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Archive 2005
Done got me another diagram in Diagram, that hallowed bastion of poetry and schemata. It's called "Public Space". It's big!
17th October 2005 And now, as the dust begins to settle and the boxes lie partially unopened in the shed, I can relax in my new country estate and reveal to you the WINNERS of The Hastily Conceived Adam Ford's Web Site Humourous Photographic Caption Writing Competition (est. 2005). We had literally skazillions of entries from all points of the globe, but when it comes down to it, as they say, there can be only one. Well, actually, I've picked three captions, but "There can be only three" doesn't have that Shazam. Okay, so lots of the entries picked up on the position of my hand in the photo and went for something with a hypnosis/mesmerism bent. One entry focussed on Sean's hands, pointing out his apparent lack of a right arm. Nobody seemed interested in incorporating the backdrop of our discussion into their captions, despite the fact that there are plenty of jokes to be made when a giant child's face looms between two grown men. But that's neither her nor there. Having had the requisite amount of ado, let's look at our three winners, in ascending order. Third prize goes to musician, raconteur and bedroom philosopher Justin Heazlewood, who incorporated some loving cynicism aimed at the publishing industry into his entry: Second prize is awarded to designer, illustrator, monkey afficionado and blood relative Hugh Ford for his thoughtful entry: And first prize is awarded to comic artist and musician Kieran Mangan for his tangential-yet-piss-funny entry, which shows in-depth understanding of the comedy that can come from repetition, and which also made milk come out of my nose. As the winner, Kieran's caption is now and forever (or at least as long as the internet lasts) placed underneath the photo it was intended for.
Congratulations to our three finalists and thanks to everyone who entered. Justin, Hugh and Kieran will all receive the first three items on the list below, and will also get their pick of the books and stuff that ended up on the wrong side of the "keep or chuck" line from my latest home relocation. We now return you to your regularly scheduled internet.
22nd September 2005 Time for the obligatory caption competition. This is me and Sean Condon at last month's Sleepers Salon, photo courtesy Justin Treyvaud (see above). Winners will be announced three weeks from today. The most apt caption (email them here) will receive: • the obligatory
Adam Ford zine pack And because I'm knee deep in dust and boxes as I get ready to move house, the four aptest captions (or should that be "most apt"?) will also get their pick of two items from the "you are so not coming with me when I leave" box I'm rapidly filling as we speak. Don't fuss - it's not all crap. Samples from the box include: • Issues 1 and 3 of Warren Ellis's Ultimate
Nightmare comic I'll email the full list to the winners. It'll be like a lucky dip but, you know, online. So get writing. Remember - apt! It's like "appropriate", but funnier! And shorter (the word, not the caption).
2nd September 2005 Well, I must have done something right, because after the Sleepers Salon gig this Wednesday past, in which I interviewed Sean Condon on stage about his new book, Sean and his publicist came up to me and asked if I'd be interested in a return performance at Readings bookstore in Carlton this coming Tuesday. So if you're at a loose end and in the vicinity of Readings on Tuesday the 6th, drop in for a browse of the bookshelves, some free booze and have a listen to Sean and me in conversation, live and in person. Full details, as always, in gigs. I found an unfamiliar referreral in my logs last week and traced it back to a literary podcaster from Little Rock, Arkansas, by the name of Jay King. Jay runs a site called AudioLingo. As part of one of his podcasts he worked up his own interpretation of my poem, 'Pissing off Ezra'. It's pretty nice work, and I've always been a sucker for banjo music. Here's the link - scroll down for podcast #4, 'Banjo of Ezra', and then check out the other podcasts, too.
