Beer Frame

Beer Frame concerns itself with consumer culture. It contains reviews of products; products strange and beautiful, necessary and frivolous. Who knew that so much stuff was out there for us to purchase? There’s not much to say about the zine that Paul doesn’t say himself, but Beer Frame is one of those role model zines. It is always interesting and entertaining, and you can tell a lot of work is put into each issue. After this interview took place, I checked out all of the back issues at my friend Mike’s apartment, and I’m totally impressed with how he didn’t seem to have the first-issue-jitters, where you screw everything up. It was good from the start. Kickstand and I just finally lost our jitters a few minutes ago. How crazy. Here we go!

How and why did you start printing Beer Frame?
First issue was in October of '93, and was basically a busy-work assignment that I gave myself during a period when I had some free time and needed something to do. I ran off 550 copies on the office Xerox machine when nobody was looking.

There wasn't supposed to be a second issue, but things ended up developing in ways I didn't foresee, so there have been plenty of subsequent issues after all.

I only have the three latest issues of Beer Frame, so excuse me for not knowing the answer to this, but I've noticed Beer Frame has a signature style. It always looks nearly the same, with the pictures and contents changing, of course, but the basic layout staying the same. How long did it take you to find that style?
The design, layout, and typography of the first issue was dictated primarily by two factors: (1) My limited design skills, and (2) the VERY limited technological capabilities of the software I was using at the time. Now I have fancy-shmancy software, but I've chosen to retain the same basic design approach, since it seems to function well with the material -- in other words, I was lucky to stumble upon a formula that worked right from the start (the same could be said of the whole Beer Frame concept as a whole). Adding lots of bells and whistles to the layout, or going to a color cover, which several people have suggested, would go against the whole concept of inconspicuous consumption -- I prefer to leave the design plain and simple.

I imagine you get lots of stuff from friends and readers to review. What do you do with all of it? Is one of your rooms converted into a store room, do you just throw it all out, do you have monthly yard sales?
Beer Frame readers are, without a doubt, the coolest and best people in the world -- they shower me with all sorts of goodies and presents, and not a day goes by without my realizing how lucky I am to have such imaginative and generous readers. My apt. is full of all sorts of items on display -- canned goods, industrial artifacts, blah-blah-blah (people visiting my place for the first time often say, "It's like a museum in here"). I also have tons of stuff filed away, in storage, hidden under the bed, etc.

Do you ever get tired of "stuff" and yearn for a more simple life?
Sometimes. I never get tired of thinking about stuff and looking at stuff, but I'm definitely at the point where I don't need to OWN any more stuff. I've reached the point where no matter where I look in my apt., there's something that makes me smile, and that's the point where I can stop. So when I get new stuff, I often give old stuff away to make room, or store it, or whatever. Also, there are lots of things I collect and own that I don't write about in Beer Frame -- big, bulky things, like a barber's chair, a parking meter, a Coke machine, etc. In short, the next time I move to a new apt. is going to be a huge hassle. I'm much better than I used to be about being able to look at something without feeling the need to buy it or own it -- I'm more content now to "let the world be my museum," so to speak.

So ya like bowling, do you? Do you think it qualifies as an actual "sport" or is it just a "hobby"? What would you turn to if bowling had never been invented?
You don't think bowling is a sport? Bite your tongue! Tell that to the millions of league bowlers in this country, or to the members of the Pro Bowlers Association, the top members of which earn six-figure incomes annually. As for a world without bowling, let's not contemplate such matters...

What's the story behind your book deal? Did they knock on your door and beg to put out a book, or did you chase them down?
After the third issue or so of Beer Frame, it became apparent to me that the material would work well if it was compiled into a book. But I assumed that I'd end up working with a small press, since I didn't think any major publisher would be interested. Shortly thereafter, a few of my product reviews were reprinted in the New York Times, which, to my surprise, led to several calls from big-name publishers. The book deal with Crown was closed a few months after that, and Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, which compiles material from Beer Frame issues 1 thru 5 (plus some of issue 6), came out in early '97.

Will you keep putting Beer Frame out as a zine?
Yup. No matter what other writing I do, publishing my own 'zine is still the most fun, and I have no plans to stop. My schedule has slowed down, though -- I used to do new issues every 6 months or so, and now I'm down to every 9 or 10 months, mainly because I'm busier with other stuff nowadays. But Beer Frame will continue, at some pace or other...

What is the Inconspicuous Records story? Is the 7" out yet? Who's on it?
In the summer of '97 I plan to release an EP called "Object Lessons: Four Songs About Four Products by Four Great Bands." Participants include the Mountain Goats (doing a song about a particular brand of peanuts), The Scene Is Now (a song about grenadine), Men & Volts (a song about the Brannock Device [the foot-measuring gizmo from the shoe store]), and a fourth band whose song hasn't been delivered to me yet so I'll keep quiet about them for now.

How about that bar code? Was it procured merely to keep your consumer credibility or did it become necessary?
One of my distributors was imposing a ridiculous per-copy surcharge on publications that didn't carry a bar bode, and several of my other distribs were rumored to be planning the same sort of thing, so I went ahead and got the damn UPC code. I hate it -- looks like shit -- but I've decided that it's a necessary evil if I want Beer Frame to reach as many people as possible.

What's your most recent addition to our collection of consumer treasures?
A can of Supreme Quality Mushy Peas (that is the precise product name), marketed by a California company specializing in British imports.

Interviewers always have their own agendas, but if you got to pick your own questions, what would you make sure to ask yourself? Answer them too, please.
Oh, I usually look for excuses to give the definition of inconspicuous consumption, so here it is: Inconspicuous consumption is about paying attention to the details of consumer culture -- details that are either so weird and obscure that we'd ordinarily never see them, or else so ubiquitous and normal that we've essentially STOPPED seeing them.

If you had a team of scientists on hand to invent whatever one thing you asked for, what would it be?
MORE MOCHA PRODUCTS, PLEASE!!!

If you were going to be stuck in a bomb shelter (or a storm cellar, if that's too grim for you) for a month, and could only have one book, one CD, one zine, and one food item to keep you entertained, what would you take with you?
In the same order you asked: The Mezzanine, by Nicholson Baker; Tramps in Bloom, by Men & Volts; the issue of Blurt that had the stories by Michael Gerald (circa '87-ish); ribs (with my own marinade recipe, please).