Loafitorial
Peter Schilling Jr.
Once upon a time—October 4, 1994, to be exact—Loafer’s Magazine was born in a bathtub in my dingy little box apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota. Originally the thought was to create a space where all of us—friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers, etc.—could display their creativity to one another. Little did I know that this tiny rag would grow in size to become the third largest magazine in the world. Well, in my world, anyway. It’s much smaller than Mudville, and only slightly tinier than the short-lived blog, “The Bug”. But no matter—we were able to push out twelve bizarre issues, concerning subjects as varied as lumpen academia, nude beaches, rabbit killing, beer recipes, political chicanery, vagina symbology, a sequel to “Howl”, sermons, train maps, interviews with God, a fictional account of the last public execution in Minnesota, lost relatives, porno film titles, travel journals, comic strip criticism, dogs with guns, suicide, Tiger Stadium, and many cartoons, lists, recipes, photos, painting, poems, essays and fictions. And fake letters. From such luminaries as Michigan Governor John Engler, Cuthbert Urshgur, Harley Buckwilliams, Film Critic Ronald Wilson Reagan, Natalie Goldstein, Parsley Butterwood, Philip Morris, Mrs. Herta Humble, Newt Gingrich, Brad Pitt, Fenton Lefthandright, Phil Gramm, Sammy Bogitus, e. e. cummings jr., Clam Johnstone, Bill Clinton, Oolong Sapsucker, Robert (Bob) Dole, Pat Buchanan, and Orenthal Jud (O. J.) Simpleton. To name but a few.
For those of you who may be wondering why the original Loafer’s ceased after twelve issues, the answers are varied. It was expensive. It was time consuming. We were receiving less material. And, most importantly in my mind, I had other avenues to pursue to express myself. I didn’t need Loafer’s anymore.
Most of you know where I ended up—writing a pair of unpublished novels and a baseball website. The second novel is at an editor right now, being abused with a red or blue pen before being sent back to break my heart. Writing novels and—hopefully—screenplays is what I do now, and probably what I’ll always do. Scribbling stuff for this rag is no longer my idea of the height of expression.
But over time I found that I missed the community of Loafer’s. Friends and family were constantly asking if we (Andy and I) were ever going to start the magazine up again. I would always shrug and try to ignore the looks of disappointment. As time flew by (seven years now) I found that writing my books and a website that is interesting to none of my close friends (but thankfully, to many strangers) was a lonely business. Bloggers continue to believe that they have a community, but I’ve not been able to feel it myself. I get emails about Mudville all the time… but that’s not a community. Loafer’s was a community. It involved letters, phone calls, and, with every visit, conversation face to face. That’s what I missed. That’s why Loafer’s is back.
Truth be told, I would love to be able to print this and send it to everyone, but truth be told, I don’t have the money or the stable psychology to go through the effort. So we’re doing it online. And we’ll do it again. Perhaps more people will see the rag, and want to scribble, draw, photograph, or sing something that will appear in a later issue. Loafer’s is about what goes on in our lives, and it’s unpolished, essentially unedited, and raw. Later, when we see one another, we talk about what we saw, or what we read.
I’ll leave you with a Loaferlist that I found interesting as I was compiling this new website. As many of you remember, we had a list in nearly every issue—I thought it was interesting to see lists of even such mundane things as groceries. We didn’t have one for this issue, so I went through all of the old Loafs and compiled a list of every person who had something appear between the covers. Maybe you’ll recognize some of the names. Maybe you’ll want to Google them, or perhaps they’ll Google themselves, see the link, and we’ll get reconnected. You never know. Stranger things have happened… often in the pages of Loafer’s Magazine.
Loaferlist:
Everyone who ever appeared in Loafer’s Magazine (including the present issue):
Sherrod Blankner
Andy Clason
Todd Clason
Peter Schilling Jr.
John Lund
Ritch Brandstrom
Derek Eiri
Ray Garcia
Eric Goodell
Scott Heinzman
Tom Loretto
Joseph Madsen
Kenneth Mazursky
Erta Ollabo
Lesley Pearl
John Schilling
Kurt Schmidt
Maximum Traffic
Steve Willis
Mary Ann Brooks
Karin Fodness
Sid Greenup
Joe Ledbetter
Thom Lund
Benjamin Michael
Frederica Claiborne
Eric Clason
Kelly DeRango
Karen Kesseler
Cameron Michener
Joshua O’Hara
Frank Portelli
Janice Rideout
Mely Sumono
Richard Wilson
John Antuna
Larry Anderson
P. Winslow Crawley
Daniel E. Foley
Dave Greenlund
Barry Levine
Mike Skladany
Stephanie Somers
Marilee Mitchard
Jon Pyle
Peg Thompson
Jack Allen
Robert Clason
Eric Peterson
Besha Rodell
Matt Schwetz
Najwa Bukhari
Flavia Bellu
Bo Davis
Marci Fons
Peter Schilling Sr.
Betty Brown
Sabrina Karl
Lori Ellison
Robert Rush III
G. Charles Wright
Lauren Leavitt
Betsy Osborn
Jack Osborn
Betty Clason
Jeffrey Salmon
Catherine Needham
Michele Salmon
Kelly Smith
Barbara Spring
Claudio Cambon
Pamela Rosengard
Horst Blessing
Abhay Ghiara
Andrew Dugas
Gary Pederson
Reuben Saltzman
Kim Greene
Paul Bernstein
Mark Lazar
Gabe Angieri
Karl Rove
|
