-the inaugural and final issueFALL 2015
quirky i
quirky Unconventional, surprising, odd. A word often used by narcissistic scenesters when they describe their oh-so-unique selves in their Livejournal user info pages in attempts to sound like interesting people. -Urban Dictionary
i
3 Q&A
MARVELOUS MONSTERS
CONTENTS
Q&A
IT’S HARD TO BE FUNNY
4 FEATURE
YOU HAD ME AT SUBTITLES
6 12
QUICK TAKES
8
wordsalad
10
FEATURE
FROM FORENSICS TO PHOTOGRAPHY
-q&a - quirky people saying interesting things-
“I knew he was Dracula, I could feel it in his slickness, his mannerisms and his superiority.”
Emil Ferris holding one of the puppets she created for her Fellowship-winning Master of Fine Arts show at the School of the art Institute of Chicago - photo by Yoni Goldstein
Marvelous Monsters
Emil Ferris--illustrator, writer, animator and fan of the Wolfman Emil (pronounced EM’ el) Ferris is an illustrator, writer and animator who is in the final stages of editing her graphic novel, My Favorite Thing is Monsters. She also creates “monsterized” portraits of families, individuals, children, and even cats and dogs. Maryann Schaefer: Where did the idea to draw people as monsters come from? Emil Ferris: I was on the El drawing a guy in what I thought was a sneaky way. He threateningly approached me and said, “I’m not supposed to be here?” I got a feeling that he had taken off on a warrant. He said he wanted the drawing but I told him I could change it. And I turned him into a monster. I knew he was Dracula, I could feel it in his slickness, his mannerisms and his superiority. He took the drawing and told me it was beautiful. So, I started drawing other people, and I could intuit who they were.
MS: What is it about monsters that interest you? EF: I loved monster movies as a kid, the really cheesy, hokey Creature Features, and I would stay up every Saturday night to see them. I loved the murky darkness and the flickering quality. I even loved the dirt on the film! Watching them allowed me to imagine that there was an “otherness” possible in the world.
His sister, now this is somewhat autobiographical, is extremely attached to him and is devastated. She understands the world through monster movies and magazines. There is a subplot about the murder of her neighbor who is one of those people who has gone to war and has come back damaged. The undertone of the whole book is about war and what it does to people.
MS: Do you have a favorite monster? EF: There are a lot I completely love, but I do like the Wolfman because I feel very sorry for him. He’s a primal character with a savageness that he’s trying to control which is just part of his nature. He wants to love and be loved. He’s beautiful but doesn’t realize it.
MS: What do you say to people who think that illustration, comics and graphic novels aren’t real art? EF: I get this from some artists, but I think that is an old guard attitude. When you look at the Chicago Imagists, like Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke and Karl Wirsum, you see artists who were inspired by comic sensibility. That was a pivotal generation. Younger audiences want to be told a story and they do consider comics and graphic novels art. That’s the type of work I do and it’s gratifying that it matters.
MS: Can you tell me about your graphic novel? EF: It’s set in 1968 about a brother who comes back from Vietnam as a heroin addict.
-q&a - quirky people saying interesting things-
“I did three minutes and utterly bombed. Didn’t get a single laugh. I was so traumatized that I didn’t try it for another year.”
It’s Hard to Be Funny
Riley Trela is a 30-year-old aspiring writer, sketch and stand-up comic who is making inroads in the L.A. comedy scene. We chatted about the soul-sucking work behind being professionally funny.
