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January 2007 Archives

January 2, 2007

Scam #5 1/2

hunts.jpgThere was a time when I used to be so psyched every time a new issue of Scam came out. When I was done reading the thick tome packed with gleefull and hilarious tales of corner punk shows, late night swimming, and other adventures I'd get a little sad knowing that it'd be a long time before the next one. Each issue was always full of good survival tips for the broke, bored, restless and fabulous. I'd almost forgotten about Iggy until the other day while Christmas shopping on Valencia St. with my mom I came across Scam #5 1/2: the Hunt's Donuts Story. It's a slim volume, especially by Scam's usual standards, that tells the story of the intersection of 20th and Mission and the old donut shop that once stood there. I used to be a fan and late night Hunt's donut customer myself--the best time to go was 4am for a warm glazed donut fresh from the oven. My family has also lived in the Mission since my grandfather was a kid. Iggy's entertaining and well researched little book tells the Hunt's story, which really is the story of the neighborhood itself.

Buy it here, punk!

Magazine Rack of the Week

coming_soon_LEQUIN.jpg I'm endlessly trolling the internet for things I might want but don't need. I obsessively look through overstock.com. Most people don't realize that the coolest thing about Overstock is that they have quite a bit of handmade furniture and objects from all over the world - like this Mango wood magazine rack from Indonesia. This would look warm and inviting in a large apartment or office, adding a tropical, colonial library feel. Now on sale for only $46.99 (plus $2.95 shipping).

Mollusk #3

mollusk3.jpgMollusk #3
96 pages , 19 x 27 cm.
Limited edition 1000 ex.

After seeing an earlier post where we mention the Swedish/French artist duo Bongôut, a friend suggested we check out their magazine, Mollusk. I contacted them and they so nicely and promptly sent me some copies. Mollusk is an ad free art jounal that mostly shows full pages of work by artists from around the world. There is some text about the artists and some interviews in both English and French. This issue covers a wide range from an interview with G.G. Allin's brother Merle about his serial killer art collection to a French guy named Medhi Hercberg who makes cool drawings and sweatshirts. When I looked up Medhi's website, I saw that he's putting on a show with Eats Tapes, my friends from San Francisco. Small world! Other highlights from the issue are photographs by Solange Reboul, an article about German outsider artist Engelbert Kievernagel, and stencils by Polish group M-City.

Buy the magazine directly from Bongôut.

January 3, 2007

Keeping it WET

wet128101.jpgHere are some links to a few full issues of awesome LA new wave magazine WET. This one is from 1981 and features side by side interviews with Johnny Rotten and a young David Lee Roth and some great stuff on xerox art. Plus the whole thing, even the ads, looks amazing. This page has two issues from 1978 up on their site. And this page has a cover gallery.

[from ryan, via boingboing]

Coming Out The Front Door for The Ninth Ward

coming_soon_LEQUIN.jpgComing Out The Front Door for The Ninth Ward
By Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club
Published By The Neighborhood Story Project
8'' x 9'', 248 pages
B/W
$15

A "social and pleasure club" in N.O is a small "krewe" that marches through the neighborhood for special occasions or just to create a random joyous occasion. Actually, all the social and cultural implications that a krewe embodies is far too engaging and complex to go into here... fortunately The Neighborhood Story Project in New Orleans has published a collection of stories from the members of The Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club who lived in the Ninth Ward, specifically the Desire Housing Projects. The Book, Coming Out The Front Door for The Ninth Ward, details the members lives in the year after hurricane Katrina. This tremendous work is an essential reminder of the cultural power and beauty of New Orleans.

Buy the book at The Neighborhood Story Project's site.

January 4, 2007

Craphound #6

craphound6.jpgCraphound #6
Show & Tell Press
104 pages
Full size
B/W offset inside, color cover

I love Craphound. I can look at it for hours. Each issue has a theme and contains pages packed with scanned images culled from catalogues, obscure books, ads, and who knows where else. This one is about death, telephones, and scissors. The last one was hands, hearts, and eyes. Take a close look, savor it. It's smart, funny, hypnotic, and if you're into that sort of thing, full of tattoo ideas! Chloe from Reading Frenzy in Portland is now publishing Craphound and I hear issue 7 is in the works. The theme: Church and State.

