story / Cristina Leiva  photographs / Rai Robledo

Rai Robledo, is more that just one of my favorite artists he is also a successful portrait photographer based in the underground heart of Madrid and a living example of how to highlight yourself as an artist in the today’s over saturated digital era. I  had a lovely conversation with Rai while I was in Spain and we got to talk about music, Madrid, Terry Richardson, Ladygunn and photography today. It was a delight!

Ladygunn: Do you like living in Madrid?

Rai Robledo: Yes!, I’ve born in Madrid. I’ve been in many other cities and countries, I love to travel and see different cultures… But I’ll always adore Madrid since is my home and a perfect city where living.

Why is Madrid a perfect place where living?

Madrid has everything, an enormous range of leisure and also a huge cultural mixture. Madrid is not only for weekends, any day that you go out, at any time, you will always find people out and something funny to do. Isn’t awesome that we are making this interview on a Saturday evening while having fun in the Malasaña’s neighborhood?

You have to convince a foreign friend to come visit Madrid, what do you tell him or her?

I would talk them about the great gastronomic offer (Spanish and international food), the great offer of cultural activities and small galleries and museums really charming still unknown for the most of people that worth being visited, such as all the small galleries in Huertas neighborhood. Also the fact of can be having fun 24 hours a day makes of Madrid one of the best known cities in the world.

If you had to rate Madrid in a ‘cool’ range? 1 is the less cool and 10 is the coolest.

Madrid is definitely not a ‘cool’ city. I don’t think that Madrid is a city that creates trends, in Madrid trends usually arrive late and people interprets them as they want. What is cool from Madrid is that looks like a ‘Big town’ that keeps that 80’s touch left from the ‘Movida madrileña’ (A subculture born in the 80’s in Madrid based in british punk). In Madrid is also interesting the huge contrast of kind of people; you can go to Salamanca’s neighborhood and find the preppy people, walk a little bit to La Latina’s neighborhood and meet hippies or keep walking to Malasaña and find all rockers and hipsters there or just a few steps away go to Chueca and find the liberal and boho people in the city. Madrid is the city of contrasts!.

What you think about Madrid’s nightlife? Where do you like to go?

My favorite area to go at night is Malasaña’s. I like places there as ‘La via lactea’, a referent club from the ‘Movida madrileña’ in the 80’s and other less popular places as El garage sónico or Louie Louie. I also like the nightlife in Lavapiés or La latina neighborhoods.

Now let’s talk about photography. Anyone who sees your work could guess that you adore women. What does women has that you love to capture?

I really make all kind of pictures, but what I like the most is photographing people and photographing people I especially like women, they are esthetically more interesting. I like to portray women who attract my attention and who can fit in the shoot that is in my head. Also the women’s beauty is insuperable.

You have been in a few bands also, in Ladygunn we love music, talk us about them and tell us nice places where listening live music in Madrid.

I started playing drums as a hobby, then I found myself playing in a band called ‘Hipsters’, we recorded an album for Indie’s music specialized Acuarela Records. Years after I came in a band called ‘Cuerpos’, we played in the Primavera Sound Festival. After that and currently I’m playing in Alta Cabeza, a punk-rock band with lyrics in Spanish, we just launched an album, Enciclopedia Animal, and you guys will can listen it soon in Spotify.

The places to listen live music in Madrid that I like the most are La sala el juglar, El Wurlitzer, Costello or bigger places like La sala sol.

What about the state of photography now?

The concept of photography changed a lot since the arrival of the internet. Everything is easier and the information runs quicker. Thanks to all of this everyone can find the photographer inside them.

The instantaneity concept that you can have thanks to programs like Instagram, where you can load pics as you take them, a few years ago were unthinkable. Also happens with platforms like Flickr, Tumblr or Pinterest.

I know you since a while, you were one of the first persons that I saw interested in taking back the analogy after the digital cameras. Lately there is this trend of lomography. What you think about it? Do you think that it will last long?

The digital photography is the responsible of taking the analogical photography back. It happens the same that happened with digital music, I think that after those years without analogical cameras people realized that analogy had something that digital photography couldn’t replace, as vinils had something that digital music couldn’t replace neither. I think both, digital and analogy, can live together in harmony. Depending of your mood you can use your digital or your analogic one. Yes, this trend will last, people who likes photography can understand it in both ways.

