the same bullshit? On first seeing Russia!'s kissing (male) cosmonauts this crossed my mind. I wasn't too sure about the type face of the logo either, as it seemed a bit corny to me. I quickly flicked through, and still wasn't convinced, so it went into the black hole of my magazine desk pile.

Fortunately it fell on the floor a few days ago and I started to read it. The type, which had at first seemed awkward to me, began to make sense the more I absorbed it. This was due in no small part to the excellent writing, which was playful without being snarky, and highly informative about a subject matter I previously hadn't known I was interested in.

Russia! is an English language magazine based in New York promoting Russian art, design and literature to the global community. The design of the magazine is thoroughly modern, though it shows an appreciation for general 19th century design, and (actually) just a bit of Russian design. I still think it's a bit rough, but I like where it's going. The Winter 2008 issue features lighthearted looks at Russia's bribery economy, obsession with conspiracies, space tourism and controversial art.

I'm reminded of Tokion, which began as a magazine to promote Japanese culture to the world, but quickly degraded into just another New York lifestyle magazine. Hopefully Russia! will stick to it's guns (although, with it's title, does it have any other choice?).

I am turning more and more into an S.P.P. (secret pretty princess) and I blame Lula Magazine. This issue is full of rainbows, references to Strawberry Shortcake, glamour, psychedelica, flowy stuff, flowers, hot eye makeup, girls in bands, girls who paint, TWO Ellen Von Unwerth shoots—one super sharp and sexy and bright and the other (of adorable French actress Clémence Poésy) super cool cyan-y and actually kind of crazy looking, artist Susan Cianciolo, hair dye, tie dye, playtime, dreamers, dreamyness, and my one true love Martha Plimpton. Whew! I am inspired to wear the tie-dye shirt LV just gave me, put a flower in my hair, and soak up some California sun.

Uma Thurman looks gorgeous on the current issue of Another Magazine. I cannot however say the same for their new logo. Anyway, logo issues aside, the magazine is still good. Spring/summer collections, an article about the amazing Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto, Richard Burbridge's diamonds and pearls shoot is wicked hot, Paris street fashion, exploration of the boundaries of hair and fashion resulting in some insanely enormous hair sculpture situations and yet more hot eye makeup, Angelica Houston is and looks awesome. One thing I love about Another Magazine is that they always make people look fantastic. Like when they had Pam Anderson on the cover...I've never seen her look better. Also, can we discuss for a moment how nuts the advertising in this issue is? Insane gatefolds like crazy, different paper stocks, a totally weird poster of Kate Hudson posing in Stella McCartney underwear, etc.

Dazed and Confused's March issue is the Around the World issue. They follow fun electro pop sensation CSS home to Brazil and tell us about cluster bombs and other horrors leftover in Loas from the Vietnam war. Paul Thomas Anderson interviews Paul Dano about their movie There Will Be Blood which I keep forgetting to see. Disco makes a comeback. They talk to producer Nile Rodgers, Michael Pitt and Brady Corbett, writer Helen Walsh, and art zine The Quiet Life celebrates its 10 year anniversary.

Eddy Pramono's Wings magazine Rack from Novica knocked me out of my mag rack doldrums as soon as I caught sight of it. It has all of the qualities I look for in home design - it's multi-functional, made of sustainable materials (Balinese sono wood) and is completely modern. This brilliant design works as a centerpiece bowl, or folds for use as a mag rack. In either mode it cuts a very unique silhouette, unlike anything I've seen in quite a while. It's Innovative, but maintains an earthy warmth that can fit into many different interior styles. To sweeten the deal, it's pretty cheap.

Wings Magazine Rack, available for $62.95 at Novica

Been busy lately.... but the truth to my lack of posts is that I have so many things to read, and so much to say about so much I've been reading, that I'm completely overwhelmed. Being up to date is hard work! Ok, now for some links.

Taschen is having a big-ass clearance sale with titles up to %50 off! Now is a great time to get Wolfgang Tillman's truth study center for only $15.

No Media Kings is also having a sale, so throw a virtual dart and buy something. I myself just started reading the beautifully illustrated Therefore Repent.

