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Justin Moyer
blogs:
Iceland
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7.20.2007
Interviewed
Impetus Press
"Starting a press has been something that I had wanted to do for a number of years before Impetus came into being. Writing and art have always been the two major pursuits in my life and in wanting to be able to involve myself with both, I came to realize that publishing could offer a sort of middle-ground."
Read more.
Posted to Books by Matt Kirkpatrick |
7.19.2007
Interviewed
Alicia DeBrincat
"I do oil on canvas paintings, mostly of nude women, using the
female body as a visual metaphor for the experience of being a
woman in today's society. I would also probably mention that if
they're looking for a "pretty" painting to bring out the colors
in their couch, they might want to keep looking."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
6.18.2007
Interviewed
William Buzzell
"My work has gone through a bunch of different phases but currently it looks like an anti-drug poster you would see hanging next to the vice principal's office in a poorly funded inner-city middle school."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
6.15.2007
Poem
Return of the Toxic Avenger On Open Mike Night
By Mike McDonough
In an East Village loft you sculpted it from dryer lint
and paperclips, combustible stuff, arm hair bristling
like antennae on the Empire State, teeth of the railing
up your ass—don't even think of sitting here,
parents killed by Ninjas, need $$ for Kung Fu lessons,
sleeping on the bus, taking up six seats, the house plant
knocked off the TV (don't worry, it likes that occasionally)
fed by its own shed leaves, it broadcasts radioactive heat.
Read more.
Posted to Books |
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| 6.14.2007
Interviewed
Kevin Sessums
For decades, Kevin Sessums made a living writing celebrity profiles for Vanity Fair. He’s pretty self-deprecating about the whole thing. “Celebrity journalist” is “an oxy moronic term,” he says. “I don’t think of myself as a journalist. If I did, I would have a real inferiority complex. I’m un-intimidated by fame and I can write a sentence. I know what a narrative arc is and that’s what I did for a living.”
That gossipy, pseudo-Boswellian voice, so common to the form of magazine glossies, informs Sessums’ new memoir about his childhood growing up in the South in the ’60s and ’70s. Mississippi Sissy has earned itself a string of disparate admirers, including, going by the jacket blurbs, Michael Cunningham and Ellen DeGeneres. There’s quite a story here. Sessums was orphaned at a young age when his father, a local basketball star died in a car accident, and, a year later, his mother died of cancer. He lost one close friend, a family maid, due to the era’s harsh racial divides, and another friend, an older gay man, to murder. He also hung out with Eudora Welty, who lived nearby.
Econo talked to Sessums by phone at his home in New York.
Read more.
Posted to Books by Paul Morton |
6.7.2007
Interviewed
Veronica De Jesus
"I realized I was an artist when I felt like I was locked into
some place in my head that I could not escape from. It scared
the heck out of me. I decided that I just needed to brave it out
and figure out what these abstract feelings were all about. I
have been married to my work ever since."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
6.6.2007
Reviewed
Elliott Smith
New Moon
I have to preface this review by saying that I’m a huge fan of Elliott Smith, and that I was quite content with one posthumous release. When I first heard about a collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks, I was skeptical. Nirvana’s With the Lights Out box set was interesting, though it was largely unnecessary –– would New Moon be the same way?
Read more.
Posted to Music Reviews by Ian Graham |
6.1.2007
Interviewed
Robert Hardgrave
"I think that everyone has their own set of methods, beliefs, theories. For me it is letting the work come out naturally by no planning, sketching, or preconceived ideas. I find if I do, I am often disappointed. I guess it's a sort of self-trust."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
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| 5.29.2007
Reviewed
Coco Rosie
The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn
“The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn is a departure from the obscured blur of stained glass rêve to a more self-exploitive memoir. Parts are dreamy and parts are savage, but, as with an opera where death represents a secret heaven, the whole record feels like a black diamond in the snow. From her humble beginnings in the South of France, the saga sailed the Seven Seas all the way to that icy crack in the Earth’s crust just outside of Reykjavik. Upon return to her Parisian homeland, she shared a mystical rendezvous with beautiful sailors Pierre et Gilles, the album cover being the consequence of that affair.”
That’s what I had to work with for this review. Not only did the album leave me saying, among other things, “Huh?” but the liner notes and promotional material didn’t clear anything up.
Read more.
Posted to Music Reviews by Ian Graham |
5.24.2007
Interviewed
Sacha Eckes
"A lot of people see my work as being dark, morbid. But in fact I'm trying to create something honest, and hope that people will smile at the absurdities in life and see my work as a result of a passionate desire for life and love."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
5.23.2007
Reviewed
Various Artists
Just One More:
A Musical Tribute to Larry Brown,
a Great American Author
I have never read anything by Larry Brown (who died in 2004), but if the music compiled on Just One More: A Musical Tribute to Larry Brown, a Great American Author, is any indication of his style, I’m sure he’s right up my alley. For the album, Bloodshot Records took on an unusual project, compiling a set of 18 songs by musicians whose work falls in the same vein as Brown’s literary efforts, which were known for their blues influence. Some of the performers knew and were friends with Brown, others admired him from a distance.
Read more.
Posted to Music Reviews by Jake Stuiver |
5.17.2007
Interviewed
Martin Ontiveros
"Whatever you do, make sure you learn a second trade! Something
to earn you decent money when times are lean in the art thing,
because not everybody launches from the get-go. This is advice I
really wish I had been given. Don't end up washing dishes like I
did. I liked dishwashing, but it doesn't pay your bills."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
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| 5.10.2007
Book Excerpt
EEEEE EEE EEEE
by Tao Lin
Dolphins felt top-heavy, that year, most of the time, and wanted to lie down. When their heads weren’t on top they still felt top-heavy, but metaphysically. In public places they felt sad. They went into restrooms, hugged themselves, and quietly went, “Eeeee eee eeee.”
Read more.
Posted to Books |
5.10.2007
Interviewed
Monica Canilao
"I get horribly attached to everything I make, even letters
sometimes. So yes, it's really hard to sell things. I kind of
got better at 'letting go' though. I just figured that if
someone wants to own something I've made, then they'll be
enjoying it, and that's pretty sweet. I also feel really lucky
that I am able to support myself right now by being creative.
I'm living a dream."
Read more.
Posted to Visual Art by Bill Dunlap |
5.9.2007
Over the Hills and Through the Woods
by Dennis Loy Johnson, Melville House Publishing
The Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing was presented to Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians, the co-publishers of Melville House, on March 7, 2007 at the Association of American Publishers’ Annual Meeting for Small and Independent Publishers. Econo is proud to publish, for the first time, Johnson’s remarks on accepting the award.
Read more.
Posted to Books |
5.8.2007
Interviewed
Dennis Loy Johnson
Dennis Loy Johnson is the cofounder and editor of Melville House Publishing. Recently he accepted the 2007 Miriam Bass Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing, a title well deserved considering the wide roster of works he's put out, including: THE ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH (a document laid out by Constitutional scholars just as if it were being presented to Congress), SERIOUS ADVERSE EVENTS: AN UNCENSORED HISTORY OF AIDS by Celia Farber, as well as a number of novels and memoirs by some of today's most innovative writers such as Stephen Dixon and Tao Lin. In addition to his work as a publisher, Dennis is an accomplished writer and essayist, known in many circles for his now defunct (and much mourned) MobyLives.com. I had a chance to speak with Dennis via email about his thoughts on receiving the Bass award, the difficulties of running an independent press, and why art is still important in modern, media-saturated America.
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Posted to Books by Blake Butler |
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