Zines From Zero to Hero

Reply from Berin Golonu

2007-07-19T18:54:00.001-07:00

July 19, 2007

Hi Amanda;

Thanks for the packet. I finally carved out enough time in my schedule
to sit down and read your students' zines. They were delightful. Such a
range of ideas and creativity! I loved them.

Berin Golonu
Associate Visual Arts Curator
YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Reply from V. Vale

2007-07-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

friday june 29 2007

Amanda & Her Super Class:

thanks to all of you for all your work, and especially for actually sending me a copy of your zines. that never happens in this life. i started reading through them and will post-it tape my favorite pages.

thanks again for actually DOING something - hopefully it was fun, too -

all best,
v. vale
founder of RE/Search & Search & Destroy in 1977, san francisco

Reply From Franklin Furnace

2007-06-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

June 18, 2007

Alas our collection of artists publications was transferred to MOMA about a decade ago - you might want to put your zines in their hands - check their dadabase for the franklin furnace artists books collection for more info. Of course if you wanna send zines we'd be happy to read em but we don't archive such materials anymore. Good luck Ms. Field.

Harley Spiller
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc.
80 Arts - The James E. Davis Arts Building
80 Hanson Place, #301
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1506 USA
T 718 398 7255
F 718 398 7256
http://www.franklinfurnace.org

Reply from the SF Little Maga/Zine Collection

2007-06-14T09:58:00.001-07:00

[click letter to enlarge]

Just in case you need to know . . .

2007-06-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

the distance to your mother's house in giraffe's necks-- you're in luck, you've got the Weird Converter.

I weigh about the same as nine spider monkeys or 2589 quarters (like the kind you put in the parking meter).

Timelapse Serra Installation

2007-05-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

are any of y'all zinesters still out there?

Predictions for the future (now)

2007-04-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

The "Ladies Home Journal" published an article in December of 1900 entitled “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years.”

Many of them (not unsurprisingly) deal with the future place of the automobile, but there are also predictions about food, healthcare, the future of surviellance technology, and displays of the last gasp of "Manifest Destiny."

Some samples:

Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.

Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house.

Strawberries as large as apples will be eaten by our great great grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large. One will suffice for the fruit course of each person. Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes. Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family. Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.

shameless self promotion

2007-04-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

Sentimental Journey

2007-04-24T02:26:00.000-07:00

An old piece, it still makes me proud

Alt Press Expo

2007-04-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

APE this weekend in SF

Fact? Fiction? Faction!

2007-04-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

Make sure to check out FACTION, curated by Courtenay & Kate, with work by Luke, in PLAySPACE through April 28.

Star Wars pillow painting above by Chris Thorson

cedric & gerard

2007-04-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

here is another comic that is pretty rad and low key

drug education

2007-04-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

memorable quote from last class

bill brown: crack must be a grumpy drug
max: it's not weed

2007-04-18T18:33:00.003-07:00

No One Belongs Here More Than You

2007-04-18T12:21:00.000-07:00

Give this website a whirl (and check the DIY flavor) c/o Miranda July: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Type Specimen Book from 1923

2007-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

Amazing type specimen book from 1923 on Flickr:

Andd also, the BEST article on Wikipedia!

2007-04-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

link to the article
I hope that you all find this as illuminating as I did!!

Why have I seen this? Do you want to?

2007-04-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

Les Yeux du Jour

2007-04-16T00:06:00.000-07:00

Puppets!!! Artists and Puppets!!! Puppet Shows!! Artists from Cleveland!!!!

Dr. Sketchy

2007-04-15T23:01:00.001-07:00

Let's all go figure drawing! Next one is at the Stud on Sunday 4-7
Hit this link and go to the San Francisco listing for future dates

Dr. Sketchy

Shark Mannifesto

2007-04-12T11:32:00.000-07:00

click on image to head to shark mannifesto by otto muhl...

A tall tale without Johnny Cash' or Trent Reznor's shoulder to cry on...

2007-04-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

or maybe I should post this:

as I will be fed to this creature for not showing up yesTURDay...
but believe me... I was sick. Ask my toilet.

even more shameless self-promotion

2007-04-11T17:52:00.000-07:00

For my studio class, my team mate[s] & i are proposing an artist & curatorial residency at the the sf zoo as a way to get contemporary art in the space. so... mariana and i installed a site specific piece at the zoo this weekend. it's 170 little one inch bottles filled with soil, and a seed hung from a tree. they should, fingers crossed, sprout 'bout april 20th or so. you should go to the zoo and check it out yo[s]!

How to Use a Book video

2007-04-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

The monastic tech support video is at the link below (has English as well as Danish subtitles)... shows how complex it is to use a book: <http://www.devilducky.com/media/57946>

Enjoy!

Spores in the Hood

2007-04-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

While researching Make Magazine for my presentation next week, I discovered an article by our favorite dialogs and practices teacher - Phil Ross. Since I don't have a hard copy of this issue, and because I know you all want to make your own home mycology lab, you can check it out on-line. Phil says: "A home mycology lab might not make you a fun guy, but it can help you grow your own mushrooms." For those of you who do not know his work, the image above is a mushroom grown into the shape of a drop of milk splashing into water. It is from his website.

