How truly irritating that Ms. Keough is going to Paris today! How dare she. She was meant to post this morning, but got frazzled. I too am way too busy today to do more than this quick note. We'll be back on track tomorrow. Paris!

Ms. Keough is on her way to Paris to be in an art show... but she didn't bother to convey to me or anyone else anything about the show 'til just now before she boards the plane. The girl's got issues... and I'm not talking about the stack of I-D's in the bathroom. In any event, Ms. Keough's photography will be in the show "Compulsive" at the Jalou Gallery in Paris. There is an opening party on Saturday, March 3rd. I'm not sure what time, 'cuz no one bothered to tell me. Hopefully we'll see pics of the trip soon.

I am here. In Paris. I'm too tired to type. But I made it. And have already been taking photos for you. I'll be back to posting regular on Monday.

I snatched the February issue of Paper Magazine from a pals end table - WTF!? What has happened to Paper? I realized when viewing the cover that the reason I stopped buying it was simply because I never see it anymore - the logo is practically invisible. And What the HELL is with putting mall-punk poster boys Good Charlotte on the cover!? Inside the mag this insipid group is referred to as once being "underground."

Paper might be the main reason I moved to New York years ago because It created such a powerfully romantic notion of NYC "Downtown." Their taste was flawless, they championed new (and often outrageous) talent and were wonderfully playful. Paper was the first American magazine to reconcile the once polarized notions of "punk," art and fashion - in other words, it was pretty gay.

After reading this issue (and considering other issues I've seen recently), I wouldn't say that Paper has "sold-out," they've simply lost their passion. I think David and Kim (both editors and publishers) are still very cool people, but their magazine has become wishy-washy and disenchanted with New York. Kim has complained in the past that she can't find the freaks in NY anymore - but I wonder if she remembers how to look for them.

For the last few years Paper seems obsessed with how much more interesting LA is than New York. However, the "interesting" LA people profiled in "The 2nd Annual Paper Project Los Angeles" seem pretty boring. Not that they ARE boring, they just seem that way because the magazine hasn't done a very good job making them seem larger than life like they once did with the NY Downtown Stars. The photos and writing are devoid of color or enthusiasm. Also, the design of the whole mag is just plain and irrelevant. Dull, dull, DULL.

Paper was originally meant to be a Downtown New York magazine. "Downtown" as an aesthetic and ideological focus is disconnected from the original intention. "Downtown" is no longer a vibrant, cheap neighborhood at the forefront of creative culture. Paper doesn't even think so. Perhaps moving to LA might reinvigorate them.

A couple hours after arriving here in Paris, instead of spending a lazy jet lagged afternoon eating croissants, we hopped on the metro to meet our friends at the Centre Pompidou. It turns out that wandering around staring at paintings is kind of the perfect thing to do when you're in a hazy daze. The place is enormous and they have this amazing library where all sorts of people were lined up outside smoking and making out (it's true) while waiting to get in and do their research. I heard a rumor there was a Pipilotti Rist projection on the square in front of the museum but we didn't see it and right now I can't find any information about it in English.

Anyway, the point of this post was to tell you about all the old magazines and things they have in their collection. I saw collections of MA, an avant-garde activist magazine started in Budapest in 1916 by the poet Lajos Kassák, Helhesten, a Danish art journal started by Situationist Asger Jorn, De Stijl, Stile Futurista, Het Overzicht, Art Aujourd'hui (so many beautiful covers!), Vouloir, Abstraction Creation Art Non Figuratif, Wendingen, and Futurismo. This site has a bit of info on some of the dada journals. Pardon my lack of links for these, I'm having a hard time finding anything. So instead, after the jump, I give you my photos of them. Some are behind glass so you get the added benefit of seeing my cute reflection.

I heart felt with all my heart - It reminds me of cigar jewelry boxes made for mom. 54Dean's felt mag rack is a fabulous, somewhat surrealist piece of furniture. It's odd, but lovely - what I'm into aesthetically at the moment. It's hard finding these awesome things that I don't need myself - but I really think I have to make room for this somewhere. Gimme!

available for $89 at Generate

Every cool world traveller I spoke with before embarking on my maiden voyage across the Atlantic insisted I head straight to Colette. After a speedy jaunt through the hallowed and rosy butt cheek-filled halls of the Louvre, my friend and I went searching for Colette. We wandered for ages and had a moment of amusing awkwardness standing in front of the Commes des Garçons store before we found it. I'm glad we stuck it out though. What a cool store! There are Fabulous objects, perfumes, books, sunglasses, cds, and magazines everywhere. Lots of hot shoppers as well.

My friend was dying over some high waisted maroon satin shorts. I didn't catch who designed them but they were fierce. I couldn't look too closely at the clothes upstairs because my wee budget only allowed for some limited magazine purchasing, but what I saw was hot. Especially the shoes.