Maryann Schaefer: You were recently a headliner at Peachy Keen, a comedy club in L.A that features new and established talent, including Sarah Silverman. Riley Trela: The guy that runs the club saw me do a set in Manhattan Beach; he contacted me and said, “Man, that was really funny. Do you want to be on the show?” My considered response: “I’d love to do that.” It was pretty simple, but it was cool, because I was headlining with a group of people who have been doing late-night talk shows. MS: During that show, there was a moment when you started a joke with, “My mom died recently.” It seemed as though the air was sucked right out of the room. RT: It’s a bit about heartbreak and how having your heart broken by a girl is way worse than having your mom die. When your mom dies, you don’t have to worry about her going around being a mom to a bunch of other kids - giving them hot chocolate, tucking them in, reading them Goodnight Moon... People hear jokes all the time. When someone says something that bums them out, throws them off, or makes them worry for the comic, they think, “Oh no, this is not good. He cannot make this funny.” That’s when really good stuff happens. MS: Was that a paying gig? RT: You don’t get paid for doing comedy in L.A. Stand-up is about the people you meet and making connections that could lead to television shows. If you wanted to make money doing stand-up, you wcould start in St. Louis or Nashville, where people get paid $500 to $800 per weekend. It’s really hard. MS: What was your first stand-up experience like? RT: I went to the Laugh Factory, a famous L.A. club, and did their open mic. I did three minutes and utterly bombed. Didn’t get a single laugh. They were like, “Time’s up,” and basically pulled me off the stage. I was so traumatized that I didn’t try it for another year. MS: Were your jokes bad? RT: No, actually I had a pretty good one about news reports about fatal semi accidents and their victims taking exception to that characterization – it’s pretty much an “all the way” thing for them – nothing semi about it. But, I didn’t have any sense of timing, or how to stand, and my body was shaking. MS: So, it’s as scary as it looks. RT: God, yeah. It’s better now, but you don’t ever want to entirely lose that fear. When I am trying new stuff, I’m still scared. MS: Once you decided to go back, how did you figure out what to do? RT: There was an open mic close to where I
lived, and I did that every week for a while. I started getting laughs and continued getting “not laughs.” At first, I didn’t want to talk to too many people, because my biggest fear was to be like, “Hey guys, my name is Riley, nice to meet you!” and then go on stage and eat shit. For the first three or four months, I was in the corner until I was respectable enough not to embarrass myself. Once you are successful, it’s a lot easier to talk to people. Then you find other good comedy clubs to try out. MS: What was your first great moment on stage? RT: In making fun of extreme conservative viewpoints, I talked about a ride called the Slippery Slope in my hometown amusement park. At the top it allows gay people the same rights as straight people, in the middle people can marry their dogs, and at the bottom the government is forcing women to have late-term abortions on tattered American flags--which is where they snap the photo. I thought it was an okay joke, but I told it and it absolutely destroyed. MS: I have to ask the ubiquitous social media question. Any impact on what you do? RT: I am on Twitter, and I have had people say good stuff about what I do and ask if they can buy my jokes. I have this guy who is a juggling comedian in New York who I sometimes write one liners for, and if he sees a tweet of mine he likes, he buys it for $50. MS: What are you working on now? RT: I’m doing writer’s packets for shows and hope to nail one of those. Late night or variety shows will give you a list of jokes you have to write – ideas for desk bits. It’s all done through management companies/agencies. I don’t have a manager yet, though I have a contact working at a management company who eventually will be a manager. If I get hired to write for a show, then I would become her client, so she keeps funneling me opportunities. MS: Who do you think is funny? RT: Louis C.K., and in L.A. there are famous comics like Nate Bargatze and Tommy Johnagin. I like a couple of guys lower on the comedy food chain who will soon be famous like Ahmed Bharoocha and Ryan Flanagan. MS: What’s their secret? RT: You have to keep doing it. Stick around. It takes a while. I’ve been doing it for about two years. Those people have been doing it for much longer. Once you hit six or seven years, you get really good and comfortable. They are all above my level. I’m like the sophomore. I see these guys in the hallway, but I’m not allowed to text them. MS: Think you’ll become a comedic senior? RT: (laughs) Yeah, eventually.
Trela’s Tweets: -Environmental scientists reported that a Texas-sized landmass of garbage has been discovered directly south of Oklahoma -76% of swimming is telling people who aren’t in the water what the water is like -Every cane purchase should come with a mandatory class about how not to walk slowly down the middle of a hallway. -If we’re being a hundred percent honest there probably are rivers wide enough to keep me from getting to you. -”It should have three lights that are always on and one light that constantly flickers wildly for no reason.” -Guy who invented modems --I like it when people tell me, “Hey, don’t get any ideas now,” because I’m already pretty much doing that. follow Trela @rileytrela
-featuring the quixotic-
YOU HAD ME AT SUBTITLES
Every time I go to The Town, I get the sneaking suspicion that I've been transplanted to a 1960s BBC mystery program. The owners (whom, it's been rumored, are swingers‌) are old and pretty bizarre. -2007 Yelp Review
Since its closing in 2008, I heard whiperings that the Town Theatre, a 1940’s vintage, one screen movie house located in my hometown of Highland, Indiana would be restored mingled with rumors of its current raccoon-overrun, mold ridden state. Last month, Highland’s town council voted to approve a 2-million dollar renovation, including subsuming two adjoining buildings, adding a stage, and state-of-the-art equipment for film, music, comedy, and community theatre. Even when I was its youngest regular patron in the early 1980s, the Town Theatre was anachronistic—aged projection equipment, one screen, one film with a two week run, showings at 5:00 daily, 5:00 and 9:00 weekends. It only played Oscar-quality movies – well past their premiere dates – foreign and art films. I never arrived late because, while located in northwest Indiana, a region founded by a generation of immigrants who built the steel industry, the place was nearly always packed. The building was retro-cool with a smallish exterior covered in faded lemon yellow subway tile and a red and yellow triangle-shaped marquee with neon letters spelling out “TOWN” on either side, though a quarter of the light bulbs underneath it were M.I.A. While my peers were at football games or parties, I spent every other weekend of my teenage years at “the Town,” doing nothing to advance my standing as a Homecoming Queen candidate. I am grateful to whatever gods protect young women growing up in vanilla towns from cultural oblivion. Thanks to them I had the opportunity to see mind-altering movies like Fanny and Alexander, Blue Velvet and Swimming to Cambodia. Had it not been for the Town,
I would have never seen Wallace Shawn, in the role of “regular guy” and bohemian writer Andre Gregory spend an entire movie talking over dinner in the aptly titled, My Dinner with Andre.
