EDIT: The position has been filled. Please welcome Emily Harris to the Coilhouse design team. Check our her blog, Design Gossip. Thank you to all who applied!
For the past two issues, we had an incredible design intern named Molly Hawthorn helping us in the last stages of magazine production. But Molly is graduating from MICA this weekend (congrats, Molly!), and unable to help out this time around. So… any graphic design students reading this have a few hours to spare this weekend? We need help wrapping up Issue 05 on the 15th and the 16th. The entire issue has been laid out, and we just need to put the finishing touches on it. We need someone who knows Adobe InDesign on an intermediate-to-expert level to work side-by-side with our Creative Director, Courtney Riot, to iron out all remaining issues. The help we need has to do mostly with adjusting text for readability: kerning, tracking, alignment, and other such stuff. Not the most fun or creative task, but still a valuable learning experience for how a magazine comes together and goes to print.
Perks: you get to see Issue 05 before anybody else does! You’ll be credited as a Graphic Designer on Issue 05′s masthead, you will of course get a free copy of Issue 05, and we can pay $200 for the extra help this weekend. Interested parties, please email us with your available hours for this weekend. Any attachments or links to documents displaying your layout and InDesign skills would be most welcome.
Andreas Hykade’s frenetic short film, set to a thumping, grinding soundtrack, is a voyage through the history of animation viewed through a prism of potent hallucinogens. Part of the the 6th annual NFB Online film contest from The National Film Board of Canada, in association with the Cannes Short Film Corner, it’s disturbingly hypnotic and I’ve watched it through two or three times this afternoon, in the grip of a powerful stupor.
Sad news today as word filters down that artist and illustrator Frank Frazetta passed away at the age of 82, from a stroke. In the years leading up to his death, Frazetta had already suffered one stroke and the death of his wife, Ellie. What will happen to his extensive, and valuable, collection of work — housed at the Frazetta Museum in East Stroudsburg, PA — remains to be seen. A feud between his children had erupted over it in December of last year but has since ended.
Frazetta’s career spanned roughly four decades. He began in comics in the late 40s, doing work for EC and National before landing a job as an assistant to Al Capp in 1952. He worked for Capp for nine years, and worked on Capp’s seminal strip, Lil Abner for seven of those.
It was his work doing book covers, beginning in the 60s, that would cement him as one of the foremost illustrators of the modern era. His covers for Robert E. Howard’s Conan and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Tarzan and John Carter of Mars books are some of the most iconic pulp images in science fiction and fantasy and defined the characters for generations of readers. It didn’t even matter that they rarely, if ever, depicted imagery found in their pages. In reference to Conan in particular Frazetta had this to say (on the occasion of the sale of his painting Conan the Conqueror which went for the princely sum of one million dollars):
I didn’t read any of it. It was too opposite of what I do. I told them that. So, I drew him my way. It was really rugged. And it caught on. I didn’t care about what people thought. People who bought the books never complained about it. They probably didn’t read them.
For your consideration: Alexandre DUBOSC‘s short stop-motion filmFood About You — to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Annecy film festival — in which a chocolate cake is made in the traditional manner.
“Reggie Watts is a most unusual talent: a huge vocal range, a natural musicality, and a sidesplitting wit. Is he a comedian? A singer? A performance artist? I’ve seen him a few times since then and I still can’t decide. Whatever, he ain’t like nobody else.” – Brian Eno
“There’s no one out there like Reggie Watts. Reggie covers everything from ancient history and racism to pop-culture, in a heady mix of improvised music, comedy and social insight. This guy has to be seen to be believed.” –Time Out London
“Sharp, wry and elusive … Reggie moves seamlessly from skits to songs to off-kilter stand-up, while talking in a subway train full of accents.” – New York Times
NSFW
NYC, East Village, 2004: a sharp-tongued, bright-eyed comedic musical improv Situationist ninja named Reggie Watts began performing at Eugene Mirman‘s standup night at club Rififi. Beyond the close knit downtown outre NYC standup scene, or the Seattle music scene (where Watts lived in the 90s, performing in all manner of bands), few seemed to know too much about Watts at the time. Thank FUCK that’s changed. These days, the beatboxing Line 6 DL4 wizard is going viral online, opening for Coco, turning up on late night talk shows, winning awards, arranging avant-garde museum gigs, and touring his thoughtful, practiced, fully-actualized, genre-obliterating oddness all over the world. His latest album, Why Shit So Crazy?! drops on May 18th. Many more clips after the jump. Also see:
We know, we know. So many self-referencing posts in one week. We promise to make up for it with lots of juicy blog posts in the weeks to come. For now, three quick notes:
There are only 2 hoodies left, both in Size L. Seems that this was a popular item. Duly noted, and we’ll try to make more.
There are only 27 sets of the deluxe Issue 04-themed porcelain candy dishes left. Please note that this limited edition will never be recreated – once these are gone, they’re gone. We may do other pieces of a Coilhouse tea set in the future, but these plates will be gone forever.
The deadline for reserving your ad in Coilhouse Issue 05 is at midnight tonight. Click here for our media kit, as well as some exciting notes about Issue 05′s distribution. To reserve a spot, please contact Sam.
