alt.zines DMZ: Archives: Loud Paper

I'm the zine consumer everyone hates : I buy from the rack. And I found Loud Paper at Cody's Books during my monthly search to splurge on instant gratification.

Vol 2 Issue 1: focuses on Las Vegas & "a tiny bit about SCI-Arc Thesis". I could go without the Thesis stuff,myself.
        I really enjoyed Michaela Goldhaber's piece on Siegfried and Roy,as The Mirage and their White Tiger plasticine empire filled me with horror. Even more frightening was when visiting the Liberace Museum--I saw early 80's photos of S & R where they looked WAY older than they do now. Ecofriendly by self-preservation/recycling their own youth? Anyway,I digress. . . God Status: A Users Guide by Mimi Zeiger is piece on the deaths of Michael Hutchence (former lead singer of INXS) and Gordon Matta-Clark. Gordon who? Well,read the article on this "punk granddaddy of deconstruction". But I have to say,that such phrasing doesnt win me. . . but she does go on to honestly review short films of his work and to explain her own fall from heroworshipping him. For balance tho, we also have Gordon What? where Michele Saee lovingly raises the alter. Unfortunately,their writing is so dry that I cant see the passion either way. I put it down to too much time Thesis-ing,which is understandable. That is where they're coming from,etc. -it just doesnt make for captivating or inspiring reading. The Man on Stage by Jeremy Xavier is a tribute to Noel Coward. At first I was leery,having grown tired of the noveau Martini hipsters-I expected this to be full o'swank and irony. It wasnt. It was delightful and makes me want to pick up the Noel Coward At Las Vegas record he writes of. THAT to me is what a good article does: makes me want to participate in some way,to learn more,etc about the topic at hand.
        Formless or,Thesis Plays the Odds on Form by Michael Pinto. Blah blah blah. Wait,this quote is set apart: "Here's the problem, architecture cant be fashionable. " And I think to myself,"But isnt that what Loud Paper is trying,in some way ,to do?" Ooop,then I read,"There is this zine. . 'loud paper', a project that offers an architecture on paper,thus never entering the physical permanence which is the downfall of form-based architecture. " Yep. And again I think to myself,"I could do without the Thesis stuff myself. . . . "
        No Critical Distance by Chip Minnick is a standout image in the form-heavy writing.
        Pacific Public Rebates by Kevin Mulcahy opens with: "'Pacific Public Rebates' is an initial foray into the heavily hegemonic notion of public space as a continuous physical condition which supports community of people defined by a commonly held set of ideals. " Yep. He then goes on to relate an incident between himself and a man in Austria. Mulcahy explains,"The strength of the American image has afforded me with an unrestricted access to the world which the Viennese gentleman has not necessarily been privileged. " Yep.
        Vegas is a State of Mind by Mimi Zeiger--> my favorite line,". . . Vegas updated its image to include the modern family's ideal holiday: shopping. " Seriously, this is the best explanation for Vegas' 'family fun' transformation. But even Debbie Reynolds said about the old Vegas,"No one got shot that wasnt supposed to. " (from some documentary I cant recall the name of). Reading Mimi's walk on the Strip brought back my own memories of last spring,doing the same while my travelling companion while playing poker by the hour. Inserts: Stardust sticker,Instant Day #21 by Andrea Lenardin. All in all the layout is pleasantly engaging,tho the cursive is hard to read. Nice use of icons from a deck o'cards,viva.

Volume 2. Issue 2. Spring. Spring has sprung out all over this issue. It opens gleefully with A Tulip How-To Guide for happening gardening. This issue continues its kicky way through articles about the impact of soundtracks for shopping (Better Than Radio) amounting to not much more than an update of Muzak. "They're claiming your favorite songs. " Not a new topic--so one that I'd have higher expectations of I guess. . . Fiberglass on the Go--'cool'uses of fiberglass. Steve Kudlak writes Field Report: Wheeling,West Virginia, comparing it unfavorably to Palo Alto. I cant even pretend to be objective reviewing this piece,so full of stereotypes. Wheeling is referred to as,"the land of human reproduction". Imagine if a cracker said that about Oakland,CA?
        All That And a Bag of Chips reviews Dont Look Back and Spice World. Kicky kicky yet still lumbered by lapses of writing thesis style. Shag,Plastic and What they Wore- sorry,but this was useless like a glossy mag piece is useless.
        Lust : Bardot,Goddard, birth of mid-century design. Second time Banana Republic is mentioned. . . Finally, Loud Paper on Wall Paper where the writer,meeting the creator of Wallpaper magazine is shocked to find out that the magazine isnt driven "from a designers perspective,but. . . it's a much of a product as the times it promotes. "No! And ends her essay by saying, "But if Bruele's pants (shiney,creased and ill-fitting Prada things) are part of the lifestyle being sold at Harvey Nichols,then I,for one,will keep to the loud paper life. "
        And I realize,not knowing of "Prada" or "Harvey Nichols", that I'm probably not up to the loud paper life.

Don Fitch:
Yup. It's something you don't often see in professional (or "mainstream") writing today, though a few writers (essayists, mostly) still manage to do it -- and maybe, in person, one or two teachers you might be lucky enough to encounter in highschool or college. It's a matter of being enthusiastically interested in something, and of being able to _communicate_ that enthusiasm to others. I haven't figured out any rules or principles for it, other than being enthusiastic and knowledgeable in the first place, so I'll settle for calling it "a rare Talent", and enjoying it when it's encountered (while being cautious about getting sucked into yet another time-consuming interest).
>Unfortunately, their writing is so dry that I cant see the
>passion either way. I put it down to too much time Thesis-ing,
>which is understandable. That is where they're coming from, etc.-
>it just doesnt make for captivating or inspiring reading.
That gets a heartfelt *sigh* from me, as someone who tends to go into Erudite Bastard mode when approaching a /t/y/p/e/w/r/i/t/e/r/ keyboard. (Fortunately, the internet/ ASCII medium doesn't lend itself to facile footnoting, or I'd _really_ be sunk.) It's better than Pontifical Mode, however... and there are usually at least a few people in any audience who will helpfully puncture either of those balloons. The real problem, I guess, is that it's almost impossible to communicate a complicated idea with anything approximating satisfactory precision without using words with which some readers will be unfamiliar, and without following some pretty stringent grammatical rules. (Let's not think about the possibility of letting fancy words and precise grammar _substitute_ for any real Ideas, as happens too often in Academic writing.)

Don Fitch,
who has a _long_ list of things he'd rather not think about.

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