CALL FOR ENTRIES: There is no theme for the next issue. The deadline is June 20th for all art and writing entries. Please read our terms of publishing here. If you would like to be featured in this issue, contact us at ZIGZAGCREW@GMAIL.COM

Dec 23, 2010

SRQ Scene


SRQ = Sarasota, Florida. :::: Now for a bit about the hometown of ZIGZAG...

Sarasota may be small, but it shall emerge as a juicer of concentrated creativity. Upon a first impression, Sarasota looks to be a quiet condo-colony to spend a season ogling at shiny baubles and seashell statues. On a double-take, it may seem like a big facade - a storefront of luxury distracting from urban sprawl and desperation. After a year of living in Sarasota as a student, my initial judgments have been crumpled and tossed in favor of positive foresight. For artists and entrepreneurs, this place will soon be ripe for the pickin'. Here are five reasons why Sarasota is fruitful:

5. The recession/depression is breaking down the tourism-based economy, encouraging resourceful innovation. The gift shops may suffer, but enterprises offering affordable goods and practical services will prosper. Think cheap food, live entertainment, thrift shops, printing, and art supplies.


4. Downtown Sarasota is compact and chock full of media outlets. I like to cruise down the Boulevard of the Arts and pass by hot spots like the HuB, SRQ Magazine, WSLR, Sarasota Film Festival, and Burns Court Cinemas. All we need is an Infoshop.

3. A prevalent underground of street art and hip hop is about to boil to the top. In the spring, SRQ will see its first youth culture festival: The Take Over. Simutaneously, there will be another Noise Ordinance showcase/concert as well as a highly anticipated Vinyl Music Festival.



2. New investors in art and entertainment, such as Sanborn Studios LLC, are moving in and are ready to produce television and film in Sarasota. Also, a new art museum is in the works. Once SMOA (Sarasota Museum of Art) opens to the public, Downtown will be wedged between two major art museums. In the mean time, there are more galleries here to peruse than I care to count.

1. There will always be talented people shipping in from around the world because of Ringling College of Art & Design. The college receives millions of dollars in support of its film and computer animation departments. There are students graduating every year ready to be employed as art directors, illustrators, photographers, curators, animators, interior designers, etc. Any studios that move in can count on Ringling to recruit the best of the beast.

It might be a nice place to die, but its an even better place to live. It's the time for Sarasota to transform once again. Let's make it happen!

Photographs by Van Jazmin

Dec 14, 2010

A Piece of Clay


Clay Barclay is a poet and a regular contributor to ZIGZAG since the first issue. His first feature was titled "Los Nuevos Pecados,"inspired by David Byrne's public art piece The New Sins. "The new sins are what we often mistakenly consider virtues: Beauty, Ambiton, Temperence, Contentment, Charity, Cleanliness, Honesty, and Hope." The first sin is juxtaposed with a still of Bill Murray as Raleigh St. Clair: "Our ambitions are a sin, the need to be better / and impress / just made us abandon our family and friends."

In the second issue, Clay returned with a pseudo existentialist journal entry on, "what is real?" written for public access of the school board. Concluding mockingly, "The answer is irrelevant. The chair is real enough for you to still sit on it and smoke out of your bong." Needless to say, he earned a D+ in his composition class.

Then on a hot hazy night in April 2009, Clay Barclay's steering wheel turned into shatters and he lost control at 90 miles per hour on an empty street. He survived the seven rolls in a crunched geep and the concussive wait for help, miles away from civilization.

After rehabilitating with all of his teeth intact and a metal implant in his ankle, Clay sent in two new poems for the 3rd issue of ZIGZAG. The first called "BONES BREAK" from the point of view of a soul suspended above a crash site, "I'm not the only one / Who's felt like they're in the wrong place." The second poem, "GRINNING SKULL" produces the image of a man who feels outside himself in a different way, inhabiting a space of inner solitude, a dead man's party. The narrator in Barclay's poems seems to be half man and half memory, appearing and disappearing in front of his own reflection.

How did the accident impact you as an artist?
I guess I wrote a poem about it.


Did you write while you were in the hospital?

No, I was to busy flirting with the nurses. I got a body rub out of one. Forgive me for not wanting to mention that he was an overweight black man.


Who do you admire in literature?

Most of the authors a young man should read while growing up. I'm mainly into modern works. To contradict what I just said I've been focusing on German literature such as Hesse and Goethe. They both have an incredible relevant feel to them. I don't know if many would count this as literature but I think that comics are a very underrated form of art. Each time I open up a new series I'm equally surprised to how much thought is put into them.

What compels you to write?
Sometimes I can't feel anything at all, and other times I feel way too much. I write during my period of emotion to celebrate my passion in my own way. CARPE DIEM! SEIZE THE DAY MOTHERFUCKER!!.


I understand you've intermingled at Ringling and in creative circles in Sarasota. Has that exposure had an impact on you, or have you met any artists along the way who've been inspirational?

Any relationship I've had with anyone was inspirational, of course.

What does ZIGZAG need more of?
New contributors! The last issue was amazing!

If you could choose who to illustrate a book of your poems, who would you choose? And what would you call it?
A very creative artist named Van Jazmin comes to mind. It would be called Sad Bones or Sad Boners, depending on how I'm feeling.

Where do you see yourself in 2012?
A place called Kokomo.


Who is N.O. Moriar?

N.O Moriar isn't real.

Read more works by Clay Barclay here at Sad Bones.