Buy it at arty bookstores, or from Reading Frenzy, or Atomic Books.

For more information about Craphound and Sean Tejaratchi, check out this long review/interview in PingMag.

Toggle - Print it Out Yourself

coming_soon_LEQUIN.jpgToggle is great l'il art magazine in PDF form that you can print out yourself and staple together if you are so inclined. The magazine is a collaboration between Jackamotta and Thinkmule, two artists who went back and forth creating pages in response to the others work. Lovely Freehand drawing/collage mixed media work - the children of graffiti, Dave Mckean and Robert Rauschenberg.

January 5, 2007

Tales of Blarg!!

blargcoverjanelle.jpgAfter two long weeks away, I am finally back in New York. I got in late late and had a dinner date at diner with my pal. It's so nice to be home! While eating, a friend came up asked where I'd been. When I said San Francisco, she was like wow yeah you look really San Francisco'd out—maybe it's your hair. I think maybe it's because I needed a shower and had been wearing the same clothes for days. Speaking of dirty hair, tight jeans, and San Francisco... Among the collection of great bay area zines and books I picked up at the awesome Needles and Pens was a new issue of Tales of Blarg! In the past, Janelle Hessig, zinester, comic artist and punk rock personality, has brought us such gems as a recipe for the poor woman's daquiri, crazy dance moves like the shopping cart and the sprinkler, and crusty punk haiku. This new issue doesn't disappoint with features like "Ugly People I Want To Do It To" and "Shitting is the New Crying." Yay Tales of Blarg! Someone on the Needles and Pens site so wisely put it: "Tales of Blarg is great - It's like Sex and the City for 30 year old punk chicks." Now I'm just waiting for a collection of issues of Jank (a single folded page of hilarity from Janelle and a fellow named Jeff Jank. Janelle, if you're reading, send us some JANK!

Ack! Freakout! And some links.

Omg. So now that I'm back in New York mode and have finally listened to my voicemail messages and caught up on email, I've discovered that school starts Monday and I have to sort out a million details. And um find some work. So I'm off to do that. In the meanwhiles, here are some online zine-y resources: ZineWiki, Zine World, and the Chicago Underground Library. Go play with them. And we're back on Monday with a week full of interviews, reviews, and rantings. XO! And happy new year.

January 8, 2007

Fort Thunder

ralph1.jpgLast night I was looking through old photos and papers in search of a lost sleeve of negatives from a road trip. I got sidetracked on the way by a collection of old Fort Thunder posters. Providence was so fun back then! When I started spending more time in Providence, I met the boys from Fort Thunder, a warehouse/art collective in Olneyville. Their warehouse was like a big colorful maze of stuff and artwork. I remember one night sleeping over in a mess of blankets in front of a precariously piled television wall. There had lots of art and music shows, and weird wrestling nights. I had some lovely times there and wish I'd stayed in touch. So I googled them. And found some good links:

The Fort Thunder Site

New Bodega: group comics blog

Savage Pencils: another group art blog

A recent NYT review of a show at RISD including many Fort Thunder artists.

Bodega Distribution sells books by some of the Fort Thunder artists.

(pictured: from Brian Ralph's Monster at the Beach.)

After Dark

coming_soon_LEQUIN.jpgAfter Dark was the gayest not specifically gay magazine you could buy on the newsstand in the 70's and not be embarrassed. It was a "mainstream" entertainment magazine where the gays ran amok and slipped in sexy male nudes anywhere they possibly could. We'll definitely be writing more about After Dark, but for now check out these cool links.

Photos and captions on the original cast of Hair

Behind The Glass Booth

A Diatribe Against Patti

Photographer Jack Mitchell on Rudolph Nureyev

After Dark Yahoo Group

January 9, 2007

The Pop Manifesto

popmanifesto.pngThe Pop Manifesto is another case of cool magazine deciding not to go in for the great expense and heartache of making a print book and instead just publishing online. They have two issues up on their site with promise of an upcoming print annual. Their format is similar to most music/art/fashion/lifestyle magazines out there: interviews, photo stories, and a few reviews. But, thankfully, it's lacking in a lot of pointless product coverage, tips, and advertising. They write about stuff they like and don't worry about bad spelling or grammar. Lucky for me plenty of the stuff they like is also the stuff I like: throbbing gristle, the slits, favorite t-shirts, and the rapture, for example. Anyway, it's cute and fun to read. Go look!