What you think about Terry Richardson?

I think that he fulfills perfectly with all the qualities that a photographer needs to have. He’s a great PR, you can see reflected in his pictures that he has a great relationship with the people that he portrays and he makes them feel good in front of the lens. He’s also a photographer that has shown to the world that you don’t need to have the greatest knowledge about light or technique, they are crude, unretouched daily living pictures, real and impactant and people like them.

It’s an interesting photography style that can coexist with the rest. So crude, so real, I like it!

We have a lot of readers who maybe are photographers or, at least, they work in art. Getting your career started in this world is not an easy thing, wich would be you advice for them? Specially for photographers, since you got it!

Now all the artistic disciplines have an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that everyone can have access to them and today everyone can be a photographer, do cinema, do music, everyone today can get easily a camera. You can record an album with just having a computer! All of this was an impossible thing just a few years ago. The bad part of all of this is certainly that: Everyone has access to art so you have much more competence and you do need to be much more persistent if you want to excel in your field. My advice for photographers is keep and keep taking pictures, never stop showing them, never give up, sooner or later your moment will come and you will can make your profession of it. For me it has been the perseverance, together with a bit of luck that made me can work exclusively in photography, I feel so lucky because it’s not an easy thing.

Talking about photography. What inspires you? Tell us worthy photographers, besides you.

I never know how to give names. I usually find myself inspired by anonymous photographers who’s real profession is not photography and who post real marvels on their Tumblr or Flirck sites.

Also watching photography books is something very inspiring to me. It’s something that I keep recommending, it’s more satisfactory than watching pics on a laptop screen.

Definitely, anything can inspire me, any picture in a book, any pic in a magazine, in a computer screen or in a cinema one, cinema is still photography!

What you think about the Ladygunn aesthetic?

I do like the format, the page layout and as a photographer I like the predominance of images and the way they are integrated with the text. Also the pictures are quality ones and they have been chosen with a cool taste. The mag’s design is great!

And finally, Rai, tell me some ‘to do’ projects where we can go and see your work.

I’m not an exhibitions photographer. Today the best gallery is the internet. I wouldn’t dislike to watch my pictures on a gallery but I don’t get obsessed about that. What I certainly want to do in a medium-term space of time is to launch a photography book, I must think about which kind of book would I like to do and also look for someone to publish it. I think it is just as important for a photographer to see your photos online to see them on paper.

Story /Meghan O’connor

Photos / Meghan O’Connor +Liz Preza

When one thinks Copenhagen, generally the thought process goes something like this; if youre a fan of Weeds, you think Andy Botwin on a bicycle. If youre a metalhead, you think of one of the million Nordic metal bands (see map:http://i.imgur.com/P5Yfz.png ), if you are ignorant American Meghan O’Connor, you remove Andy Botwin from aforementioned bicycle and simply think bicycle (imagine a flashcard for a struggling kindergartener). My trip to Copenhagen was maybe none of these things, except maybe all of these things if you take into account the level of absurdity.

The absurdity all began with the fact that method of transportation was bus. From Prague to Copenhagen. Now thats a 12 hour bus trip for those who have never been insane or cheap enough to consider the ride. Somewhere around three quarters of the way through said trip, at approximately 3 A.M., my travel partner and I are awoken and told to leave the bus for an hour. We drowsily exit the bus into what seems to be a large garage of buses, step off into a side door and see a sign reading “Deck 1.” My travel partner proceeds to proclaim “what are we, on a boat?” I proceed to laugh HEARTILY. Herein lies ignorant american moment #1. We are on a boat. We will not realize this for at least another hour, however, as we peruse the duty free shops, hysterical laughing in that way that can only come from far too little sleep.

Later, after concluding what was in fact our ferry ride across the Baltic Sea, we arrived in Copenhagen and almost immediately fell in love. Renting bicycles is a must in said city, and so my original bicycle assumption was not altogether false (this is not just me trying to legitimize myself) and in the process of riding said bikes my travel partner Liz and I realized that riding bikes makes everything better. Seeing a city on a bike, specifically on a bike that is part of an entire school of bicycling Danes, while the wind whips through your hair and you thank the good Lord you still remember how to pedal, is an experience that you will not likely forget.

