Rabble: Steve Roden

Rabble: Steve Roden

upside down, the sky is ocean

the buddha wears a cloak of geometric design:

red, yellow, blue and black.

...
the buddha’s hand forms the vitarka mudra, suggesting deep contemplation and indicative of a sage. although it is commonly formed with the right, the buddha forms this mudra with his left hand.

the buddha’s right hand grasps a walking stick.

on an 8th century statue from thailand, the buddha forms the vitarka mudra with two hands, looking strangely reminiscent of a 1909 photograph of mondrian, his theatrical hands pointing up and down like david bowie on the cover of heroes.

Rabble, an imprint of Insert Blanc Press, is co-edited by Holly Myers and Mathew Timmons. Rabble prints single author issues of critical essays of about 1500 words on a subject of the author’s choosing. The subject will be an artwork (or series of artworks), but broadly defined: could be visual art, literature, music, architecture, film, design; could be contemporary or historical. The essay will be printed in pamphlet form, with room for a couple full color images, and distributed at a reasonable price.

Rabble seeks to be a venue through which to interrogate the nature of criticism, a laboratory for prodding at the boundaries of criticism as a form. The idea is to begin with a framework that reduces criticism down to its two fundamental components—the thing that's been made and the person who responds to the thing that's been made (i.e., the art work and the critic)—and invite each writer to take it from there. We’re not looking for the average book or exhibition review, but something that tests out a new direction, whatever that means to the individual author.

We have great confidence in the potential of Rabble to make a lasting contribution to the cultural discourse on the West Coast and beyond. It is our hope that, in charting a path between the two prevailing poles of the genre—the ever-narrowing shutters of print journalism on the one hand and the ponderous obscurity of the academy on the other—Rabble will go some way in restoring the sheer excitement of criticism.

ISSN 2168-7439

 

PARROT 13 Tramps Everywhere by Amina Cain & PARROT 14 Fur Birds by Michelle Detorie

 

PARROT 13 Tramps Everywhere
by Amina Cain
Now Out from Insert Blanc Press

EXT.  Morning.  Strong sun.  Short and long shots of a swamp.  A closeup of a frog.  It sits on the bank then jumps into the water, making circles on the surface.  The camera stays, looking at the swamp.  

VOICEOVER:  I walked into the day.  

...

PARROT 14 Fur Birds
by Michelle Detorie
Now Out from Insert Blanc Press

I am 15. Female. Human (I think).    

We lived in a burrow and ate grass. I licked my paw, tasting only the slightest remnants of ash. In one corner we piled sugar cubes – white and cold and sweet, and perfectly square. “Like a little igloo wall,” my sister cooed, twitching her tail. 

...

The PARROT series was originally issued by Blanc Press (Los Angeles) from 2005-2010. Insert Blanc Press is reissuing facsimile editions of each title from the PARROT series and releasing a Limited Edition hand-bound set of the collection at the end of the run. 

Titles in the PARROT series: Harold Abramowitz’s A House on A Hill (A House on a Hill, Part One), Amanda Ackerman’s I Fell in Love with a Monster Truck, Will Alexander’s On the Substance of Disorder, Brian Ang’s Pre-Symbolic, Stan Apps’ Politicized Pretty Picture, Amina Cain’s Tramps Everywhere, Teresa Carmody’s I Can Feel, Allison Carter’s All Bodies Are The Same and They Have The Same Reactions, Michelle Detorie’s Fur Birds, Kate Durbin’s Kept Women, K. Lorraine Graham’s My Little Neoliberal Pony, Jen Hofer’s The Missing Link, Maximus Kim’sBreak Bloom Burn, Janice Lee’s Fried Chicken Dinner, Joseph Mosconi’s But On Geometric, Vanessa Place’s Forcible Oral Copulation, Amarnath Ravva’s Airline Music, Stephanie Rioux’s My Beautiful Beds, Ara Shirinyan’s Erotic in Czech Republic, Michael Smoler’s Pieces of Water, Brian Kim Stefans’ Viva Miscegenation, Mathew Timmons’ Complex Textual Legitimacy Proclamation, and Allyssa Wolf’s Loquela.

Covers of Parrot were originally designed by the amazing printmaker, Maggie White. You can find out more about her work at Gray Area, methinks you'll like what you see.

Read some press on the PARROT series, including a review of PARROT 5, a review of PARROT 1 and an interview with editor Mathew Timmons. And check out the various ways Insert Blanc Press offers to become a subscribing member and to support the press. Visit the Subscription page at Insert Press for more details!

Poetry Is Dead, I Killed It.

Poetry Is Dead, I Killed It. from Mathew Timmons on Vimeo.

Poetry Is Dead, I Killed It.
Insert Blanc Press insertblancpress.net
Movie by Nick Flavin, Ben Rodkin, & Mathew Timmons.
Sound recorded by Sonia Parada.
Featuring Vanessa Place & Ben White.
Also appearing: Amanda Ackerman, Mashinka Firunts, Danny Snelson, Joy Decena, Teresa Carmody, Harold Abramowitz, Jackqueline Frost, Kim Calder, Andrea Quaid, Suzanne Adelman, Christopher Russell, Greg Curtis, & Stephen Van Dyck.