February 4, 2010
by Tommy
I still taste it in my nightmares
Soooooooooooooooooo it’s a Hump Day post on a Thursday. Be kind. Submissions for birdsong #11 were due this past Sunday, and around this time every deadline it’s the bsong equivalent of Hell Week. Read/order/read/edit/read/cover/read/flyer/read/layout/read/layout/read/layout. But this time, instead of spending a million godamn hours letting Microsoft Word suck the living daylights out of my eternal soul, we’re finally wising up to InDesign. Birdsong’s growin up, y’all!!! Thankfully I’ve got some help from our new managing editor Daniel Portland, and the new coffee maker is keeping me alert (and regular, IYKWIM).
As you may or may not know, every Monday night at Huckleberry Bar they pull down a projection screen, play some classic movie, and extend happy hour til like… 11pm. They also serve free popcorn that sort of tastes like its from the C-Town “last chance” bin, but free is free you know. Roy and I sometimes go because they have been on a Sci Fi kick recently, and they seriously have the best grilled cheese in America. It’s enough to conquer even my fantastic lactose intolerance (not). This week, they screened Tron.
pancake batter from an aerosol can
Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: babes, despair, indigestion, Jeff Bridges, lamb sausage, popcorn, post-apocalypse, Tron | 
Permalink
Posted by Tommy
January 27, 2010
by Blanco
Thomas has asked me to hump it out today, so here are a couple things that have been plaguing my mind for the past week or so when I would otherwise prefer to be thinking about food or soccer or sex. I should mention that I don’t have a television so I can’t comment on the season finale of Jersey Shore, nor do I intend to see Avatar so there will be no references to indigenous people being saved by a white guilt fantasy
I wanted to say something funny, cool or interesting
but I can’t think of anything, so I’m going to throw out some links which made me think, and maybe they will make you think…
Check out this this sick piece by Josh Keyes--
Totem II (Raven Steals the Light)
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Ad Hoc Gallery, Doze Green, Fuck fuck fuck, Jeff Aerosol, Jerey Shore, Josh Keyes, Rock Steady Crew, White Guilt | Permalink
Posted by blanco518
January 25, 2010
SO there’s a couple happenings this week we at the Birdsong office think you should be aware of.
If he were a president he'd be Baberham Lincoln
Tomorrow(Tuesday January 26th)’s installment of the “QT (Queer Text)” reading series at Dixon Place will feature Birdsonger Mr. Max Steele (the minx pictured above) reading new and old material, alongside writer/performer Dan Fishback. Showtime is 7:30, and tickets are available here. Go go go go go go its going to be fanta-stic.
Dixon Place
161 Chrystie Street
New York, NY 10002
bw Rivington and Delancey
F, V to 2nd Ave, JMZ to Bowery, B, D to Broadway/Lafayette, 6 to Bleecker
Is there any greater diagram than venn?
Also tomorrow night is the latest Nuclear Poetry fete, hosted by Aaron Wimmer and featuring (amongst many talented others) Birdsong wrangler, Tommy Pico. Portions of the reading will be filmed for the group’s Youtube channel (great idea, no?) so you’ll also be able to check it out if you aren’t in town. ps there’s a two drink minimum but you won’t let that stop you, right?
Elmo (downstairs)
156 7th Ave
New York, NY 10011
btwn. 19th + 20th
1 to 18th or F, V to 23rd
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Aaron Wimmer, babes, Dan Fishback, Max Steele, Nuclear Poetry, Tommy Pico, Venn Diagrams, Youtube | Permalink
Posted by Birdsong Collective
January 22, 2010
meat boys
ottar karlsen + kier cooke sandvik
photocopy on paper, unpaginated: (8.5 x 11 in.)
stavanger, norway: self-published, 2009
http://meatboys.blogspot.com/
http://kier-cs.blogspot.com/
kier, who so kindly agreed to be interviewed in birdsong #10, along with his collaborator ottar, bring us the first of their dark and sexy comic, meat boys. the story sees the boys on a violent romp that transports them from couches to castles to cats. the layout, linework, and calligraphy here are equally fantastic, effortlessly combining the artists’ penchants for different weights and textures, but never straying far from a starkness that lends itself to playfully rendering otherwise grotesque acts. get the comic for trade from kier, and check out his drawings at andrea rosen, which are, regrettably, up for only one more day.
p.s. i totes forgot about all the meat joy references i was gonna make!
