All The Boring Things
Talking about it to the Pen Name LA Newspaper
The Pen Name newspaper, LA’s best and most insano street rag, interviewed me for their Spring/Summer 2021 issue. It’s out now in print (in the US - it’s free!) and online here. I recommend checking out this pdf for easy reading.
In the piece, editor-in-chief Jim Padlow and I talk about working under pseudonym, the most boring parts of labouring in ‘the creative industries’ today, and dealing with a love/hate relationship to the internet.
Jim and I connected in 2019 whilst I was in LA and stumbled upon the Pen Name outside of West Hollywood’s Book Soup. It was an instant over-excited jolt of what is this weird thing?! Hallelujah that this kind of underground, satirical, crazy, nonsensical, heroic, offline-only (at the time) strangeness still exists.
Even since our first email exchange, Jim and I gelled in a way that comes along only a handful of magical times in one’s life. Three years later, we continue to uplift each other, chat, collaborate, and make weird stuff come to life – even though we have never met IRL. And this, my friends, is the wonder and beauty of the internet that we love to hate so much.
For US readers, Jim has asked for your answer to the question ‘Offline matters because…’ to give away copies of the Offline Matters book to his top three responses. Send it in to thepennameLA@gmail.com with the subject line: OFFLINE MATTERS – if you wanna.
For now, I’ll leave you with an excerpt from our conversation and encourage you to submit a contribution to the Pen Name yourself. They have only one rule: no real names allowed! Pen names, pseudonyms and nom de plumes only.
PS - Don’t forget to check out our interview with Jim on the Pen Name’s painful transition to being online after five years of ‘offline only’, for paid subscription supporters. Thanks for your ongoing support. It truly makes a difference. And if you’re enjoying these emails, why not join the No Fun Club too? 💫
SPOILER: Next week we have an interview with an absolute punk LEGEND, so now is a good time to subscribe. We appreciate it and the goods are worth it🔥.