The One Year Anniversary of ANTIGRAVITY is here! The June issue is out there and loving every minute of it!

We've got Iron & Wine on the cover, interviews with Glorybee (who graced the cover of our first issue a short twelve months ago), of Montreal, James Hall, Trey of noladiy.org fame, Shellac, and Viva Voce. We've got the regular lineup of CD, comic book, and movie reviews, Too Much Coffee Man, The K Chronicles, Writhe and Shine, and Qomix.

This weekend is going to be a long one, so you'll see us out and about every night between Thursday and Sunday. Come say "Hi" at one or all of the following:

Thursday: Iron & Wine @ HOB
Friday: Bloc Party @ One Eyed Jacks; Midnight Madness @ Canal Place (Donnie Darko: Director's Cut)
Saturday: Shellac w/ Viva Voce @ The Howlin' Wolf
Sunday: of Montreal w/ The Teeth @ TwiRoPa

Now that's a lineup.

See you out,

-Leo
http://www.antigravitymagazine.com

It is a month away, but starting on June 10th we'll be presenting films at Canal Place Cinema at midnight on Friday and Saturdays. So far, here's the schedule:

The Director's Cut! Donnie Darko • June 10 & 11
The ultimate treasure hunt! The Goonies • June 17 & 18
Jeff Bridges in the Coen Bros' The Big Lebowski • June 24 & 25
Got milk? Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange • July 1 & 2
Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas • July 8 & 9
XXX-rated 3-D! Disco Dolls in Hot Skin • July 15 & 16

Now, I haven't seen The Big Lebowski on the big screen since the days of Movie Pitchers, so I'm psyched about that.  It's a good run of movies, so hopefully we'll see you out!

-Leo

Posting from my laptop, where I'm about to burn some CDs to DJ with tonight, I'm reminding everyone about the first AWESOME! Night @ TwiRoPa.

New bartenders, better beer selection, and a music focus that includes all kinds of music. Doors open at 9.

If you pass by, come say "Hi" and I'll play a song for you.

-Leo

On yesterday I had probably the most surreal experience ever in my life.

I'm on Oak Street, putting flyers out for the next Alternative Media Expo, and as I pass through Rue, the new Zotz, and Absurditee, I find all three businesses out of the new ANTIGRAVITY.  Of course, More Fun Comics is also on Oak Street, and as I pass the comic shop on my way to Zotz I notice DC Harbold pick up a copy of, what else, the new ANTIGRAVITY.  I stick my head in the shop and say "reeeeead it! Reeeeead it!"  Then I overhear him saying, "Yes, Too Much Coffee Man is by Shannon Wheeler."  Obviously he's picked up the magazine to double check the creator's name of the famous Too Much Coffee Man, run monthly in AG.  Then I look over and find three girls, all in their mid-teens, standing there, facing away from me and towards a comic rack.  One is pretty much your stereotypical "alterni-girl," with long black hair, a black t-shirt, and jeans.  Another is taller than the other two and has braces.  The third is nondescript enough that I don't recall her looks.

DC says, "This is the publisher of ANTIGRAVITY right here." 

The three girls spin around and, I believe, their eyes light up.  Alterni-Girl says "You're that guy!" 

I say, "That depends on who "that" guy is."

"You're the guy that does that magazine ANTIGRAVITY."

"Yep.  That would be me." 

Okay.  You're saying, "so some teenage girls know who you are.  What's so surreal about that?"  Well, after I admit who I am, Alterni-Girl immediately ups the surrealism factor a hundred times by.....

Are you ready for this?

....by KNEELING DOWN BEFORE ME.

Yes,  this teenage girl kneeled down before me, palms to the ground.  Now I'm weirded out.  Completely weirded out, with no hope of again being the pure man I once was. 

Alterni-Girl rises and says, "You publish the best magazine ever.  I only have two magazines, ANTIGRAVITY and The Vox, and I flushed The Vox down the toilet!"

"Great," I say.  "Thanks a lot." 