This year is Colette's 10th birthday and they've got 10 special edition items and events which mostly involve the number ten and the past, present and future of the store. From 10 toys in 1 to 10 parties in 1, there's a lot going on there this year.

I came across this cute new blog today called Book By Its Cover. Illustrator and pattern maker Julia Rothman posts about one book she likes per day. And the books featured are anything from older stuff in her collection to new things she sees around, from comics to kids books to handmade numbered editions. I'm looking forward to reading more.

Coverage of this weekend's Colophon 2007 is starting to heat up over at MagCulture Blog. I just have to say, I am so so so jealous. I was hoping to try to pop by after my week in Paris but instead had to return to New York and make some money. If they do it next year, I'm there but for now at least I can read about it.

Do we read magazines to waste time on the train or the toilet, to stay informed, to appreciate pretty pictures or thoughtful writers? It's hard to subtract my love of magazines from my professional interest - so I'm curious what motivates other people to pay good money for something that is basically disposable. I'm also curious to know about other people's rituals for reading magazines. I look all the way through a magazine without reading anything, then return to the front and read everything cover to cover. I usually read them in bed late at night, or sometimes I take one to a coffee shop. I usually have a little notebook by my side to make notes on people or things I find interesting. I don't buy magazines unless they are the kind that I would never throw away - so I've become very selective in what I purchase. If I get my hands on a so-so magazine, I'll tear out the most interesting images and put them in a box. Right now I literally have a 2 foot stack of unread magazines to get through over the weekend - this blog has made my love and ritual into homework. So while I get to work, discuss amongst yourselves. Have a good weekend.

So it's Monday morning and I must say I'm feeling a little Le Blah. I was in a loner-y wandering around mood yesterday. I dropped by St. Marks Books but didn't see any magazines I wanted. Well, except for The Last Magazine book, but it was too expensive. The plan was to end up seeing The Valerie Project at Anthology but by the time I got there it was sold out. I hate that. I spent all day doing pretty much nothing but never bothered to check about getting an advaned ticket. So instead I went to see some horribly embarrassing romantic comedy hoping that its sappy dorkiness would cheer me. It did a little, but what really cheered me was sitting here this morning and reading i-D's Safe + Sound book over a cup of coffee and toast.

Safe + Sound is one of those i-D special issues, like the earlier Family Future Positive and Beyond Price. This one asked its contributors, as always a huge list of artists, photographers, fashion designers, stylists, and writers, for positive stories of people coming through difficult times. The snarky person inside me would prefer to be like oh lame but my heart was truly warmed and maybe its the coffee talking but I feel like I am starting my day off feeling pretty good. I'm off to photograph a girl who has an impressive collection of strangely shaped copper cake pans and is obsessed with mustaches.

Visit Tyler Lee's Magazine Cover Collection which shows current covers from all over the world. Proof that magazine cover design is nearly a dead art form. Glance over the whole page and see which cover grabs your eye, without thinking about it too much.

Each month San Francisco artist/waiter Josh Greene awards an art grant from one nights tips. I think we'll apply to pay for a 'zine. Visit the official site of his foundation to view some of the cool projects completed thus far, such as Kara Hearn's video project where she reenacts scenes from movies.

Hmm... a site that purports to educate one on launching a magazine. Is this like those silly midwestern "modeling schools?"

Columbia University's New York Review of Magazines. Apparently the staff are "magazine junkies," but I think they need to read a bit more. Ivy League school magazines usually illustrate how not particularly smart ivy leauge students are. I'm curious about their process for picking magazines to review, because they don't seem to be visiting many of the amazing newsstands that New York has to offer. They do have an interesting story about "art" magazine 3rd Floor's struggle to get non-profit status from the IRS. While it's fascinating to read about an independent magazine's struggle to survive in a corporate world - 3rd Floor is the perfect example of altruism and "punk rock" DIY being no indication of quality. That thing blows - sorry.

Man, I don't know how I missed this. The hilarious and fabulous fashion/anti-fashion zine Cheap Date came out with a best of book last month and I'm going to rush out and get it at once. I do have a couple issues of it somewhere... I promise when I get an intern in here, I'll find and scan some of my misplaced zine collection for your viewing pleasure. But anyway, until then, you can pick up The Cheap Date Guide to Style at your good bookstore or here. This quote about Cheap Date magazine in Mark Pawson's zine reviews for Variant cracks me up and manages to sum up the feeling of the mag nicely: "The contents are just as varied and unpredictable as a junk shop or jumble sale. Interviews with people off the telly jostle with an eulogy to the Stylophone, celebrity pin-ups fight for space with Old Bangers. Editor Kira has assembled an ultra-eclectic gang of contributors, skip-scroungers, ketchup dispenser historians, ex-teenage Goths, dandies on the dole, Anti Consumerism Campaigners, Oxfam obsessives, crap collectors, zinesters, junk shop addicts, obsolete technology aficionados, inspired entrepreneurs, the fashion-victimised and assorted celebs."