Flickr Finds: bcash67 record cover collection.

Bookendless is a blog out of Tokyo that covers photography, design and architecture books. No reviews, but great interior shots of the recommended books.

Friday February 29: Butt Magazine party in the West Village. Hosted by BUTT buddy Michael Bullock and new BUTT interviewee Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Meet new friends, pick up the new issue of BUTT for free. (They're bringing 50 issues so come early!) 9pm 'til late. Julius' 159 W 10th St. @ Waverly Place

Saturday March 1: Printed Matter is having a party for the publication of Farimani, a collection of works by artists, critical theorists, and musicians. Printed Matter. 195 Tenth Ave. 5-7pm. Free.

Through March 30: Writer, New Yorker photography critic, fellow magazine collector/nerd Vince Aletti is showing pieces from his collection at White Columns. The show is called "Male." Says the website: "Eschewing any hierarchical distinctions, and featuring more than 100 photographs, drawings, sculptures, and paintings, the exhibition juxtaposes works by celebrated figures with works by emerging artists, alongside anonymously authored images and flea market finds." White Columns is also publishing a collection of Aletti's '70s music column, Disco File. Omg I want it! More on this later. White Columns. 320 W 13th St. Enter on Horatio. Ongoing. Free.

For just about everything you want to know but are afraid to ask about magazine history and production get Inside the Great Magazines, a 3-part documentary by DLI productions. Part one starts in London in 1731 with the production of the first magazine, then goes to Paris for the first published photographs and onward to Life Magazine, Vanity Fair and beyond. Watch the intro on YouTube and buy the set from DLI directly. (via Mr. Magazine)

Gawker took a cue from Magazine Death Pool and had their readers weigh in on 2008's Dead and Dying Magazines. Mr. Death Pool's response here.

Possibly a new Martha Stewart title in the works? Getting right back on the horse after the demise of Blueprint (sigh). More info here. (via MagCulture)

I'm just going to admit it, one of the reasons I'm telling you about this show is because I have a photo in it. BUT, all that aside, Famous Magazine is having a weekend full of fun events at Outrageous Look Gallery in Williamsburg. They are celebrating their New York issue: Nobody is Famous in New York. There're so many great people in this issue and most, if not all, of them have work in the group show. On the flyer, pictured here, is a photograph by Hanna and Klara Liden.

Friday February 22: opening reception for the group show. 6pm. Free.

Saturday February 23: reading by DrunknSailors, a piratey selection of tough writers including our awesome friend Jess Arndt, Anna Dunn, Peter Greiner, Mary Dowd, and Mya Spalter. 7pm. Performance by Stay High and djs. 10pm.

Sunday February 24: performance by the Callers, a band from Providence, RI. 7pm.

Outrageous Look Gallery is at 103 Broadway at Berry in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. See below for the full list of artists involved.

Continue reading "Get Out!: Famous Magazine" »

Swimsuit Edition
by Logan MacDonald
4.25" x 5.5", 36 pages, stapled
Black and white inside
Edition of 100

Inside this small edition you will find a whole oceanside world, which includes banana hammocks, swim meets and swim meat, old ladies in old bathing costumes, flame-like pubic hair, hopeful mermaids, and lots of hot posing. The draw-er, Logan MacDonald, is a member of a Canadian trio of queers called The Third Leg. I like his style. It has this kind of old fashioned feeling. I'm not sure exactly what I mean by that but I see it in the gaze of the sexy gentleman holding a diving ring or the poise of the lady in the bathing cap or the strength of the bearded Poseidon-like daddy toweling off. He mixes that with some morbid humor—Let's Die! in bold lettering next to some people tanning in front of a giant crab, a man who's arms end in a weird web of veiny things, or a crossed out woman getting abducted by aliens. Also included in this, ahem, package are a cut-out of the bust of a cowboy, Mr. MacDonald's business card, and what looks like a drawing of a made-up horror pulp novel.

Buy this zine from Cinders Gallery.

