Throughout this issue Ms. Merry is the leading ďŹ ne art & avant-garde fashion body painter in the Bay Area. Her body paintings cover an extraordinary range of styles and concepts. Her work is a combination of creative innovation inherent in the Bay Area. Her infectious passion and courage has kept her work in top demand in California & now abroad. Her work has been featured on Bay Area TV shows, music videos, magazines, advertisements, branding events, band tours, calendars, & books. She has a Bachelor s in Media Studies from Azusa PaciďŹ c University. She has exhibited in galleries all over the west coast including SOMA Arts & Project One Gallery in SF. Her work can be viewed at http://zhibit.org/trinamerry, or at www.trinamerry.com.
Photo by JAM Photos (Juan Moreno)
From the Editors
T
he Bible states pretty clearly in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that there is nothing new under the sun. Well, it doesn t exactly say that, but I m close. Either way, the point stands‒ for the most part, it s already been done.
With that in mind, we decided to analyze what it is that we can do with all these sun-soaked relics to improve them and optimize them. Whether it be our businesses, our cooking, our understanding of a concept, or even our crappy cars, there is not much we cannot attempt to make better. Even the sharpest knife needs to be honed, and our contributors have applied that thinking to all aspects of living in the following articles. Thank you and enjoy!
Brendan G. Nystedt
Ashleigh R. Hill
Spencer J. Sands
EDITORIAL
Ashleigh R. Hill Brendan G. Nystedt Spencer J. Sands
CONTRIBUTORS Cori Johnson Diane Soloman Kyla McCracken Megan Eckman Molly C. Loar Scott MacDonald Urvi Nagrani W. Clay
FEATURED ARTISTS Trina Merry Lever Rukhin
COVER MODEL Canon Purdy
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Jeffrey Opp Juan Moreno Ashleigh R. Hill Spencer J. Sands Brendan G. Nystedt Sabrina Hill W. Clay SPECIAL THANKS
Rickshaw Bagworks (rickshawbags.com) Grado Labs (gradolabs.com) Robin Gilligan Reese Zecchin Š 2012 Atom Magazine
!%*2!*0ล 5+1.ล 1/0 1 '!0ล ฤ ล $+ล !! /ล %รป5ล 1 !ฤ Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Reinvent
N(ICE) by Kyla McCracken Tandoori Chicken Pizza & Indian Eggplant Pizza by Megan Eckman
*ล *0!.2%!3ล 3%0$ล !//ล ) .0ล )%(!5ล ฤ ล "ล ล * ล ( 5/ล %*ล ล +.!/0ฤ ล 5ล ฤ ล ( 5ล Weekend Warrior
A Humane Guide to Surviving the Job Hunt by Cori Johnson ล !*ล (+#0++*ล 5ล % *!ล +(+)+*ล ฤ ล !01.*ล 0+ล !*0!.
.+)ล 3 0 $ล 0+ล #ล ฤ ล /! ((ฤ ล ,,(!ล %!ล * ล . +ล ! ,$+*!/
+ล 0 $ล ล (%),/!ล +"ล +0$!.ล 01.!ล 5ล +((5ล ฤ ล + .ล ล ! 01.! ล .0%/0ฤ ล !2!.ล 1$'%*
I
really want an air-cooled Porsche. I think that they are the most amazingly sleek and generally awesome cars that I can even dare to dream about owning (I really want a Ferrari, but that is simply not happening). That being said, I own a 2000 Honda Civic EX and I m not complaining, for it is an amazing car. It drives and drives and never gives me problems. But it wasn t always the most fun and that is a bummer. Luckily, for not all that much money, over the course of the last few years, I have been able to squeeze quite a few additional horse-power out of its artfully built, Japanese engine. It is now a pretty darned fun car to throw into low gear around the many mountain curves I have access to and despite its unassuming appearance has a decent amount of get up in go. With this thought-process in mind, Atom has compiled a short list of simple, yet effective tweaks the average weekend warrior should be more than capable of performing on their own sweet commuter jalopy to make them as fun as possible to drive. More over, a lot of these suggestions offer the benefit of road safety or better fuel consumption, so use that to justified them to yourself...
Flatten out your ride: Tightening up your suspension is a great way to increase you performance especially around turns. Sway bars are a relatively inexpensive and easy to install after-market accessory that will make your car feel a lot racier. Weight is a factor: Every pound of crap your car has to drag is that much less power you have on tap. Clean your car out and make sure to wash mud and such out of the wheel wells. Those extra pounds are costing you speed!
Reinvent Your Keeping it smooth: Installing a cat-back exhaust system with help the exhaust flow out more smoothly. Craigslist is a great market place for these kind of accessories. The biggest draw back is the additional noise your car will make...
Don t tread on me: We can rarely afford four new tires, and luckily, it s rarely necessary. We typically just buy two new tires, put them on the back of our cars (where, for front wheel drive cars, traction is important) and move the old front tires to the front. This sets up a nice, and highly affordable, cycle.
You gotta be able to see: Change out your old-ass windshield wipers! It s just a lot safer that way. Rain-X® is another way to go, but personally, we ve never had great results with it...
A car s gotta breathe: Your car runs on thousands of little explosions. Think back to high school chemistry-- combustion needs three things, oxygen being one of them. The more air you can get to the engine, the more efficiently it will burn. If you can afford a turbo, more power to you, but if you are cheap like us, a cold-air-intake is a more affordable, if not less powerful way to go. A reusable cotton filter is another economical way to go. Instead of tossing your filter, just wash it out!
Getting that spark back: Changing out your spark plug wires is both cheap and easy. More efficient wires will deliver a stronger spark to the plugs and will in turn help combust more gas thereby affording you more power. Just be sure you wire them up in the right order... Seriously, you should do this every hundred thousand miles, spark plugs are not immortal.
Rustbucket Rustbucket By Spencer Sands
President Obama wasn t joking: Making sure your tire pressure is right can do a ton for your milage. Do not try at home: Hyper-milers (people who squeeze extreme milage out of average cars) will often inflate their tires well beyond the factory recommended specs. Again, they are weirdos and this should not be attempted...
A car s only as good as its driver: Many auto-clubs like the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) offer course to teach you the driver advanced techniques. Learning to get your car out of a spin is not only super fun when done under controlled conditions, but it may also save your life.
Who Needs Jiffy-Lube??????????? ((probably me)) By Spencer Sands
t isn t that hard to change your own oil. That being said, it isn t that hard to just take your car to
someone and pay them the $30 to have them do it either. But I m here to make a case for doing it yourself. Think about that Robert Frost quote everyone butchers-- this certainly represents the
road less traveled. In a world were auto-shop is no longer offered to high schoolers and the term blue collar has become something to turn your nose up at, I think it is an important personal exercise in getting your hands dirty. It doesn t
really take any special tools, it s relatively cheap (if you don t count personal man-hours) and, if nothing else, it serves to demystify a machine that the average American spends a huge proportion of they life in.
The first step in the process is jacking your car up (1). Obviously, this is very hard, look at my face. Be sure you have your back wheels
chocked so it doesn t roll and crush you to death. Also, once the car is in the air, you ll need something to hold it there. Don t use the jack; place you spare tire under a raised wheel if you don t have jack stands.
After the car is secure and off the ground, crawl under and remove the drain plug (2). Be sure your are using the right wrench, stripping this bolt will cost you much money. Once the plug is out, filthy oil will
spurt forth (3). Make sure you have something to catch it in. A
disposable baking dish works in
place of a commercial oil pan. Once the oil is well and thoroughly drained, replace the plug.
Next, find and remove your old oil
filter (4). I always get mine off with my bare hand but there is such a tool as a filter wrench. Before
replacing it with the new one, wet the new filter s rubber seal with some old oil.
1.
With the plug and filter back in
2. 4.
place, add the new oil to the engine (5). If you aren t sure about how
much to add, go a quart at a time and check the dip stick.
Finally, any spills are easily cleaned up with kitty-litter (6). If it s good enough for your cat to shit in, it
should be good enough for your garage floor.
There! Wasn t that easy? As for the used oil, place it in milk jugs and
place it with your garbage for pick
up. If you garbage people are lousy
3. 5.
and don t do oil pick up, drop it off
at any auto shop. Looking at what I spent on the filter and the oil, I
really didn t save any money as
opposed to just going to a quickchange place. But I had fun, got
dirty, and felt manly, and how can you put a price on that?
6.