Shameless Self Promotion

2007-04-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

Many of you may already know that the 1st year CURPs (Courtenay and I included) are presenting a program called FACTION. It consists of a screening, exhibition and zine. The screening will be this Friday, 13 at New Langton Arts, 7pm 1246 Folsom St (between 8th and 9th). The exhibition opening will be Thursday 19th in PLAySPACE from 5-8pm where the launching of the zine will take place too. I should have postcards in class today for it.

p.s. this video has nothing to do with anything. I just like it.

CCA News!

2007-04-10T00:43:00.001-07:00

Don't forget to check the message board outside Timken for CCA personalities in the news!

From Book to Anti-Book

2007-04-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

Great essay about independent publishing by Harry Polkinhorn.

an excerpt:
"... a more useful approach, as Carrión points out, sees the contemporary artist's book or anti-book as categorically rejecting the hierarchic and linear elements upon which traditional culture has been established ('In the old art all books are read in the same way. In the new art every book requires a different reading')..."

James T. Kirk and more

2007-04-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Yo. The To-Do List links page has a really interesting group of resources - travel advice, products, art, etc etc. Including Roadside America, Your Guide to Offbeat tourist attractions, with such gems as Riverside, Iowa, the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk (above).

Helvetica Haiku Contest

2007-04-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late on this, so the contest is over-- but you can read some of the entries over on the Extensis blog. Here are some of my favorites:

First a little font snobbery:
wedding invite came
they chose brush script mt bold
i give it six months
and something punny:
i shot the serif
left him there full of leading
yearning for kerning
and wistful (I guess?):
Ubiquitous font
My mom even knows your name
But I still love you

Old Toys Here

2007-04-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

Mine, anyway, do yours maybe have a website too?

Star Wars Figures

open studios

2007-04-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

Anne leading the parade.

Curps lounging on the leather chairs.

Gutenberg move over

2007-03-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

This just came up on Kottke.org via the Brittanica Blog-- a list of the earliest (known) printed books sorted by language.

It seems the Koreans invented metal moveable type over two hundred years before Mr. Johannes Gutenberg (An earlier moveable type system made from clay was in use in China around 1040 -- but it never caught on because of the huge character set).

Letterpress Printing Video

2007-03-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

A nice little video about the letterpress process featuring John Christiansen of Firefly Press in Massachusetts.

zine makers in the news

2007-03-28T17:21:00.000-07:00

anyone else catch this?

ARTIST SOUGHT IN BLAZE AT APARTMENT HOUSE

Police were searching Tuesday for a 33-year-old artist and former bicycle messenger who allegedly set his own apartment building on fire on Monday, hours after he was released from the psychiatric ward of San Francisco General Hospital.
Silver Warner is being sought in the 5:15 p.m. three-alarm fire that gutted upper floors of the building at 52 Page St. Monday and left a firefighter who jumped to safety with minor injures.
Warner is described as 6 foot 1, with collar-length hair and black frame glasses. He as last seen wearing a knit black beanie, tight jacket, blue jeans and tennis shoes, and he may be carrying a messenger bag.
Warner's father, Robert Warner, said Tuesday that his son -- a peace-loving vegetarian who loves yoga -- was in "crisis" on Sunday night. He said his son makes T-shirts and "zines,'' collections of photos of cyclists and life on the streets of San Francisco. He has had group exhibitions in Boston and Tokyo.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
read the full article

How was your Spring break?

2007-03-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Hope that you enjoyed your Spring break and got some rest. Did you do anything fun zinewise or not? See you soon.

We post our heroes?

2007-03-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

Giving the trees their due

2007-03-22T00:36:00.000-07:00

Basket Tree (via jpeepz on flickr)

I was going to say that this post is almost entirely non-zine related, but what was I thinking-- trees are used to make paper, and paper is used to make zines. So let's show those trees some respect.

Over at Neatorama, they've compiled a top ten list for trees. I'm not going to give the whole list away, but those of us living in Northern California have been blessed with five of the most magnificent trees in the world (according to Neatorama). Who's up for a tree safari?

Let's not forget the fourth dimension . . .

2007-03-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Cool Hunting just posted in-depth on five independent art magazines in DVD format. Here's my digest version:

Reline: curated by Scott Pagano and Pheonix Perry, and is available for $19 Microcinema International. Watch the trailer here.
ArtDisk: with guest curator, Harrell Fletcher, "Art Trailers," and "Short Talks," dialogs with six contemporary artists. Available for the low price of$5 at Photoeye.
Compiler: the current issue is an homage to George Greenough, who pioneered in-water surf photography and cinematography. You can buy it directly from their site for $25.
Stash: edited by Stephen Price, and the longest running 'magazine' on the list (comes out every month). It's available by subscrition from their website for $239 a year or you can go a la carte for $35.
Chaise Magazine: last but not least, this publication is edited by the inimitable Bennett Baker Barbakow (among others, but we went to high school together). It's also free with a self-addressed stamped envelope.

You can read the full post, complete with commentary and more goodies over on Cool Hunting.
Also, notably absent: Wholphin.

Meatpaper party!

2007-03-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

new zine... my friend Barbara Weissberger's image is on the cover. They are having a launch party here on 3/27. Check it out: Meatpaper

self publishing site

2007-03-18T23:11:00.000-07:00

Just found this link for No Media Kings site... haven't looked at it really yet but seems like a good resource.

Typography Pin-ups

2007-03-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

A calendar featuring a different 'girl' each month.

