Opium for the Arts

To be honest, Opium's Green issue didn't sprout from the soil of good will or even the landfill of eco-guilt, at least not at first. While concepting Opium5: Bad Company in January of 2007, I thought it would be fun to do an issue on fully recycled paper that looked recycled (every one of our past issues has used 80% recycled paper). So I decided Opium6 would be our "green" issue. Everyone else was going green, blindly, so I figured, blindly, why not? Later that month, I came across a New Yorker profile of Amory Lovins entitled "Mr. Green." Lovins is an energy legend. Google him and see. I loved how he didn't wave his arms, ranting and complaining. He's brilliant--business savvy and market-minded--about showcasing solution on a large scale. The way An Inconvenient Truth served as a wake-up call for many, that Lovins profile motivated me. But it's not so simple. Like many, I've drowned in a sea of complications. How do I lessen my carbon footprint, exactly? What are the dour doubters and churlish champions of the green movement saying, exactly? It's confusing enough decoding all the jargon and slogans. Everyone also has to be so serious and full of doom. So how can we make any of this funny, exactly? While I've never thought of Opium as being on the bleeding edge of satire--we aim for constancy in our comedy--I thought greenwashing was an opening for us to contribute to the conversation. Plus, I knew our resident hybrid writer/designer David Barringer would sharply lampoon the situation in a way that would impress, fluster and amuse--much in the same way he expertly chopped self-help at the knees in Opium4: Live Well Now (No Matter What). All that being said, I couldn't be happier about Opium6: Go Green! (But Save Me First). Not only is it as green of an issue as we could get it--printed on 100% recycled paper, with none of the issues delivered by air, setting the tone for all future print Opiums--it's also jam-packed with our rare blend of twist-until-titillated storytelling, a made-you-look! design, and ten bold pokes at "greenery." --Todd Zuniga, Founding Editor Featuring: STORIES by Aimee Bender, "A State of Variance"; Jill Holtz, "Tuesdays with Fink"; Aaron Garretson, "The Winner"; Rich and Tsetsi Curators, "100-Word Stories"; Benjamin Percy, "A Kind of Dark Pleasure"; Ken Wohlrob, "The"; Sharon McGill, "Man At Work"; and Thomas Cooper, "How we Remember Coach Fontaine." POETRY by Shya Scanlon, "Unsudden Doom"; Seth Perlow, "Sweet Laser Pointer"; C.J. Evans, "Metamorphosis"; Jensen Whelan, "The Weather Factory"; Blake Butler, "Weight Gainer"; Joe O?Neill, "Jailhouse Rock"; and Robin Beth Schaer, "Aphelion." 500-WORD MEMOIRS by Kelly Luce, "Blink"; Lara Coley, "Mansfield"; Anne Elliott, "A Turtle Weighs In on the Republican Nomination"; and Chesley Hicks, "The Bunk Test." INTERVIEW by Amanda Lear, "Pop Star to Paint Brush." CARTOONS by John Callahan and CM Evans. ART by Tymek Jezierski, "Nature Lovers." BEST OF THE EZINE by Herlihy, Kopka, Lynch, Bartelmay, Leahy, and Crowley, "Sweet Fancy Moses." as well as the winners and finalists of the Bookmark Contest and Opium's own Go Green! Guidebook.