RE
CYCLE DUCE USE INVENT
Words by Brendan Nystedt Photos by Urvi Nagrani
W
hen the economy s down, those bold enough to throw caution to the wind take advantage of the situation. They combat naysayers with optimism, invest in what others say is foolish, and take their own destiny by the reigns. At least, that s the idea. Between an idea and a product is a lot of work. Brainstorming, testing, engineering, and a healthy dose of experimentation are all essential parts of creating a product. Today, the tools and training are within the reach of almost anyone who has an interest in creating something really unique. The stage is set for a new generation of inventors and entrepreneurs to take their imaginations into the third dimension and inspire future thinkers to do the same. Adam Wegener has been through the entire process and he s learned a lot about what vmakes a great idea into a great product. He s the founder of Trash Amps‒ a company that produces a tiny, battery powered speaker for a guitar or a music player. The inspiration for the Trash Amp came when Adam started toying with the idea of a guitar amp built into a aluminum can. One Christmas, my buddy got a kit to make an Altoids tin into a guitar amp. You take the tin, cut a hole for the speaker and you solder it all together. So he made it and it worked but it sounded really crappy because it s such a small enclosure and everything s jammed in there. I don t know if it was him or his dad who said Oh, you should put that in a beer can! So, he did that but he was an electrical engineer and I m a manufacturing engineer. The
first prototype he had made, he had cut the top off and shoved a PVC pipe in there and a lot of hot glue and Velcro. I suggested we work together to improve it. If you re gonna make more than one you should design it so that it s easy to make. So, we came up with a few prototypes using the circuitry from that kit. We showed it to a few people and people started saying that they wished that they played guitar so they could use it. So we built a few and at that point we started selling them. These first versions were an important step towards the Trash Amp we see today but comparing the prototypes to the models on sale today reveal how rudimentary those first amps were. The can was whole but cut at the bottom to allow for insertion of the electronics and batteries. The frame keeping the can stiff was made from a similar-diameter piece of PVC pipe with small pads to keep the can from denting around the 1/4 jack. The original can was also extremely labor intensive due to the design and Adam was continually thinking about how to improve the product so that it was both of a higher quality and easier to assemble. I never really felt confident in the level of quality, Adam told me, just because I d rather have something that s really professional and repeatable rather than something that looks like it s made in your garage. The Trash Amp Adam is making now is so much cooler than the original. It s clear that this refined design has its roots with the first handmade amps but it feels complete. The modern Trash Amp is a black plastic module which sits in a can (of which Trash Amps sells many different varieties for all tastes in soda and beer). All the important bits (the speaker, batteries, a retractible cord, and all the electronic guts) are inside this rigid shell. Adam admits that his experience with rapid prototyping in school came in handy when he started thinking about this ultimate version: I had taken classes in mold design and even worked on designing some parts in school as we developed the product. Although the 3D-printed outer case was of a
lower quality, it was an important proof-of-concept for where he wanted the product to go in the future. It s these two black plastic halves that snap together and hold everything in place. This new design also allowed them to show off the Trash Amps branding more prominently: No matter what can you use, our brand is still on there. Adam wanted to make the Amp more flexible. Recognizing that his non-guitar playing friends were lusting after his speakers for MP3 duty, he came up with the Jam/Chill switch on the inside of the product. That was important to me because we recognized the two different uses. We don t know of any other speakers that have that dual functionality. You either have a guitar amp or an MP3 speaker. That s one of the differentiators of our product. Basically, what s it doing is switching the gain like a volume switch. But, I thought I d be more creative with the Jam and Chill . Some people get confused and other people get a kick out of it. To get things started, Adam took his plans to TechShop, a chain of manufacturing workshops. TechShop locations have tools and training which used to be only available to those who were running volume businesses. Because of technological progression driving down the cost of tools, TechShop is able to provide an impressive array of gadgets to members for an extremely reasonable cost. After realizing he needed his own manufacturing equipment, he had a vacuform mold made for the outer black shell and bought his own laser cutter to make other parts. Adam s looking at the bigger picture, too. He hopes that people look at this product and wonder what else out there (other than soda cans) could be reused in a different context. People know the importance of recycling. Seeing a product like this it s an obvious thing, a soda can and music. Two things they hadn t considered to put together but they know them both well. They think it s so cool. Most things fall on two sides‒ they re either doing reuse or up-cycling (for example, a company that would take car tires and make them into shoe soles). But when kids see the shoes they don t know [what they re made from]. Then the other side we want kids to understand reuse so we fill a milk bottle with sand and now it s a doorstop. That s never going to inspire kids to do anything. I think this is right in the center. Besides being a cool little product to have around, it also encourages the average person to think of these new combinations. I hope that this will lead to people coming up with solutions like this to address our problems of overconsumption. With an open mind, some research, some tools and a great idea, it s never been easier for entrepreneurs and inventors to make their dreams come true. It helps when there s a positive underlying philosophy‒ getting rich quickly should never take the place of having real goals. Adam and Trash Amps look like they re in a position to do just that. They ve already sold over a thousand amps and they hope to continue growing. Take a page out of Adam s book‒ this is an amazing time to be a creative person with a passion. Tools are plentiful and training has never been more accessible. You might not be able to make something as cool or complex as a Trash Amp, but the moral of the story is that you should make something.
Urvi Nagrani is a photographer, activist, filmmaker and marketing consultant from Silicon Valley. She enjoys tea, coffee, snarky humor, and Twitter. See more of her work online: theurv.com
Photography: JAM Photos (Juan Moreno) Model: Rebecca Case Hair & Basecoat assistance: Sandra Moreno Bodypaint by Trina Merry
N(ICE) By Kyla McCracken
1) Get some fruit. Last week I used the fresh fruit from my farm share, which was about ½ pound of cherries and a pint of
S
ummertime brings us two distinct, intensely opposing desires: wanting to look foxy in a bathing suit and wanting to eat all of the ice cream every day.
Fortunately, there is a solution and it's economical to
boot! What is this magical delight? Homemade sorbet,
of course! It's as easy to make as it is on your figure. At least I think so? I'm no nutritionist, but homemade
sorbet has no added sugar, no artificial additives, no
dairy, and is basically just a heaping serving of fresh
fruit, which the doctor is always telling you to eat every day. I've decided that not only is eating sorbet
comparatively better for you than ice cream, it's
actually GOOD for you! Why are you not eating it RIGHT NOW?! Oh right, because I haven't taught you yet. Well, here goes. I'm no good at measurements, so when I cook I like to just eyeball everything until it looks about right. Here are my basic instructions:
raspberries (well, all the ones that I didn't eat on the way home,
anyway). I also had a couple store-bought red plums that looked like they were about to go south, so I tossed those in, too. I'm guessing it was about 4-ish cups of fruit? You could easily
experiment with other kinds of berries, bananas, kiwis, oranges, etc. Apples probably would be weird, but what do I know? Fruit flavors combine together in wonderful ways you never thought
possible. This is YOUR summer treat so go crazy! I'd peel apples
or pears or any fruit with a not-soft peel/skin. (Note: I have used
frozen fruit in the past and it works just fine! My favorite is a triberry blend of raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries, but
since it's frozen the fruit is drier so you'll want to add in a couple tablespoons of juice like lemon or orange or even grapefruit! Don't use canned fruit, that's for cafeterias.)
2) Mash that fruit UP! I pitted and stemmed the cherries, and
left the peels on, but the plums have a thicker peel and were too soft to cut into little chunks so I just squished the fruit out of its
skin. Yummy! I then used a potato masher to get things juicy. My fruit was very ripe, and in fact maybe a little over-ripe, which is
perfect for sorbet. If your fruit isn't super soft, don't worry! Just
cut it up into ½ inch cube-ish shapes and hang in there: the fun is
just beginning! If your fruit is really soft, you might be able to skip this step.
3) Sorbet-ify. Blend until very smooth, so all the fruit and the
peels are a uniform consistency. I prefer to use my immersion
(hand) blender, but a food processor or blender would be great,
too. Failing that, I'm sure a hand mixer would be okay, but only if
our fruit is really ripe and smushy and you've already beaten it up with a potato masher. Also, why do you not own fancy things? An
immersion blender will literally change your whole life and open up opportunities in your kitchen that you never thought were possible. It's 2012, get it together.
4)Taste test. So how are things going in that bowl? Too sweet? Add some lemon juice. Too sour? Add a teensy bit of agave or
sugar water (more on that later) but be careful because it does
get quite a bit sweeter when frozen, so it's best to err on the side
of sourness and then top it with some agave nectar or honey
when you serve it. The consistency should be like a slightly runny
smoothie. If it feels too much like baby food, like if you used a lot
of banana, it'll come out kind of dense, so you might want to add a couple tablespoons of juice to thin things out. You can also
simmer the mixture on the stove for a few minutes to cook off
some of the water and intensify the natural sugars of the fruit, but I m usually too lazy for that step. It's not crucial.
5)Freeze it. I like to use old yogurt containers or any kind of
tupperware you can piece together. It's best to fill your containers as close to the top as possible, so there's less air inside. This way, you don't get a bunch of gross-looking (but probably completely
fine) freezer burn on the top of your delicious treat. Another way
4) As I mentioned before, you can make a simple syrup to sweeten
shaped) for portion control (this stuff is addicting!), or to put on
until it's dissolved (or two cups water and two cups sugar, you
water. If you have one of those fancy popsicle-maker contraptions,
sweetness. Want to get REALLY fancy? Steep a cup of tea until
firm up enough, but it depends on the size of your containers and
a green tea or peppermint or chamomile syrup depending on
is to put it in ice cube trays (especially ones that are whimsically
it. To do this, simmer a cup of water and stir in a cup of sugar
top of yogurt, or to use as ice cubes in cocktails or sparkling
get the idea). The add it in little by little to achieve your desired
now is the time to use it. I usually find it takes an hour or so to
it's really dark, then simmer it and dissolve the sugar in to make
if your fruit was fresh or frozen. Then, enjoy!
what fruit you're using. What about peppermint-orange?
A few optional serving/recipe suggestions:
just don't know! Experiment! You can also go the savory route
1) If you're missing the creamy feel of ice cream, put a dollop of
Banana-chamomile? Orange-zinger tea with black cherries? I
and boil thyme or basil leaves in with the water, let them chill
nonfat plain greek yogurt on top of your sorbet scoop. I really
out for a while and then strain it through a mesh strainer
negates that ice cream craving, I swear.
Yes, please!
like the way the textures and flavors mix together, and it totally
2) If you want to go really nuts, mix some of your sorbet mixture with the greek yogurt, freeze it and sha-BAM! Frozen yogurt!
Greek yogurt is amazing and mixing it with peanut butter and
agave or jam before freezing is heavenly. Plus, yogurt freezes in like half an hour if you're needing a fix like NOW. This is
probably less healthy than sorbet, but God help me if that s
before adding it in. Lemon-thyme sorbet? Strawberry-basil?
5) Just eat this stuff plain. Seriously, it's so good. In fact, maybe the best way to eat it is with a sprig of fresh mint on top, because you're fancy as shit and that's how you do.
Good luck and happy summer! Let me know of any cool
combinations you come up with, I'd love to try them out!
going to stop me from whipping some up before a shower and then having a delicious post-cleansing treat.
3) Some people like to mix a little booze, especially something
flavorless like vodka, in with the sorbet mixture. Since alcohol
doesn't freeze, this gives the sorbet a more liquid/scoop-able
texture. I've also heard that using flavored vodka, or spirits that
complement the fruits, in the sorbet is great (like rum in a lime/ orange combo), but I'm unconvinced. I've tried this with limited
success and if there's alcohol in it I feel less okay about eating
it for breakfast. But hey, you might figure out the perfect ratios and it's worth mentioning as an option.
Kyla McCracken is a Seattleite living in Brooklyn, NY, where the streets are paved with good intentions. Most days you will find her riding a bike, playing dress-ups, and recycling. Other days you won’t find her at all because she likes to be off the grid for short periods of time. She really likes to do arts and crafts, but leaves projects incomplete so that if she dies suddenly she has "unfinished business" to come back for and can haunt the shit out of people. Kyla has read the entire internet.
Photography: Tim Engle Model: Chelsea Dixon Hair: Mikel Sessions Bodypaint by Trina Merry — with Mikel Sessions, Chelsea Dixon and Tim Engle.
Tandoori Chicken Pizza By Megan Eckman
P
uree the marinade ingredients in a food processor or chop finely and
combine in a bowl to make a smooth paste.
Reserve half of the marinade in the fridge for later use.
Cut the chicken into small cubes and marinate in
the remaining marinade for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator.
