Monthly Archives for June 2007

Calendrier Magique by Manuel Orazi

“Colored Lithographs by Manuel Orazi. A rare piece of occultist ephemera, printed in an edition of 777 copies to commemorate magic for the coming year of 1896. Each double page spread mimics the Christian calendar in some respect (name days, iconography). The document is at once a spoof and an attempt to chart the year of magic. Its surviving interest resides in the extravagant and compelling illustrations, especially the full-page right hand plates, by Manuel Orazi.”

Ye LOLChaucers

Verily.

“No thyng hath plesed me moore, or moore esed myn wery brayne than thes joili and gentil peyntures ycleped “Cat Macroes” or “LOL Cattes.” Thes wondirful peintures aren depicciouns of animals, many of them of gret weight and girth, the which proclayme humorous messages in sum queynte dialect of Englysshe (peraventure from the North?). Many of thes cattes (and squirreles) do desiren to haue a “cheezburger,” or sum tyme thei are in yower sum thinge doinge sum thinge to yt.”

McSweeney's needs help.

“
McSweeney’s is holding a big sale and auction to make up for $130,000 lost in a distributor bankruptcy. A thousand thanks to everyone who has helped out the past few days. The sale is going great, and we are humbled by all the encouragement and support. We’ve just added one-of-a-kind pieces from Sarah Vowell and Marcel Dzama, and pieces from John Hodgman, Michael Chabon, Art Spiegelman, and Miranda July will be added soon. Meanwhile, every single thing we’ve got is on sale, cheap.

– – – –

NOW WOULD BE
A GOOD TIME.

– – – –

As you may know, it’s been tough going for many independent publishers, McSweeney’s included, since our distributor filed for bankruptcy last December 29. We lost about $130,000—actual earnings that were simply erased. Due to the intricacies of the settlement, the real hurt didn’t hit right away, but it’s hitting now. Like most small publishers, our business is basically a break-even proposition in the best of times, so there’s really no way to absorb a loss that big.

We are committed to getting through and past this difficult time, and we’re hoping you, the readers, who have from the start made McSweeney’s possible, will help us.

Over the next week or so, we’ll be holding an inventory sell-off and rare-item auction, which we hope will make a dent in the losses we sustained. A few years ago, the indispensable comics publisher Fantagraphics, in similarly dire straits, held a similar sale, and it helped them greatly. We’re hoping to do the same.

So if you’ve had your eye on anything we’ve produced, now would be a great time to take the plunge. For the next week or so, subscriptions are $5 off, new books are 30 percent off, and the entire backlist is 50 percent off. Please check out the store and enjoy the astounding savings, while knowing every purchase will help dig us out of a big hole.

Many of our contributors have stepped up and given us original artwork and limited editions to auction off. We’ve got original artwork from Chris Ware, Marcel Dzama, David Byrne, and Tony Millionaire; a limited-edition music mix from Nick Hornby; rare early issues of the quarterly, direct from Sean Wilsey’s closet; and more. We’re even auctioning off Dave Eggers’s painting of George W. Bush as a double amputee, from the cover of Issue 14. More special items will be appearing as we go, so check back often.

This is the bulk of our groundbreaking business-saving plan: to continue to sell the things we’ve made, albeit at a greatly accelerated pace for a brief period of time. We are not business masterminds, but we are optimistic that this will work. If you’ve liked what we’ve done up to now, this is the time to ensure we’ll be able to keep on doing more.

Plenty of excellent presses are in similar straits these days; two top-notch peers of ours, Soft Skull and Counterpoint, were just acquired by Winton, Shoemaker & Co. in the last few weeks. It’s an unsteady time for everybody, and we know we don’t have any special claim to your book-buying budget. We owe all of you a lot for everything you’ve allowed us to do over the last nine years, for all the time and freedom we’ve been given.

Once this calamity is averted, we’ll get back to our bread and butter—the Believer Music Issue is already creeping into mailboxes everywhere; Issue 24 of our quarterly is in the midst of a really pretty silk-screening process; and in July the fourth issue of Wholphin, our DVD magazine, will slip over the border from Canada, bringing with it some very good footage of Maggie Gyllenhaal and a Moroccan drummer who messes up a wedding in an entertaining way. And then, a couple of months after that, we’ll publish a debut novel from a writer named Millard Kaufman. This book is exactly the kind of thing McSweeney’s was created to do: it came through the mail, without an agent’s imprimatur, and it was written by a first-time novelist. This first-time novelist is 90 years old. His novel was pulled from the submissions pile and it knocked the socks off of everyone who read it. Millard may well be the best extant epic-comedic writer of his generation, and he stands at equal height with the best of several generations since.

Please do whatever you can to help. We thank you a thousand times. We’ll keep updating everybody on how this is going over the next few weeks; for now, pick up a few things for yourself, for your friends, for Barack Obama. More news soon—thanks for reading.”

Happy Bloomsday


James Joyce (1882–1941).

