1. An e-interview with Parisian graphic artist Sarah Cassenti on design & her way of pushing her work outside of flatland.

2. I managed to catch up with digital artist Cory Arcangel for a chat earlier this year just before his band, 8-Bit Construction Set, was about to play at a Warp records concert at Chicago's Metro. We got to chatting about, among other things, the art of hacking, modding, rodding, retro gaming and his Beige Records projects...

3. Ama Saru has captured portraits hinting at loneliness and the urban build. We see them standing still as if a sharp thought has silenced their motion. Waiting or contemplating... photos by Ama Saru

4. Printing with a paintbrush, the possible gastrointestinal effects of abstract-amorphic paintings, the various species of ghosts, almost edible Japanese paper... These are some of the topics artist Eric Fertman and Takuji Hamanaka chat casually about in his seriously green Greenpoint Studio.

5. Armed with a pure and innocent voice, Cheer Chen is a gifted singer/song writer from Taiwan who has been making indie folk pop for several years now that we felt it was time to introduce her to the rest of the world...

6. For our premier issue we interviewed four bands that we hope you will enjoy as much as we did. playing local gigs in and around New York City and Los Angeles, these bands are committed to making good music.
The Panthers, AM Gold, Asobi Seksu, Coptic Light.

7. An essay on the risks of getting too close, and Cat Power's You Are Free, by Marisha Noel Chinsky.

8. A multimedia piece which incorporates several video vignettes by Yitan, Essay by Chris Zelisko.

9. A conversation between artist Adam Henry and Arthur Ou with an introduction by Karen Cantor.

10. Until recently computers have only begun to really get under our skin, in a good way though. We asked digital musician composer Keiko a.k.a. o.blaat some questions regarding this cyborgenic future.

11. Eric Fertman's latest work stems from his love of traditional Chinese writing forms. The slogan of this calligraphic series is “turn garbage into treasure” (bian fei wei bao in Chinese), a famous quotation of Chairman Mao. Nothing could be further from the truth. Scrolls by Eric Fertman and intro by Lady Mao.

12. What happens when you give a musician the freedom and privacy to sing what they want and exactly how they like to sing it? Catherine and Marisa did just that with when they invited Hollis of Lo-Hi to the Village Karaoke Bar for the first interview for Bandaoke, a bands-only style karaoke.

13. Ronald Henderson and I made love, if you could call it that, in a bedroom of a house where a small party that had been taking place earlier in the evening and had recently come to an end...

14. Ailers Set - How I Learned to Write Backwards
Sea and Cake - One Bedroom Takagi Masakatsu - Eating
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Yuki - Prismic Buffalo Daughter - I

15. Look Bot - Crevice at the White Gallery
Premonitions - Simon Periton at Gorney Bravin + Lee Gallery
Kai Regan -Kai Regan at Bronwyn Keenan Gallery

La Première Fois
The first time is always the hardest. It has taken us an almost embarrassingly long time to publish these fifteen stories, which we would hope will give our readers an idea of what is all about. To be honest, I’ve had the urge to create a real webzine since 1999, when I began to sketch out the obscurely-titled Eau de Paranoït. That idea quickly vaporized as I sat in my hot little flat on Hong Kong Island and realized I didn't have the ingredients to make it happen. But the urge never completely left my mind...

When I returned to New York in 2001, I began to notice that more and more people were turning to the internet for information and communication. Although the U.S. scene was still marginal compared to the ether trends of Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea (read How We Share), it was growing just enough to make the idea of a webzine possible. So in 2003, after much encouragement from all my friends, I began planning the first issue of . I had so many ideas; I wanted it to be a bit digi-cultish so we interviewed digital artist Cory Arcangel in "Legacy Hackster" and Keiko, a.k.a. O.blaat in "Hypotech: Technology under Your Skin", I wanted to cover musicians whose sounds transgress genres in Guitars, Vocals, Drums, Etc., I also wanted to introduce artists that don't get much exposure here because of the language barrier like Taiwanese musician Cheer Chen in Cheers to Cheer Chen. Ultimately, I wanted to put together a unique mix of talented artists, musicians, and writers from New York to the ends of the world and I think we succeeded in doing just that.

In all, I had a good time working with everyone who made PM possible and I am glad we made it though La Première Fois. I do have to admit I was a bit nervous doing it the first time but tomorrow I‘m sure we'll all wake up thinking, “That wasn't so painful... How soon can we do it again?” We can do it as often as we like, but we have to make sure every new issue is bliss -- that it retains that invigorating sensation, leaving you feeling as if it were La Première Fois. -AS 01/04

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