It’s Nadya’s birthday today! Wheeeee:

On a recent intercontinental Skype call, overwhelmed by a dozen disparate tasks and simultaneous preparations for conducting her most high profile Coilhouse interview to date with a certain world-famous filmmaker, Nadya expressed some anxiety and uncertainty to Mer. Mer’s reply, paraphrased: “Nadya, you may look like some fragile, doe-eyed forest creature, but everyone knows you’re an iron fist cast in velvet. You’re gonna nail it all to the floor. Baby, you’re the Bambinator.”

And so it was that a new nickname was born. Definitely fits, right?

Artist’s rendering of Nadya Lev! (Actually, no, it’s Lisa Black taxidermy. But still.) COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO BLOG.

Nadya did indeed nail that interview to the floor. Can’t tell you anything more about it quite yet, but it’s guaranteed to be one of our most fascinating and high-profile features to date, you’ll see! It’s been great to share Nadya’s joy and excitement over this particular success, perhaps because we recognize that a lot of the work that she does for Coilhouse has traditionally been the least glamorous and the most thankless, most time-consuming and wallet-robbing. Behind-the-scenes stuff.

This year especially, she’s really gone down into the trenches for us, managing the majority of the Coilhouse empire’s recent growing pains: advertising, financing, digital mag formatting training, merchandise and content development, staff restructuring and expansion, publisher and distributor re-negotiations. Additionally, our girl’s kept up her usual globe-trotting antics for that other full-time job of hers, and even found time to help build a huge-ass interactive kinetic sculpture in her nonexistent spare time.

We are so proud of our wee Bambinator. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for her, and for Coilhouse.

As always, love on ya, Lev.

Last week, we blogged about our wonderful Small-Business Advertisers. Today, we’d like to honor and give thanks to our five full-page advertisers from Issue 05. Thank you to Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs, Fluevog Shoes, Frenzy Universe, Swatch and Zivity. Two learn more about the businesses that support us, and receive some discounts for Coilhouse readers, venture beyond the cut!

In this post, we’d like to introduce and honor the companies and artists participating in our Small-Business Advertising Program as of Issue 05. We’re not doing this because it’s part of the ad deal; in fact, our FAQ plainly states that advertising and editorial do not mix. We’re doing this because we’re genuinely awed and inspired by the incredible mix of people who’ve come forth to advertise in this magazine, and think you will be, too.

Through this program, we’ve discovered phenomenal new places to shop, found new places in our cities to explore, and even made new friends. Our list of advertisers has always been very eclectic, but as of Issue 05, with the help of our ad managers Samantha and Allie, this list exceeded anything we ever imagined.

We invite you to explore beyond the cut, where a wondrous array of music, art, clothing, literature, graphic design, technology and sculpture await. There are absinthe cocktail recipes, a glitter-covered worm, skull jewelry for cats, weird paintings of cats, corsets, spats, photographs, magazines, records, dolls, monsters… and much, much more.

Support our advertisers this holiday season if you can, leave an encouraging comment about something you saw here that you liked, and spread the word. Without you guys, none of this would be possible. Thank you!

Coilhouse Magazine production schedule/deadline hell is once again upon us, like WHOA. We’re deep down in it. And, yeah, it really is kind of like this:

Fondly, and with great empathy, this video is offered for the amusement of the entire extended Curlhaus crew. We’ve all been so busy and stressed. We need a good cackle. Do you realize we didn’t even get a chance to celebrate our Three Year Anniversary last month?! Damn.

So c’mere. Get in on this big impromptu group hug. Everybody, now: interns, managers, editors, contributors, distributors, merch-makers, etc. Everyone who is currently wrangling with some aspect of production, scheduling, design, advertising, financing, shipping, liaising, blogging, or crisis-averting. Everyone who’s ill, everyone who’s overwhelmed, everyone who’s hustling. Hang in there, babies.

Hey, readers? Feel free to get in on it, too.  Thanks, as always, for your support and patience. For leaving kind words for us here, on Twatter, on Fartbook, for linking back, for buying merch. For sticking around and standing by when we all inevitably wig out around production time and shit gets a little unhinged. We may all be gnawing our own lips off right now, but we can’t wait to share what’s coming next with you.

Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic, a big, big love.

Guys, we’ve gotten a few emails along the lines of: “yo, where’s the merch I ordered from you a couple of weeks ago? It is taking forever to ship!” We’d like to clear up the confusion about the shipping dates of these merch items, because we’ve never gotten such a large number of emails inquiring about shipping times before.

When we put up the original merch announcement post, we wrote, “This round of merch is Pre-Order: meaning, you buy it, we get it manufactured, and you get your shipment about 3 weeks from now.” Unfortunately, this text was in the fifth paragraph down, so we’re thinking that a lot of people missed it. Next time, we’ll be sure to make the shipping time bold and at the top of the post, so that it’s impossible to miss; though generally, we’ll avoid doing Pre-Orders in favor of having items up-front, because we like to be able to ship things to you faster. Technically, the post should have said “3 weeks from the date that Pre-Order closes on Wednesday, October 12th,” which was five days later. We apologize for that oversight, and other than those five days, we’re still on track to ship out the merch in a timely fashion within the stated 3-week turnaround.

Thank you again for your support, everyone. We’ve never done Pre-Order before, and it’s definitely been a learning experience. We’re working around the clock to make sure that the items reach you as fast as possible once we receive them, and we’ll keep you posted on when we receive all the items and begin shipping them. We hope you love your merch, and as always, we are grateful for your patronage and support. If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Gretta at Coilhouse Shipping. Thank you!

Last week, we announced a new line of fund-raising merchandise: a poster, a scarf, a mug, and an array of buttons. Even Issue 05 and our Inform Inspire Infect hoodie are back by popular demand, all to help us make Issue 06 a worthy successor to the bling-a-licious 05. A big THANK YOU to everyone who’s pillaged our store so far. The sale ends this Wednesday at midnight PST, so if you plan to load up on Coil-goods, dally not!

Here’s the haps, comrades. We’re halfway through production on Issue 06 of Coilhouse Magazine. In recent days, as we watch its aesthetic and themes begin to coalesce, our conference calls have gotten giddier than ever. As always, we’re aiming for maximum high gloss, high concept, high impact. However, Coilhouse remains a labor of love with marginal profit, and right now our funds are rather low. Why? Because the recently-produced Issue 05 cost us an arm and a leg. NO REGRETS. But its many frills (the holographic foil, the fold-out poster, the art postcards) have left us with depleted resources.

We don’t want to refrain from pulling out all of the stops for 06 in the same manner we did for 05, 04, 03. But to ensure we keep outdoing ourselves with each successive issue, it’s looking like we may need a little help from our friends. Are you willing and able? That’s where this new wave of Coilhouse merchandise comes in.

We’re introducing several new clothing designs and styles, as well as buttons, a mug, and a poster. Yum yum yum. As you can see, it’s all a bit retro sci-fi Constructivist space cadet-chic. That’s not a coincidence! The look and feel of these items dovetails nicely into Issue 06’s themes (as you’ll soon see). We’re also bringing back limited quantities of the beautiful black-on-black INFORM INSPIRE INFECT hoodie that sold out almost instantly a few months ago.

Additionally, now that we’ve mailed off all of the contributor and advertiser copies of Issue 05, we can sell the remaining stock to our readership. If you missed 05 the first time around, or still haven’t had any luck finding it in a store near you, now’s your chance.

This round of merch is Pre-Order: meaning, you buy it, we get it manufactured, and you get your shipment about 3 weeks from now. Pretty good deal, no? You get a lovely item that you can wear proudly, or sip hot toddies out of, or frame and hang on the wall, knowing you supported Coilhouse when we needed a boost. And we get to ensure that Issue 06 stays as badass n’ fancy as it wants to be.

Click through to check out all of the goodies. As always, thank you for your support of Coilhouse Magazine + Blog.

