The World is a Wedding Opening

After the jump are pictures of Justin Clifford Rhody's The World is a Wedding exhibition at Skylab Gallery.

Other News:

* I featured Aidan Koch's Field Studies drawings on Beautiful/Decay.

* Wes Flexner writes about Slave Labia in the Other Paper.

* Elijah Funk has a new band, Alpha-Males.

* Zac Little recounts the story of Saintseneca.

* Chase Whiteside debates agent provocateur/hack James O'Keefe at Temple University.

Social Heat Buttons

Jack Ramunni and I just made these butties for his ongoing Social Heat project. Obviously, this is an essential part of everyone's Spring 2012 wardrobe. They are available wherever Jack Ramunnis may be found.

Other News:

* I featured Martin Hugo and Chelsea Dirck's artwork on Beautiful/Decay.

* Anobium interviews Cassandra Troyan re: the Ear Eater reading series. Troyan also has a book, THE THINGS WE EMBODY ARE THE THINGS WE DESTROY slated to be published in 2013 by Tiny Hardcore Press.

* The Sidekicks have a Monster House-centric video for "Baby, Baby."

* Bloomington's Beaker has a new album available for download.

* Natalie Shapero has a poem in the March 15th, 2012 edition of The New Republic.

* Mubi linked to Banalization's Peter Doig post in an article published today.

Party Pics

The World is a Wedding: An Exhibition of Photographs by Justin Clifford Rhody

Justin Clifford Rhody, whose artwork I recently featured on Beautiful/Decay, is exhibiting his photography at Skylab Gallery on Saturday, March 3rd, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. 

Other News:

* Austerity Pleasures is a part of the Jacksonville Public Library's zine collection.

* Two new Slave Labia videos have surfaced from SL's show at Club Sandwich.

* Saintseneca did a Daytrotter session.

* Elijah Funk is co-producing a hardcore compilation, People Mostly Suck It, with Eat The Life records.

* The _______ ____ did a feature on The Sidekicks.

Booze and Books: The Remains of the Day

I was a special guest star on Tatyana Kagamas's Booze and Books, the show that aims to improve your brain as you destroy your liver. This episode takes on the ethically complicated butlers 'n Nazis book The Remains of the Day, written by Kazuo Ishiguro. Remains won the Booker Prize in 1989, at which point it seems clear that - smug as he is - Ishiguro must have boozed in celebration. So you see, there is a connection. 

The Pharmacy Plays At Skylab On February 22nd

Joanie has yet to RSVP.

The Pharmacy, a psychedelic-punk-pop band from Seattle recently featured by Vice Magazine, is playing at Skylab Gallery (57 E. Gay St. 5th Floor Columbus, OH 43215) on February 22nd at 9 p.m. Watch The Pharmacy's music videos here, here, and here. 

Also playing are Anna Ranger, Lose The Tude, and Psychedelic Horseshit.

The show will be open to people of all ages, and is run on donations taken at the door.

Other News:

* Mickey Mocnik and Jeff Kleinman get tattooed.
* Saintseneca has a new Pink Couch Session.

Bookstore Exhibition at Drift Station

Austerity Pleasures, the first two volumes of Jack Ramunni's One Hour Publications series, and the first issue of Slave Labia's zine will be available for free at Drift Station, a gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska, during its exhibition Bookstore, which opens March 2nd. 

Re: Bookstore: "For the duration of the exhibition, Drift Station will become a bookstore/reading library where the public can look through, peruse, and purchase artworks."

Other News:

* I featured AJ Fusco's artwork on Beautiful/Decay. 

* Elijah Funk redid his artist's site.

* A review of El Jesus de Magico's new album on Columbus Discount Records.

* The Max Caldwell and Mike Shouldis episode of Safe Passages is up.

* "We are all dreaming, and the dream is Chelsea Clinton." 

