Review 2007: Mark Robinson
The Boicozine Review 2007 ain’t quite over yet [boicozine/review2007]. Mark Robinson is the original D.I.Y. indie mogal and head of Teenbeat Records [teenbeat.net]. At Boicozine, we’re not just fans of the music — Mark not only enlists some of the US’s finest musicians who you’ve never heard of, but also plays in a number of bands on the label including Air Miami and Flin Flon and on a number of solo projects — we’re also big fans of much of the artwork Mark has helped produced under the moniker of Teenbeat Graphica. So without further ado were pleased to present Mr Robinson’s highlights from 2007…
Publications
National Geographic [nationalgeographic.com] – Hands-down the best. Runners-up: Good [goodmagazine.com], Beer Advocate [beeradvocate.com] – new beer aficionado’s periodical, McSweeney’s [mcsweeneys.net] – consistently great fiction / nonfiction / whatever
Film
I end up seeing only two or three per year in the cinema so I’m sure I missed many good ones. I’ll have to go with The Kite Runner [IMDb] and Ratatouille [IMDb]. I saw Rataouille with my kids and The Kite Runner with my mom and stepdad on Christmas. I really want to see Guy Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain [IMDb]!
Design & illustration
Deerhoof’s Friend Opportunity [deerhoof.killrockstars.com] album cover illustration by David Shrigley [davidshrigley.com]. I’m kind of hot and cold with his work but I really love his spray-painted letters.
Events
The Somerville Art Council events in Union Square are always fun [somervilleartscouncil.org]. I discovered our local chocolate factory (well, a new small independent chocolate factory, not to be confused with the other big brands in town) called Taza [tazachocolate.com] and a beekeeper that makes his own Jamaica Plain honey.
Purchases
When Pigs Fly [sendbread.com] seeded whole wheat bread. Bread prices sure have gone up, but this is worth the $US4.29. A small bakery in New Hampshire that makes a variety of super duper stuff.
Places to Visit
Saint John, New Brunswick [tourismsaintjohn.com]. Pretty much the only place I visited in ‘07. Quaint, British, run down, beautiful. Drink St. Amboise cream stout on tap if you can find it. A superb Oatmeal stout.
Review 2007: the Magazines
Last year was a crazy, exciting and scary hell-ride of a year for the major magazine publishers in the U.K. — exciting to see the industry get a well needed shake up; scary for those on the inside. Still, there’s no denying change, especially for an industry that seems to have been slowly rotting from the inside out for years now. The big news was that Emap finally folded under the weight of it’s own inherent corporate greed [news.bbc.co.uk]. But not after laying waste to much of Britain’s world-renowned magazine culture. Emap’s tenure saw the purchase and demise of many titles that embraced the U.K.’s alternative culture and helped define what made this place so different to anywhere else in the world. The Face [ebay] and Smash Hits [ebay] are the most popular titles that spring to mind, both closing after a disastrous remodelling at the hands of a company that seemed to forget how to make magazines that people liked and felt a part of (other titles included Select, Frank, Sneak, Minx, Kingsize, J-17 (formerly Just Seventeen), Sky… there’s loads of ‘em). So Hurrah! The U.K.’s No.1 magazine killer is dead! Boo Emap! We won’t miss you, although your legacy will always live on in the sole gift you chose to bestow, sorry, blight the world with… horrible, hateful Heat magazine…
The biggest shift in magazine culture this year came from the Men’s sector. Knock-off male versions of Heat like Nuts and Zoo (a format may have seemed new to British readers but has actually been tried and tested in Australia for decades) began to falter for 2 main reasons… one being that every issue looked the same making people assume they were being fooled into paying for, what was essentially, the same magazine over and over again and secondly because pornography is so much easier to get online and much more, shall we say, ‘detailed’ than the brand of ‘oo-er missus’ titillation these mags could only go so far to offer. The result was that Men’s mags stopped getting dumber and started getting smarter… and slicker. This is where I have to mention Monocle. The most blogged about magazine this year. Tyler Brulê’s legacy revived itself this year not just with a smashing new magazine (with global media network in tow) but also in the editorial sensibilities that remained intact at the reinvigorated Wallpaper and the newly relaunched Esquire.
Those were the biggest stories in a pretty eventful year for magazine culture that included an ‘end of print’ revival and saw the first ever independent magazine symposium launched. At Boicozine we always lean towards the more independent minded publications, so with that in mind here’s our brief list of favourite mags from 2007…
032c [032c.com] / A10 [a10.eu] / Acne Paper [acnepaper.com] / Another Man [exacteditions.com] / Dwell [dwell.com] / Entertainment Weekly [ew.com] / Fantastic Man [fantasticmanmagazine.com] / Grafik / Ideas Illustrated [ycnonline.com] / Little White Lies [littlewhitelies.co.uk] / Monocle [monoclemagazine.com] / Palais [palaisdetokyo.com/magpalais] / Pin-up [pinupmagazine.org] / Pyramid Power [pyramidpower.ca] / Sup [supmag.com] / Uniqlo Paper [uniqlo.com/uniqlopaper] / Varoom [varoom-mag.com] / Wired [wired.com]
Review 2007: Things of the Year #5
Protein’s [protein.co.uk] packaging for their Daft Punk’s debut film, Electroma [electroma.org] turns the DVD case into a hard bound picture book. No plastics involved, just a bit of glue.