Brace yourselves, for a new batch of Coilhouse merch is about to appear on the horizon. Tomorrow’s merch release will see the return of an old favorite – the super-comfy Inform/Inspire/Infect unisex hoodie (modeled here and here by two stylish customers), plus some brand new items. Buttons crafted by the one and only Snarky McFuckbuttons, a beautiful 18×24 four-color poster with new Coilhouse art by Zoetica screenprinted by Mama’s Sauce, a hefty Inform/Inspire/Infect mug, a scarf, and much more await you here tomorrow.

In addition, we’re selling the last 150 copies of Issue 05 – our remaining stash before our Boogie Edition joins Issue 01-04’s status of being Sold Out Forever. We weren’t sure how many we’d have left after mailing out all the freebies to advertisers and contributors. Now that all issues have been mailed, we’re selling the remaining quantity to make room for Issue 06.

Speaking of Issue 06, this round of merch is going to help fund Issue 06 printing. With its many frills – the holographic foil, the fold-out poster, the art postcards – our recently-produced Issue 05 cost an arm and a leg, eating away at some of our budget for printing Issue 06. With this merch, we hope to raise enough money to make Issue 06 just as grand.

This round of merch will be Pre-Order: meaning, you buy it, we get it manufactured, and you get your shipment about 3 weeks from now. Stay tuned for the reveal of the new items tomorrow – live, in Technicolor!

Several months ago, we were joined by an energetic intern named Jacquie, who emailed us out of the blue asking if we needed help. Jacquie ended up helping us with many crucial aspects of Issue 05 production and beyond. She looked over magazine proofs and flagged issues before they went to print, edited down several articles into the pages allotted to them, coordinated the printing of the Dorian Gray postcard playbills that came with Issue 05 when ordered from our site, set up our mailing list, and helped us with a myriad of other tasks.

Now that we’re putting together Issue 06, the time has come for us to once again seek out a self-motivated, creative individual who would be willing to give us 4-6 hours a week to help out with both the magazine and the blog.

If you’re interested in magazine publishing, apply within. The tasks you’ll be doing are varied, but we can tell you now that there’s going to be a lot of writing. Other tasks include: checking of Issue 06 proofs, research and maintenance of older blog posts (fixing YouTube links that no longer work, for example). Photoshop, graphic design and FTP skills are a plus, but at this time, we mainly need someone who excels at writing and communication. The internship is unpaid, but will leave you with valuable insight on the triumphs and tribulations of independent magazine publishing. You will have a title on the masthead of Issue 06, and we’ll be happy to write recommendation letters to employers.

You can be based anywhere in the world. If you’re interested, please contact us with a short cover letter, include a resume if you have one, and most importantly, send us a link to at least one sample of your writing (blog posts are good). The internship lasts from now until the end of the year. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Deadline for applying is 11:59 PM PST on Friday, October 1st.

One satisfied customer.

Just a courtesy notice for those of you still seeking out Coilhouse Issue 05, which sold out on our site a while ago: you can still find Issue 05 in stores nationwide. Click here for a list of all the stores that carry Issue 05. We suggest calling the stores before you go over there, just to confirm that the issues are still in stock. Unfortunately, we don’t have an updated database of store inventory, just the list of stores we know received copies of Issue 05. If there are any other stores you think should carry Coilhouse, please let us know. We love hearing about places like Criminal Records in Atlanta and Powell’s in Portland… perfect candidates for Coilhouse! If you’re a bookshop interested in selling Issue 05, you can go through your wholesaler to get it. If you deal with someone like Ubiquity, Ingram, RCS or Last Gasp, they will hook you up. Thank you again for your support!

There are also two places where you can buy it online. For those of you living in Australia or New Zealand, you can still mail-order Issue 05 from our esteemed friends at Wildilocks. In the States, we recently learned that Last Gasp Books is offering Issue 05 for sale online. Atomic Books also had it, but it’s now sold out. It’s costs $12.99 at Last Gasp (as opposed to $15, which is how much it cost on our site), and it’s less expensive there because the copies Last Gasp has are unsigned and don’t contain the exclusive Dorian Grey art postcards which were included with the version of Issue 05 you could get directly from us. We hope to have something special for those who order directly from us for every issue.

If there are any other shops you know of that carry Issue 05, let us know! Thank you again for your support.