David Simon Shares Our Approach to Appeal

“When I/we write, the person we imagine either reading or watching it is the person who understands the event. So if I’m writing a homicide detective, I want other homicide detectives […] to say, ‘This guy knows my world, this is the way it is.’ […] I don’t care about the other people. The other people will follow; some of them will and some of them won’t. I don’t care if it becomes inside baseball. I regard these things as travel logs of a kind: Here’s a chance for you to go to a drug corner in West Baltimore; I know you’re never going on your own, so you’re not going to understand everything, and they’re gonna be using some vernacular, but if you’re really interested in the travel show you’ll come along. […] It’s always writing for the person living the event, and not wanting to be ashamed in front of them, and I don’t care about anybody else.”

-David Simon, on the intended audience appeal for his work, from a lecture

Deep Madderian Bazooka Joe

The Power of Loneliness

I spent most of today alone, sitting at my desk in my apartment, and my ensuing activities have once again reminded me how motivating loneliness is.* I dealt with my loneliness by:

1. E-mailed five people to whom I rarely speak, three of with whom I very rarely (if ever) interact (including my first e-mail ever to my brother), thus comprising a spontaneous “social bridge” gesture which would not have otherwise been accomplished.

2. Worked on my Annex Journal Distinction writings for the first time in weeks.

3. Made this blog post (the first in three months).

4. Doing all the previous three activities whilst listening to sad, introspective Thanksgiving songs, and occasionally even analysing and writing down the lyrics.

*As readers of Deep Madder Monthly will know, my solitude tolerance is extraordinarily low, to the extent that, despite being happily partnered (not to mention having woken up with said partner this very morning), a day and night spent alone will dependably send me into a Deep Madderian fit of melancholy.

Deep Madder Radio Ep. 9

The ninth episode of Deep Madder Radio has finally arrived after an insufferable wait of ten months! Luckily for our most avid of listeners, said lateness will somewhat be compensated by the fact that this is the best episode ever. It is a portion of our interview with L. Ulrich from 20 June 2011 (which we have yet to turn to episode) in which we debated the merit of reading versus fornication. Guess who's on which side?

New Zine Forecast

Here is the prototype for the long-awaited first issue of the Annex Journal of Distinction, which should be finally complete by the end of this month. This format and typography should distinguish the zine from Deep Madder Monthly while retaining our signature aesthetic austerity.

DEEP MADDER SYMPOSIUM 2

Four months later, I think it is now sufficiently flushed from our consciousness that we ought finally to acknowledge the second Deep Madder Symposium. On 16 March 2011, the editors and subscribers (and a mere reader or three) of Deep Madder Monthly met at 179 Spadina Road for an evening of zine readings and weird activities. Though most guests decided their sartorial vernacular was the most this event deserved, contrary to our dress code of monochromatic formality, the evening progressed fairly well, from what I can recall (which is admittedly not much). Highlights include the introduction of a Deep Madder board game called Misanthropy, which was conspicuously more a parade of our self-pity and scorn of the romantic privileges of others, in keeping with the traditional (though perhaps no longer relevant, as intimated below) Deep Madderian narrative. Of particular note is a remarkably elaborate miniature rendition of our Canzine presence with “Peeps” in place of the editors, presented atop no less than a painfully delicious icebox cake, generously contributed by one Ms P. Clark.

This symposium also marked the introduction of my colleague’s partner, Ms H. McGaw, to our social group (not to mention the end of our last remaining credibility in the experience of romantic alienation). Needless to say, the presence of both our respective partners rendered our readings of romantic despair and loneliness somewhat antique, testament to the fact that what is good for us is bad for Deep Madder, for which rejection and failure are fuel (hence our recent unprecedentedly low productivity rate). This made a total of only two single people out of ten in attendance, though most couples conformed to our stipulation of no conspicuous romance (with a conspicuous exception captured photographically [not pictured]). Perhaps for the next symposium we will hire a bouncer to better encourage conformity to our rules? I will end with a model couple in attendance:

Welcome back.

It seems that your editors were working so diligently at preparing new issues of Deep Madder Monthly that we entirely forgot to renew our domain name. But fret not, dear reader - after months in internet limbo, the domain has been returned to its rightful owners, and deepmadder.com is officially arisen from the dead!

Rest assured that despite our website being down, we ourselves have not been resting on our laurels; expect new issues, new symposiums, and new radio episodes shortly. We've also registered for Canzine 2011, taking place on October 23rd, so all insults, complaints, and indifference may soon be directed at us in person.

Love,

Deep Madder