UP FOR AUCTION. COMPLETE SET OF COILHOUSE MAGAZINE ISSUES 01-05.

We know there’s a lot of demand for all of the out-of-print issues of Coilhouse Magazine. Unfortunately, there’s just no way we can financially swing reprinting 01-04 at this point in time. We are looking into revamping past issues for various e-reader formats –which, obviously, we know isn’t quite the same– but it’s something. If anybody would like to give us some constructive feedback regarding that idea or other viable alternatives to make our previous editions available, please give ‘em here in comments.

Meanwhile, some of you may be interested to know that I’ve just put a full run of Coilhouse Magazine 01-05  up for auction on Ebay –donated from my own limited personal stash– to help out a cherished friend with mounting medical bills. Her name’s Whitney Moses; I met her several years ago via our mutual chum Amanda Palmer. Over the years, Whittles’ given me tons of links to cool/kooky/brilliant stuff that often becomes instant Coilhouse blog fodder. She’s a healer, a mover, a shaker and a peach. I love her very much.

Two months back, a freak trampoline accident left Whit’s knee in shreds. She’s had to have a fuckton of intensive, expensive surgery. And, wouldn’t ya know, right now she’s without insurance, despite working long hours at a local hospital, and making the bulk of her bread as a licensed massage therapist. ARGH. Sarah Dopp (who you may remember me gushing about), and who had this to say about our dear Whitney, explains why our community is working overtime on her behalf:

It’s true she’s probably facing $30,000 in medical bills and 6 months worth of lost wages, but there are also hundreds (maybe thousands) of people who are committed to helping her out.  The crowds are already organizing a central calendar to plan visits, transportation, and meals for her, and schemes for several fundraisers are already in the works.

She doesn’t have that kind of safety net because she’s a nice person. She has that safety net because she has spent her entire life listening to and supporting the people around her, pursuing her dreams as honestly as possible, and including as many people as she can in them.

Photo by Tanya Anguita

So please check out my Coilhouse auction listing. Bid knowing that all proceeds will go toward helping a truly exemplary and luminous young woman to get back on her feet, literally and financially. Also! Be apprised that there are two big fund raising parties for Whitney happening in Oakland– one tomorrow night (July 29th) and another on September 12th.  The organizers understand that lots of Whitney’s supporters are out of town, or otherwise can’t make it to either show, so they’ve put together an e-raffle as well. Prizes include signed books and collectibles from Neil Gaiman, handmade hair flowers, one-of-a-kind paintings, matted limited edition photographs, unique jewelry and accessories, and much more. Purchase e-raffle tickets here via GiveForward for $5 each. The winners will be selected tomorrow in a separate drawing, and prizes mailed out.

Best of luck to Whittles, best of luck to all who bid on the auction, and thanks as always for reading.

Just a quick last-minute reminder for our fellow Comic-KHAAANNNgoers: Nadya, Zoetica and Meredith will be selling and signing copies of Coilhouse 05 from 11am to noon today (Saturday, July 24th) at the Weta booth (#2165 2615). We’ll also bring along copies of 1-4 for folks to peruse, but not to buy, sorry! (Sincerely, we don’t mean to be teases– we figure folks will appreciate at least having a look at these rare, out-of-print editions.) However, everybody should stay tuned to this same bat-channel for news of an upcoming charity auction wherein a full set of Coilhouse Magazines (issues 1-5) will be sold off to the highest Ebay bidder. More on that later this week.

Meanwhile, check out Zo and Mer geeking out with LA WEEKLY columnist Liz Ohanesian about SDCC! Nadya was supposed to participate as well, but was found lying in a crumpled heap next to her laptop shortly before the deadline, unconscious, with an erratic pulse and her responses unfinished. We figure she was either asphyxiated by one of those uber-deadly roving Funyuns nerdfart doom clouds, or sustained internal injuries after being jabbed by a facehugger-on-a-stick. She’s still pretty out of it, but don’t worry– we’re sure she’ll be fine by tomorrow morning. Hope to see some of you there!

