Here’s a recap of 1% of what went on at Minot’s Why Not? Festival.
If you are interested in holding a benefit show to raise money for supplies for the DIY punx who are doing volunteer restoration work on homes during an extreme housing crisis, contact <a href=”billyluetzen@yahoo.com”>Billy</a>.
The good folks behind Eberhardt Press and Just Seeds have teamed up to create an awwwwesome 2011 day planner (think Slingshot.) These lil’ puppies are beeeautiful and feature 14 Just Seeds artists, including Icky A., Shaun Slifer, Erik Ruin, Josh MacPhee, and Kristine Virsis! The design, by Charles Overbeck, is elegant and tasteful, and features curatorial help from Roger Peet. In the back is a lunar phase calendar. Strong wire binding allows it to sit flat on your desk. Thick cardstock protects it in your pocket or your messenger bag. Totally, totally solid.
Right now to celebrate all-things Eberhardt and Just Seeds (stay tuned for an interview with Charles Overbeck and Eberhardt blank notebooks available through this site!) we’re doing a big ol’ planner sale.
Go here to check ’em out and buy ’em for $5 (marked down from $6) or just opt for a between $3-$7 sliding scale option.
These organizers are a special thing. We hope you get as stoked about them as we are!
Love,
Microcosm
Hey Baltimore friends!
Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore editor William P. Tandy is hosting an event tomorrow (Tuesday, August 9th) in Baltimore’s downtown! The free event stars at noon. Info from the SHYIB folks below! Fun! Yow!
Here’s the official word:
Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore!
editor William P. Tandy will regale lunching office workers, street people and sundry ne’er-do-wells with his own strange blend of humor and misanthropy as part of the ongoing summer series “Poets in Preston,” Tuesday, August 9, in Preston Gardens, St. Paul and Pleasant Streets, in downtown Baltimore. This free event begins at noon. And Hell will surely follow. Poets in Preston is a presentation of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, Inc. Read more about it here: http://www.godowntownbaltimore.com.
In related news,
Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore! No. 14
is coming soon from Eight-Stone Press. Pre-order your copy and read samples from the new issue here: http://eightstonepress.com/hon/hon14.htm.
For more information about
Smile, Hon, You’re in Baltimore!
, contact me at wpt@eightstonepress.com.
Cheers,
William P. Tandy, Editor
Eight-Stone Press
P.O. Box 11064
Baltimore, MD 21212
wpt@eightstonepress.com
www.eightstonepress.com
eightstonepress.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/wptandy
www.twitter.com/eightstonepress
Suuuuper awesome event goin’ down at Powell’s in Portland tonight. Rad Dad editors Tomas Moniz and Jeremy Adam Smith are “opening” for Ariel Gore, who will be reading from her killer new book All the Pretty People. Check out Ariel’s blog here, Tomas‘s here, and Smith’s Daddy Dialectics site. All the fun starts today (August 5th) at Powell’s (1005 Burnside) at 7:30pm. It is free, free, free…
ABOUT ALL THE PRETTY PEOPLE This new book by Ariel Gore brings out all of the dirt on 1970s suburban hippies. Through an authentic voice, funny stories alternate between warming and saddening your soul. It’s a queer love story. But it’s also got no shortage of shame, violence, and Barbie envy. It’s about the pretty people she used to know in California—the people she wanted to be but never quite felt she was. “How was I to know that all the pretty people got their answers from TV?”
ABOUT THE NEW RAD DAD BOOK Rad Dad: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Fatherhood combines the best from the award-winning zine Rad Dad and from Daddy Dialectic, two kindred publications that have explored parenting as political territory. Both have pushed the conversation around fathering beyond the safe, apolitical focus and have worked hard to create a diverse, multi-faceted space to grapple with the complexity of fathering. Today more than ever, fatherhood demands constant improvisation, risk, and struggle. With grace, honesty, and strength, Rad Dad’s writers tackle all the issues that other parenting guides are afraid to touch: the brutalities, beauties, and politics of the birth experience, the challenges of parenting on an equal basis with mothers, the tests faced by transgendered and gay fathers, the emotions of sperm donation, and parental confrontations with war, violence, racism, and incarceration. Rad Dad is for every father out in the real world trying to parent in ways that are loving, meaningful, authentic, and ultimately revolutionary. Contributors Include: Steve Almond, Jack Amoureux, Mike Araujo, Mark Andersen, Jeff Chang, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jeff Conant, Jason Denzin, Cory Doctorow, Craig Elliott, Chip Gagnon, Keith Hennessy, David L. Hoyt, Simon Knapus, Ian MacKaye, Tomas Moniz, Zappa Montag, Raj Patel, Jeremy Adam Smith, Jason Sperber, Burke Stansbury, Shawn Taylor, Tata, Mark Whiteley, and Jeff West.
