It feels like the end of an era. Last Saturday I spent the evening with Dave Widgington and co. at his beautiful bed and breakfast to celebrate Cumulus Press’ ten years of independent publishing. It was a great evening, with booze and conversation flowing freely, many friends and family members in attendance, two brilliant spoken word performances from Kalmunity Collective members, and a delicious cake adorned with the Cumulus logo in baby blue icing sugar.

The lively yet intimate event also signaled the end of Cumulus Press… Dave has decided to leave the publishing world behind and jump into a career of film making. And though I’m personally saddened by the loss of such a brilliant press, which dealt primarily in my own top two interests of politics and poetry (and recently, comix as well!), I wish him all the best and know that we’ll be seeing much more from him in the near future.

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Mentioned previously on this blog, Oubliette’s cute and sinister skull keychains/magnets are now available through the interweb on the amazing craft site etsy.com. They make the perfect end of winter gift, so please visit her shop and support the indy crafts revolution.

On Oct. 3, 2007, Patti Smith visited Montréal as part of the Pop Montreal Festival and performed a “secret” show/poetry reading accompanied by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra… For a mere 5 bucks, we were witness to an intimate, honest and impassioned performance by the legendary punk princess at the Ukranian Federation. Silver Mt. Zion’s instrumental accompaniment worked beautifully with her words, sometimes billowing into frenetic waves of noise, while at other times just sparkling in the background. Truly kindred spirits at work.

Yesterday I stumbled across the full show downloadable as mp3s on BigO’s ROIO (Recording of Indeterminate Origin of the Week). Needless to say, I was ecstatic and wanted to share…

PS. Silver Mt. Zion will be returning to Montréal to play a show on March 20th at la Tulipe in support of their new album, 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons. Anyone who wants to come by for some pre-Zion drinks, give us a holla…

PPS. Title and image stolen from BigO zine

At the Musicians are Cowards event, John and I were pleased to give an interview for The Wednesday Morning after, a current affairs show broadcast on ckut 90.3 FM. Our interviewer Mike had some great, pointed questions, and we hope you’ll find our answers about design, activism, etc. interesting, educational, or at the very least, entertaining.

Unfortunately, the last few minutes of the interview are really garbled. I’m not sure if they were trying to enact our ideas of dissonant dialogue or if it was a technical foible. Nonetheless…

Download the show here (.mp3) or Stream it (.m3u). Our interview starts 38 minutes in, shortly after Democracy Now (is that crazy or what?). I love you Amy Goodman!

Jason Gillingham (issue 9 contributor) just sent me this beautiful image, composed with rub-down lettering at our launch party.

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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“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!