Monthly Archives: October 2010

Microcosm 1973 Employee Training Video unearthed!

We’ve new got coffee and chairs! A little brown bean beverage for your troubles? The (giant!) ‘cosm store is at 636 SE 11th Ave with our pals Printed Matter and Eberhardt Press! New shelves! New merch! New love! Two blocks south of the vegan mini mall where you will find such places as Food Fight Grocery, Herbivore Clothing, Sweatpea Bakery, and Red & Black Cafe! We have tons of unique discounted, damaged, forgotten gems from the past, and used stuff; much of it for half price or less! Take a gander at the $2 table! Everyday 11 AM – 7 PM

ZG2NYC Book Trailer Contest!

Calling all filmmakers, animators, and folks with a penchant for screwing around in iMovie: We invite you to celebrate the publication of our low budget, highly participatory, illustrated, anecdotal guidebook, The Zinester’s Guide to NYC, by creating an original online book trailer. The winner will be showered with analog prizes courtesy of Microcosm Publishing and Ayun Halliday, the ZG2NYC‘s primary contributor. Your video will also be given a permanent place of honor on Microcosm & Ayun’s websites.

The ZG2NYC is for folks who crave participation, the offbeat, and a dirt cheap deal! They’re creative, just like you! They ride bikes, love a parade, and dress funny on purpose.

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You have until December 15 to upload your video to Vimeo and send the link to ayun@ayunhalliday.com (please cc joe@microcosmpublishing.com). Live action, animation, puppets, a slideshow – anything goes. NYC’s awesome and beloved Hungry March Band has graciously given us permission to offer their song, “Jupanese JuJu” as a soundtrack – or write your own.

You can order a copy of the book here, or from any number of online vendors, or ask your favorite indie bookseller to lay one in for you – they will be available November 15.

A few parameters
The following phrases need to be prominently displayed. The timing is up to you, unless otherwise noted:
The Zinester’s Guide to NYC by Ayun Halliday
The last wholly analog guidebook to NYC

“If I could still walk the streets of New York among my People, I would use this truly funny and truly affordable guidebook. It kicks ass.” – Stephen Colbert

Support indie booksellers by ordering the ZG2NYC from them!
Final page should be a card that says:
© 2010
www.MicrocosmPublishing.com
www.AyunHalliday.com

for those using “Jupanese JuJu”:
“Jupanese Ju Ju” by Yokoyama, Candler & Fairey
Performed by Hungry March Band
www.hungrymarchband.com

You must have the rights to all photos and video clips used in your video. If you’re not NYC based, try searching photo sites for NYC-specific photos with a Creative Commons license.

There’s more info about the book:
https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3038/
& here:
http://ayunhalliday.com/

You can download the book cover, and a few illustrations here (scroll down):
https://microcosmpublishing.com/press

We can fix you up with more if you want -email your request to ayun@ayunhalliday.com
Download an mp3 of Jupanese JuJu here:
www.microcosmpublishing.com/uploads/jupanesejuju.mp3

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this to your friends, posting it to your blogs, and just generally smearing it all over the Internet.
ZG2NYC4-evah!

The Microcosm Interview with Tomas from the Rad Dad Zine!

We recently talked with Tomas Moniz from Rad Dad about zines, zines, and zines! Tomas’ super awesome new issue is now out and you can wrangle that here. This is what he told us.

Q: If you were asked to define Rad Dad in less than 100 words what
would you say?

A: It’s a zine about how we all can parent in conscientious ways, how whether we are parents or  not we can foster communities that are multigenerational and supportive of children.  It’s also a zine that strives to challenge the mainstream representation of fathers and parenting in general   parenting does not equal mothering.  And simple being a father doesn’t mean you are rad.  Parenting is also not a white middle class, hetero experience.  Rad Dad works hard to present the diversity of parenting from young parents, to parents of color, to anarchist parents.

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Q: Tell us about the new issue; what can people expect?

A: The new issue was a lot of fun…many of the issues often deal with specific difficult situations in relation to parenting children.  For number 18, I wanted to explore how our relationships with other adults impact our parenting; I wanted to remind us all that there are numerous kinds of families besides the hetero-normative monogamous partnered couple.  Oh and I get to share my story of discovering my daughter making out with “hot boys.”

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Q: What do your kids think of Rad Dad?

A: They actually read every issue before I print it, threaten to write their own version of the zine “Bad Dad,” and when they come to readings they generally heckle me non-stop.  But they are totally supportive.

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Q: If the President of the United States asked you to sum up Rad Dad in less than 10 words what would you say?

A: I’d scold him: white parents need to take responsibility for racism, unlike his admonishment of black parents in his famous speech on race.

Q: If your first grade teacher asked you to sum up Rad Dad in less than 10 words what would you say?

A: I wish my daughter’s first grade teacher read it…

Q: If Osama Bin Laden asked you to sum up Rad Dad in less than 10 words what would you say?

A: It’s not about what we are, but what we aspire to be…or I’d ask how he
got a copy of it?

Q: Who are your three favorite zines and why?

A: Artnoose’s Kerbloom and, of course, Doris; they’re like the godmothers of zine culture and what they write about and share is so specific to their experience but in sharing their struggles and thoughts I discover such connections and inspiration…and as for a new zine I’ve been really enjoying photography zines…I think I wanna try and make one myself…

Q: What’s next for Rad Dad?

A: An anthology of the best of Rad Dad will be out in fall 2011; the zine I hope will continue and someday I look forward to passing it on to other rad dads and mamas to continue.  I’m always looking for coeditors so if you interested, let me know…

Our new DIY book, How and Why, is on Kickstarter!

Hello friends of Microcosm!

We’re reaching out to you because you’ve all been very supportive of us over the last fifteen years.

Thanks again for helping make so many things happen. These projects mean a lot to us, and it’s always heartening to hear they mean something to other people, too. It’s been extremely cool to connect with so many rad people in recent years. Thanks for being out there and doing what you do!

The motivating force behind this message is to let you know our new DIY book How and Why is being designed and is nearly ready to go. We’ve put a few years into making it as awesome as it can be and the only thing remaining to get it out there is to raise the money for printing. If you’d like a copy (or five) of How and Why, or need to replace some of our other books that you loaned to a friend, or need some presents for special people in your life, or just want to continue supporting our independent publishing:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/897079804/print-matte-resists-new-book-how-and-why

 

If you’re into what we’re doing, it would help a lot if you could spread the word via email, facebook, twitter, yelling on street corners, or whatever comes naturally to you.

Thanks a lot! And do stay in touch.

-Microcosm

 

P.S. We don’t plan on using Kickstarter for every new book that we release. We really try to only use it when we have to but it’s been a rough year, so of course we respond by trying to do a lot of stuff that we think is awesome!

The Bookbindery

Sarah Royal spent some time working in a Chicago book bindery. From the get-go, she dispels any of our illusions of book-making fantasy, “It’s a glorified Kinko’s…” and gives us a guided tour of her work and co-workers. It’s funny—especially the snippets of dialog, and it’s full of beautiful photos of the bindery. Sometimes the humor is at the expense of her co-workers, or those in the bindery’s hilariously out-of-control neighborhood. So if you like stories about quirky employees interacting, or killing time on the clock, then this zine is for you!