Wednesday, February 28, 2007

HTML tag for links

< 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



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

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.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Kitchen Sink / Hyphen / The Face / Dwell / Bitch



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."

Friday, February 23, 2007

FOUND coming to town

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



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)

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Stencil Fonts







Great resource for free stencil-type fonts.

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

. . . 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


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

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Blink Zine Call for Submissions

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

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



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.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007




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!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

wholphin- dvd magaZine

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!!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Green typography


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 . . .

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Beardiacs Zine







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)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

it's about time

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

www.magazineart.org

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

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Valentine Table



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

Monday, February 12, 2007

Sepi's dishwasher's inspiring oratory



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.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Narrative Alphabet & Special Puntuation

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

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.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

the Irony Mark


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 thread on Typophile concerning the look of this new punctuation.

Also of related interest: the interrobang

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Bruce Mau Incomplete Manifesto

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

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

Welcome to our blog

Post in- & out-of-class assignments & related musings & endeavors.