Created by the British agency LIDA -- see more excepts at "Twenty Four."

anarchist book fair

2007-03-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

The 12th annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair will be held this weekend (3/17 & 3/18) at 9th Avenue & Lincoln. I notice there will be a panel entitled "The Future of Radical Print Publications." Travis and Andrea have a table right across from V. Vale. They also appeared on HGTV's "Uncommon Threads" this week. Great show, you two!

New Gallery map of San Francisco’s Mission District

2007-03-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Produced by Receiver Design

hurts so good

2007-03-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

perhaps you have guessed that humor keeps me going. over the long years i have grown to love p.g. woodehouse as a one of the best humor writer's that i have ever come across. in the short years i have fallen for david sedaris. this is one of his best essay's in my not so humble opinion.

http://people.cornell.edu/pages/bs16/Christmas/6_to_8_black_men.txt

and while i'm at it here is a link to my favorite interwebernetway site...
ROCK ON!

Poem "The Sea" by Josip Pupacic

2007-03-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

I always loved the sea and one of my first childhood inspirations was "The Sea," a short poem by Croatian poet Josip Pupacic. Here is a link to music video of "The Sea" sung by a Dalmatian klapa (group of singers).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2683850558355344858&q=josip

BATMAN

2007-03-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say Shakespeare is the reason I started writing. Really, it was because at twelve I read 'The Dark Knight Returns,' by Frank Miller. Given it's subject matter it was completely inappropriate for me to read. There's blood, guts, death of children, Wonder Woman runs a whore house, etc. etc. But it was very good. And after reading Frank Miller's introduction I thought, 'I want to be a writer.'

Oliver Sipple

2007-03-14T01:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I had to stumble onto this story. This guy deserves a legend, a ballad, a postage stamp, a statue in San Francisco-

Sipple

Your Mother was a Hamster and Your Father Smelt of Elderberries

2007-03-13T23:38:00.000-07:00

A casual conversation the other day reminded me of what a seminal influence Monty Python has had on my life. An attempt can be made to link the dry, intelligent, self-depreciating wit of British comedy to the acutely self-aware art world, although I won't attempt it for fear of sounding silly. If only visits to the Tate resulted in the doubled-over, tearful laughter that is instigated by John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Co.

In a world

2007-03-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

Voice over artist get their time in the spotlight:

Don LaFontaine (inventor of the phrase "In a world . . .") provides alternative promotional material for various NPR shows (i.e. Fresh Air done as a thriller) -- from "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me" (round two, next to "Not My Job")
Don LaFontaine, John Leader, Al Chalk, Mark Elliot, and Nick Tate in a limo (one car accident that could seriously change the movies as we know them) -- video
Dennis Steele and Scott Sanders, the voices behind many political attack adds, turn their talents to nursery rhymes (Humpty Dumpty will never be the same) -- from NPR's "Weekend Edition"
Bill Weir interviews Don LaFontaine for Good Morning America -- video
more voices . . .

2007-03-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

The reason why I'm an artist is thanks to my undergrad textiles professor, Margo Mensign. Not only is she an amazing teacher, but her work is not bad either.

This is a 12' long image of the Indian Point nuclear power plant made from holes punched out of security envelopes. She also makes a mean ratatouille (well from what I can remember anyway - it's been awhile.)

power from within

2007-03-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

I can't think of one particular overarching influence to my artistic practice. However there have been many in the vein of "strong female role models and de-centered power structures" which were necessary to round out the other major influences in my childhood...
As a child in very Irish Catholic family (though my parents were open-minded about religion, the larger family structure still dictated that I went to Sunday school every week until I was 18, followed by church, youth groups on Wednesday nights, sang in the choir, etc) in a very small, rural, and fairly conservative community I did not see many "alternative" ways to structuring existence. I think however (and in large part because my parents are awesome) I always knew that such things were "out there."
So... influences (semi-chronologically)... Laura Ingalls Wilder, "Ayla" from The Clan of the Cave Bear series, my 6th grade/high school art teacher Ann Diedrichsen, the movie Flashdance, "Dreaming the Dark" by Starhawk...
These influences taught me not only about strong women but more importantly about alternative power structures & ways of seeing and being a part of the organization of the world. And in the case of Flashdance, still my favorite movie, everything one needs to know about 80s fashion and dancing while getting doused with water.

An Alternate View of Change

2007-03-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

It's hard for me to single out one influential work/idea/thing to share. And I have to say (for someone who was raised largely without TV) that it is not without some embarrasment that I nominate James Burke's "Connections" television series for the topic of this post.

The show followed a basic format:

start with an event (anywhere between the seventeenth century and 500 BCE)
show how this event necessitatated a particular invention (generally a seemingly inconsequential one)
demostrate how this invention allowed a new advancement in an entirely new field
follow this path through history to a major present day invention (plastic, television, the atomic bomb)

Not impressed yet? Here's the executive summary of "The Long Chain:"

In the 1600s Dutch commercial freighters controlled Atlantic trade routes. Competing British lines induced America to produce pitch to protect hulls of their royal vessels. This arrangement lasted until 1776, after which a Scottish inventor tried to produce pitch from coal tar. By the time he succeeded the navy was using copper instead. Subsequent experiments with coal tar yielded gaslight lamps, waterproofed garments, a brilliant mauve dye that established the German chemical industry and nylon, the first of the miracle plastics.

