UK Magazines and Los Angeles Storytellers.
Magazine Mondays
OBSERVATIONS ON PAINTING. DIY CLUBBING. EXPLORING DESIRE. CULTURE THROUGH FOOD ZINE. WRITTEN SYMBOLS. FIRE WALK WITH ME. SHOWDOWN IN PIONEERTOWN. THE LITERARY LIVES OF L.A. WRITERS.
Hello dear newsletter readers! Spring continues to spring in the Hi Desert and soon the Super Bloom era will be upon us. I’ve added some small plants into the planters we have for sale here in the shop and hope to bring the spring vibes inside.
There’s also a bright yellow glow up in here with new magazines we received from the United Kingdom. I’ve been following Public Knowledge Books since last year, but due to budgets, I wasn’t able to commit to purchasing until this first quarter of 2024 and I am THRILLED to have these five titles hit our shelves:
Turps Painting Magazine - Painter’s conversations, critiques and observations on painting. Gotta love a stratight-foward theme. One of the observations I enjoyed reading was “Tom Palin on Édouard Manet’s Late Flower Paintings” that speaks to Manet’s revisiting the floral themes in his later years of life.
“Whatever the sadness of Manet’s life at this time, or the extremes of pain he would have endured in his final months, these are calm and joyous paintings filled with tenderness and a deep pleasure in looking and seeing.”
Roughcast - just fucking read it. - That says it all! The Roughcast crew knows how to be smart and funny. The ‘DIY’ Issue, which is also issue 2, features Martin Guttridge-Hewitt’s examination of Manchester’s club scene as well as Josh Eustace’s dive into the underground punk DIY fanzines and flyers. Also included is “my friend, Bob Marley” as told to Roughcast by Dennis Morris, who is noted as one of the greatest photographers to come out of London.
Erotic Review Issue 01 - Editor & publisher Lucy Roeber relaunches the Erotic Review and this time it is taking sex seriously. “Exploring Desire” examines the belief that our erotic life changes the forms of our existence. At times extremely personal or communal, desire is the hope of transcendence. This is a relaunch of the 1997 publication with Lucy Roeber at the helm and also includes Saskia Vogel as Deputy Editor and guest Art Editor Fatos Üstek.
Famous for my Dinner Parties Issue 001 - It started as a website and soon turned into print, this publication gets its name from a line said by Shelly Duvall’s character Millie in Robert Altman’s 1977 film 3 Women. But what is really about? This printed zine reflects on ideas, questions, and cultural issues “through the lens of food”. This zine is a menu of “best of” favorites chosen by the editors.
Part of the pleasure of eating derives not from taste, texture or smell, but from visual experience. - from Between Good Looks and Good Food.
MacGuffin No. 13 The Letter - This has been one of my most requested titles from customers and I’m glad we got it in. This publication is the master of single object based issues. It is widely known for its design and research and for being and indispensable resource for information about the life of things. This issue deep dives into written symbols and the basic material’s of language. From typography to feminist printshops, this issue really goes bold face into letters.
TSPTR JOURNAL presents TWIN PEAKS
On April 8, 1990 I was almost one-month into my sweet 16 when Twin Peaks aired on ABC and forever changed my life. David Lynch’s mystery serial drama created a universe with sexy teenagers, supernatural elements, a cast of eccentric characters, and tropes drawn from American soap operas and horror stories. And centered in the middle of Twin Peaks, is the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer and the FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper sent to the Northwest to solve the case. Combined with the score by Angelo Badalamenti, you have a cultural moment of a generation. Suffice to say the series finale is my Roman Empire! IYKYK.
TSPTR journal dedicates 124 pages to David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal television series and cult masterpiece, with essays, discussions, and illustrations in this perfect Bound, full color, and print only exclusive journal.
(Side note: on Sunday a customer came in to purchase the journal and she let me know that she worked on the Twin Peaks series! She was responsible for the diner set on the Los Angeles studio lot where it was filmed. She also said her experience working with the cast and the crew was positive and memorable. And her and her husband used to put their young children to bed by playing Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peak score! To this day their adult children still get sleepy when they hear it.)
READING RECOMMENDATION: ALTA JOURNAL ISSUE 27
Alta Journal has been holding it down for California and the Western region since 1997. This large-format quarterly spotlights the region with essays, cultural commentary, investigations, original fiction/poetry and splendid photography that educates and entertains.
This particular issue is jam-packed with interesting topics, thought-provoking discussions and damn fine writing. It wasn’t easy to choose, but here are three picks from this issue that you should be reading:
“Will Success Spoil Pioneertown? by Stacey Grenrock Woods, Photos by Matthew Smith. - What happens when the old guard and outside developers have a showdown on the Mane Street of a tiny outpost in the Mojave Desert?
“American Diction” by David L. Ulin, Photos by Dustin Snipes. - Percival Everett has been reinventing American Lit and his new novel “James” offers a new look at a Mark Twain classic – through the perspective of the Slave Jim. (P.S. I’m currently obsessed with all of Everett’s works of fiction and you should be to.)
“John Coplans’s Artforum” by Joe Fyfe. A look at the trailblazing publication, Artforum, and a co-founder’s legacy in the Annals of Publishing.
This was a lengthy post, but many thanks to you dear newsletter readers for making it through. I hope you are as excited as we are to flip through the pages of these magazines and the other curated selections at the shop. As always, big love and long live print.
x - LL
Season 1 finale or Season 3 finale? Def a discussion for next time 💕