Is Not Magazine News

No more Is Not Magazine! Ever!

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:32:14 GMT

Well, it’s been almost a month since Is Not Magazine officially wound up. We’re all enjoying our new jobs, new creative projects and most of all, having our leisure time back again. We’re still running our regular internet video screening, YouTube Tuesday, as long as it remains fun and people still want to come. It’s on the second Tuesday of every month at LOOP in Meyers Place, Melbourne. Screening begins around 6:30pm or whenever Jeremy decides to rock up.

We continue to check our Is Not Magazine email addresses with varying regularity, and we’re happy to make ourselves available for advice, interviews, enquiries on pending orders, &c. But we are not in a position to sell or post any more magazines or merchandise. No exceptions. Is Not Magazine is over now. Long live Is Not Magazine!

Fire Sale - your final chance to buy Is Not Magazine!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:16:55 GMT

If you’ll be in Melbourne on Thursday 28 August or Saturday 30 August, well lucky you! This means you can seize your absolute final chance to get your hands on a copy of Is Not Magazine. We have been advertising the Fire Sale since May, and now it’s finally happening!

Over two days, we’ll be selling our final bumper three-sheet Issue #11, “All That Glitters Is/Not Gold” ($30), as well as assorted mint-condition back issues ($20), Take-Aways ($5), slightly battered back issues (cheaper, POA) and extremely rare back issues we thought were sold out (more expensive, POA).

There will also be CLOTHING, OFFICE FURNISHINGS AND EQUIPMENT and IS NOT MAGAZINE COLLECTIBLES, plus ENTERTAINMENT consisting of mulled wine for sale, delicious baked goods and short stories written and emailed to you on the spot by an Is Not Magazine editor. Come and hang out with us, have some drinks and laffs, and bring your wallets…

Thursday 28 August, 5pm-9pm
Saturday 30 August, 12pm-6pm
Level 5, Vesta House, 1 Carson Place, Melbourne

After the Fire Sale, Is Not Magazine will be officially wound up and we will be unable to sell, let alone post, any more magazines or merchandise. So if you’ve ever wanted the warm feeling of supporting a foolhardy yet lovable independent publication that still owes money to its printers, BEEEEE THEEERRRRRE!

Is Not Retrospective Exhibition on now!

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:35:23 GMT

Well, we are filled with a swelling pride when we look around the gallery and see every single issue of Is Not Magazine hanging there. Our debut issue with the overpowering ink smell. The ahead-of-its-time fluoro pink of Issue 3. The Merce Cunningham special we did for last year’s MIAF. And of course, the final, ginormous three-sheeter Issue 11, which you’ll also find posted on Melbourne’s streets, right now.

If you’re in Melbourne, come down and check out the show. It’s at 37 A’Beckett Street in the city, open 12-8pm every day until Saturday 26 July. This is also your second-last chance to buy a copy of the final issue, as we are only selling them in person for $30.

Oh, and don’t you forget about our Senior Prom, our final party to raise the necessary capital to pay those printers once and for all. It’s this Friday, 25 July.

Online store now closed

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:42:36 GMT

Hello everyone,

Yes, we were as good as our word – the online shop is now closed. If you managed to put in an order, well done you! If you didn’t, don’t be sad – you will be able to buy our bumper three-sheet Issue #11, “All That Glitters Is/Not Gold”, at our retrospective exhibition in July, and at our Fire Sale in August, which we will shortly begin to advertise by getting Stuart and Jeremy to record an extremely hyperbolic, shouty voiceover.* At the Fire Sale, you can also buy our T-shirts, Take-Aways, and the remaining magazines, however please note that some issues are completely sold out and will not be available for purchase. Watch this space for details about this and our upcoming Final Ever Party.

* Do not expect an actual television or radio advertising campaign.

Last chance to buy Is Not Magazine

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:35:58 GMT

We are dissolving the incorporated non-profit association Is Not Magazine Inc. at the end of this financial year, 30 June 2008. This means no more bank account and hence no more online or retail sales! In order to give Tash plenty of time to finalise our accounts (factoring in sympathetic shoulder rubs and the consumption of tea), we are closing the Is Not Magazine Online Store on 20 June, 2008 at midnight, Melbourne time. All our retail outlets will also cease stocking Is Not Magazine from 20 June. If you’d like to order any Is Not Magazine back issues or merchandise online, now’s the time to do it.

