Preface to Chicago

Almost as soon as summer began, I somehow got it stuck in my head that I should take a trip to Chicago. I can't explain just why the Windy City all of sudden appeared so appealing but the longer I thought about it the more intrigued I became by the idea. I had already been mulling over the work of William Upski for the past few months and his tales of self-publishing had inspired me to form this endeavor here. So perhaps, I reasoned, there was more to glean by a pilgrimage to his hometown and so my curiosity began to grow.

One day in June, my roommate Noah out of nowhere popped the question to me: "Do you want to take a road trip to Chicago this weekend?” I was so taken aback that I didn't know to what to say. This was what I'd been thinking about but I found myself, strangely hesitant to sign on. Wasn't this exactly what I said I wanted to do? So why the reluctance?

Well for one thing we were still in New Orleans at this time and Noah didn't know exactly how long a drive it might be. He estimated 12 hours, 10 if we sped. Of that I was skeptical, considering it takes me 8 hours every time I drive to Nashville. When we consulted the Rand-Macnally map of the US on I had on my wall, Memphis appeared to be the halfway point. So we would have to drive through the night with all the passengers (two more were expected) taking shifts without stopping.

(Aside: I salvaged that map from the trash at the end of the school year and it has proven to be one of the best things that I found. However the FLAG of the United States of America that I dumpstered still remains my favorite metaphor for the Great Move-out Hysteria /Trash Extravaganza of May. More on all that ridiculousness later).

He proposed that we leave on Friday and that we could return before Monday morning so I that I would still get to work on time the next week. Seeing how it was already Thursday, I felt some pressure to make up my mind real soon.

“I…uh…don’t know yet, dude. Lemme think about it and get back to you,” I told him and left to go off to work . In the car on the way to Chalmette I weighed the decision.

"It will be a lot of driving but the trip has the potential to be cool," I figured. "So what if we would drive all the way just to turn around almost immediately? 'The journey is the destination,' right?" As I cruised across town I saw the choice appear above me in the big green interstate signs overhead. One side read “NEW ORLEANS,” with a big white arrow pointing towards another weekend of the samo-samo in an oppressively hot city, too crazy for words. But the other side pointed to “BATON ROUGE,” and an arrow beckoned towards all that was outside waiting to be explored, waiting for those courageous enough to take a chance. Here it is, Bud: your trip, your dream, your life just waiting to be lived...

“Aww! To hell with it! I’ll do it. We'll go!” and I called up Noah to tell him the good news right then.

“We’ll leave as soon as I get off tomorrow and if were lucky we’ll make it by mid-day Saturday. Let's do it!”

“Naw man," he said over the line. "I was wrong. We shouldn’t go. It’s a ridiculous idea.”

And that was that.

We didn’t go. And I ended up spending a perfectly fine weekend downtown at the Tomato Festival instead, watching the ships drift by from the banks of the Mississippi River. Chicago would wait.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Post-script: The next weekend my man Phil from Philadelphia called me up to see if I wanted to drive with him to Baton Rouge that morning. This time I agreed and we arrived a little after noon. We picked up his friend at the Sheraton where they’d biked to the day before all the way from NOLA (Phil had immediately taken a greyhound back so he could drive the van to fetch the bikes). To celebrate we ate a pizza at a little restaurant downtown, then went to the old capitol building and read about Huey Long, and ultimately left with little reason to come back again anytime soon.

Ticket stub of my return home from Chicago

Notice of Baggage Inspection

I have a growing collection of these little sheets.

More to follow about my fact-finding mission to Chicago...

-Boudreaux

New Media

The brotherman

Advertising, not art

Red Devil spray enamel on matted down, torn up fliers.
New Orleans, LA
2008

The Printing Process

Really the printing process is not too complex. Apart from that free copier I mentioned before, I utilize an exacto knife to cut out cover stencils and cheap spray paint (dollar general brand typically) to give them some color.


Here is 2nd Guesses



and this was the original 3 Speeches.

After cutting stencils, cropping covers, arranging pages, printing the art, pasting the editorial, and stapling the content I'm generally good to go and set to distribute the latest issue. Its tiring and time consuming if I have to do alone and amazingly more efficient with extra hands, as all work tends to be. I'm all for anybody that wants to lend a hand so you can see how to do it yourself. Then you can commandeer creative control over the production of the next one.

Stay active...

Bud Ries
Linoleum print, 2007.

Feel free to print this off and distribute it to your friends. If you're reading this from an office space where you have access to free printing, 100 copies is a mandatory order and the least you can do for me. Try slipping it in to your nest door neighbors mail slots or putting them underneath windshield wipers in a parking lot.

A call for advice during my summertime lag

Despite having all the necessary tools and supplies at my disposal (including 50 manilla covers already screen printed), I've been dragging my feet on production of the PAPR*PAPR. In fact, up until this post, I'd pretty much stopped moving forward with this "project." The problem is rooted in the fact that I'm still very uncertain what I'm doing, ie: what's my motivation, what kind of response am I looking for, and even what did people like about the first two issues.



Here's a little note I wrote myself in my sketch book this past month. It is as close as I've come so far to pinning a mission statement. Truly, one of the greatest impetuses was access to a FREE photocopier on Tulane's campus. Lame as it sounds, the fact that I technically wasn't supposed to use it fed my renegade impulses and made me feel a little subversive.

The point is I found a cheap and abundant source for printing paper that I wanted to seize upon. Now I've gotten to the point where I'd be willing to actually pay for those resources at Kinko's if I had to (and I probably will once I get back to school and find said-copier has an access-code installed).

But whether I like it or not that raises the stakes of the production. The PAPR*PAPR has begun to teach me very basic economics. The last two issues I've given away for free, as my goal was to make the PAPR*PAPR as accessible as possible. But what I'm struggling with is giving the paper value. I've poured a lot of time and energy ( but not too much money) into this project and so far the return has been minimal. How do you all think I could get a better return on this?

I'm thankful for the praise people have given me and hearing,

"Oh Bud! I read your magazine and thought it was really cool"

is encouraging but only to a point. The reason I've been inactive recently is because I've run out of motivation to carry on and the reason I've run out of motivation seems to be because I have no idea of the value of what it is I've got.I need a little more "something" to keep me pumped about staying up late in a fluorescent lighted office basement at night. If I could tie it into to some other projects people are working on that would be awesome. The PAPR*PAPR definitely needs to grow bigger and beyond me.

Until then I'ma get back to the presses and cook up something cool to look at. I just have to work through this rut I'm in and I would like to hear some advice from you in the meantime.

B