The Surreal 1/2 Hour Volume ON

This is a little zine I put together with material from a thread on a long defunct website called Barbelith. It is a collection of "surreal" writing that I contributed to regularly and with earnest, which I supplemented with images ripped off from a few books on Surrealism.

I made this to be sold on the streets the summer I spent living in Vancouver back in, uh...2002 I believe it was. I stayed for awhile at Elaine Brière's place (I was fortunate enough that a friend from school was friends with her and he was supposed to be renting her spare room for the summer when he instead made other plans, so I lucked into the space for a time--sorry I still owe you for the phone bill, Elaine), which was a few blocks from Commercial Drive, so most of the copies that went out into the world were sold from walking up and down that Vancouver street on several occasions. I also sold some one night by going up the line of patrons who were waiting to get into a Frieda Kahlo show that was opening (I think) at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I happened to find myself there as a bit of synchronicity: I had gone down there intending to maybe pawn some off to the crowd gathered to protest some appearance by then premier Gordon Campbell. Here's what I learned: protesters have little to no money and, at least in the context of protest, have little time for the art of others, but, on the other hand, people in line for an art gallery showing do.

Some few issues were also abbandoned on consignment at a few cool bookstores scattered around Vancouver. I wonder if they ever sold and, hey, do I get interest on the cash owed me from those sales? Heh.

I had a costume I wore, which I still have, of course, along with a persona which came to be known fondly by me as "The Surreal Half Hour Salesman," and it consisted of a pair of thick cut corduroys the colour of half dead grass, a funky cream coloured button up collared polyester shirt that has a vines and flowers pattern of a similar green to the pants, topped by a deep red or wine coloured mortarboard hat, along with me specs (that I generally don't like wearing, so hardly ever do), earrings out, with face freshly shaved. I even had a voice and gait that I created for the character--geeky, reserved, a bit shambling, a bit dishevelled, with a slight st-st-stammer, yet buoyant with a friendly, quick wit. It was a fun way to go out there and earn enough cash for food and cigarettes for the day, heh.

This is issue On and there is a second issue, OFF, which saw only a single physical copy actually made and sold: I had moved along to living in a tent in Harold's backyard in New West Minster for the majority of the rest of my stay in the Vancouver area. Damn, I ought to get off my lazy butt and post the scans of that one sometime, maybe.

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