JOSH MACPHEE'S STENCIL PIRATES
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Josh MacPhee is an artist and activist currently residing in Troy, NY, where he moved from an extended residence in Chicago. His former off-set printing press printed issues three-seven of THE2NDHAND, of which fact he reminded me two weekends ago at the Madison Zine Festival exhibition in the Open Book Cafe at UW Madison's library. Josh is a familiar face to me, yes. And his work is equally familiar -- I just never made the connection between the two until that moment, embarrassingly enough.
If you haven't seen it, his book Stencil Pirates: A Global Study of the Street Stencil (Soft Skull 2004) is worth checking out. Functionally an art book, with near 200 pages of well-reproduced photos of stencils from around the world and accompanying running text, its pages document the stencil's long road from industrial/administrative marker to propaganda tool to street artist's mode of choice.
Visit MacPhee's JUSTSEEDS. distro for a host of his and others' work in the artistic underground (MacPhee's posters are particularly excellent). You can pick up Stencil Pirates here
Not much new these past weeks, and for that I'm sorry. Been hard at work getting the word out about our big release party for PIE this Thursday (November 10 @ Hungry Brain), also on a host of book reviews for upcoming issues of the Chicago Reader. This week, two of them appear: one of Mark Crispin Miller's Fooled Again
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PAST WING & FLY:
*FUCK ME
*HARVEY WASSERMAN AND THE STOLEN ELECTION
*DAVE ZIRIN'S EDGE OF SPORTS
*RIVERBEND
*TOTH
*WHALE
*X
*Z
*SMOKE
*NEXIUM
*EUREKA
*MENO
*HAMMOND
*PILSEN
*CANADA
*DAYTONA
*WESTERN AVENUE
*ZOO
Todd Dills is the editor and publisher of THE2NDHAND, which brings you this neat sort of "editor's corner" or "letter from the..." or what have you, winged mightily by Mr. Dills -- who most certainly loves you, and love being the product of communication, maybe... -- and launched every other week, we hope, for your reading pleasure. E-mail Dills at will by clicking on that word, yes, back there. He loves to hear from you.
Books by Todd Dills:
In Chicago Noir
ALL HANDS ON: A THE2NDHAND READER
edited by Todd Dills
w/ an Introduction by Jim Munroe
$12
Like placing your ear beside some kind of magical, future radio and listening to the shocking world of the strange and new.... ALL HANDS ON, an anthology of new work and old, features the best of the magazine and a look at what may stand as the underground lit world's most interesting contemporary writing. --Punk Planet
THE2NDHAND has been the most exciting literary vessel in Chicago, opening a comfortably padded room for the anecdotal fiction writers and the experimental tale-spinners to play together where no one will get hurt. Read through this collection of four years worth of stories, and you'll see the line between the two isn't as clear as all that. And in the way the strongest species survive, it would seem the cross-pollination that happened over the years has strengthened both sides. --PopMatters.com
Or mail a check for $12, made out to Elephant Rock Books, to THE2NDHAND, P.O. Box 479045, Chicago, IL 60647.
FOR WEEKS ABOVE THE UMBRELLA
2002, by Todd Dills
70 pages, saddle-stapled, $7
To order, mail a check made out to Todd Dills or carefully concealed cash to:
THE2NDHAND
c/o Todd Dills
P.O. Box 479045
Chicago, IL 60647
Or buy now using any major credit card via PayPal (allow a few weeks for delivery):