Indie & Small Press Book Fair

This Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, The New York Center for Independent Publishing is hosting the Indie & Small Press Book Fair at the General Society Landmark Building at 20 W. 44th Street (between 5th and 6th Aves).

Let me map out the highlights and you will see why this is one of the greatest things to happen to Midtown Manhattan since EVER.


An old photo of Ian MacKaye and his doggie at home. Photo Credit: Glen E. Friedman. Taken from his webpage Burning Flags.

On Saturday, December 1st:

2:00pm-2:50pm
Ian MacKaye on Independent Culture: Q&A with an Introduction by Ian Svenonius

A Q&A with Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Evens and co-founder of Dischord Records). Bring your questions regarding the parallels between the worlds of independent music and book publishing, sustainable models for truly independent companies, and anything else that’s on your mind.

3:00pm-3:50pm
Keep Your Eyes Open: Ian Svenonius Interviews Photographer Glen E. Friedman, with Slide Show Presentation

Glen E. Friedman, considered one of the most important photographers of his generation, became well known for working with such rebellious artists as Black Flag, Ice-T, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Misfits, Bad Brains, Beastie Boys, Run-D.M.C., KRS-1, and Public Enemy. Many of his photographs are recognized as the subjects’ definitive portraits. His most recent book, centered around the band Fugazi, is titled Keep Your Eyes Open (2007). Ian Svenonius has been the singer and spokesman for various music groups, including Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, and currently Weird War. Svenonius is also the author of The Psychic Soviet.

On Sunday, December 2nd:

2:00pm-2:50pm
Qu’est-ce Que C’est Sex and Violence: Permissibility in Translation with Panelists Amy Scholder, Chad Post, Slava Mogutin, and Sinan Antoon

Sex and violence are universal traits but are different cultures ready to share and experience each other’s transgressive writings through the bridge of translation? A panel with Bruce Benderson, Slava Mogutin, Sinan Antoon and Amy Scholder moderated by Tom Roberge, Managing editor of A Public Space.

HOLY SCHISSE! IAN EFFING MACKAYE IN NEW YORK CITY! I've loved and admired Ian MacKaye ever since I was thirteen years old when I first heard Minor Threat's Complete Discography. I used to write him letters about how much his music meant to me (and still means to me) but I never had the gall to send them. I wish I could dig them up, I'd give them to him on Saturday if I still had them in my possession.

Go here to read Time Out New York's 3 questions for Ian MacKaye.

Glen E. Friedman has a new book out called Keep Your Eyes Open which is all about Glen and Fugazi from 1986-2002.

Ian Svenonious, member of Nation of Ulysses and The Make-Up, has a great book out called The Psychic Soviet which goes HIGHLY recommended.

This weekend is jam packed with cool stuff to do! My head is spinning... IAN MACKAYE!!!

"Are you taking over or are you taking orders? Are you going backwards or are you going forwards?"

From the New York Times:

The events of the past three days, set off by the deaths of two teenagers whose minibike collided with a police vehicle on Sunday, make clear that the underlying causes of frustration and anger — particularly among unemployed, undereducated youths, mostly the offspring of Arab and African immigrants — remain the same.


Photo credit: Thibault Camus/Associated Press

Et si on parle français:



And you thought Bed-Stuy was scary?

Pro-Choice

In life, we are faced with many decisions. In the recent past, I've had big decisions to make like which job offer should I take, where should I move, and should I get French fries with my meal? (The answer to the last one is always yes). Currently, I have a self-inflicted decision to make. I decided to get a magazine subscription with my newly acquired Hanukah gelt. Without further ado, I present to you, my readers, my top three choices.

If I decide to go with Adbusters Magazine, I get 6 issues for $40. I love Adbusters and would feel like I was doing something socially beneficial, as that magazine assures me that YOU ARE NOT TELEVISION. Or your government.



The German beauty, Lodown Magazine, would cost me $56 for 5 pretty issues of one of the best art/design/music magazines around.



And a mere $75 would buy me 3 issues of Arkitip while 6 issues would cost me $130. Gasp if you must, but each issue of Arkitip is a limited edition and highly sought after. I would love nothing more than to get a copy of the most recent Arkitip before the rest of my friends try to run out and cop it for the cool _______. And rest assured, the _______ is ALWAYS cool, whether it's a Kaws laptop case for your iBook or a package of Ricky Powell's favorite coffee. Everyone would be jealous it's on my coffee table and not theirs (first).



Well, I think I've already made my decision (guess which one) but thanks to the Internet, I was able to map out my choices and make a decision. Talk about democracy!

There's a war going on outside...

Photo credit: Abid Katib/Getty Images in the New York Times

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Palestinians Protest Peace Talks article from the New York Times here.

El tono has a blog, too.

El tono has a blog.



El tono es de España. You can check out his webpage here.

CUELLO CARA

Neck Face will be having a solo exhibit at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery April 5th through May 3rd. The opening reception will be held on April 5, 7pm-9pm.






It's true, your old lady DOES love Neck Face. And so do most twenty-something New Yorkers, which is why I'll be there.

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The Jonathan LeVine Gallery is located at 529 W. 20th St., 9E.