The girl with braces says something about getting me to sign a copy, which just DOES NOT COMPUTE.  DC hands me a Sharpie, and I turn to her and say "Clearly you're not serious." 

"Oh yeah," she says, and hands me her copy.  I'm guessing it was one pulled from the rack at More Fun and not a copy she simply carried around with her. 

I flip it open to the page with my picture on it, and to be honest, now I'm starting to get into it a bit.  "What's your name," I ask Braces. 

In my newfound teen-stardom I'm too cool to remember the names of my devotees.  I vaguely recall it beginning with an "M" and ending in a "Y."  It had an "O" in it, and probably an "L" or two, but who knows. 

Whatever it is, I promptly misspell it.  I fix it the best I can, and after personalizing it, sign "Oops!  -- Leo."  How debonair. 

Now I remember why the whole situation was awkward in the first place, and quickly excuse myself to continue maybe the most unattractive aspect of magazine publishing, restocking empty drop-offs.  I make my stops and shuffle my way back to the car, where Michelle is waiting after having procured coffee from Rue. 

"I just had the most surreal experience ever," I say.

"Did it involve three teenage girls?"

"Actually, yeah it did.  Did you see them?"

"Yeah, just a second ago."

So as we go about our way, and drive back on to Carrollton Ave., who do we see walking the street but my throng of pubescent supporters?  I honk the horn at them, and as they turn around, realize who honked, and wave enthusiastically, Michelle and I crack up. 

Why won't my neighbor's dog shut the fuck up at 5 in the morning?

I don't know.

Hey all,

Antigravity's got ...Trail of Dead on the cover, interviews with Castanets, Crooked Fingers, Frank Jordan, Testaverde, and Big Blue Marble, a new show preview section, the regular comics, CD reviews, and also stories about the Alternative Media Expo, a new independent label based in New Orleans, and how we in fact did not land an interview with Elton John.

Distribution is nearly done, with only the Bywater and a few odd and end places remaining. Only don't look for it at Whole Foods on Magazine, because they evidently pulled it because of our risque back cover ad. Your interest piqued yet?

-Leo

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

"She asserts that when plaintiff 'delivered' his sperm, it was a gift - an absolute and irrevocable transfer of title to property from a donor to a donee," the decision said. "There was no agreement that the original deposit would be returned upon request."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050224/D88F19S80.html

Whoah, it's been weeks, at least.

Put the Jan. issue of Antigravity to bed today. Got it off so late in the day that I won't be able to check the proof until tomorrow. I had a good excuse, though.

A bit of back story: the other day, the Basset Hound Chloe was laying in bed, and when Michelle got up to go to work (at 5 a.m.) I must have stretched over into the vacated space, but since Chloe was laying between my knees, only my upper body stretched. Somehow I tweaked my back, and for a few days it's hurt, but not horribly. Christmas night we slept at my parents' house, and you'd think sleeping in my old bed for a night would have done my back some good, but instead I woke up Sunday morning with it four times as bad. To make matters worse, it regressed during the day and spasmed a few times.

Last night I went to Noah's house to finish the mag, and spent six hours hunched over the computer or sitting on the floor. By the time I got home at 3:30, I was exhausted and crawled into bed. I awoke in excruciating pain at about 6:45 AND COULDN'T GET UP. I flailed around for a bit before I finally called CCs (I had to first call the operator and get the number) and told Michelle I needed help. She came home and got me out of bed, but goddamn it hurt. And my left arm was numb. She called my Mom, who made a doctor's appointment for me for 10. I finally settled back in and managed another hour or so of sleep.

So I went to the doctor at 10 and they figure I have a pinched nerve. Only problem is the muscle relaxers prescribed can only be taken at night, as they're supposed to make me loopy. Advil during the day. Meanwhile I can't look down or to either side.

We got home and I FINALLY finished the magazine at 3 p.m. and sent it over to the printer (it was only supposed to be there this morning). I'd eaten and taken a loopy pill, so after I was done with work I passed out for a bit. I'm feeling a little better now, and I try to move from the bed to a chair every now and again, just for the change of posture, and hopefully a full night with the relaxers will do some good.

