ARTHUR - the magazine

http://www.arthurmag.com/magpie/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/cover_final.jpg

here's an interview with jay from The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070716/mccarthy

picked up the new issue yesterday and was surprised to see NED RAGGETT vs. the SPARKS DISCOGRAPHY

Indeed so. (I'd mentioned it on a couple of Sparks threads here.)

i wonder if arthur will catch any fbi glances from the "modest proposal" piece re: a gw bush a55a55ination

I've still never seen this at Rough Trade in London :(

(and I miss this mag so much! In fact, I just re-wrote how I used to get it at Freakbeat Records and would run to a Coffee Bean to read it in the sun, but then I realized I already wrote that upthread!)

I've still never seen this at Rough Trade in London :(

Jay mentioned that a batch of issues should be in London soon -- don't know where, though.

Any thoughts on the new Low Life zine, or Z Gun? I've seen both but haven't heard much from others.

there seem to be many more issues floating around new york than there used to be, I can always find it really easily now

of arthur I mean, I don't know those others

omar - no agency visits yet.

Z Gun was a decent read. Think the 2nd one is out soon, if not already...

Z Gun's alright, even if half of it is just re-published reviews from the web.

Some of Z Gun is written in the tone of an angry asshole, which made it a little hard to get through. But they go deeper and more meta and interesting than Arthur or a lot of other stuff out about underground music (although focuses mainly on DIY). Also there is some content about old stuff (i.e. an article documenting some of the lost bands of the late-70s SanFran artpunk scene) which is very informative. Definitely more personal. So I guess I'm saying its a good, relevant effort, and worth looking through.

Jay mentioned that a batch of issues should be in London soon -- don't know where, though.

You can always download the PDF of it from http://arthurmag.com/

http://theguide.latimes.com/blogs/soundboard//2008/07/23/jay-babcock-talks-arthur-magazines-brooklyn-move-la-as-a-psychic-death-hole

ouch!

That interview was a tough read. I'm an eternal L.A. apologist (and former longtime resident of both cities), so I've got a huge prejudice, but I think he's kinda massively NOTM on a lot of those points. Either way, I hope he finds what he's looking for in NYC and the magazine stays afloat!

sorry, but this is funny:

"I’ve been [in Brooklyn] for weeks, and nobody noticed. I don’t mean to sound petulant, but I realized that a lot of people actually didn’t know I’d left, so I let Kevin Roderick [of L.A. Observed] know."

i would love to live in L.A. if i were rich. and had a driver. i've actually never been there, but i love it. or my idea of it. it's like america's haunted house. so much weirdness around every corner.

on the other hand, i have never once dreamed of living in brooklyn. (not that i have anything against brooklyn)

So the emergency fundraiser was moving money ;)

this is painful:

"It’s getting harder and harder for independent, autonomous thinkers to survive in this country. The whole system is rigged for you to fail. The country just keeps getting dumber and duller, and eventually we’re going to pay a price for it."

New York is the last stand for culture and the arts in America, the rest of it has devolved into a wasteland.

New York is the last stand for rich kids wearing retro Nikes.

http://theguide.latimes.com/blogs/soundboard/files/2008/07/arthur400.jpg

Can someone Blingee this please?

he does look pretty brooklyn in that picture. the difference being:

http://floortwo.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/rick-rubin.jpg

i still want to move to ojai. but i keep reading articles about how everyone is moving there and its too expensive now. it keeps calling me though...

http://www.erugmakers.com/images/Ojai2.jpg

the guru table is in the gardens at barndall park, lol

i used to write on those tables, and once i hooked up on one.

Uh

"New York is the last stand for rich kids wearing retro Nikes."

yep

So the emergency fundraiser was moving money ;)

I know yr jokin, but seriously that isn't true!

anyway LA is horrible and he'll be much happier in NY

i still want to move to ojai. but i keep reading articles about how everyone is moving there and its too expensive now. it keeps calling me though...

dude, it was too expensive twenty years ago. beautiful, though. california real estate always has a $800,000 surcharge if you want to live in an area with no meth addicts.

yes, with all the cultured people

So the emergency fundraiser was moving money ;)

I know yr jokin, but seriously that isn't true!

total joke!

"dude, it was too expensive twenty years ago"

rich ex-hippies, right? oh well. i'll probably have to settle for western mass. i can pretend it's cali. lots of rich ex-hippies there too, but still affordable places to live. (maria will never let me leave this island though...)

"Culture in L.A. is in a race to the bottom, and all the smart and creative people there are [involved in] new ways to do social networking or figure out what YouTube video is going to get the most views. That isn’t culture, it’s pure pandering."

Oh dude, wait till you settle in to NY ...

I haven't really read arthur. I like a few of the acts they cover, and the shows they curate here are pretty good from time to time, but I seriously cannot believe how you can be more than 8 years old and think that an entire city can be summed up by your thoughts.

New York is the last stand for culture and the arts in America

LOL

but I seriously cannot believe how you can be more than 8 years old and think that an entire city can be summed up by your thoughts.

haha maybe you should check out the "most racist city in America" thread on ILE... to be fair he has lived in LA his entire life

totally wish dude the best of luck tho

cannot wait for do's and don'ts

lolol

having lived in both cities i am laughing my ass off at mr babcock

I love new york, and maybe it's changed since I used to hang there, but generally speaking it always struck me as the capital of what-important-thing-are-you-doing-and-what-can-you-do-for-me.

plus it's been a while since anything "important" happened there, at least in a concentrated fashion. there are good bands in ny but not more than in any number of other cities.

cannot wait for do's and don'ts

*tears*

(really though, good luck Arthur!)

plus it's been a while since anything "important" happened there, at least in a concentrated fashion

strictly speaking I don't think "important" things happen anywhere anymore, thanks to the massive decentralization of media distribution methods