There Is No Cat - Jonesing for a Paul Lukas fix

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Jonesing for a Paul Lukas fix

Laura and I have long been fans of the world famous ’zine Beer Frame, of which 10 issues were produced by inconspicuous consumer Paul Lukas. It totally changed the way I look at the grocery store forever. I have a Beer Frame bowling shirt and the incredible Beer Frame CD EP of songs about products. I think we even met Paul at the Anywayfest in Columbus several years ago. It’s been several years now since a new issue of Beer Frame graced our lives, and I know at least one of my friends who reads this site regularly (hi, Shirley!) misses it as much as we do. So it was a real pleasure to find that Paul is still around, and still writing from his skewed perspective. In particular, he covers the undercovered sports uniforms beat for ESPN.com. He mentions in his FAQ on the site that there are still a couple of back issues of Beer Frame available, so if you missed out, here’s your chance to pick up one of the most fascinating ’zines ever published. The book mentioned in the FAQ is pretty damned good, too.

Tags: paul lukas inconspicuous consumption beer frame espn uniforms zines

Posted at 10:32 PM

Comments

i too remember beer frame from around the 1999/2000 era... a good read indeed that was. i only wish mr. lukas would ressurrect it.

Have you read his 1997 book, "Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, from the Everyday to the Obscure"? It was basically a hardcover version of the ’zine with color photos and even more offbeat observations.

Posted by marc at 3:35 AM, April 25, 2006 [Link]

Yup, actually, we liked the book so much that we somehow managed to acquire two copies. :-)

He also put out a CD EP of four or five songs about products by some of his favorite indie rock bands. That’s worth seeking out if you don’t have it. I particularly love The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle bellowing about the finer properties of Golden Boy peanuts from Singapore (which I’m not sure actually exist, but no matter), but all the tracks are fun.

Posted by ralph at 5:26 AM, April 25, 2006 [Link]

I and many others miss Paul’s musings. Any suggestions on other similar writers?

Posted by SM at 12:48 AM, June 29, 2006 [Link]

I’m not really aware of anyone who does what Paul did in BeerFrame; that’s really his schtick, and nobody else has picked up on it.

Even if you’re not interested in sports uniforms (I’m not particularly), his ESPN column is an amusing read, and he’s even blogging now on the same subject at www.uniwatchblog.com/ . I guess the ESPN column didn’t come out often enough to satisfy his writing jones.

Posted by ralph at 2:03 AM, June 29, 2006 [Link]