Tell you what, though. Not being able to get out of bed is some scary shit.

I (Still) Hate Everybody (But You).
Or: Piss, Shit, Motherfucker, Fuck.

If you’ve read Imbibe no.2 (Of course you have!), you know that I hate everybody. Except for you that is, because you’re reading this. Male, female, white, black, Asian, whoever. I hate everybody because everybody does aggravating shit. Nothing personal, but you have likely caused enough aggravation to me at some point in time to make me consider jumping from the top of a pine tree into a vat of boiling dog blood rather than deal with you another moment. How can you tell if I hate you in the real sense of the word or if I “hate” you in that funny, “Ha, Leo’s just kidding, he doesn’t really hate me” way? If you’ve been a part of this issue’s Sins according to Leo you can rest assured that I hate you in that “Satan hates Jesus” kind of way.

1. People who talk on their cell phones while driving when they can do neither well in the first place.

Let me break it down for you. If you've, in the years you've owned your phone, never figured out how to turn off your keyguard, chances are you won't miraculously master the technique while driving 70 mph on the interstate. So don't even try it. Second off, every time somebody cuts me off in traffic or comes half an inch from careening off the road it's inevitable that I pass them and discover that they're holding a phone up to their head like it's keeping their brains from spraying out onto the interior of the car. Some people can handle driving and talking at the same time, and I give them their props, but if you feel like you escaped death when your call ends you probably shouldn't have been on the phone in the first place.

2. Teenagers who are now into bands I was into six years ago.

Last July I saw Incubus for something like the 15th time since 1997, and in attendance was a virtual shitload of acne-riddled young people under the age of 17. Kids smoking pot, drinking, and most annoying of all, screaming about how Brandon Boyd is “so hot.” Listen, kiddies--I remember when Brandon Boyd was sporting the dreadlocks and the porn star moustache. Yeah, that’s right, he didn’t have a mustache, he had a moustache. It was like that.

So if you’re a little teenybopper who’s screaming the lyrics to “Stellar” since it’s the only song you know because all you do is listen to the radio, you need to know that I was watching your precious Brandon when you were but eleven years old and I don’t need to get a ride from Momma if I want to go further than the candy store down the block.

3. This may seem like a simple thing to do and perhaps an easy and petty thing to hate, but…People who eat with their mouths open.

Especially in public places, this irks my nerves. A few days ago I sat at college (College! Not middle school…college!) and was across from a guy who must have been pretending to be a cow chowing down on some cud, because I could see the food begin to slide down the back of his throat before he swallowed his mouth was so open. Is it so difficult to close your mouth while chewing? I mean, I know somebody whose entire right side of his body is paralyzed and he’s a neater eater than some college kids. If I can watch your food disintegrating in saliva there’s a problem.

While you’re in the comfort of your own home, by all means, eat as you want, and hopefully you’ll find a mate who’s as regressed as you are, but for the sake of people’s stomachs everywhere, shut your hole while there’s stuff in it.

4. Students who clap for every crap presentation and “speech” given in class.

I’m in college studying education (You can go ahead and start pulling your kids from public schools now), so I get to see quite a few presentations on quite a few subjects by quite a few people. What I’ve found is that whoever said that 99% of everything is crap is right on the money. People speaking in monotones, about the most monotonous shit you ever heard that has the bare minimum to do with the subject they’re supposed to be speaking about; you’d be surprised how many morons have made their way into higher education. Look, I know I’m not the smartest cat in the world. Hell, I’m not even as smart as I used to be, but I can put together a short presentation that is cohesive and coherent.

What gets me is that people clap and nearly jump out of their seats for every single average presentation given. I don’t know if it’s because simply giving an effort is that laudable nowadays or if it’s because they honestly believe the presentation was worth cheering for like your football team just won the Super Bowl. Then again, if 99% of everything is crap and I’m the only one not clapping for the presenter who speaks as if it’s their day off from the institution, what’s that tell you? All I know is when my presentations get applause it’s because they know what’s good.

