Coilhouse Magazine Issue #3

Coilhouse Magazine, Issue 03!

Like the previous two issues, Coilhouse Issue 03 is divided into three sections: Inform, Inspire, Infect. For this summer issue, illustrator Zoetica went with an ornate floral/deco theme for the section intro pages.

Kowloon Walled City: The Modern Pirate Utopia. One of our most popular blog posts in 2008 was David Forbes’ piece on Kowloon Walled City, so we decided to expand it into an article. We tracked down photographer Greg Girard, who complemented David’s expanded piece with 21 gritty, breathtaking images and captions describing life inside the lawless city.

Sonny Vincent and the Beaten Heart of Punk. Our other blog-to-print article comes from Agent Double Oh No (aka Jeff Wengrofsky), who interviewed the brooding NYC punk iconoclast Sonny Vincent earlier this year.

“Now Do You Understand the Meaning of Life?” A Brief Tour of Pre-War Russian Pulp. Jess Nevins, a celebrated author with an encyclopedic brain, uncovers Soviet pulp fiction of the 20s and 30s in this original article, illustrated in pop-propaganda style by Zoetica. You’ll meet aquamen, psychic secret agents, brains in a jar, talking Socialist orangutans, Mike Thingmaster, Light-Hearted Sonya, Satan, an engineer from a two-dimensional country intent on invading the USSR, and several other colorful characters from yesteryear.

Lives Transformed Through the Powers of Confusing Music: Nils Frykdahl on Art and Kinship. Mer sits down with the brilliant Oakland-based avant rock musician (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Idiot Flesh, Faun Fables) for a fascinating in-depth discussion about creativity, family and The Future.

Inspire

Avatars. Biomechanical ghosts float amidst dark clouds while smoking pipes, pouring wine, baring their claws, and haunting abandoned churchyards in this ethereal fashion story by Gustavo Lopez Mañas.

Unicorn Chaser: The Quicksilver Reportage of Xeni Jardin. Tech culture journalist/BoingBoing co-editor Xeni Jardin’s blogcentric ability to turn on a dime and take her audience with her, week to week, from playful video art to human rights reportage and back again, is what makes Jardin compelling and Boing Boing Video so emblematic of the way we absorb news and culture today. Meredith and Nadya caught up with Jardin to discuss her first year as producer for a web show unlike any other. Featuring a brilliant illustration of Xeni by Stuntkid.

Feral Intellect: Michel Berandi’s Work and Workspace. Issue 02 cover photographer Allan Amato shoots Michel Berandi’s nuclear-winter-in-summer menswear collection in Berandi’s own exquisitely decorated studio, showing how the artist’s surroundings interplay with his work.

Enchanted Dollmaker: The Porcelain Thrall of Marina Bychkova. Marina Bychkova’s ball-jointed porcelain dolls are exquisitely crafted, but it isn’t just her extraordinary technical skill alone that sets the work apart … it’s her sorcerous devotion. Interview by Meredith Yayanos.

Uncle Vania’s Eastern Promises. The fragile alchemy of an aged photograph, the silver birches of a dark Russian forest. Antlers, skulls, ink-black blood, wood grain, scissors, lace, and entrails gracefully merge in Vania Zouravliov’s stark line drawings to create an endless waltz between the exquisite and the grotesque. Article by Nadya Lev.

Mindfrak! Ron Moore Explains Himself. When show producers asked Battlestar Galactica creator Ron D. Moore to lighten up the tone of the series, suggesting that he kick off an episode with a birthday party, he famously responded by writing an opening scene in which a group of crewmen, drunkenly celebrating a pilot’s one thousandth landing, get blown to smithereens by an errant explosive. Why does he put his characters through such hell? Nadya and Zoetica caught up with the space-drama king to get some answers.

Infect

Build Your Own Beau …and make him like it. Follow Zoetica on a makeover mission as she plays fashion cop in the Build-A-Beau Experiment. All three participants are photographers, creative beings with little time to focus on their daily look. Zo and photo-sniper Andrew Yoon invaded their homes and closets with a single purpose: total transformation.

Print to Fit: Paper Casualties. Each issue, we ask a guest artist to create a set of paper dolls for our back pages. Issue 01’s guest artist was Paul Komoda. Issue 02’s was Molly Crabapple. Now, Yana Moskaluk, the first person Coilhouse ever interviewed, graces us with her unique take on paper dolls in Issue 03.