The Vision

Today i realized something very important, this blog needs to be a voice for my vision, personally as well as the projects i'm working on. I know that may seem kind of obvious, but i feel like i have been working very hard toward a vision but have not been communicating it effectively so that other people can work with me to accomplish that goal.

You don't know where you're going untill you know where you're at. So in a breath, fly.paper is a platform for projects, events, artists, marketing campaigns, ad revenue. It's an excuse to do something, create a community and movement around the things that i or any one else in the collective wants to do. I don't control it but i did organize/mastermind the origin and structure of this whole little big thing. Ok?

fly.paper is growing at such a rate that we are starting to have meetings, beginning May 4th (one month before my birthday) where we are going to get together and address issues of business, be creative and productive and have a pot luck dinner. (YAY potluck dinner). I see the meetings as an all day event where we can collectively brainstorm and filter through the windsor hideout as our schedules permit. Of course i'll be there! We will be able to grow the collective vision of fly.paper so that the people that are in too deep on this with me can add this vision to the collective and grow and take ownership within their roles. right now fly.paper needs a little more ownership from the people who are in atlanta and participating. and i want to talk about how we can engage our community (ourselves)

One way way is going to be building communities and collectives in other places. I know we have some constituencies in some other places like philly, michigan and wisconsin. I was contacted by a member today who wanted to know what she can do to help fly.paper even though she is located in Boston and f.p. h.q. is in the a.t.l.

I haven't replied to her yet, but this is her reply. It's worthless to wish you were here with us, especially if you can't be. The point of you being where you are is to create a community around you. I was alienated and lost as well, alone and wondering why i had been forsaken. But what i did was look within myself and started living, freely and i met a bunch of people who were willing to ally with me because i had a little semblance of a plan, they saw me putting in hard work and i had a little swag, i could talk about it.

fly.paper is just an excuse to do shit. you can start a fly.paper community where you are! it's easy, just start telling people.

So you see i'm very invested in expounding upon my vision here and letting people know that 99% of what you want to do is not outside of the real of fly.paper. So please give your two cents, include your vision.

I hate art mags, i hate literary mags

I'm not an artists and i'm not a writer, per se; but i do consider myself to be a pretty creative person. Art and literary magazines bore the shit out of me. And i love to look at art and i love to read but reading about art is kind of retarded. I dont mean reading about art like a Picasso biography or a review of an art show but looking at someone's portfolio pieces in a magazine then reading about "their influences" and why they like the color green and all kinds of silly shit like that. This isn't really helping me to appreciate the art any more and it's kind of making me not like the artists as much. Layouts in art magazines are also very boring, so as to not "distract" you from the art they are portraying. Most of the words in an art magazines are interviews with the artists. boring. as if interviews aren't boring enough. if artists were great at communicating with words they probably would not have picked art. they'd probably be the ones writing those boring literary magazines. Can you seriously ask someone how they felt when they were pouring their heart out on a canvas? if it's not even the least bit apparent maybe you, mr. interviewer should not be working for an art magazine.

Literary rags, err mags are a little more interesting just because you can read them which put them miles ahead of art rags but lit mags are generally pretty boring to look at. i know you guys are writing but shit give me something to look at when my A.D.D. kicks in. anything guys a doodle, a drawing, random stuff, anything. when i am writing and reading i am a doodler. it's not pretty but atleast it helps me retain a little bit of concentration in a different kind of way. I have ADD like a muhfucka too so i mean i'm sure thats part of it but i'd love some feedback from anyone who dosen't consider themselves to be attentionally deficient. haha

so fly.paper is meant to address both those issues. we have contests for writers and artists regarding a theme. sometime the theme is physical like "urban environments" or it is conceptual like "love" or "confessions" but what we do it take those submissions and pair them together we create harmony between the pieces. So when you read fly paper you get a fulfilling experience of words and visuals, together, for your benefit. Rather than just being about ART, or just being about WORDS, or just being about BIKES, we will give you all those things in a way that is more meaningful because it's presented to you as a conceptual whole.

Paper Chase

"A magazine does serendipity really well—you can flip to a random page and find something new that you never would have thought to search for. Magazines should be tactile, inspirational, and beautiful. They should be an experience that takes you somewhere unexpected" -

8020 Publishing
Publishers of Jpeg Magazine

As you may well know i used to work on a project with one of the most inspirational people I've ever met. Me and this person crafted some really interesting ideas about how magazines should operate, today, in the world of online print and electronic media. It seems that everyone is making a move to emulate the blogosphere and incorporate (even more pop pseudo journalism) participatory web principles (pronounced "Web 2.0") to capture an audience who'se attention span is shrinking by the moment.

My point being, I have loved magazines since i can remember. It was like a book but every month another one is brought to your door step of you discover a new issue of a new magazine you had not previously noticed. A book you can walk by it forever and never be intrigued by the same title and the same cover picture. I agree, magazines do serendipity really well. They encourage you to flip and find interesting tidbits, to read and feel the progression of images to convey a concept. Shorter than a story, a concept. I like to read in the most traditional sense as well, but great magazines are sharp, smart, provoking and timeless. If you cannot imagine magazines as timeless you need to stop reading Harpers Bazaar and USweekly.

And now we live in the age of the electron; why would i pick up a magazine when i can get my information faster, i can get infinitely more information, i can read and download 7 magazines, books and periodicals at a time. Magazines, newspapers etc are trying to compete with the web on these issues, when they cannot nor ever be able to. I can see something snap a photo on my phone and send it to channel 11 news right now.

Not only that but i will not get started on the magazines industry's pathetic slant away from being content driven. Everything except The Economist, just about is geared toward advertisers and adver-torial (pronounced "product placement"). It's like the print version of late night talk shows, no one goes on those things to hang out with Jay Leno, they go on to hawk their latest movie or newest project they want you to buy into; and some of us watch and buy feeling like we've participated in something, but most of us are dissapointed that we can't get through the day without being treated like a fuckin corporate psychology experiment.

The strength of magazines lies in the aesthetic. The quality and craftsmanship of the words, images and concepts into a meaningful whole. You cannot address the whole complexity of anything in one magazine, no matter how simple the issue and how thick the magazine. The flow of information should lead a user from print to the web and back again.

My former project, which is now defunct and my new conceptual love child, fly.paper are built around the production of a mass amount of content. Since a magazine has finite pages in it, there is a demand, to be in it and a prestige. How fly.paper works is we have contests and contest winners are featured in the magazine, both written/literary and graphic submissions. This is where the idea of quality and craftsmanship come into play. Since people get paid and are featured they are inherently excited about it. They tell other people (pronounced "brag" or "publicize") about the money, they show them the magazine and we have another person ready to get paid. I dont know m(any) artists who aren't down for $50 for free. We've got their attention not with ads and juicy pipe dreams but with good old fashioned content in the new digital age. Everyone wants to know who's featured, why did they make it, why didn't i, imma do this imma do that. There will be CONTROVERSY and DISCUSSION.

8020 has it right. It's not about web vs print. 99% of publishers are not using the web to have conversations with their readers or inviting them to contribute in a meaningful way. Ok at the end of a Times article you can comment. As if anyone ever reads those things. I sure dont and i consider myself to be a reader. word.

Ue the web to enable your magazine, newspaper, periodical, newsletter, weekly pamphlet or even book. Using one medium at the exclusion of the other is cutting your nose off to spite your face.