The Numbers

Chrysler has already been bought by Fiat and many dealerships were forced to shut down in the process. Now, in the aftermath of the storm, our numbers are slowly building back upward. Managment is pleased.

We had to hire new employees to handle all of the new customers who would have normally gone to the other dealerships that have closed down. Many of their former staff were also at my desk, borrowing pens, filling out applications, waiting, waiting to speak to anybody who might hire them.

A few of them were taken in. Those who weren't just moved on to apply at the next dealership. They'll find a job. That is the nature of sales. It is migratory. Salespeople are like basketball cards, collected and traded by dealerships.

Margaret passes by my desk. "Have you read any good books lately?" she asks in her shattered glass voice. "Not in the past six weeks," I tell her, "but I'll probably be reading more now that I am finished my work for the City." She smiles, lips clenched together and walks toward the sales tower. She is always asking me for books to recommend for her son.

Marcos is sitting quitely his office with his hand over is mouth. His eyes are looking in my direction, but they look through me, as if he is deep in thought. He rises from his desk and walks outside to scan the lot. His grey hair shimmers in the morning light. He spots a customer by the yellow Ram 1500 and moves in to greet him. I wonder what he was thinking about. I should have asked him. He probably would have responed, "selling cars," whether he meant it or not.

Don't You Know, Baby Yeah Yeah

It's only now that he's dead that I think of Michael Jackson as the child he never ceased to be.

His first indelible impression on me came via a VH1 mini-series version of his young life. That horrendously abusive father who tortured his children toward talent, until one of them (young precious darling Michael) fulfilled those Jehovah's witness prayers. It seemed cruel that the young Jacksons were whipped with sapling switches and forced into state fairs and talent shows, but Michael was beatific enough to unravel the torture; he almost gave it depth.

The extent of his childhood idyll was demonstrative of a deeply stunted man. Adulthood seemed to be forced on him. He acted out abusively, effectively alienating himself from societal norms. In the end his astonishing feats were overshadowed by his embarrassing behavior.

It's easy to be a post-mortem apologist, trite even, but it’s coming more naturally to me than I would’ve expected.

**This is incomplete, but it won't stay timely for long. Figured I'd post now -- flesh it out later. I take back the "this doesn't make me sad" comment. It just took awhile to move away from "wow, something is really HAPPENING!?" You know?

TalkHard Issue 3

Here is TalkHard issue 3.

(Click an image to enlarge)

Cover Art by Manik Nakra

We are dead serious about Murderparty.

Next issue news/updates

Hello everybody. I just want to let you all know that the next issue of TalkHard is in the works and we are hoping to put it out in July. We'll keep you posted on what is going on.

This has been a busy month for us, due to a few other projects that we're working on. We should have more regular updates after June 25!

Thanks to everybody who came out to the Boho Coco Show. See you again at the next one.

Something is Rotten in the City of Austin

From the Boho Coco show at Co-Lab!
It was a fun show, and there will be many more!

TALKHARD ARCHIVE: ISSUE 2

We were still getting our margins right with issue 2, so some small parts were accidentally cut out. Below is the issue with notes on what was cut out beneath the respective pages.
Click on an image to increase its size.

We got a lot of emails about this one. The last sentence reads, "While I don't intend to ever make a career of this work, it will always be connected to me."

Nobody really noticed this accidental cut because it was so obscure. See the asterisk after Happy Thanksgiving? On the bottom of the page there was another asterisk with the note: "TalkHard Magazine does not condone the celebration of Thanksgiving."

This back cover is the one of which I am the most proud. I truly feel that this picture represented how Austin was changing, especially having seen my friends forced out of their apartments, where were being converted into high priced condos.

TALKHARD ARCHIVE: ISSUE 1

The first issue of TalkHard from Oct 2007.
Click on an image to increase its size.