It’s Pack Rat Magazine, b*tches!

Okay, so I know I’ve been awol recently and I’m sure you’ve all be struggling to find the will to live without my sage words of advice (JK) but I’m back and the reason for my prolonged absence and subsequent return is that I’ve been working diligently on producing for you all (or y’all where appropriate) issue numero quatro of Pack Rat. This issue we help the Earth in the spirit of Earth Day by doing what we do best: recycled crafts and lots of them. We also talk with jewelry designer Becky Houle, a.k.a. The Vicious Kitty, look into what this whole letterbox craze is all about and, with the help of Cat Morley from Cut Out + Keep make our own letterbox stampers, hit the thrifts for some inexpensive crafting supplies, and just about a zillion things more. Head over to www.packratmag.com/zine to get in on the action. I missed you all and I’m glad to be back. Happy crafting!

Pack Rat Magazine is too legit, too legit to quit.

Hello my darlings. I have missed you. I try not to hamper you all with my personal life very much because really, this blog is about cool finds not a whole lot of navel gazing, but I did want to let you know that I apologize profusely if I am a bit remiss in getting blogs out over the next couple of months. I am doing my best but as some of you know, I’m in grad school right now and frankly this semester has been the most time consuming so far. I just wanted you to know.

Anyway, now on to the interesting stuff.  As I sit here clicking away at my keyboard, I find myself taking for granted such amazing developments in modern technology, such as the backspace key or the delete key.  I was born just as a generation of typewriters  were being retired, so I never knew the frustration of the whited out type-o. But, likewise I never knew the satisfaction of perfect, error free typing, or the gratifying deep clacking of the keys, the ding of the bell at the end of a line, the whir of the carriage release lever.  I do, however, have a great love and respect of all things typey.  I was actually just mentioning to my co-workers the other day how much I like typing, how when I was first learning in school I would go home and copy pages from my library books onto my Tandy 5000 word processing program (my dream was to type out a whole copy of my favorite book at the time, Sorcery and Cecelia.  I wasn’t hip to copyright infringement laws at the time).  Even now, my favorite online time waster is a game called Typer Shark where you have to type words as fast as possible or sharks will eat you.  All of this is lead up to explain why I am completely enamored with the Boston Typewriter Orchestra. A group of dedicated typewriting enthusiasts refused to let a classic, refined piece of history simply drift away to the realm of nostalgia.  Instead they’ve banded together in every sense of the word and have created a percussive symphony (can you have a percussive symphony? Whatever.) of typewriting.  Like the Japanese Kodo drummers, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra layers percussive rhythms of typing keys to create a rich, hypnotic sound that is fully addictive.  Visit their website to hear their full, layered sound and see video of their lively performance.

Hi kids!  the Feb/March Issue is finally out and rarin’ to go.  Click on the pdf link below!  And remember, if you think you could do better, you’re welcome to show us what you’ve got. Submission deadlines for next issue will be March 20th.  Happy reading.

issue3.pdf

Check out Issue #1!

We all love music of some kind or another and we all are tempted by the seedy underworld of mp3 sharing. Well there’s a new dog in town, and that dog is a shark. Grooveshark claims to make peer to peer music sharing legit, by paying out royalties to the record labels. It also appears to be free to use, which I don’t entirely understand how that is possible. I think you may have to pay for the songs you download. Anywho, regardless of how the system works, my main interest is in their blog, which has a handy post on how to sneak into concerts for free. It includes tips like, “wear a suit” and “arrive ridiculously early.” While I don’t condone ethically questionable behavior in the interest of saving a few dollars, far be it from me to withold information from you fine people. Full disclosure, yep, that’s what you can count on from me.

Visual art consumers and creators alike will get a kick out of ourstage.com. Our Stage is a forum for indie bands and film makers to take the products of their creative genius directly to the audience. Music videos and movies are posted on Our Stage and its up to the viewing public to judge the top contenders. Then, at the end of the month, fans send text message votes of who are their favorites. Those votes decide who is the top dog. Its a great place to go to see new talent and hear an electic mix of music. And obviously, if you are an artist its a good way to get your stuff seen and heard without going bankrupt. Check out this cartoon below, one of my favorites so far. Greek gods working at a fast food joint. Hilarious.