ROY G BIV Panel Discussion

I will be a part of an upcoming panel discussion at ROY G BIV Gallery on February 15th entitled "An Artist's Basic Needs: Becoming a Professional Artist." The panel, which is an installment of the Greater Columbus Arts Council's OPPArt Roundtable Discussion Series, was curated by Samantha Rehark. It also includes ROY G BIV Gallery Director Emily Moorhead, and Stefan Hoza, whose joint show with Adam Johnson - Bright, Black and Veiled - recently closed at the OSU Urban Arts Space. Come - it's free, and I swear I will not utter the word "networking," though I will say "EBT" and "poverty-cultist."

Party Pics

Presents 2012

Presents 2012, an exhibition by the Art Bong collective, opens February 20th at the Acock Gallery of the Columbus College of Art & Design. Presents 2012's closing reception is followed by an after party at Skylab Gallery. Find pictures of the last Art Bong show after the jump.

Other News:

* I'm reading poetry at the Monster House on February 11th with Cuddle Magic, Jordan Castro, Moon High, and Saintseneca.

* The cover I made for Delay's Rushing Ceremony gets NSFW-ed.

* Black Cloud reviews Slave Labia's first zine. 

* I like this Shoppers band that recently played at the Monster House. Choice lyric: "After all, what's the point of being young and dumb when you're always too drunk to come?"

Party Pics

Other News:

* I featured Justin Clifford Rhody's photography and Samantha Rehark's artwork on Beautiful/Decay.
* Razorcake reviewed Austerity Pleasures.
* Download Delay's Rushing Ceremony, read Wes Flexner's article re: Delay.
* Slave Labia's released its first communique/zine.
* Jack Ramunni released One Hour Publication 02 with Dan Olsen and One Hour Publication 03 with Alex Ross.
* Aaron Miller and Ryan Starinsky started a podcast called Safe Passages. Listen to it here.
* Aidan Koch started a new blog, Field Studies, of drawings done during/for traveling.
* Jordan Castro video-interviewed Megan Boyle.

Security Envelope Interiors

I like the patterned interiors of security envelopes. That doesn't make me a bad person, or weird at all. Okay? It doesn't. It just doesn't - I'm fine. Fine, thank you.

 A collection of envelope interiors is after the jump.

2011's Reading & Viewing

Yikes, this year was the worst. After the jump is what I read and watched during it.

Other News: 

* On Beautiful/Decay I profiled Elijah Funk and Mei Yan Jane Lee's artwork.

* You can pre-order Delay's Rushing Ceremony here.

* Watch Heat Space TV's Late Lunch Live with Slave Labia; and video of their 15th House show.

Slave Labia

Other News:

* What Gives puts their tape on Bandcamp.

* New Max Levine Ensemble music video.

* Mallory Whitten story on Muumuu House.

* The Ohioans music video on Punknews.org. 

* Harvey Wasserman, leftist writer from Columbus, writes re: George Whitman's death at Counterpunch.

Party Pics

Jack Boy Big Get Present

Open publication - Free publishing - More birthday

These Things Are Hip: 2011, a book of drawings I made for Jack Ramunni's 22nd birthday, is above.

Other News:

* Columbus Street Style's Tatyana Kagamas frees a season's greetings viral video from the confines of Secular Village.
* Black Cloud posted soon-to-be iconic Slave Labia photos from their recent 15th House show.
* Alex Ross has an artist's site now; it includes photo documentation of Max Caldwell's recent Blitz Minded/Blitzed Mind show at CCAD.
* Aaron Lake Smith published an essay in the Utne Reader; it's illustrated with an Edward Gorey envelope.
* Some site, "The Hot 17," wrote about Carabar, the black hole at the center of my social universe. 

Button Interview

Alex Ross interviewed me about making one-inch buttons for a project at CCAD.

Other News:

* Columbus Street Style featured a small selection of my winter 2012 looks.
* There is a fashion label named "James Payne."
* Un Uccellino Mi Ha Detto posted a collage of mine.
* Wes Flexner wrote an article about William Berry's record label Amethyst Sunset.
* A video has surfaced of Hannah Stephenson reading poetry at Skylab on 11/27/11.
* Skylab Gallery just received a Franklin County Neighborhood Arts grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council to help support an artist-in-residency program - very exciting.

