One of the first zines I remember reading was Moonlight Chronicles, a stapled book of drawings and thoughts by an author named d. price. The booklet was included with a pair of sneakers I purchased. The story, if there was a story, was something about the author hoboing around the Pacific Northwest, making drawings of people he saw in cafés. I subscribed by mail the next day.
I love little magazines, the weirder the better. Academic, special interest, hobbies, foreign fashion. Ferret Monthly, Racquet, Model Railroader. Knowing what goes into them probably makes me appreciate them more – long nights stuffing envelopes; arguments over typography; the extraordinary feeling of discovery when you publish an electric voice. Long before I wrote anything, I read everything, and I loved reading things small and weird. It didn’t need to be good, it usually wasn’t good at all, but it needed to convey a world I didn’t know much about yet.
A long favorite is FOUND, started by my friend Davy Rothbart, which takes what I like best about zines, how they act as entryways to things I don’t know about, and applies it to people. Specifically, Rothbart and collaborators collect errant notes – love letters tossed in the gutter, a grocery list that somebody discovered and mailed in – which they then Xerox and assemble together, offering glimpses into strangers’ lives.
According to FOUND’s website, the above note was discovered in Texas by a woman named Lauren, who sent it in with the explanation: “I found this written on the inside of a table tent in the cafe part of a Whole Foods store located in a wealthy area of Dallas. The outside advertises ‘Omega-3s: Essential fats that do your heart good.’”
Here are three more:
I recommend FOUND’s greatest hits for a greater dose.
Sidebar: Well, we’re more than a month out from the publication of Everything Now, and wow, the adventure continues, including a surprisingly long rave in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
Also, if you’re in Southern California, you may have heard me on the radio this week talking to KCRW’s Madeleine Brand.
This week, I’m doing an in-person event at the Philosophical Research Society, where I'll be in conversation with the president of the PRS.
Thursday, July 29, 7:30-8:30pm
3910 Los Feliz Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Tickets are free but you’ll want to register ahead of time via Eventbrite. Also, this is an indoor event, in the PRS's lecture hall, which doesn’t have any windows, I don’t think. Here's their Covid policy: “Vaccinated visitors may enter without a mask or social distancing, but unvaccinated visitors must wear a mask and physically distance.”
Personally, I’ve been fully vaccinated for a while, but I’ll be wearing a mask (indoors) except when I’m onstage. Things may still change and I’ll post any updates on social media. Obviously do what’s right for you.
As ever, thanks to everybody for all of the support!
What the what? A (mostly) weekly newsletter by novelist Rosecrans Baldwin of (very) short essays about things he finds beautiful.
Rosecrans’s new nonfiction book, Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles, is available from Bookshop, Amazon, or your local store. Any other books mentioned in this newsletter are on a list at Bookshop.