ARTHUR - the magazine

also apple cider vinegar rocks sorry but its true

for someone who spent his entire life in l.a. your brother sure doesn't understand it at all. then he acts like a spurned lover because the brentwood types didn't acknowledge him. i guess the respect he received from "poor artists" wasn't enough? i mean he says it's about money but it sounds like it's more about him not getting props from the right people. that rant = "every failed screenwriter ever"

well it is done pretty explicitly in that tradition. if you don't like that tradition, hey what can you do.

i guess i probably don't like that tradition, even though, goodness knows i am obsessed with the sixties and "the underground" in america...but in any case, that doesn't excuse arthur from espousing naive viewpoints about stuff (and i dunno, maybe i am complaining more about the opinions of the artists interviewed within its pages, as opposed to some overall editorial approach)

i should maybe add that i am speaking from the viewpoint of disaffected dude who felt alienated by both vice magazine culture and arthur magazine/"freak folk" culture of this decade, if i may set both publications up as some weird oppositional thing of sorts

i tried the ACV thing but i think i like kombucha better

if i may set both publications up as some weird oppositional thing of sorts

I think that's probably legit. personally I find Vice deeply alienating/irritating/funny when its making snarky fashion jokes but its rather obvious where my loyalties lie (even if I don't particularly care for Devendra or Joanna Newsom)

i was just in LA for E3 and anyway we were riding on a bus to the activision press conference and we drove by a store front in downtown that had "No Age Weirdo Rippers" painted above it what's up with that? it looked like it had been painted that way for awhile.

that's the smell

oh okay! damn i shoulda tried to go back there and see what was going down.

yeah, i like the "do's and don'ts" in VICE (i even bought the book!)

i'm indifferent to banhart's/newsom's music (admittedly, i guess i haven't listened enough to their stuff to give them a fair shake. oh well. life is short.)

i'm sure your brother is a great person. i just am disappointed by the magazine (and what i see as being some subculture that it tried to deliver ((to))).

but, thinking back, i remember enjoying reading an interview w/joanna newsom... and i am interested in erik davis' work, so...

the day they interview dale pendell, all will be right in my world.

but, yeah, jay took the steps to publish a magazine and distribute it for free, which is insanely admirable, and i am just some dude typing out shit here, so...

"after driving through the Bladerunner-ish polluted disaster area hellhole that is the Port of Los Angeles a couple years ago its difficult for me to avoid the conclusion that anywhere in America is better than LA"

Dude, I grew up outside Detroit. I live in LA now. If you think that the Port is the worst place in America, you have no idea what a significant chunk of the US has to offer in terms of Superfund hellholes.

the ports may be ugly but they're a very important job center for the region, so that trumps aesthetics in my mind. and they are taking steps to improve the air quality.

And I'm still annoyed that I subscribed right before this $20k PLZ! meltdown bullshit happened. Who knows when the fuck I'll actually get that next issue, but maybe "getting shit out on time" can be one of those NYC attributes that Jay picks up.

http://www.cleanairactionplan.org/ (xpost)

hmm hadn't heard about that - pretty encouraging

(btw next issue is at the printer now)

I had to move away from SoCal myself (grew up in L.A., spend college years plus in O.C.), so I understand Jay's frustration wrt the arts or what not. L.A. in particular is one grey arts-and-entertainment factory, which ironically makes it hard to have a centralized arts culture built from scraps.

But NYC is probably the most similar city to L.A. in that arts-and-entertainment factory analogy. Does Jay have to live in the belly of the beast? If so, why does he whine about it so much if that's what drives him? If not, why doesn't he move to Austin or Minneapolis or Portland instead?

dude if yr in the publishng business you go where the publishers are

also advertising $$$

i'm not an LA expert.

as far as where i'd go to hang out on vacation, NYC every time.

but honestly there's something about the messiness and sprawl and weirdness and randomness of LA that seems to me like it would be more conducive to a *real* arts/music scene evolving...lots of abandoned places and space, where NYC is too cramped and media microscope, it seems like it's hard for stuff to breath, literally and figuratively.

art needs a place to hide

but what do i know i'm just thinking out loud

I will say this. It's easy to start your own thing in L.A. and NYC moreso than other cities, mainly because things get built up and shut down in both cities all the goddamn time. I got sick of it and moved to Seattle, one of many reasons being that Seattle (as one example) has had some consistent assemblence of arts support. It may not be perfect, but it's been alive and not-so-fucked-with-as-much for decades. Also, I got sick of having to build from scratch over and over again -- like booking bands at Koo's Cafe in Santa Ana only to have the police bust it the year after I moved. Greater NYC and greater LA fucking eat people. I don't want to move to cities where I try to fucking duck and hide all the time.

As for the "dude if yr in the publishng business you go where the publishers are" comment, don't get me started on the cynicism and arguments I have with this concept of LA and NYC being the only places to make this happen.

things happen in portland, oregon (in the pacific northwest) and austin, texas (in the south, and in the same state as houston!) too

atlanta is pretty good from what i hear too

the twin cities have stuff. like places to look at art nobody likes and hear dudes making a godawful racket.

arthur, i think we have a winner

'Because I'm an Ohioan -- Cincinnati -- who was born in Louisville, I wanted to find out what was happening downriver along the Ohio. Overall, I discovered an intriguing, funky scene and a good-humored, pop-culture-savvy populace . . . plus more.'

twin cities have always sounded really awesome to me. too bad it's so goddam cold there.