The formula is pretty simple, but Burke isn't necessarily a just proving out some butterfly-in-South-America theory (or at least that's not what this series taught me to appreciate). History, when seen from our perspective, can always be made to fall into a nice series of anticedents and happy accidents. Not only can these be especially beautiful, but they also suggest an extrodinary perspective of the future.

You can check out the full hour long versions of the first series here (that's ten hours of viewing pleasure).

my artistic DNA

2007-03-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

This essay, The Dark Art of Poetry by Don Paterson, haunts me. I return to it again and again. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here's a section I particularly admire:

"The human dream is one of all things first recognised, and then named, in accordance with their human utility, translated and metaphorised into the human realm. This dream is almost wholly pervasive, so much so we do not call it a dream at all; we even fall asleep and keep on dreaming inside it. The fact that we corroborate and reenforce the dream-rules in all our human intercourse gives it, of course, the appearance of reality. It is just as flimsy a consensual reality as money. It is a dream....

Whether you take this seriously or not - all this, for the poet, is much more than a little perceptual game. When we allow silence to reclaim those objects and things of the world, when we allow the words to fall away from them - they reassume their own genius, and repossess something of their mystery, their infinite possibility. Then the we awaken a little to the realm of the symmetries again, and of no-time, eternity.

The poet's specific talent: when the things of the world (in which we should very much include our own feelings, ideas, and relations with one other) that we have contemplated in this wordless and thoughtless silence reenter the world of asymmetrical concept, of discrete definition, of speech and language - they return as strangers; and then they declare wholly unexpected allegiances, reveal wholly unsuspected valencies. We see the nerve in the bare tree, we hear the applause in the rain. These things are, in other words, redreamt, they are reimagined, they are remade. This I think is the deepest meaning of our etymology as maker.

One more point: the poem having been translated from the silence, as my friend Charles Simic puts it, it has briefly kept the company of everything, of all natural things, and its desire to then declare a kinship with those things - to become a beautiful manmade natural object, with the integrity, symmetry and rhythm of the natural - should be no surprise."

So the theme for this week's blog posting, if you choose to participate, is to share some of your own artistic DNA. Is there an essay or a poem or a painting or a building or a theory or a fictional character that haunts you, or that informs your own poetics or artistic practice?

(Photo: liquid crystalline DNA)

saatchi gallery

2007-03-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

Walking back from lunch today, editor and blogger Howard Junker mentioned to me that the Saatchi Gallery in London has a website, STUART, where visual/performing art/design students can create a profile and post their work for free.

the devil pope bus

2007-03-12T18:30:00.000-07:00

On my way to ZYZZYVA this morning, I witnessed this instance of the DIY aesthetic (subgenre: psychotic religious school bus art). It reminded me a little of Chris Duncan's Hot & Cold project in the sense of a baroque accumulation of detail (each colored panel had a scrawled message). A few moments after I had snapped my pics, a man (white, elderly, with long, grey beard, like a cliche of God) leaned out of the driver's seat window shaking a "donations for photographs" box. Just like church!

Maps Drawn from Memory

2007-03-12T00:36:00.000-07:00

This map of London was drawn from memory by Ellis Nadler and is part of the "Maps from Memory" Flickr pool.

Also related: Lori Napoleon's collection of "personal maps" and Ami Sioux's "personal tour maps" of Reykjavík

step into the party tonight

2007-03-11T01:48:00.000-08:00

put yr hard hats on
time after time:
2 am . . . 3 am
spring forward

a passing sensation of relatedness

2007-03-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

excerpts from Notes á un Peintre, Paris 1908:

I am unable to distinguish between the feeling I have for life and my way of expressing it....

Composition, the aim of which is expression, alters itself according to the surface to be covered. If I take a sheet of paper of given dimensions I will jot down a drawing which will have a necessary relation to its format—I would not repeat this drawing on another sheet of different dimensions, for instance on a rectangular sheet, if the first one happened to be square. And if I had to repeat it on a sheet of the same shape but ten times larger I would not limit myself to englarging it: a drawing must have a power of expansion which can bring to life the space which surrounds it. —Matisse

I read this today and felt that it related to something Travis said about his zine-in-progress last class. Especially the idea that "a drawing must have a power of expansion" which resonated for me with the flexible nature of textile-drawings and their second kind of life as cyanotype prints, like an echo or a translation to a different dimension. Now that I try to articulate this passing sensation of relatedness, it recedes, like the textile flexibility that disappears from the cyanotype; the blog entry a kind of cyanotype of my sensation.

maps of heaven and earth

2007-03-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

Kate V. mentioned David Rumsey's map collection tonight. Many splendors await at his website.

Zine drawing: necessities

2007-03-07T15:34:00.000-08:00

Came across this zine drawing. Looks good, but I don't think that TV is nesessary. What do you think?

More Stuff for You!

2007-03-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Just to add to the collective stash of free and cheap stuff, I thought I would add a couple of things to it.

Here are some exciting arty fonts for free, which can add a pleasing smudge or scribble to any page layout:

http://www.misprintedtype.com/v3/fonts.php

Another fun set of free retro fonts can be found at:

http://www.fontdiner.com/

If it's photos your looking for there are many cheap stock photography sites out there that charge $1 - $5 for images and there are thousands of photos to choose from - here are a few:

http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php
http://www.fotolia.com
http://www.bigstockphoto.com/

Good luck, and happy decorating!

