Esopus: Number 6

This special issue of Esopus is devoted to the creative process, for which a wide range of contributors was invited to offer up the "evidence" of their working methods. Contents include writer Frank Rich's notes for a recent New York Times op-ed column; production designer Ther0se Deprez's scrapbook from the making of Spike Lee's 1999 film Summer of Sam and 22 drafts of a poem by Suji Kwock Kim. Artist Sylvia Plimack Mangold provides a glimpse of the painstaking process of creating an etching and aquatint; and underground comedian Demetri Martin hands over pages from one of his joke journals. Artist Xylor Jane created a "Calendar Clock" removable poster, and reveals its formula in the issue. Esteemed mathematician John Conway supplies readers with his unique template--and also the materials--for assembling one of his favorite polyhedra. Colter Jacobsen chose eight photographs from over 80 submitted by Esopus subscribers, and then used them as inspiration for a series of "memory drawing" (one copied directly from its source, the others drawn from memory afterward). Also late author Christopher Isherwood's fascinating (and never-before-published) work journals for his celebrated 1964 novel, A Single Man, and, in closing, a portfolio of riveting drawings by Samuel Varkovitzky (1898-1987), a Jewish banker who survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine by posing as a traveling artist. For the No. 6 CD, Help Wanted, Esopus asked 10 musicians to scour job listings and write a song inspired by one of them. Contributors include Devendra Banhart, Grizzly Bear and Marissa Nadler.