The Widow

There was a humor magazine called The Cornell Widow published by students at Cornell University between the 10s and 60s. I had never heard of this mag until suddenly Cam hauled 700 pounds of printing blocks used in issues of The Widow into our workshop.


It was a strange offer, difficult to refuse, and the "project" of owning these treasures/out-casts is still undefined for us. We went through three boxes and found a variety of blocks. Some skillful, absurd illustrations simply make no sense without the comedic text they were created for. Other images are so simple, like the moths, they've become icons for us already.

The caricatures are great and maintain abundant personality.



So far, the plan is to print the ones that stand out for us and maybe post scans on flickr. The call is being raised to "get the Widow off the floor!" I'm hoping that we'll get to some 1920s content somewhere in the pile like this great cover courtesy of the ephemera assemblyman.

What is paper?

What does it do? And what do we do because of it?

Why do I, an ecologically conservative person use paper as my main means of expression? When many of my friends have stopped their magazine and newspaper subscriptions, avoid fancy packaging, operate the written word mostly in cyberspace...here I am pushing paper around, leaning over a white sheet, reading, studying, copying, remembering, folding, gluing, sewing.

Paper can be made from the waste of industry. It's becoming an afterthought. We seek out paper that's not made from virgin materials. Paper is the energy put into its production and how we use it.

Paper is a harness.

Recently Cam had a brainstorm of book structures based on origami techniques. One of his structures will be part of the next rendition of the Forest Drive. We spent a good portion of our day looking at it and discussing what content it was fit to carry.

The front cover has this nice polygon shape. The foredge can be cut to make a rectangular shape without disturbing the structure which will be sewn into the larger book as a single signature.

The first spread is a hexagon with an upturned triangle beckoning to be flipped under the index finger.

The second spread reveals two triangles balancing each other at the corners and segment of the previous spread peeking through.

The back cover with its shadows. Maybe it will reflect a richly colored sheet that starts the next signature? Could this structure be about putting things together, about divisions like stations in radio frequency, about shadows and reflections? It marks the first foray into the Forest Drive. The paper invites our hands into a smooth, blank place. Our fingers gently pinch and rub along the folds.

Cam's fantasy penny farthing

At Lettre Sauvage we pride ourselves on investing long hours of toil on projects that dig us just a few more inches further into the rabbit hole. You never know when you'll turn that dark corner and suddenly find yourself in free fall through the limitless space of a colorful dream-scape. All we know for certain is that we have to keep scraping.

This Saturday Cam woke up, put on his dashing plaid pants and rubber-toed sneakers, plopped down on his black leather perch and began drawing a penny farthing bicycle.

In his words: "When people used to fall off one of these they called it 'catching a cropper" because you fly over the handlebars and go head first into the ground. They have a high center of gravity combined with a very forward seating position. In my design I tried to mitigate this flaw by sweeping the front forks back and curving the rear axle out, pushing the riding position down and back from the front axle."

Don't you want to be Cam's imaginary cyclist?! This is comfort and charm.

wine poetry virtue

in veritum vino y coitus, or thereabouts, adventures of a missus, yesterday found myself sewing tiny three dimensional books together. if you pull the manuscript out of its sleeve, and set it up in an intelligent origami way, the divertic message will reveal itself, as wine poetry and virtue dance upon your sleeves. for the guest with add.

look for it in local bookstores or order in online at http://www.lettresauvage.com/

the design for wine poetry virtue was conceived whilst fiona served her apprenticeship at UCSB book arts.

the party

was so successful it took us 13 days to tell you about it! my god, there were so many hot girls and brilliant films screened in cameron's creative back yard projection-en-scene. naked three foot high plastic dolls, or a leg only, strewn about the property, handsome french wine-makers who talk about wittgenstein on vintage couches.

oh come along now, you should have been there! not just in house when dept. was rocking the spanish adobe print up imagination, liquid gel projections on our living room's inner walls. odd bulbs, colors, in each of the globe lamps. globe or some other shape more parabolic...ok, not just dept's incredible mix and progression of beats,...you should have been there, too,

when sophia kidd performed,
spoken word scribe, off the page (is recitation a lost art?), she explained how al gorisma brought zero from india to the muslim world and then to europe via moor encampments in spain...it went well, with interruptions that were so glandular, we all thought saturn had gone rhomboid (your author's been reading a titular lot of ezra lb.)


kameron and ceith

(keith ok)

rocked out of water in the basement studio, composed into psychic states from the ethers...many filmmakers were present to witness and document these two's wizardly states with a theramin (sp?) and odd casio intruments, instrument kinds and fucked up circuitry. scuze me for wearing skirts on this one, guys...i only know the sound you put forth stimulated me in ways i kuldn't keep b track of.

Geneveive spoke moments of truth, whispered with her eyes, from the next vortex, she was calm, bringing with her alan d. glass II, who hooked up a posse of mongolian horsemen to take him across the gobi desert, filmed it. we were so lucky. that guy drinks a glass of water with every cup of joe he drinks...never met a more sober genius.

and this part i nearly can't talk bout, is the heidelberg press that cameron got going, and going well. after performing, for about 25 minutes around 7:30, cameron hung out for a few of ken's video projections. then he did the unthinkable. he went into the garage and chugged up the heidelberg

and commenced printing a huge job and printed until one in the morning. after that, the ink and cleaning, after gen left.

there's so much else about the party you should know...people who were there, deals that were struck, minds...but ah's outta hea...maybe more later.

you know tho that the most important thing or person of all was fiona.

she reigned queen. she was the queen of the party. and yma, oh i'm gonna start crying when i think about how she handled that whole party. so damn regal.

lovely

(in case you din' notice by now, sophia kidd wrote this)

Cameron's Recommendations

Disconnect your TV even if you can't remove it.

Disconnect your Land Line phone or use it as a FAX only.

Read more, a lot more.

Start making things where you are. Start making up ideas to make more things. Ask other people for help. Help other people.

If someone offers you food, money, or anything immediately useful, take it and just say "Thank You".

Recycle everything you can't turn into something else or use as a tool.

Don't hoard things. Give things away, especially to anyone who will enjoy them more than you do. Leave items in poetic positions that give them increased meaning. Rearrange the thrift store.

Don't become so cool that you become unapproachable. Actually try to be interested in what other people are doing.

Always walk from the mailbox to the outside trash can when retrieving mail. Throw away everything that is not a bill. Some would recommend you throw those away too.

Don't drive unless you have to. Try to combine trips, or get items brought to you. Take walks.

Believe that people are the most important thing. Do not support causes that require you to abuse or negate other people or yourself even for a moment.

Believe that good things can happen, are happening, and are about to happen to you and everyone you know.

Talk about what you love and enjoy doing. Try to make a living doing what you love.

And lastly buy printing from Lettre Sauvage.

house, tree, car, street

Today Cam gave the Dart to a man named Steven who lives on the corner of Forest and Mariposa. Steven keeps 9 cars in a giant metal buiding at his family ranch. Shima will be very dissapointed that her meditation shell is missing, but now our wide driveway is clear. Cam then cut the dead limbs off the oak branches. As soon as I saw what he was doing I decided I'd wash his clothes after all and make him some lunch.
We agreed that Forest Drive is a good name for any journals we publish and even a series of books. I finally put all the things I want to send to Sophia in an envelope. And its my first blog entry on my first blog. All in all a very productive day.