Furthermore, the Danish people are almost too nice to comprehend. Being two New Yorkers in a foreign land, the concept that a stranger would approach us simply because our faces registered confusion at the sight of a Danish street name and ask if we would like help is bordering E.T. status. On top of that, our much-loved hostel “Sleep in Heaven” allowed us to linger for far longer than we paid for, and gained us a pair of awesome new friends with whom we wandered the city for the next 24 hours. Another must-see was Christiana, a shantytown/commune with a seeming free pass to the cannabis trade from the Danish government.

Along the way, we met one of our favorite people to date: a “homefree” shoeless Dane with dreams of creating sustainable farms in Africa. Our favorite quote from said friend was that he slept at night on a roof, but only one certain roof because he preferred to “live a stable life.” Basically what I’m saying is that everyone in Copenhagen seems pretty content, and with one of the highest standards of living in the world, I can understand why. Also Danes are beautiful. Try not wrecking a bicycle with that view at every turn. I tried and failed.

So in conclusion, the Danes are beautiful, too kind to handle, love their weed, their bicycles, and their sustainable agriculture. Most importantly, they know how awesome they are. Copenhagen, you rule. I hope to see you soon, with a more expansive knowledge of your geography and perhaps a nice comfy seat on a plane.

Indtil da, Copenhagen

Until then.

With love from Prague,

Meghan

Art / Bryten Goss

Story / Shalon Goss

History has shown us time and again the mischievous ways of the “Art World”, the acceptance or lack thereof, of one artist or another, one painting, drawing, or photograph. The true artists have not always lived to see fame and success come to their work, but the art has so often found its way into the clutches of those who give it a name; a reputation. Bryten Goss was a timeless, illimitable man–traditional and modern, encouraging and ruthless.  gentleman, scholar, rebel, and master painter. He never attempted or permitted for a spectacle to be made of him and his work, to Goss, it was always about the art and never about the artist. Having passed on many opportunities to become “instantly famous” Goss paved his own path, garnering, along the way, a long list of collectors, supporters and patrons, including many acclaimed artists and celebrities.

Goss’ paintings bring life back to the living; the loss, guilt, heartache, love, disaster, confusion, deception, and the hope that we as the human race experience daily, but is so often dramatized or hidden, Goss beautifully displays the things that make us who we are, give us character, or take it away; he makes it so enticing that, when you dare to look, you are compelled to confront who you are, and all that is truly going on behind the veils.

Goss’ early works highlighted classical nudes, old men drinking in Irish pubs or working in the fields, and his most recent works delved in to a more conceptual realm, depicting everything from large pigs being ridden by women in lingerie, to midget popes, burning buildings, and a very large woman sitting on the shoulders of none other than Goss himself (titled “Guilt.”) Many of his last days were also spent creating etchings, following the proven, classical methods, which will be displayed to the public for the first time in the upcoming Bryten Goss Exhibition at the James Gray Gallery in Bergamot Station, this April 21^st through May 20^th.

October 26, 2006 marks the hard-hitting day of Goss’ death. A day I’ll never forget; the day my brother died. At only 30 years old, after returning from Mexico where my brother delivered his largest commission (6’ x 24’), he fell ill and passed away only weeks later. Not a day goes by that those who knew him or his work don’t feel the loss the world took upon his passing. There will be no new works of women, no more pigs, no more popes. But, as in the true fashion of Bryten Goss, he made sure to leave behind a legacy, to be made a legend.

This exhibition marks the first since Bryten’s passing where his works will be sold on location and it will hosted by Alexandra Breckenridge and Danny Masterson.

BRYTEN GOSS EXHIBITION – GRAY JAMES GALLERY IN SANTA MONICA – APRIL 21ST – MAY 20TH

Interview /  Heather Seidler

Photographs / Teren Oddo

Thirty three-year-old Shane West has been familiar to television fans since his early days on ONCE & AGAIN and subsequent years playing doctor on ER. With a plethora of film roles under his belt, West has proven he has the wherewithal to reinvent a well-known character in a way that makes us keep watching.

West is currently known for his proficient ass-kickery on CW’s top-rated show NIKITA, a revamped, progressive reimagining of the NIKITA franchise. Currently in its second season, the lady-spy series is unique in its darker tone with a buffet of high-octane action and inceptive plot twisters. West clocks the hours as Michael, a highly-trained operative in a shady government agency of clandestine ex-criminal assassins.