Of course, we’d also like to give our interstate and overseas customers a chance to purchase the forthcoming bumper final issue, All That Glitters Is/Not Gold, so until 20 June, the store will allow a limited number of ‘pre-sale’ orders of this issue. These will be preferentially allocated to customers outside the Melbourne metropolitan area. That’s because Melburnians will be rather well placed to buy the issue once we’ve produced it. Between 20-26 July, visitors to our retrospective exhibition in Melbourne will be able to purchase the issue for $30, for cash only.

We are also planning a fire sale in August at our Melbourne CBD office, at which you’ll be able to pay cash for the entire range of Is Not Magazine merchandise (depending on availability – some issues are completely sold out), plus sundry office fittings and other random stuff we are trying to offload. It’ll be like the good old days of Welcome To The Jumble or the Cake Stall Corps! Or as Mel rather tragically offers, “like in Terminator 2 when the T-1000 falls in the molten steel and it flashes through the forms of the various people it has killed and impersonated.” Yep. Just like that.

Contribute to the final Is Not Magazine

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:32:24 GMT

“All That Glitters Is/Not Gold” is definitely going to be our final issue. And it’ll be a big old one, with three sheets rather than two. We think it’s a rather fitting note to end on, really. This issue asks us to come clean about our true desires. Do we find excitement in promises or in results? Why do we feel so hollow when we achieve a major goal? Can real people ever meet our expectations, or do we prefer to turn them into idols? And do we need to reassess the superficial as an honest delight? We’re encouraged to seek the profound in life – but perhaps there’s something honourable in instant gratification after all.

If you’ve ever wanted to write or illustrate for Is Not Magazine, now is the time to pitch us fiction and non-fiction feature ideas, columns and reviews, quirky short pieces, one-frame illustrations, feature comics, and other things that will blow our tiny minds. More detailed information on the sort of stuff we publish is available on the contributors’ page of our website.

To pitch a story, or if you have already had a piece commissioned for this issue and want to let us know where you’re at, please contact Mel, who will be coordinating content. Her email address is mel at isnotmagazine dot org. Come on people; we’re just sitting in front of our computers thumping the desk with a soft, insistent rhythm and singing Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain”. listen to the wind bloooooooww… nevaaah break the nevaaah break the you don’t love me now, and you’ll never love me again…

Deadlines

20 June – Pitch deadline 4 July – Final copy/artwork deadline

Is Soon No Longer Magazine

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:28:47 GMT

Listen up peeps, this is crucial. After three-and-a-half years of livening up Melbourne’s (and Sydney’s, and your living room or workplace) walls, we have decided to stop producing Is Not Magazine.

We walked innocently into the poster-magazine business, which is probably why Is Not Magazine has lasted this long. Let’s face it – seasoned publishers would never have taken on a project so difficult to explain, let alone distribute, and whose lack of advertising revenue necessitated a cruel apprenticeship in events management. We’re chuffed that so many people across Australia and the world have got excited about what we thought was a small, uniquely Melburnian publication.

However surprisingly successful our brand of unpaid foolishness might have been, it’s kind of an insane way to publish a magazine. We have put vast quantities of love, time and effort into this wonderful publication, but now that all five of us are working on exciting new projects, it’s time to wind up Is Not Magazine in the well-meaning but shambolic way we’ve always run it. Watch this space for details about our final retrospective exhibition, our BUMPER final issue, our final party and your final chance to buy Is Not Magazine.

It’s not you, it’s us,

We just need some space, some time to find ourselves, y’know?

We’ll still be friends,

The Magazine.

We came, we saw, we wore women's underwear

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:45:12 GMT

One thing we discovered at our “So You Think You Can Party” party is that the appeal of bras can never be underestimated. Especially to men. Dudes love wearing bras, even if they aren’t entirely clear which way around they go or which way the clasp should point. Check it all out in our photo gallery from the night.

Thanks to Roxanne Parlour and their friendly “bra staff” for letting us stage this shambolic event. Thanks also to our roster of excellent DJs and to Peacocks, our glamorous band who weren’t afraid to lead the audience in aerobics while clad only in women’s leopard-print tights.

But most of all, thanks to everyone who made our comeback party really excellent. Big squishy boob-hugs to you all.

Love, The Magazine.

...and we're back!

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:18:13 GMT

Good lord, this website was down for a little while there, wasn’t it? We feel a little like we decided to take a little nap, just to freshen up, and then we woke up feeling groggy and not particularly refreshed and it was all dark and there was drool on our pillow and we realised it was 2am and we had totally missed our friend’s birthday party. But then we realised our clock radio was still showing the wrong time since that blackout a few weeks back, and we looked at our phone and it was only 10:24, we could still make the party!