Tonight: The Hamburger Eyes book is officially out and the hamburgers are having a party for it at their space, The Hamburger Eyes Photo Epicenter. Today is also the anniversary of the space opening and the birthday of the magazine. This party I'm sure will be hella fun. Too bad for me it's in SF. 26 Lilac Street, San Francisco. 5pm. Free.

Friday February 15: Albert Maysles, half of the great documentary filmmaking and brotherly duo responsible for such amazings as Grey Gardens and Gimme Shelter, will be signing copies of his book at Stephen Kasher gallery. I love this guy. Side note: I assisted on a shoot for Kate Spade once and Mr. Maysles was one of the models. He was wonderful to talk to and kept falling asleep everywhere. His book, A Maysles Scrapbook, is full of photos, stills, notes and other writings and accompanies an exhibition of Mr. Maysles photographs at the gallery. Stephen Kasher. 521 W. 23rd St. 6-8pm. Free.

Saturday February 16: A launch party for Habitus magazine's third issue. The theme is Buenos Aires. 2 Obras magazine is co-hosting and making its New York debut. Argentine artists Damian Kaliyeski and Dulce Sturla will have work on display. The Gowanus Studio Space. 119 8th Street, Brooklyn. 8-11. Free.

Also Saturday February 16: This isn't exactly something you can leave your apartment for, but worth mentioning anyway... The online shop for Swedish store Ashtray launches today. They sell books and clothes and cool stuff. I'm looking forward to having a browse.

The Beholder is a San Francisco-based webshop/gallery that sells affordable artwork by artists from all over the place. Some of the artists are represented by the gallery and others sell their stuff on consignment. The wonderful Luke Ramsey from Islands Fold has a lot of work there and so does an old SVA classmate of ours, Joyce Lee. The Beholder is a good place to start for the young collector or anyone who wants some cool art for their apt. walls. (Pictured: Luke Ramsey's Simple Spoon.)

Analogue Books, the Edinburgh book shop who makes the Running Amok zines among many other projects, has an online store that sells books, prints, and clothes. They aren't selling magazines other than Running Amok on the site but there are many good books to buy.

Dashwood Books is this kick ass bookstore on Bond Street in New York that sells only photography books. I can't allow myself to go there very often because I want to buy like everything. The shop is run by David Strettell the former Cultural Director of Magnum Photos. You don't have to be in New York to have access to all these amazing books... You can buy anything from super limited edition signed books to more affordable stuff directly from their online shop.

Friday February 8: Publish and Be Damned opens at the Goethe Institut’s Ludlow 38. Dude! Publish and Be Damned is a public library consisting of over 300 international publications, assembled since 2004. The collection includes fanzines Ziggy, Zowie, Blondiak, Dark Star, Useless; magazines Control, Pablo internacional, Inventory; critical journals Dot Dot Dot, Copenhagen Free University/Infopool, Metronome, Anarchitektur, Fucking Good Art; plus glossy periodicals such as CRASH!, Re-Magazine and video and cassette editions including Audio Theory and Audio Arts. Ludlow 38. 38 Ludlow, btw Grand and Hester. 7-9pm. Free.

Saturday February 9: Co-editor of North Drive Press, Sara Greenberger Rafferty has an installation in the show that's opening Saturday at D'Amelio Terras gallery in Chelsea. The press release says, "Rooted in Vaudeville, slapstick, and 1960's stand-up routine, Sara Greenberger Rafferty's work uses comedy as an accessible language through which one can investigate political, social, historical, and interpersonal concerns." It also mentions Carol Burnett and an overturned table. I'm into checking it out. 3 Rooms. D'Amelio Terras. 525 W. 22nd St. 6-8pm. Free.

Sunday February 10: Heeb, the new jew review, presents an evening of readings at Joe's Pub. Billed as a chatty get-together, this event's theme is “Sex, Drugs & Gefilte Fish” which is also the name of their upcoming story anthology. Featured writers include Rachel Shukert (Have You No Shame?) and Alix Strauss (The Joy of Funerals). Joe's Pub. 425 Lafayette St. 7pm. $15.

(pictured: an image by Sara Greenberger Rafferty.)