Media Ephemera and the Joy of Creative Whimsy
Ever since I was around ten or eleven years old, sitting cross-legged on the basement floor of my childhood home on Wendover Ave. in Buffalo, New York pecking out “articles” on mom’s old typewriter for a makeshift “music magazine,” I’ve been a fan of creating media for fun, or idea dissemination — or even for no other reason than the joy of the creative process itself. (Sure, it’s a zine thing, but it can be so much more.)
The Monthly Saturn is a whimsical print-only periodical from Albertina Kerr’s Portland Art and Learning Studios, an art center and gallery for adults with developmental disabilities. I was privileged to stumble upon it a few weeks ago, and have been captivated by this precious piece of ephemera since I picked it up. I hope if you read some of it, you’ll see why. (Case in point: Hutch’s poem which ends with the verse, “I want a large pizza, and God is waiting.”)
Here’s Issue №1 of The Monthly Saturn digitized for your viewing pleasure. And if you dig it, check out the Art and Learning Studios Instagram page, which totally rules.
(Oh, and that “music magazine” I wrote as a kid? It might be considered the ill-informed screed of a partisan hack. After all, in it, my fifth-grade self argued the superiority of Duran Duran over Michael Jackson.)