Review 2007: Andrew Losowsky
When Mr Losowsky [losowsky.com] tells you something is worth reading then you better be paying attention. This man know his magazines. Editorial Director for Le Cool [lecool.com] (and international jetsetter), Andrew also played a major role in setting up Colophon2007 [welovemags.com] early last year, curating the exhibits alongside Jeremy Leslie [magculture.com] as well as acting as editor on the book to accompany the event entitled We Love Magazines [die-gestalten.de]. So without further a-do here’s is Andrew’s stuff of the year 2007…
Publications
Cut me this year and I bled ink (Pantone 032). Among the paper delights I fell in love with are Omagiu (Romania) [omagiu.com], Etiqueta Negra (Peru) [etiquetanegra.com.pe], Carl*s Cars (Norway) [carls-cars.com], the printing of IGN (Hong Kong), the protest edition of Flaunt (USA) [flaunt.com], Good (also USA) [goodmagazine.com], Dumbo Feather, Pass it on (Australia) [dumbofeather.com], B East (Various Eastern European places via Stockport) [beastnation.com/beast], Kasino A4 (Finland) [wearekasino.com], the online edition of T magazine from the New York Times [nytimes.com/t], S Publication (Denmark) [spublication.com], Coupe (Canada) [coupe-mag.com], the GQ 50th Anniversary Edition [gqat50.com]. But my favourite? Lemon (USA) [lemonland.net]. I’ve only seen the Kubrick edition, but it’s so bloody fantastic, from idea to execution, that I can’t wait for more. And neither can any of the people who work in my office. Everyone loved it, even those who don’t speak English. Lemon is this year’s winner. May their crown be swiftly stolen by something even better. /
Music
This year I seemed to fluctuate between three classic crooners: Bill Withers, Paul Simon and Lou Reed. My favourite new discovery was Tok Tok Tok [toktoktok.eu]. Thanks to the barman in Begin the Beguine in Madrid for that one. Mellow. /
Film
For a cinema buff, I’ve seen surprisingly little this year. Those that were memorable and worth your time (if you can track them down): El Orfanato [IMDb], El Labarinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth to you) [IMDb] and the marvellous Czech Dream [IMDb], a documentary about creating a non-existant supermarket in the Czech Republic. A triumph of substance about style. /
Art & Design
The Riverstones bowl from the MoMA Store made me gasp [momastore.org]. I own it now. Lovely. The huge wall of scribbles at MoMA made me laugh, a lot (can’t remember who did it, sorry Mr Artist). Also the newish terminal at Zurich Airport [zurich-airport.com] — not new this year, but a new discovery for me, a slick wooden object of beauty with a hilarious spoof Tiroler Hut upstairs [tirolerhut.co.uk]. If you look out of the window, you can see the outdoor kids rooftop playground on the other side. Bouncy! /
Events & Exhibitions
Leaving aside the obvious Colophon2007 plug (it was such fun!), the fog box in the Antony Gormley exhibition made me feel like I was in a weird filmic dream [southbankcentre.co.uk/gormley]. Loved it. The Alan Fletcher retrospective, if that was indeed this year, made me smile, which is as it should be [designmuseum.org]. The new De La Guarda show FuerzaBruta send my jaw spiralling to the floor [fuerzabruta.net]. And the Revealing Histories displays at Manchester Museum was a brilliant, brilliant way of re-examining a museum and what’s in its collection [revealinghistories.org.uk]. Controversial, eye-catching and rather clever. Well done, everyone. More please. /
Purchases
My Monster iPod Shuffle headphones. Changed my commute and occasional jogging forever. I then lost them (boo) but my girlfriend gave me another pair for Christmas (hurray!). No more annoying wires and accidentally changing tracks mid-podcast. My weekly Radiolab [wnyc.org/radiolab] moments are safe again. /
Places to Visit
I’ve been a very bad carbon boy this year. Top places: Melbourne (would love to live there), Angelos Pizza in New York on a Monday (try the garlic bread, tip your singing waiter). Bestest of all: Lake Atitlán. Google it and gasp [wikipedia]. /
Worst Place to Visit
Miami fucking Airport. I’d explain why, but then I’d have to kill you, me and everyone you know. We shall never speak of this again.
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Reviews 2007: Things of the Year #4
Peecol interchangeable figures based on a typeface of the same name, designed by eBoy [eboy.com]. Produced by Kidrobot [kidrobot.com].
Review 2007: Luis Mendo
Luis Mendo runs the creative agency, Good Inc [goodinc.nl] out of his office in Amsterdam where he taps into, and works with, a hand picked selection of hi qual creative bods. Luis is passionate about magazines (he was lead creative on the Colofound magazine project [colophon2009.com/colophound] which he first introduced at the event early last year) and has a deep interest in the minutiae of creative process. He is also an irregular contributor to Boicozine — see, he’s on our list — when he’s not too busy with his own blog, bladblog [bladblog.nl], an excellent Dutch-language blog for reading about magazine design and global creativity around the world.