UPDATE! their new issue goes up on MONDAY January, 15th!

Magazine Rack of the Week

coming_soon_LEQUIN.jpgI Love Real Simple Furniture - all wood and assembles without nails, tools or glue! I wish I had more room so I could buy their couch. Maybe I can still buy their sleek Studio Magazine Rack. I love that it comes unstained so you can save a few bucks by staining it, or painting it a loud color yourself. Beautiful design for only $30 bucks! Free Shipping too!

January 10, 2007

PF INTERVIEW: Kate Schatz from The Encyclopedia Project

encyc.jpgThe Encyclopedia Project is a 5-volume hardcover book project, an encyclopedia of fiction and fictional forms. The first volume, Encyclopedia Vol 1 A-E, came out earlier this year and is 336 cross-referenced and indexed pages of writing, photographs, lists, video stills and drawings by 114 writers and artists. It’s cool. When I first heard about this project I had a hard time imagining how it was going to work. I missed the launch party but I got a copy of the book and asked one of its editors some questions. Oh and ps, I can’t type encyclopedia without doing that little song you learn in school to remember how to spell it. Anyway, here we go:

Tell me about the origin of the idea for encyclopedia. Where did you start?

It all started in 2004 when Tisa Bryant, Miranda Mellis, and I were in the MFA Graduate Program in Literary Arts at Brown. We were inspired to create a new kind of fiction-oriented publication by Gail Scott, a fabulous Canadian woman who was a visiting writer in our program. We knew that we didn't want to start yet another journal/lit mag (nothing against 'em--we've all worked in the realm, we read them, we publish in them) and we knew that we wanted the form and structure of the publication to relate to/inform/engage with the content. We wanted to include all kinds of fictions and narratives, and visual art as well. After a few meetings and a lot of wine, Miranda started talking about the old encyclopedia—and that was that. We got excited by the encyclopedia as an organizing principle, and we were interested in the way the encyclopedia sought to contain all knowledge—we knew immediately that it was a model we wanted to tweak/subvert/play with. We started in Providence, but now we're in New York and the Bay Area.

What is your mission?

'Encyclopedia' means "circles of knowledge" and that is a guiding principle for the work and artists that we publish: we want to expand and break open existing circles of knowledge, to allow overlap and back-and-forth and cross-referencing and unexpectedness.

Continue reading "PF INTERVIEW: Kate Schatz from The Encyclopedia Project" »

January 11, 2007

Letter from a Master Addict to Dangerous Drugs

burr.JPGCool! A rare print of William S. Burroughs' Letter from a Master Addict of Dangerous Drugs originally published in the British Journal of Addiction in 1957 now for sale on ebay. Check it out. [via boingboing]

January 16, 2007

TASCHEN warehouse sale!

Art book publishing giant Taschen is having a bicoastal warehouse sale this weekend and I am so there. In New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Köln from Thursday, January 18th to Sunday, January 20th. Details for the city near you are here. I'll be going to the New York one on Friday and will let you know what I get. If anyone else goes, let us know about your, heh, booty.

January 17, 2007

We Are Kasino

kasino2.jpgI ventured out in the freezing weather last night looking for something to look at. I was bored, I guess, and that rarely happens. I walked around Union Square but it was too cold to really see anything except my breath and my hair blowing in front of my eyes. I read magazines in Barnes and Noble for a while but sometimes being in there gives me the creeps and I didn't feel like having a Starbucks coffee and gross muffin. So I wandered over to Union Square Magazine Shop hoping to find some weird little mag tucked between the bigger ones. Big New York newsstands are good for that kind of thing—well-stocked and disorganized enough to harbor hidden treasures. And this time was no different. I left with a slim volume of Kasino A4, a black and white Finnish fashion/art rag with a nice purple cover. This issue also has a middle section printed in blue and white. It looks like it was made with a ditto machine. I've always wanted one of those. And this magazine kind of smells like that mimeograph smell. I love that. I'd say this is the best smelling magazine I've bought this month.

On the cover it says simply "Time to change." The unifying message of this issue seems to be slow down, take a good look around—at yourself, your home, your people, etc. I suppose that is appropriate for a Winter issue. Throughout the issue there is documentation of the mag's editors showing up at the apartments of artists they're profiling and cooking a meal with whatever that artist has in their kitchen while doing an informal interview. I love this too.