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by danielportland
January 20, 2010
ladies, please pick up yr cookie snax and take a hump day lunch break with this text-link-heavy cornucopious smörgåsbord i’ve spent all morning preparing for you.
all right, to get the ball rolling, it is important to remember that there was a time when things made sense. my bff ana and i like to remember the smashing pumpkins like this, and i like to think you do, too:
what kind of monster (smashing pumpkin) are you? while i’d like to be billy, i think i’m more of a james (who appears to be wielding a pitchfork here).
while i may have the mind of an engineer, my heart is most definitely that of a geologist. this explains my fond affections for sizeable structures and underground chambers:
field trip, anyone?
this may be a crapshoot, but i’m willing to wager that most of us have spent the better portion of our lives and purses typologizing ourselves. visit the site here, and simply type in your name and the password ‘character’ and off you go. a psychiatrist figure will then ask you a number of questions about your personality before diagnosing you with a typeface:
what type are you?
i’ve always been more of a river phoenix kind of person myself, that is until my cursory research led me to one of keanu reeves’ early stage roles in a
vampire or werewolf? who has yr heart?
speaking of werewolves, this transition is just really obvious to me, and i think it will be to you, too:
does anyone else have a thing (you know, like, a thing for thongth) for self-portraits in mirrors? unfortunately, we still can’t see him naked.
and, you know, why not make it a werewolf hat-trick while we’re at it. if i had a car this is what i would do with it:
what’s yr favourite misfits song?
not to be a debbie downer, but this makes me sads:
till adieu, adieu, and white doves, danny
if i told you this were safe for work, would you trustbelieve me?
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: hump day | Permalink
Posted by danielportland
January 15, 2010
doris #27
cindy crabb
photocopy on paper with cardstock cover, unpaginated (5.5 x 8.5 in.)
athens, oh: self-published, fall 2009
http://www.dorisdorisdoris.com
where to begin with doris? everyone has a particular and personal relationship to everything and especially to zines, but, on top of that, i feel like especially to doris. no matter how didactic particular parts of it may become, when i tell you about doris, i feel less inclined to make statements you could factcheck on google and more like telling you about myself. and maybe that’s saying enough. but just in case it’s not, i will say that the first story, under it all, may convince us all to move back to pdx. in cindy’s words: “Doris 27 is about creating your own reasons for writing, doing things even though you’re scared; it’s about tour and making friends and living.”
and now that you’ve finished reading this, please scroll down to re-read paps’ salubrious hump day post . . .
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by danielportland
January 13, 2010
we’re blogging pantless
like NFL’s Chris Cooley:
what the fuck was he thinking?
by the way, this is my assistant
We must get high first.zzzz0000000o000O0000OOOm zoom
That’s better.
Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by PAPS
January 11, 2010
by Max
I first met Gerry Visco at QxBxRx, NYC’s infamous queer punk dance party, where she showed up with out mutual friend Joseph Keckler. Joseph told me that she was there to cover the evening for NY Press. I was go-go dancing that night, and was immediately charmed by the platinum blond bombshell that was scurrying around the dance floor, alternately shaking her booty and snapping photos. She definitely seemed to be on the wrong side of the camera. I was immediately charmed. Over the last few months, I’ve been lucky enough to catch some of Gerry’s performances, and have been keeping up with her written output. I am so thrilled that a real life Style Icon such as Gerry Visco sat down to answer some of my questions. Let’s get to it!
Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Fashion Ration, Interview | Tagged: Gerry Visco, Glamour, Gorgeous, Interview, journalism, Legendary | Permalink
Posted by maxsteele
January 6, 2010
By Laurenesss
(or The Goat, or Who is Syvia?)
Yesterday, my favorite reality tv show The Bachelor made its long awaited return (it has been 3 months since the last season ended). This train wreck of a show has everything that I need and more.
ROMANCE
Polyamory is for everyone!
LONG LASTING RELATIONSHIPS
This chick (Shane Lamas, daughter of actor Lorenzo Lamas) was supposed to get married. Yeah, it didn’t last. She's most recently been arrested on DUI charges. Click on the pic to read more.
FASHION
Kinda looks like a Grace Coddington original...NOT!
