Parlovr getting the show started off right!

Many, many, many thanks to everyone involved that helped make last weekend’s launch party such an amazing success. We’d especially like to extend our gratitude to Amber Goodwyn who organised the event for us, the bands who gave generously of their time and talent, Flames!, Parlovr, and The American Devices, our gracious hosts, Yan, Carlos and David of lab.synthese, and Cat and Lindsay for their love, support and tireless work at the door.

Thanks of course to everyone that turned out, and to those that participated in the art making. The atmosphere was amazing, achieving such a perfect balance between a rock show, art happening and intimate house party. We really had a great time, and I think the event itself was a perfect expression of what we’re trying to do with the zine.

Photos after the jump…

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John and Kevin at lab.synthèse

FMTM Issue Nine and this weekend’s launch party are mentioned in both the Mirror and the Hour this week! We wanted to use the above pic for our press coverage, but it looks like they preferred the cover design to our ugly mugs…

For the ninth issue of Four Minutes to Midnight, we sent out a call for submissions with the tentative theme of “conflict and silence” and were happy to receive responses that explored this relationship through personal and autobiographical perspectives. Gathering these together alongside numerous fragments found along the way, the issue was crafted over the course of a year in the margins of our days and nights. It was truly a labour of love to produce and we hope that it shows…

Featuring the work of over 25 contributors, FMTM 9 is filled with 112 pages of radical textual & visual stimulation. Without a doubt, our sexiest issue yet!

The issue will be launched this weekend at lab.synthese, with musical guests Parlovr, Flames! and American Devices.

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“Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another message — of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the States. Check out the great feature on Democracy Now. As relevant and moving as ever before. Where are the voices like his today?

On Saturday January 12th, 2008 nearly 2,000 people took off their pants on subways in 10 cities around the world. In New York’s 7th Annual No Pants! Subway Ride they had around 900 participants, spread out over three subway lines.

Awesome!

Pop and Politics Poster Series, 2005

A series of posters designed for the 2005 edition of the Pop and Politics conference, part of the Pop Montreal music festival. Working with my good friend Jay Delmarr, we created a series of bold typographic posters to promote the conference which dealt with wide-ranging issues at the intersection of music and politics. The conference included performances by Saul Williams and K’naan, two of my favourite artists, and having the opportunity to design these posters was an absolute treat.

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Picture This! Posters of social movements in Québec
I was honoured to be asked by Dave Widgington of Cumulus Press to write a chapter introduction for his recently released collection of political posters. Dave and I have collaborated many times in the past, and in fact, the first time we met, during the Declarations design conference, the seeds for this book were sown when he met the guys at CRIP. Dave asked me for a personal, non-didactic, text that would communicate the “why” of independent poster making.

ARTISTS’ POSTERS: WE ARE EVERYWHERE

The Ads, They Are-a-Everywhere
Ten years ago, as a design student at Concordia University, my political and visual consciousness was burgeoning simultaneously in a politically heated educational environment. In class, I learned how to craft messages and images while studying their powerful impact within contemporary society. In the cafés and in the streets, I began to implicate myself into the world around me, learning about the countless issues that seemed to cause such pangs in my heart. I would walk by hoardings covered with posters calling for social change, and I would take down the dates and addresses to attend meetings and lectures where human rights violations, genocidal government policies, or the erasure of our public sphere were being discussed.

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This is a fun little web-app developed by talented typographer Péter Vajda.

With much help and encouragement from the spectacular Amber Goodwyn, the hospitality of Yan Basque of/and Lab.synthese, and the generosity of the (kick-ass) bands Flames!, Parlovr and American Devices, the much-anticipated launch of Four Minutes to Midnight Issue 9 will be taking place on Saturday, January 26th.

More than an ordinary rock show, the launch of Issue 9 will also act as the starting point for issue 10, with the audience invited to participate in a variety of collaborative acts of art-making. The writing on the wall, so to speak…

Hope to see you there!

Flames! | Parlovr | American Devices

Lab.synthese

PS. Credit for the event’s title is due to A Silver Mt. Zion‘s beautiful song “Triumph of our tired eyes”.