ShellsuitZombie’s favourite magazine subscription service, Stack, has been going from strength to strength since we first reported it (I’m sure in no small part down to both issues of SSZ being delivered in their lovely brown envelopes…ahem) and have now started holding magazine related events.
After 2 successful ‘Printout!’ events they are now hosting a 48 hour magazine making session at the Southbank Centre on the 12th to the 14th of August and anyone can get involved. ShellsuitZombie will be there (stapling and photocopying and making tea I would imagine) and so will many others if past events are anything to go by, so make sure you sign up.
There was a bit of abuzz last month about the discovery of over 100,000 photos taken by a previously unknown amateur named Vivian Maier. The vibrant photos of life on the streets of Chicago and New York were discovered in an auction when her storage locker was reclaimed due to missed payments. Critics are saying that she could give renowned street photographers such as Robert Frank and Walker Evans a run for their money. A guy called John Maloof has been painstakingly scanning and cataloguing the work (he’s the guy with the dollar signs in his eyes in this lengthy video). He puts more up on his blog every few days, I’d recommend having a look.
Just spotted these crazy robots on the Core77 design blog. They have been built in Kandahar, Afghanistan by the US soldier Rupert Valero out of local junk. His creations speak the international language of awesome, which is great for bonding with the local kids. There’s an interview with him here and you can even buy some of his stuff on Etsy.
Everyone’s talking about China. It is fascinating to see how their culture is evolving. The video above is about the growing skate culture in Shanghai. There’s some nice skate fooootage and a decent soundtrack, but it really gets interesting when you find out about the skaters’ struggle to overcome pressures from home and traditional values so that they can express themselves and pursue their passion.
The second film is the one that they show at Tate Modern to accompany Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds (highly recommended – there til May). The decaying, impoverished town and traditional methods used to mould and paint the porcelain seeds show a very different side to China compared with the futuristic cityscape and rebellion of the skaters. Also, the recent demolition of Weiwei’s studio shows that things aren’t all free and easy in Shanghai.
It’s been a while since I did a proper REVIEW of something, so when a review copy of Vice Magazine‘s latest tome plopped onto my doormat it was with great gusto that I ripped it open. After admiring its sleek black and gold hardback cover and 352 uncoated pages it was in the bag and off to work. This was my first mistake.
Anyone aware of Vice as a magazine, website and online TV channel will know of their much-copied but ultra-refreshing editorial stance. No fear. No subject too far, no ‘vice’ too sordid, and as I was reminded as I opened the book for the first time ON THE BUS OPPOSITE A SMALL CHILD no detail left to the imagination. We had enjoyed the vice photo-guide to milking ones own prostate and an article on which sex is the more proficient fellator before I noticed his tiny innocent eyes peeking at the filth within. Yep, not one for the family bookshelf.
Back in the comfort and relative safety of my own house I was free to more fully explore the contents of the book. Since its media empire emerged from a small Montreal-based fanzine in the late nineties, Vice has kept a reputation for brilliant photojournalism and reportage from all corners of the globe, an achievement it flaunts proudly with articles on everything from the proponents of the northern (and horrendous) ‘Donk’ musical genre to the current collapse of Dubai’s economy and mistreatment of its construction workers. Summaries of VBS documentaries on Liberia, North Korea and the now award-winning documentary about a heavy metal band from Baghdad are interspersed with pieces on Hyponogogia (waking nightmares) and Chemical Psychedelics. A fair few of the articles I had read before but I devoured them all the same, their fury and humour fresher for being in a new format.
If you are a fan of Vice already, this is everything you would expect it to be, a collection of the most timeless, brave and often controversial articles and features from their huge collection. Interviews with Lemmy, David Lynch and Spike Jonze are interspersed with photojournalism from across the world and extracts from the infamous vice guides under the heading ‘(Don’t) Try This at Home’ – It’s a fantastic pick-up-and-read book, housing the same great content as the magazines but in a much more presentable format.
The World According to Vice retails at £20, which depending on who you are is well expensive or pretty reasonable for a ‘thing’ to be. Personally for a book of this size and quality it’s a no-brainer, if only for some cracking dinner party anecdotes (and if you’re the type of person that goes to that kind of dinner party you can definitely afford £20). Go buy it you bastards.
Craig Matchett, aka Supernovi, creates these little zines, vis/res, as a part of a beautiful print portfolio. He has also watched Men in Black over 100 times and is 23.59Gb old. Yeeeah.