Issue 05 is ALIVE. Woop woop woop! Break out the disco ball and put on your dancing shoes, because after printing the solemn, ghostly memento mori that was #04, we’ve gone somewhere completely different with this one. We proudly present you with an issue that’s colorful, frenetic, vibrant, and celebratory.

Issue 05 reflects a Coilhouse family quest for renewal and rejoicing, and there’s SO FRIGGIN’ MUCH to celebrate this time around: extensive features on fascinating artists, authors, fashion designers, photographers and musicians, a personal memoir about kinship and D&D, a dialog examining the cultural history and continuing relevance of American burlesque, an exposition of 19th century populist fiction from China, a particularly heart-jolting paper doll, and have we mentioned that holographic gold foil lately? Gah…

More bells and whistles: the huge feature on artist Chet Zar includes a foldout poster of original work by Zar on one side, and gorgeous Neil Gaiman-themed promotional art from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab on the other. As previously mentioned, once this issue reaches stores, it’s going to be selling for $12.99 on the rack. (We’ll post a list of locations in the weeks to come.) But for now, we’re keeping the $15 price tag on all copies sold online.

Folks who order #05 through our web store get a lot of additional bang for their buck – every single mail-ordered copy of Coilhouse 05 comes with two exquisitely produced, limited edition postcard playbills featuring the “Before and After portraits” of our fashion darling Dylan Monroe as Dorian Gray. Additionally, each and every mail-order copy of this issue will be signed, with gratitude, by all three Coilhouse co-editors. Unlike past issues, which shipped immediately, Issue 05 will start shipping next Wednesday, July 7th. (The extra week is to give us time to sign several hundred magazines and insert all of those postcards. Phew!)

DRUMROLL PLEASE. Issue 05 is NOW AVAILABLE in the COILHOUSE SHOP. Its contents, below:

INFORM
Garnet Siren

Zoetica imagined a blithe, enchanted world of dancing sheiks and courtesans when working on this issue’s Inform/Inspire/Infect section headers. Powdered wigs and perfect maquillage complement tassels and cymbals, as these bejeweled vixens shimmy you into each section. The headers also feature the Far East-inspired patterns that creative director Courtney Riot used on the masthead and the table of contents.

Sherlock Holmes VS The Fox Woman
A Brief Tour of Chinese Pulp
In Coilhouse 03, Jess Nevins explored the world of Russian pulp literature from the 1920s and 30s. In this issue, he throws us on galloping thunder wagon and takes us on a journey through China’s rich pulp history– one that is largely unknown in the West. Dreamy illustration work by Greg Broadmore and Paul Tobin accompanies the feature. Have your electric whip at the ready, because you never know when you might have to defend your new lunar settlement from a wandering army of vengeful swordswomen, or robotic killer rats. Aerial balloons! Angry ghosts! Tampon warfare! And so much more.

Zooming Along / Standing Perfectly Still
The Passion of Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman
The punk cabaret force of nature known as Amanda “Fucking” Palmer and her eminent fiancé, author Neil Gaiman, publicly announced their engagement on January 15th. A day later, the lovebirds met up with Coilhouse staff photographer Allan Amato in New York City to pose for a series of playful, yet timeless photographs. Fast forward several months: after an intense season-long stint of touring and traveling separately, the power couple reunited for a brief interlude in Wellington, New Zealand. Jean Sergent joined them over morning coffee at the Copthorne Hotel to discuss, among other things, the whirlwind nature of their creative and personal life together, Xena swordsmiths, Polish sushi, archival versus ephemeral art, and horny koalas.

Jo Boobs Teaches The Va-Va Voom!
“Jo Boobs” Weldon is Headmistress of The New York School of Burlesque, whose home at The Slipper Room is just a few blocks from where Lydia Thompson’s “London Blondes” brought burlesque to America and a stone’s throw from where Minsky’s original National Winter Garden made burlesque part of the American vernacular. Weldon and Coilhouse’s cultural “spy in NY”, Jeff Wengrofsky, met at the basement headquarters of her school on the coldest evening in recent years to explore questions of gender, activism, and whether she and her ilk are gender traitors or gender busters. This razor-sharp dialog is enhanced by several original Molly Crabapple illustrations of neo-burlesque stars mentioned in the piece.

