in print
In 1996 I had another in a series of supremely half baked ideas. I go to TIFF every year anyways, and so do Dave and Sunny and Joanne, and maybe we could all write reviews and a couple of articles and some sort of diary (blogs having not been invented at that point) and put together a 'zine! A zine, baby!
And then Leah said she'd help design it and do all the production. Bevause I had NO idea how much work was going to be involved. None. Whatsoever. And that year I reviewed close to 100 films, wrote 3 articles, got Dave to do the cover, got Sam to throw in a cartoon, and had the thing printed and ready to sell within about four weeks. That's 28 DAYS to write and completely design and execute a 68 page magazine. With 2 diaries running across the top and bottom of multiple pages. And photos. And word marks. And God knows what else.
And when it was done, and Leah had managed to do it all on her trusty G3 Blue & White, I started going out to various stores and getting them to sell it on consignment. The Beguiling, Hollywood Canteen and most importantly Tower Records. Tower had this skinny kid with a weird beard working the magazine section downstairs, and he agreed to take some copies for me.
I sold out about 150 copies, out of a run of 200. In all I basically broke even financially. But someone from TIFF wrote me a really nice letter saying that they had gotten ahold of the thing, and that they loved it. So I was really pretty proud of the whole thing.
And from time to time, at various TIFF midnight madnesses, or here and there around the city, I'd run into that skinny kid from Tower Records. And in time Erik and I got to be friends. And he introduced me to his friends, and those people are essentially the core group that form about 50% of my social existence these days. And I wouldn't have known a single one of them, except that Leah said she'd help me out with one of my many half baked ideas, and instead of letting it sit there half baked, she put on her asbestos underwear and baked that thing right up to full. And I'm richer for it, and I'm grateful too.
And then Leah said she'd help design it and do all the production. Bevause I had NO idea how much work was going to be involved. None. Whatsoever. And that year I reviewed close to 100 films, wrote 3 articles, got Dave to do the cover, got Sam to throw in a cartoon, and had the thing printed and ready to sell within about four weeks. That's 28 DAYS to write and completely design and execute a 68 page magazine. With 2 diaries running across the top and bottom of multiple pages. And photos. And word marks. And God knows what else.
And when it was done, and Leah had managed to do it all on her trusty G3 Blue & White, I started going out to various stores and getting them to sell it on consignment. The Beguiling, Hollywood Canteen and most importantly Tower Records. Tower had this skinny kid with a weird beard working the magazine section downstairs, and he agreed to take some copies for me.
I sold out about 150 copies, out of a run of 200. In all I basically broke even financially. But someone from TIFF wrote me a really nice letter saying that they had gotten ahold of the thing, and that they loved it. So I was really pretty proud of the whole thing.
And from time to time, at various TIFF midnight madnesses, or here and there around the city, I'd run into that skinny kid from Tower Records. And in time Erik and I got to be friends. And he introduced me to his friends, and those people are essentially the core group that form about 50% of my social existence these days. And I wouldn't have known a single one of them, except that Leah said she'd help me out with one of my many half baked ideas, and instead of letting it sit there half baked, she put on her asbestos underwear and baked that thing right up to full. And I'm richer for it, and I'm grateful too.
posted by Mattvideo at 9:13 AM
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