Onscreen he doles out some pretty intense badass-ness without breaking a sweat and juggles a far from docile romance with Nikita, being her trainer turned enemy turned ally turned lover.  West has a specialty for seat-of-your-pants hardcore butt-kicking without looking like a big bag of biceps while doing it. Not to mention, his character is essentially the backbone of the series and one debonair harbinger of justice. Though in real life, West hardly comes across as an undaunted assailant ready to gut-punch your daylights out, which isn’t to say he can’t look intimidatingly cool and fearless when he needs to.

The Baton Rouge native moved to Los Angeles in 1991 and booked his first film role in LIBERTY HEIGHTS in 1999, which is around when I first met him. Over the years I’ve experienced how pleasantly laid-back he is, how sharp-witted yet silly he can be and how dedicated he is to his craft and to his friends. Oh and also, when he’s in the room, women notice. Which is a whole other kind of article. I had the pleasure of talking to him about his role in NIKITA and life outside his work.

LADYGUNN: Obviously, you’re no stranger to TV, but this role is different from anything else you’ve done. Do you enjoy all the gun work and physical stuff? I’m sure you had to go through specific training, tell me about that.

SHANE WEST: It’s such a different experience between my real life and my career.  To be in my thirties and get a job like this is amazing.  To have a shot at playing a role like this is so exciting.  The character was supposed to be older originally, but then I took a stab at it. With all the training and fighting and guns…it never gets boring that way.  When you’re out of town for ten months shooting in another country—it can kind of get old.  But I show up to work, and they teach me this crazy new fighting trick, like something involving fire and it’s like being a kid again.   You get to live out your childhood fantasies.

Do you guys ever get to sit down with the writers and flesh out what develops with your characters and what direction the story takes?

Well I’m sure Maggie gets to do more than the rest of us. But we’re very fortunate, the writing on the show is incredible—the creators and the producers—have certainly proven themselves.  They’re very good at what they do, and one of the exciting things about the show is that there’s always two or three twists in every single episode—we do twenty two episodes a year.  Everything they told me that was going to happen to Michael in the first season did, so I trust them.  They have a master plan.  It’s been exciting every time I get a new script.  We can suggest what we like, and then they’ll try and do it.  The creator of NIKITA has already semi-planned out the first three years of the show, so if we can get past season three, it might be more open to suggestions.

In my research I found there are so many fans in the blogosphere who speculate about the outcome of the show & its characters.  They even surmise Michael and Nikita might eventually run Division. It’s interesting to see fans weighing in on the show’s direction.  With most CW shows you don’t get that kind of fan interaction.

The fans are, of course, the most important part of our show.  We keep trying to make it interesting for them and ourselves.  We want to continue to make each episode like a movie, which is a difficult thing to do.  We basically have a nine-day shooting schedule instead of an eight-day—per episode.  That can be difficult.  It’s a show that’s new to the CW.  They haven’t had anything like this in the past—even when it was the WB.  It’s different, its wings are all over the place.  I don’t pay attention to ratings anymore, but I do know that we have diehard fans.  We’re more worried about quality and production in terms of the show.  If the show went on for ten years, then that would be great.  If it goes three, then we’ll try and make it the best three years it can be, no matter how many views it gets.  It’ll just drive you crazy otherwise.  We read somewhere online that the number one DVR’d show or show watched online is MODERN FAMILY then NIKITA, so you never know.  That might have changed the next week, but it just shows you how all over the place ratings are now-a-days with internet streaming and everything.

A lot of TV actors these days are graduating into directing or producing episodes of the shows they’re on.  Do you have any plans for that in the future?

I’ve never really had the urge to direct.  I’ve had a lot more of an urge to produce, but I think we’re pretty set with producers on NIKITA. I have my own production company and have been developing a couple projects with my friends.  I definitely think producing in my future is something to think about, but more for films.

What have been some of your favorite scenes to film in this season?

I’d have to say, aside from the obvious fun, macho scenes with a myriad of weapons that my character has to fire—which has been a lot of fun—it would have to be the exploration of Michael and Nikita’s relationship.  What’s been exciting and difficult is trying to keep them together as a couple, while at the same time, stopping these injustices in their lives and around the world. That’s been difficult.  That’s the most difficult thing to maintain is this kind of off-and-on relationship.