23rd August 2005 Now that's what I'm talking about. A quick jaunt to the post office box today revealed a missive from young Tim who maintains the tasty blog known as Un. Said missive comprised of a poem and a collage response to the infamous "Let's Look Out for Australia" anti-terror information booklet. This was Tim's response to my offer to send a copy of the current Jutchy Ya Ya to anyone who sends something interesting in the mail, and it succeeded admirably. One Jutchy Ya Ya is wending Tim's way in today's post. See how simple the process is? In other news, I'm three gigs through my current spate of rapid-fire-succession gigs, with gig #4 to take place tonight, and there's a new entry on the field. As part of Cardigan Press's In Bed with Cardigan Press show (click the link and wait for the popup) I'll be donning my blue flannel jammies and climbing under the covers to read stories to all comers. The show takes place between 2 and 5 this coming Saturday and Sunday (the 27th and 28th of August) at ACCA, on Sturt Street, right next to the Malthouse Theatre in South Melbourne (You can't miss it - it's the big rust-coloured metal building with the bright yellow abstract sculpture right behind it). I'm under the doona between 4 and 4.30 on the 27th, and the entire two day literary bed-in will feature both Cardigan Press alumni and Writers Festival guests alike, including Simon Hall, Lisa Jacobsen, Sean M. Whelan, Paul Mitchell, Anna Hedigan and RRR's own Tony Wilson.
15th August 2005 I've finished another issue of Jutchy Ya Ya. According to the haphazard records I've kept, this is the thirty-first issue. To celebrate such an auspicious (if dubious) number, I've added two more Jutchies to the slightly-redesigned zines section: the latest one and the next-most-recent-after-that one. So head on over to read about childhood legends, job interviews with ubiquitous search engines, buying houses, online sex, magic eightballs, the Go! Team, homeless monsters, hand-drawn (literally) cartoons and a brief, potted history of the tiny regional Victorian town of Chewton. As always, hardcopies of the latest issue are available for free to anyone who sends me something interesting in the mail. Email me for details.
28th July 2005 Today we have two more gigs for your consideration, and another addition to the Heavy Product Gallery. On August 31 I'm interviewing author and columnist Sean Condon at the Sleepers Salon about his new book, The Secret of Success is a Secret. The Salons are a monthly event featuring live-on-stage interviews with authors, as well as music and readings. They're always a hoot. I've also been invited to perform at the Victorian Writers Centre's annual Me, I Like Football reading on September 20, which I heard is apparently timed to take place around some big sporting event or something. I'll be reading a selection from the One History of the VFL suite, and the animated version of The Battle of Clarendon Street, the libretto of which is taken from that suite, will be showing as well. Details of both of these can be found, as always, in the gigs section. Today the Heavy Product Gallery chalks up its first true action shot. Originally sighted on the farkin.net Australian mountain biking forum by a man known only as Parallax, this addition to the gallery features rider Nathan Moore in an empty swimming pool using his front wheel to indicate the sticker's location. Both Misters Lax and Moore are the proud recipients, as are all contributors to the gallery, of an official Adam Ford zine pack (tm).
20th July 2005 A review that I wrote of The Classic Pin-Up Art of Jack Cole, a fine collection of gag cartoons by the legendary Playboy artist and creator of Plastic Man, is up now on PopImage.
16th July 2005 August is looking like it's going to be a busy month, with four readings and a zine workshop coming up. In deference to this busy public schedule, I've reinstated the gigs page for the time being, thus making details of said public appearances available to all. There has also been another addition to the Heavy Product Gallery, made possible by the stellar endeavours of one Mr. Denny Carr all the way from Perth, W.A. The photo in question was taking while Mr. Carr was in residence in North Fitzroy, which geographically savvy readers will recognise as being on the Eastern Coast of this wide brown land. For his efforts, Denny will receive an official Adam Ford zine pack (tm). As well as urban photography expeditions, Denny spends his spare time uploading his observations of Perth and its denizens to his fine blog, Denny Done Did, which I recommend heartily to one and all.
9th July 2005 Tomorrow morning I'm being interviewed by Zan Rowe about this coming Wednesday's Comics to Animation showcase. Tune in to JJJ (or stream it if you like) at 11.30am Eastern Standard Time to the Weekend Lunch program to hear us give the show a good old-fashioned plugaroonie.