If you haven’t heard it from us (or through ye olde grapevine) we are running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the re-publishing of John Isaacson’s book Do-It-Yourself Screenprinting. Sadly, the campaign isn’t going so well. We currently have seven days to raise nearly $4,000 of the $5,000 goal (which is one half of the printing costs; we’re shouldering the rest.) So if you can find it in your big ol’ heart to help John’s book spring back to life, here’s the Kickstarter link. Meantime, feast your eyeballs on this collection of the dude’s screenprinting work! We love ya, John!
We’re running a Kickstarter campaign right now to help fund one of thee most awesome DIY guides of all time: John Isaacson’s epic, wonderful, hilarious, helpful graphic-novel-as-silk-screening-manual Do-It-Yourself Screenprinting! Right now there are only a few days left until the Kickstartin’ is Kickstopped and it’s not lookin’ too hot. We could hella use your support on this one! If you’ve got a coin or two lying around, here’s the Kickstarter link. Now, without further adieu, meet John Isaacson. He’s a really amazing dude…
Q: Tell us how the book originally came about; where were you in your life?
A: I was discovering mini-comics for the first time in the early 2000s. I was a street vendor selling t-shirts I screenprinted. A lot of people bought shirts from me, but even more wanted to know how to print on their own shirts. They were like, “How do you do this?” So I would explain, and I tend to be a little long-winded, so their eyes would glaze over after a certain point. Then I realized, “Hey, I should just make a little mini-comic about how to silk screen and then more people will get what I am talking about. Then they won’t have to remember what I said; they could just look at it in a little book.”
Q: Do you remember your first screenprinting project?
A: I think it was a stencil of the Operation Ivy skanking punk. Either that or Kokopelli designs. Dancing people for the “Dance Weekend” event at my high school.
Q: What kinds of things are you screenprinting these days?
A: Mostly the odd poster here and there. A few comic book covers.
Q: What’s the first bit of advice you’d give a would-be screenprinter?
A: Be patient, be willing to start over from scratch, remain calm, think critically, and learn from your mistakes. Reuse materials to keep it cheap. Also, buy my book!
Q: Is there anything you wish someone would’ve told you when you were first getting started!
A: That you don’t need to wash out the emulsion with hot water after exposure. Also, that the spray from a spray bottle is not strong enough to remove emulsion.
Q: What kind of town is Portland for screenprinters?
A: Totally amazing. There are so many studios for printing in and great printers like Daria Tessler, Zack Soto, Kinoko, Keegan Meegan, Corinne Teed, Roger Peet, and E*Rock. I wish I saw more screenprinted posters on the street…
Q: What would you say you’ve learned most from screenprinting?
A: I’ve learned to solve problems creatively. I’ve learned to constantly trouble-shoot and always look for solutions, to never expect “perfection”, to experiment and try new things, and to be loose and not uptight.
Hey New York pals,
We’re going to be tabling at the Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer St.) Zine Fest Saturday, May 28, 3:00pm – 7:00pm.
Check out the lineup!
Music by:
Jose Delhart
Bogs Visionary Orchestra
Reign of the Elephants
Rad Unicorn
Zine folks in attendance:
Andria Alefhi (We’ll Never Have Paris) http://neverhaveparis.blog
Darryl Ayo (Little Garden Comics) http://darrylayo.tumblr.co
Joseph Carlough (Lies in States, Today Terrific, Dark Nature, Modicum Issues, DSP’s Box of Horror) http://www.josephcarlough.
