''Arthur'' magazine was a bi-monthly

periodical Periodical literature (singularly called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) consists of Publication, published works that appear in new releases on a regular schedule (''issues'' or ''numbers'', often numerically divided into annu ...

that was founded in October 2002, by publisher Laris Kreslins and editor

Jay Babcock Jays are a paraphyletic grouping of passerine birds within the family Corvidae. Although the term "jay" carries no taxonomic weight, most or all of the birds referred to as jays share a few similarities: they are small to medium-sized, usually ...

. It received favorable attention from other periodicals such as ''

L.A. Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'', '' Print'', ''

Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering m ...

'' and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''. ''Arthur'' featured photography and artwork from

Spike Jonze Adam Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze (), is an American Filmmaking, filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze ...

Art Spiegelman Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev Spiegelman ( ; born February 15, 1948), professionally known as Art Spiegelman, is an American cartoonist, editor, and comics advocate best known for his graphic novel ''Maus''. His work as co-editor on the comics magazin ...

Susannah Breslin Susannah Breslin is an American journalist and writer. She is the editor of ''Forbes''s Vices section. She has been a reporter for the Playboy TV program ''Sexcetera''. Her blogging and television work deals with sexual and pornography-related t ...

Gary Panter Gary Panter (born December 1, 1950) is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post- underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of '' Arcade: The Com ...

and

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock collective that originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation Records (Canada), Constellation, an in ...

. Arthur's regular columnists included

Byron Coley Byron Coley is an American music critic who wrote prominently for '' Forced Exposure'' magazine in the 1980s, from the fifth issue until the magazine ceased publication in 1993. Prior to ''Forced Exposure'', he wrote for '' New York Rocker'', '' ...

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known as a member of the rock band Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running ...

Daniel Pinchbeck Daniel Pinchbeck is an American author and journalist. His books include '' Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism'', the New York Times best seller ''2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl'', ''Notes f ...

, Paul Cullum,

Douglas Rushkoff Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open-source ...

, and

T-Model Ford James Lewis Carter Ford (June 24, 1923 – July 16, 2013) was an American blues musician who performed under the name T-Model Ford. He began his musical career in his early seventies and continuously recorded for the Fat Possum record label ...

. Some of the magazine's influences included Joan Didion, Thomas Paine, William Blake, Lester Bangs, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, and Greil Marcus, as well and the exhibit and book ''A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing, 1960-1980''. ''Arthur'' magazine was particularly drawn to

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

stoner metal Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Slee ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and other types of

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

. The first issue of ''Arthur'' featured an interview with journalist and author

(author of ''

Breaking Open the Head ''Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism'' is a 2002 book written by American writer Daniel Pinchbeck, founding editor of the literary journal ''Open City''. Contents Published in 2002, ''Breaking ...

''); artwork by

Alan Moore Alan Moore (born 18 November 1953) is an English author known primarily for his work in comic books including ''Watchmen'', ''V for Vendetta'', ''The Ballad of Halo Jones'', Swamp Thing (comic book), ''Swamp Thing'', ''Batman: The Killing Joke' ...

(''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is a comic book Limited series (comics), limited series by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 19 ...

'', ''

From Hell ''From Hell'' is a graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, originally published in serial form from 1989 to 1998. The full collection was published in 1999 by Top Shelf Productions. Set during the Whitechapel murders of ...

'', ''

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Leagues (band), ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer ...

''); and an interview with

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

. Previous to creating the publication, Laris Kreslins created the popular music journals '' Sound Collector'' and '' Audio Review''. Jay Babcock was a contributor to ''Mojo'' magazine and the ''

''. ''Arthur'' magazine also released CDs and DVDs under the imprint of their label. On

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

weekend in 2005, they curated Arthurfest in

Barnsdall Park Barnsdall Art Park is a city park located in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Parking and arts buildings access is from Hollywood Boulevard on the north side of the park. The park is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural M ...

; in February 2006, Arthur Ball in Echo Park; and in October 2006 Arthur Nights at The Palace Theater, in downtown Los Angeles. On February 25, 2007, it was announced on the magazine's web site that it would be ceasing publication indefinitely. The hiatus was due to a breakdown in negotiations between Lime Publishing (''Arthur''s original publisher) and another unnamed publisher. In April 2007, it was announced that the magazine would return as ''Arthur Vol. II'' in the near future. The magazine resumed publication in September 2007. In June 2008, owner Jay Babcock moved Arthur's headquarters from Los Angeles to New York, the seat of North America's publishing industry. On March 6, 2011, Jay Babcock announced that the magazine would cease to exist in any form as of March 15, 2011, though its archive and store would remain active for an unspecified period thereafter. In November 2012, the ''Arthur'' website announced the return of the magazine as of December 22, 2012. However, this resurgence proved to be brief, and in March 2014 the magazine once again announced that its online and print versions would go dormant. As of April 20, 2017, Jay Babcock announced the start of Landline bulletin, a continuation of Arthur Magazine email bulletin. As Babcock describes it, "What is this stuff? Ideas and nudges, hopefully forming a small bailiwick outside the unceasing current of cruddiness — irregular epistles intended for friends, colleagues, Arthur heads, pastoral people, plant people, rural country people, dharma people, herbalists, gardeners, wild people and other curious sweetfolk."

Arthurfest

ArthurFest was a two-day music festival curated by ''Arthur'' magazine. The festival took place September 4 and 5, 2005 at the

Barnsdall Art Park Barnsdall Art Park is a city park located in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Parking and arts buildings access is from Hollywood Boulevard on the north side of the park. The park is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural M ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The lineup included such acts as:

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...

The Black Keys The Black Keys are an American Rock music, rock duo formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001. The group consists of Dan Auerbach (guitar, Singing, vocals) and Patrick Carney (Drum kit, drums). The duo began as an Independent music, independent act, record ...

Modey Lemon Modey Lemon is an American garage rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group formed in Pittsburgh's South Oakland neighborhood in 1999 as an informal side project of Dean Swagger, a rock trio that had spent the previous year mainly perf ...

, The Time Flys, Winter Flowers, Dead Meadow, Future Pigeon, Dos, Fatso Jetson, the Night Porter, Lavender Diamond, Radar Brothers, Nora Keyes, Geronimo, Six Organs of Admittance, Brightblack Morning Light, Circle, Comets On Fire, Earth,

Cat Power Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist. Born in ...

, Young Jazz Giants, and

Devendra Banhart Devendra Obi Banhart (born May 30, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Texas and raised in Venezuela and California. In 2000, he dropped out of the San Francisco Art Institute to pursue a musical career. ...

.Ice Cream Man review and photos of Arthurfest
/ref>

References

External links

*

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090315083723/http://www.chicagoreader.com/TheMeter/041112.html , date=2009-03-15 - article about ''Arthur'' magazine 2002 establishments in California 2014 disestablishments in California Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 2002 Magazines disestablished in 2014 Magazines published in California Music magazines published in the United States