Summer Reads

 

Microcosm Publishing - Summer 2022 Lineup

Enter Sandwich: Some Kind of Vegan Cooking with No Connection to Metallica by Automne Zingg and Joshua Ploeg Available Now! Hey Ho Let's Dough!: 1! 2! 3! 40 Vegan Pizza Recipes Unrelated to the Ramones by Automne Zingg and Joshua Ploeg Available Now! Speak In Tongues: An Oral History of Cleveland's Infamous DIY Punk Venue by Eric Sandy and Ken Blaze Coming July 5th

Enter Sandwich: Some Kind of Vegan Cooking with No Connection to Metallica  by Automne Zingg and Joshua Ploeg Oh, aging rockers. We've all seen them struggle to get along and cope with life. Maybe they just need to sit around a backyard picnic table, share a vegan feast, and talk about their feelings. After all, to live is to stir fry. Automne Zingg, genius mastermind behind Comfort Eating with Nick Cave and Defensive Eating with Morrissey is back with hilarious illustrations of the band's revolving cast eating their feelings and expressing their enthusiasm for food, but in a tough and intense way. "Yeahms!" sings James, riffing on a giant yam. Zingg's work is coupled with the inventive and flavorful recipes of chef and queercore punk musician, Joshua Ploeg. Written in lyrical form, the recipes parody 40 of the most quintessential tunes. Crank up the volume while concocting plant-based recipes like Master of Nuggets, Pie of the Beholder, an All Nightmare Footlong, or maybe just a little stock. So let it be eaten. (Just don't try to illegally download this book.)

Hey Ho Let's Dough!: 1! 2! 3! 40 Vegan Pizza Recipes Unrelated to the Ramones  by Automne Zingg and Joshua Ploeg When you don’t wanna go down to the pizzeria, whip up these vegan pizzas. Automne Zingg—mastermind behind Comfort Eating with Nick Cave, Defensive Eating with Morrissey, and Enter Sandwich—has illustrated pizza-themed boys-from-Queens homages, as they eat pizza, sneer at pepperoni, and play pizza guitars. Joshua Ploeg’s recipes wittily incorporate vaguely familiar lyrics and humor. Pizzas range from traditional marinara with vegetables and veggie sausage (Texas Chain Sauce Massacre) and white sauce specials (Carbonara Not Glue), to variations like Beet on the Brat, Havana Pizza Affair, Thyme Bomb. “Well, I’m Against It,” comments Johnny, but you’ll find a pineapple pizza recipe in here as well. Pizza is deconstructed, reconstructed, and, like the best bands, turns into something far better than the sum of its parts.

Speak In Tongues: An Oral History of Cleveland's Infamous DIY Punk Venue by Eric Sandy and Ken Blaze  Speak In Tongues was a freewheeling, community-run underground music venue in Cleveland, Ohio that operated on a do-it-yourself basis throughout the late 1990s. The venue fostered a flourishing creative culture, where you could enjoy a puppet show from a spray-painted couch or meet other punks to start a band or a movement, but was also smoothly run with a great sound system and the best curation of music that you could hear in the city during its tenure. On any given night, you could go see hardcore punk, experimental jazz, or thrash shows where fireworks were set off inside the building. Traveling bands regularly booked shows there, including ones that went on to greater fame, like Modest Mouse, Avail, Lifter Puller, Jimmy Eat World, Alkaline Trio, Milemarker, and J Church. Venue operators, and later a management collective, contended with police surveillance, skinheads with knives, an exploding oil drum full of raw meat, a flaming car, and a different number of riots depending on who you ask.  There may not have been a bar, but a healthy BYOB policy ensures that everyone’s memory is different, resulting in an entertaining story of a place that truly was what you made it, the source of lifelong friendships and endless lore.  This comprehensive oral history tells a story that is greater than the sum of each person’s recollections, forming a picture of a unique, weird, special place that deeply informed the next twenty years of Cleveland’s underground culture.

Celebrating A Legend, Judy Garland

Judy Garland

Today is the 100th Birthday of the legendary Judy Garland. I took these photos commemorating it at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery post yoga class there. "Yes" they have yoga classes there and Tyler Cassity owner and founder of the cemetery puts us yogis through our paces every Tuesday. The day I attended and took these photos.