Their new issue is sold out from the site, but look for it at cool shops and newsstands. You can get back issues and posters and t-shirts from their site though.

January 18, 2007

Flip Book Festival!

flip7.jpgOooh! This is cool. I just got an email for an opening tonight of The International Flip Book Festival at Secret Project Robot. The show is presented by Little Cakes, a small East Village gallery in the front of artists Hanna Fushihara Aron and David Aron's ground floor apartment. The show is up from January 18th to February 11th, 2007 and is at SECRET PROJECT ROBOT, 210 Kent Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11211. And the opening is Thursday, January 18th from 7 to 10pm.

Artist Andrew Jeffrey Wright, a member of Space 1026 in Philadelphia, started The International Flip Book Festival four years ago as a film festival without the film. The flipbooks are submitted into one of four categories: Live Action, Animation, Experimental, and Documentary. Like a traditional film festival, The International Flipbook Festival will be awarding prizes in each category at the opening reception. Go check it out. They're also going to serve sweet treats like cupcakes!

A full list of participating artists after the jump!

Continue reading "Flip Book Festival!" »

January 22, 2007

Magazine Rack of the Week

flip7.jpgIt's not particularly easy to design a unique magazine rack - the same ideas are knocking around endlessly. But finally I've found one thats completely different - The Tube Magazine Rack. I might have a problem stuffing my fancier mags in here - but it's certainly an attractive solution for the occasional food magazine I buy for the kitchen. It's only about $98 bucks, but unfortunately not available in the US. Hopefully there will be knockoffs everywhere soon.

The Beast

flip7.jpgThe Beast is an online PDF art 'zine with a found object, artist's journal aesthetic. The last issue was in 2002 - but all 12 issues are still up and available for download. Another great example of a group of people who should be given money to do a print magazine - but lacking funds, upload their work as a PDF.

January 23, 2007

THE END!!

flip7.jpgI'm all into this magazine today. I woke up and was checking my email/myspace/etc and saw a bulletin from them about a party which prompted me to go look at their site. I know I have a copy of Issue #1 around here somewhere but I can't find it. From what I remember, I liked it. They have a new issue coming out this month and I'll definitely look for it. You can look at spreads from the past two issues on the site and also buy some cute clothes.

Continue reading "THE END!!" »

January 24, 2007

This is and is not a magazine

tiam.jpgOooh, this looks cool! Someone buy me one, ok? Ok! It's a big book of issues of the online zine "this is a magazine," which is also sometimes called "this is not a magazine." The editors are from Italy. They take submissions and say they try to respond to everyone eventually. The books also include the submitted art projects that didn't work online and were better suited to print. Their site is a bit confusing but if you keep clicking around you'll eventually find past issues available for download.

January 25, 2007

Castles and Christians

PENRY_FINAL.gifI'm going to this event tonight at a cute store on Mott st. called I Heart. The event is for the release of a book of drawings called Castles and Christians by J.Penry. GHava{Press} is putting it out. Our friend Magic Andy is djing. And I'll take some pictures. I think it'll be fun. Go to it also.
Here's the info:

GHava {PRESS}, I HEART AND WILDCAT present
CASTLES AND CHRISTIANS by J.PENRY
Thursday, January 25th, 7-10pm
New original works to be hung and sold by Mr. Penry and signed limited edition copies of CASTLES AND CHRISTIANS including an original drawing in each one.

DJ: ANDY MACLEOD and JOHNNY RAD
Special guest performance by: CHEESEBURGER

I HEART
262 Mott Street
between Prince and Houston
212.219.9265

January 26, 2007

Guest Editors

magcovers.jpgI love when magazines have guest editors, when they let a person or a collective curate the whole issue. Some of my favorite examples are: Big Magazine 15 by Bob Richardson had old and new photos by Bob, features on new designers he liked, photos by his son Terry Richardson, and old pics from Bob’s life, like a spread of him hanging out with a teenage Angelica Houston. The issue of A Magazine curated by Maison Martin Margiela had a white theme, began with this quote, "the past is what bonds us, the future leads us," and had pages by everyone who has ever collaborated in any way large or small with the fashion house.

Continue reading "Guest Editors" »