The story points just come along naturally with this show.  One of the best parts of this show is that they have these natural conflicts, but they don’t let it get in the way of their battle with the evil that they are already signed on to deal with.  You get some episodes where they don’t even talk about their emotional troubles, but then you get some that are mostly about that.  That’s definitely what’s been the most fun for me.

Can you give us any hints of the progression of the next few episodes?

I can tease that—hopefully I won’t ultimately get in trouble [laughs] there will be a lot of resolution to most of the conflict that’s been going on.  There will be a reappearance of Katya.  There will be a resolution to their relationship, and another appearance of Cassandra and Max—my ex and my son.  Because it’s the end of the year, there will be a lot of reappearances of characters.  Owen will also come back, and I think that we’ll have some sort of ending that will be similar to that of season one.  We will be resolving a bunch of things while opening up another bunch of doors.  You kind of have to do that a lot with shows these days, because you never know if you’re going to be picked up for another season.

When you’re not filming what do you do in your down time in Toronto?

I’ve managed to keep myself busy at the gym.  I’m also very much a movie and literature addict, so I make sure I keep my bookshelf filled with books and am constantly ordering movies on Amazon.  A friend of mine who works for Playstation just sent me some games.  I kind of retired from video games five or six years ago, but I figure during this cold weather it’s something good to keep you occupied.  It’s

-20 degrees F outside!  We’ve been organizing a lot of cast dinners lately—the food in Toronto is amazing.  You never get bored with the food.  We get everyone together so that they can get things off their chest and bond without having to be at work.

Speaking of movies, what was the last movie to make you cry?

Besides UP? [Laughs] I don’t remember the last time I truly cried in a film, but I watched THE DESCENDANTS recently. I’m from a difficult family background myself, and it kind of hit home watching what the kids were going through and what Clooney’s character was going through.  The whole thing with finding out his wife was having a relationship with another guy contrasted with a lot of his own screw-ups.  It got to me a bit, but unfortunately, I didn’t cry.

What other movies have infiltrated your heart this year?

I’ve seen so many!  I’ve been watching all of the Oscar movies lately. THE DESCENDANTS, THE ARTIST—I just watched IRON LADY with Meryl Streep, which was just a wonderful acting role for her.  I loved SHAME with Michael Fassbender.  That was one of my favorite movies this year for sure.  It’s raw.  It was unfortunate it got snubbed at the Oscars.  I mean, I enjoyed a lot of the films that were nominated.  THE ARTIST was great. It was the route its producers wanted to go with for a sure-fire Oscar nomination.  They did it very well.  I loved the movie, but it was such a dark period of time that they just kind of glossed over.  They could have made a very edge version of that time that I would have enjoyed more.

The theme for this issue of LADYGUNN is Obsession, so who was your first obsession?  And who or what is your current obsession?

I’d have to say when I was younger, because of my upbringing with my parents, I was exposed to a lot of music. I was pretty obsessed with The Clash and The Kinks growing up.  Anything that involved them—I listened to their records over and over again pretty much until it was my life. [Laughs] Also I had a major crush—I don’t know if you could call it an obsession—on Courtney Cox growing up.  It would have to be Courtney and Mia Sara from FERRIS BUELLER.  I just had a massive crush on both those two.

I’d say now—at least from a crush perspective—I don’t really have those anymore now that I’m thirty-three.  I’m about to sound really corny, but when I hit thirty, things changed for me.  I kind of became obsessed with health whether it be eating right, working out regularly instead of once every year, making trips to the doctor to make sure things are going well, and all that.  I’ve also become kind of obsessed with my career, choosing the right jobs, making sure my production company gets off the ground, and being a part of that side of the industry.  Family and friends have always been really important to me even more so now as my friends have started to become my family.  I think that would be more currently what I’m obsessed with.

We were just talking about punk rock earlier.  It reminded me of your band [JOHNNY WAS] from earlier days.  I’m sure with all of your acting work and your production company that has had to be pushed aside, but do you have any plans in the future to be in a band again or work on soundtracks?