Cheers to you Judy Garland thanks for the magic and the memories! 💕

Paying My Respect

Judy on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Garland

Michael's Musings

I'd Let You Watch, I Would Invite You, But...
Michael Shinafelt

"I've never been interested in being invisible and erased" - Laverne Cox

Pride Month is still happening Minions and I'm still celebrating along with the rest of my LGBTQ brothers & sisters. As you can see this week I am giving good rainbow face.

"Yes" good rainbow face is a thing, I just made it one. So there, move along now, there's plenty to see here, no one is invisible or erased.

Last night's RHOBH was so boring the only thing I remember was the "In 2 Days" Jurassic World: Dominion logo in the upper right corner the entire time.

Saw David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future this past weekend, while not his best, still a provocative film with great performances, anything Cronenberg does is a must see in my book!

When The Bougie Man is under your bed: "Wow, the thread count on these sheets is pathetic"

Ever resented a salad all the way through?

Is your cuteness "out of bounds?"

That time when you someone introduces themselves to you and you are going to reciprocate and they say: "Nice to meet you Michael" before you even give them your name...

When life gives you lemons ignore the five on the ground and reach for the most difficult one on the tree, yeah that's it

So you think you can dance, and you can jive?

Woman Crush of the Week - Judy Garland who's 100th Birthday Celebration is tomorrow. Thank you for the magic and the memories!

Ask yourself: Are you hot enough to be in a celebrity threesome?

Take your purified water, sit down and STFU

When someone has access to every hole you have, discuss...

Ever wonder if cauliflower wings have bones?

I'm gonna head to Mimosa Beach today, no that was not a typo

Where you goin' today? Tell me here -

https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/MShinafelt     

Hump Day & Chill

Iconic 
Tab Hunter & Divine

Being that it's Pride Month and such, today's Hump Day & Chill is brought to you by Tab Hunter & Divine in John Waters Polyester!

Nothing quite says LGBTQ like this combo. They are quite iconic and did go on to star together in another movie titled Lust In The Dust.

I met Tab Hunter once at an HRC event for his autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star.

He was truly a star with a capital "S" and one of the nicest, most down to earth people one could ever encounter.  

Sadly I never had the pleasure of crossing paths with Divine, that would have been epic as well. 

So let's raise a glass, turn and face the strange and all that jazz with a Hump Day & Chill to these two LGBTQ icons shall we?

We shall and we will!!! 

Polyester on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyester_(film)   

Enjoy The Silence "Scream"

Enjoy The Silence
Neve Campbell

Well Minions you have undoubtedly heard by now that Neve Campbell will not be a part of Scream 6 due to salary negotiations. Can't say I'm surprised when I heard Hayden Panettiere was coming back as fan favorite Kirby Reed, my thought was: Neve won't be returning.

I am sorry to say my thought has come to pass. Seriously though the whole Scream series has been about Sidney Prescott, like WTF?! Hard to believe they would not pony up for Neve in this day and age. This truly makes me wanna "Scream!"

Suffice it to say, my expectations have now been lowered for the upcoming installment of this consistently good franchise. Paramount if this tanks you know why and it's on you!

Will I see it? Not sure yet, I have a you'll find out attitude presently. I'm not even sure how this will work, if at all...

Michael has left the building!!!

For more 411 check out the Deadline article below -

https://deadline.com/2022/06/neve-campbell-scream-not-returning-1235038974/  

Celebrate Pride With "Freedom"

Happy Monday Minions! (say that three times fast) - I thought we would honor Pride Month with one of my favorite Pride Anthems today. 

George Michal's "Freedom! '90." Shortly before officially coming out as gay in 1998, George Michael recorded "Freedom! '90", a track that explores his struggles with his personal identity. With lyrics like, “There’s something deep inside of me / There’s someone else I’ve got to be," this classic song endures as a powerful ode to embracing your honest self.

I'll leave you with the song and video below...Enjoy your week with Pride everyone!

