Author Profile: Chris Spicer

It was a crisp fall day in Michigan and I was in my Junior year of High School. It was the night of the Homecoming game and together with my friends Tom and Chuck "The Man", we had just finished an evening of skateboarding at a church in the vicinity of the school. We would get kicked out pretty frequently and come back later but being the good Christians that they were, we would simply get kicked out over and over again without the cops being called. After we were satisfied with our session, it was decided that we would go to the second half of the game. However, paying for a monument to jocks and ego was out of the question. We snuck through a hole in the fence and made our way to the bleachers. Sitting there, his hair and goatee ablaze with fiery red hair, sat Chris Spicer, the man who would become one of my dearest friends:

(Seen here in better times. We were no older than 19 years old in this picture, looking like a couple of jerk-offs from way back)

Tom, Chuck "The Man" and I had been previously discussing making a skate tape at the time and with our limited skills, we spent more time discussing the pranks and sketches we would include on the tape. After Chuck "The Man" told me Chris had an Asian girlfriend, an idea sprung into my head:

"Hey, I'm John. Listen, would you be willing to wear a Devil mask while your Asian girlfriend went down on you? On film?"

We spent the remainder of the evening cracking jokes and eating White Castle hamburgers, which were considered edible to us at the time. This was a decade ago. I still consider Chris a brother despite his dragass-ery every time I try and get him to return to Michigan (seriously people, make with the pressure).

Christian's writing style has always lived as a duality. There are times when he will be extremely cynical and send forth scathing criticisms of the populace which should make the average American rethink their idiosyncrasies. However, he is fully capable of using his curmudgeonly world view to offer hilarious satires and parodies of popular culture. I would be remiss to exclude that despite his bouts of nostalgia or cynicism, Chris has been known to enjoy cuteoverload.com and has a penchant for puppies and kittens.

Chris Spicer's writing can be found in le jolie rouge zine issue one where he offers a rather bleak view for our future.

Author Profile: Tyson F. Sleete

With the launch of the first issue, we wanted to give readers some insight into the contributors. Tyson Sleete, now in Brooklyn, was a staple of the Detroit scene in the years preceding his Michigan exodus. He can always be counted on for a late night drink and ramble as well as any ridiculous debauchery one can conjure up. Meet Mr. Sleete, as described by the notorious Geoffrey Baszczuk:

Tyson F. Sleete dabbles in business throughout his days, before returning to his castle each evening to extrapolate theological axioms, matters of high finance, the Rococo era, and whether hand sanitizers negatively affect one's immunity to certain viruses. Tyson was born and raised outside Detroit, MI He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY with his wife and pet turtle. His writing is, admittedly, a verified byproduct of 4 parts vodka, 3 parts nicotine.

Read Tyson's "Eleven and One Quarter Blocks" and "Raincoats" in issue one of le jolie rouge.

How I Spent My Winter

We're celebrating the first zine sneak peek and the launch of the blog with a preview of one of the submissions. Anthony Cholag came by our offices one evening with a request. Reminiscing about grade school and the writing sessions we used to do, Anthony presenting the following idea:

Just write for 30 minutes. About anything. Try and not think too much.

It was a fun time. Anthony insisted on writing with a pencil. We scanned it, printed it and photocopied it. The final printed page came out pretty faded despite our attempts at copy machine black magic. We decided that we would post the original scan here so that you may all properly enjoy it. With much nostalgia to our knee-high years, we present "How I Spent My Winter."

Issue One

Issue one has been edited, formatted and assembled! There is literally no way this project could have ever happened without your support and we are so proud to have participated in the first issue coming to fruition. This weekend we will be hitting the streets for distribution. The Facebook and Twitter page will be your source of where to pick up your issue. We will update them whenever we make a drop off. Without further ado, here is the Table of Contents for issue one, straight from our master template:



le jolie rouge.

table of contents:

Michael Bondy……………………………………………4

“On Anarchy Part One”
John Marchione……………………………………….7

“The Universals in the Specifics”
W. Truffaut………………………………………..….13

“Eleven and One Quarter Blocks”
Tyson F. Sleete……………..………………….15

“The Gather’s Guide to the Mushrooms of Northern Florida”
Eli C. Cooke…………………………………………….23

“Irony”
Kurt Monette…………………………………….………31

“How I Spent My Winter”
Anthony Cholag……………………………………….32

“Outer Forcer the Inner Forces the Outer”
Colloid Khrysos…………………………………….33

“Papaver rhoeas”
W. Truffaut……………………………………………..35

Chris Spicer………………………………………………42

“Fish”
Lindsay Farris…………………………………………45

“Raincoats”
Tyson F. Sleete…………………………………….48

All illustrations by Daniel Davies
Edited by John Marchione and Daniel Davies.










Issue one. Second Quarter 2010