Matthew Sheret

Written and compiled between 21.30 on April 9th and 09.30 on April 10th, sixfifteen (Screen friendly version found here) was the product of several chance discoveries:

* Sharing a table with Liz Greenfield at Thing ’09 the other week, Sophie Peck stumbled across The Polaroid Press while I discovered Pickle Grief. Post-Con we got into heavy conversation about writing, and made drunken promise, reiterated while sober, to make a ‘zine by the end of April.

* Walking before grabbing a coffee the other day we tripped over a mutual love for Wristcutters: A Love Story, which quickly became a reason to focus our writing. Spinning out of the film’s themes of death, love, life and escape we decided to create 16pages of original content overnight, fueled by cheap Scotch, plenty coffee and the knowledge that we would print or be damned by daybreak.

* Sophie’s work pattern is incredibly different to mine. With seldom less than four things on the go at any one time she works in a very fluid manner. I on the other hand pace around or flit through music until what I have previously referred to as ‘a moment of silence’ immediately before writing the first line of a piece, which I usually complete in one punch. That we were then able to throw fragments and phrases at one another, watch two attention-demanding films (Primer and The American Astronaut) and wander up Alexandra Palace (in time for the titular 6.15 sunrise) is testament to the fact that caffeine and booze are marvelous things.

* There is a loose plan to do this again, and another plan to leave
sixfifteen as an open-ended document, one we can revise for future editions, allowing it to evolve into a form of unzine if you will. Given how well suited some of the pieces are together (and how desperately I want to revise some of my entries already) I’ll be surprised if this is the last project we collaborate on.

* In the meantime, just click on sixfifteen to download a PDF version, ready to print and fold in your own home!