And finally, a note from Gretta, our lovely Mistress of Shipping: “As always upon an initial release of Coilhouse goodies, due to heavy order volume, it may take up to 3 business days to be shipped. If you absolutely must have it shipped within 24 hours of placing an order, please make a note with your order or email coilhousehipping@gmail.com with the subject “RUSH ORDER” and your name and transaction id number in the body. This is no guarantee it will get to there any faster due to I have no power of the post office’s speed of labor, but I will brings yours to them sooner. Once again, kindly make sure the shipping address is correct and up to date. Thanks!”
And so another week comes to an end. Time to wrap up those last few loose ends in your in-box and head home for crazy a weekend of amphetamine-fueled debauchery. I mean, it’s Mother’s Day this weekend and all… No? Well, maybe just a weekend of yard work and staid outdoor activities like barbecue and bocce. Pro Tip: a few uppers could enhance said activities. Just sayin’. What? Don’t give me that look. You think you’re better than me? I will cut you! God, why is it so hot in here.
Whew, ok, let’s all just take a deep breath and try to discuss today’s FAM while ignoring the sounds of grinding teeth. Today’s film, no doubt soon to be yanked from YouTube, is Dark Days the documentary by British filmmaker Marc Singer from 2000. It follows a group of homeless people who make their homes in the abandoned subway tunnels beneath New York City, specifically The Freedom Tunnel under Riverside Park. His first film, Singer made Dark Days after moving to New York and making friends with number of the people who made up the Freedom Tunnel community.
For my part I found Dark Days by way of journalist Jennifer Toth — another British immigrant, coincidentally — whose book The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City Mr. Singer may have read as well. Published in 1993, it is perhaps the best known book on the subject, and also happens to feature residents of The Freedom Tunnel. It’s an engrossing read and has perhaps done the most to fuel the urban myths of organized, underground tribes of homeless. This is no doubt due to the sensationalistic nature of Toth’s account, much of it relying on unverifiable claims. Her credibility was not helped by what turned out to be a laundry list of geographical inaccuracies relating to almost every location she describes.
Surely then, Singer’s film does a better job of showing the reality of the situation. Despite the hip-hop aspirations that coat every surface — from the preoccupation with graffiti to the DJ Shadow soundtrack — the focus is decidedly on the individuals who make up this small community; shot in stark, grainy black and white that perfectly suits the subject matter. It’s a story simultaneously bleak and heartwarming. Such is the nature of all stories that are true.
I had posted previously that I retain from my childhood the visualization of my body in metaphorical terms, especially during times of illness. The accompanying video was one which evoked those thoughts but was still realistic enough to be incongruous with the visuals conjured up by my imagination. In contrast, Henning M. Lederer’s short animation, Der Mensch als Industriepalast (Man As Industrial Palace) — based on the 1927 Fritz Kahn illustration of the same name, previously posted by the lovely Miss Lev in these very pages — is an almost perfect representation of the imagery in my mind. Here the various functions of the body are represented in lucid, mechanical terms; a network of pistons, pumps, pulleys, and tubes manned by an industrious, miniature workforce. It’s simply fantastic. Definitely one to watch in full screen mode.
Just a quick li’l internugget of ZOMGWTFBBQ for ya:
Via Medina, via Gooby, who says, “the first time I saw [Pleaseeausaur] live I didn’t know what I was getting into, and I gave myself an intestinal disorder from laughing so hard.”
As of an hour ago, I knew next to nothing about JP Hasson, but the first 12 seconds of this clip just earned JP a lifetime fan in me. Further research indicates that Hasson’s been hugely influenced by the Dead Milkmen and is a croney of Neil Hamburger‘s, Tim & Eric‘s, and Rob Crow‘s. I’m basically having multiple instantaneous nerdgasms over here. Wouldn’t you love to see this guy collaborate with Liam Lynch (of Sifl & Olly fame), or maybe Cal Worthington and his dog Spot?!
We’re proud to present the latest round of Coilhouse Merch, available to purchase immediately in our online shop.
Unisex hoodies. These feature our battle-cry of “INFORM INSPIRE INFECT”, emblazoned in black on a black, incredibly soft, long-sleeved hooded top. $34.99.
Tank dresses. Super-soft, relaxed-fit summer dresses featuring our postergirl, the Stratosphere Messenger. An over-sized screen print on heather gray. $34.99.
Miniature Porcelain Plates Set. A set of three creme-tone 3″ porcelain coupe plates featuring the Issue 04 section dividers, drawn by Zoetica. The plates come encased in a semi-gloss black box stamped with an elegant tarnished-silver I/I/I inscription designed by Courtney Riot. Hang them on your wall, use them as candy dishes, or to store your keepsakes – the choice is yours, comrade! $44.99.
Issue 01.We are selling 25 copies of the coveted, limited-edition Neogender version of Issue 01, for a discounted price (they were originally $15). If you haven’t been reading Coilhouse long enough to remember why we did two different versions of Issue 01, there’s a NSFW explanation here. These copies are returns – meaning they got shipped to the wrong address (this happened a lot less after we put up a little warning in PayPal). They might have small defects from being in transit, so they’re not in mint condition – hence the lower price. $12.99. This issue is now completely SOLD OUT. Thank you!
Last but not least, there are only 65 copies of Issue 03 left. Issue 03 took longer to sell out than our other issues because we had a larger quantity of it in stock, but it’s almost gone. Which is awesome, because we need to make room for Issue 05.
Many, many more detailed product images, after the cut.
