In the last few weeks, Issue 4 has been printed, delivered, admired, shipped, reshipped, and fêted!  The printed copies arrived in California two weeks ago, and Kaolin (Issue 0 & 5 Instigator/U.S. Shipping Poobah) confirmed they were just as pretty and shiny as we had hoped.   A few days later, me (Julia, Issue 4 Instigator) and Michael (Consulting Editor) headed down to Southern California for a visit -- to enjoy the company of our dear friend Kaolin, of course, not just because we wanted to see the magazine for ourselves.  Really.

The three of us (plus Kaolin's cat) spent a fun and sleep-deprived couple of days preparing shipments, talking about plans for Issue 5, and exploring new ways to prepare coffee.  The first thing we had to do was determine whether the manila envelopes we'd bought would stand up to the depredations of the postal service (we've always used Tyvek before) by preparing a sample shipment and then subjecting it to all the abuse we could think of -- friction, pressure, assault with blunt objects, assault of blunt objects, drop-kicking across the room, etc.  (Full video coming soon!)  There was a bit of wear and tear, but we determined that the manila envelopes were probably sufficient protection from anyone who wasn't making as much effort to damage the magazine as we were.  Then sorting, labeling, and so on, and we were off to the post office!  While Kaolin and I were dealing with paperwork, Michael tried to convince everyone who came up to the postal counter, not to mention the employees, to buy the magazine.  Don't know if it generated any sales, but we all had a good time.

This past Sunday, we held a GUD Issue 4 Release Tea Party at my place in San Francisco.  (You know, like a CD release party, except less strobe and more tea.)  A few contributors who live in the Bay Area came and read and talked about their work, plus we just did some general partying and enjoying ourselves.  (A couple of our contributors just so happen to have musicians for significant others, which was mighty convenient.)  It was a pleasure to meet those I had only corresponded with over email, and discover that these producers of awesome writing were, in fact, awesome people in general.

And then a couple of days ago, Debbie (Issue 3 & 6 Instigator/UK Shipping Poobah) got her box of GUDs -- only a week in transit, how exciting! -- and shipped them out all over Europe.  Our Australian Shipping Poobah should be receiving and reshipping hers any day now, and then we will have saturated the world with GUD stuff!

Disclaimer: I've learned a lot in this process of curating a whole magazine, and I could wax lyrical about many aspects of it, I'm sure, but I think the most striking thing I've noticed is that it really inspires even the naturally non-exclamation-pointy (such as myself) to use many more exclamation marks than is probably advisable under state health and safety regulations.  But I've learned to stop being embarassed about it.  Buy GUD!  It's great!!!!!

(Shipping photos from video by Kaolin Fire.  Tea-party photos by Jesse Burnette.)

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