Tiffa Novoa
Walking Between Worlds
Right now, a distinct style of dress and adornment steeped for many years in Bay Area Burning Man culture is spilling over into the mainstream. There’s still no definitive term for the look, and hallelujah for that. But there is a name we should all think of whenever we see it: Tiffa Novoa. It’s been nearly three years since the 32-year-old fashion designer died of a fatal drug reaction while working in Bali, Indonesia, and left her vast community gasping with grief. But one need only look at the success of stores like Five & Diamond, or fashion houses like Skin.Graft, to recognize the incalculable impact of Novoa’s work on an entire burgeoning cultural aesthetic. Tiffa, the “Dream Pusher” – as her Ernte co-founder Evan Sugerman fondly calls her – is still walking between worlds. This retrospective piece, a collaborative effort headed by Nadya and contributed to by dozens of Novoa’s friends and peers, is devoted to this late, great woman’s memory, her legacy, her loved ones, and all who dance to a different drum.

INSPIRE
Emerald Emir

96 Tears
Chris Conn Askew
Jessica Joslin interviews the mysterious, meticulous Mister Chris Conn Askew– an artist who creates modern day fables for romantics and aesthetes, as densely layered in symbolism as dreams, and as inscrutable as love.

Surgical Precision:
Ali Mahdavi
The scrupulous portraiture of Ali Mahdavi reflects an appreciation for unique physical beauty that is purely self-made. Born and raised in Tehran before relocating to Paris, the Issue 05 cover photographer, filmmaker and costume designer has crafted striking portraits that explore the sublime intersection between glamour and dysmorphia. The three works selected for this mini-feature, portraying model Hannelore Knuts, corsetier Mr. Pearl and Mahdavi himself (from his series “As You Desire Me”), serve as a tantalizing first glimpse into Mahdavi’s carefully-arranged world.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek
Wil Wheaton
Author/actor Wil Wheaton has been generous enough to grant Coilhouse permission to republish one of his most endearing, amusing, and deeply human memoirs. Excerpts first appeared on the Suicide Girls newswire, and the full piece was published in Wheaton’s book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek” chronicles Wheaton’s lifelong love affair with Dungeons & Dragons, and revels in the joy of self-acceptance and kinship. Coilhouse is honored to present his words in a new and more visually rambunctious way–Zoetica spent hours in his game room taking dozens of photographs of three decades worth of personal gamer gear and memorabilia, as well as a charming portrait of the artist himself. The resulting layout is chock full of delightful details.

Into the Trees with Zoë Keating
Avant cellist Zoë Keating self-produces lush, melodic solo recordings that incorporate live electronic sampling, computer looping programs, complex layering and phrase repetition. Her latest solo offering, largely produced and recorded in a cozy log cabin out in the middle of the woods, is aptly titled Into the Trees. Last spring, Keating granted Coilhouse Magazine a downright giddy interview! She and Mer discussed all manner of things both whimsical and practical– from the spirit of old growth forests and her biological imperative to counteract those proselytizing Quiverfull weirdos to the advantages of musicians self-producing and releasing their own albums, from the joy of nerd solidarity, to stage fright, to Tulip Mania. Featuring photography by Nadya, as well as Peter Hinson, typography and illustration by Teagan White, and an exquisite custom-crafted wardrobe courtesy of Gibbous Fashions.

Chet Zar’s Vulnerable Monsters
At a glance, Chet Zar’s stunning paintings present portraits of monsters set against imposing post-apocalyptic landscapes. Look closer and you’ll smile, sensing a certain camaraderie with the expressive mouths and snouts, seemingly protruding from their realm of barren hills, billowing smoke stacks and deserted highrises. Pause for a while and you might feel hot wind on your face and catch a whiff of burning oil. Passion for darkness, decay, flesh, and all its nuance mingles with passion for the painting medium itself, creating unforgettable works of art. Chet’s distinct vision got him noticed around the LA gallery circuit, and his presence in the Pop Surrealism genre was cemented by keen technical ability – refined by twenty years spent weaving special effects makeup magic. Here, the celebrated and disarmingly laid-back artist talks to Zoetica about growing up in a horror-friendly household, the effects of meditation and visualization, death, the future, and about the perks and perils of an artist’s life.

