aaron spangler

olaf breuning

charlie tweed

molly larkey

deborah aschheim

emily lambert

andrew guenther

giles lyon

11. I believe one should think twice before making art.

-luis camnitzer

ben Tomlinson

gean moreno and ernesto oroza

dan seiple

did I tell you I was pissing in a bush in the park the other day. Betty had just finished and was standing a few feet away. We were talking as I zipped up and then, a wild boar barreled out of the bush! I was on the upside of the hill, and fortunately, he went down. I was pissing in his home. It startled me.

-dan seiple

drawing by bettina lamprechte

gamee rahul 

suzanne goldenberg

nancy goldenberg

lindsay packer

Davis / Langlois

Death’s Head

Your thoughts cut through everything today.

Try and finish your vegetables.

Anyone who knows you knows your story.

Split the stick and there’s Jesus.

This was the year for fun.

The threat loomed and no one gave up.

We all waited for

the seal to break

and thousands of

butterflies to vanish

from the jar.

 

Like my fortune teller said,

you are not a handsome man,

while staring at the sun

for as long as our eyes could take.

We didn’t need to see though.

We had the kiss to look forward to.

Let the dry watermarks rise to reveal the tenth ring of Hell.

Keep your hands inside the boat.

-Vincent Dermody

 

 

                                                     

                                                        

                        

 

 

 

Veronica Blaha

Thomas Micchelli

Claudia La Rocco

Mercy Kills

1.

The urban bush women stamp their feet

There is no waiting here

at the center of the red circle

 

They turn and turn

The red circle grins

 

Here is where we put in our coordinates

Here is where we bind his arms, strap him down

Here, once more and forever, we begin

 

2.

 

The status quo is affronted

He slumps

His limbs hang low

 

3.

 

The mark is irretrievable: an action in space

Everything we put down remains, just so

 

4.

 

The minotaur is full of errors

Terrors in the dark do not give him pause

But when she shakes out her hair

When she opens that ruined-teeth maw and hisses her sex down the corridors

 

5.

 

In the future, in the spaceship, gas jets thrusting below

Hard to find a toehold in zero gravity

Hard to begin to know

 

Only static on the console

She shakes out her skirts. She has something to show the others today. Unholy, it works its way.

 

 

 

Sheila Hicks

submitted by Horace Brockington

Jaime Fennelly

Valerie Hegarty

Kevin

Gerald Edwards III

Submitted by Suzanne Goldenberg

Chris Domenick and Emily Rooney

Bernini's Duke of Modena Wants "To Bed" 

Emily Thompson

Brian Ravnholt Jepsen 

Ianthe Jackson

"In other traditions demons are expelled externally. But in my tradition demons are accepted with compassion."   - Machik Labdron

"Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there."

-author unknown

by Joseph

by Jimmy

Frank Frazetta Mothman

David Frye, Lincoln inprogress

jonathan hartshorn

whiskey on bueys by mike ballou

A Giraffe in Vienna by Jasper Sharpe

A Giraffe in Vienna 

The zoo in Vienna was one of the first to be built in Europe. Founded as an imperial menagerie in 1752 at the order of Emperor Francis I, it is located in the grounds of Schönbrunn, the former summer palace of the Habsburg monarchy. Expeditions were sent to Africa and the Americas to capture animals and birds, the first of which to arrive was a single elephant. The zoo was officially opened to the public in 1779 by the Emperor's wife, Maria Theresa. Polar bears, hyenas and kangaroos appeared early in the 19th century, thrilling crowds of visitors and impressing foreign dignitaries. 

In 1828, the zoo received a giraffe as a gift to Emperor Franz I from Mehmet Ali Pasha, the founder of modern Egypt. It was not the first giraffe to arrive in Europe - Julius Caesar had taken one as a trophy from his successful campaign in Egypt in 46 BC, only to have it torn to shreds by lions in the Colosseum, while another had been more peacefully presented to Lorenzo de Medici in 1486 by the Burji Mamluke Sultan of Egypt - but it caused a sensation nonetheless. 

The giraffe, which curiously remained nameless, was one of three sent by Mehmet Ali Pasha to royal collections in Europe, the others going to George IV of England and Charles X of France. According to recent studies, the three giraffes had been captured as calfs in the Ethiopian highlands by Arab hunters, and carried on the backs of camels to Khartoum. From there the animals were taken by boat nearly 2,000 miles down the Nile to Alexandria and shipped to Europe, accompanied all the while by Arab grooms and three cows that provided each animal with 25 litres of milk each day. The animals were so tall that holes had to be cut in the deck above the ships' cargo hold in order that their necks could fully extend. 

The Schönbrunn giraffe arrived at the Adriatic port of Fiume, where it was lifted into a specially designed horse-drawn carriage and pulled under military escort across the Alps to Vienna - an altogether more leisurely journey than that of Zarafa, the French giraffe, who was invited to walk more than 500 miles from Marseilles to Paris.  

Its arrival in Vienna triggered an explosion of interest in all things 'giraffe'. Spotted clothes, gloves, porcelain and jewellery were all produced bearing the animal's motif, a perfume was created and many ladies' hairstyles were shaped into towering 'giraffe' arrangements. Music was composed on giraffe-shaped pianos built, hilarious 'Gallop' dances were choreographed, and theatre director Adolf Bäuerle wrote a play titled The Giraffe in Wien or Everything à la Giraffe. Giraffe fever extended as far as the city's culinary scene, in the shape of candy, cakes and the well-known Giraffeln pastries which were sold in Viennese bakeries well into the twentieth century. A Viennese gasthaus, the Blaue Traube, even hosted a 'Giraffefest' with the animal's Arab handler, Hagi Ali Sciobari invited as guest of honour. 

Sadly the celebrations were short-lived. As a result of injuries sustained to its back during the long transport to Europe, the giraffe died just one year later. Not long afterwards its brother in English also succumbed to a premature death and was handed over to the Royal taxidermist John  Gould. Of the three only Zarafa lived a long life, thrilling the crowds at Paris' Jardin des Plantes for more than 18 happy years. In 1851, a larger herd of giraffes was brought to Vienna and housed in a wonderful Biedermeier-period house built to accommodate their every needs. Happily, their stay was rather longer. 
 

Christa Riedl-Dorn's book Hohes Tier - Die Geschichte der ersten Giraffe in Schönbrunn

will be published by Braumüller, Wien in May 2008. 

Jasper Sharp

gnostical teptitude by fritz welch

wayward son and good food by angelo. submitted by marc fisher