I’d love to.  I wish I was talented enough to do soundtracks…[Laughs] I’d like to be more creative instrumentally.  JOHNNY WAS was a lot of fun.  Actually, we just released our first set of songs on iTunes.  I’m going to release the second half in the next year or so.  I had a dream come true getting to play for six years with THE GERMS and being a part of that true punk rock world.  That’s always been an obsession of mine.  It’s been difficult keeping up with it though.  I know THE GERMS will play another show again; I just don’t know when.  I’ve been in Toronto for two years on NIKITA.  As far as my career in music beyond that, I’m still in-talks with some friends of mine from JOHNNY WAS, about creating some more music, maybe under a different band title and seeing where it goes.

Okay, you’re stepping on a time machine and it’s taking you ten years into the future. What will we find Shane West doing then?

I guess this goes back to the obsession question with my future—I think that ten years from now the classic answer would be to say a wife and children, which would be great but I would never pressure it.  I think that it would be more along the lines of what I’m actively pursuing today, hopefully further along in my career and being more involved in production.  I just want to be able to continue doing the jobs that make me feel stimulated as an actor.  I want to create meaningful relationships along the way.

Look for more on Shane West in Ladygunn’s upcoming Obsession+ Confession Issue.

story / ANNE WALLS

illustration / SAMANTHA MERLEY

My friend Lindsey has the best video game collection. Seriously. Sometimes she lets me play her Gameboy.

She’s 30.

My friend Greg is SO GOOD at dodgeball. He always gets picked first and whatever team he’s on wins the huge trophy.

He’s 33.

I lent Meredith my Wonder Woman t-shirt, the super soft one with the tiny hole in the left sleeve. She better give it back. I’ll probably see her at the roller-skating party tonight, so I can get it then.

Oh, I’m 32…a grown-up, in the world’s eyes. So then why do I (and the majority of my friends) still live like we’re kids?

Photo booths. Kickball leagues. Comic books. Polaroid cameras. Record players. An affinity for Lionel Richie. The business of nostalgia has found a willing consumer base in the twenty and thirty something crowd. More and more “grown ups” are retreating to the toys, music, sports, and culture of their youth (aka the 1980s and 1990s) as they approach (gulp)…middle age. Why?

Is it because our parents worked hard to provide us with everything we could want, including an extended childhood? Is it because the current state of the economy and the ever-worsening global financial situation has left most of us unable to buy houses, invest in 401Ks, or even think about our children’s college funds? Is it because Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc have afforded each of us the luxury of being the star of our very own school play, but on an even bigger stage?

Or is it because, simply, it’s more fun to not grow up?

My grandparents were Depression survivors (the era, not the mood…well actually, probably both). They were married with kids by the time they were in their early twenties. They worked their butts off to make ends meet, infusing my parents with the drive and wherewithal to make something of themselves. My parents, in turn, were married, home-owning child-havers by their mid-to-late twenties. I’m already done with my twenties, nowhere close to owning a home and childless – unless you count my semi-autistic, special needs dog Ollie.

Does this make me a failure? Or am I just one part of the ever-changing sociological landscape?

Is my generation’s penchant for marrying later and procreating even later a backlash to our parents’ high divorce rate and the subsequent vagabond existence that my fellow divorced kids and I were subject to? Or did our parents’ generation’s financial success, while creating a safety net for them, afford us almost TOO many opportunities?

Many would say the latter. Most of my peers have changed career paths at least once or twice already. They’ve left the financial industry to go to art school, or left the restaurant industry for law school, or left school altogether to try their hand at running a surf camp. An online literary magazine. A fashion line.

And that’s precisely the luxury that defines our generation: all of our parents’ and grandparents’ hard work has afforded us the freedom to dream. To invent. To experiment. We are, quite truly, a generation of entrepreneurs. And we’re reveling in it. Never before has it been so easy or so tangible to start a business, whether that business is a non-profit, a website, an artistic endeavor, or even a personal empire. Just look at those Kardashians. I jest…sorta.

With everything at our fingertips, there are resources, support, and connectivity beyond our wildest imaginations. Or not, because our imaginations are pretty wild. Just look at what we’ve made so far: Google. Facebook. The Jersey Shore…oh wait, that was created by forty-year-olds. Phew.

It’s this imagination and spirit of childlike wonder that sustains us. And being tuned into our younger, Super Mario-loving selves helps fuel the creative fires. So maybe babies and houses have taken a bit of a backseat to pulling all-nighters launching that website, playing that gig, or writing just a few more pages of that novel. And that’s good. Because without the dreamers, society grows stagnant.

