Restricted Frequency #145
Love in the Age of COVID-19 (NSFW)
1.
(Of course it doesn’t really matter that it’s NSFW given that no one reading this is really at work, right?)
When it does go out, this newsletter typically goes out on Saturdays, but all days of the week are looking more of less the same for a lot of people right now, aren’t they? So why the hell not shoot it out on a Tuesday?
There are superusers for everything. Chefs are the superusers of kitchens, for example. Superusers of urban spaces are the homeless. As for the superusers of self-quarantine? Artists and writers, obviously.
So, if anybody needs any tips on maintaining their sanity while staying indoors, feel free to get at me. I have yeeeeeears of experience.
As is the case with pretty much everyone, all my speaking engagements and associated travel plans have been cancelled this spring. No Ohio State University, no Whitman College, and no Printed Matter in NYC. Which means all my obligations until the end of April are no more. I’m willing to bet things will be relatively quiet well beyond April (cue It’s the End of the World), and I’m not gonna lie: that doesn’t actually bother me a whole lot. It feels like I only juuuuust about got settled in my new digs, and I’ve been looking forward to getting around to hunkering down and getting some of my own projects done—namely TIMES NEW HUMAN and THE SOLAR GRID—but I knew the multiple upcoming travels would be big disruptors. Now they’ve all been done away with, and I get to write and draw to my heart’s desire, ahhhhhh.
(Like I said; artists… we relish in self-quarantine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
With that being said, I really do hope everyone makes it out of this safe and sound.
If you’re just joining me now: hi, I’m Ganzeer. I write, draw, and design stuff. TIMES NEW HUMAN is a collection of short sci-fi stories of which 7 currently exist and can be read online for free. THE SOLAR GRID is a serialized graphic novel I’ve been working on for way too long. I used to think of it as unrealistically dystopic until anthropologists started describing it as realistic (yes, we’re doomed). I’d describe both projects as experimental, but then everything I do is kind of experimental. That what I do: I experiment with culture. 🎨 📚 🧪💥
2.
The New York trip was to do a launch/signing for WE ARE ALL THINGS, my chapbook collab with Elliott Colla. That’s botched now, but if you’d like, you can order a copy signed by me from Ganage.Ganzeer (granted, the postal service doesn’t stop working).
(One of the mechanisms of coping with self-quarantine is after all ample quality reading material, no?)
First 10 orders, by the way, will receive this complimentary letterpressed print:
Interested stockists can get 50% off when they order 10 or more copies, by entering the promocode CULTUREAPOCALYPSE at checkout.
3.
There is a panel—a single panel—in THE SOLAR GRID that has been the source of great agony for me. Since starting the book to this very day, I've only ever had to redraw a panel a handful of times. I'm usually good from the first go, but this panel here... it's been killing me. And if I show it to you now, there's no way you would possibly think a panel this simple could in any way been reached by a jagged road of pain and suffering.
You see what I mean?
4.
In other news:
We are with child (cue Staying Alive).
And from the looks of it, the little thing is fully aware of the fucked up world it’s being brought into:
A lot of people don’t know this, but northern Italy was very much on the table for the wife and I instead of Houston. In fact, it was the only option on the table for a while, and the wife had even signed the contract for the gig and everything. It was kind of a done deal, and had we gone through with it, that’s exactly where we would’ve been right about now.
Funny how these things work, huh?
Life is fleeting from the moment we’re born anyway, it’s just a matter of making the best of what we’ve got. Some seem to think that entails stocking up on 17,700 bottles of hand-sanitizer mid global epidemic. Others walk through the Earth with just a tad more compassion and whole lot more principle. Personally, I try to be in the latter camp (and sure, throw in a touch of rebellion while you’re at it 😊).
Ain’t nothin’ to do now but to hunker down, make good use of your kitchen, cook them good meals (any recipes you’ve been meaning to try?), read them unread books, listen to music, watch the shows you’ve been meaning to catch up on, and start the various home projects you’ve been delaying. And for fuck’s sake, buy only what you need (no wonder Americans have a fixation with zombie fiction, jesus). And please for the love of fucking gods, get with the program and adopt the fucking bidet already. You’ve occupied Japan, soaked up their anime and videogames, took on their Sony walkman, started driving their cars instead of your own, and even fell in love with their ramen and sushi, but cannot possibly seem to accept more sanitary bathroom practices?
It’s a lovely thing; it keeps your hand from rubbing against a shit-smothered asshole while simultaneously requiring much less use of toilet paper. 💡
Ganzeer
March 17, 2020
Houston, TX
P.S. The spread at the very top is from a new NSFW mixed media sketchbook I started. If, of course, it was any other artist’s it would be filled with very lovely artistic nudes, but because it’s me, it uh… what you see up there. But in any case, it’s nice to have a little sketchbook just for me: no rules, no deadlines, no hard criteria. Just for my own personal meditation. Remember to do a little something just for you too.
P.P.S. If, in your time of quarantine, you are longing for a little human interaction beyond the hysteria of social media, Restricted.Academy is still alive and everyone on there is cool af.