Life In A Bungalo

As a member of the publishing community, I feel the need to buy and subscribe to as many magazines as I can get my hands on. I pick up a new magazine almost every day to entertain me during my commute to New York, and I almost always subscribe after buying a few issues. But this is the first time that I’ve been so moved by a publishing company that I’ve felt the need to write about it.

JPG Magazine is one of the best looking, well written, and intelligent magazines on the newsstand today. But what makes it rise above all the other photo/design books is its adoption of a new magazine standard and method of publication. All content is user generated by visitors to the magazines Web site. Anyone can write a column or snap a picture and submit it to the magazine for peer and editor review. The top writers/photogs get $100 and a subscription to the magazine. More importantly, the editors of JPG have a constant flow of fresh copy, and an endless pool of writers and creative types to choose from. This is Magazine 2.0. Read more »

Social Distortion & The Hangmen
Starland Ballroom
July 23, 2007
Click for Full Photolog of the show on Flickr!

Every time Social Distortion swings by the East Coast you are in for a good time. Sure the band has slowed down releasing new material, but who really cares when Mike Ness and company are cranking out classics like “Mommy’s Little Monster” and “Sick Boy?” This time, Social D decided to give some love to the Garden State, bypassing NYC all together, and doing a double header and the Starland Ballroom. Read more »

Click for Full Photolog of the show on Flickr!

Located in the swanky Cookman Avenue section of Asbury Park, New Jersey, the Crybaby Gallery is making a name for itself by showcasing quality artwork from up and coming painters, photographers, and illustrators. This past Saturday, the gallery played host to an opening party for “Fourplay,” a collection of erotic art from a quartet of very unique artists: Carolyn Weltman, Phil Illingworth, Georgie Tier, and Neil Bruce. Read more »

CoproNason Gallery will be hosting Amy Sol “Tonight We Travel by Dream” beginning Aug. 11 and running through Sept. 1. The show is running simultaneously with Kathie Olivas’ show, so head over and enjoy two awesome artists for the price of none. The opening reception is Aug. 11 from 8 to 11:30 pm.

Click for Preview>>>

Bad Religion
New Maps of Hell
Epitaph

“New Maps of Hell” is a tale of two Bad Religion records—one that really rocks, and one that kinda sucks. Right from the start, this album kicks ass, slugging out power punk songs like “Heroes & Martyrs” and “New Dark Ages.” We’re talking pure Bad Religion songs that sway towards their “Stranger Than Fiction” work, but with top notch production. Then somewhere around “Honest Goodbye” the album starts hitting and missing. The songs turn monotonous and sluggish, and the rock tunes just stop coming.

Sure, songs like “Scrutiny” and “Grand Delusion” have all the right oohs and ahhs, and the guitars shred, but the songs are also boring and drone on and on. By the end of the record you’re really left wondering just how much substance there really is on it. I think the biggest problem is the lack of hooks in the choruses. They just don’t have the high-impact singalongs that made the band so much fun in the “American Jesus” days. This is by the numbers punk that 99 percent of the cookie cutter acts out there wish they could sound like, but it just sounds tired when legends are doing it. Read more »

Koffin Kats & American Speedway
The Asbury Lanes
July 21, 2007

Detroit’s favorite sons, The Koffin Kats, hit the Jersey Shore one more time for a hell of a romp this past Saturday night. The ghoulish trio pounded out nearly every song in their three-record catalog (including one new tune and a cover), and entertained the packed Asbury Lanes for well over an hour. Read more »

Saturday August 11, 8:00-11:30 pm, CoproNason presents Kathie Olivas’s, “Ghosts & Martyrs” new paintings & custom toys. They have the whole show online so take a look and contact them If you are interested In anything. Read more »

Jeff Soto’s Lucky 13 calendar + “No Hope” 32 page minizine
Murphy Design just released a Jeff Soto 13 month calendar. It features 13 full-color calendar images, and measuress 9″ x 18″. The calendar features 14 major paintings from the past couple of years — not featured in the sold out Potato Stamps Dream book – and 39 small images from Soto’s “Cold Ice Age” series of 100 paintings. Read more »