Jim Munroe

Libraries Rule, Part 2

February 25, 2005

The Vancouver Public Library has been kind enough to fly me out to do a reading a week today (Fri. March 4th, 7:30pm, Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St., free). I was in the city launching An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil just this November but it’ll nice to get together with friends and not have the “catching up” portion consume the entire time together–I usually visit annually if I’m lucky. And as we’re into the slush season here I’ll be happy to be able to stroll without sloshing. While I’m out west I’ll also be going to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, cheering for N to win the Indie Games Festival.

At the Vancouver show I’ll be showing some of my latest vids, reading my contribution to the recently published Gamers anthology, telling the embarrassing story of how I left Vancouver, and enacting some rituals of the urban occult. Y’know, like worshipping the false god Ramen.
Beautiful Poles and Delightful Discs

February 14, 2005

In the last issue of This Magazine there’s a nice profile on me and the Perpetual Motion Roadshow. Audrey Gagnon even dug up an old piece I wrote on frieghthopping to frame the origins of my indie touring circuit. I quite like the picture of me, which is unusual–I credit it to the photographer Stephen Gregory indulging my request to get one of Queen St. West’s great old poles in the shot. They’re thickly layered with staples and scraps of posters, and the texture’s always seemed to me representative of the organic nature of underground culture. Click the thumb for a better look.

This issue of Exclaim also has a review of my Novel Amusements, where Liz Clayton describes it as an “artsy, accessible treasure trove.” I thought it was cool that the subheading for the review section identified it as a DVD zine as matter-of-factly as it identified “Book” and “Videogame”. And DVDzines are, happily, appearing here and there. Electrical Tape does offbeat and engaging interviews with Toronto indie bands–my favourite piece was a day in the life of the faux-Francais Ratsicule. Lev also sent me his DVDzine Tales of Mere Existence II, who imbues his lo-fi cartoons with deadpan humour and bittersweet personality.
Allies in Anger

February 7, 2005

Tonight I went to see Dr. Cheryl van Daalen give a talk called “Living as a Chameleon: A Feminist Analysis of Young Women’s Lived Experience of Anger.” My wife Susan told me about it and I said I’d go–but it wasn’t to be supportive. Usually when people find out about my interest in feminism they often think that I’m a guilty white liberal, or give me undue credit for being down with the cause. The truth is that I’m self-interested–as someone who feels like there’s systematic injustices going on, their anger validates my own. Their reasoning and different routes to the same destinations strengthens my arguments and my resolve.
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Mmmm-mmm!

January 31, 2005

While I rarely found myself sitting beside friends in classes where the teacher decided to place us in alphabetical order, I do find myself in exceptionally good company in the “M” section on the bookshelf. Three of my favourite authors are Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami and China Miéville. If you don’t already know them, come meet my neighbours!
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Spacing Out

January 19, 2005

My favourite new mag is Spacing, the print arm of the Toronto Public Space Committee that is anything but newsletter-ish. By drawing attention to the amazing and oft-ignored public spaces, it’s an antidote to our culture’s fixation on private ownership. From their beautiful subway buttons to their sticker slogans (“Everyone is a Pedestrian”), they’re doing it up right. I’m working on a new article for their past/future issue, but in the meanwhile here’s the article I did for their second issue on Parkouring, the art of street gymastics.
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Tearful Collaboration

January 10, 2005

My new DVD zine is out, nine weird and wonderful vids on the theme of Tears on the Pie–you can buy it online here [UPDATE: Sold out.]. My most interesting experience with this issue was putting together one of my own shorts with Creative Commons-licenced music. On the excellent Opsound website was an mp3 posted by a fellow in Japan that was perfect for the tone and tension of the piece. After I screened it at Splice This! I sent Yosuke a link of the finished piece, and he wrote back to thank me! Click on to see the two minute short.
Scrubbing Windows

October 6, 2004

I gave the best talk of my life to a hall of over 500 programmers this summer. I was the dinner speaker for the Linux Symposium, which is described thusly: “With attendees coming from over 30 different countries, the Symposium is probably the single most comprehensive collection of Linux experts in the world.” What the hell could I have to say to them? Well, Linux programmers created a community-built alternative that rivaled the best that a company can produce–not unlike what’s happening in the indie arts community. In do-it-yourself communities all over, really, often spurred on corporate consolidation. So I was able to share my adventures in the creative commons and many people found it interesting and relevant.

