www.laughingmouse.net

Finally! www.laughingmouse.net is live and running!

I'll no longer be updating this blog, but will leave these posts up as a record of our prehistory.

Cheers,
~The Editor

LMP on Facebook

Look for Laughing Mouse Press on Facebook!  Become a "fan," upload pictures from (upcoming!) events, post news and reviews of LMP publications, and share the page with your friends to help spread the word about the press. (Note: This requires a Facebook login.)

Mariette Papic also has an artist page on Facebook with examples of her photography.

Electric Bathtub Psalms - More Audio

The first sales of Electric Bathtub Psalms shipped out yesterday, and Mariette and I are really delighted by the response we've had so far.

To celebrate the launch, I'm posting another audio sample from the book that also appeared in the installation "Love Song 4.22" at Grace Exhibition Space in Brooklyn in April. A description and illustration of the installation are also included in the book. 

Here's Mariette's description of the recording:

"I recorded this piece two years after it was written so I could install as part of a piece on cyberspace. The installation piece and the poem now share the same name. Love Song 4/22 was produced by David Maurice and includes field recordings taken by me. It is an emotional tribute to ballads and to the natural world."

Electric Bathtub Psalms - Now Available!

Electric Bathtub Psalms, the first book of poetry by Mariette Papic, is now available in a limited edition, hand-sewn chapbook with french watercolor paper covers tea-dyed and hand silk-screened by Mariette and Nathan Reimer. The limited edition chap is $17.00, and can be purchased here via PayPal.

Shipping will be modified for orders of multiple copies and international orders. A saddle-stitch chapbook will be available in November.

Tools of the Trade

Here's a peek into the craft of DIY bookmaking. This is an art that had been disappearing or relegated to specialty craft status, but scrapbookers have revitalized the artform, though in a way that I suspect makes some book artists a little queasy. You can now find bookmaking tools in most craft stores in the scrapbook aisles, and of course your better art supply stores will have some tools and supplies as well.

In the photo above you see (clockwise from upper right corner) a saddle-stitch stapler, a binder's needle with thread, an awl, and the white thing on the cover is called a bone folder. Binder's needles have blunt tips to keep from snagging on the paper (thus the need for the awl), and the thread I'm using for the limited edition of Electric Bathtub Psalms is acid-free linen. Some crafters use embroidery floss that they've pulled through beeswax, which I may experiment with later.

Coming soon: a step-by-step sewing demo!

The Rabbit Sellers

Here's an audio preview of the poem "The Rabbit Sellers," which will appear in my collection Geography and Circumstance later this fall. The poem was originally published in The Dry Crik Review of Contemporary Cowboy Poetry back in 1992, and was later reproduced on cowboypoetry.com. The poem documents the boom/bust days of central Wyoming in the late 80s and early 90s. While it's not traditional cowboy poetry, I think it captures the paradoxes and dichotomies of modern Western life.

The Corn Plastic Dancefloor

I'm slowly beginning to assemble the limited editions of Mariette Papic's Electric Bathtub Psalms. In the meantime, here is a link to one of Mariette's current projects over at dublit.com. Mariette has been involved in New York nightlife for many years - as promoter, documentor, flyer designer, and as the pretty girl in the coat with the big fur collar presiding over the velvet rope at that club on 13th Street, you know the one. Her audio piece "The Corn Plastic Dancefloor" documents one night in that world.