While you might have gone to the Town once to see a movie, you returned for its addictive quirkiness. At least I did. But the place and the films that were shown there are only part of the story. A 2007 Yelp review hints at the rest, “Every time I go to The Town, I get the sneaking suspicion that I’ve been transplanted to a 1960s BBC mystery program. The owners (whom, it’s been rumored, are swingers…) are old and pretty bizarre.” The owners ran the theatre while chain-smoking back when chain-smoking was allowed wherever the nicotine urge arose. The husband was an Alfred Hitchcock doppelganger, though the black suit covering his protuberant belly was faded and threadbare. His partner was a small, pale, woman with short jet-black hair and pancake makeup that accentuated her cigarette-induced wrinkles. She poked her spindly hands out from behind the glass barrier that separated us, looked through me, and collected my three dollars. I handed my ticket to Alfred and marveled that he could collect stubs and smoke a cigarette to its butt, ashes clinging to each other for dear life, without setting anything on fire.
Alfred, like Mrs. Alfred, wasn’t much of a talker. The theatre held 400 seats, actually multiple springs mounted on a metal base covered by paper-thin fabric. Life-sized suits of armor, long handled spears in hand were inexplicably mounted on either side of the walls. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in suppressing a worry they might reanimate and hack us all to pieces. Every film was interrupted by an intermission – typically hideously timed in the middle of a climactic scene – with free fruit punch, bitter coffee, cake and cookies served in the lobby. I was lucky that circumstances kept me no more than a 45-minute drive from the Town my entire life and I returned often, devouring a buffet of films I would have been starved of in my pre-Netflix world. Alfred died in 2008, and not unexpectedly, the Town Theatre closed. In the intervening years, I thought of the place often, but never imagined that, should it return, it wouldn’t come back exactly as it had been. Alfred might have to smoke 15-feet away from the entrance of the building, but I assumed the knights were safe, though bored, in a storage locker somewhere. However, when the Alfreds walked out of that wonderful, old building for the last time, and I can imagine it vividly as though directed by an older Woody Allen in the style of Crimes and Misdemeanors, soundtrack by Sarah McLachlan, the Town Theatre really did close forever.
wordsalad
World-traveler, Kristin Nason’s tumblr, “wordsalad,” shows us the ways the English language collides with other cultures... and loses.
-featuring the quixotic-
“I look for things that speak to a personal experience or something that could be intimate to the previous owner.”