The Little Maga/Zine Collection

2007-03-07T12:02:00.000-08:00

I stopped by the SF public library this morning to check out the Little Maga/Zine Collection. It turns out you can contribute your zine to the collection...maybe we could do this as a class?

the bold design of you

2007-03-07T00:17:00.000-08:00

as a passing comment during our presentation on typography
i meant to note the song German Bold Italic, which is about the typeface:

GBI [German Bold Italic] by Towa Tei featuring Kylie Minogue

i found two video versions online :

1. --> watch music video (album version - livelier, faster cuts): youTube

2. --> watch the music video at director Stephan Sednaoui's website

::: it is a flash site so i can't give you the exact link in the HTML here
::: you will have to do some navigating yrself

enter the Stephan Sednaoui site and, using text as navigation,
select the following sub-menus to get to the GBI music video:

>> film >> music videos >> Towa Tei featuring Kylie Minogue >> "play video"

. . . which is a tiny little orangish text rollover link below the song name

MeFi

2007-03-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd take a moment to introduce one of the most impressive community weblogs out there: Metafilter (affectionately known as MeFi). For those of you who mentioned that you like short posts with links that you can follow for more information, this is right up your alley. Posts have a certain style and there are many recurring themes. There is no one moderator; the community uses peer-pressure and a fairly codified set of social norms to uphold the quality of the posts and of the ensuing discussion.

To stay true to the MeFi style, this post has no pictures.

my favorite conduit of allergens

2007-03-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

i finally figured out how to sign into the "new blogger."
here are some pictures of our trip to the prelinger library.
i love libraries for their visuals.
later skaters

ALF

2007-03-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

This is my first on-line post ever. I will try to post a picture of ALF.
He was sort of a childhood hero to me.

2007-03-06T00:34:00.000-08:00

Peter Van Hyning is a fantastic person and amazing at making paintings and drawings.
He has just discovered the book format and made a book via self publishing online at Lulu.
You should order it, I did and it only cost $10.23!! Despite the fact that this is a bizzare price for an item,
I believe it will really be worth that extra 23 cents.
Here is a great drawing of his
You can also check out his website at www.petervanhyning.com

DEXTER SINISTER

2007-03-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

Don't be fooled by the barebones (dare I say boring) website of Dexter Sinister - I'm really excited by what these guys are doing and how they are approaching publishing in much less linear and much more collaborative fashion.

Brief history: Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt started Dot Dot Dot (another pub you should definitely check out if you can find it) in 2000 and were later invited to do a workshop called 'Just-in-time' at the failed Manifesta 6. Obviously this never, er, manifested so they decided to carry over the project to New York. A partial summary of what they do: "The workshop is intended to model a ‘Just-In-Time’ economy of print production, running counter to the contemporary assembly-line realities of large-scale publishing. This involves avoiding waste by working on-demand, utilizing local cheap machinery, considering alternate distribution strategies, and collapsing distinctions of editing, design, production and distribution into one efficient activity"

It's still early days, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeve. There is an article on them in the new Art on Paper, some of which is online.

There's a lot more to be said about them - so check out their site. I'm hopefully going to get to check this place out over spring break, and even better, maybe speak to these guys - I'll keep you posted.

This is your President speaking

2007-03-05T01:12:00.000-08:00

Give me some pants

Genius

2007-03-05T01:02:00.000-08:00

Oblivion! The real thing! Who exactly has what it takes to stand before a crowd and do- this!!!

this weekend

2007-03-04T17:17:00.000-08:00

I traveled to Atlanta this weekend for the AWP conference & book fair. My chapbook of poems, That Year, was published by Etherdome Press this week. Chapbooks are kind of like zines in that they are small-run independent publishing efforts that are more acts of devotion than cash cows. Chapbooks are an especially common way to publish poetry since there tends to be a niche rather than mainstream audience for these texts. It is a relief for me to release these poems to the reader with such a nice silkscreened cover and as part of the Etherdome series that I like so much.

CCA MFA in Writing poets Brian Teare (co-editor of Woodland Editions) and Joseph Lease (with a new book from Coffee House Press) and fictionista Tom Barbash were also in the mix.

One panel I particularly relished was called "In Defense of Difficulty" hosted by several Bay Area poets who rebutted the pronouncement by John Barr, former Wall Street executive and president of the Poetry Foundation, that contemporary poetry is in "a bad mood" and should be more "entertaining." Maxine Chernoff, who teaches at SF State and co-edits New American Writing, called Barr's agenda to popularize poetry for the general reader as a "another version of homeland security" and argued that behind the fear of difficulty lies a "powerful social elite who wishes to win back poetry as a tool for its own social agenda" in opposition to the movements of the 20th century that made "such vigorous use of poetry" for progressive and innovative ends. You can read more about this controversy in The New Yorker Feburary 19 & 26 article "The Moneyed Muse."

Best promotional schwag: Black Warrior Review flyswatter; Etherdome business card with tagline "Poetry Germinates Here" made of paper with seeds embedded: you can plant the card and it will grow (cards designed by Elizabeth Robinson, pictured below holding flyswatter).

