Cheap Thrills Magazine (book?)

I've been buried in *other things* things lately and motorcycles haven't had a look in, as they say. Tried to get my norton tank sorted for the Smash Palace show but failed when at about 3am the night before I realised that the tank cap I had wasn't gonna fit. Anyway I thought I'd chuck this project up here cause it's what I've been busting my chops on lately...

This is Cheap Thrills, essentially a music zine/journal which was proposed to me by Erin Kimber and which I've (probably foolishly) jumped on board with as sort of an editor, but more designer/printer... and also somehow; collator, binder, trimmer... sheesh, good idea!? Nah it's been awesome, even though it almost killed me getting it ready for the launch on Saturday! One of my students, Luke Shaw, has worked tirelessly on this with me also and he deserves a decent handshake and a few free beers.

HFoS in Amsterdam!

Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum in Amsterdam is stocking/selling Head Full of Snakes! See their website here (and tell me what it says if you can read Dutch!?). If you're in this part of the world (and I know I've sent a few to Holland in the past) go get copies from them!

Also they interviewed me about the project. Interview is here.

How to read your next HFoS

Motorcycho

I just received this far out little package in the mail the other day from Canada, and I just have to say something about it here. 'Motorcycho' is a motorcycle zine like I always imagined a motorcycle zine should be. In my mind it kicks every other zine/magazine's butt. Why? Because it's content heavy. Well actually each issue is pretty slim, clocking in at 36 pages, but it is full to the brim with writing! Yes. Shit I want to read. Sure I love flicking through any glossy motorcycle porn rag, but I always find it's over way too quick! Motorcycho is a lady who needs time, needs woo-ing, needs to be read. Fuck that's up my alley anyway. Especially when the writing is as hands-down fucking funny as a lot of it is in here – "This bike has got to get not on fire, and I guess it's gonna hafta be us what does it." (Issue #24 page 13)

Motorcycho is a bit like HFoS in that there's no preoccupation or snobbery around any specific sort of bikes, there's plenty of cheap Jap bikes in there with your Harley's and your Brit shit. Everyone in Motorcycho is having fun... with bikes, and writing about it from the heart. There's also a bunch of music cross-over stuff, and it's all up my alley as well – issue #25 has a story about a guy riding a piece of shit CB350 to Portland to see The Mummies play! Holy fuck!

Norman McFuzzybutt is the man behind the madness and he's been doing this for 15 years! Now I've never met the dude but he's obviously a righteously good chap, and I'd highly recommend ya'll to order up any back issues he might happen to still have available. See all issues here – although I don't know what's still available? Norman also runs a blog here. Check it all out and order some issues. They're small, so good for on the bus when your piece of shit Norton lets you down yet again, or keep them right next to the toilet for some quality quiet time.

Cheers Norman!

The National Grid @ RAMP Gallery

Here's some photos of Jonty and I (and Amy) putting up our show 'Design and Designers' in Hamilton over the weekend. We're now making issue #8 of The National Grid as a catalogue to this show. We have 2 weeks to get it to print!... and then I can get back to thinking about my bikes!

I've decided I'm definitely going to start a separate blog or Tumblr or something for my design related work/research. Talked to Jonty about us starting a National Grid one again (we actually ran one really briefly before making the publication together – it was a disaster though). So yeah from now on (well, from soon) HFoS will be just mostly motorcycle related. Although obviously I'll be looking at, and for, overlaps etc...

Frozen meat, Julian Dashper, and the PBRF

I'm interested in the pervasive influence of distribution as a way of thinking in New Zealand. It's effect can be seen and felt at quite practical levels in every sector, from art to agriculture. Obviously I'm interested in it in relation to the practice of graphic design, but I'll come back to that at some point in the future.

The first serious depression in NZ occurred in the 1880s and 1890s. I've been reading recently about how bad this was, and about how it was that the country managed to climb out of this downward spiral. In Tony Simpson's book, 'The Road To Erewhon', he attributes aspects of this to technological development, and the development of industrial skills. In particular he makes reference to refrigerated transport, "This development was of the utmost importance to New Zealand."