Lately I've been going on about how bored I am by all the millions of bro-y skater painter dudes in the art world, so I think it's only fair that I come clean here: I too, like many California kids, grew up skating/being obsessed with skating/following my cousin and his friends around trying to learn the tricks they did. My dad also had a friend who worked at Thrasher sometimes and would give me Skate Rock tapes, and stickers and posters and things. I wish I still had some of them. Actually wait, I think there's still a Bones Brigade sticker on my parents' bird feeder. Anyway, so I was perusing Fecal Face this morning, maybe having a bit of a homesick for SF moment, when I saw Andreas Trolf did a studio visit with the god of skateboarding graphics himself Jim Phillips. Whoa. In the words of Andreas, he is "the man responsible for pretty much all of the most recognizable and iconic skateboard graphics pretty much ever." In the late '80s, he was head of the art department of Santa Cruz Skateboards. This is the dude responsible for the slime balls wheels logo, that screaming blue hand, the independent trucks logo, and many many other awesome things which feature lots of drool and big teeth and eyeballs and skulls. Cool! The 12 year old me is super excited to see this. According to Fecal Face, Jim Phillips has a new book coming out but I can't find any information about it. So keep a (winged, fanged, and drooling) eye out for it.

I'm a fan of being playful in home decor, no matter how old you get. Of course you can use these colorful rubber wall straps from NL architects to strap other things to the wall, but I especially like them as an alternative magazine rack. Your magazines become wall art without taking up much space - perfect for a slim New York entrance hallway.

Brian Ralph was one of the first people I met in Providence when I moved there. Imagine my surprise when I wandered into a cute store called Doubledutch Boutique in Baltimore yesterday only to discover that the shop was owned by his wife, they have a kid, and he teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

I bought episode number one of his comic Daybreak, which I'd seen some of on the group comic blog New Bodega. I love it. His comics seem to mostly take place in and around piles of rubble and his heros are marooned humans, bored monkeys, cavemen and robots. I don't really know how to describe his style of drawing, except that I find it immensely satisfying to look at. It's warm, and charming, and mysterious, and there's a lot of fantastic looking broken wood pieces everywhere.

Buy his comics at cool stores, from his website, or from Bodega Distribution. P.S., Baltimore is fun. I met a bunch of goofballs who live in old houses with layers and layers of wallpaper and collections of thrifted items, and they have dogs, and they do things like stage human pyramids and water ballets, and I had a pretty decent smothered burrito (don't worry Denver, it wasn't as good as yours). I want to go back and take more photos, meet more people. Atomic Books and its sister store Atomic Pop have tons of zines and comics.

Time actually gets designed.

I don't care about arguing about "the end of print media." I'm still young - I still buy them. So do you. Newspapers SHOULD die though.

Everyone is talking about founder of Wallpaper Tyler Brûlé's new magazine Monocle like it's not only business relevant - but artistically and journalistically important. As though he's some kind of magazine Jesus sent down to save us from all the mundane print. Personally - I am totally disinterested. Wallpaper ceased being of note after it's first year, when issue by issue it became ever more a caricature of itself. Reading Monocles "concept" mission statement my initial reaction of boredom is vindicated - It's as though the opening paragraph from a business plan aimed at clueless investors had been copied and pasted. It's a completely vapid concept that doesn't actually say anything other than it will be great and smart for people who are bored with everything else. I'm afraid a "need for a new brand" is not enough. I'll be waiting for copy sighted in the trash before I get to this one.

Years ago I borrowed this book called Street Art: The Punk Poster in San Francisco 1977-1981 and the lending roommate disappeared before I had a chance to return it. Lucky me! The book is amazing and there are tons of fantastic posters in here. Some advertise shows, some have political messages, and others are just pieces of odd/beautiful/shocking street art. The book was organized by Peter Belsito, Bob Davis, and Marian Kester around an exhibition of 500 posters that took place at Valencia Tool and Die during the Western Front Punk Festival in 1980. Valencia Tool and Die was a San Francisco Mission District punk club in an old hardware store. I don't know too much about it except for seeing its name on posters in this book and hearing old SF punx reminisce about it. Sounded like fun though.

The introduction to the book is 15 theses on poster art. This is #1: The Poster is a thoroughly modern thing. One of those eminently practical stars in what the late Dr. McLuhan called "Gutenberg's galaxy." Compared to the newspaper, book, magazine or the mighty miracle of the imprinted check, the poster may appear to be one of the lesser lights in the print universe, yet it remains as enduring as any of these and, indeed, if form can truly be said to follow function, perhaps the most consistently bright.