Party Pics

Other News:

* Beautiful/Decay's John Malta profiled my artwork on their blog.

* The Nervous Breakdown's Jordan Castro interviewed me about my poetry chapbook Austerity Pleasures.

* Elijah Funk posted the cover  of his new zine Sometimes When I am Feeling Sad.

* Tin Armor has a music video for their song "Strange and Estranging."

New Buttons

Other News:

* Tatyana Kagamas reads her short story "The New Piscina" at the OSU Urban Arts Space as part of Paging Columbus.

* Delay's album trailer for Rushing Ceremony; their bandcamp for the same.

* That "alternative" weekly blurbs the "Book as Art Object" panel I was on.
* Everything is Terrible is coming to Skylab on April 6th.

Skylab 11/27/11

Tonight (11/27) at Skylab Gallery (57 E. Gay St. 5th Floor): Angel One, Ben Bennett, Patrick Elkins, Ryan Jewell, Justin Clifford Rhody, and Hannah Stephenson.

Party Pics

Rushing Ceremony Cover

These are the front and back covers and labels for Delay's new album Rushing Ceremony. I designed them with the indispensable/incomparable aid of Jack Ramunni, a former runner-up in Ohio's Photoshop Context Contest who deserved first. 

Rushing Ceremony comes out in December on Shout Out Loud Records. The album will also be available on Bandcamp at what I'm told will be a "politically-progressive" rate. Purchase Rushing Ceremony at a record-release show in the very near-future; for more definite information, watch Delay's Tumblr. 

One Hour Publication

Open publication - Free publishing - More heatspace

One Hour Publications is a zine series exploring collaborative situations, artist publications, and self-publishing. Each book's content is made within one hour by Jack Ramunni and one collaborator in Heat Space at the Columbus College of Art and Design. 

For the first One Hour Publication, I extemporaneously wrote a suite of twelve poems about the city of Columbus, memory, and decay. Jack then drew a companion illustration for each poem as it came off the typewriter.

The next One Hour Publication features Alex Ross and it is funny.

The One Hour Publication on Goodreads.

Other News:

* Ben Bennett, Patrick Elkins, Ryan Jewell, Justin Clifford Rhody, and Hannah Stephenson will be performing at Skylab on November 27th.
* New art history blog for lonelies, fun.
* I "signed" this letter in support of the Occupy movement.
* Peterbd sent me another email. This site collects emails that Peterbd has sent to internet literature types. Reminds me of Ray Johnson. Here it is:

all the leaves are brown and the lit is bleak

this lit is just so bad, very ununique

i'd be very blessed if all lit was by payne. james payne prose i'm dreamin, there's not much else to say

walked into a store because i love to read. well the books were just so bad, i got down on my knees. and prayed to god to stop this prose, so i'll see brighter days

james payne prose i'm dreamin, cause every book is lame

all the kids are sad and so down on luck

they just want something good to read. somethings that doesn't suck

our savior is in payne, he must write everything. james payne prose i'm dreamin, on his every word we cling

                                                                  - Peterbd

Street Speech Poem

Street Speech just published my poem "Some Answers to Certain Inexhaustible Anxieties" in its November 4th-17th issue under my curiously similar nom de plume "Jason Payne."

Street Speech carries great content regarding homelessness, economic inequality, mental illness, and other political issues facing the Columbus community. It's actually way better than the Columbus Alive, if you can believe that, and well worth supporting. 

New Work

Other News:

* Jack Ramunni and Alex Ross on the streets of post-apocalyptic Columbus, Ohio. 

* My piece in the Heat Space Art Collection.

* I'm on a panel December 1st discussing the art of the book at the OSU Urban Arts Space. 

Warm Hands Buttons

I recently made buttons for my friend Conrad's band Warm Hands. Get them from him in Portland, Oregon, and wear them and be warm. 

