Paul Morgan

As fans of idiosyncratic local transportation modalities, we’ve dreamed of visiting the Duquesne Incline. Happily, the @pghartbookfair provided that opportunity. Thanks to The Society for the Preservation of the Duquesne Heights Incline for the liberal photography policy! Psyched @taxonomypress joined the jaunt.

As Current Editions gets ready to return to San Diego, here are photos I took from the last non–Che Café show we attended: February 20, 2006 — Graves at Sea at Scolari's Office Scolari’s “stage” was a tiny alcove in the middle of the bar, framed by a wooden slat wall and a crescent of rope lights on the floor. Plug in too many amps and the power would cut out—silencing both the band and the golf arcade game you were basically sharing the stage with. As far as I remember, the double Orange AD140s and Hafler P1500 Trans Novas didn’t trip the circuit breaker. For some reason Graves at Sea were the only band on the bill that night—only the second one-band show I’ve ever attended!

Need to pack because for the first time in two decades, @jessalynaaland and I are returning to San Diego! Our publishing concern, @currenteditions , will be tabling at COMPRESSED on August 23, thanks to our friends and early supporter @burn_all_books . While we’re in town, we’ll be researching a new publication on show posters from The Che Café. We spent countless hours there in the early 2000s—running shows, cooking food, washing dishes, holding meetings, and yelling at the UCSD administration. The roots of Current Editions, our art practices, and much of our worldview can be traced directly back to that space. The second photo is from February 25, 2006, and was the last show we facilitated at the @thechecafe . Band were The Pope, Zombi (then on Relapse??!), Orthrelm, and Wolves in the Throne Room (pictured here, photo by me AND SADLY they weren’t using the chain mic stand that night). @jessalynaaland booked the show, and before Orthrelm played she grabbed the mic to tell everyone to start bands—to fill out touring bills. It was very funny. Two weeks later we moved to the Bay Area. Twenty years on, we’re excited to return—CAN’T WAIT TO EAT AT POKEZ.

A sticker-letter enthusiast arrived in Emeryville this week. I wish I had more time to explore their work. READ THE COMPLAINT “IT’S BAD”

Every year Current Editions looks forward to the @seattleartbookfair , and this year did not disappoint.@jessalynaaland and I arrived a day early to visit the @henryartgallery . And ~*WOW*~ are we glad we did. The new acquisitions room included a cast resin sculpture by Fiona Connor: a dark green, near-exact replica of a makeshift bulletin board in Los Angeles—if the title Untitled No. 21 (Silverlake Dog Park) is any clue. Given how much community bulletin boards have shaped the @currenteditions ethos, it was a very on-brand way to start the weekend. Afterward, we took a breather under the cherry blossoms on the UoW campus. We needed a reset before the real chaos of the fair began.

Do you remember the saga of Humphrey, the lost humpback whale?? I sure do! It was a top Bay Area story in the mid-1980s. If you lived here then, it’s probably seared into your memory too. Humphrey was migrating from Mexico to Alaska when he took a wrong turn into San Francisco Bay. Local papers and television stations began providing daily updates. After meandering around the Bay waters for two days, Humphrey headed the wrong way up the Carquinez Strait, along the Sacramento River, before finally arriving at the Rio Vista Bridge. Lost, hungry, and some 70 miles from the ocean in fresh water, he was a news celebrity. Needless to say, this was a boon to local journalism. Wall-to-wall coverage ran nearly a month, until Humphrey was guided back to the ocean using underwater recordings of whales feeding—a real testament to the power of sounds! The city of Rio Vista installed a commemorative marker honoring their five minutes in the spotlight. On our way back from Sutter Creek for @jessalynaaland 's big opening, we pulled off Highway 12 to pay our respects.

“I bought them at an estate sale of a guy…he was..ahh..high up in the…ahh…” The seller trailed off to answer a question about his enormous selection of turquoise-inlaid cuffs. The Sutter Creek flea market meet was hot, dusty, and a little depressing. But this small box of union buttons was a wonderful distraction. “$50 for the whole box.” Here in Amador County (“The Heart of the Mother Lode") was a weirdly perfect distillation of mid-century working-class politics. Buttons for a spectrum of West Coast locals—cannery workers, timber workers, carpenters. And on top of them all: NIXON NOW “No, don’t take Venmo. Don’t trust it.” In the tray, our seller had unknowingly created a dissertation on 20th-century American labor. We didn’t buy it. Not quite at the level of hoarding which would necessitate this type of purchase. The next stall had a LOT of Bay Area cop patches.

Thank you to everyone who visited the @currenteditions table at @sfartbookfair ! I’m persynally blown away at the positive response to my new publication, Like Nothing on Earth. As discussed in the Current Editions newsletter (Please Take a Look!), fairs are a real check-for-understanding moment. Is this work legible to anyone? Have our thoughts drifted into oblivion? Does any of this make sense? Well apparently people are getting the vision :) An honorable mention to the visitors who engaged with, mulled over, or purchased one of my screenprints. It’s been over a decade since we were evicted from the printshop I built in West Oakland—100s of posters were designed and printed in that space. Reconnecting with Bay Area gigposter aficionados was a great value-add to the fair!! @mspfoundation #sfabf2025

Current Editions will be at @sfartbookfair all weekend—come say hi! We’re at H12 in the 1150 25th Street building. There’s a strong possibility I’ll be stuck in one of these two faces all day. Thursday, July 10: 6–10 Friday, July 11: 11–6 Saturday, July 12: 11–6 Sunday, July 13: 11–5

In 1992, I was sitting in the bleachers at a swim meet, listening to a cassette copy of Death Angel’s Fall from Grace live album. If you’d told me that decades later we’d be using their screenprinter to make tote bags, I would’ve been very confused. Thanks to @tntscreenprinting (in Emeryville!!) for closing the circle. BTW @currenteditions will have tote bags at @sfartbookfair !! “We’re going to blast your ass with something fast”

I’m happy (and relieved?) to debut a new book at @sfartbookfair —Like Nothing on Earth is the result of a nine-month excavation of a NASA archive. @currenteditions has a bunch of stuff planned for the launch, including a signing(?!), plus a variety of printed ephemera. These postcards start hitting mailboxes next week so keep your eyes peeled. A huge thank you to the workers at the National Archives who made this publication a reality!!

Current Editions’ trip to the LA Art Book Fair serendipitously aligned with an important date: the two-year anniversary of La Sombrita’s unveiling. We were busy connecting with our beautiful audience all weekend long, so the pilgrimage to La Sombrita had to wait until Monday. And let me say: meeting this celebrity in persyn did not disappoint. Arguably the most talked-about sunshade prototype ever, La Sombrita was developed by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation in response to their 2021 report, Changing Lanes: A Gender Equity Transportation Study. Because the construction of traditional bus shelters falls under the jurisdiction of the LA County Department of Public Works, LADOT pursued a more immediate solution—designing a shade structure that could be mounted directly onto their existing signposts. A characteristic of great art is in its ability to get the conversation going. And La Sombrita sure did! A huge thank you to @printedmatter_artbookfairs for perfectly timing the fair with this iconic anniversary.