It all started with a routine PR plan. And once again the question was: with whom should we do it and about what? Then I said to Dalia: you know, we should change the way we do these things, I mean, interviews. I wanted something more vivid, more active from the point of the listener, that it wouldn’t just be a show of Q&A… The ones, that you can even tell, where the interviewer wasn’t even listening and just posed the questions from the list.
Sure, sometimes you bet bored with your own “super” questions, because you have heard all the stories from this person, that you actually know and work with, but your audience does not know squat, so you need to introduce him… But surely it can be done in an interesting way. So, I was missing some excitement that amazed me in those big interviews that I would find in English (speaking) press. There always was this voice of the person writing, and his impressions of the other… Those interviews were actually becoming portrait.
To make the story short: until this day I try to make my interviews more interesting (at least to me). Surely it is difficult, sometimes because of the lack of time, sometimes the texts must be cut because otherwise they wouldn’t get published… Of course, there are some diamonds out there. BUT the thing that happened it that conversation was that me and Dalia established our common interest in magazines and not the “ordinary” ones. It is just that then I did not know that there is so many and so different interesting press out there.
But there is… In a form of magazine - big, small, colorful, folded, heavy, poster type… you name it. So, maybe in your country you have these indie magazine stores, in which case, close your laptop (or put mobile in your pocket) and GO EXPLORE, or read further. If you’re still with me: in those magic stores you can see through magazines before you buy one. Like in a book store, because that is what this kind of press is worth – a book for each. But where was I supposed to start? I mean I was always somewhat sad because my work was/is my hobby, so, like, do I HAVE TO read theatre magazines ONLY? I did not know what could be interesting for me to read about. It wasn’t as simple as for those who, let’s say, are interested in nature etc., and just get a specialized magazine for that.
At first, I got my stash from Dalia herself. She was really pleased to have a comrade in this and gave me a few things from her gigantic collection. And that was my start: Gentlewoman, Fantastic Man, Kinfolk, Vanity Fair, 032c, Riposte... And now I know that those are already mainstreamish! And you see, me, I always need to dig deeper...
And so it happened that Dalia did an interview with an owner of one of those magazine shops. And he mentioned stackmagazines.com and their subscription, based on this fact that you NEVER KNOW what kind of magazine you will get!!! At first it might look scary to dive in like that, but my heart did flutter a bit there. So did Dalias, after she heard my “sort of a wish” and made a gift for me... And there we go, for the second year here, each month I find my own brown envelope from London with a letter from Steve.
Now I read magazines about poetry, creative writing, music, migration, psychology, politics, tennis, food and…. Happiness! And none of them are the same, as none of them resemble anything that you were used to think about when saying “magazine”.
I mean if it is a magazine about food, it will not have one recipe or the list of “most nutritional value…” Magazine like „Mold“ is absolutely different, talking about future of food in terms of cutlery and so on. You can read on new forms of spoons, see visions of future eating tools as well as sketches of designers favorite chairs…
A more artistic example for those, thinking that food is to banal - „Zoetrope“ by Francis Ford Coppola. Let it sink in there for a bit. And now you just go with the link…
And the awesome YUCA concept: theme and its alibi. Or The Exposed, where the paper version of the number is only an illustration for audio and video files stashed in the internet. And yes, these magazines and their authors do not deny the www, because, well, they are not stupid. The internet is a useful promotion tool, also the version of online and paper numbers can be absolutely different. But it is this responsibility of the written/pressed word that they cherish. You know, the fact that those words, letters, texts and ideas are there and cannot be changed any more with pressing “edit”.
And one of my last loves - Perdiz – that is dedicated to talk about things that makes us happy. I mean this is what all of the magazines should be about, and some of them are, because for each one of us happiness lies in different things. I will just leave a picture of an opening text here…
Basically, with Perdiz, I understood very clearly why this whole magazine thing got to me. 1. Magazines themselves became my hobby. 2. The alliance with various authors, who can be writing about an area that you are least interested in, shows how important it is HOW and not WHAT you’re saying (yeeees, totally fits theatre making too). 3. Finally, I admitted to myself that it’s not bad that I don’t care about various species of the birds or other animals, because I am interested in people and their lives, stories. And those indie magazines - they let me find my kind of interesting people. Just like I found Mre. Soeur in Riposte. I now own various things from the author and follow her on Instagram. And this is how todays’ world turns and how, piece by piece, I put my little life of exciting obsessions together.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, these things also made me rethink my way of writing, not only giving inspiration, but also even more motivation and purpose. Plus, the most interesting knowledge you get, like, did you know that in soviet times they used to “rewrite” vinyl on x-rays? (Cabinet).
I might never write a book, or become a famous writer, but writing itself as a tool of expression suits me damn fine. I think, mostly because when I write no one can interrupt me in the way that they do while talking. Hate that sooooooo much… Don’t ever get me started on this subject… Anyway, even if they get carried away while reading my text – it is too late to annoy me – it has been finished, my thoughts are already here, in the air or printed. And I do feel better.
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