Other news:

* Steve Roggenbuck lectures at Duke University re: internet pums.

* Cassandra Troyan is driving traffic to my blog. 

Skylab Flyer Archive

       The flyer archive at Skylab Gallery is a new project started to preserve paper ephemera produced by the DIY music scene in Columbus, Ohio. The archive is housed in two flat files that Michelle Maguire generously earmarked for Skylab during the Ohio State University’s History of Art Department’s summer reorganization. 

       The flat files currently hold more than 500 flyers that were taken from my personal collection. We’ve organized these flyers according to venue, giving long-running spaces like the Legion of Doom, the 15^th House, or Skylab their own sections, and categorizing fly-by-night spaces by the type of venue they represent – whether it’s a house, an art gallery, or a record store. If possible, we’ve written the designer’s name and the year the flyer was made in pencil on the back of each flyer.

        As a community archive we’re eager to expand the collection through donations from people involved in the Columbus DIY scene. We’re interested in any and all flyers that represent DIY events in Columbus from any time period. If you wish to donate but you’re unsure about giving your flyers away, please consider making a temporary loan to the flyer archive.

        In addition to serving as a historical record, we envision the flyer archive being used for research purposes, design inspiration, and, most of all, entertainment. The archive is open by appointment to all. Make an appointment or schedule a donation by emailing Skylabartspace@gmail.com or by calling 614.323.9306.

Other News:

* I'm in the Ohio Arts Council's creative writer listing.
* Jack Ramunni reads one of my poems in this episode of Late Lunch Live.
* Addie Cheges assigns and illustrates an epitaph for the Monster House, which is scheduled to die in June of 2012. It's a saying I wrote in chalk on an overhang in the basement, "No Encores in Punk Rock."
* Aaron Miller updates a list I made of every band that's played at the Monster House in honor of its 200th show.
* My aunt Britta's son Erik Kish, who was in the band Hi-Fi and the Roadburners, recently passed away. A number of newspapers in Chicago published obituaries in remembrance of his life: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Time-Out Chicago, Huffington Post. I only met Erik once, but I feel that having his presence in my family (and his mother's - an artist herself) is one of the reasons that I felt, from a young age, that making a life out of creative endeavors is not just possible, but actually desirable. I also think that the first descriptions of "punk" I heard in my life was due to people explaining to me what he did. So, obviously, a big deal. 

Party Pics

Dan Tarnowski Reviews Austerity Pleasures

And that review can be read on Drawn Curtains.

Other News:

* Monster House Press signals that its next release (MHP 03) will be Ryan J. Eilbeck's classic children's story The Hugmonster Lives Under my Bed!.

* Lose the Tude's 7-inch reviewed on Thwart. 

* HEAT SPACE is collecting any and all artwork; drop it off at HEAT SPACE on CCAD's campus.

* Arty Party mentioned in this Time Out Chicago profile of Sara Drake's project in Cambodia.

Summer/Fall Recordings

Go here to download recordings of Slave Labia, Bruce McClure, Tatyana Kagamas, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Cassandra and Cody Troyan, John M. Bennett, and Tiger Hatchery at Skylab; White Walls at Carabar; Slutever and Drug Money at Bat Chapters; John M. Bennett at the OSU Urban Arts Space; Slave Labia at The Shelf; and Envelope at Spoonful Records.

Also, go here for a download of Unholy Two at Bat Chapters.

Other News:

Austin & Ryan Eilbeck, Columbus Poet Laureate, turn 27. Here's Ryan reading at the OSU Urban Arts Space as part of the Paging Columbus reading series. And here is a synopsis of a stand-up routine Austin once gave at The Screamer House:

Austin approaches the performance area. In the performance area is a cup of water resting on a stool. Austin tells a "joke" then goes to drink water out of the cup. But the cup has been attached to the stool, so Austin has to pick up the whole thing to take his drink. The end. 

Skyblab Episode #1

Skylab Gallery has a new podcast, Skyblab, that aims to keep "the public" abreast of our goings-on.

Download it here.