From Forensics to Photography Artist Amanda Taves uses her training in criminal forensics to uncover the intangile moment in life. I’m waiting in a cavernous gallery shining an LED flashlight on objects placed on black pedestals covered with plastic boxes, exploring the fingerprints and smudges that appear and disappear with movements of the beam. Hung on the black walls around me are photos of objects that have been dusted with fingerprint powder, traces of human handling glowing an ethereal dusky orange. Behind a black curtain are three boxes – one filled with random objects-with the paraphernalia Catholic priests use to administer last rites, and one with a stack of old letters. I hear hurried footfalls from the hallway, as Amanda Taves whose show, Manifest, featured in The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Student Union Galleries’ Gallery X rushes in to meet me. Slight with short black hair and a gleaming smile, she apologizes for being late, takes barely second to catch her breath and starts discussing her show. Maryann Schaefer: Tell me about the themes you are exploring? Amanda Taves: It’s a combination of indi-
vidual experience and memory. if you go on vacation, and you want to remember it so you buy something and that is supposed to take the place of the experience. But you can never really do that. I’m trying to convey a story about how we forge memories and carry them with us. It’s also about the shedding of those memories and the objects that carry them. MS: Why use forensics? AT: I went to school for forensics. Due to a personal experience, I decided I wanted to go into law enforcement. I realized that there was a strong connection between science, philosophy, the techniques that you use in criminal forensics, and art. What we are trying to do as artists is expose hidden truths in the intangible moments in life. MS: How do you select the objects you photography and display? AT: I go to estate sales because they represent the ultimate shedding of things. I look for things that speak to a personal experience or something that could be intimate to the previous owner. That’s what I like best. I have a room of things and most of them still have fingerprint
dust on them. I need to start getting rid of them but I haven’t been able to yet. MS: Can you talk about your process? AT: Once I have objects I like, I dust them all at the same time because you have to get into a pattern. If you fingerprint too hard, it rubs the print off. Depending on how old the imprint is, it’s a delicate process to pull it out. I usually destroy the first one or two objects. Then I have a black backdrop I use and set objects in the center of it. I put my camera in a specific position and use black lights on either side. My photos are all long exposure. I don’t use any digital processes. MS: Have there been surprises? AT: I was unsure of what I would when I dusted a Bible because I assumed that when the book was closed, the fingerprints would be lost. For whatever reason, the fingerprints stuck. I fell in love with whoever owned this because they had clearly been repeatedly going to this page, and the line that is highlighted by the prints is significant to me. “Her sins are pardoned and the Lord will give her twice as many blessings as he did her punishment.”
-featuring the quixotic-
I realized that there was a strong connection between science, philosophy, the techniques that you use in criminal forensics, and art. MS: For this exhibition you combined photos and objects. Why was that important? AT: The object and the photograph are two different things, and the experience you have with them is different, especially if you bring in the forensic light and you are able to play with it and see for yourself what it really looks like to investigate in this way. MS: There is a participatory element of the show. You have a black curtain to separate the viewing from the participating. AT: Yes, the attendants are supposed to tell people one at a time because I want it to be an intimate experience for the viewer and the handler. MS: Can you talk about what you selected for people to engage with? AT: I was having a lot of difficulty picking items for the boxes. I started sending out posts on my Facebook, and asking people at restaurants and randomly, “What is your most cherished object?” It threw so many people off guard but once they thought about it they really wanted to tell me. MS Where did you find the old letters? AT: found them on EBay. There was a short blurb that described them as WWII family correspondence but they are lovers’ letters. They span four years of the writer’s experience as an army nurse dating multiple men. I read every one of them! MS: Do you wish you could have met the letter writer? AT: Opening night, a woman from Kentucky came up to me and said, “I think I know who this woman is. I think she is my neighbor.” Her address was a block away from one of the addresses on the letters. She was going to go home and find out her neighbor’s maiden name, and if it is her, I’m going to mail them back. MS: What do you plan to do with the objects from this part of the show? AT: I don’t know yet. I will definitely fingerprint some of them. MS: What’s next? AT: I’m working on another iteration of this project, and I’m not sure if I’ll continue fingerprinting for this specific piece, but I will keep doing it. Without giving away too much information, I’m going to be working with a psychic.
-quick takes-
THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SEPARATED (FROM MUPPETS) AT BIRTH
Less than a year away from an election whose consequences will shape the future of the United States for decades to come - two Supreme Court seats are in play not to mention that several candidates do not believe in climate change, a view which puts the entire planet at risk. I am casting my vote for the muppets.
DONALD J. TRUMP, “ENTERTAINER” - GOP FRONTRUNNER “What can be simpler or more accurately stated? The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.”
TED CRUZ, SENATOR FROM TEXAS - TOP GOP CONTENDER
“To LGBT men and women worldwide, let me say this: wherever you live and whatever the circumstances of your life, whether you are connected to a network of support or feel isolated and vulnerable, please know that you are not alone.”
“You know, back in the ’70s — I remember the ’70s, we were told there was global cooling. And everyone was told global cooling was a really big problem. … The problem with climate change is there’s never been a day in the history of the world in which the climate is not changing.”
MARCO RUBIO, SENATOR FROM FLORIDA - TOP GOP CONTENDER “I believe marriage is a unique and specific institution that is the result of thousands of years of wisdom, which concluded that the ideal — not the only way but certainly the ideal — situation to raise children to become productive and healthy humans is in a home with a father and mother married to each other.”
“You know, I think many people have the mistaken impression that Congress regulates Wall Street. In truth that’s not the case. The real truth is that Wall Street regulates the Congress.”
HILARY CLINTON - DEMOCRATIC FRONTRUNNER
DEMOCRATS
BERNIE SANDERS, SENATOR FROM VT - DEMOCRATIC FRONTRUNNER
REPUBLICANS