Place the marinated chicken on a baking pan lined
with aluminum foil. (If you have a cooling rack, you can put this on the baking pan and cook the chicken on that.) Broil the chicken for 5-
10 minutes until cooked through. Remove from oven. Turn off broil and set to 425F. Stretch
the pizza dough out on its stone or pan. Spoon the
Chicken Tandoori Pizza
reserved marinade on the crust. Top with cooked
chicken and onion slices. Bake for 15-20 minutes
until the crust is done. Remove the pizza from the
oven and garnish with cilantro sprigs and lime juice. Marinade:
Pizza crust (prepared
1 chicken breast
directions)
2 tsp coriander 1 tsp cumin ½ onion, chopped 3 cloves of garlic, chopped 2 inch piece of ginger, chopped 1 cup of plain yogurt Zest of 1 lemon 3 Tbsp lemon juice 2 Tbsp white vinegar 1 tsp paprika 2 tsp garam masala Red food coloring (optional)
according to its
½ onion, sliced Cilantro sprigs 1 lime
Indian Eggplant Pizza By Megan Eckman
P
urée the curry pesto ingredients in a food processor or chop finely and combine in a bowl.
Slice the eggplant, onion, red pepper, and tomatoes into ¼ slices and place them on a baking sheet.
Brush vegetables with ½ of the curry pesto. Broil
on high for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned. Flip
the vegetables and broil for another 2-3 minutes. Remove vegetables from the oven. Turn off broil
and set oven to 425ºF. Meanwhile, chop the roasted vegetables into chunks. Stretch out the pizza dough on a stone or pan and top with the chopped
vegetables. Add the yogurt and garam masala to
the rest of the curry pesto. =Spoon the pesto over the pizza. Bake the pizza for 15-20 minutes until
the crust is done. Remove the pizza from the oven and garnish with cilantro sprigs.
Indian Eggplant Pizza
Vegetables:
Curry Pesto:
1 eggplant
2 Tbsp chopped ginger
½ onion
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 red pepper
2 Tbsp mild curry
2 tomatoes Pizza crust (prepared according to
its directions) ¾ cup plain yogurt 1 tsp garam masala Cilantro sprigs
paste
¼ cup chopped cilantro 1 jalapeño ¼ cup vegetable oil
Jess Smart Smiley Atom talks to
I
n a world of senseless crossovers, company-wide reboots, and character changes to better tie-in with movie franchises, it s becoming increasingly rare to sit down with a graphic novel and giggle for two hours. I was lucky enough to get to read Upside Down, by artist/writer Jess Smart Smiley, and it is honestly 140 pages of non-stop giggles. In his own words, It s a 140 page, family-friendly graphic novel, colored in black, white and Halloween green, and the story follows Harold, a young boy vampire. He loves candy so much that he loses his teeth. He ends up running into Vermillion, who s the last witch on Earth and she hates vampires. I was lucky enough to get to talk to Jess about Upside Down, good comic reads, and just about everything else. Atom: Your comics are fun. What inspired that? Jess Smart-Smiley: I ve always been drawing and writing since I was a kid. Dad always had a bunch of comic books... all the classics, X-Men, Batman, Aquaman, all your standard superheroes. I probably would have read anything, honestly. When I was about 10, I found Ninja Turtles, and that was really cool because it made more sense to me. I was kind of getting bored with superheroes, and some people get really mad when I start saying things like that, but I felt like superheroes were too technical. The stories stopped being about a really cool guy with powers who could blow stuff up and beat the bad guys and started becoming about, I don t know... All of a sudden they didn t feel like superhero stories anymore and the heroes started having, like, gender crises or whatever. But Ninja Turtles was half fun and kind of ridiculous and the other half was cool action and really good story telling. Jeff Smith s Bone came out when I was twelve and that was it. It was like the Lord of the Rings, but it was fun and just a really great comic. That s when I started feeling like the drawings I was making and the stories I was telling... it (Bone) just kind of solidified that it was ok. ...(Superhero comics) felt like they were trying to keep the story going just to sell comics, versus here is one guy who has a story to tell. It was obvious that one was pandering to me as a twelve year old and the other had serious substance.
By Spencer Sands How did you get your feet wet making comics? The first one I can remember was really serious. I had written this short story in maybe fifth grade that was a character I made up within the Star Wars universe. I started drawing pictures of this character to describe what he looked like and I started making a comic about it. I went pretty much directly from that to joke comics. There was a band of kind-of-superheroes, but they were humans with utters, like cow utters, (I don t think I ve talked with anyone ever about this) and they would like spray people with their milk. That was their power. And they were just ridiculous. They ran into the band Hanson, and they (the utter-people) thought they (the band Hanson) were girls and wanted to make out with them. They were just like these stupid joke comics. Let s talk about Upside Down. Where did that comic come from? I had started in college six different graphic novels that were not Upside Down. And I would get a third of the way through it on the rough draft and I d start getting these other ideas that didn t belong in the story. I would put them in another note-book so I didn t forget them and I d say to myself, I ll get to those later. Pretty soon, though, they would be so cool to me that I would ditch my (current) project a third of the way through and I would go for this new idea. These were still, like, fun, but they were moody and very dark. I went through, like, six of those and I said, this has got to stop. I wanted to do this for a living, making comics, and I didn t want to be wondering what it would be like if I finished one comic all the way through. So my New Year s Resolution for 2010 was to take a story and finish it in it s entirety and then go from there. Upside Down wasn t even an idea that I d had, I was just drawing in my sketch book, and I was really searching at that time for new ways to draw differently. All of a sudden this vampire came out and I was like, I want to get to know this guy, who is he, who are his friends? I had all these ideas that I started writing down and, before long, I had this big ol story and I realized that this was it, this was what I was going
to do. Forget all those six stories, I ll do them sometime, but this is what I am going to do. I submitted to Top Shelf and they accepted it. I think the reason that this one is a lot more light-hearted is because I had already put myself through the ringer like six times, and this was time to relax. You re-imagined the vampire mythos; that vampires need to go to the dentist. It kind of started with a drawing. What would happen if he (the vampire) ate so much candy that his teeth rotted and they all fell out? That was a good place to start. Then he runs into a witch and she is super nasty because she is the last witch on Earth. She is desperate to keep her kind alive and she hates vampires. Ok, now we re talking, we ve got a story here. You are part of a growing number of Utah-based writers who have are writing about vampires. How does it feel to be part of that pantheon? Oh, man, that s true. I recognize it, but I don t really feel it. I don t really love or hate vampires, if it s a great story with vampires, I want to see what it is. There are some really cool books coming out of Utah. When I do my presentations to schools I always start off by saying I wrote this thing about vampires and I describe the plot of Twilight, until the kids are like, Oh my God, he totally copied Twilight. Then I ll be like, Oh, wait, never mind, I ll tell you what it is really about, it s about a vampire who looses his teeth. They are all like Wait, vampires can do that? Where did your style come from? I hold on to a lot of things from my childhood, like the way I draw. I went to school for illustration and design and they teach you a certain way of drawing, a few ways of drawing. And they teach hundreds of thousands of people across the world how to draw this way. I realized that no one was going to give me an education on how I intuitively, inherently draw. And it could be really bad, I could draw really poorly on my own, but what I like doing is marrying the way I draw with the way the world at large draws. And kind of meet it half way. Thats cool, there s a spin on it that you aren t going to get anywhere else and I don t have to push to hard for that. It s natural and I want to hang on to it. Would you describe your target audience for Upside Down as kids? I m the target audience. This is a story that I wanted to make because I like the idea and I just ran with it, but it s definitely geared toward kids. Adults that are looking for something raw and gritty and bringing out a literary truth might not find it in this book. That s something my friend talks about a lot, he critiques everything I do. And I told him, You can t do that with Upside Down, its like a fairy tale, and you can t take those too seriously. Are there other comic books that you think would fit well in a classroom setting? Sure! There are so many books. Definitely Jeff Smith s Bone, which I mentioned. And I ve heard from numerous teachers and librarians I ve visited. Just as an aside, Bone is the number one most stolen and vandalized book at a library. How cool would that be, to be the author of that book? Kids want it so badly they re gonna tear out pages because they covet this book! There s Aaron Renier. He came out with a book, last summer, called The Unsinkable Walker Bean. And it
is phenomenal. It s out from First Second. It s just shy of two hundred pages. If I were twelve years old now, this would be Bone for me. And even at this point in my life, reading it, it is so refreshing, just a story that is totally cohesive. It stands on its own two feet without making pop-culture references or even referencing other stories. It s just this great adventure. It s a kid who s on this journey and it s over the sea and there s monsters and there s a girl and there s buddies and there s inventions, there s secrets. It s amazing. Anything by Doug TenNapel. He did Iron West, Gear, Monster Zoo, Tommysaurus-Rex, Bad Island, and Ghostopolis. These are really quirky. They ve got the best monsters in them. It s like if Gremlins was a comic, but funnier, they would be Doug s books. Your limited color pallet was wonderful. You ve got black, white, and Halloween green. What was the decision there? It s really cool and I don t know if I ve ever talked about it. I really hadn t used colors much before Upside Down, which sounds ridiculous but I like drawing so much and I like the finished result of a drawing so much that I rarely colored anything growing up, or even in college. Color was never an issue. But it started in my mind, I had this pallet of black, white, gray, and this very specific green, and it didn t have anything to do with Upside Down, but I want to use this pallet. But when I came up with this story, I was like, this is perfect. There s vampires, there s witches, I can color the witch green, and wouldn t it be a really fun challenge for me to think of every line I draw is either going to come out white, black, or green. And it would depend on what color is next to it in order to make sure that both colors stand out. It was really tricky for me, but it wasn t hard enough that it was overwhelming or daunting that I ditched it, but it was fun and challenging enough that I ran with it. Now I m doing a lot with limited color pallets and it s really fun actually. So there is a sequel to Upside Down coming out, can you tell us anything about it? I know it sounds ridiculous, but it s even better. Top Shelf actually called me the morning after I submitted Upside Down to set up a contract, which never happens. I ve gotten so lucky. If they could look at my drawings now, they d probably be all like, We ll pass, but keep trying. But you already signed the contract, so you re good. Yeah, they totally fell for it. So when they called, they were like, Do you have any other projects? And I told them about some other books, and they were like, Um... that s cool... Well, anyway, we were thinking we could market this as book one. Do you think you could come up with other ideas for it? I thought I was so clever, not that it is an intricate story at all, but I thought I d tied up all the little sub-plots that I d thrown in well enough that it was a nice conclusion. So I was like, Well, I ll think about it. Pretty soon I had five more books planned. I finished the second draft that they want to go ahead on. I m really psyched. It s longer too, 200 pages, and there s a lot more going on. I was so thrilled, I ve been buying Top Shelf books for the last ten years and to have them say yes, can we have more, I didn t want to say no. Any plot stuff you can let slip? What can I say without giving it away? There s a bigger threat they have to face than Vermillion. I can say that the Professor hooks up with someone. There s a lot more action, there are a lot more cool creatures. Let s say that the magic continues.