Marguerite Dabaie (He Also Has Drills For Hands, The Hookah Girl) http://www.mdabaie.com/
Dikko Faust and Esther K. Smith (Purgatory Pie Press) http://www.purgatorypiepre
Jenna Freedman (of the Barnard Zine Library) http://barnard.edu/library
Katie Haegele (The La-La Theory) http://www.thelalatheory.c
Ayun Halliday (The East Village Inky, The Zinester’s Guide to NYC) http://www.ayunhalliday.co
Alisa Harris (Urban Nomad, Counter Attack) http://www.alisaharris.com
Gus Iversen http://www.iloanbooks.com/
Robyn Jordan http://www.robynjordan.com
Mark Lerer (The Little General)
Sara Lindo (Carl Finds Love, Lobotomy, Wall Street Cat: Money Takes Naps) http://www.theLindo.com/
A.J. Michel (Syndicate Product) http://www.syndicateproduc
Microcosm Publishing http://microcosmpublishing
L. Nichols (Jumbly Junkery, Unrequited Monsters, ! [bang], A Shadow and Its Source, and An Aleatoric Basis for Understanding) http://www.dirtbetweenmyto
Morgan Pielli (Indestructible Universe Quarterly) http://www.IndestructibleU
Davy Rothbart (FOUND Magazine) http://www.foundmagazine.c
Bill Roundy (The Amazing Adventures of Bill, Bar Scrawl, various gay romance comics) http://www.billroundy.com/
Kenan Rubenstein (The Oubliette) http://underthehaystack.ne
Steve Seck (Life is Good) http://secktacular.com/
Hey Portland pals,
We have an awesome event going down in the Microcosm zine store parking lot (636 SE 11th) this Tuesday-Thursday. Here’s the official write-up from the Tales of Tape folks themselves. Come on down! Would love to see ya.
-Cosm, PDX
Tales On Tape “Contemporary Narratives” Installation
In its fourth year of collecting stories from an array of people and sounds, Tales On Tape aims to contribute an ephemeral “Contemporary Narratives” section to Microcosm Publishing. This auditory section will be complete with a listening station and recording booth in hopes of capturing patron’s personal stories, tangents, and sounds.
The recording booth, located in the front lot of Microcosm Publishing, (May 24th – 26th) will be displaying excerpts from past stories, while focusing on capturing new stories from visitors of Microcosm. There will also be cassettes with self-addressed envelopes available after the departure of the project for patrons unable to record in the recording booth. This three day event hopes to record the non-linear facets of a public milieu on the ever so linear method of tape, a middle ground between participants and project facilitators.
Such endeavors as the “Contemporary Narratives” installation seek to act as a material space in which personal trajectories are allowed to converge and be shared. Equally, Tales on Tape seeks to become a public space, byway of various projects and installations, acting as a dynamic archive of audio artifacts. Tales on Tape has been collecting stories over the last four years and will continue to do so past the expiration of this installation.
Tales On Tape
TalesonTape@gmail.com
www.TalesonTape.org
In the new issue of the zine series The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting, author Abner Smith looks at the life, death, and legacy of Lee Harvey Oswald. Throughout the course of the zine’s 10 year run, Smith has declined interviews about his work. Here he talks to us about the history of the zine series, his own reading list, and the man himself, Oswald.
Check out issue six of The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting right here.
Q: Since this is your first time being interviewed about the series, how did zine series start and why did you originally decide to do it?
A: Over ten years ago I was browsing a used bookstore in Minneapolis that no longer exists. Combing various books about politics and history I decided that many of the texts about the CIA and covert activities were both retailing for over $25 and painfully out-of-date. And I half-heartedly thought about writing about such topics. And I realized that I could write zines on various topics that I could churn out relatively quickly.
Within a year I had written the first issue—about the government’s involvement in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It happened to come out just before William Pepper’s book that revealed a lot of new facts about the case and our tours coincided in 2002.
Aside from my interest in the topics of the U.S.’s domestic covert ops, I had found many zines of that era to be self-indulgent and relying more on enthusiasm than merit or topic, and that the writing was designed more for the author than for the reader. There was a youthfulness that I didn’t relate to. And I wanted to show the “scene” that zines had been and could truly be about any topic they could passionately write about.
And that aspect was not lost on people. I received a lot of mail—especially in the early years—that it was encouraging to read a zine that was not a memoir or about a punk tour or hitchhiking trip. And many other people wrote to tell me that it encouraged them to write zines about their own off-beat topics.
I found the writing to be very difficult and unfulfilling at first but I feel like with this current issue I have finally found my own and I now understand nonfiction writing to be more than a rote recitation of facts. I read William Zinser’s On Writing Well between the 5th and 6th issues and I found it to capture my theory of self-editing perfectly and in words. His book is so good that I forgive his Christianity and how it sneaks in awkwardly.
(above, Abner Smith today.)