26th June 2005 The Battle of Clarendon Street, the short animated film that I made as part of the multimedia course I studied in 2003/04, is screening as part of the Comics to Animation showcase that Cinema Nova is putting on as a tie-in with the release of Sin City, the movie adaptation of the comic by American writer/artist Frank Miller. This will be the first public screening of my animation. Also participating in the program are David Blumenstein, Ben Hutchings, Dillon Naylor, Clint Curé and Kirrily Schell, among others. The Battle of Clarendon Street tells the fictional history of the late-1800s battle for independence that took place in South Melbourne. I was ably assisted in the creation of this film by the stellar talents of Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, who provided the narration, and Grant Balfour, who wrote and performed the music. There's a teeny tiny slip of a preview in the design/animation portion of this site. Comics to Animation takes place at Cinema
Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton, on Wednesday July 13th at 6:45pm.
The screening runs for about an hour, and then there will be
a discussion forum with some of the animators, myself included. You can download the flyer, complete with full program listing, here. CORRECTION/UPDATE (5/7/05): I've just found out that there's actually a cover charge for the gig. It'll set you back $10/$7 for the evening, but you know? That's still a pretty good deal.
15th June 2005 We have a new entry in the Heavy Product Gallery. The mysterious-but-friendly Steve has submitted a sticker he found in a rather... unusual location. Like all who submit their HP sticker sightings, Steve has won himself an exclusive zine pack of rare ziney goodness. And this seems as good a time as any for us to assure readers that no animals were harmed in the creation of this site - especially not the molluscs.
1st June 2005 It seems that Man Bites Dog is either sold out or very close to being sold out. The world of book-selling being what it is, such things are never clear-cut. As the facts have been revealed to me, there are apparently no more copies of the book in the Allen & Unwin warehouse. This means that Australian bookstores can no longer order the book in as stock. There are, however, copies of the book circulating in the UK and Europe, although some of these may be returned unsold to Allen & Unwin at some indeterminate future time. There are possibly copies similarly circulating in Australia, though the surmised amount is thought to be quite small. The upshot of this is that a) if you're in Europe or the UK you are still likely to be able to order a copy of MBD from your local bookseller, but b) if you're in Australia you can't order one - you'll have to be lucky enough to walk into a bookshop that's got one on shelf, although for my fellow antipodeans there's also c) the option of ordering the book through Amazon UK. I spoke to my publisher and she said that the book is under consideration for reprinting, and they'll make a final decision in the next couple of weeks, based on projected sales over the next two years. So if you're someone who wants to see MBD stay in print for the next couple of years, now is the time to head down to your local bookshop and place an order in the hope that enough of your fellow readers are doing the same to tip the scales in favour of a second printing. If it did go to second printing that'd be nice, but it would also be nice to have the book sell out. For one thing, it would open up all kinds of avenues for 'sell-out' jokes. I just wouldn't want anyone else to miss out, that's all.
24th May 2005 I have two new zines out. One is called What Astronauts Wear and, bizarrely, given all the zine workshops I've taught the process in, is the first zine I've ever made using physical cut-and-paste collage. I found the whole sitting in the lounge surrounded by scissors, glue and paper thing quite addictive. The other is called Turtle Soup. It's a short story featuring pictures drawn by Professor Julius "Why Is It So?" Sumner Miller. I've also put up some sample pages from The Amazing Atavistic Adventures of The Fish, the first comic I ever made. I dropped some comics in to Sticky a few weeks ago, and I'm taking the two new zines in tomorrow, so those reading this in Melbourne can wander down to the best zine shop under a train station in the Southern Hemisphere and score some Adam Ford ziney love to call their own. I'm working on setting up some kind of PayPal-type system or mail-order form, but for the time being those outside Melbourne who want to buy any of these will just have to email me, I'm afraid. I'm up for swaps too - get in touch and let me know what you want to trade.
17th April 2005 The winner of this year's One Book One Brisbane award has been announced. Congratulations to Kimberly Starr, whose book The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies won with 26% of the votes, and thanks to everyone who voted for Man Bites Dog. "Seven Dates that were Ruined by Giant Monsters, or, Why I Really Need to Get Out of this Town" appears in Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, published by Agog! Press. The anthology also features the work of Sean Williams, Petri Sinda, Garth Nix and Penelope Love. I'm reading a section of this story at Babble on the 4th of May. Also featuring will be Tom Cho and the Inaugural Babble Giant Monster-themed Poetry Slam.
31st March 2005 I have a diagram in the latest issue of Diagram. It's called "Extraction of 'Prominence' Feature".
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