In addition to this in-depth, personal interview, we proudly present an unprecedented feature: step-by-step documentation of Chet’s painting process, created by him especially for Coilhouse while he was working on art for the foldout poster.

Clive Barker
Celebration, Remembrance, Prophecy
Single-handedly changing the ideascape of mainstream horror and dark fantasy genres with books such as Imajica, The Hellbound Heart, and The Books of Blood, Clive Barker already achieved tremendous success in the late eighties and early nineties – but for him, it was merely the start of a journey. Today, in addition to being an author for more than twenty-five years, Barker is also a vastly productive, passionate painter, photographer, and filmmaker. In this extensive interview, Clive talks to Ales Kot and Zoetica about being a man dissatisfied with any single creative facet, and his determination to transcend expectations and boundaries. He touches on works in progress, the benefits of collaboration, and his insatiable creative drive, leaving us awed with the scope of his imagination. The interview is accompanied by previously unseen examples of Clive Barker’s paintings and photography, as well as an introduction by Ales Kot.

INFECT
Turquoise Tart

Shoe Love, Lust, and Myth
Why do we love shoes? Surely the true answer is buried deep with Marchesa Casati and Louis XIV, but it’s easy to hypothesize. The clicking of approaching heels has been long fetishized and has come to symbolize control and elegance. The right pair of shoes will make legs look magnificent and, if operated properly, provide instant grace, not to mention instant height. But lovers of adornment, take note! Suffering for beauty is not always worth it, certainly not when it comes to footwear. Zo takes on the crucial difference between shoe love and lust, with a photo shoot in a crumbling downtown LA fortress by Andrew Yoon and appearances by Gala Darling, Nubby Twiglet, plus a surprise guest…

The Picture of Dorian Gray
A Sempiternal Sartorial Editorial
It’s Coilhouse’s most ambitious fashion editorial yet. Art-directed by Mer, headed by photographer Allan Amato, and actualized by a devoted crew of 15 stylists, artists and production assistants, this lush Wilde-inspired spread features our favorite male model Dylan Monroe as Dorian Gray, dressed in the jaw-dropping custom tailored suits by Sinner/Saint Menswear, and jewelry from Victorian Death Kult.

The Last Days of Gadjo Disko
Gadjo Disko was a notorious dance party that first took place at the Rhizome Collective in Austin, Texas in April of 2008. It dissolved all boundaries of age, gender, ethnic background or cultural milieu. Disko organizer and Coilhouse associate Angeliska Polacheck knows “how rare it is to find a party that transcends any one scene, where burners, hipsters, nerds, punks, queers, goths and all the beautiful and (thankfully) unclassifiable freaks can get together without the least trace of pretension or scorn.” We bid a sweaty, sparkly farewell to the Disko with this ecstatic photo essay.

Print To Fit
Good Dick Hunting
From the desk of designer Mildred Von Hildegard, a sneak peek at the new face of fashion house Mother of London’s much-anticipated upcoming collection. What better model for the label’s vision of high-tech aristocracy than the Prince of Darkness, bionic haute Halliburtonite with a penchant for hoods, duct tape, puppetry, Armageddon, undisclosed secret locations and the trappings of the Galactic Empire? When asked what more can be expected the forthcoming collaboration, Von Hildegard stated enigmatically, “my belief is that we will be greeted as liberators.”

EDIT, JUNE 30th: Coilhouse #05 is on sale now!

Behold: the cover of Issue 05 is revealed. It’s been tough keeping this one under wraps, but you’ll still have to wait a couple more days to see what’s inside. For now, we’ll just say that the cover image embodies the international flavor of this issue: it features Kenyan model Ajuma Nasenyana, channeling Jamaican-American superwoman Grace Jones in a monumental image by Iranian-born, Paris-based photographer Ali Mahdavi. You can see a larger version of the cover here.

Reflecting the issue’s theme – which can be summed up by 05′s rallying spine line of “Let All the Children Boogie” – the cover features blingtastic, discodelic, holographic gold foil. But that’s not the only special print flourish employed in issue. In addition to the gold foil, Issue 05 also features a large, beautiful, double-sided poster with custom artwork created exclusively for Coilhouse by a distinguished artist. Which artist? You’ll have to wait ’til Wednesday to find out.

In just two days, the contents of this issue will be revealed. If you want to be notified the very minute that this issue goes on sale, join our Mailing List. Check back soon!

Download the media kit here!

After weeks of streamlining, updating, researching and grooming, our media kit is finally done. We’re so proud of it, comrades! It might seem a little strange to get the warm fuzzies over something intended for cold, hard commerce, but we feel that this is a respectful and elegant representation of Coilhouse and its readers. We’re excited. Especially when we think back to 2007 and realize just how far this good ship has traveled. For those interested in learning more about advertising in Issue 05, as well as in future issues, the 2010 Coilhouse Media Kit is available for download here. In addition to that reveal, we have three more bits of very interesting information to share:

1. Our biggest news is that we’re dropping the magazine’s price to $12.99 in stores. We’re doing this to give back to all the readers who’ve supported us through the years, and for everyone who wishes the magazine was slightly more affordable. The quality of the magazine (number of pages, paper stock) will remain the same. In fact, the overall quality of Issue #05 is going up, as we’ll be trying out a dazzling special effect on the cover, and including a large fold-out poster inside. For the time being, the mag will remain at $15 in our online shop and will include a special surprise (to be divulged at a later date), for those readers who buy directly from us. We’re committed to making the magazine more affordable both in stores and on the web, but we need to take it one step at a time. This is the first step.
2. We’re more than tripling our distribution in Barnes & Noble stores across the country. It will be in more stores than ever before! A list of locations will be posted. In addition, Issue 05 has been accepted into the Barnes & Noble Endcap Display Case – you know, the one that you see when you first walk into the magazine aisle, under the heading “Featured Titles” or “Just Arrived.” Issue 05 will be there for four whole weeks. This is a huge win for us, as we hope that we’ll be able to introduce more readers to Coilhouse than ever. Especially with such an intense cover, which we can’t wait to reveal to you. Eeee! We’re sitting on our hands to keep from spilling the beans. Soon. SOON.
3. Issue 05 will be appear in more independently-owned shops than ever before. We just got picked for distribution by Last Gasp, a respected distributor of all things alt, who recently celebrated their 40th birthday. They’re amazing. In addition to its history of publishing underground comix, Last Gasp is known for distributing items such as the RE/Search books, the Gothic & Lolita Bible, Hi-Fructose, Fantagraphics titles, and a lot of other more obscure counter-culture stuff. They can get us into a lot of cool mom and pop shops that other distributors don’t have access to.

Issue 05 will have more reach than any issue we’ve ever done, and it’s our most ambitious, colorful output to date. It’s so hard to keep the content of this issue under our hats! We’re sitting on our hands again. But there’s some beautiful stuff. You already know about the Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer piece, and some of you may have heard online whispers of Chet Zar and Zoë Keating and Gibbous Fashions and Crabapple illustrations… babies, that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. Just you wait.

For small businesses looking to advertise in Coilhouse, this is the issue. We considered putting that sentence in flashing, grunting, neon porno marquee lights for emphasis, but we are classy ladies. (Besides, we couldn’t figure out the HTML coding.) If you’ve been on the fence about taking out an ad, please note that this is probably the best issue to start. With the lower cover price, more people who haven’t heard of the magazine will be inclined to buy it. Combine that with special display promotion at Barnes & Noble, and it’s a guarantee that more folks will be picking up and leafing though it than our previous issues, which were often relegated to the back shelves of periodical purgatory.

We’d much, much, muchly much rather survive with the help of small independent businesses than large corporate sponsors. We cannot overstate that. Which is why we’ve kept the Small-Business Ad Format rates the same as they were before. It’s still possible to advertise in Coilhouse for as low as $99 per issue. We’ve hired a kick-ass Ad Manager, longtime Coilhouse reader Samantha Chin-Wolner, to help small businesses get their ads squared away. Sam will assist you with every step of the process, and she’s a total sweetheart.

For those interested, please contact Samantha for details.

For everyone else, thank you, as always, for your support and kinship on this journey. We remain gratefully and giddily yours. Up, up and away we go!

A sneak peek at some original artwork by Greg Broadmore, created expressly for Coilhouse #05.

Cover of a recent issue of Cut Magazine

This weekend, Villa Sonsbeek in The Netherlands hosts O.K. Festival: 3 Days of Magazines, an event curated by O.K Parking.  The weekend promises workshops, lectures, more than 100 independent magazines and a dance party at the event’s conclusion. The festival’s mission statement feels like coming home: “Under the title ‘Welcome Magazines,’ O.K. Festival presents the energy and the visual explosion of strange, beautiful and original magazines. One by one they present an answer to the uniformity of the mass media. The printed media are falling victim to increasingly strict formats. Sales figures reign. In the gaping hole they leave behind the independent magazine manifests itself. Everything that is excluded by the mainstream media finds its place here.”

Panels include “On the Value of Independent Magazine Culture,” “What Drives Magazine Makers?” “Editor vs. Designer,” “Ten Moments in Magazine History”  and, of course, “Surviving in Print.” There are also a couple of hands-on workshops, such as “Making a Magazine with Stencilprinting.” If only we’d heard about this festival sooner! If we’re lucky, recordings of the panels might be available on the O.K. Festival Vimeo page, which currently houses a couple of interviews with festival participants.

Even if you’re nowhere near The Netherlands, the O.K. Festival website is still a fantastic resource for discovering new magazines. A couple of new-found brothers and sisters:

At first sight, Sang Bleu is all about tattoos, body modification and fetish, but Sang Bleu offers more than that. It provides a precise insight into modern urban society. That is why art, fashion, sociology and literature are also featured in Sang Bleu.

Dabireh is a Collective of young Iranian graphic designers who share a passion for calligraphy and typography and have a keen interest in the history and theories of Persian language and writing system.

Lumpen Magazine. lum·pen adj. 1. Of or relating to dispossessed, often displaced people who have been cut off from the socioeconomic class with which they would ordinarily be identified: lumpen intellectuals unable to find work in their fields. A member the underclass, especially the lowest social stratum. 2. Vulgar or common; plebeian

Anorak. The happy mag for kids.

Many more beautiful magazines listed here! [via Courtney Riot]

Photo by Gustavo Lopez Manas. Design by Courtney Riot

Much is afoot in da’ Haus. Next Monday, we’ll be putting out a call for ads for our upcoming Issue 05 as part of our Small Business Advertising Program. On that day, we’ll unveil our brand-new, 2010 Media Kit (the cover of which you can see above).

Meanwhile, have you got a few minutes to spare? To complete the media kit, we’d like to ask you, valued Coilhouse reader, a few questions about your stance as a consumer and your spending habits in a  35-question survey. It’s secure and anonymous, and all of the questions are optional. We hope you’ll help us, as well as the many indie businesses that support us, by answering the survey as truthfully and completely as you can. [Update: the survey is now closed. Thank you to all who participated!]

Monday’s post will also include some very exciting news about Issue 05. Stay tuned.

In honor of Alex Chilton’s passing, we’d like to publish this article written by Joshua Ellis. This article appeared in Coilhouse Issue 04. You can also view a PDF of this article, by a strange twist of fate, over at the official Pixies website. It’s not an article about him, or The Pixies, per se. However, we’ve been wanting to publish this article on our blog for a while now, and this feels like the right moment to do so. This article speaks to the heart of why we’re all here together. What’s that song? / I’m in love / With that song…

I have this memory, and I’m not sure if it’s even real–or if it’s real, if it’s cobbled together from a half-dozen memories, fragments of things that happened over the course of a year or two that began the summer before I started high school, in 1991.

