Volume 7 of Postcards from Irving is out Monday 3/11.
The contents include All Towns Small but Interesting: Port Huron, MI Venue Stories: The Hawaiian Room at the Lexington Hotel, NYC The Ben Irving Songbook: “Post Office Complaint” Plus a bonus, spirited rant inspired by finally reading James Howard Kunstler’s The Geography of Nowhere (1994).
If you would like a copy, some copies for your distro, or would like to subscribe (The 2024 run – Volumes #7-10 for $12 shipped) please reach out via the Instagram page. You can also mail $4 of well-concealed cash to Box 1309, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48804 and receive Volume 7 in the mail with a personal note. Just don’t forget to include your mailing address.
Volume 6 of Postcards from Irving (12 pages, color + b/w) is out now, and has been for the past week or so. Sorry – the holidays and end of the semester have slowed down the printing/mailing process, but the new issue has been sent out to most of the subscribers, and new one-issue purchasers out there should be receiving it by this weekend.
If you would like one, or to subscribe (a $10 donation gets you four issues, beginning with whichever one you’d prefer), please reach out at Box 1309, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48804, via tyler at sonicgeography dot com or via the Instagram page.
I’m hoping to get around to a 2023 wrap post or two, but in case we don’t speak before then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Happy Monday. I’ll post more about these (or, just repeat myself) as they approach individually, but I wanted to make sure to get these out into the ether before Thanksgiving.
On Tuesday, December 12, I’ll be appearing at the Hagaman Memorial Library in East Haven, CT to talk about some Ben Irving-related epiphanies. I’m looking forward to finally meeting and working with Chris Hemingway, without whose help you may recall a substantial portion of Postcards from Irving 4 would have been impossible.
On Tuesday, January 23rd, I’ll be back in Central Michigan, hosting a discussion with author Jason Klamm about his oh-so-fun book We’re Not Worthy: From In Living Color to Mr. Show, How ’90s Sketch TV Changed the Face of Comedy. Jason’s talk and Q&A will take place at 6pm at the Veteran Memorial Library Annex in downtown Mount Pleasant. Sleepy Dog Books will also be on hand to sell copies of WNW for Jason to sign!
More info about the book is available at Jason’s website here. Come on out and celebrate some of the great sketch comedy that made us who we are today.
I’m excited to announce that Postcards from Irving will be tabling its first zine festival table this Saturday in Indianapolis at Gluestick Zine Fest. It made perfect sense, given the amount of work I’ve been doing in expanding my research on the life and landscapes of Ben Irving, the primacy of Indianapolis (especially Black Circle Brewing) as a hub of outsider creativity and community, and the timing.
If you’re anywhere near Indy, stop by anytime between Noon and 6pm. Because it’s Black Circle, they’ll have good drinks available, great music spinning, great (or at least highly entertaining) grainy visuals playing at 4:3 aspect ratios, and you’ll have time to stop into both Luna Music and Indy CD/Vinyl before or after! In case I haven’t written about it here, Black Circle Brewing also hosts the annual Dead Formats Festival, which is the greatest gathering of all things VHS, Beta, cult, horror, and sleaze in the Lower Midwest. They also hosted a 3pm deathmatch which was one of the most insane things I’ve ever witnessed in public, so who knows what the Zinefest may have in store.
We will have special back-issues of Postcards from Irving (including color runs of #1-#3) and special new subscription cards ($10/year for 4 issues), plus some back issues of Horror Macaroni and a few copies of Zisk! A Baseball Zine for People Who Hate Baseball Zines #34, hot off the presses from Cape Cod.
See you tomorrow down in Indy.
Repeat-Photo of a 1934 Ben Irving Postcard taken March 10, 2018 in Indianapolis with the worst possible sun positioning. All rights reserved, Sonic Geography.
There’s a lot happening in Ben Irving HQ to report. Well, there are two things happening, but they’re both pretty exciting.
First, Issue 5 of Postcards from Irving (Summer 2023) is out now! They’re available for $3 PPD or equitable trades. Back-issues are also available for $3 (Issue 4) or $1 apiece (Issues 1-3). You’re welcome to send cash to PO Box 1309, Mt. Pleasant, MI or email me with questions about subscriptions/PayPal. Some back-issues (along with many other good-times zines) are available from Policymaker.
Second, I’ll be lifting my (highly translucent) veil of obscurity tonight to present, live via satellite, “A Postcard Tour of Pre-War New Orleans” for the Friends of the Cabildo, a French Quarter-based history non-profit. The lecture will begin at 6pm Central Time (7pm Eastern), and costs $10 for the general public. Admission link passes are available here.
A Postcard Mailed Home to Brooklyn, February 2, 1941.
Postcards from Irving Vol. 4 is out now, and in color!
Those with subscriptions should have yours by this weekend, and if you’d like one, please drop me a line via email or mail (PO Box 1309, Mount Pleasant, MI 48804). More info is here. Here’s the masthead and index of this quarter’s issue:
THE SUPPLEMENTS
The Hialeah Park (1970s-1990s?) Club House (?), which is mentioned in Volume 4’s ‘July All Year Round’ installment. It included one photo; here is the rest of the set. All contextual information can be found in the printed version.
I will also present this with absolutely no context. I promise it will make sense if you read Postcards from Irving Vol. 4, though. Incentives!
I’m going to be in Miami later this week to do some archival research, historic site visits, and some general exploration (about which I’ll share more if things works out). I’m excited to contribute Volumes 1-3 of Postcards from Irving to the zine collection at the Miami-Dade Public Library, as well.
If you know of any events, venues, or organizations that may be interested in learning about who Irving was and what I’ve learned about the highways, venues, and worlds he passed through, please get in touch.
Memo from Irving to Gertrude on his first trip to Florida | December 1933
After a long delay, the third installment of the Postcards from Irving zine is now out in the world. It’s 12 pages long, and features highlights of my interview with Jean Trim, a longtime resident of Quincy, FL (1930s-1990s). It also features a special focus on one of Irving’s first regular gigs at the now-gone Lyric Theater in Hartford.
Postcards from Irving Volume 3 masthead.
If you would like to subscribe, send me an email or write to PO Box 1309, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48804. Back-issues are $1 apiece and probably most easily paid for with cash.
Sonic Geography 