The first episode features an interview with University of Florida Professor of Film and Media Studies Roger Beebe about his "Films for One to Eight Projectors" performance; a reading by SAIC Professor and Fulbright scholar Anne Elizabeth Moore from her new book Cambodian Grrrl: Self-publishing in Phnom Penh, and a performance by poet and curator of The Ohio State University libraries' Avant Writing Collection John M. Bennett. 

 It's all topped off with a drunken review of Jeffrey Eugenides's new book The Marriage Plot by Tatyana Kagamas and music by Angels in America, Envelope featuring Nikki Portman, and Jack Ramunni & Alex Ross.

And Donewaiting.com posted it here.

Party Pics

New Buttons

Now at Rag-O-Rama in Columbus, OH, and Indianapolis, IN; Wolfbait and B-Girls in Chicago, IL; and all 3 Buffalo Exchanges in NYC.

Literary Chicago Reviews Austerity Pleasures

Mason Johnson reviewed my chapbook Austerity Pleasures at Literary Chicago.

Other News:

* I broke this episode of HEAT SPACE TV with Midori.
* John Malta publishes An Asteroid Descends on Mount Moldy.
* An "alternative" weekly covers Matt Schuermann's band American War.
* The Space of the Encounter, a show at DoVA Temporary co-curated by Cassandra Troyan and Zachary Cahill, is on view at DoVA Temporary in Chicago, Illinois. A review of the show at The Chicago Weekly.
* Bureau for Open Culture curator Jim Voorhies was interviewed by Bad at Sports.
* The Max Levine Ensemble has a new Bloomington-centric video for their song "Big Problems USA."
* Ginger Alford, Jake Alexander, and Alan Crenshaw started a new band called  Traveling.
* Toby Foster, Ryan Woods, and Nick Romy started a new band called High Dive. They have an album on No Idea Records.

Columbus Alive Notes My Pins

The Columbus Alive's Jackie Mantey blurbed regarding my pins in the Wexner Center for the Arts's store in a piece called "Shopping: Gift Shop Top Sellers." The pins were compared favorably to potato chips. If you would like pins that are similar in certain respects to a popular snack food, email here: james.payne.cc@gmail.com.

Other News:

* The Bitch blog mentioned Women's Comics Anthology in the context of Anne Elizabeth Moore's larger Ladydrawers project and its semimonthly Truthout column.
* Fantagraphics linked to a recording I took of a Paul Hornschemeier reading in its press round-up for Hornschemeier's All and Sundry: Uncollected Work 2004-2009.
* Jack Ramunni opened "HEAT SPACE" in his studio at CCAD. HEAT SPACE is "a year-long experiment" in the form of "an open project space where a variety of small events, group projects, experiments, lectures, and other creatively engaging activities will occur."
* Tavish is weirdly in this WNYC segment about Brion Gysin's Dream Machine. "Patterns. Moving." 
* Tatyana Kagamas unleashes Columbus Street Style.
* Download A.J.Fusco's mix for the 9/11 End Life rave here.
* Andrew Duncan Worthington is looking for a publication to carry his review of Austerity Pleasures.
* Bruce McClure is performing at Skylab Gallery on September 24th. The Columbus Alive blurbed it here.
* I don't know who or what Peterbd is but he/she/it sent me an email and it is after the jump.

Party Pics

Reading at the OSU Urban Arts Space

I recently read poems at the OSU Urban Arts Space as part of the ongoing Paging Columbus reading series curated by Hannah Stephenson. This is a recording of that.

Nikkita Cohoon, Wendy McVicker, and CCAD Liberal Arts Professor Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis also read.

Other News:

* Richard Wehrenberg Jr. recounts our spring poetry tour.
* Vice mentions Bat Chapters and Monster House and Weakness sounding like Hickey.
* Vice interviews Aaron Hibbs of Rage Against the Cage.
* Cassandra and Cody Troyan release Big Bill and the Lonely Nation, Part II: Places to go to Die.
* Naked man video-reviews Assuming Size.