Book Arts

2007-03-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

above: Susan Hensel Design, artist book "Surgery"

I found this site, Book Arts on Squidoo, about book arts/sculptural books. It's a bit crafty for my taste but still has some potential for good ideas/resources.

2007-03-02T15:30:00.000-08:00

This is the actual wave of the future, my friends, and by the way I have a bunch of truetype fonts my friend John designed to send to you all. I'll try and e-mail them, how bout that? 'cause the wiki sure doesn't let you upload non-image/media files, Sara Thacher. How about that? How do I get the fonts on the wiki, Sara, how?!

FO Rillllllzies! check this SHIN DIG OUT MY MANNNNE!

2007-03-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

so there was this post to this forum I belong to about whether or not people are going to start fussing over how much better the VHS format is to DVD like people do records to cds.... the consensus was that basically VHS format is just crappy and you will only like it more if yr. just a huge fan of the 'video' look... the nascent ethereal atmospheric qualities of the tracking going bad or something. The DVD can still be scratched though and once its scratched yr. fucked. You can get it 'fixed' but you can only do that once or twice. bla... but the point of this post is really just this:

www.vinylvideo.com

so um check it out... some of you may already know about this cuz yr. young yr. hip and yr. a genius but IIII just found out and IIII posted it! so there!

hmmmm wait whiile we're on subject?
digital? vs. photocopied and on Lp?

check the differAAAnce

HTML tag for links

2007-02-28T21:15:00.000-08:00

< href="http://www.website.com/"> Name of Link Here
(and then a final /a surrounded by <> )
or. . . use your Firefox browser

Hot & Cold 3 release party

2007-02-28T15:05:00.001-08:00

Friday March 2nd 7-10pm, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, 1295 Alabama Street @25th

"In 2002 Oakland based artists Griffin McPartland and Chris Duncan decided they wanted to do a project together. They couldn't really agree on anything as their aesthetics were completely different. On some holiday or something, after eating way too much, they decided to do a zine embracing their different ideas and interests. They called it HOT AND COLD. The project started with issue #10 and has been counting down since. HOT AND COLD is made in an edition of 150 and is hand-built, silk screened, sewed, stitched, stickered, stenciled, photocopied, colorcopied and any number of other treatments.

With each issue Chris and Griffin invite up to 20 artist to contribute. HOT AND COLD has curated several group exhibits and was part of a show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts called The Zine Unbound: Kults Werewolves and Sarcastic Hippies. in 2006 Hot & Cold was acquired by the New York MOMA for their permanent collection.

The HOT & COLD zine rides the line between artist book & Fluxus creation. The zine also serves as a time capsule of an interconnected web of diverse artists brought together by McPartland and Duncan."

(thanks, Anne!)

The 51 (Smartest, Prettiest, Coolest, Funniest, Most Influential, Most Necessary, Most Important, Most Essential, etc.) Magazines Ever

2007-02-28T00:12:00.000-08:00

A list of the 51 best magazines ever. (as compiled by goodmagazine.com)

I'll tell you the last five:

47. Architectural Record

Architectural Record chronicled, in simple and elegant design, the blossoming of modern architecture in America, giving space to architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan to publish treatises that changed the field forever.

48. Punch

The longest running satire magazine on our list (1841–1992)

A direct descendant of French satirical publications like Le Caricature and Le Charivari, Punch counted Kingsley Amis, Quentin Crisp, and P.G. Wodehouse among its contributors; perfected what we know as a magazine cartoon (a one-panel gag with a caption but no dialogue); and coined the now-ubiquitous term “cartoon” to describe it—all under the aegis of its glove-puppet mascot, Mr. Punch.

49. Loaded

The perverted done-it-all older brother of the lad mags, the U.K.’s Loaded has, since 1994, outdone its American siblings in terms of nudity, crassness and, we suspect, binge drinking. It also nailed that irreverent I-know-you-are-but-I-am-cooler tone well before Americans started importing British editors to try to replicate it.

50. The Source

Until the start of the burnout (1988–1994)

Started in 1988 as a Harvard radio-show ’zine, it was the first magazine to give frontline coverage to the war on drugs, expose NYPD brutality, and introduce the world to a guy named Biggie Smalls. Its fall from grace was wince-worthy, but it wasn’t called the hip hop bible (by its own founders, mind you) for nothing.

51. Tiger Beat

When they fell weak-kneed for Elvis, screamed for John and Paul, fainted for David Cassidy, swooned for Donny Osmond, or melted for Luke and Jason, Tiger Beat was there on the supermarket shelves in all its Technicolor glory, shining like a beacon of hunkdom for the teeny boppers of the day.

Kitchen Sink / Hyphen / The Face / Dwell / Bitch

2007-02-27T16:56:00.000-08:00

Courtenay, Kate P., and I were at the 826 Valencia panel with folks from Kitchen Sink, Hyphen, Dwell, The Face, & Bitch magazines.

We will try to share the highlights with you both here and in class. Topics included the ad sales & fundraising, subscription & newsstand distribution, cover & page layout, and aspects of the editorial process such as working with writers & photographers.

Some of my notes:

When the subject of magazine covers arose, Neil Stevenson of popbitch formerly an editor for The Face quipped: "Women want women's lifestyle magazines to act like an idealized mirror. The covers with Jennifer Aniston or Catherine Zeta-Jones who have the quality of "the-girl-next-door-put-through-the-hot-machine" sell way more copies than covers with Cameron Diaz because she is TOO hot."