This doesn’t mean we’re never going to get married, have children, maybe plant a lemon tree in our very own backyard. We will…we’re just taking the scenic route.

Now if you’ll excuse me…I have front row seats for The Muppets Movie.

By / Ericka Clevenger
Pics / Perry Shimon

Living in a digital world, we have become a culture of people who know a little bit about everything, but not a whole lot about anything. Where quickness has replaced the tangible, and instant gratification has become the norm. As much as we wish we could plug our brains into a hard drive and download retainable information–the truth is that we tend to forget quite quickly. The process of pen to paper, the smell of text on a freshly printed book, the excitement in waiting for your film to develop–has fallen into the niche of mere cult obsession. Where every hipster teen, to soccer mom with an Iphone thinks they are a photographer.

Most of your favorite bands you know and love, didn’t develop their sound until after years on the road. Most painters didn’t master their technique until years of lugging a cheap canvas up ten flights of stairs to their tiny apartment. The process of trial and error is such an important factor in the development of the backbone of the artist. We must not forget the beauty and charm that lies in the tradition of these steps.

Autre is a quarterly journal of arts and culture that aims to be a completely unique voice for the contemporary zeitgeist. Featuring art, photography, music, film and more. The journal is printed in an old newspaper plant using a vintage tabloid printing press and all the photographs are taken with film–making the magazine entirely analog.

In an era where digital everything proliferates, Adarsha Benjamin–creative director and Oliver Maxwell Kupper–editor in chief, feel that producing something that you can feel in your hands is extremely important. It is also important as a contrast to Autre’s digital counterpart Pas Un Autre which is updated daily. Pas Un Autre was started a little over three years ago by Oliver and with Adarsha’s collaboration they started Autre in the summer of 2011, featuring James Franco on the cover of the first issue. The current issue is much more expansive and features Jena Malone, Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky and Bruce LaBruce. Through the writing of their stories and interviews they realized the general theme concerning the future of art and culture–thus making issue 2 “The Future is Now”

The event was held in a loft space in downtown Los Angeles where dozens of the journal were given to guests and much of the journal’s content was displayed. Among some of the art was Jenna Malone’s photographs, along with Amanda Charchian and Autre’s own Adarsha Benjamin. Along with her photographs, Benjamin also screened Ode to Love a short film she made in Big Sur last year. The evening also included special performances by Rocco Deluca, Aska and Guy Blakeslee, Letters Vs Numbers and Ry Cuming.

Zach Sherman  wearing  “Future Eyes”

Pas Un Autre

story+ photos / Meghan L. O’Connor

Hello friends!

So I actually arrived in Prague a month and a half ago, which is the perfect description of my Czech experience so far. I have not so much lifted myself from the fog of “I’m in Europe!” and “Beer is cheaper than water!” so much as fought my way through it like a true sloth champion, running up and down the three-stair stoop of my building like Rocky at ninety with a severe drinking problem. See the thing about Prague is…it’s Disneyland. If Disneyland rides were live art battles, rave shows that rival what was probably the best and truest of raves in the early 90s, weed with the purchase of a sandwich at your favorite trippy club (the trippiness is no joke, see for yourself: http://www.crossclub.cz/cs/interier/649-interier/), and…well, the yards of beer can stay the same but lower the price. by a lot. And trade the annoyingly fake smile of the Disneyland employee with a noncommittal grunt in your direction. It’ll be the best grunt you’ve gotten in your life.

The thing about the Czech people is that they’re not actually cold at all, we Americans just find their lack of general loud and or rowsy behavior strange. In the Metro, for example, people are generally quiet whereas we New Yorkers are comfortable with our loud,  dynamic and often irritating  behaviors that we see on a day to day basis. Where is our abrasive, life-affirming shove at the ONLY G train from Bedstuy for who knows how long? Where is the mariachi band to woo me twelve long stops? Why am I the most obnoxious person here?! Someone one-up me, please! Never fear, poor American. Simply frequent a pub, order a PILSNER, and stay around long enough. The Czechs will soon open up. And in that moment, when you’re relaxing with a beer and your Czech friend finds it acceptable to take his pants off mid-conversation (true story), you will feel an overwhelming sense of achievement. You’ll sit there laughing at your pantless friend with your other Czech pals, look around, and feel proud. You like me, Prague! You really like me!

Love from Prague and more to come,

Meghan