A gag based on something my girlfriend did once.

Mental Foramen

Much funnier when I actually had sideburns, but silly nonetheless.

Shaving With Leo

A classic. Another one I've sat on for awhile.

Short Atten...What?

This comic is a simple one, and it's a couple of years old, from back when I was in school.

Bored in Bio Class.

Got a copy of the Black Keys album "Rubber Factory" today, and am digging the hell out of it. There's one track I keep skipping ("the Lengths," I think), but other than that it's fucking great.

They'll be on the cover of Antigravity come January.

You got what you wanted. I just hope the world can deal with it for another four years.

To all you people who voted for someone other than Bush or Kerry:

What the hell were you thinking? I'm sure you believe that by voting for an independent candidate you were affecting some sort of change, but what you were really doing is stopping change. In what could be the most important election of our lifetimes, you COPPED OUT. You didn't make a choice, you turned tail and ran. I'm all for alternative choices, but this was a time to put that stuff aside and be realistic. Nader and his buddies knew they had no chance of winning an election for a city block, much less a country. If you really wanted change, you should have voted really voted for it instead of giving what amounts to a sympathy vote.

It sucks to wake up to a world which has little chance of being anything different than it has been the past four years.

Boy, I'm whipped. It's 2 a.m. and I just rolled in from the Fiery Furnaces show at One Eyed Jacks, which, by chance, was the cover feature in the October Antigravity.

I don't go to every show that gets coverage in the magazine; I just don't have the time to. I do make sure that I have a presence at some shows, however, particularly the shows that are on the cover, for obvious reasons. I just love the Fiery Furnaces, so I was going to be at this show regardless of my involvement. A bit of back story here is that back in June, the Furnaces played the Parish and ten people showed up. That was the month the first issue of Antigravity came out, and I felt bad that more people didn't go to the show. I told Eleanor Friedberger after the show that I felt bad, and any time they came back to N.O. I'd do what I could to help them out.

Fast forward to September, when I found out they'd be playing on Oct. 25th. I immediately scheduled an interview, and it was a no brainer for me to put them on the cover. This was one of the opportunities for me to cover a band I really loved to a great extent. So I did. And most people seem to think that this issue was the best yet, regarding both design and content.

So, I'm getting out of my car tonight to head to the show. I grab a bale of magazines so I can hand some out and give some to the merch people. I start my walk to the venue when it hits me. What if there's only ten people at this show? This was the first time I put an act on the cover that wasn't basically a guaranteed draw, and I realized that this was going to be the litmus test. If no one showed up to a show that was on the cover of my magazine, everything I've been doing for six months would be invalidated. I was genuinely nervous as I walked up to the venue.

It took me a while to get in because there was a line. I felt a little bit better, but the line was maybe ten or fifteen people long, and it didn't look like there were many people inside the club already. Finally I got inside and there were maybe forty people there already. I ran into Chris Watson from Devil in the Woods (I just booked that Shapeshifters show for him, so we had some things to talk about), and after that I opened the bale and started to hand out magazines. To my surprise, many people already had copies, and most of those said that's how they found out about the show. One guy said he reads it cover to cover and likes it better than OffBeat.

I started drinking a bit (a Guiness or two to calm the nerves, you know) when I spied Matthew Friedberger walking from the merch booth. I stopped him and we chatted a bit, then Eleanor came up and we chatted a bit. It was kind of crazy. They both were real appreciative of the coverage, and evidently Antigravity is the first magazine they've been on the cover of. I witnessed a classic brother/sister moment when they talked about how some guy she'd dated when she was sixteen showed up, and they talked about how I look just like the guy who manages Wilco ("Only cooler," said Matt). So we talked a bit and they excused themselves to get ready for the show.

All in all, the place was pretty packed, especially considering it was a Monday. Everybody was psyched for the show, the band kicked ass, then did two encores. After the show we talked some more, and they reiterated how appreciative they were about the cover, and took a few copies to give to their mom. Maybe I'll be on a refridgerator somewhere in Chicago, who knows.