Q: One thing I got from reading the whole series is, “Wow, this guy must have a crazy-different reading list than most of my friends/most zinesters.” What are some of the books you’ve read recently that might connect to the zine’s vibe…
A: Other than perhaps John Marr, I probably have a very different reading list than most zine writers. I read hungrily and incessantly and most of the things that I’ve consumed lately that haven’t been related to Oswald are Hitler’s Secret Bankers, Covert Action: The Roots of Terrorism, The CIA’s Black Ops, The Secret History of the CIA, The CIA in Guatamala, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and The Press.
Conspiracy theorists form a somewhat cohesive social community just like zinesters do. And being plugged into that really helps me stay aware of new or interesting books. And oddly enough, Amazon’s search engine is very helpful for finding related books on a topic and purchasing them elsewhere—like my neighborhood bookstore.
I’m hesitantly thinking that issue seven will be about the CIA’s manufacture and distribution of crack-cocaine. And I’m still uneasy with the fact that I’ll eventually have to handle Robert Kennedy’s assassination, MK Ultra, and the validity of where those two incidents might intersect.
(Above, Abner Smith, artist’s portrait.)
Q: Why Oswald in 2011? Tell us how the man’s life and death relates to, as the kids say, “How we’re livin’ now”?
A: It would be classy to say that Oswald’s story mirrors the current Joint Terrorism Task Force or post-9/11 security paranoia but the truth is that I haven’t seen a story as tragic or hilarious as Oswald’s before or after so it’s a sick fascination with an off-kilter individual who was able to get all of the attention he desired. And after ten years of research I decided I finally had enough good sources on his life to tell his story. I hope no one now is living like Oswald—he was a monster, a bad shot, and a terrible date.
(Above, Abner Smith, 1967)
Q: Throughout the course of your research on the man did you get to like him? You say he was a monster and a bad shot and a terrible date but in the text I feel a certain (subtle) sympathy. Did researching Oswald humanize him for you?
A: Oswald represents the humanity in everyone—our selfishness, our self-hatred, our insecurities, our yearning for fame, our willingness to be important. I don’t “like” him or want to be him, but I see a composite archetype of the uglier bits of everyone in him. He’s not a villain per se, but he’s troubled and not reacting well. And I think it’s important not to demonize certain people when they really aren’t that different from the people we talk to everyday, it’s just a lot more obvious. And I can see why even his widow and his children think of his positive traits first and don’t see him as a monster—and want to see him as a hero. Oswald does a good job of showing us how complex everyone’s character is and how perception paints those pictures.
Q: Which is a lot less reductive than most portrayals have been. How do you think Oliver Stone did with his version (JFK, 1991) of Oswald’s character?
A: Oliver Stone was setting out to prove a government conspiracy through what is essentially a propaganda film—and an effective one. But that makes Oswald’s character an afterthought, or at least secondary. It’s been fifteen years since I’ve seen the movie but I feel like it doesn’t really capture the depth or complexity of how I view Oswald.
Q: Do you think Stone’s film had any impact on the greater population’s opinion of the actual events?
A: Yes, most definitely it did. I think it was the first time in 25 years that the population was re-thinking these events and people who weren’t alive when the assassination happened were calling their history textbook into questioning. The film was also a very significant factor in demanding the FBI files on the assassination and Oswald.
Q: In your opinion, did Lee Harvey Oswald kill President Kennedy?
A: I’ve been researching this case intensively for the past ten years and in the beginning I was a bit tired of the conspiracy theory and had come full circle to believe that Oswald had likely had some major role in killing Kennedy, though was probably not working alone. There’s a giant volume of information and context in this case. And the more information that I came across from declassified files, the more evident it becomes that there was a very concerted effort on the part of our government to paint Oswald as the lone assassin. And the deeper you get into it, there’s high levels of corruption in that government and obvious links, resources, and motives far stronger than Oswald’s. I don’t think it’s possible that Oswald had more than a patsy role in Kennedy’s assassination.
Q: If not Oswald, then who killed Kennedy?
A: It’s difficult even to speculate about events from nearly 40 years ago—especially when all documents are still in various states of redacted and still not entirely declassified. But it’s clear that from the evidence we do have that Guy Bannister and David Ferrie were involved. Ferrie is a particularly sinister character who gave up a little more of the story when he protested to Jim Garrison that bringing attention on him would surely result in his murder—and it did. Other people who were aware of the details disappeared mysteriously. Read more here. When Oswald was arrested his wallet contained David Ferrie’s library card. Ferrie claimed repeatedly that they had never met—until photos were declassified showing them talking on multiple occasions.
(Above, Abner Smith, 1953)
Q: Do you think we’ll ever know for sure?
A: It’s been too long.