This sixth issue of Priv. Circ. went out last weekend. This is the introduction from that email.
——– Original Message ——–
| Subject: | Some Cars of Brooklyn |
|---|---|
| Date: | Sun, 08 Jun 2008 09:36:54 -0400 |
| From: | Private Circulation |
Dear reader,
[…]
A: No, I don’t think so. I have confidence moving forward that what I selected is good. I think what interests me the most with this particular map is that it’s a heavy urban area, but it’s also a very residential area. Brooklyn is the store-yard for much of Manhattan. Looking at satellite images from Manhattan you see the cars are very orderly. All of them are being used. The ones not in motion are stacked or parked nicely, orderly. Space there is at such a premium. Space in Brooklyn is also expensive, but not so much. People can afford to have wrecking yards. In Brooklyn there are flows of traffic and there are places where cars go to die, where they have not been used, where their use is to be taken apart for other cars. There are these odd triangulated lots, eddies apart from the stream where these dead cars go to rust. They get piled up and jammed together. I’m interested in these interstitial places. Places where you see a traffic stream and then you see a bunch of cars all jammed together. There is no way that they could move out of there except piece by piece.
Q: So this work isn’t about just demarcating where streets and parking lots are?
A: No, not at all.
Q: How do you know that when you are finished cutting these out your thoughts will be communicated through the end product?
A: I don’t. You never know anything for sure. I do know that the piece will be over 3 feet square, and I can sense that there will be a beauty to it. I can see patterns emerging already. Also, the act of cutting the cars out clears my mind. Besides the resistance of my muscles to repetitive labor, it is very soothing.
Q: Do you think that you’d do the project without an end product?
A: You mean just because?
Q: Yes. Just to give yourself something to do.
A: I don’t think so. But that’s a hard question because you don’t know for sure that there is ever an end.
Sincerely,
—The Editors
Parking at the Pentagon, inkjet on paper, 24 x 30 inches, 2008
There are even a couple of landlocked boats. Along the Long Island Railroad past Jamaica there is a boat tipped over with a jagged section of its hull missing. It rests alone in a vast parking lot with grass sticking through the concrete. This boat is not pictured here but for some reason grass growing between pads of concrete reminds me of this.
One might still recognize some narrative value in this magazine if some sort of rhythm were to be maintained. It will not be maintained.
Download Appendix A [PDF: 3.6 mb] of The Gift Pool pages 31–38. For the complete May 2008 issue email privatecirculation@gmail.com.
Dear reader,
This month’s issue of Private Circulation is a short story and some photographs of a swimming pool that is falling apart in Brooklyn. For the complete series of photographs an appendix is also available here.
Sincerely,
—The Editors
To receive this or other issues of Private Circulation email privatecirculation@gmail.com.
The cyan issue: April is the cruelest month
Out Now!
Hi,
Thanks for finally getting back to me about this. Below are some notes on the introduction and on our editorial guidelines and expectations in general…
For obvious reasons the editorial staff of Private Circulation must, in all cases, refrain from using the phrase “this issue of Private Circulation features” to announce every new issue of the bulletin. We should also not use sentences like “this collection of photographs constitutes an archive that explores and documents the faded posters of areas local to Brooklyn and Manhattan.” A better way to start would be to write something like “Except for black, cyan is the last color of an offset print to fade from the effects of sunlight. Et cetera, et cetera.”
Moving on from there the introduction should attract the reader’s attention to the highlights of the piece. We really want something that will draw people in and leave the advertisers comfortable. Also make sure to mention a couple of helpful products and services along the way. We are, after all, in the “content” business; we cannot simply email this with “Lorem ipsum dolor,” pepper it with ads and luscious photographs, and stamp it done. People today demand monthly bulletins with added values that can lead them away from the boredom of their plebeian lives. Something uplifting! Basically, no more of this stuff like “Monet went blind” and “April is the cruelest month.” And phrases such as “Everything will be taken away” do nothing but depress the already-weary reader.
I guess I’m trying to say that this introduction needs less vinegar and more sugar and spice. I hope this is helpful.
Best,
Ed.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot
Ultra for Extra, a PDF chapbook of nine poems for Private Circulation
Download the Memories of New York press release.
Of a Name: A Brief History of No Man’s Land
Since the British explorer Bartholomew Gosnold landed on its shores in 1602, the little island two and three-quarters miles off the southern coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts has had a succession of names, among them: Cappoaquit, Marthaes Vineyard, Hendrick Christiaensen’s Eylant, Dock Island, and the Isle of Man. Four hundred years of chance and linguistic drift have chiseled out a name that accurately describes the condition of No Man’s Land today as a restricted Fish and Wildlife Refuge and former bombing range. This month’s Private Circulation brings together a collection of historical documents into a brief history of the island. Also included is the long awaited announcement of Private Circulation’s first New York exhibition, Memories of New York.
—The Editors