Then I met the elusive Rio, who owns the club. HE was appreciative of the coverage for the show, and talked good things about the magazine and how it helped out. As people passed the merch booth I tried to hand out magazines, but most people had them already. Some said a copy was rolled up on their dashboard, or in their bathroom (that's my favorite). It really seemed as if a good chunk of the crowd was there because of Antigravity, and that just makes my cold black heart shimmer with pride.

Now it's 2:20 and I have to finish the layout for Nov. Back to work.

This is just great. 

"Teen songbird Ashlee Simpson had a microphone malfunction on "Saturday Night Live" last night, scurrying off stage when a production glitch caught her lip-synching the wrong tune."

"Finally, you're exposed for the fraud that you are," wrote an E-mail poster named drdrewby minutes after the embarrassing performance. "You have cheated your fans and people who actually thought that you had a lick of talent. You should quit the music business because you are now and always will be a complete and utter joke."

" A still-humiliated Simpson apologized to her fans - and blamed her band for playing the wrong song."

The news link is here.  Better yet, the video is here. 

So I'm a fan of Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser. I used to watch Pardon the Interruption religiously. Not so much now, but that's more because I don't have time to watch TV rather than not wanting to. Anyway, I was at the library the other day and reading through two of his books, "Bald as I Wanna Be," and "I'm Back for More Cash." I found a couple of passages so funny that I had to write them down in my notebook.

To set both of these up, Tony is talking about going shopping with his PTI partner and fellow Post columnist Michael Wilbon. Wilbon has a taste for the expensive styles, and rags on Tony for not dressing snappier. So Wilbon has taken Tony shopping to an exclusive shop in D.C., in an attempt to spruce up Tony's wardrobe.

On Wilbon's dressing habits: "He is so fashionable he wears four-piece suits. He buys clothes made of buttery fabrics no one ever heard of, like the woven stomach hair of wombat fetuses."

On an expensive designer whose jacket he's trying on: "I put back the Brioni, and I tried on a jacket that felt like a cloud. "You like Zegna!" Wilbon exclaimed. I was startled. I looked at the cuff. In ornate script was the name: Ermenegildo Zegna. (Pronounced "Ermenegildo Zegna.")"

I love Tony Kornheiser.

Every Thursday at TwiRoPa is Leighties Night, where ladies drink free until 1 a.m. and everyone drinks $1 High Life all night!  Cover is $5, and the club is 18 to enter, 21 to drink.  Doors open at 9 p.m.

Antigravity brings you FREE Leighties, if you're of the first ten people to send an e-mail to djdespair@cox.net.  Get on the guest list and see what it's all about!

Last night we went to see Coffee and Cigarettes at Canal Place for the Film Fest, and it wasn't as good as I expected. I figured it would be a series of conversations between celebrities, a la Dinner for Five, set simply in coffee shops or restaurants.

Instead it was the elaborately scripted movie, and most of it was boring. Iggy Pop and Tom Waits was entertaining enough, but there was this Cate Blanchett part where she played herself in addition to her cousin, so it was one of those blue screen deals, and it was the "I'm related to famous celebrity and why wasn't it me" deals.

The White Stripes had a vignette, and the highlight of that was when I realized that Meg White has a huge head and in fact resembles Bat Boy of the Weekly World News.

The Alfred Molina/Steve Coogan part was pretty good, and strung together the final three or four "stories" would make an extremely entertaining film.

GZA and RZA with Bill Murray was absolutely great and almost makes the entire film worth watching.

All in all, probably a 6 or a 7, if only because the last few parts were worth the wait.

Today I saw Taxi, which wasn't horrible but certainly not great. Like most comedies, the clichés ruin it, and coincidences rule. I did get to see the new trailer for the Incredibles, the Grudge, which I have to admit didn't look bad, and the non-trailer for Ocean's Twelve, goddamn I can't wait for. That about sums up Taxi, whose preceding trailers are worth talking about more than the actual movie. Likely a 4 or 5.