That s the question?
to put it that way, because all of a sudden, we re not thinking about target audience, we re not thinking about marketing and promotion, or selling to publishers, or getting an agent. It s all about making good work. And I think if you are doing it for any other reason then, frankly, I don t want to read those other stories. I stopped reading them a long time ago. I want to read the stories that people want to tell. What s it going to take for you to tell you story? I don t want to be entertained, I want to be fed, nourished. It can be something hilarious and still be essential. That s what I want from people. Upside Down is just a goofy story, but I hope it has something to offer that way.
You re going to be asked that a lot.
Thank you so much for your time!
That s not so bad.
No problem.
That sounds like a good, corny tag-line. The magic continues in book two! Finally, I want to ask you the quintessential comic convention question to you. You ll need to practice your answer for this. (with a side-lisp) Uh, excuse me, but I m an aspiring comic book writer/artists and I just wondered if you had any advice for how I can break into the industry?
It s not so bad the first three hundred times, but it will grate on you... Well, this is a good heads up. Ok, so you want to break in? I always say, just focus on the way that you draw, the way that you write, the way that you tell stories, and they way that other people are doing it. Focus on that middle ground between the two. What is your message? If you had one story to tell, what would it be? How would you tell that story? I like
•••
Upside Down is on shelves September 2012. Pick it up. It is a delight.
ATOM MAGAZINE PRESENTS:
IF A BAND PLAYS IN THE FOREST,
SUM MER
20 12
An Article By
W. CLAY
DOES ANYBODY HEAR IT?
I
n 6th grade my best friend s sister started dating a guy in a metal band. This was the early 80s and hair metal was getting ready to break big ‒ folks were still spinning Mötley Crüe s Too Fast for Love (on vinyl, of course) and anticipating the next big thing ‒ and it was going to involve teased hair, tight pants, and pointy guitars. My best friend picked up a short-scale bass for $60 and began playing. I was into synth-pop, so I contemplated grabbing a Juno 106 or another entry-level synth in the $1K range but figured (correctly) that my parents wouldn t be particularly supportive (I d already washed out at organ lessons). My friend ended up joining a Kiss and Def Leppard cover band, while I sat on the sidelines enthusiastically. I became a fan and critic for the rest of my secondary education. Then college rolled around, and some of my hall mates kicked around the idea of getting a band together. I still didn t know how to play an instrument, but I was down, totally down. By default, I became the singer. Naturally, I sucked. The whole band sucked pretty much, save for the occasional flash of brilliance: the medley of The Grateful Dead s Fire on the Mountain and The Pixies Here Comes Your Man (with a
speedmetal guitar solo thrown in for good measure), and the band s name, which was so offensive we had to shorten it in order to get gigs.1 We played two shows and promptly broke up due to internal strife between members and the frustrating fact that we sucked. Somewhere along the way though, I realized that making music was something I needed to do, and being a sucky lead singer was not enough. I picked up a $60 dollar Epiphone semi-hollow from the 70s with no frets left to speak of and a totally jacked Bigsby vibrato that would fall apart on its own accord and started teaching myself how to play. My girlfriend had just dumped me and I wasn t going to any of my classes anyway, so I had plenty of angst and plenty of time to practice. Grunge was happening, too, so that was pretty empowering (the Gen X version of Punk circa 1977). Flash forward 20 years ‒ enough time to master an instrument, right? Well, no, I still kind of suck. But I m okay with that. Rock & Roll is not hard to play. A lot of really great, classic, songs are actually quite easy to figure out on guitar, bass, and drums. It is the spirit, and the conviction of the participants
that really seals the deal for the listener, and to be honest, the simplicity is part of the appeal. Sure, there s Math Rock, and Yes, but most rock is based on blues, and blues was designed to allow folks to express their feelings musically in a simple and direct way. For those of few words and few chords, like myself, Rock can be the primary means of communication. Before I taught myself to play drums in the mid-nineties, I played in a duo called The Idaho Ghola.2 My roommate played percussion on a specially-designed, antique trash can. Every song that we wrote was to and about the same girl that we were both infatuated with. He was a better singer than I was, but since I was the more prolific lyricist, my vocals ended up more often on the Fostex 4-Track. In hindsight, we were way ahead of our time: the whole angsty, bluesy, indie-rock duo thing is a freaking goldmine now. And The White Stripes (RIP) and Black Keys had/ have to work incredibly hard to sound as lo-fi and clumsy as we actually were. In grad school I discovered film soundtracks. Not surprising since I was in film school. I played in several groups that focused on more esoteric instrumental music and I learned to enjoy moving from one instrument to another. On one project I would play drums, while the drummer from another band would play piano,
Placenta Omelette, later shortened to P. Omelette This is an example of a bad band name: it is an obscure reference to a character in a lesser known Frank Herbert novel from the Dune series.
1 2
and some dude who normally played bass would play saxophone. A different film would require me to focus on guitar and Casiotone organ. I also figured out how to separate music from catharsis (that s what my films were for) and became much more purposeful and productive. To this day, I have an easier time making music for films than I do actually making films. Go figure. After film school I played drums in a band called Monster Blood. We weren t very good, but we had one of the most awesome names in the history of music. Coming up with a good band name might be as important as coming up with a distinctive band sound. There are probably hundreds, or even thousands of fantastic bands out there as I write that will never reach a sizeable audience simply because they have an unmemorable or downright terrible name. Perhaps my favorite band name of all time is Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments. That name presents an enigma and tells a story at the same time. Would Brian Jonestown Massacre have become as almost famous as they did if they were called something lame like Schizophrenic Egomaniac or Braunschweiger? I think not. My next band was called Tiger Men of Mars. Once again, the name was good, the band, not so much. I was back to guitar again in this band and I played one of my favorite guitars I ve ever owned ‒ a DeArmond Jetstar (google it just to bask in its awesomeness). I sold it when the band broke up. Why did it break up? The drummer went raw vegan and had trouble practicing without crapping in his pants. The singer and bass player both had issues with depression and started writing songs about suicide and
schizophrenia, but I was afraid that if I quit they would sink into separate downward spirals. The band was my idea and I felt trapped in it. So I did what anyone in my position would have done: I lied and said that I was giving up music for good. I think they actually kept going without me ‒ good for them. Since being in a band is like any other relationship, I had attachment issues stemming from previous bad experiences: poor communication, warring egos, lack of consensus. It was nice to be a one-man band for a while. I went back to doing film soundtracks ‒ I had just started working at a community college and had access to the school s instruments and rehearsal spaces ‒ so I went nuts with the vibraphones, marimbas, and tympanis. But ultimately, playing music by yourself is like masturbating or drinking alone ‒ unhealthy in large doses. Through connections in the school s music department, I hooked up with a few music students interested in working on the soundtrack to a film project I was putting together. I would write the film, produce it, direct it, and on my free Friday mornings, lead the band that would create all of the music played in the film (it was to be a sort of elegy to the dark side of the punk/indie rock lifestyle). From September to December I lived this project ‒ the movie, the music, the shoot, the recording sessions, the editing. On December 5th, we premiered the film in the school s big theatre complete with a performance by the band (with me on bass and backing vocals). Was it triumphant? Mmmm… not really. The band performance was invigorating if uneven, but the movie s reception was lukewarm at best. Admittedly, the movie has its flaws, and to detail them would take an entire article, but considering how much I put into the project, I took the negative comments personally. In addition, the band was now kaput ‒ task completed, the members walked their separate ways. Once again I was alone with my music. Now, what is the point to this article? Well, here it is, I am finally getting to it. By a strange set of circumstances, I am in a band again. And this one is actually good. And I m drawing on all of those good and bad experiences to try to prevent the freak-outs and implosions of the past. And I brought the vibraphone with me. And I finally figured out how to sing. But there is just one problem: what next? We re unique, we even have a decent band name (Secret William), but nobody knows
who we are. So we should play more shows, right? Well, who would hire a band with no fans? And how does a band get more fans? By playing shows. We could record and sell CDs. Oh, wait, nobody buys CDs anymore. Alright, digital downloads then. But digital downloads are, well digital downloads. Where is the artwork, where are the liner notes, where is the personality? The Beatles were right to hold off on allowing their music to be available digitally, because each of their albums was a testament to who they were at a specific time. The digital domain kind of erases all of that context. We all become zeroes and ones and that is kind of hard to differentiate.
Members of certain religions will prefer to replace the word unhealthy with unholy. 4 The film was called Low Road. May it forever live in infamy. 3
I went to the Subzero festival in downtown San Jose a few weeks ago and heard a couple of bands that I liked (and quite a few that I didn t). Then I went home and downloaded some of their music and well‌ there is something missing. One of the bands was big and loud and messy with lots of members playing esoteric instruments and providing a powerfully dynamic listening/viewing experience (like the Arcade Fire without being powerfully annoying).5 On my stereo back at home their music sounded polite and well recorded ‒ like a tiny elephant trumpeting in velvet drawer. I do not want this to happen to my band or my music. So what to do? Is YouTube the answer? Do I need to pull out all of the stops and make a totally fucking awesome music video that will garner 1 million viewers and get us on Letterman (I think I m poorly paraphrasing the OK Go rags to riches story)? Sure, no problem, except for the fact that I make
music as an antidote to the stress/tedium of making/talking about ďŹ lms for a living. I want someone else to listen to us and think we are so great that he/she volunteers to make us a free and totally cool and professional video as thanks for enriching his/her life with killer music. Ironically, I actually did this for my favorite band back in 2004.6 I think it s time for some karmic payback. Although my bandmates would probably like to make some money along the way, I can t say that is my motivating factor. I was a fanboy long before I was a musician and I spent many a night in sweaty rock clubs looking up at whichever band member I thought was the coolest wishing I knew what it was like to be in his shoes. Now I ve got the shoes, and I m wearing em, but is anybody looking?
The band was called Monsters Calling Home, and they are a really good live act. Trashcan Sinatras, Midnight at the Troubador, and the Weightlifting music video. 5 6
W. Clay is a college instructor who occasionally attempts to teach. In his leisure time he enjoys watching dark crime dramas with his wife, drinking snobby microbrews, playing violent team sports, pretending to play musical instruments, and confusing his daughters by using too many weird words.
