Mike Mills: Graphics/Films

Mike Mills: Graphics/Films, a new book detailing Mike’s work from the past fifteen years, is being published by Alleged Press this Spring. Mike’s work manages to remain on the forefront of graphic design while being intimate and personal. Some may remember Aaron Rose’s original incarnation of the Alleged Gallery on Ludlow Street, where Mike had some of his first art shows in the early 1990s, while producing tons of work for the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, and the French band Air.

The book can be purchased through Diamani.

Filed under: Books, Graphic Design, Aaron Rose, Alleged, Mike Mills

A Formula For Life

More M/M (Paris) for A.P.C.

Filed under: Graphic Design, APC, m/m paris, philosophy, poster

Interview at 40

Interview Magazine, founded by Andy Warhol in 1969, has more lives than a cat, and the April 2009 issue begins its umpteeth. After only five Fabien Baron-designed issues, Baron has resigned abruptly, and so has Karl Templer, the fashion director.

Baron’s successors at Interview are M/M (Paris), and not for the first time. M/M (which stands for the first letters of its founders’ names, Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak), also took over the creative direction of Paris Vogue after his notable five-year reign. New Yorkers are more likely to recognize the work of M/M (Paris) by their work for A.P.C., the French “general store” on Mercer Street in SoHo.

There’s a recent profile of M/M by Alice Rawsthorn in the International Herald Tribune, well worth reading.

Filed under: Editorial, Graphic Design, Alice Rawsthorn, fabien baron, Interview Magazine, m/m paris

Vodka, Waffles, and Cat Food

William Burroughs three-page grocery shopping list sells for $400 on eBay. [Thanks to Boing-Boing.]

Filed under: Ephemera, auction, eBay, William Burroughs

Blog as Cut-up

“Unfortunately, the means are at hand for disastrous success.”

Cut-Ups Self-Explained

by Brion Gysin

Writing is fifty years behind painting. I propose to apply
the painters’ techniques to writing; things as simple and
immediate as collage or montage. Cut right through the pages
of any book or newsprint… lengthwise, for example, and shuffle
the columns of text. Put them together at hazard and read the
newly constituted message. Do it for yourself. Use any system
which suggests itself to you. Take your own words or the words
said to be “the very own words” of anyone else living or dead.
You’ll soon see that words don’t belong to anyone. Words have
a vitality of their own and you or anybody can make them gush
into action.

The permutated poems set the words spinning off on their
own; echoing out as the words of a potent phrase are permutat-
ed into an expanding ripple of meanings which they did not seem
to be capable of when they were struck and then stuck into that
phrase.

The poets are supposed to liberate the words – not to chain
them in phrases. Who told poets they were supposed to think?
Poets are meant to sing and to make words sing. Poets have
no words “of their very own.” Writers don’t own their words.
Since when do words belong to anybody. “Your very own words,”
indeed! And who are you?

Filed under: The Third Mind, Brion Gysin, cut-up, William Burroughs