Whoa, boy do I sound like a doofus. Talk about quotes being taken way way waaaaaay out of context, and all the nuances and buts and commas and em dashes and so on being dropped. Ah well, good for some chuckles for everybody.

Obviously there's plenty of awesome people in L.A. and plenty of awful stuff in NYC. But NYC is a more hospitable environment for publishing. So, we're gonna try and make a go of it here. 's all!

Best of luck! (seriously)

I think I support much of what you are interested in accomplishing, based on reading yr magazine, but...yr approach leaves a lot to be desired, from my perspective.

commas and em dashes

These only would have made your vitriol sound more premeditated!

Good to hear it straight from the horse's mouth. Good luck with it all. And goddamnit, send some more issues to London! (Fine, I'll subscribe).

I still love L.A., though, and miss it like a son of a bitch!

The dude asked me if Hollywood/Westside people bailed out Arthur when we needed $20k and I said No, those people are all busy blogging on Huffington Post, the people that helped us in L.A. were poor artists and other folks [see the benefit at the Silent Movie Theatre last year]. But the way it reads makes it sound like I feel ENTITLED to SERIOUS CHECKS from All My Celebrities. It's weird. I told the dude about the bummer that is Sam Zell... the bummer that is Rick Caruso... the overdevelopment that is going on in L.A., which adds to the traffic and smog and stress and misery and crowded schools, and ... he didn't include it. On and on. Ah well. Good for some chuckles, maybe even some laughs -- I mean check out the LATimes comment board -- how dare I leave the city of SILVERSUN PICKUPS???? Oy vey.

yeah, but every-fucking-place sucks in its own way, obv.

dell - There's a special flavor of suck to L.A. -- but yeah, it can be an okay place to live if, like Seward said, you have a chauffeur!!! In the end, the people that seem to dig L.A. the most -- or cheerlead for it hardest -- are the ones who can afford to insulate themselves from its faults. These are the people who send their kids to private schools, only get their health care at Cedars-Sinai or UCLA, live up in the Hills beyond the shit and the crime and the ever-dumber billboards and the random shootings and the shitty stucco-and-plastic architecture and miles-long shopping malls that all the rest of us have to live amongst. What can I say? Not my cup o tea. So it goes! I gave the place 20 years, that's enough.

Also dell -- L.A. police are A BREED APART.

well, that's not L.A. but about 90% of California... Blame Prop 13.

Sean Bell RIP

Yeah Prop 13 killed California that's for sure. Mackro OTM.

The cops in L.A. shoot, harass and intimidate a lot more people than the NYPD do, QN. Cops in L.A. are on steroids, they're trained military-style, and they've got helicopters! Lookit up. Awesome.

i agree with a lot of arthur dude's points actually, mostly about liveability and this sense of dread i tend to have about spending more than a few more years in this city, even though i have a ton of friends here and a decent pad and a steady gig.

you want publishing, come move to quebec. quebecor yo.

...but yeah, it can be an okay place to live if, like Seward said, you have a chauffeur!!

haha, yeah, i feel like i would do that in a second!

In the end, the people that seem to dig L.A. the most -- or cheerlead for it hardest -- are the ones who can afford to insulate themselves from its faults.

meh, there are countless other cities that one could make the same complaint about, though, right? most definitely, including nyc/brooklyn.

What can I say? Not my cup o tea. So it goes! I gave the place 20 years, that's enough.

awesome. i respect yr life experience. best of luck to you!!

also, try to interview dale pendell!! and karl jansen!! seriously!

it't the usual thing; if i've invested enough energy in questioning yr publication's output or whatever, then i obv. respect where you're cominng from. but i still am suspect of scenic motives

you want publishing, come move to quebec. quebecor yo

what d'ya mean by that? just out of curiosity...b/c i have a friend who is moving to quebec next month

insulate themselves from its faults

jay--i'm sorry you had such an awful experience in los anegles. where did you live during your twenty years here? were the people the same kind of dumb and shallow everywhere? why did you wait so long to escape? good luck in brooklyn--i'm sure you'll be a much better fit there.

but i still am suspect of scenic motives

that was couched horribly

sorry

how dare I leave the city of SILVERSUN PICKUPS???? Oy vey.

sorry I went to lunch and missed this lolololol

It's not that I'm moving to NYC for a "scene" -- I never said that anywhere!!! Ay yi yi. There's a lot more art, music, dance and yes thinkers and readers and who knows maybe even some new partners and advertisers and OMG really great street league hoops that is a lot more fun to watch than the NBA bazillionaires. Geez louise. We're just doing our thing. Sorry I was so poorly quoted everybody! But that's what's going on at the LATimes! They've gone from 1200 reporters to 700. It's gonna be the Weekly Reader with Page 3 girls by October at the rate Zell is going.

i just don't understand ppl who move to the east coast from the west coast

when i lived in philly, every time someone would say they were moving to california we would say: "great, have fun! we'll miss you! *see you in six months*."

that last part we would say under our breath or in our heads. and then when we saw that person again in six months we would ask them how their trip was!

Cops in L.A. are on steroids, they're trained military-style, and they've got helicopters! Lookit up. Awesome.

Jay, you're moving to the city of that thing called "911." You don't think they have helicopters and a bulked-up police force trained in military-style surveillance and crowd control?

I'm sorry but the disparity between the have and the have-nots is no diff in NYC than it is in any other metropolis.