Weekend Warrior Diary of a
L
Dice Roller
arkin swung her morning-star but, as usual, the young oracle s strike was far from true. Perhaps , she
thought to herself, I should have
stayed on the farm . Not far away, Cray and
Iolonde were engaging the brunt of the force. Cray wrapped his massive arms around the goblin war-king and squeezed until his eyes bugled from his malformed head. How
undignified, muttered Iolonde, his magical bearlike claws bisecting yet another fiend. As the
blood mysterious flowed from Iolonde s robes, leaving them perhaps cleaner than before the massacre started, Cray could not contain his
distaste. Is this work too messy for you, you sissy?!
This is how my weekends play out. It might not
be as dramatic as all that to the casual observer, but for me and my role-playing friends, this
stuff is life and death. We have played some of our characters for upwards of six months and the investment in both time and emotional attachment is obvious. Jeremy plays his
characters pretty much the same every time; aristocratic, argumentative, and highly
disruptive. They make for great stories because he (they) has something to say about
everything. If you were to ask Jeremy for the
Text and images by Spencer Sands
backstory on any of his characters (and I don t
recommend doing this), be prepared for a long and delightfully convoluted story.
The game we are playing now is Lucinda s first, but you wouldn t know it to watch her. Her
character is elegant and has a good, if not as detailed as Jeremy s, backstory. She doesn t
always get the mechanical aspects of the game, but her presence adds so much to the story
that everyone is happy to help her out. In stark
opposition to Lucinda is our current GM, (gamemaster is the preferred term. Dungeon-master is a Dungeons and Dragons term and, since
that s not what we are playing, it hardly applies)
Anthony. He is like an encyclopedia for the rules and has read, and re-read, all of the manuals
and sites and memorized their most esoteric passages easily. What is amazing about
Anthony is that even though he knows the
rules, he is a wonderfully even-handed and
forgiving GM. If it s good for the story, he is absolutely willing to fudge the rules. As far
as master s-of-their-own-universes go, he is a fair one, and makes my Saturdays that much more enjoyable. Together, we have slain dragons, stop wars,
rescued countless people, and
complained about unemployment. We have a ton of fun.
I haven t been playing role-playing games all that long, at least not paper-based ones. Like all
children of the nineties, I had my fair share of
video games, from Game Boys to Dreamcast. Role-playing games in that context took the
form of Pokémon and Skies of Arcadia and
they were always a favorite of mine. However, it wasn t until a trepidatiously sent email from a
co-worker in my early twenties that I ever even
consider paper-based gaming. When I agreed to
play, I was aware of some pretty serious stigmas surrounding this kind of leisure time activity (in
fact, when my girlfriend ask where I was going, I insisted that I was going to play a game and
would provide no more details than that). Upon playing my first game, it became instantly
apparent how much from role-playing games
had been directly lifted in placed into the video games people know and love so much. What
baffles me is the video games that are so clearly based in role-playing games set records for sales and spawn movie franchises while the
creative progenitors (RPGs) are a the stuff of secrecy and shame?
I have always known about Dungeons and
Dragons, but only in the vaguest way. It has
been a cultural icon and any easy trope for lazy
writers when they need a show that a character has nerdy inclinations. I knew that it was
important to yell saving throw and that their were more different kinds of dice than I had
ever dared to dream, but outside of that and a working knowledge of lead-figurines, I knew
nothing. Whether I m right in this assumption or
not, I feel like the collective-consciousness s first thought when someone mutters DnD is either acne-riddled virgins in their teens playing a
game in one of their mother s basements, or
acne-riddled virgins in their early forties playing a game in one of their mother s basements. While I m sure there are a lot of virgins with
varying levels of acne scarring who enjoy roleplaying games, I would contest that their are a lot of acne-scared people who like traditional
masculine things like hockey and misogyny, too. This has not been my experience, however. The
first group of people that I was lucky enough to play a role-playing game with consisted of the following: a rock guitar playing high school
psychologist, a heavily tattooed prison guard
turned parole officer, an executive for a major online retailer who regularly missed games
because of business trips around the globe, and an artist/teacher with a propensity for fishing and surfing (me). Every one of us was not a
virgin, as evidenced by all of their children and wives (you ll just have to take my word for my own status) and all of us have clear and beautiful complexions.
I recently played Skyrim (a hugely popular, roleplaying video game) on a recommendation from a friend. It s a darn fine game, but it would be hard to deny it s obvious roots in E. Gary
Gygax s Dungeons and Dragons. Spells have the exact same names, and many mechanics
that nerds in the seventies had to work out with dice are now simply thumb-stick press away. Whether or not is says so directly, your
character has to make craft checks and
diplomacy checks and a myriad of other
checks constantly while playing. You don t
have to directly state when you make your character, but you will choose a class by way of your actions, and the race
(and by race, I don t me ArmenianAmerican. In fantasy games, race
really means species) you choose
at the start of the game has varying bonuses.
1991. There seems to be something of a
someone had simply transposed my Core-Rule
fantasy writing and which writers in the genre
done by my Xbox s processor instead of my
agreed upon pool of tropes. Certainly,
application of a text that has more or less been
view films and read books classified as fantasy, I
beyond a hit; it made no small sum, as long as
dissimilar to a chicken and egg question: did
Again, it s a blast and I pissed a ton of hours
the same shared fantasy pool that Gygax did?
Throughout my play through, I felt as though
shared set of universalisms when it comes to
Book into a video game, the heavy lifting now
seem to draw from a well-established and
imagination. Is this really novel, or just a novel
Dungeons and Dragons drew from it, but as I
in existence since the seventies? The game was
can t help but ask myself something not
$450 million for a launch isn t a small sum.
this writer play DnD or did they borrow from
away on it, but they were hours spent alone.
I know I ve taken my time to get here, but I
I have always resisted the urge to try games like
suppose what I am trying to say is that I think
is a lot of overlap with my usual interests. They
paper based RPGs are unfair. Video games are
cheesy, cyber punk movie; a game that once
multiplayer online) ones are lacking in one
have had some friends who started in college
of any good DnD experience: direct social
dry. Again, I respect that they are fun and draw
may not be the coolest kids on the block, but
social interaction that they spawn, at least in my
members of our species on a weekly basis.
to face with actual flesh and blood humans.
Industrial Light and Magic to render the fantasy
about not sharing loot just doesn t crank my
Dungeons and Dragons friends have to use
World of Warcraft, even though I know there
the stereotypes about good olde fashioned
have always seemed like a weak plot point in a
great, but RPGs, even the MMO (massively
you start playing, you can never stop playing. I
fundamentally important area that is at the core
and only ever stopped because their funds ran
interaction with one or more other humans. We
from the same themes I love so much, but the
we are having meaningful contact with other
humble opinion, can t compete with being face
Instead of relying on a graphics card or
Yelling at people I ve never met in meat space
imagery that I enjoy so much, me and my
knobs.
something that far too many grown-ups let die
Video games aren t the only place that the stuff
paint pictures in our minds of the absurd action
and television industries have been raking in the
computer can compete with that. The
time. If Peter Jackson s upcoming Hobbit
the directors and cinematographers of
predecessors, it will make a truly obscene
wouldn t trade it for a video game or
at about age 12: our imaginations. We actively
of DnD legends are making a killing. The film
that we are engaged in, and honestly, no
dough on the backs of nerd fantasies for a long
weekly excuse to let our inner children be
adaptation does anything like its Tolkienian
our gaming is absurdly fun and I
amount of money. Similarly, Game of Thrones
movie under any circumstances.
has been blowing up the box-office (not literally, Jackson is not a terrorist). While the Hobbit
certainly predates role-playing, A Song of Fire and Ice (the books that Game of Thrones is based on) didn t hit book-sellers shelves until
Photography: JAM Photos (juan Moreno) Model: Sandra Moreno Bodypaint: Trina Merry — with Trina Merry Sandra Moreno and Juan Moreno.
Avoid scams and fraud by dealing locally! Beware any deal involving guys in expensive suits whose cars cost more than one year of college tuition at More info
A Humane Guide to Surviving the Job Hunt Date: 2012-07-24, 11:23PM PDT Reply to:
[by Cori Johnson]
== #1 - LIE TO YOURSELF == Ask any unemployed person why they re not applying for their dream job, and unfailingly they will tell you, Because I know I won t get it. When you ve been unemployed so long that you re, say, wearing pajamas to the supermarket, orĚśand I m not saying it s a habit or anythingĚśwatching ten hours of Battlestar Galactica in a single sitting, you tend to lose conďŹ dence. Obviously, if you re a high school dropout and your dream is to be an aeronautical engineer, your guess is probably more right than wrong. But it s still a guess. I know I won t get it is not a statement of fact. It s a guess disguised as fact, which is a nice way of saying, it s a lie. Face it, you lie to yourself all the time: • I m bad at math. • This time I ll stick to my diet. • I don t have enough experience. There s a dierence between wanting something really badly and going after it relentlessly. The dierence is that you don t let yourself be stopped by anything, including your own lies. So how do you stop believing your own lies? Well, you can t. You just have to tell yourself better lies. • I am conďŹ dent in my ability to [insert awesome skill here]. • If I don t get this job, I ll be ďŹ ne. • If they re not willing to pay me what I deserve, I won t take the job. I will walk away. The magic thing that happens is, if you tell yourself these lies often enough and loudly enough, they manage to drown out the rest. == #2 - EMBRACE FAILURE == When you go after something you really want, you re probably going to face rejection. A lot. Thankfully, I have a handy tool to cope with rejection that I learned from my mom. She calls it proactive wallowing. Here s how you wallow proactively: take at least a day, but no more than three, and really indulge yourself. Eat a pint of ice t 3BE QFPQMF POMZ 1PTFVST QMFBTF EPO U DPOUBDU UIJT KPC QPTUFS t 1MFBTF OP QIPOF DBMMT BCPVU NZ NBEF VQ SFMJHJPO t 1MFBTF DPOUBDU KPC QPTUFS BCPVU PUIFS TFSWJDFT * N OPU GPS TBMF
PostingID:112358132134
cream. Have a couple margaritas. Don t get out of bed for a day. Do whatever you need to do to mourn the loss of that opportunity. Be awesomely miserable. And then, when you re done wallowing, dust yourself o (or, more likely, take a shower), re-organize your to-do list, and plunge right back into the job hunt. You re allowed to be disappointed. You can try to let the rejection roll like water o your back, but you ll still get wet. Take the time you need to dry o and enjoy the sunshine. == #3 - GET OVER YOURSELF == Job interviews are inherently stressful. It s easy to develop some resent in this seemingly imbalanced power dynamic. Sure, it s easy for these people sitting across the table̜they all have jobs! But, let s face it: you are not the only human being in the room. They re spending a lot of eort and time on the job hunt, just like you. Here s what your time spent might look like: Surf job boards - 1 hour Research company - 30 minutes Tweak resume - 30 minutes Write sincere cover letter - 1 hour Interview prep/phone screen - 2 hours Face-to-face interview (plus travel) - 3 hours Total: 8 hours Okay, so if you didn t get the job after you spent all that time on it̜and those are high estimates̜you ll feel like you wasted a day s work. That s totally understandable. Now let s look at what their time spent looks like: Write job listing - 1 hour Receive 400 replies - 30 seconds Read applications and pick candidates - 12-16 hours Schedule interviews - 4 hours Interview candidates - 16-40 hours Discuss candidates with coworkers - 8 hours Search for more candidates - 6 hours Schedule more interviews - 2 hours Get stood up - 11 minutes
Avoid scams and fraud by dealing locally! Beware any deal involving guys in expensive suits whose cars cost more than one year of college tuition at More info
A Humane Guide to Surviving the Job Hunt Date: 2012-07-24, 11:23PM PDT Reply to:
[by Cori Johnson]
Apply icepick to eye socket - 3 seconds Total: You get the idea.
you re broke and feel guilty when you don t spend every waking moment applying for work. Here are a few resources to help you keep going:
Think of it this way: the time they spend talking to you is time they re not making money. So when you walk into the interview, they are just as unemployed as you are. Doesn t seem so imbalanced now, does it?