BRONZE BY GOLD HEARD THE HOOFIRONS, STEELYRINING IMPERthnthn thnthnthn.
Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips. Horrid! And gold flushed more.
A husky fifenote blew.
Blew. Blue bloom is on the
Gold pinnacled hair.
A jumping rose on satiny breasts of satin, rose of Castille.
Trilling, trilling: I dolores.
Peep! Who’s in the… peepofgold?
Tink cried to bronze in pity.
And a call, pure, long and throbbing. Longindying call.
Decoy. Soft word. But look! The bright stars fade. O rose! Notes chirruping answer. Castille. The morn is breaking.
Jingle jingle jaunted jingling.
Coin rang. Clock clacked.
Avowal. Sonnez. I could. Rebound of garter. Not leave thee. Smack. La cloche! Thigh smack. Avowal. Warm. Sweetheart, goodbye!
Jingle. Bloo.
Boomed crashing chords. When love absorbs. War! War! The tympanum.
A sail! A veil awave upon the waves.
Lost. Throstle fluted. All is lost now.
Horn. Hawhorn.
When first he saw. Alas!
Full tup. Full throb.
Warbling. Ah, lure! Alluring.
Martha! Come!
Clapclop. Clipclap. Clappyclap.
Goodgod henev erheard inall.
Deaf bald Pat brought pad knife took up.
A moonlight nightcall: far: far.
I feel so sad. P. S. So lonely blooming.
Listen!
The spiked and winding cold seahorn. Have you the? Each and for other plash and silent roar.
Pearls: when she. Liszt’s rhapsodies. Hissss.
You don’t?
Did not: no, no: believe: Lidlyd. With a cock with a carra.
Black.
Deepsounding. Do, Ben, do.
Wait while you wait. Hee hee. Wait while you hee.
But wait!
Low in dark middle earth. Embedded ore.
Naminedamine. All gone. All fallen.
Tiny, her tremulous fernfoils of maidenhair.
Amen! He gnashed in fury.
Fro. To, fro. A baton cool protruding.
Bronzelydia by Minagold.
By bronze, by gold, in oceangreen of shadow. Bloom. Old Bloom.
One rapped, one tapped with a carra, with a cock.
Pray for him! Pray, good people!
His gouty fingers nakkering.
Big Benaben. Big Benben.
Last rose Castille of summer left bloom I feel so sad alone. Pwee! Little wind piped wee.
True men. Lid Ker Cow De and Doll. Ay, ay. Like you men. Will lift your tschink with tschunk.
Fff! Oo!
Where bronze from anear? Where gold from afar? Where hoofs?
Rrrpr. Kraa. Kraandl.
Then, not till then. My eppripfftaph. Be pfrwritt.
Done.
Begin!

Another End of the World is Possible

From John Jordan

“To celebrate the announcement of the location for this summer’s
CAMP FOR CLIMATE ACTION” – Heathrow Airport August 14-21, 2007

Eight days of low-impact living, debates, learning skills, and high-impact direct action tackling the root causes of climate change.

In 2006, over 600 people converged on a field in Yorkshire for 10 days, and held over 100 workshops, ranging from alternative technology to the Kyoto Protocol to non-violent direct action training. They made decisions collectively, without ‘leaders’, and produced their own energy using solar panels, biodiesel, and a wind turbine. Many of them used the camp as a base for non-violent direct action against industrial polluters such as Drax, the largest coal-fired power station in the UK.

The 2007 Camp for Climate Action will be even better! Everyone is welcome to get involved. If you have any questions, email info [at] climatecamp.org.uk

7 Video portraits of radical climate activists

Great Americans, back in action.

“With this update I’m pleased to announce the first new Ween release in a long while; “The Friends E.P.” will be released exclusively on Chocodog Records on June 19. You can now buy the record (and a cool t-shirt) via pre-order by clicking above. It features 5 brand new songs, none of which will appear on the new full length Ween album scheduled to be released this fall on a “real” record label, not Chocodog. We have recorded a lot of new material the past year and we wanted to give you an appetizer for the summer. It is the ultimate party record, filled with good beats and good times. Perfect for your barbecue or doing bong hits or whatever it is that you guys do. You really need to buy multiple copies through this website. If you download it or burn a copy from a friend your karma will be so fucked that you will be reincarnated as a tumor on a rat’s ass. We put a lot of time into this, like 4 years. What is that 9.5 months a song or something? You’re gonna buy it on I-tunes? No way. Seriously though, you’re gonna love it.”

The comedy of delight.

San Diego Union Tribune

Q&A: Lavender Diamond by Claire Madigan

Here’s something you don’t think about too often: blind optimism. Stop for a second and think about all those things that are encroaching on your life. Now bend your mouth into a smile. Whether you’re chuckling or rolling your eyes at this point, the sound of Becky Stark’s voice encapsulates the energy it takes to do that. And not by singing about puppy dogs and ice cream. We couldn’t resist lifting our jaded fingers and asking this glowing singer, who’s performing with her band Lavender Diamond on Friday, if peace on earth was really possible. She told us – via e-mail – about working at a Mafia front, being betrayed by the church and getting fired for wearing silver shoes.

