NOTES FROM THE (MAGAZINE) UNDERGROUND

You ever feel guilty about not reading classic novels? Me neither. But sometimes I get almost as much satisfaction from reading magazines. These are the best not-entirely-just-about-fashion-magazine-journal-type-things going on right now. I love them and you should, too. Here's three of my current favorites.
THE GENTLEWOMAN
All the guilty pleasure of a fashion magazine with smart articles and beautiful photographs, pared down and grown up. Charming and quirky, too. Features interviews with "international women to love and admire" like Yoko Ono and fashion photographer, Inez.
BEST THING IN THE CURRENT ISSUE: Eight pages spread on different varieties of apples. How sweet is that? Yeah, well, in all likelihood not sweeter than a Pink Lady variety from Australia. (I learned that.)
CABINET
Quarterly magazine that dedicates each issue to a single subject. Part scholarly journal, past issues have included subjects like Friendship, Maps, and Magic. The current issue is titled "Hair". This one has been a favorite of mine for years. I find that reading it helps to wash away the guilt I absorb from all the years of watching reality television.
BEST THING IN CURRENT ISSUE: Acrylic paintings by artist So Yoon Lym. Formerly a high school teacher in New Jersey, she photographed intricate hair patterns (aka cornrows) of her students and painted them.
LULA: Girl of my Dreams
A substantial version of a fashion magazine complete with flirty, dreamy photo shoots, cut-out doll parts, and interviews with artists, musicians, actors and filmmakers. Insightful articles with contributors like Miranda July, Rachel Antonoff, and Sophia Coppola.
BEST THING IN CURRENT ISSUE: Kim Gordon interview, talks about her music and her gorgeous watercolor paintings!

FAITHFULL: an autobiography

i just read the marianne faithfull autobiography. in the beginning it was hard to believe.. with all the boastful stories and name dropping and all. (running into jimi hendrix, banging keith and dating mick) but then i realized it was all the mere truth - there just isn't a demure way of write things like that. she included all of the truth, even the mortifying and degrading parts where you start to realize what an asshole she was a lot of the time.
the book was great. especially if you like the rolling stones. i have a new appreciation (or obsession?) for her, knowing all that she's been through. it's amazing how much her voice (not to mention her looks) have changed so drastically from her first hit in the mid 60's "as tears go by". and it's not just age. her voice now sounds like a whole lot of experience and a whole lot of drugs.

she turned down BOB DYLAN!!!!!! who does that? danielle petrosa's marianne necklace:
the notorious performance of marianne dressed like a nun singing 'i got you babe' with david bowie. so good.

some have even lost their petals

you may enjoy reading this blog i recently came across called harold loves maude. it's relatively short and readable in one sitting. it's better if you just start reading it (from the beginning, which would be the end of the blog) without knowing anything more but you choose your life and you choose if you want to keep reading my words. it's written by heidi haru from the perspective of a young man named harold, who's character seems to be loosely based on harold chasen from one of the best movies of all time, harold and maude.
if you do read these entries, i'm going to recommend your suspension of disbelief that this is in fact written by harold himself. it's funner.

harold and maude (bud cort and ruth gordon)

paul zitzer, i mean harold with his amazing/insane mother (renee ryan?)

a more recent bud cort on the set of life aquatic with steve zissou


heidi haru also has a collection of stories coming out soon from touch touch publishing. could be neat.

"the fog bank was just a brush stroke on a much bigger painting"

one of my ongoing aspirations is to get john to draw like he used to. when i first moved to california exactly 10 years ago, he'd have art attacks 80% of the day, every day. it was pretty sexual. he now likes saying "i quit art". i like saying fuck that. and i will keep buying him things to inspire the approaching renaissance. the latest inspiration purchase was this extra giant charley harper book. he says it was the best gift i ever gave him.



but he must have forgotten about these neil blender prints i bought him for christmas. they're from his website, the heated wheel, which is hopefully only temporarily down.


"sometimes art seems like the best idea you ever had"

unveiling the mystery book set

i received the miranda july mystery book set in the mail - it turned out to be FIVE books and miranda signed and scribbled little notes in each book! two of them are brand new and written by her - of course both are fascinating. especially 'no one belongs here more than you' - i think i might even say it's my favorite.

the other three are used books from her own personal collection.
mystery book #1 SIGMUND FREUD - the problem of anxiety. i've discovered this cool disorder in my 30's and will definitely read this.


mystery book #2 - Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson. he wrote the emperor's new clothes, little mermaid and my favorite childhood book, thumbelina (which is actually pretty jacked now that i read it again). i just wiki'd him and found out he was a gay. but back when he probably couldn't find another gay to be gay with. poor guy. i'm most excited about this one - especially the illustrations "by children of eighteen nations".

mystery book #3 - nighttouch by three dudes i've never heard of - all about nightmares. this book looks creepy and sketchy and i'm a little scared to open it. i think i'll give it to john for valentines day.

thank you kime buzzelli!! miranda july is like elvis to me.

the coolest thing on ebay

kime buzzelli is selling this on EBAY. miranda july picked out three of her favorite books from her personal collection and wrapped them up for this mystery book set. is this not the most perfect valentine's day gift?


UPDATE : we are supposed to be on a budget, since we just bought a minivan for the future of our family of cats. but i really needed this. and my valentine was too busy caring about rambo to buy it for me. not that he knows how to bid on ebay or ever will. luckily no one except freckle face and possibly hannah reads this blog, so i was able to still purchase it at a reasonable price after i put it on blast. i'll unravel the mysteries soon.

book report: LEARNING TO LOVE YOU MORE

the art project www.learningtoloveyoumore.com is great, but this book is even more amazing because the two artists that give the assignments studied each of the over 5000 entries they received over the past 5 years and picked the most challenging, heartbreaking, and hilarious ones to present.
my favorite assignments are the ones that turn out to be the most personal and honest:
assignment 52: write the phone call you wish you could have
assignment 53: give advice to yourself in the past
the ones about interviewing someone who experienced war were pretty interesting too.

assignment 30: take a picture of strangers holding hands.

assignment 42: list 5 events from 1984

this book is awesome. the website is still accepting entries and still giving new assignments randomly.

twice ironic

tao lin is a writer that i like. he's also asian and my myspace friend. i just found this little excerpt, a few pages from a book of his that i liked and scanned a while ago and emailed to lydia in reply to her email about how she was bored at work. lydia saves children at work. regular ironic.


i loved this book. i'm posting this cause i figured someone else might love it too. it's called eeeee eee eeee. i didn't know about this writer at all until amazon told me i'd like him when i was purchasing a miranda july book. amazon is smart. do people know about him yet? i don't know. but it makes me remember that i need to buy some books for the bona drag online store. which will launch in two weeks, for the past year.