• Ramit Sethi, iwillteachyoutoberich.com Ramit is known for his tough love and even tougher sell, but he s an ace you want in your pocket. His website is full of free quality material and covers everything from crafting your resume to the exact words to use in a salary negotiation.
== #4 - GO YOUR OWN WAY ==
• Creative Mornings, creativemornings.com What kind of guest speaker would I be not to plug the source of my own tiny scrap of fame? Creative Mornings are wonderful opportunities to meet people whose companies might be hiring.
There s no magic formula to getting you that dream job. There are only tactics, and you pick the ones that suit you best. That said, here are a list of tips that worked for me: Cori s Do s and Don ts of Cruising (the job boards) DON T read the job boards and apply to jobs in the same sitting. Separate them into two activities, looking and applying. The job boards won t seem overwhelming when you re just window shopping. DO save both the job board URL and the job opening URL on the company website so you can check if it s still available in case the job board post expires. DON T set goals like Apply to X number of jobs per day. Just set a timer and jam for however long you want (my max is two hours). Just don t buy into that spend-8-hours-a-day-on-thejob-hunt nonsense. Unemployment sucks enough without you shaming yourself on top of it. DO write a new cover letter for every job you apply for. Seriously, generic boilerplate cover letters are like OKCupid messages that read hey cool proďŹ le wanna chat? Distinguish yourself from the masses by putting in the tiny extra eort. DO spend as much of the job interview as possible asking questions. Getting the interviewers to talk will take the pressure o youĚśand let you better determine whether you want the job. == #5 - REACH OUT == The 10% unemployment rate doesn t lie. You are not alone in this. But sometimes it can feel overwhelming, especially when t 3BE QFPQMF POMZ 1PTFVST QMFBTF EPO U DPOUBDU UIJT KPC QPTUFS t 1MFBTF OP QIPOF DBMMT BCPVU NZ NBEF VQ SFMJHJPO t 1MFBTF DPOUBDU KPC QPTUFS BCPVU PUIFS TFSWJDFT * N OPU GPS TBMF
PostingID:112358132134
• Let s Make Mistakes, a podcast hosted by Mike Monteiro and Katie Gillum of Mule Design, muleradio.net/mistakes While the show is geared toward designers, it s relevant to anyone who undervalues themselves and their work. If you re lacking conďŹ dence and you can t aord therapy, this is the next best thing. Full disclosure: I applied for a job at Mule Design and interviewed with Monteiro. It was the most terrifying experience I ve ever had in a conference room. (Mike asked me to role play and ďŹ re him, and I choked. Hard.) I was crushed. But once I wallowed (proactively!) I got back in the game. The next company I interviewed with oered me a job. Sometimes the worst failure can be a blessing, because it s all up from there. Or, that s the lie I like to work with.
Cori Johnson is a graphic designer and web developer from Los Angeles, CA now residing in beautiful San Francisco, CA. This piece originally appeared in the form of a presentation as part of San Francisco’s Creative Mornings lecture series in February 2012.
Diane Solomon produces and hosts a weekly public affairs program on Radio KKUP, 91.5 fm, and writes freelance for Content Magazine, San Jose Beez, Silicon Valley De-Bug and Metro, Silicon Valley’s weekly newspaper. She’s also a big time San Jose Bike Partier, Willow Glen neighborhoodie and Silicon Valley wage slave. Special thanks to out to Running Rhino for their paper and The Arsenal in San Jose, CA.
return to center
L
iving in the modern world, we are always looking for ways to simplify our lives and optimize our waking hours. Even we at the Atom are guilty of this̶we rise with the sun, we text instead of call on our smart, internet-capable phones, even the way we make the actual magazine has become a streamlined, interweb facilitated, transcontinental process (LA, Boston, New York). Each and every day can feel like a never ending parade of things that get you down̶your boss yelling at you, traffic clogging your commute, kids screaming at the top of their lungs for no reason (two of the three of us spend most of our waking hours making art with children and, sadly, screaming kids are often regular fixtures in our working lives), stupid people in line at Starbucks, people talking on their cell phones when they shouldn t be, your car breaking down, your phone getting stolen, your roommate being the worst,
your coworkers eating your clearly labeled snacks. Unfortunately, it seems that these irritating things never happen in a vacuum and you are often dealing with at least two if not five frustrating events each day. So when the cacophony beings to drown, we recommend taking a moment for yourself. Growing up in the fast-paced Silicon Valley, we at Atom learned early to find ways to make person time, whether for 5 minutes or 5 hours, a regenerative experience. Here are our three favorite ways to decompress from the stress of the every day. While we acknowledge that our ways are certainly not the be-all-to-end-all, we encourage you to go out and find what works best for you. We promise, you ll be happier for it.
Ashleigh
A
s a bona fide adult, I call my mother every day to check in with her and tell her all about my day. Sometimes (read: often) this includes a run down of the things that ail me. Nine times out of ten, after listening to me rant and rave for ten minutes about things that surely just don t matter, my saintly mother will say the following thing to me: It s going to be fine. Now go turn your music up really loud and sing. You ll feel better. Music has always been my way of coping with stress. For me, it is a way to express emotions that are bigger and more complex than simple words can describe. I process these big emotions much easier and much faster when it is set to music. Since I picked up the guitar in high school, I have found that it is my favorite means of stress escape. Whenever I m feeling overwhelmed, I find a quiet place, pick up the guitar and just play. It isn t always good and it isn t always interesting, but the more I immerse myself in the playing, in the muscle memory task of chord fingering, in the repetition of chord progressions, in the flow of lyrics and the lilt of melody, the more the stressful world around me melts away and the more connected I feel to myself and what really matters. Suddenly, I ve put an hour or two of distance between me and whatever was bothering me and my problems don t feel so large. It is a moment of complete, self-centered, restorative me time that sets me back on track and keeps me sane.
w
hen I need to recenter myself, I just take to the streets. Not in search of anything and usually without a destination in mind. Unplugging from my body, I let the repetitive motion of continuous walking carry me wherever I feel the magnetic tug of the Earth lead me. Thinking about it, it s akin to the worship practiced by Sufic worshippers who will spin endlessly in their practice. You probably know them as Whirling Dervishes. By spinning, Dervishes attempt to reach a type of religious ecstasy. The dizziness is a kind of a natural high where they feel close to Allah. Although I don t find great spirituality in taking walks to decompress, it is never a negative experience. When I m in my own head, keeping a rhythm to each stride, I can work through even the most complex of problems. By walking, I attempt to reach a levelheaded state where I can explore the deep recesses of my brain, alleviate pangs of panic, and get back into a more productive, problem-solving space. In the end, there are two benefits: My body will be happy with getting some movement and my brain will have some much-needed time to work through ideas. Stress gets lowered, calories get burned, ideas get cranked through and processed, and I can decide what big decision needs to be made.
Brendan
Spencer
s
urfing has, and continues to be, my go-to method of calming down. I love everything about it from the cold (read: numb) toes, to the smell of Sex Wax, to the uncomfortable ritual of changing in and out of a wetsuit on a public sidewalk. Surfing works so well for returning me to center for a lot of reasons. Firstly, it s quiet time. Unless you are asking someone what the swell is like, there is no communication. I almost never surf with friends and even if I do, we rarely talk when we are on the water. Moreover, my cell phone, computer, iPad, and any other unnecessary noisemaker I carry with me on a daily basis are locked safely in my car. It is a deeply introspective time, bobbing up and down on the ocean, waiting for a rideable wave to come in. Surfing is also physical. Hugely so. When I am stressed, pushing my body s limits is so cathartic. It s like I m expelling the stress demons from the very fibers of my being. I could run, and do if I can t surf, but it doesn t compare. I find the idea of standing on water to be surreal. Standing on a wave is like moving in slow motion and is something I have failed to replicate anywhere else in my life. I have had a couple of panic attacks in my young life, and I am more often than not my own worst enemy in a stressful situation. I hyper-analyze everything and construct hypothetical situations far worse than anything reality would ever offer up. For whatever reason (the above ones certainly, but countless more than I can write as well), surfing stops me from doing all of that, leaving me feeling hugely more at peace and infinitely saltier.
BA G
W Ph or ot ds os b by y B Sc ren ot da tM n ac Ny D ste on d al t d
O ch
FR sw O at m
M
ark Dwight already had plenty of experience in the bag industry before founding Rickshaw Bagworks. As the CEO of Timbuk2, he helped grow that small messenger bag company before leaving and taking a different path. He founded Rickshaw in 2007 with the intent of staying small, efficient, local, and sustainable. Although Dwight likes making things in the US, he s the first to admit that he s not a trade protectionist or a Merican nationalist‒ he just feels like the bags Rickshaw makes are unique because they re imbued with a little piece of the soul of where they re put together. With that mission in mind, he set up shop in a small warehouse in San Francisco s Dogpatch neighborhood. With some sewing machines, some unique fabric choices and some determination, the Rickshaw team has become one of the world s premiere bag companies.
You can t have a bag without having a design. The prototyping phase is where the bag takes form‒ sometimes multiple forms and sizes‒ before it s deemed releasable by Rickshaw. Chad is the company s prototyping guru. When we visited his station, he was busy figuring out what size worked best for a new bag design. Rickshaw s design philosophy originates with their first design, the Zero messenger bag. The goal was to produce a bag with no manufacturing waste. They try to apply this same philosophy to their other products, too.