In this memory, I’m sitting in the basement of a girl named Sara, who pronounced her name “Saah-rah” and had purple hair and smoked clove cigarettes. I didn’t know Sara very well, but she was part of a small collective of freaks and weirdos that I had congregated to when I moved that summer from my ancestral home of north Texas to the small mountain town of Hamilton, Montana.

I’m sitting in Sara’s basement with my friends: Jeremy, the pretty guy who wears big black woolen overcoats and Jamaican tam o’ shanters in bright yellow and red and green, and seems to have unlimited access to the panties of every single girl in the Bitterroot Valley; Wade, who perpetually sports Birkenstock loafers that look like inflated bladders and drives a white Volkswagen Beetle covered in Grateful Dead stickers; Nate, who is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever met and is a huge aficionado of what will later come to be known as “extreme” sports, like bouncing down jagged rock faces on a beat-up skateboard deck; Sarah and her sister, Jenny, who are both fond of dropping random giggly non sequiturs into the conversation when stoned.

They’re all here, or some of them, or none of them. We’re sitting in the dark, talking bohemian bullshit, maybe smoking pot. It’s the kind of night that gets put on endless repeat when you’re young and strange and condemned to spend your adolescence in some far-flung desolate shithole like Hamilton, Montana, where you can’t lose yourself in the noise or happily become part of it, the way you can in New York or Seattle or Los Angeles or Chicago.

I’m not as cool as they are. I don’t know about cool shit. I’m just this uptight kid from J. R. Ewing Land who talks too much, still wears Bugle Boy button-downs and M. C. Hammer pants, and has only the dimmest idea that there’s some entire world out there of cool shit that I know nothing about. I own a Jane’s Addiction album and I’ve vaguely heard of the Sex Pistols.

And in this memory, Sara gets up and puts a cassette tape into her boom box. It’s a time traveler from 1984, beaten and scuffed, with the inevitable broken-off cassette door, so you just slap the tape in and hope that the tape head keeps it from falling out, which will cause the relentless motors to chew the tape and unspool it like the entrails of a slaughtered pig. Sara slaps the tape in and hits play.

This song comes out–a slow beat, big and echoing, then a bass playing eighth notes, and then a guitar, dreamy and vibrating. It sounds like what I imagine sunrise on a beach would be like, like what I imagine doing heroin would be like, like what I imagine sex in a dark room with that awesome girl you lie awake and dream of meeting would be like. I haven’t experienced any of these things–yet.

And then a voice, a high husky man’s voice, gentle over the music.

Cease to resist, given my good-byes
Drive my car into the o-o-sha-hah-hahn
You think I’m dead, but I sail away
On a wave of mutilation, wave of mutilation
Wave of mutilation
Way-hey-hey-hey-have
Way-hey-hey-hey-have

“What is this?” I ask. Sara shrugs.

“It’s the Pixies,” she says in this memory that may not even be real, or maybe didn’t happen this way at all. “The song’s called ‘Wave of Mutilation.’ This is the U.K. Surf Mix. The real version is faster and louder.”

“I’ve never heard of them,” I said. “I’ve never heard this.”

“They’re pretty cool,” Sara says. “I think they’re from, like, Boston.”

I nod. Pretty cool.

Some more Serious Journalism from my time in Japan (see also: cat cafes). I previously mentioned Yaso Magazine in a post about Neon O’Clockworks – as promised in that post, here are some snapshots of Yaso for you to see! It’s a beautiful, hefty magazine with themed issues, published and distributed almost exclusively in Japan. I took some photos of three issues with the following themes: Vampire: Painful Eternity / Heartrendingness, Victorian: Influences & Metamorphoses of Victorian Culture in Today’s Japanese Sub-Cultures, and Sense of Beauty: Japanese Aesthetic. Other themed issues I didn’t get my hands on: Svankmajer (yes, an entire Svankmajer-themed issue), Gothic, Monster & Freaks [sic]. I also had a fourth issue called Doll, but gave it away to Ross because he is a doll fancier before I got a chance to snap some photos.