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: hump day, Ke$ha, pageant dresses, Plan B, The Bachelor, The Morning After Pill | Permalink
Posted by laurenesss
December 29, 2009
by ultramaricon
We lost a lot of notable folks this year, and I’m sure glad Charo wasn’t one of them.
There’s this Letterman-style variety show on Univision called “Esta Noche Tonight” that I won’t link because this post is about things I like. I’m watching it with my mom in her kitchen in Miami. Charo is a guest, although you wouldn’t know it because in lieu of asking her questions about her new show in Las Vegas, “Charo in Concert: A Musical Sensation” (starting July 10 at the Riviera Hotel and Casino), they have a campesino character with oversized prosthetic ears, crossed eyes and bongo drums sitting beside her inventing stories about a childhood as a fake weirdo. (This kind of shit is so disappointing; Kristen Wiig, I’m talking to you and your back-scratcher hands.)
Charo’s call is to stand up occasionally, pop her hips, and smash her breasts against his head, inducing cuckoo-face and long, flat trumpet sounds from the orchestra, about five times. She obliges so decorously, so practiced at being caliente, and there’s a sleepiness to her eyes while she does it that says, “My bedroom is smoky, full of guitars, and completely absent of sequins, you furry bags-of-dicks.”
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Feeling Feelings, Stop Breaking My Hearttt, Why So Brown? | Tagged: Charo, Cuchi, Fergie, Happy 2011!, Miami Sound Machine, Planning Feelings, Shakira, Tropicalization, Yoani Sánchez, Yumi | Permalink
Posted by ultramaricon
December 23, 2009
By Tatyana
Ho ho ho, amiright? Here we are, T-minus 2 days until the nondenominational celebration of Christmas, which everyone all over the world celebrates unless they are terrorists. I’m guessing that anyone who is at an office right now has either stopped working about a week ago or is busily trying to undo any holiday party mishaps with some straight up busy beaver work performances. Hint: it’s not sexual harassment if it happens for Christmas –Your Boss. In any case, since we’re all looking to juice up our holiday spirit like the male cast members of Jersey Shore, my Hump Day Grab Bag is themed “holiday steroids to make your Christmas muscles throb with only minimal ball shrinkage.” (What? Ew.)
Nothing embodies the spirit of Christmas like Christmas music, which represents the corny, the annoying, the amazing, the body, the blood, the holy ghost, etc etc etc. Somehow at midnight on Thanksgiving a giant spirit reindeer hooves a button in the sky and any radio station, store, and phone line that does not immediately play Christmas music is promptly strangled by tinsel or choked by chestnuts (which, coincidentally is is the name of my new holiday album). In all likelihood, the way you handle Christmas music is the way you handle Christmas– either you bite the bullet and embrace the tiny morsels of joy that you extract with your giant yule tweezers from the flaming pile of fruitcake cake shit that is the holiday season, or you whine about how the holidays are for consumerist clowns and you make everyone miserable. Rolling on with this delightful metaphor, here are my favorite golden shit nuggets of holiday jams.
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: bongs, happy holidays, Music, santa hats | Permalink
Posted by Tatyana
December 16, 2009
West Coasties (not really)
By Michelle
Hey Hey Hey
Its hump day grab bag ya’ll. It’s actually still Tuesday night where I am but whatever. East Coast Time, New York, feelings, etc. The theme of my grab bag is I can’t grow up considering all my items have to do with out-dated TV references, cats, and Twilight. In case any of you don’t know, I haven’t had cable or a decent internet connection for weeks and only recently acquired such. Is this what it felt like to discover fire? Amazement filled with shame and regret over wasted time and money? I apologize in advance if you’ve already totally discussed these topics with yr Brooklyn besties in a bar I’ll never go to that projectss blogs on the beer bellies of naked 35 yr old hipster/DJ/bloggers drinking PBR in lamé jumpsuits. JEALOUS. Seriously though, you’re the most missed New York.
So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty sadness of my existence. Oh it’s gritty down here. Watch out for that pile of grit.
I feel great about my life decisions now
As you all know, I’ve read all 4 Twilight books. I also saw New Moon the day it came out. I ALSO HAVE SAID OUT LOUD AND SOBER, THAT TAYLOR LAUTNER NEEDS TO GET IN MY BED WHERE HE BELONGS SO I CAN BREAK HIS FEET AND A EAT RAW FISH SOUP OFF HIS NAKED BODY FOREVER. I am not proud of myself. But sometimes you just gotta be a disturbing sad girl.