As a small company, Rickshaw has had plenty of freedom to experiment. Not only with form factors but also with fabrics. Their range of fabrics has grown since they started due to their own curiosity and the needs of customers. Their available, fully customizable range of colors has everything from a noisy houndstooth, a rainbow of Cordura nylon, Muppet fur eece, and even reective glass impregnated fabric for nighttime bike visibility. One of Rickshaw s trademark fabrics, their Performance Tweed, began as a wacky request from a customer. It turns out tweed made for clothing wasn t well-suited for the needs of a bag. So, they worked with a fabric production house to make a type of nylon in a tweed pattern. Not only is Performance Tweed tough, it s also made from recycled soda bottles. Other experiments, like this employee-owned cosmonaut-suit silver bag, were interesting but ultimately didn t hold up to daily usage well enough.
When discussing the reasons for outsourcing, it s impossible to avoid the subject of labor. Much of the stuff we enjoy comes from somewhere where, like it or not, workers are paid less. Working conditions may not be the best and shifts may be long and strenuous. The benefit is that companies can receive a larger percentage of the profit margin compared to domestically produced goods. Talk of worker treatment aside, pennies on the dollar, foreign labor has a strategic advantage. Since Rickshaw doesn t want to make cut-rate bags, they re willing to build in those costs into the final product. While the prices are a little higher on many of their products, it s refreshing to see the people that are hard at work on products waiting to be received. The open nature of the Rickshaw factory means that people off the street can easily pay a visit to the ladies who sew Rickshaw s bags‒ no secrecy, just honest hard work.
Because of the way Rickshaw runs, the average lead-time is around 2 weeks. This opens up the option for complete customization. Customers can pick online or in Rickshaw s boutique on their factory oor the model of bag, the fabric types (inside, outside, the trim and the labels can all be chosen from Rickshaw s huge fabric bank) and the detachable pockets are all options. And from what I ve seen of the company s upcoming models, there s more bags in store with an even greater potential reach than their current bags. I was sworn to secrecy but rest assured that Rickshaw is pushing their product lineup in new and exciting directions. After seeing the process in action, I got to pick out the swatches and create my own bag. The iPad Messenger bag I got to spec out is the best messenger bag I ve ever owned. It has just enough space to ďŹ t a day s worth of necessities (including an iPad pocket in the front). The Performance Tweed fabric is rugged but not itchy or rough to the touch and the bag s pocket insert (an added option) means I have a bunch of tiny pockets for things like pens, my phone, business cards and more. When you can see the process from swatch to bag, it s clear that Rickshaw makes a good, thought-out product that s a special little slice of San Francisco to carry with you wherever you may go.
Scott MacDonald is a freelance photographer based in downtown San Jose, CA. Check out his other work: www.scottmacdonaldphotography.com
Photography: JAM Photos (juan Moreno) Model: Mary Ann Ogle Bodypaint: Trina Merry — with Sandra Moreno and Juan Moreno.
BASEBALL APPLE PIE GRADO HEADPHONES By Brendan Nystedt
I
m no audiophile. I can talk the talk but when it comes down to paying big bucks for premium audio equipment, I m gun-shy. My logical mind knows that all the money in the world can t necessarily make for a better audio listening experience. But then my emotional mind kicks in.
I hate how people treat music these days. Lousy formats have taken over thanks to the advent of iTunes and other online download sites. My own rebellion against this trend is simple‒ when I don t need an album immediately, I go to the record store. It drives me nuts thinking that convenience rules over quality. When I pay for music, I want to get every possible bit of enjoyment out of it. So, for real listening, I turn to a hi-fi system. It s not a fancy hi-fi. But at the end of the day, it s a significantly nicer piece of equipment than most people use to listen to music. The most popular way to listen to music nowadays are the ubiquitous white Apple Earbuds or their off-brand equivalent. Speaking of headphones, there s a lack of decent options. The fashionable choices out there are overpriced, overhyped, and generally pretty disappointing. The cult of bass has gone mainstream in an attempt to lure today s youth to their product. I may not be an audiophile, but I know one thing: good sound, like many truths in this life, lies between extremes. Balance is crucial in order to accurately appreciate the intent of the artist and music producer. There s a American company, however, that is quietly and sinisterly planning a revolution in music enjoyment. Grado Labs is set to change the world with an understated, boutique, hand-assembled-in-Brooklyn product. Their SR-80i headphones are likely the best headphones I ve ever used. There s a growing concern over packaging in the consumer electronics industry brought on by Apple s box fetish. I ll admit I m a sucker for a pretty box but if that first impression is a deal breaker for you, Grado will disappoint. For those judging a product by its packaging, these must be the world s worst headphones. I ve seen knockoff Beats headphones with better packaging. But I had an epiphany regarding package design‒what Grado doesn t spend on an expensive box they put into making their headphones excellent. While a nice box might be enjoyable for mere moments, the product inside is a true testament to how much Grado Labs cares about sound. That is something that will be enjoyed for the lifetime of the product. These aren t your grandfather s headphones. Although they may look like they belong on the head of a WWI Marconi operator, the Grado SR-80is are throughly modern. Utilizing materials that are plasticky in a good way, these headphones feel well-built. The 1/8 inch jack is gold plated, the cord is extra thick and the y-terminal where the channels separate is a big hunk of plastic with the GL imprint on both sides. The sound these produce isn t amazing. After becoming acclimated to listening with the Grados, they sound normal. It s only when they re swapped out for another set of headphones that the difference becomes readily apparent. The Grados provide the right amount of bass, a clear delineation between instruments and channels, topped off with precise highs. Although the sound isn t like being in a cavernous concert hall, the intimate feeling of being enveloped by the music is, for me, greatly preferred. In the range of music I tested, the Grados performed admirably. Even the compressed,
low bit rate mp3s that linger in my collection revealed detail I hadn t noticed before. Unlike crappy Earbuds and lesser headphones, these are readily listenable even at low volumes. There s a reason why iPod-style headphones have been linked with deafness‒ I find I have to crank the hell out of the volume in order to hear all the instruments in any given song. The foam-padded ear cups feel more like ear muffs to me. They re super comfy and I was able to wear them for hours without any kind of fatigue. My ears get easily irritated and many different over-ear phones have often felt like torture to me. Every product has a drawback. Price isn t one of them for the SR-80is. At only $100, these deliver no matter what you re using them to listen to. Movies, music, and spoken content all sounded vibrant and detailed So, what are the drawbacks? Well, the same design feature that gives them such a rich sound seems to also allow in a lot of ambient noise. That means that people around you can hear what you re hearing to a certain extent. So, although these headphones might be lightweight and comfortable, they re not well suited for transit. On the train and in a noisy café I found myself being extra careful with volume level lest I be labeled a musical exhibitionist. Instead, these headphones are best used in a quieter environment. I d advocate the use of Grado headphones as a great alternative to a hi-fi. If you have roomies or neighbors that won t let you crank your music, these deliver a rich, personal musical experience I ve never had other headphones deliver. They will unlock the hidden potential in your music collection. Special thanks to Grado Labs for supplying a review unit of the SR-80i headphones. For more information on Grado Labs and their products, visit gradolabs.com or their Facebook page (facebook.com/gradolabs).
Photography: Tim Engle Model: Helma Zargarian Hair: Mikel Sessions Bodypaint by Trina Merry — with Mikel Sessions, Chelsea Dixon and Tim Engle.
By Molly C. Loar
J
TO CATCH A GLIMPSE OF MOTHER NATURE
eremy squinted off into the distance. He picked a spot, stopped Time, then adjusted his personal lens again. Moved, picked a spot, stopped Time. Picked a spot, stopped Time. Stopped Time ‒ Will you hurry up?