It was the inspiration I needed to do something I’ve wanted to for a while–switch to a Linux desktop. I started keeping a diary of my migration, which I’ll be adding to…
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A One Inch Peephole Into My Brain

August 16, 2004

I love the 1″ button. Really, for the tiny amount of space it takes up it’s such a cheap and efficient communicator. It struck home when I was at the post office and I noticed someone with the Matt B button pictured here, and had a little chat about his cartoons and such. It seemed to me a nice thing to wear your heart on your sleeve, or lapel, and allow for these social interactions to happen.

For years I’ve dressed in a non-descript fashion, to a certain extent due to my dislike of marketing. But I’ve let myself be backed into a corner–while I might not be shilling for a brand with my t-shirt, I’m also closing myself off from like-minded people I randomly encounter.

So I started wearing some buttons that people had given me or I’d bought but never worn. I also got a bunch of No Media Kings buttons made, as you may have been able to guess by the site redesign. If you’d like to get one, just let me know your addy–if you’d be OK with me filling the rest of the envelope with promo postcards for you to pass around your area, I’m happy to pop for postage. (UPDATE: Sorry, all out of buttons… sign up for the mailing list if you’d like to hear when I’ve got s’more…)
RoommateFromHell.com

August 8, 2004

When Kate discovers that her roommate identifies as a demoness, she figures it’s too sacrilicious a secret to keep to herself: she tells all on her blog, roommatefromhell.com.

This is the basic gist of my new book, An Opening Act of Unspeakable Evil, a tale of the urban occult told entirely through Kate’s entries. Starting today, I’ll be posting one a day to the faux roommatefromhell.com blog until all 88 entries (the whole book) are up. [UPDATE: the blog is down.] After that I’ll be writing a spinoff story based on how the poll on the site goes. [UPDATE: This became The Bold Explorers.]

Feel free to add your comments. I’m curious to see how people read this blog version of the book.
Returning Your Bucks to the Library

July 15, 2004

I recently gave a talk about indie press to a group of librarians, and I tried to communicate the level of enthusiasm the zine and DIY community have for libraries. They were an essential part of an enriched childhood, allowing us to sate our voracious book nerd appetites — the fact that there was no financial risk to taking out something new encouraged us to read widely and expand our tastes. As adults on a broke artist budget they allow us to research and read while saving our money to produce our next book or CD or movie or zine.

A lot of readers first encounter my books through the library. Unlike some misguided writers, I think this is awesome and I want to encourage this. So if you want to support an indie press and the public libraries in one fell swoop, I’ve set up an option to donate a book of mine to the library: I’m calling it the NO MEDIA KINGS, YES LIBRARY BLING Drive.
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Free Money

June 25, 2004

I wrote an opinion piece for eye last week on arts grants. Feel free to add your comments at the end.

That’s what arts grants are, right? Free money. You know this guy who used his grant as a down payment on an SUV. Heard of this other woman who used hers to make grapefruits talk to each other and someone else who made lesbian porn with public money. Taxpayer money! Your money and my money!
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Roadshow, As Seen on TV

June 23, 2004

Ian Daffern contacted me last year about doing a piece on the Perpetual Motion Roadshow for a new TV show he was producing called Scratch. We bandied about different possibilities, such as sending someone along to document it–I thought the people on the tour might be a bit uncomfortable with that & suggested that the crew take along my Hi8 videocamera and tape each other, then pass along the tapes at the end of it.

So the eight minute piece for the “Motion” show was made up of these clips of self-documentation as well as footage the show’s crew shot when they caught up with Jessica, Fred and More or Les in New York. I’ve posted a Quicktime .mov of it as I’m curious to hear comments on the segment from other Roadshow alumni as well as people who’ve attended the show as to whether it reflects their experience.