OH MORE NEWSPRINT *yawn* BUT WAIT… Protein, one part of a recent delivery by the aforementioned Stack (still bloody brilliant by the way) boasts clean lines and interesting articles. The layout of the print edition of the hulking creative behemoth that is Protein is all thanks to Max over here. Part designer, part illustrator, Max wanders the earth feasting only on raw meat while constantly filling books of scribbles like some cross between the bad guy from Se7en and Forest Gump*. His website is dead tasty too.
This post comes from the heart. If you are at all interested in print, independent magazines or free bloody speech then you need to subscribe to this service; it has, quite frankly, changed my life.*
The concept of Stack is to promote independent press by sending subscribers one (or quite often several) independent rags a month. This can range from Eye (RRP £17!) to Little White Lies, Bad Idea, VNA, Anorak, the list is endless. If you’ve heard of these then you’ll know what a good deal this is, if you haven’t then you, child, are the most in need of it.
Strangely though, for me at least, it’s the other ‘free’ magazines you get with the featured title that make it all worthwhile. One example is Manzine, an outspoken reaction to mens magazines written by some of their editors. Reading-on-the-bus-kudos aside, it has helped to reinforce my confidence in the power of a print mag, however home-made – No-one else will own my copy of Manzine, I’ve spilt coffee on it and dog-eared the corners, it’s truly been a journey. I still pick it up months later and it’s as ball-splittingly hilarious as it was the day I got it.
I can’t recommend Stack enough, it’s a bundle of joy landing on your doormat every month, a constant in a world of wars, politics, doom, gloom and digital media. Plus they delivered issue one of our magazine last month, getting them a gold star in my book.
Jonny
*well maybe not changed my life but it’s definitely been the best £40 I’ve spent this year
Can it be true that I hold in my mortal hand an issue of purest AMMO?* With issue three, the cutest little inspiration mag in the planet brings us words and pics from Peskimo, Jam Factory and a favourite of ours Jessica Hische (cue glow of envy due to epic typo-crush) as well as loads of others. You can fit this baby in your back pocket but it’s jam-packed with artists that will make you quiver (ie. Pat Perry – never heard of him before but my is he good…) and is well worth picking up from the AMMO store.
*You’ll be pleased to know that our propensity to shoehorn content into barely-relevant quotes is as yet unabated.
£2.50 for 64 pages, an Eboy cover and fold-out poster, articles by creative types including Adrian Shaughnessy, Sanky, D&AD, Glug, Eboy etc. Want it? Buy it here.
Following from a raucous and thrilling set of creative face-offs at New Blood last year, in 2010 ShellsuitZombie is aiming to find the undisputed kings of the speed brief in the most extensive tournament of creative clashes EVER SEEN*. There will be prizes, internships on offer, real creative directors setting challenges and above all a chance to pit yourselves against whoever comes your way. Just think of the bragging rights.
If you would like to enter a team in advance, all you need to do is let us know. It’s completely free (duh!) but you need to ensure there will be at least two people from your university or team available to play at any point during the show (plus a spare person to watch your stand). A team name is encouraged and there will be bonus points awarded for team kit.
Just holler at rob (at) shellsuitzombie.co.uk with your team name and course name and let the games begin!
Some of you may remember our post on the winner of last years Rooted exhibition, ‘Skeletor the Cutlery Skeleton’. Well now the guys that run the event have created their first publication (see above for the page featuring our plastic friend). We were honoured to be asked to judge the event and are even prouder (like leave-it-lying-around-so-people-see kind of proud) to be in the book too.
Along with Skeletor there are some fantastic pieces displayed within a sleek 70 page tome and they are selling out fast – at £10 (a snip) it’s well worth picking up this limited edition bit of ephemera, no doubt featuring the early work of some of the future masters of the design world.
Whatever that entails, we wish we could go too but this one is just for the lucky-bastard students of Huddersfield – what’s great to note though is that the guys who organised the whole thing (including this nifty bit of hand-made type) are themselves recent HUD grads. Giving something back. That’s what that is.
Make sure you have a look at the website which shows off the photography in all its glory, and you can follow them on twitter too.
The Revolution has begun. Rebel Radio – Originally a call-to-arms for Che Guevara’s Cuban Militia, now a beautiful A2 Poster available to you! Get it here and read the full post here.
