Tuesday June 24, 2008

Online store now closed

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.

Saturday June 14, 2008

Last chance to buy Is Not Magazine

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.

Saturday June 14, 2008

Contribute to the final Is Not Magazine

“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