Photo du jour

JR from Paris:


Place Igor Stravinsky, Paris

J'aime JR.

Getting High on the Other Side of the Iron Curtain

From The Russian Issue of Vice Magazine (Volume 13, Issue 4), I present to you "Over the Counter Habits: A Brief History of Getting High in Russia."



Here's the article transcribed below in its entirety:

St. Petersburg’s drug situation was always better than Moscow’s. In fact most of the “fast” shit (ecstasy and meth) was produced in “Peter” and distributed to Moscow for double the price. St. Pete resisted cheap smack when it first hit about ten years ago, but eventually surrendered after most of the trendy pro-West boys and gals saw Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction. I swear these two films killed more Russians of my generation than fucking Afghanistan. For a while it seemed like Muscovite junkies and St. Pete’s University kids were competing for body counts as each kept upping the ante from heavily-cut brown crap to china white until both sides were all dead.

After the first wave of junkies died, everyone switched to Phentanyl, a synthetic opiate that’s 100 times stronger than heroin. Then one day Phentanyl was responsible for more than 130 deaths. The FSB (which is like the FBI but waaaay scarier) gassed the “Nord-Ost” hostages with it in October 2002 to prevent some Chechen mujahadeen from blowing the building up with 900 or so hostages inside. The women and children simply OD’d on the stuff. Oops! It was easy to spot on TV, all those blue faces with their heads tilted back, mouths open. All of a sudden Phentanyl was evil in the public’s mind and had to be eradicated. Ironically the task was left up to the FSB, the ones that made it evil in the first place.

Within weeks all the Phentanyl was gone and all the dealers were either dead or in jail. Now what? You’ve got a nation of junkies and a corrupt government with piles of opiates nobody wants to ever see again. Well, what do you think’s going to happen?

Alex, a 34-year-old addict who’s lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow says, “The second all the Phentanyl and heroin dissapeared, codeine cough pills magically showed up in drugstores all over the country. You could see those empty blue packages everywhere. They even went as far as advertising these pills on national TV. Obviously, the government was up to something.” Indeed, by 2003 almost all illegal opiates in Moscow had been replaced with these popular over-the-counter codeine pills.

“If you take 20 pills of Kodelak, which is 160 mg of codeine phosphate, you get a good nod going,” reports Alex. “I take 60 pills a day. My habit was about $200 daily when it was heroin. Now it’s 300 bucks a month, thanks to Kodelak. And I don’t need to rob or steal or anything like that to keep myself going!”

The invisible hand of capitalism has spoken: “Legalize it.”

VLAD OSOVSKY

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Blogger's conclusion: Communism gets you high.

Streets is Watching

Swoon being interviewed by Wooster Collective in SWINDLE Magazine here.


Photo of Swoon near the Knitting Factory, Summer 2005

Also, Banksy will be having a New York City gallery show.I will update this with the rest of the pertinent info once I actually SEE a flyer for this. Or once I ask my boyfriend. Hopefully the former will happen first.

UPDATE:

What: Bankrobber (London) in New York
Where: Vanina Holasek Gallery
502 West 27th Street (@ 10th Ave.)
When: December 2nd - 29th
Who: You know how.

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Here's the link.

P.S. Thanks Nick!

La fiesta del chivo, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Trust Socialist Democracy

Hi friends. Last week I had seen La memoria obstinda at the Instituto Cervantes and was awakened by the thought-provoking and moving documentary filmed by Patricio Guzman. All of the young and fleeting socialist tendencies I once clung to started to awaken after seeing the film, but more than that, my need to practice Spanish and actively pursue the language I love so much was kicking and screaming. I have been wanting to make Spanish speaking friends, which as we know, making friends is no easy task and ever since I stopped taking formal classes, I've been trying to make a conscious effort to keep myself stimulated as the classroom is a great forum whereas the office is not.

Today I went to Barnes and Noble in pursuit of an overpriced modern art magazine. I then wandered into the Libros en Espanol section, which is usually disappointing, until I saw about five or six novels by Mario Vargas Llosa. Instead of spending $10 on a magazine that I'll probably save for way too long and end up using to make a birthday card, I decided to buy La fiesta del chivo, a political novel about the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. I'm only 30 pages into it but I am so happy to be reading and thinking in Spanish again.

As in most of Latin and South America, socialism and democracy were overrun by dictatorships throughout the 60s and 70s. La fiesta del chivo is about a woman, whose father worked for Trujillo's government, returning to Santo Domingo many years after she had left her native country for New York City. I'm so inspired by the fluidity of the Spanish language and the way the words flow, but also by the power and the weight that each word carries. Much like Chile in 1973, the Dominican Republic was taken over by the far-right dictator Trujillo, el Chivo, the goat. Though I might not be putting stickers about GMOs on fruit and vegetables and protesting SUVs like I did in high school, the revolutionary inside of me still thrives por el espanol, por el espiritu de la democracia, and by the need to stand by your rights and expression in whatever way possible. Even if it is in a blog that only a handful of friends read. At least it's something.

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La fiesta del chivo is playing at the Repertorio Espanol throughout November and December at 138 East 27th Street. Here's the link for all those interested. I hope to catch it on December 1, which gives me motivation to finish the book ASAP.