New Buttons

Also, Hook and Line Magazine made mention of Austerity Pleasures.

Anobium #1 Available for Pre-Orders

ANOBIUM: VOLUME 1 is available for pre-orders. It's a Chicago-based publication instigated by Benjamin van Loon. Anobium contains two poems of mine along with writing by Rich Ives, Stephanie Plenner, Joe Meno and many more.

In other news:

* Jason Behrends reviews Austerity Pleasures on the Chicago Subtext blog.
* I have some poems forthcoming on My Name is Mud.
* I am reading poems at Kafe Kerouac in Columbus, Ohio, on July 16th with Philip Kim and Jason Dutton.
* The Boy Who Could Fly on If You Make It. Gush.
* Frank Hinton pens an ode to Cassandra Troyan.
* Pop Serial #2 is online now.
* John Also Bennett responds to Osama bin Laden's death.
* Word Wild Records released a split 10-inch by Snarlas and Pink Houses.
* Download DJ Power Smoke's set from E-Hole.
* Download Tin Armor's Life of Abundance here and their tribute to The Modern Lovers here.
* A video of Lightning Yin Yang playing the Monster House.
* Dina Sherman's show Nothing is Very Complicated just opened at the OSU Urban Arts Space.
* Berea Fest is happening on July 16th in Berea, Ohio.
* Alexis Bhagat is delivering a lecture entitled 'The Cinema as a Concert Hall for the 21st Century' on July 14th at Skylab.
* Help the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
* Help Spooktober release their 10-inch album.

Books I Read in the First Half of 2011

After the jump is a list of books I read in the first six months of 2011.

Party Pics

Assuming Size is Sold Out

Assuming Size has sold out. (Though the Wexner Center Store may beg to differ.)

In other news, this interview with Chicago friendsie Leslie Perrine by Elizabeth Gilmore at Design Bureau.

Recordings of Wolfs, Psychedelic Horseshit, Seabat

The constituent parts of Wolfs. Wolfs just released its demo "MMXI."

The Wolfs* recording is from the 6/12/11 show at Bat Chapters in Columbus, Ohio.

The Seabat and Psychedelic Horseshit recordings are from the 6/8/11 show at Skylab, my new abode in Columbus, Ohio.

Scroll through tracks on the above player to listen to each band. The playlist goes as follows:

(1) Psychedelic Horseshit
(2) Seabat
(3) Wolfs

Or download.

* Spelling intentional.

New Buttons

Jack Rammuni - 666etwood Mac

                                                 Jack Rammuni.

Jack Rammuni, my next-door neighbor, posted pictures to accompany my poem "666etwood Mac," the title of which I shamelessly lifted from something he wrote in the Monster House's kitchen last year. 

Money Frown

Orange Alert Podcast 64, Gender and Comics Potluck Posters

A recording of my May 15th reading at The Whistler is included in the new Orange Alert podcast. Twin Shadow, Carrie Lorig, and other sundry audio items are in the mix as well. 

In other news, a poster version of the Bitch Magazine article I assisted Anne Elizabeth Moore and Esther Pearl Watson with, ""Gender and Comics Potluck: A Graphic Survey of Where Women and Trans People are - and aren't - in the Comics Industry," is now available as a series of silk-screened posters - right here.

Austerity Pleasures, Now in Very Select Stores

My poetry chapbook Austerity Pleasures is now available for purchase here:

Quimby's in Chicago, Illinois

Boxcar Books in Bloomington, Indiana

Inquiring Minds Bookstore in New Paltz, New York

Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Used Kids Records in Columbus, Ohio

Wexner Center for the Arts Store in Columbus, Ohio

Wholly Craft in Columbus, Ohio

Powell's Bookstore in Portland, Oregon

Wooden Shoe Books in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Modern Art Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom

Would your store care to carry Austerity Pleasures? If so, please email Richard@monsterhousepress.com.

After the jump is a blurb Edie Fake wrote for Quimby's website regarding Austerity Pleasures, and a few other tidbits of feedback.