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Feeling Feelings, Uncategorized | Tagged: dying alone, internets, party cats, teen wolf, twilyfe | Permalink
Posted by michelle
December 9, 2009
by Wilkes
Now that I’m gainfully unemployed, I wake up at around 6 to “work on my novel” and keep at it until my stomach starts to hurt from caffeine and self-hatred (which usually kicks in at around 5). You’d think I’d be getting something accomplished in that 11-hour window but that’s where you’d be wrong.
I can’t force myself to come up with anything good to write about; all I can do is force myself to sit here at my computer hour after hour, so I spend a lot of time procrastinating on the world wide webiverse. Sometimes I go out for walks, but mostly I don’t do that anymore because every time I go outside something freaks me out.
For example, yesterday I passed a McDonalds’s and in the window was a cardboard cut-out of Ronald McDonald and he was staring at me with those chilling, beady eyes of his and I literally got a little scared so holy shit I just can’t do it anymore, man.
I’m going to die a shut-in and a fat shut-in at that (Mama, wake up!) which is fine as long as I have the internet to keep me warm and to tell me (through photos of adorable kittens) how much it loves me. So my theme for this Grab Bag is THE WEIRD SHIT I GOOGLE WHEN I’M PROCRASTINATING.
1. “Gelukkige Verjaardag!”
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Dutch is a useless language. Read the rest of this entry »
8 Comments | Feeling Feelings | Tagged: A girl, Ambien Sex, art, Bear head, Dutch, hump day, James Franco, Mueck, Ronald McDonald, Unemployment, Writing | Permalink
Posted by Lauren W.
December 8, 2009
psionic plastic joy #13
jason rodgers
photocopy on paper, unpaginated: (5.5 x 8.5 in.)
nashua, nh: self-published, winter 2008/2009
/p/p/j is one of those stalwart zines that is collaged both in terms of its imagery and of its contributors. the general editorial vibe falls somewhere between crimethInc. and the national enquirer, which is to say that it’s a read that will keep you intrigued and inquiring. in terms of a choice line, just take a look at the subject contents from the zine’s cover: “paranoia magazine’s joan d’arc / hypermodernity / police repression / technology & memory / mail art / eristic anarchy / consumerism ritual sacrifice / pataphysics / schizoid / maps.”
in as far as i can tell unrelated news, you may have noticed how just as autumn always comes after labor day even though it’s not yet the equinox, winter always comes after thanksgiving (even though it’s not yet the solstice). all this to say that what winter in williamsburg reminds me of is this gem of a holiday movie:
let me bring to yr attention three things you may or may not be able to gather from the above cover: 1. it is from the director of sleepless in seattle 2. liev schreiber plays a drag queen (which i feel like happens a lot) 3. parker posey plays a rollerblader.
so, with those things in mind, why not cozy up with this, a lover, and a hot toddy . . .
over and out,
daniel
it was extraordinary to have such power over someone to whom you longed only to submit. there they both were, half naked in the kitchen, the back door open, the noise of birdsong* fading under the gathering roar of the kettle. justin said, “shall we do housewife surprised over breakfast by meter-reader? or are these the lucy rie plates?”
—alan hollinghurst
*[emphasis mine]
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by danielportland
December 7, 2009
Its that time again…
BIRDSONG #10 — zine release/reading/art/music show with everyone’s favorite pie-loving, Williamsburg-based interdisciplinary DIY arts collective THE BIRDSONG COLLECTIVE
Friday, December 11th at 8 PM
with guest reader, novelist/journalist HARI KUNZRU
music by PAPS
Hosted by Tommy Pico (PS ITS MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND SO COME PINCH ME 26 TIMES)
(readers list and artists coming soon)
at HiChistina
632 Grand St. @ Leonard
off the Lorimer L stop
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Birdsong Collective
This is the official blog of Birdsong Micropress, a little publishing outfit founded by Tommy in April 2008. It is located in Williamsburg (not the historic one) and is comprised of the lit/art/interview zine birdsong, 
Birdsong Collective
Tommy
Chantal
Tatyana
PAPS
ultramaricon
maxsteele
catglennon
laurenesss
michelle
stephnz
Lauren W.
jane
blanco518
mebrandonb
danielportland
