A three-piece suite from Justin Hopper celebrating the season with shoplifters, runaways, and an empty train dragging across the landscape of Pittsburgh’s tumultuous late-19th-century. Continue reading
New post up at the Congress for the New Urbanism site regarding Public Record, “a new way to hear a city.”
The CNU blog is operated in part by the good folks at Contraphonic, a gorgeous record label and art project that has released new music by PubRec collaborator and ace composer/musician David Bernabo – Host Skull, with their Fourth River project. Definitely worth picking up.
In other news, I’m happy to report that Fleeting Pages has sold out of Public Record books – temporarily!! More are on their way from the good folks at Encyclopedia Destructica.
Those of you who have, or will, purchase the books from Fleeting Pages will get a glass raised to you down at George Shattock’s place by me, William Kelly, Hughey Friel, and Scotty…
The lovely and talented Anna Lee-Fields has taken some new photos of the Public Record book.
I’ve worked on these books on a regular basis for more than six months now, and somehow that little electrical jolt one can get from print has gone away a tiny bit – while it used to be that the artwork, the binding, even the font, would give me a goosebump or two, after many copies and many months, it’s become a bit ‘normal.’
Maybe it’s a post-modern thing, but seeing this stuff as a twice-removed subject matter – as photos of reworked material – it makes things new again.
So, ya know – thanks.
Oh, and of course, there are still copies available!
The Public Record book and audio-tour brochure are currently available at the pop-up indie bookstore Fleeting Pages, located at the site of the recently closed Borders in East Liberty, along with tons of other fantastic small-press and handmade books, zines, comics, and prints! I bought some great stuff there on the opening day – I hope y’all/yinz can find something lovely, too.
The esteemed Kristofer Collins has reviewed a grip of new(ish) titles from the city’s poets, including the Public Record book. Big thanks go out to Kris – a stalwart of the city’s lit landscape – and to Pgh Mag.
A new poem and recording from the Public Record, being a tale of love, larceny, and murder from 19th-century Pittsburgh.
Composed and recorded for the 5th Annual Love of Friends event, Feb. 14, 2011, at SPACE Gallery, Downtown, Pittsburgh.
CMU student Dan Pieri’s got a great new project exploring Pittsburgh through early photography matched with modern-day locations and matching images. Similar to the Museum of London’s Streetmuseum and other forced-anachronism photographic artworks, Pieri’s Retrographer adds the DIY ethic of “crowd-sourcing” (a term I hate but can’t seem to shake) with its participatory technology.
Here’s a personal favorite, as it’s about a block from my house – excavation work being conducted in 1905 on Ellsworth Ave.
…well, maybe that’s not 100% true. We’re a few days away from having more available that aren’t spoken for. But if you’re interested in buying a copy they’ll soon be available through this website, and will be in select local shops by mid-November!
If you’re interested in putting your name down for a copy, email Justin at juddy [dot] hopper [at] gmail [dot] com with your name and number of copies. They’ll be $20 online, by mail. ($15 in person.)
Diana Nelson-Jones does up PubRec in today’s Post-Gazette.
For anyone interested in the future of publishing – one of the many peripheral topics that Public Record is ‘about’ could be the ways and means by which poetic language is delivered – there are few people as vital as Richard Eoin Nash. The mad genius behind Soft Skull Press and now Cursor, a new concept in social-community based publishing structures, and a perennial must-have for any conference discussing the new directions in which publishing is heading.
Today he’s posted An Open Letter to Cursor which is, as he points out, a most elegant and thoughtful set of worries regarding the direction in which he sees the writer-reader relationship heading. Not only is this worth a read, for our own good, let’s all bookmark Nash’s site…