Jeremy pulled himself out of the wonderful world of captured imagery, and glanced over at his sandy-haired friend: Austin was frowning back at him. He kicked at the summer dust of the old road as he leaned against his bicycle. Behind him, their pal Brodi was craning his head back to look at the puffy clouds above them. I don t intend to spend my summer, Austin said around his bubble gum, Watchin you kneel in the dirt, snappin pictures of dumb clouds an stuff. He pulled a thumb towards the other teen standing beside him. I mean, you ve even got Brodi here doin it. Brodi self-consciously looked away from the sky to the dirt road. Austin laughed at him. Jeremy frowned disapprovingly, and looked back through the viewfinder. You ever even looked through a camera, Austin? he asked, then moved from the road side to pick a new spot in the Landscapes of Time. Austin mocked him. Ever even looked through a camera, Austin? the teenager imitated, snapping his gum. Then he laughed again. Sure, I ve used a camera. I just never thought of having one surgically attached to my face. Even Brodi laughed at that. Har, har, Jeremy grinned sarcastically at the joke. He glanced down the road in both directions: Not a vehicle in sight for as far as the eye could see. Nevada was flat enough here that that sight covered more than several miles each way. Jeremy plunked himself down in the middle of the road and set up his miniature tripod. Dust rolled up into the air as he stretched out on his stomach. A few feet away, Austin gaped at his friend in amazement. What are you doing?! Jeremy set the shot to look straight down the road; all the way to the thunder gray horizon. What does it look I m doing? It looks like you re being an idiot! Austin sputtered. Are you trying to get killed? Laying in the road?? Seriously! W-we re in the middle of nowhere, and you can still act like an idiot! He was so exasperated he could barely talk. Brodi chuckled. Shut up, Austin suggested with a scowl. The other boy simply laughed harder at both his friends antics. A brief, warm breeze caught at Brodi s clothes and tousled his short brown hair. Jeremy saw only the dark horizon. Dark distant mountains off to the left, green dusted flatlands to the right, and a spear of reddish-brown rolling out from under him to point the way ahead. Another breeze touched at his own hair; the close-cut, sun-
bleached blonde curls hardly moving but for a rustle. His camera found its mark just then. Click, snap: Time stopped. Okay, okay, Austin conceded, turning to Brodi. Obviously, our Photo-Phreak-Phriend here is planning to stay out here, approaching storm or not. Austin waited for a reaction, casting a peripheral glance at his road friend. Jeremy let himself get sucked back into the landscapes and possibilities laid out before him, and ignored the sandy-haired teen. Austin saw it happen, and sighed, his hard expression softening. You wanna go catch a soda or somethin , Brodi? Brodi kicked at the ground dust, his mirth suddenly sobering. He, too, eyed the teen lying in the road with a sudden curiosity. Yeah, he acknowledged the other boy. But in a minute. Why do you take so many pictures, Jeremy? Brodi asked. His friend glanced away from the camera viewfinder and looked to the mountains. Yet he said nothing in response. Brodi persisted. I mean, every summer, for the last couple a years, we ve come out here. Right when the storms come to the mountains. And you always bring your camera, an every roll of film you can afford. Jeremy still said nothing, and Austin looked from his one friend to the other; frowning first at Jeremy, then Brodi. What are you doing? Austin whispered. Asking, because Brodi rarely spoke up like this; and no one had really ever asked Jeremy about his picture taking. Only teased him and joked around. Brodi ignored the inquiry and asked, Why, Jeremy? The blonde boy in the red-dust road picked himself up to sit cross-legged. He sat peacefully enough; his t-shirt and jeans covered in dirt, his hand playing idly with the camera s adjustable lens. He watched the storm clouds moving towards them, as Brodi and Austin watched him in silence. Waiting. They were all waiting for something. Austin, for the first drops of rain to hit his freckled nose. Brodi, for his friend to answer his question. And Jeremy... My mom always took such great pictures, Jeremy finally said softly. I always hoped I would be able to catch her in one. In a picture. Spoken any other way, by any other person, Brodi and Austin would probably have laughed at the idea. But not with Jeremy. Not on a gray-summer-skied day like this. She always loved thunderstorms, remember? Jeremy asked. He looked over to his two friends and they nodded. Memories of childhood summers sprang-up ‒ eating ice cream cones on Jeremy s wide wrap-around porch, Jeremy s mom snapping storm pictures, and they all laughing and trying to guess where the next lightning flash would light the sky. The three teen boys nodded to themselves as the memories washed over them all. A stronger breeze than before whispered dust around them, like so much earth thrown into the air during childish rain dances. Remember? Jeremy asked again. And they did. She was always so... Austin tried to find the word. Energized, or something, whenever there was a thunderstorm. Yeah, Brodi nodded. She was always tellin us stuff, bout how storms were filled with all that natural energy. An how it, like, activated everything else s natural energy; like plants an people an air an stuff. Austin laughed. Hey, I remember that! And she kept trying to get a picture of it. Well, at least of a lightning flash. He fell silent for a moment, in thought. Didn t she catch at least one picture of lightning? Jeremy smiled at his friends recollections. Yes, he nodded. We have it framed on the wall, back at the house. He looked back out at the darkening horizon, still smiling. Brodi frowned, then glanced to the nearing storm front as well. Didn t she say... He trailed off and did not finish. What? Austin prompted. Didn t she say that s where she would be…when she died? That she would ‒ well, that we could always find her in a summer storm? Jeremy s smile now spread all the way across his face, his fingers still playing at the camera. A raindrop fell on his cheek. Or was that a tear? Yes, he smiled softly. Yes, she did. Jeremy suddenly had the camera off its short stand and held to his eye, snapping one picture after another. And if, through all those summer storms, she was able to catch at least one picture of storm light, he continued through his flurry of action, I
should be able to get one, too. He paused to grin at his friends. And then I ll have a picture of Mom to frame. Austin watched his friend with momentary concern, then shook his head with friendly laughter. You know, she always said you were the craziest one of us, but... He grinned. I think she would have been proud. Jeremy smiled and nodded, in thanks. At least, happy we re playing outside instead of dripping ice cream on her kitchen floor, Brodi commented. They all laughed. The clouds above soon joined in; booming chuckles, followed by hearty tears of joy. The three teenagers yelped and whooped, as the rain began to pour down, almost in imitation of their childhood games of old. Jeremy hid his camera beneath his t-shirt, though that was beginning to get soaked as well. From their bikes, Austin tossed him the camera case. As Jeremy fumbled with it, Brodi scooped up the forgotten tripod from the road and ran to his bicycle. Hurry up! Austin yelled. Jeremy looped the case strap around his neck and made for his own bike. But just as he was kicking the pedals to follow his already speeding friends, the horizon line caught his eye. The clouds there looked just right for... Jeremy pulled his camera out, popped off the lens cover, picked the spot, squinted, adjusted the lens, clicked ‒ A bright bolt of lightning crackled down its many fingers to touch the mountains and flatlands. Time stopped. Jeremy smiled. Thanks, Mom.
This short fiction work was originally written in March 1999 for the 1st Annual Genesee Valley Literary Contest (New York State), and awarded 1st Place. Re-edited by the author in May 2011, this is it’s first publishing. Molly C. Loar is presently based in metro Chicago, IL. She is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology with an AAS in Industrial Design and a BS concentrating in Technical Communications. For kicks, she works for Challengers Comics + Conversation and at events like C2E2 in Chicago, but is still looking for that “steady career job” and more travel.
Photography by JAM Photos (Juan Moreno) + !(čŏ (%6 !0$ŏ ++ 5 %.čŏ * . ŏ +.!*+ Bodypaint by Trina Merry with Sandra Moreno
Featured Artist:
Lev Rukhin
Lipstick on a City
Two rolls of 35mm ďŹ lm shot crawling through the gutters, admiring the city with a red curb in the foreground.
The Consumption of Man
Close up selections from The Consumption of Man
Two heads facing each other, one has a crown of thorns and a human being in its mouth. The other, mouth agape with edifice incisors, is on the brink of taking a decapitating chomp. At first sight, you contemplate the dynamic and struggle to make sense, but it s not until you look deeper that the bitterness begins to congeal. As the images appear before you one by one, like pixels, they float by so that you can actually make out the language on the placards the subjects are holding and clearly see the amateur perfection of the performers in the various tableaux vivants. You see the calculated distancing of Epic Theatre and the now-quaint conviction on the faces of the professional actors who were a part of the legendary Living Theatre s agitprop guerilla theatre. As you begin to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of ideas, you may perceive the composite technique s similarity to Dali s portrait of Lincoln. BUT when the individual portraits fade back and the Big Picture takes a hold of your eyeholes you may think: Dürer. The cornucopia. The juxtaposition of the iconic 14 Stations of the Cross with that of Camus masterpiece, The Stranger, illuminates the true source of love- em, stab- em and- leave- em existentialism: Christianity. It s more inane than the hard times of LA where everyone is so craven and so reveres the maudlin. Christianity, like all other hokum, seems to wear thin until you remind yourself of the vacuousness of its imitators. The hackneyed Scientology cult comes hard to mind. OR what if the archetype we ve been copying all this time turned out to be a stereotype? What could possibly go wrong? Meursault hopes the decapitation is a success, and may we all be killed with a little shame and with great precision.
Versions of Virgins. South Central Los Angeles has a heavy working-class Mexican population. Bodegas and markets are present throughout, the facades and sides of which are painted with murals of their patron saint, La Virgen de Guadalupe. Over her floats a nimbus of products: Clorox Bleach, candy bars, sugar, flour, and other goods that the store sells. The murals often get tagged (graffitied) by gang members, and the ephemeral artwork is then deleted by a fresh coat of paint, and the process repeated. The Virgin s image is ubiquitous, and fascinating in variation, as they are all painted by different hands (usually the store owner). As I drive through the neighborhood everyday, I record the Virgin s location on my phone, then plot it out on a map. This first Version I did employing four contact sheets of 35mm film was to underexpose the surrounding product and properly exposing the compositions of the Virgin, thereby creating a Christian cross rising from the work in a subtle glow.
Close up selections from Virgin Version #1
Virgin Version #1
Desire
This piece is a lament. In 2004 I got engaged to an Italian woman, Desire (pronounced like the verb/noun). I surrendered my place in South Central Los Angeles to move to Rome and live with her and her two boys in a 600 year-old apartment overlooking the Pantheon. Desire was of a prominent family, living in a world filled with social rules defined by Rome s thousands of years of tradition and custom. I come from Russia, raised in America. The thrill of spontaneous sex, unworried freeness, and passion of our affair soon gave way and illuminated the cultural differences between us. Our engagement slowly collapsed. I found myself in a foreign country feeling bereft and futile. And heartbroken. You know this strange condition? You wake up at night, open your eyes on the darkness, and suddenly you feel you re lost, and you start groping around as fast as you can, looking for something familiar and solid, the wall, the lamp, chair. I roamed the city streets of the Seven Hills. I was reading Jacques Lacan at the time, a French psychoanalyst who died in 1981. His psychoanalytical theory was an expansion on Freud and the linguist Saussure, explaining that desire necessarily lacks something, i.e. it is a desire of lack. Lacan s notion of desire is, at its heart, a desire for wholeness̶a hole in the self that the subject attempts to close through an endless, metonymic chain of supplements: the perfect car, the perfect boyfriend, a tenure track job, etc. But as soon as one s supplement is acquired, desire moves onto something else. Desire is a (representational) itch that can never truly be scratched. I began shooting the facades of the city streets with a 35mm camera, twisting and angling the camera to re-urbanize Rome and depict the hole it bore inside me. I used the city as a large-scale glance of a sky̶a hole̶contoured by the walls of an ancient city, an obsession, a medieval puzzle, a daydream, a delusion, a search for belonging, nostalgia, a projection of hope for something otherworldly. I shot 6 rolls of film (36 exposures per roll). Between each photograph are 1-5 kilometers, and for each image I had to wait for the right time of day to get the necessary exposure. Each roll was employed with no editing, in true succession, so they were all memorized. No Photoshop. The piece took 3 months to complete, after which I moved back to Los Angeles.
Close up selections from Desire
Close up selections from Return to Origin
Several streets worth of telephone pole just need to be re-arranged in one s mind to return to origin... Shooting 16 rolls of ďŹ lm, I zoomed in and out, agged and raked telephone poles in front of my camera to lend the poles dignity and return them to their former glory, a magnanimous tree replete with climbing cogs and cable foliage.
Return to Origin
Lev Rukhin is an artist based in Los Angeles. For more from Lev, check out Levrukhin.com as well as leverandfulcrum.com.
Photoraphy: JAM Photos (Juan Moreno) Model: Jessica Yurash Hair & Basecoat assistance Sandra Moreno Bodypaint by Trina Merry
This issue marks our fifth full issue and the beginning of a new year’s worth of more great Atom content. As always, be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook (facebook.com/atommag), check our webzone for back issues (atommag.net) and buy a copy of this issue in paper on our online store (shop.atommag.net)! You can even subscribe to get a year of Atom delivered right to your home or workplace. We’re always looking for great partnerships with sponsors and contributors. If you are interested in either of these opportunities, feel free to send us an email: theatom.mag@gmail.com $ *'/ŏ0+ŏ+1.ŏ +*0.% 10+./ŏ * ŏ.! !./ŏ"+.ŏ) '%*#ŏ0$%/ŏ3$+(!ŏ thing possible!
Atom Magazine will return in Fall 2012 with
Forgotten