Speaking of parties, we are about to launch back onto the party scene with our grand comeback spectacle, So You Think You Can Party! The thing you mainly need to know is that there will be a bra bomb at midnight. There will also be a special dance floor show from the Is Not And Friends Variety Revue, DJs Young Steezy and Manchild, and more acts to be announced! It’s on Friday 14 March. Put that date in your diaries and make sure you don’t oversleep.

Issue #10 now available!

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:05:12 GMT

Yep, it’s been a little while, but Issue 10, “The Kid Is/Not My Son”, is now available for purchase through our online store. We’re working hard on getting it into our retail outlets as well, but we have been rather busy with our regular 9-5 jobs, which include such activities as travelling to London and New York, hanging with rock stars in hotel rooms, recording television shows and touring Tasmanian cheese factories.

But at last, it’s here. Hooray! Put your orders in for Christmas now! (We are like department stores in that we start preparing for Christmas in October.) And look out for our project in association with the Melbourne International Arts Festival, in which we bring our particular sprawling and idiosyncratic brand of magic to a special edition of the magazine celebrating living-legend choreographer Merce Cunningham. Look for it in the city during the festival, and it’ll also be available for purchase.

We showed you our starf*ckers

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:13:07 GMT

Having to write that asterisk really annoys us because it is not as if we shy away from mad swearing, but we don’t want to get you in trouble with your work IT police. Oh how they lord it over the rest of us from their silicon castles.

But anyway. We have uploaded some photos Penny took at the “Don’t Show Me Your Starf*ckers, Arterati And Rock Pigs” party at the Tote that we DJed at a couple of weeks ago. It was a very pleasant way to spend an evening, and thanks must go to the Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces folk who organised the event, and to Robert Cook who coordinated the “Don’t Show Me Your Poetry” event to which this event was tied.

Robert also busted out some tunes on the decks. It was a total bro-fest with him, Jeremy and Stuart. A sweet bro-fest soundtracked by Phoenix.

Check the pics out in our “Adventures” gallery now!

Oh lordy! It's tonight!

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 02:34:14 GMT

Yes that’s right. As featured in The Age last Friday, it’s YouTube Tuesday TONIGHT!!!

Jeremy already showed us a few of the clips and we were all, “Jeremy, no! No more! Our sides, they are splitting!” So it will probably be a highly amusing Tuesday evening.

Loop, 23 Meyers Place Melbourne Doors open 6pm; screening starts 6:30pm Entry by $5 donation to the magazine

Oh boy! You better be there!

Love, The Magazine

YouTube Tuesday returns... later than expected

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 09:56:54 GMT

Get ready for the next shining instalment of YouTube Tuesday, back at its original venue of Loop, 23 Meyers Place Melbourne. There was a little mixup with the Friendly Society that originally had this event listed for this coming Tuesday, 10 July. But it’s actually coming up the following Tuesday, 17 July.

Last month’s screening was really quite popular and featured such gold as the “Ass Pennies” sketch from Upright Citizens Brigade, and the classic animated short, The Dot and the Line. Don’t miss this one! Doors open at 6pm, with the screening starting at 6:30pm. Entry is by a $5 donation to Is Not Magazine.

Golden memories

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:58:14 GMT

Hey all,

There are finally some pictures from our Golden Years party up on our website. Ah, memories… we need these photos because we’re getting old and absent-minded these days.

Thanks to Michael Pham for playing photographer – and if you picked up a badge that said “I’d tap that” or similar, that was Pham’s doing as well.

Love, The Magazine.

YouTube Tuesday - The Gold Edition

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:32:40 GMT

Yep, we’re still fully into this gold bizzo, because we’re relaunching our monthly video night, YouTube Tuesday, with a bumper evening that we’re dubbing The Gold Edition.

Like a kid at Sovereign Hill, we are filtering out the crap and panning for internetular GOLD. We have so many awesome videos to choose from that the popcorn machine at Is Not HQ is running out of popcorn trying to cater our marathon selection sessions. So rest assured that this session will be nothing short of HILARIOUS.

It’s at Loop, 23 Meyers Place Melbourne. Doors open at 6pm; gold starts flowing at 6:30pm. Entry is $5 donation. We might even be providing Golden Roughs. (We are trying to convince Jeremy that this is a euphemism; please don’t ruin our hilarious prank.)