He carries on..."In New Zealand, the trade owes thanks to the efforts of a remarkable man, William Soltau Davidson... Davidson was only too aware at a time when farmers were driving sheep over cliffs to get rid of them, or trying to sell their sheep at sixpence each to another farmer who was trying to sell his own at two a shilling, that what was needed was a total concept of marketing... and it was under his guidance that the first shipment of frozen mutton was made in the ship 'Dunedin' in 1882. After a journey of some hundred days it arrived at Smithfield as sweet and fresh as the day it was slaughtered and sold for a price double that for which it would have sold in New Zealand... He therefore solved the problem of deflating value, which has always bedevilled a predatory economy based solely on land, by making only one part of a total organised business. Any loss on the land – and Davidson's company lost money on the land they owned for years – could be offset against profits made by processing and shipping the produce of the land." (The Road To Erewhon, p.19)

In my naiveity I was sort of struck by this as a particularly important moment in time for a small, isolated island on the wrong side of the world. Simpson points out though that exporting was already important prior to this, with things like timber, flax, gum, coal and gold. And I'm probably making too much of this here, but I'm interested in the development of an attitude towards distribution here. And I'm thinking about this through the lens of the late Julian Dashper more than 100 years later...

And this is another post entirely but the PBRF (Performance based research funding) we have in the universities here now reinforces the importance of sending your product/work/ideas out to an international audience. Your 'research' is worth more (literally worth more financially) if it is published or shown overseas. It is worth very little to disseminate one's work here at home. I can see the sense behind this, but I do wonder if academics in other countries have this same pressure to distribute themselves internationally? It's easy to be cynical about this too.

Post/Telegraph/Deadwood

"It is no coincidence that the first really effective national trade union in New Zealand was that of the post and telegraph workers, with their easy access to immediate communication throughout the country"

Tony Simpson, 'The Road to Erewhon', p.17 (1976)

In an attempt to get a bit more of a handle on local history I've started to read 'The Road to Erewhon' by Tony Simpson. It was lying around at dad's and the title caught my eye. I read Samuel Butler's novel 'Erewhon' last year. I want to make my way through it slowly, and begin to get more of a social context for the historical design research I want to embark upon over the next couple of years.

The bit above stood out because lately I've been thinking about the partnership between the newspaper man and the telegraph guy in the TV series Deadwood. The newspaper man in particular I suppose, because he was such a minor odd-ball type character to begin with. He gets pushed around and made fun of, especially for his aspirations towards 'culture' and 'civilisation'. But towards the end of the series, where annexation is obviously inevitable, and various people are fighting for power within that impending system, the actual power of communication becomes overtly palpable. Between them the newspaper man and the telegraph guy form this very important partnership, who in co-operation with the power-hungry saloon owner, kind of manage to 'defeat' the more sinister and mega-wealthy gold-mining magnate. It's a nice idea... access to communication networks beats outright wealth. Well it sort of does.

Typewriter, Rick Poyner and post boxes

Today New Zealand Post have announced the removal of almost 10% of their on-street post boxes from around the country, you know, the red-and-white suburban ones which you can drop your letter in instead of going to the post office.

This just as Rick Poyner has commented on my letter writing on Design Observer

I wanted to point out that I use the typewriter almost all the time when I write to people now. Partly it is because I like it — I like it's aesthetic and I like using the old thing (it's 100 years old and still works perfectly... compared to my laptop which is 5 years old and is about to die!), but also I use it more functionally too simply because my hand-writing is so shitty looking. Lisa asked, sarcastically, why don't I just use Word and a printer then? Because the typewriter is actually faster and easier. To turn on my computer, open Word, write the thing, select the printer, do the page-setup, and hit print... and then wait a few moments... ok so this doesn't take 'long', but it does take 'longer'. The typewriter is faster and more immediate, I can't fix my mistakes, but things just flow better.