recidivist press (fwd)

[Alan Sondheim]

forwarded with permission - Alan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2003 23:42:16 +0100
From: Morrigan Nihil <morrigan_nihil at YAHOO.CO.UK>
To: WRYTING-L at LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA
Subject: recidivist press

razor smile number 2 almost ready to go.  this week i have been mostly
absorbing production chemicals.  i did some of the lay up, had to redraw the
acoustic sigil annotation - not easy when you don't read music - and matt
laid up the final copy.

wednesday i went down the unemployed resource centre, a grammatically crap
name for a good organisation.  i printed off on a duplo, not as bad as it
sounds cos it's only a week old.  the issue is 52 pages long (resonating
with a deck of cards), each page A5, so that's 13 (nice magickal reference)
double sided A4 sheets, which for 200 copies is five reams of paper and then
some.  as i waited for the ink to dry in between runs i wondered why we
weren't publishing straight to the web.  i felt so sick after i had to go
sit in the park for an hour.

back the next day to use the folding machine and then hand collate the 200
copies of 13 sheets, before sticking them through the mad bastard finger
fuck stapler.  but they look good, there's something so tactile about a
paper zine, the way it flicks through my fingers, and the wonderful smell of
printing ink, the words fill my hands and nostrils simultaneously.

today i got paid for a film job, not much but it'll meet the cost of the cd
dupe, so we don't have to fight with a domestic burner.  for five years
we've been saying to alan how much we'd like to get some of his stuff on cd
and bang it out over here, and at long bloody last it that's going to
happen.  the cd will be attached to the back of the zine and is not
replicated between the covers.

this afternoon, while the kids watched the lost boys and matt dozed in the
garden, i cut up the screen prints for the front cover, metal ruler and
scalpel like.  ooooooooo i enjoyed that, the blade slicing along the edge of
the steel and scaring the board, each lino print bordered and perfect in its
own little world of paperyness.  and i knew then why razor smile isn't
published on the net, it's cos it's handmade, and not much is these days,
although you can sometimes see the intellect behind the machine it's harder
to feel the touch.  my hand has been in all of these, each page has been
through my fingers, i have stroked each copy.

spray mount, now there's another vile chemical, but really the only way to
attach the prints to the cover.  swallowing a substantial amount of fumes
guaranteed another bout of fresh air gulping outside.  sitting on the sofa
in the garden, green leather overgrown with ivy, i wondered what other
people would make of these efforts and came to the conclusion that i didn't
give a shit.  to be productive is everything, doing nothing is not an
option, and on this longest day, for a job that seems to have taken ages,
you know i'm happy that every page of every issue has passed through my
hands and into my consciousness.  somehow it reminds me of handling a cock,
matt's cos i really don't remember anyone else's after 13 years.  bare with
me, it's kind of the similar, like although the finger positions are
different, the notes are sort of the same, i mean you're still playing the
guitar whether in you're F or C.  and then there's the smell, printing ink
and whatever that cock smell is called, there's something seductive about
those smells, smell, mmm, smell, good for a while but can be sickening after
four hours of close exposure.  and swallowing those chemicals, the mist of
spray mount, like come (or cum for you amerikans) one mouthful is enough,
you don't want it eight times in an hour with no option to spit.

anyway, i digress, if anyone wants a copy, of the zine, send us something,
even if it's only a button, with an sae and you can have one.

regs

morrigan


spurred on by the
000000000000000000000000000000000
Morrigan Nihil

Indifference Productions
http://www.indifference.demon.co.uk


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