Print trumps film for the first time since 1923.
While the film left me wanting less, the accompanying issue made me want more more more! Editor Travis Ferre, Kai Neville, Scott Chenoweth and team put together a physical work of art in a day and age when print has waning value.
The cover, and floral sleeve that it comes in, excite, the paper stock feels sensual and the content thrills. Feminity and masculinity are perfectly intertwined, creating the most perfect dance. It is truly wonderful.
And why did it change my life? Because I still love print, for one, and to see a group of handsome young men doing it better than Vanity Fair is inspiring. Because I love having things on my coffee table, for two. It is a repurposed trolley, or something, all hardwood and darkened brass, and only the finest publications will do. They must be gorgeous and intellectually/artistically valuable in case someone opens in a moment of conversational lull. An oversized copy of Death in the Afternoon sat there for years. Now it is Cluster and I imagine it will be there for years too. Because coherence is still important, for three. With so many short clips/blogs/etc. these days, long form coherence is on the outs. But it is so nice to sit back and not be pinballed for a moment. To sit in one moment for, like, 20 mins. And because I like floral motifs, for last. I like them in the French countryside and I like them in my grandma’s house. Floral is coming back. What Youth led the way.
I stand my ground on the film and I know that I am right. The film took an ill-conceived direction because surfing, as a pastime, will never be “hard.” And Noa Deane will never “fuck” cops. But it is ok. Kai will return to the cinema and this misstep will make him stronger. But the issue is just exactly right. Bravo!
Cluster’s 1974 album, Zuckerzeit, changed my life.
Maybe it will look good on my banana box coffee table and replace the numerous fly fishing magazines written by overweight, out-of-breath 50 year-olds who (like many surfers with wave riding) extol chasing fish as the highest of all intellectual and spiritual pursuits. Furthermore, that floral print will really set off the brown and green of the box table and highlight the fact that I still have not made it to the point of being able to afford nice furniture. It might even compliment my copy of Clifford Geertz’s Old Societies and New States (the perfect book to blend in with the banana box, that or Conrad’s Nostromo). If it can hold my attention for five minutes longer than the last issue of Surfing World I bought, all the better. I just need What Youth to send it out to this backwater.