Dwell editor Sam confirmed that the black & white cover had the worst newsstand sales of any issue of Dwell. All editors agree that covers need color to pop on the newsstand racks. Sam also mentioned that covers are not made for subscribers--covers are designed to win over people at the newsstand who you may not already have engaged, while still not turning off your subscribers.

Joey Stevenson mentioned Amelia's Magazine with a scratch-n-sniff cover (again, maximum tactility battling internet virtuality). Expensive to produce, but something you want to hold in your hands.

Sam mentioned LoDown out of Germany where every single page has a different layout.

Jen from Kitchen Sink advised those who want to start a magazine to work with people whose "brains you like. If you don't like the people in the room, get out of the room."

FOUND coming to town

2007-02-23T19:12:00.000-08:00

I found (!) this in my inbox today:

hi amanda! it's davy. i'll be in town this spring for just like 18 hours - for an event on thurs. april 26 at herbst theatre.ticket prices are really expensive ($20) - but i'm pretty certain if you wanted to get some students together to attend the thing, i could get the AIGA folks to let you in cheap or free. (the theater is huge... better all the way around if you guys get in cheap/free than have empty seats!) sorry the timing won't work to come to your wed. class, but maybe in the fall?

peace!
davy

Davy Rothbart, point guard
http://www.foundmagazine.com
FOUND Magazine

So I will try to get free or cheap tickets for this event. Let me know if you are able or interested in going to this lecture on Thursday, April 26.

From the aigasf website: When Davy Rothbart began putting together a little Xeroxed magazine called Found, a collection of items—love letters, birthday cards, to-do lists, tickets stubs, poetry on bar napkins, doodles, etc--he had no idea what kind of chord he was about to strike....

R. Crumb's Underground

2007-02-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

R. Crumb's Underground, Mar 17 - Jul 8, 2007 at YBCA

"an eclectic exhibit of early solo work, collaborations old and new, and the world premiere of his latest "spool" drawings. Crumb is universally acknowledged as the founder of the underground comic scene, and was a fixture of late 1960s."

Aline Kominsky-Crumb will read from her new book on Tuesday, April 10th @ 6:30 pm (free)

Other goings-on at YBCA: The Black Factory will be set in motion with the following weekly events in the YBCA galleries:

141 Demands for a Better World: Participants are encouraged to step up to the microphone and state their demands to create a better world. 141 Demands will travel off-site and broadcast with Neighborhood Public Radio, every Saturday through the end of June. (every FREE First Tuesday and every Friday from March 17 through the end of June)

Black Elvis with Black Object Collection: Participants will be asked to donate objects to The Black Factory that represent “blackness” to them. Black Elvis will make a special weekly appearance. (Every Sunday from March 17 through July 1)

Stencil Fonts

2007-02-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Great resource for free stencil-type fonts.

Look, over there . . . it's a castle . . . it's a cave . . .

2007-02-22T00:22:00.000-08:00

. . . it's a cave-castle (or maybe a castle-cave).

This castle in Slovenia is actually integrated into the cave system within the mountain behind it.

I'm not sure how much direct zine relevance this has (if you're still looking for a topic . . . ), but it is so completely cool-- I just had to share.

(via Metafilter and Neatorama)

Dakota

2007-02-22T00:07:00.000-08:00

Here's "Dakota" by Young-hae Chang (as referenced, but not viewed, in class).
Turn up the volume on your speakers, sit back and enjoy.

"At first, we didn’t realize we were creating an animation. But it seems that by a certain new-media-art definition of things, when you use Flash you’re doing animation. Someone suggested recently that we’re doing motion graphics – O.K., except we don’t really use graphics, just the Monaco font.

We came upon moving text because we wanted a website, but quickly discovered we didn’t know – or care to know – how web designers created online graphics, colors, photos, illustrations, and text. Frankly, we dislike graphic design, and we also dislike interactivity, which are the two staples of web design, if not the web itself. Being artists, we like to do things wrong, or at least our own damn way. We ended up with a moving text synchronized to jazz, which was (and still is) all we could do."

--Young-hae Chang
Heavy Industries

The Blink Zine Call for Submissions

2007-02-21T23:37:00.000-08:00

The blank spaces in between film frames, while imperceptible, makes the medium more similar to the way our memory works than its digital counterpart. So it goes with the imperfect crackling of vinyl versus the distantly smooth and unblinking CD. We have a similar affinity for paper. "Paper is in the room with you", and a good story needs to blink.

What if notebooks were not a disappearing species? What if phone booths and handwriting made a miraculous recovery from their virtual extinction? Or, what if there existed a wireless connection between your brain and the creamy yellow pages of your Moleskine so that there was no separation between journaling and the real-time moment that necessitated such documentation? What if all the blogs scrolled home for the winter and made nests of envelopes around your eaves?

Introducing…

the blink : a zine of art and writing

The theme for our first issue is Letters. Send us a letter not meant for you, a letter you found, a letter you wish you had received, a review of a collection of letters, a letter you will never send, a love letter to the world. Send us anything and everything to do with any kind of letter.