Yesterday’s blog was about a free trip to a museum, today’s blog is about a free concert on your PC. Pretty soon you’re going to have a whole weekend’s worth of free entertainment (or a whole work day’s worth. Tee hee). Stolenmixtape.com is your stop for music goodness. You can hear music from new, up-and-coming artists– all the songs are constantly streaming and many of them are available free to download. Plus, this looks to be a great tool for all you struggling artists out there. Membership is free and there’s plenty of outlets to reach your potential fan base. Besides having your music centrally located, you can also create music videos on YouTube and link them to your band profile and Stolen Mix Tape provides you with “Fan Club”a handy online mass email feature that reaches anyone who has asked for band updates. There’s also a blog option and an option for fans to post your songs on their Facebook page and embed your mp3 player (which hosts a classy band photo) into their websites. The mp3 player works best w/Myspace, we had a hell of a time getting it to work on our WordPress blog. But, when we cut and pasted the code into our Myspace page, saved, the code changed. We then cut and pasted the new Myspace code, it worked! We call that the “Myspace work-around.” See an example of this technology in action below with Anvil Chorus. I am really enjoying the lead singer’s breathy voice!

In my wanderings around the old e-web, as my mother calls it, I stumbled across a pretty fly site called www.mookychick.co.uk (this means it’s from the UK or, as my mother calls it, the United Kingdom). Titled, “the online indie bible for babes with attitude,” Mooky Chick loves you and loves beer too. Another girl wave feminist magazine in the long line of Bust-esque crop-ups (which, if you’ll excuse the history lesson, comes out of the wake of the grandmother of all feminist magazines, “Ms.” ), Mooky Girl separates itself by its friendly, funny voice and upbeat tone. Whether or not you agree with the politics surrounding this type of neo-feminism or Laddette Culture, as Jennifer Saunders calls it, I think we all have to agree that we reap the benefits of its emphasis on d.i.y. and crafts. To see what I mean, check out the “How-To” and “DIY Crafts” sections of Mooky Chick and view some of their cutesy, funky projects, like the button bracelet pictured below. Also, I love their interview with the creators of Punk Rock Aerobics and I have to admit, any one who calls Tank Girl their Icon of the Week, is alright in my book.

I cannot get enough of boygirlparty.com. Susie Ghahremani is just too talented. Her art often centers around folksy animals in dreamy settings. I especially heart the constellation owls and the spitting squids. The squid to-do list, with its little bubbles for “done” and “not yet” can only be described as clever. And, as if visual arts weren’t enough, Ghahremani also is a musician. You can hear a bevy of her catchy pop tunes for free on her website. I find her stuff truly inspiring and (best of all) affordable. Her post cards are 4 for $4 (and totally framable), her owl tote bag is $10 and her must-have apparel line starts at $20. She is officially a Pack Rat favorite!

Oh sure, we all love our iPods and iPod knockoffs. But admit it, don’t you get bored only hearing music you’ve selected? Where’s the mystery, where’s the surprise? I bring this up because I am going to postulate something here. I postulate that the mix will never die. Thousands of years from now, when music that’s no longer music but rather a series of beeps and drones that we download directly into our brains, we will still be up all night compiling lists, mumbling something nearly incoherent about “rock” and “socks.” Mix CDs are to cool people what Hallmark cards with flowery script are to lame-os (I apologize to all the lame-os I might offend out there); a means of self expression via somebody else’s words. When we give someone a mix CD we give them a little piece of ourselves. And that is why, after much rambling, I am whole heartedly endorsing papercdcase.com. Paper CD case not only gives you some sweet origami directions to make your own paper cd cases (”It’s not just a clever name.”), but it also give you list after list of other peoples’ well thought out, made out of love CD mixes. Its like reading a little story about the person. And, if you choose, you can print out the mix listing which, when folded into the appropriate paper cd case, shows the titles, artists and track numbers on the back. Too clever for words. My favorite mix title so far? “The Bastard Sons of Steve McQueen.”

Music Recommendation: The Queen is Dead by The Smiths
Movie Recommendation: Wayne’s World (1992) rated PG-13

Since this is time sensitive, I want to write a special blog about it. If you live in the Boston area and you like ‘zines, clear you calendar for the weekend of March 24th and 25th because the Boston Zine Fair is coming to town. It’s going to be from 10 am - 6 pm both nights and will be held at Massart. Check out the website at bostonzinefair.org.

Their official statement:

The Boston Zine Fair is a weekend-long event with the aim of bringing together zinesters, artists, small presses and other producers of independent media. The conference includes two full days of tabling, an opening night show with live bands and readers, as well as potluck meals throughout the weekend. There are also numerous hands-on workshops and discussion panels which give us the opportunity to learn new skills to use in our own creative enterprises, as well as to explore the importance of independent media in a corporate-owned world. The Boston Zine Fair is free and open to the public. In previous years the Boston Zine Fair (formerly known as Beantown Zinetown) has drawn hundreds of both local and national publishers, and has been a great way to build community and just enjoy each other’s company.