As of July 1st, Catherine and I have moved into our new apartment. It was a bit of a hellish move and we’ll be living in boxes for a while, but if you want to stop by or send us gifts of encouragement, our new address is:
2139 boul. St. Joseph est
Montréal, Québec
CANADA
H2H 1E6
The first protest I ever attended was at the age of 11, outside the Chinese embassy in Toronto.
Grab bag of web content below. If you have anything to add, please leave a comment…
The Lost Voices of Tiananmen (BBC podcast)
Frontline documentary: The Tank Man
Internet censorship in China (wired)
Internet censorship in China (NY Times)
Internet censorship in China (CBC)
History Matters: Remembering Tiananmen (and Abu Ghraib)
A while back I mentioned a very cool publishing/distribution inititative by Alain Bieber in Hamburg. And now today, I’ve just gotten word that our zines have finally arrived in his library!
I’m really excited to be a part of Gute Seiten, and will hopefully soon be contributing content to the site about the zine scene in Canada for them. So, if you have some interesting projects you want European indie publishers to know about, hit me up.
photo by Oubliette
Ravenswing was a great success today and Cat and I really enjoyed our time in Ottawa. Many thanks to the beautiful, hard working people who put it all together and to Colin for being a great host and table mate. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity and enthusiasm of the crowd. My perception of Ottawa as a sleepy government town has certainly shifted a bit.
I was happy to see fellow Montreal zinester Lisa Hoffman there with a ton of new work on display and reconnect with fellow Concordia grad Catherine Pearce who’s been making some beautiful jewelry pieces.
Sincere thanks to everyone who put down some hard earned cash to pick up a zine or a poster today. I’d love to know what you think of them, so please feel free to contact me. We’ll definitely be back again next year, hopefully with a new issue in tow.
Check out some more pictures here of a damn fine day.
PS. So Good was very good, thanks for the reco John! The Pepper squid was exquisite!
Illustration by Colin White
To all our friends in Ottawa, Catherine and I will be in town on Sunday (May 24) at the Ravenswing Craft and Zine Fair alongside Ottawa Comics guru Colin White. The fair is held in Minto park, between Elgin & Cartier and Gilmour & Lewis. The weather promises to be good, so it should be a lot of fun.
Along with copies of the zine, I’ll have a series of art posters for sale featuring some new (and some old) work. I’ll post pics soon, but if you’re in the neighbourhood, come by for first dibs.
Arjen Noordeman of Elasticbrand has just posted an in-depth interview with me over at the Cranbrook Design site (updated link). The recently revamped web site once hosted a vibrant discussion that played a large part in shaping Four Minutes to Midnight during its early stages, so it’s fitting that 5 years on, I’m on there once again to talk about it.
I have to tell you something: an interview with Kevin Yuen Kit Lo
Thanks Arjen for the challenging questions, I’m really happy to be featured amongst such design luminairies, past and present. My very own little taste of Cranbrook…
It was with shock and sadness that I read today that Armin and Bryony Vit have decided to close Speak Up. Here’s what I left in the comments:
Dear Bryony, Armin and all former Speak Up authors, I’ve never clearly voiced this before, so I’ll do it now before I lose my chance.
Being selected as one of the original authors on this site was an indescribable honour for me as a student fresh out of university. Here was democracy in action, and I had so much to say and so much to learn. All I had to do to take part was send Armin an email with my favorite serif and sans-serif fonts (I still remember what I said too; Mrs. Eaves and Futura!). Though I only managed to contribute sporadically, Speak Up has been with me my entire career as a professional designer, acting as a dear friend and a credible reference. My most recent CV still proudly states, “former editorial author on Speak Up, the leading graphic design web forum.”
One of our designs is now featured as part of Paper Kite Press’ Visual Poetry poster series. The piece is an aggressive remix of pages from issue 5 of 23:56, the starting point of our approach to the fugues in the later issues.
The series is a great initiative by Dan Waber, showcasing contemporary visual poetry from around the world. We’re very honoured to be recognised as one of his selections. Please stop by the shop and pick up a six-pack of poetry for only 20 bucks!
We’re very excited to announce the official launch of Four Minutes to Midnight Issue 10 (finally)! This Saturday, March 7th at Lab Synthese. This is gearing up to be a great event with 4 amazing bands, surprise performances and screenings, art on the walls, and a drink and draw/collage/write/scribble corner.
The event kicks off at 8 PM and is BYOB.
Link to the facebook event page here.