Publications
Monocle [monoclemagazine.com], because they came out with something truly new. Something many claim and few do /
Music
Spinvis, a Dutch musician [spinvis.nl] and Remate, an Spanish one [rematemusic.com]. Spinvis is making this incredibly interesting mix between low media (cassette recordings, sounds from the ordinary life…) and electronics, with a nice voice and great lyrics. Remate does a bit the same really but sings in English /
Film
ahem… Probably Control by Anton Corbijn [corbijn.co.uk]. Great photographer, great movie /
Design & Illustration
Probably this [ex7.org/laszlito-kovacs] by Laszlito Kovacs. Laszlito is a friend and I’m his biggest fan /
Purchases
The iPod Touch [wikipedia] is a lovely piece of electronics. Pretty, wonderfully well designed interfaces… Finally internet in my pocket plus my music and now, thanks to the hack I’ve installed, my email and Google Maps. Who needs the iPhone? /
Places to Visit
Ah… probably Tokyo… when I get a chance to go there. It is always on top of my list of places to visit. In the meantime Madrid is always excellent. I was there in March at the Puerta America [puertamerica.com] hotel. Beautiful /
Worst Film
Ocean’s Thirteen [impawards.com/oceans_thirteen]. I love those films, but the last one was terrible.
The image above is of a spread about Luis featured in Graphic magazine [bispublishers.nl].
Review 2007: The Music
2007 was the year ‘Indie’ died. The finger of blame rests on the head certain Big Brother muppet [emilyparr.co.uk], who stepped up to represent a whole swarming herd of spoilt little posh girls (or Sophies as they are often called), who spent most of this year slumming it in Camden’s seedy skank pits, getting drunk on the pheromones of a barely talented bunch of young, male major label fodder. Suddenly, ‘indie’ was not about music anymore… it was about your boyfriend and his pork pie hat and potential heroin ‘problem’ or whatever lank haired whiner had been mentioned in Vogue this month [vogue.co.uk].
This was also the year Radiohead out foxed the majors and left the likes of Robbie Williams and those of a similar ilk, clinging hopelessly to their skeletal remains [news.bbc.co.uk] — this is one story that is going to run and run. Luckily, all this rubbish ‘indie’ and major label hullabaloo barely registered with bands and artists who were making music to cherish in 2007. This is a very brief selection of favourite tracks and releases discovered this year. Consider it a recommendation and if you’ve got any yourself post a comment and let us know what topped your most played lists this year.
Hissing Fauna, Are you the Destroyer?
Of Montreal
Fave track: Bunny ain’t no kind of Rider
[ofmontreal.net]
Inland Empire
Soundtrack
Standout track: Walking on the Sky
[imdb.com]
Lust Lust Lust
The Ravonettes
Standout track: You Want the Candy
[youtube.com]
Tromatic Reflexxions
Von Südenfed
Standout track: The Rhinohead
[dominorecordco.com]
Friend Opportunity
Deerhoof
Standout track: +81
[deerhoof.killrockstars.com]
Dreams
The Whitest Boy Alive
Standout track: Burning
[whitestboyalive.com]
A Drink and a Quick Decision
Grand National
Standout track: Close Approximation
[grand-national.net]
Death by Sexy
Eagles of Death Metal
Standout track: Cherry Cola
[youtube.com]
Overpowered
Róisín Murphy
Standout track: Body Language
[youtube.com]
Midnight Karaoke
Midnight Mike
Standout track: Amputee
[therepublicofdesire.com]
Review 2007: Things of the Year #3
uovo green edition, produced by The Bookmakers and designed by boletsfernando [boletsfernando.org/uovo].
Review 2007: Jeremy Leslie
Jeremy Leslie is Group Creative Director at John Brown Publishing [johnbrowngroup.co.uk], fellow blogging enthusiast and champion to magazine designers across the globe. His blog over at MagCulture [magculture.com/blog] is essential reading for anyone with even a passing interest in magazines and the business of magazine design. In between managing the creative output at John Brown and helping organise the next Colophon event [welovemags.com] he managed to send us a few of his highlights from the past 12 months…
Publications
Monocle [monoclemagazine.com] because its genuinely new; 032c [032c.com] because it divided people so decisively; Kasino A4 [wearekasino.com] because it makes me laugh; Carls Cars [carls-cars.com] because it carries on; Time [blog.pentagram.com] redesign because it rethinks mainstream news design /
Music
According to iTunes, Not Even Jail by Interpol [google.com/music] /
Best Film
Control [IMDb]; weird seeing my musical youth so convincingly recreated /
Events & Exhibitions
Colophon2007 [welovemags.com]; not because I am one of the founders exist but because it was really exciting how our expectations of what it could be were exceeded. Roll on Colophon2009.
Shown above is the official book (and event in it’s own right), produced for the Colophon2007 event. Design and Creative Direction by Jeremy Leslie.
Review 2007: Things of the Year #2
I Hate Music compliation for Output Recordings. Compiled and designed by Trevor Jackson [outputrecordings.com].
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