Best Day Ever

February 17th was the greatest and best day for The Antagonist in recent memory.

First of all, Issue 4 is out now and it's a free download (get yours here). It's shorter, yes, but that's because all of my writers went on vacation and because it's hard to put together a magazine with minor content gaps when you've been working as much as I have (I'm doing office work for a charity now, but that's beside the point). Nevertheless, Issue 4 turned out awesome thanks in large part to a few great pieces (you know who you are), a trip to Bristol, a hot girl in red fishnets, and a fantastic interview with Niki Lee.

This leads me to Part 2 of why this day was so magical. Niki loved her article, and we love Niki, so Niki is going to write for us. For real. She's going to be writing a column all the way from West Hollywood and we could not be happier.



Disregarding what I just said, Part 3 actually makes us even happier still. Neil Austin sent us our new mascot at random (see above). He's perfection. We adore him, and we are hell-bent on getting some t-shirts ordered as soon as humanly possible. Who wants one?

Part 4 is that we're looking into collaborating with Grievous Jones for some form of future project. We don't have to tell you how cool Grievous Jones is, and we're also holding high hopes for a regular column from Grievous himself. Very exciting.

Part 5 (these just keep going) is that The Antagonist has applied to exhibit at the London Zine Symposium this May. Won't hear back until next month, but the fact that such a thing exists is a big Win and we'd love to be a part of it.

Part 6 is that the printing company got in touch with us with some excellent rates for our limited edition issues, and

Part 7 is that two new Babes with Brains (Theresa and Kylie) have been scheduled for photoshoots in the near future.

All things considered, best day ever.

Marvellous.

Also, I'm giving away free downloads of Issues 1 - 3 for the rest of the weekend on the website. If you missed one, this is your chance. Go now!

American Means

Had an absolutely amazing time at The Crunch last night. It was a special American edition with D.E. Oprava as the featured poet, reading chapters from his latest book, American Means. Now, we thought that Vs. was great, but Oprava has really topped himself with American Means -- gritty, hopeful, beautifully formed, this 90-page poem is a modern epic that must be read. It had to be written, and no one could have done it like Oprava. It's not only required reading for American ex-pats, but brutally necessary for anyone needing a better understanding of what it really means to be American.

Hopefully there will be a book launch in Cardiff coming up, and I'll keep you posted. Hearing this work coming from the poet is an experience. Needless to say, I've got my copy, and you can get yours by visiting Grievous Jones here.

The above photo, in case you were wondering, is a blurry picture of Oprava with one of the Crunch's regular poets, James Angel, in a Grievous Jones t-shirt.

The Crunch was fantastic across the board. Adam provided hot dogs for everybody in keeping with the American theme, and all of the poetry was even better than usual. Some of the Antagonist's Minions were in attendance and in top form: Rhys Owain Williams' reading included a limerick that included the miraculous rhyming of the word "Oedipus", and Sarah Coles (writer: Bad Sex Awards 2009) read a lovely piece about her youngest daughter that almost moved this somewhat cynical so-and-so to tears.

Afterwards, myself and the Usual Suspects got up to no good, naturally. This involved climbing the massive hill to K & Jen's pirate ship (in the sky!) while brandishing chips etc. and gazing longingly at the food porn here. Seriously? Goldfish and Triscuits? AND Cheetos?! Be still my heart!

So somewhere between the fireworks and the poetry and the pirate ship (seriously, there was a flag and everything) me and Jen got to talking about photo projects. I mentioned I'd love to do a series of photos of men and Jen knew exactly what I meant & she's all for it. I'm not talking about leopard print pants & photocopiers (although now that you mention it...), I just fancy doing a series of interesting profiles. I mean, how else am I going to adequately communicate my appreciation for great noses?

Now you think I'm just making this up. I have a highly developed and somewhat eccentric vision of beauty and I'd like, in this series (if it ever gets made), to show that to other people. Tall order, maybe, but it's bound to fun. If you would like to volunteer yourself or someone you know against their will, you know where to find me!

PS - Hope you're all enjoying Issue 2. We've had 150 downloads in three days, so keep passing those links around! It's working! Spread the word, Minions! Issue 3 is also well under way and still taking submissions and listings, but I'm having a hell of a time picking just one picture of the lovely Jen S to use for the cover...