bourbondandy

by
Russell Scheidelman

It’s been 10 years since the demise of my last micropublishing venture, a zine called Organ & Bongos. Despite its swanky cocktail-sipping pretensions, it was a ragtag affair produced mostly in my Seattle apartment, combining primitive desktop publishing with near-prehistoric cut-and-paste techniques, booze-infused page-collating parties, and occasional 3 AM visits to my local Kinko’s (even when I had to get up early for my ‘regular job’ just a couple hours later). Circumstances beyond my control pushed to the breaking point the natural burnout factor that attends such labors of love, and Organ & Bongos stopped just short of sashaying into the 21st Century. Nevertheless, during its 5 years of existence, it gained a small but loyal following (attested to by subscriptions from as far away as Sweden and New Zealand), won a small bit of acclaim in zine-publishing circles and among “cocktail culture” aficionados, drew boatloads of both wanted and unwanted complimentary CDs and books into my home collections, and afforded me opportunities to visit places, attend events, and forge interesting acquaintances and friendships that might not have been possible otherwise. In short, there was something about it to be missed.
Calls for its revival have occasionally been heard, from former readers and collaborators alike. But the so-called “Cocktail Nation” movement that Organ & Bongoscovered lay buried in the Nineties, and my own interests have meanwhile evolved in somewhat newer (although related) directions. Over time I tried my hand at forming a Yahoo discussion group and creating a MySpace page, both under the heading of “Urban Dandy” and featuring the same ID photo of myself reclining in a light-colored summer suit and sporting a Panama hat (see below). But these 2 projects were not as absorbing or as challenging as the rough-and-tumble of the publishing game, and both have fallen into disuse.
I’ve always thought that if I were to start another publication, it would have to be something different from Organ & Bongos—with a different name and a different focus. I liked the name “Urban Dandy,” but a little research quickly showed that it was already in use for other ventures. In June of this year, however, I had a kind of stoned epiphany. The compound variation “Bourbon Dandy” came to mind. And, in an effort to add even greater distinction and guard against plagiarism (including my own), I fused the 2 words together and made all the letters lower-case: bourbondandy was a brand name born.
My next challenge was to come up with the kind of subject matter (or theme, if you will) that would define the world of bourbondandy. Somehow, in the same onrush of stoned reverie, I managed to reject the theme that seemed most obvious and simple—i.e., ‘booze & high fashion’—and to substitute in its place this rather quirky, fairly open-ended and complex idea that’s captured in the phrase Finding the good life where few go looking. Part of bourbondandy’s ongoing mission will be to explore and flesh out the meaning of this purposely ambiguous apothegm.* Its open-endedness will no doubt leadbourbondandy in directions that could not be followed by its more narrowly focused predecessor, while some of the latter’s most beloved and provocative features—like the use of fake ads—will be continued.
The final decision that such an enterprise demanded was the choice of format: How should the gospel of bourbondandy be spread? For me, this was easy. The 21st Century called for an online publication, and my own predilections called for print. I’d have to do both.
In the decade since my earlier attempt to publish an online version of Organ & Bongos failed to get off the ground, desktop publishing has become both easier and cheaper. In the same period, traditional print publishing has become more of a challenge. Not only have recent times witnessed the folding of one of my hometown’s 2 daily newspapers, but they’ve also been marked by a drop in the number of neighborhood outlets specializing in periodical literature (not to mention that my local Kinko’s now closes before midnight). Nevertheless, as an avid fan of tangible, paper-based reading material, I consider it my aesthetic duty to produce a hardcopy version of bourbondandy. I am working to bring it out sometime this November. If you want a copy, please contact me at my email address (bourbondandy@gmail.com) and let me know. I’ll be selling them for $5 each, not including postage.
After all that history, explanation, and excuse, I want to take this opportunity to thank the following individuals for their amazing help in bringing bourbondandy to your computer: George Vernon, Ed (“The Mechanic”) Davis, Joe Dolan, and Jake Jacobson. I doff my Panama to them all.
Now that my introductions are complete, I’ll leave you with the immortal words that a concert violinist was known to utter to his instrument while going onstage:“Stay tuned.”

*Please note that it will be the policy of bourbondandy to mark with an asterisk any word that would be ideal for use in the game of “Hangman.”