We encourage you to add a visual component to your work if you are a writer, or a written component if you are an artist. Collaborate! Steal! Submissions may be typed, handwritten, digital photos, or scanned images. (Please note that if you are sending us something handwritten, it will not appear in its full size in the zine but will be approximately 8.5 x 7)

Send as many submissions as you like, but send them by March 15! You can submit via email to theblinkzine@gmail.com or via the good old post to:

The Blink
c/o Alexis Brayton
1118 De Haro Street
Unit B
San Francisco, CA 94107

2007-02-21T18:19:00.000-08:00

Missing you guys tonight... Here I am in the University of New Mexico weird common area, doing research on my wife's laptop with built-in digi-cam! I bet it is watching every move I make. If this were my computer, I would put a piece of electrical tape over the camera lens when not in use. This is what blogs are usually about, right?
Next Thursday, 7pm, STAR TREK MINI-MARATHON: episodes "the Cloud Minders" and "TBA" plus, special guest, Taha Belal and his foreign futbol film. I'll remind you in class. Hope the flip-book's going over good, and I look forward to seeing all yours!

Prelinger Library visit

2007-02-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

When: Next class, Wednesday 2/28, from 7:15-8:30pm (though you are welcome to arrive earlier—the library opens at 1pm)

Where: The Prelinger library is located at 301 8th Street, Room 215, at the corner of Folsom & 8th.

Please read two essays by Megan Prelinger for next week: To Build a Library and On the Organization of the Prelinger Library and check out the Prelinger Library blog.

2007-02-20T21:18:00.000-08:00

hey all this is a dino zine that I just re issued that I did some time back with my friend james. they are printed on 80lb. cardstock. I'm selling them for 2 dollars if you are interested. they are hand numbered and limited to 83 copies in this format.
cheers!

wholphin- dvd magaZine

2007-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

hey i just got the new issue of Wholphin, the dvd magazine from mcsweenys.

their web site is also amazing: http://www.wholphindvd.com/

they are going to be interviewing Rick Prelinger about his archive project.

anyways i will bring the magazine to class!!

Green typography

2007-02-16T00:51:00.000-08:00

Gunnar Green has figured out a way to 'print' plants-- not on plants, but with plants.

After different interesting approaches such as a Bio-printer (essentially an inkjet-printer which would put seeds on a flat surface instead of drops of ink), vertical gardens and jackets from Tyvek to sample bio-material during a day in the city and then later cultivate it, he finally decided to focus on the letter (in both of its meanings) as means of communication, especially between individuals with emotional relationships. Four project focus on living letters, letters as signs of life and procedural shapes in different aspects. (via we-make-money-not-art)

Also in plant-typography news: Moss Graffiti. A simple recipe lets you 'spray paint' moss in controlled patterns.

And, just too late for Valentines: Beans that will sprout "I love you" (or other messages) on the leaves. Jack's magic beans have nothing on capitalism . . .

Beardiacs Zine

2007-02-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

I just got this zine in the mail... I'm really into the zine as a comic genre-- especially if its really colorful.... its by my friend Britt who runs this record label called Not Not Fun . . . He works for Yahoo and does these comics in his downtime... it's actually a good example of an alternative to staple binding which may or may not be apparent in the picture provided... I will bring it in as an example when we present on binding (click on the images and you'll actually be able to read the text)

it's about time

2007-02-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

yes clearly the flu has addled my brain
it is FLAVA FLAV who knows what time it is . . .

www.magazineart.org

2007-02-14T18:55:00.000-08:00

Check out http://www.magazineart.org a free visual database of magazine cover art from the 19th and early 2oth centuries.

Valentine Table

2007-02-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

Lanky spider monkey ($2), mini-buckets filled with chocolate ($3), and a message of love (free) in CCA nave today

Sepi's dishwasher's inspiring oratory

2007-02-12T14:00:00.000-08:00

Give me your dirty, your used, stacked dishes, cups, yearning to be clean. i will soap the sauce, high heat the stuck granola, power rinse the olive oil. with an open mouth i invite you to wedge your mess between my teeth, i will work for you.

Narrative Alphabet & Special Puntuation

2007-02-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

The order of the consonants in the Javanese alphabet makes the following saying, "Hana caraka, data sawala padha jayanya, maga bathanga" which means "There were (two) emissaries, they began to fight, their valor was equal, they both fell dead."

Javanese has the following punctuation marks:

Oldies but Goodies

2007-02-10T16:21:00.000-08:00

ad copy from class #2:

Choose to be wonderful. Go bright and easy.
Make and keep love. See and know wonderful.
Go clean. Look fine. Choose fresh.
Buy clean love.
Need free love? Get fresh!
Need full delicious love?
New new look and feel. Crisp and special.

the Irony Mark

2007-02-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

Apparently the irony mark (point d’ironie) has a slightly more impressive pedigree than I implied in class earlier. It was not, as I had imagined, an outcome of the era of internet enabled, textual communication. Actually, it was first proposed in the nineteenth century by the French poet Alcanter de Brahm (alias Marcel Bernhardt).

A slightly more recent move is also afoot to anoint a 'Snark,' a punctuation mark used at the end of a sentence to denote a double meaning. There's an interesting threa d on Typophile concerning the look of this new punctuation.

Also of related interest: the interrobang

Bruce Mau Incomplete Manifesto

2007-02-07T21:05:00.001-08:00

http://www.brucemaudesign.com/manifesto.html Bruce Mau Incomplete Manifesto

We should not misuse the blog, or else...

2007-02-07T16:16:00.000-08:00