letter
from
the
editor
c o n t r i b u t o r s
w e s l e y • b a u m a n
a v e r y • b a g l i o
l i n d s e y • i r i s h
c e r v a n t e • p o p e
Welcome to the nonsense!
This issue of the magazine didn’t start at the end of the last one. Usually, I get this off to the printers and
we start pitching and brainstorming the next issue. With this issue, our cover started on May 16.
Over my desk hangs a whiteboard. On the lefthand side is our current issue. On the right, my bucket list
stories. Among the bucket listers is a collection of dead arts; shoemaker among them. In May began the
emails, June the shootings, Sep 30 the shoes were picked up. I spent about as much time with Jeff as he
did with those shoes and documented quite literally the work stitch by stitch in many cases.
As a storyteller; I am fascinated with process. I loved hearing the passion in Jeff’s stories and tutelage
(I might be able to make a really bad pair of shoes after this story). This was my first time as a journalist
really getting to follow something like this. In the past I had always been limited to get a story. I may get
seconds for a fleeting moment, minutes for an interview, or just a few hours for a protest, but never the
time to spend witnessing something so involved.
Seeing the process, the weeks for green lights on test shoes, coming back after the glue sets, the press
and the waiting, the wetting, lasting, welting, and again the waiting; I’ve never been so glad to be done of
a story, so proud to finish it, or so relieved to see it end.
That kind of fascination for the journey of a thing permeates a lot of this issue, more so than the others,
maybe.
When the weather breaks, get outside, but when it’s not fit for man nor beast, grab a book we suggest,
or Zak Plum’s epic poem. Queue up Greylag, maybe think about how much better things might be with
WeVOTE at your fingertips.
Don’t let the shuttering of the windows and coming of a cold which chases us from the parks and
markets be the end of inspiration or creativity; this is the perfect time to get excited about something new.
Sincerely,
Wesley Bauman
Editor in Chief
projectpoppycock.com
[email protected]