I don’t own coffee table magazines, I don’t have a coffee table either but some seriously good coffee if you like to taste one … I am hardly into fashion magazines, mostly looking at the design and photography, well, how they are done manually, how they communicate visually and so on. And much less I am into interior magazines. Most of them are boring, too coolish and out of range. But I buy one. Regularly. But it has less in common with the rest of these titles. So it happens a lot of times when friends hang out at my home and pick up an issue of apartemento, I get an undetermined glance, “what? interior magazine?”, flipping through the pages. And then (it happens to everybody): “Wow! Nice. This is a such cool magazine! All these pictures, the nice format and the paper…” Read more …
Michael Kevin Geoff — Show at HVW8 in LA (all pics by Simone Rubi)
The Exclusive Correspondent From the West Coast —Simone Rubi
I am very happy to welcome Simone Rubi from Santa Barbara for being the first real guest writer on JB. Magazine. Simone is this very likeable person and a multi-talented artist, supplied by the sun in the Golden State of California while breathing some fresh Pacific air … She sometimes is a graphic designer or a breakfast cook for fun, cuts your hair, is an occasional exquisite food journalist and a band: Rubies, the band for “danceable folk, homemade disco, and lost love laments”. My friend Maschat has been on a Europe tour with them, they always borrow a drummer, and he is the tightest drummer on earth and part of The Whitest Boy Alive.
But here is what she was approaching me with: Simone sent me some pictures of an exhibition opening at HVW8, Los Angeles she attended a couple of weeks ago. The show is hosting some of JB.’s most favourite artists: Michael, Kevin & Geoff. Read her short report of this show, that actually “wasn’t that mind-blowing” as expected … Read more …
Juxtapoz: One of the best magazines in the world ...
JB.’s favourite Juxtapoz is about to release their year’s closing issue in December. We are all psyched about the cover yet, done by José Parla. Getting a glance on the inside there will be a big feature: “To celebrate the year’s closing, and our 15th year in existence, we dedicated an entire issue to one of the most groundbreaking and influential collective movements of our existence: The Barnstormers.” Even more: ALIFE, Cannonball Press, West One, Doze Green, Maya Hayuk, Swoon and a lot more with this issue in the original Juxtapoz mood. Excellent!
As said in a previous post about new magazines, “more new and good-looking issues within the next days …” And now here they are: the never predictable 032c with No. 18, not Lodown DTP Issue 001 but their current issue #68 and one of my favourite magazines ever, the never imitable KASINO A4, unfortunately their 10th and last issue. Look up the pictures on the JB. Flickr stream.
032c — #18
Don’t need so much words to talk about this publication, it’s the biggest exception at present on the displays and hits the bulk of exchangeable glossy mags right in the face. I like it for their strict denial of a learnt magazine structure and their choice of subjects. As Jeremy Leslie of magCulture recently wrote back to me: “A magazine that keeps to it’s own agenda, never predictable. Potentially the new New Yorker?”
Kasino A4 — The Deadline Issue
The most melancholic magazine from Finland is about to close. It’s a mess that they are gone now, the most awesome and freaky magazine is over. But they are doing right when they’re dropping out at the top, and I will enjoy the last issue even more. To really acclaim this magazine would take me too long, so I put up some pictures of the beautiful double-page spreads that you should have a look at before you go and better get this issue in real life!
Nothing else remains to follow the good news behind the end of Kasino A4: “Party Like It’s The Last Party—This is the end. Kasino A4 #10—THE DEADLINE ISSUE is the final Kasino A4 ever. But we have a prediction: A new incarnation will materialise in 2010. See you in the next life.”
Lodown Magazine — #68
Due to the fact that Lodown’s last project “Lodown DTP Issue 001″ was not getting me into so much as I expected, I skip to issue #68. As I pick up Lodown only every once in a while, this issue caught me with the feature and interview with the artist Tom Sachs. His exhibition NUTSY’S at Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin back in 2003, where he built up a self-contained environment with elements and 1:25 scale models, has been one the most remarkable exhibition for me ever.
The “Black Is Beautiful Zine” in the center is pretty well done, both visually and haptically through the change to a light and open-cell paper. There is also a photo documentary about the Four Star team on tour and an interview with photographer Hannes Schmid who took all these photos of rockstars off stage.
As Soundcloud, the platform that “takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals”, made a major update, I thought this would be a good chance to finally put the Soundcloud player with the latest mix (check previous post) right on the page. Don’t know why I never came up with it, but anyway, check the menu on the right side of the player for example to adjust the volume or directly download the quality soundfile with 320 kbit (the player only streams with 128 kbit). It’s so easy, here you are:
September
25.09. @ Crackers, Berlin. John Osborn b2b Jenne Grabowski
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19.10. @ Cookies, Berlin. with Keith Worthy, John Osborn, Jenne Grabowski
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@ Horst Krzbrg, Berlin. tbc
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Futura @ about blank … has been postponed. New date soon.
Jenne Grabowski + René Loewe (Vainqueur)
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