What is Lavender Diamond and how did you come up with it?

Lavender Diamond is a description of a resonance, a pure crystal sound. It came to me in a dream!

I read you used to be a magician’s assistant. What was that like? Had any other weird jobs?

Being a magician’s assistant was a perfect job for me. I had been developing a comedy act where basically I would be very delighted and that was pretty much the entire idea of the act. So it wasn’t that great of a comedy act because I would just be outrageously delighted at pretty much anything … kind of like Goldie Hawn in “Laugh-In”! But then my friend Christopher Wonder asked if I would be his assistant, and as a magician’s assistant, it’s your job to be delighted at all the tricks. So I finally found a perfect place for the comedy of delight. Within a magic act!

I’ve had a lot of weird jobs. Some of the weirdest and most awesome ones included taking pictures of antique watches; being a play therapist for a newly adopted child who had been traumatized in a Chinese orphanage (my job was to sing and dance with her); collecting petition signatures on the street in San Francisco (corrupt!); preparing files for standardization by a massive insurance conglomerate (I got fired for wearing silver shoes); working as a waitress at a restaurant in Providence, R.I., that was a front for the mafia (There was no kitchen. We washed the utensils off in a bucket and grilled food from the freezer so it was both frozen and burned — disgusting!); working as a manicurist in a men’s hair salon (lasted only one day until I was solicited to be a prostitute for the mafia by a crazy thug); jazz singer (my favorite job!); teacher of comedy to second-grade class of boys (the craziest thing I ever did); fit model for clothing manufacturing company (I am just the right size that clothes are manufactured). Oh, the list goes on. I guess that every job is crazy!

People might not guess you were inspired by noise and punk bands like Lightning Bolt and Fugazi. How do you think that shows up in your music?

Well, I feel very free and passionate when I play music. I think that is the nature of musical expression. Passion and freedom. In my life I have been very inspired by the unlimited source that seems to power and connect with Lightning Bolt and Fugazi and Black Dice. The energy that flows in this music is stunning. We aim to be like this — to share energy! Only the music sounds different. It is soft and melodic but still for the purpose of sharing and changing energy.

When you sing, every note is savored. I find it very cathartic to listen to. What’s your favorite song to sing on this album and why?

Wow. Well, when I sing, I do savor each note. When I was younger and I would sing with my mother, she would tell me that each note is as important as the other — none are less important. So I think of this when I sing … that each and every note is meaningful. I love each note the same. And I love all the songs on the album! Although right now I really love singing “Bring Me a Song” because I love the way it feels to sing this song. Right now it feels like the most direct expression of love.

The words “joy” and “peace” are used a lot when people describe you and your music, but there are songs off “Imagine Our Love” about disappointment and disillusionment (I’m thinking about “I’ll Never Try Again” and “Side of the Lord”). Are those more based on personal experiences? How does it fit in with the larger vision of Lavender Diamond?

Well, sorrow cuts the cup that fills with joy. The deeper our sorrow, the deeper our joy. Which makes now a perfect time for peace. We already have enough sorrow, war, devastation — we’ve learned our lesson! I guess that those songs are based in personal experience but I feel like personal experience is political and metaphorical. Our experience of individuation is a learning experience that brings us back to an understanding of our wholeness and inseparability.

“Side of the Lord” is about my experience feeling angry and betrayed by patriarchal language in the church. My grandmother was a minister and so is my mother, and I remember the dawn of my outrage when I realized that we were praying — in my grandmother’s church! — to a god that was represented as a man! The Lord! An outrage! And yet I have always felt an abiding connection to the Lord or to God, to the divine which is in every person. But language is important! We musn’t characterize the divine as masculine. In the larger vision of Lavender Diamond, we dedicate ourselves to bringing healing energy through music, and so the places where we are wounded are the best places to learn and experience healing and wholeness.

Is peace on earth possible?

Absolutely! Peace is already here in the hearts of so many people. Peace is already real. We just have to make it grow. The only thing holding us back is the lie that our lives don’t matter and we don’t have any real power. This is a lie! Everyone has power, whether you like it or not. Everyone is waking up to this understanding, and as we wake up to the reality of our own power and responsibility, our lives and our world are transformed by new meaning. The more we celebrate peace, the more we magnify it and make it grow.

What’s next for Lavender Diamond?

Hmm … more touring! And we’re going to make a movie. And more videos. And another record.

Any other L.A. bands you think we should know about?

A million! Blackblack, Silver Daggers, Chapin Sisters, Winter Flowers, Soft Boiled Eggies, Bird and the Bee, Mika Miko, No Age, Gwendolyn, Entrance, Let’s Go Sailing, Elvis Perkins — so many! There is so much great music in L.A. right now! Everyone is very open-minded! I wonder if it’s the same in other cities.

Tell San Diego anything you want below.

I love you, San Diego! Your city is the most beautiful and gentle of all the cities. I love the soft warm breezes that blow here.