My old friend Gareth Branwyn is the former Editorial Director of MAKE. He was also the senior editor at bOING bOING print, a section editor at Mondo 2000, and a Wired contributing editor for 12 years. Gareth has also written and edited over a dozen books. — Read the rest

I just learned that Randy Stickrod died in late July, and I'm in shock. He was 71. Randy was one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever met, and he was a great friend to many people in the early 1990s San Francisco publishing world. — Read the rest

The gestation and birth of Beyond Cyberpunk! and Borg Like Me as narrated by Gareth Branwyn.

Jon Lebkowsky writes, "EFF and EFF-Austin, working with the amazing Maggie Duval, put together this celebration of the 90s Internet and cyberpunk memes. On stage: Gareth Branwyn, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, William Barker (Schwa), Chris Nakashima-Brown, Aaron Jue from EFF, and yours truly. — Read the rest

I first encountered Eric White's freaked-out figurative paintings in 1992 or so when Bart Nagel, art direct of the pioneering cyberdelic magazine Mondo 2000, commissioned him to illustrate the issue #6 cover story about JFK and LSD. Last weekend, Bart visited Eric's solo art show, All Of This Has Not Occurred, at Los Angeles's Martha Otero Gallery and told me that his mind was suitably blown. — Read the rest

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, I hope you'll join me tomorrow evening, August 8, for "Boing Boing Presents: The Beats' Influence on Underground Publishing," a panel discussion at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. The program is part of "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg," an intimate portrait of the Beat generation in the form of Ginsberg's snapshots. — Read the rest

This week's episode of Gweek is sponsored by Rickshaw Bagworks, manufacturers of San Francisco-made messenger bags, backpacks, and laptop sleeves. Use the discount code boingboing for 15% off an entire order through August 15th. — Read the rest

Right now, San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum is exhibiting "Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg," an intimate portrait of the Beat generation in the form of Ginsberg's snapshots, hand-annotated years later. On Thursday, August 8, Boing Boing is presenting a panel at the museum about the Beats' Influence On Underground Publishing. — Read the rest

One year ago today

Vintage and slightly unsettling clip art gallery: Flickr gallery of 89 scans of old and and often eldritch clip art.

Five years ago today

Star Wars photoshopping contest: There are so many fantastic entries here — I was very hard pressed to pick a favorite. — Read the rest

In the mid- to late-1980s, Kevin Kelly was editor of Whole Earth Review, which was my favorite magazine (it’s no longer around, but it’s still my
favorite). It’s where I learned about zines, Factsheet Five, fractals, desktop publishing, the Well, artificial life, lucid dreaming, memetics,
virtual reality, smart drugs, the Church of the SubGenius, creative computing, and many other things that intrigued me and pointed to a different way of
living and thinking. — Read the rest

The first issue of the 'zine High Frontiers (1984), founded by BB pal and co-conspirator RU Sirius, is now online at the Internet Archive. High Frontiers begat Reality Hackers which begat Mondo 2000 which begat the cyberdelic early 1990s. "First Glimpse Of MONDO 2000 History Project Archives: Complete Issue #1 Of High Frontiers" (Acceler8or)

In the cyberdelic lineage of RU Sirius's publishing efforts, the 1980s 'zine High Frontiers morphed into Reality Hackers which eventually evolved into the massively-influential Mondo 2000. The transition from a "psychedelic magazine with a tech gloss" to a "tech magazine with a psychedelic gloss" was spurred primarily by its editors' growing interest in cyberpunk, virtual reality, smart drugs, and weird science. — Read the rest

Entry #20 in the Mondo 2000 History Project is R.U. Sirius' entertaining essays about his horrible belladonna experience in 1968.

It was early in the summer of 1968. Myself and my friends had heard stories about people taking this drug, Asthamador, that you could buy in the drug store that contained belladonna.

This week, Boing Boing is presenting a series of essays about movies that have had a profound effect on our invited essayists. See all the essays in the Mind Blowing Movies series here. — Mark

Like Tears in the Rain, by Gareth Branwyn

[Video Link] In 1982, my wife and I had just moved from a rural commune in Virginia to Washington, DC. — Read the rest

A 20-year-old photo spread from pioneering cyberculture zine Mondo 2000 asks the musical question: "R U a cyberpunk?" Bruce Sterling, who was, in fact, a cyberpunk, answers: "Since 20 years have passed, contemporary people will fail to realize that this was a comical self-parody." — Read the rest

Some time in 1976, I went into this very hip bookstore in downtown Binghamton, New York where I lived and came across two books whose covers screamed for my attention with their flaming psychedelic designs. I picked one of them up and read the blurb on the back cover. — Read the rest

As part of RU Sirius's Mondo 2000 History Project, he's posted a bit of a recorded conversation from 1989 between Timothy Leary and William Gibson. RU writes:

We were working on our first Mondo 2000 issue. It was going to be the cyberpunk theme issue and we'd gotten interviews with the major cyberpunk SF writers, except Gibson.

R.U. Sirius interviewed Marc Franklin, art director of issue #2 of High Frontiers (the forerunner to Mondo 2000 by way of Reality Hackers), magazine which 17" x 11". I still have the copy I bought when it came out in 1985 or so and it ranks as one of my favorite issues ever of any magazine. — Read the rest

Founded in 1991, Plazm is a wonderful Portland-based magazine of culture/art/design. Old-school bOING bOING pal Tiffany Lee Brown (aka Magdalen) is at the core of the Plazm collective. I've known Tiffany for nearly two decades, as she was a vital force in the vibrantly weird-yet-productive early cyberculture scene around Mondo 2000, Fringeware Review, and bOING bOING. — Read the rest

bOING bOING was a zine that my wife Carla and I launched in 1988 to
cover comic books, cyberpunk science fiction, consciousness
technology, curious phenomena, and whatever else surprised and
delighted us. That zine, which ran for 15 issues until 1997, evolved
into the very website you're reading right now. — Read the rest