Below are 8 pages from the book along with the names of the bands and designers and any information I can find on them. There is so much great stuff in this book, I'm going to have to post at least one more installment. Enjoy!

If you live in or around NYC, I'm here to help with your plans for the evening of Thursday March 22nd:

6:30-9:00
Inside Job art opening at An Earnest Cut & Sew
821 Washington Street
Btw Little W 12th & Gansevoort

Later....
Wooooo #4 Launch & Inside Job afterparty
The Anchor
310 Spring Street
Btw Hudson & Greenwich
(P.S. I'll have more on this magazine after I actually see a copy)

And here is and excerpt from the press release for the event at Earnest Sewn:

An Earnest Cut & Sew & Wooooo magazine proudly present ‘Inside Job’, and exhibition consisting of works produced by artists from Ohio to Berlin employed by galleries/museums as receptionists, art handlers, registrars, and directors. All included artists help bolster the established while quietly breaking tradition and reinventing the future of contemporary art. Their works inspire optimism and a fresh sense of narrative. Exhibition curated by Carlos Quirarte and Jason Crombie.

The Crease Magazine Rack is made from a single sheet of recycled plastic and can be unfolded flat when not used. I'm feeling this more for an office or bathroom (if you have a large one). Designed by cute Scotts who specialize in eco friendly furniture and housewares, Blue Marmelade. Around $62.45 from this UK store.

This company called The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company Limited makes stationery and related goods out of dried, odorless elephant shit. This is the best thing I've seen all week. From their site: "We can make about 25 large sheets of paper from a single piece (or turd) of elephant poo poo!!! That translates into about 10 standard sized journals including the front and back covers! Neat, huh!?!?!?" Omg, I have to buy some right away. What a good gift!

(link via BoingBoing)

I first saw/met the Daughters of Houdini at a Valentine's Day event at Artists' Television Access in San Francisco. They were sewn together, facing each other, with messy red yarn. It was barely loose enough to allow them to sit next to each other, shoulders smooshed together. I thought they seemed really exciting. The Daughters, Zoey Kroll and Carolyn Ryder Cooley, held performances and events around town but I was sort of too shy to go to them so instead I bought all their zines. They made these little photocopied items with stories and scratchy drawings. Their interests included: rats, bees, medical stuff, accordion, circus-y stuff, hysteria, witches, blood, pee, bodies, sex, childhood games involving rope and swimming holes and horses and funny feelings in certain places. Some of my favorites are the Daughters of Houdini Medical Series. For your viewing enjoyment, I've scanned 7 pages of Naughty Nursie, My Bloody Sister #3.

Carolyn Ryder Cooley is making art and has relocated to New York. Go look at her site and keep an eye out for any events she might have. Zoey Kroll, I'm not sure where you are, but if you're making stuff, let us know!

Texas, NYC is a new web project/magazine by this photographer Jake Rowland. The insane Les Krims (second photo) and the strange and lovely Dustin Wayne Harris (first photo) are up there right now. As are writers Richard Foreman, of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and Tim Davis. Go look.

And this is a photo blog by Swedish photographer Sannah Kvist.

What is it with magazine people and lists?! Check out The American Society of Magazine Editors list of top 40 magazine covers of the last 40 years. HALF on the list are AFTER 1990! Ludicrous.

Mr. Magazine's list of The 30 Most Notable Launches of 2006. MORE damn lists!

Read Oliver Reichenstein's 10 Newspaper Myths Deconstructed.

Print out and construct your own paper robots!

Computer.......Crashing.......Ack!@#%!@
Stay tuned for afternoon posting...........from a different computer. Sigh. In the meantime, here's a photo of my cat:

Yawn. Stretch. Good Morning, everyone! The sun is out and March is just about over. It's time to look at some new issues of the magazines we love. I'm going to put the coffee on and get to it.

Found Magazine has a new hardcover book out of found polaroids. I haven't bought it yet but I am looking forward to a lazy afternoon of looking through other peoples' stuff. They also have some dates coming up on their current Found and Dirty Found tours. I haven't been to one of their events. Have you? What're they like?

Me Magazine's new issue is out and the subject is fashion designer Thakoon. It looks pretty, and has some nice photos of Thakoon's stuff.

The current issue of i-D is the Tissue Issue. Siick! This is what they have to say about it: "Sex is red hot and sexy right now – it’s XXX, it’s romance, it’s a beautiful thing. Get down and dirty with i-D this month, go inside our love and make love, not war. Mwaaaah!" I like when people spell out things like a kiss noise. Clemence Poesy is the cover star and she's adorable but I must confess I had no idea who she was until a google search informed me she is French and was in Harry Potter.