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Goodbye to 390 Butler (part I)

For the past several years I've been pasting postcards, news clips, photos, and other detritus on my bathroom walls; nearly every inch has been covered. But when I started preparing to move a couple of weeks ago, I found myself taking items off the wall - and thinking about where they came from. So instead of just trashing my carefully acquired refuse, I thought I'd scan in a few images and tell you about 'em. Here we go...

Sean Tejaratchi, the genius graphic designer behind Craphound, once gave me a bunch of postcards he made for Stella Marrs. This was my favorite. More recently, he designed Negativland's No Business CD. Rumor has it that he's now touching up photos for a porn magazine in California.

Heidi Cody, another artist from the Illegal Art Exhibit, put this together. Hours of fun!

For Stay Free #16, back in 1999, I was aching to do a parody of the Gap's "Khaki Swings" campaign. I didn't have much of an idea for it, though; all I knew is that I wanted the photo to have blood and khakis. After Noah Scalin took this shot of my buddy Molly Aboud, we were standing around with a few friends wondering what else we could do.... and someone suggested the suicide pun, which ended up becoming the back cover.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this ad is that some people didn't realize it was a parody. A co-worker even congratulated me for getting a Gap ad in Stay Free! (and, no, she wasn't kidding) I realized that's because people often don't consciously process advertisements; they recognize the image reflexively and assume they know what they've seen.

And here are a couple of photos of my dad. The puppy in the first one is the dog that was on the cover of Stay Free! #22 (my brother's broken mini-Pinscher). In the other, my dad is wearing the kilt he borrowed from his brother. I think this photo makes him look like a character in a Chris Ware story.

And this kinda thing never gets old...

That's all for now. I'll post a few more later...