You’ve got to love this kid's motive, and in the slow motion video replayed over and over again yesterday on the news (I guess they could show the 7 year old because it was from his back side, hmmm, no legal protection of his identity there), as he stopped the car that he had stolen and driven for several miles in order to get out of going to church, he looked like a future Olympian, fluidy exiting the vehicle and running in perfect form from a police officer (ok, future Olympian or else he'll be a future star of Cops).  I say kudos for him, and hope for the former future situation with the Olympics.

As a kid I read Cujo by Stephen King, and I remember thinking strange the inordinate amount of time spent at the beginning on the red dye in cereal that was making kids sick as opposed to scenes of a big slobbery St. Bernard terrorizing folks on the hoods of cars, like in the movie. In any case, this evening in the news, it just seemed a little funny to look up and see on a suspended TV monitor a mouse with blue feet and a blue nose and a caption that said blue dye helps those with spinal injuries as I enjoyed a sandwich at Manuel’s (the rats can walk now, with a limp, but are blue in tint in the extremities). Well now that’s not funny, it’s fucking great, if real. My sis spent thirty years paralyzed, for the most part. Need to read up more on this. Just imagine though, blue could be the new color of happy...or...anyway. Am writing this as I watch the glowing blue Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen for the first time. Rats by Danny Jock. -CM

Last week...the 14th. Two of Fanzine's favorite writers at the same place, same time, reading, at SF's oldest and best bookstore and I bet I know the Chinese restaurant they ate at afterwards.  Anyway, caught the link from the world of facebook.  Thanks to mxxx palmer for filming.  I tried to embed the video but was having some issues with vimeo's code... Well, just click here! to watch.

A couple of nights ago, I went to go see Zak Smith read from his new book, “We Did Porn”. The non-fiction book combines words and images, mixing memoir with gorgeous paintings. Also, it’s about porn, or more specifically, the fascinating world of alt-porn, where there are punks, real boobs and a myriad of piercings.



If you live under a rock and haven’t heard of him, Zak Smith is an artist best known for his “Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow”, which was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. The title is pretty self-explanatory as to what the project was, a massive piece that covered over 750 pages from one of the most complicated novels ever written. Smith’s art is exquisite, intensely drawn with splashes of electric colors, sharp lines and energy throbbing in every complex detail.




Additionally, he is a porn star.





“We Did Porn” is about Zak’s experience with the alt-pornography industry, from using porn stars as subjects in his paintings to actually acting in the films under the moniker ‘Zak Sabbath’. Along with his memoir, Zak has included many drawings that illustrate porn and its stars, sometimes performing and other times doing ordinary, non-porny things. The drawings don’t serve as direct illustrations for what he writes about but instead function as their own visual memory bank of what he observed.  Even if you’re unfamiliar with alt-porn, there decently well-known stars that grace the pages of Zak’s memoir. He gives them all fake names (as well as non-porn celebrities, whom he consistently and charmingly refers to as “Dwight Eisenhower”, regardless of gender) but it’s not too difficult to figure out identities if you’re a big fan. Stars like Sasha Grey (who also works as an American Apparel model and non-porn actress, most recently in Steven Soderbergh’s “The Girlfriend Experience”) make an appearance, though the story is ultimately and uniquely about Zak.





The reading was held at McNally Jackson’s Books, one of the best independent bookstores in New York. This was one of three readings Zak was doing in NYC on his book tour, also stopping at the Museum of Sex and Solas Bar, as part of St. Mark’s Bookshop’s reading series. Zak read two selections from the book. The first was about being asked why he does porn at a film festival in Germany, something people always ask and guess about, incorrectly. The second was a longer piece, where Zak expertly blended a politic and porn with a sharp wit that cracked the audience up.




Afterwards, there was a question and answer period. Good questions were asked but my personal favorite was a dude who wanted to know how much money Zak made per porno shoot or if “he did it pro-bono”. Zak said that Pro Bono would make a great porn name and everyone agreed.

“We Did Porn” is an excellent book and Zak Smith is an incredibly interesting artist and writer. Definitely check him out while he’s still on tour for “We Did Porn”. He’ll be returning to Los Angeles for more readings next.  Check out his website to view the Gravity’s Rainbow series, as well many more brain-meltingly good works of art: www.zaxart.com. There is also link to sketchbook, that he updates very often with new art. If you want to check out his porn, head to www.zaksabbath.com.

-Alyssa Bianca-Pavley

 

There has been a lot of hand-wringing among critics that high-quality journalism will be lost as news makes it's transition onto the internet but this obscures an even more important question about web journalism: Where's the comics page? Not to worry, check out these frame by frame re-enactments of Mary Worth in stark expressionist film making style.
 

Last November, when Machine Project art gallery took over the Los Angeles Country Art Museum one of the highlights was Lasagna Cat's live re-creations of Garfield comic strips using elaborate costumes and weighty, meticulously constructed props of cupcakes and cat beds. This new context made Jim Davis's plotless scripts with their unfunny punchlines seem a bit like Beckett although much shorter. Check out Lasagna Cat's equally intriguing web videos.
 

-Ben Bush

The march of death goes on and on and on now with Robert McNamara passing at age 93. McNamara was the defense secretary during John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was for all intents and purposes the guy who got us embroiled in Vietnam, and he was a calculated thinker who was probably vilified as much if not more than any Dick Cheney or Rumsfeld in his time. Still his later years proved him more interesting than evil (perhaps the latter will prove the same? Probably not...) and he was the subject of Errol Morris's 2004 documentary The Fog of War. Casey and I caught a screening of the film while we were at Berkeley, with a Q&A with Morris and the man himself afterward. He must have been 88 or 87 at that point; he was still as sharp as ever. I recall him doing some grossly complicated computation in his head on stage, something like calculating the rate of inflation on the GDP from 1965 to figures meaningful in 2004. I've been reading a good obit on him on the NY Times site.

—mkl