It’s a stunning magazine. Paging through it feels like like falling into a paper-fetish world that’s at once completely alien and intimately familiar.

The small pictures don’t do it justice, so click on through to the Coilhouse Flickr Set to see the full, annotated collection of images. This magazine cost around $15 in Japan, but I’m only finding it priced at $35 for those of us living in the US or in Europe. I’ve even seen copies appear and disappear for about $45 on Ebay. The magazine is almost entirely in Japanese, as is their site.

We are so inspired to see others publishing the kinds of things that we love, all over the word. We don’t know the people who do Yaso, but we are so, so grateful for them.

Kurt Komoda’s editor illustration for Issue 04 of Coilhouse. Tea and sympathy (and tentacles). Arsenic and old lace (and absinthe). Information, inspiration, infection!

Morning, sinners! That’s Warren’s line, but then it’s a Warren kind of morning (the kind of morning that all Coilhouse readers should begin with a bottle of whiskey in hand.) Because this morning, and all week, we’re taking your questions and answers over on Whitechapel! Step right up, ask us anything your heart desires. There are a lot of different beakers bubbling in the CH lab that we probably can’t discuss directly… but we can hint! And we can certainly get into more general chat: Coilhouse’s history, our personal inspirations, magazine theory, internet curating, etc. We’re basically game to discuss whatever parts of the process you’d like to hear more about, and we’d love to ask you some questions as well! What periodicals do you read? What you think the future holds for mainstream print? For indie mags? For tastemaking blogs? For fringe/alternative culture in general? If you’re a Coilhouse reader, what subject matter would you be interested in seeing more of in our future issues? Down the rabbit hole we go. Let the Coilhouse/Whitechapel tea party commence!

Additionally, this a courtesy post is to let all readers know that Issue 04 is almost gone. Issue 03 is walking out the door pretty fast as well (we had more 03′s in stock originally), but Issue 04 disappeared at an alarming pace that even we weren’t prepared for. 800 copies are gone since we put it up on sale on December 21, and 200 copies remain (with about as many copies left of Issue 03). So for any stragglers who were on the fence about buying one or both issues, now’s the time. Now or never, because we’re not in the position to reprint. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. This one’s pretty special to us, so we hope you get a copy. You can pick it up in our online store, at Wildilocks in Australia, Barnes & Noble and Borders in the US, and Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. An exact list of store locations will be posted today or tomorrow.

Top row: Caryn Drexl, Elle Moss, Katie West. Middle row: Hilary McHone, Diana Lemieux, Zoetica Ebb. Bottom row: Laura Kicey, Natalie Dybisz, Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir.

Finally, there’s a self-portrait competition in the last days of voting with several members of the extended Coilhouse family in the running, as well as some talented folks we’ve not encountered before. The artist who wins the popular vote will receive a $1,000, and the grand prize is a residency in Manhattan. We’d like to urge you to support an artist by taking the time to view and vote for their portfolio. The contest’s site unhelpfully does not list a guide to the portfolios entered, so we’ve selected a few artists who we believe deserve your time. Photographers Caryn Drexl, Laura Kicey and Katie West should be familiar to anyone who’s read the blog long enough; our articles about their work appear at the bottom of this post. Additionally, our very own Zoetica has entered the contest with several phantasmagorical interpretations of reality. Other photographers whose work we found fascinating include Elle Moss, Hilary McHone, Diana Lemieux, Natalie Dybisz, and Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir. This list is by no means exhaustive, so if there are other entrants we should be aware of, please let us know in the comments!

On a related note:

• In Caryn Drexl’s Skin
• Low Self-Esteem: Self-Portraits by Katie West
• Laura Kicey: Lonelyhearths and Living Rooms
• Five Self-Portrait Artists You Should Know
• Setting Sail in the Flickr Ocean: Vorfas
• Gala Darling Interviews Coilhouse