Savage Republic

 

INDEPENDENT PROJECT RECORDS ANNNOUNCES PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED ARCHIVAL SAVAGE REPUBLIC AFRICA CORPS LIVE FROM THE WHISKY A GO GO 30th DECEMBER, 1981 AND EXPANDED EDITION OF BRUCE LICHER’S EXPLORATORIUM ON SEPTEMBER 16, 2022   Each Will Be Released Digitally and on CD with Vinyl Coming Later In The Year and Feature Hand-Letterpress Printed Die Cut Packaging with Inserts    Independent Project Records (IPR) confirmed today the release of two titles in late Summer, the previously unreleased archival concert, Savage Republic – Africa Corps Live at the Whisky A Go Go 30th December 1981 and an expanded edition of Bruce Licher’s self-titled experimental guitar project Exploratorium.   Both albums will be released on compact disc and via digital services on September 16; a vinyl version of the two releases will follow. Each will feature the iconic hand-letterpress printed die cut packaging by label founder Bruce Licher. Full track listing and further details will be announced shortly.   This soon-to-be-released Savage Republic/Africa Corps live album comes on the heels of the expanded Real Gone Music reissue of Tragic Figures. In their review of this 40th anniversary version of Savage Republic’s debut The Vinyl Guide recently wrote that “one of the more undersung (if not necessarily criminally overlooked) bands of the era is Savage Republic of Los Angeles, one of the few US outfits that can legitimately be described as post-punk in orientation”.   The upcoming IPR archival release Savage Republic - Africa Corps Live at The Whisky A Go Go 30th December 1981 fiercely catapults listeners in front of one of L.A.’s most iconic stages, back when a young band of UCLA students (Bruce Licher, Mark Erskine, Philip Drucker and Jeff Long), by then still called Africa Corps, was starting to make its way in the punk underground. The board recording original tape has now been remastered by Warren DeFever (His Name Is Alive) and unearths a most cathartic performance. Africa Corps had only been playing together for about eight months when this was recorded - in different hands this amalgamation of punk, industrial, art rock, psychedelia, Eastern sounds, avant-garde, no wave, surf and minimalism would have eventually proved contrived, pretentious, or at least confusing. But as the loud Whisky crowd - regulars mixing with friends, art school students mixing with tough punks - seems to suggest, with Savage Republic it worked, as if by magic. And as if by magic, it still does.   Originally released in 2006 as a mini-CDr in a limited edition of 300 signed and numbered copies, Exploratorium’s immersive selection of solo recordings by Savage Republic, Scenic and Independent Project Records founder Bruce Licher finally gets the expanded reissue treatment. The three original tracks are now accompanied by a fourth instrumental that ventures into atmospheric electronic territory. It’s a mesmerizing blend of ambient and post-rock, noisy shoegaze and pastoral melodic structures, droning avant-garde and soundtracks at their most sparse and yearning.   Additional IPR releases will be announced shortly and will feature both remastered and expanded IPR classics (and in some cases bring long out-of-print titles back in print) as well as new music that fits the IPR aesthetic both musically and in design. By utilizing IPR's iconic hand-letterpress printed artwork created at Independent Project Press, the label will carry on with the design aesthetic that began in 1980 and has become the label’s hallmark.    ABOUT  Founded in 1980 by musician and artist Bruce Licher, Independent Project Records has created more than sixty releases since its inception. IPR and its sister entity Independent Project Press are known for their instantly recognizable hand-printed record covers for bands including Camper Van Beethoven, For Against, Polvo, R.E.M., Savage Republic, Silversun Pickups, Stereolab and more. Aside from creating all artwork on his vintage two-ton hand-fed letterpress, Licher was nominated for a Grammy Award for his design work on the IPR released debut album from For Against. In 2020, the label was relaunched by both Licher and Jeffrey Clark with new and archival releases with distribution from Darla Records. It is based in Bishop, California, at the base of the Eastern Sierra Mountains.   For More Information, Please Contact Joshua Mills at It’s Alive! Media, 323-464-6314, josh@itsalivemedia.com, www.itsalivemedia.com or Camilla Aisa, camillaaisa@gmail.com   Follow Independent Project Records on Social Media: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok