“Ain’t nothing like the real thing baby . . .”
Vocals: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Lyrics: Nikolas Ashford, Valerie Simpson

Jackie Robinson’s wife’s apple pie recipe—can’t get much more real than that. One of life’s heroes shares his wife’s recipe in response to a weirdly tender, curiosity query. And now, nearly 50 years later, instead of sluggers cards, zing trades recipes on its cover. But what is a recipe? An instruction that supposedly gives one the perfect pie, the perfect soup, the perfect magazine, and yet no recipe really works to perfection. Because of its intrinsic nature, the recipe beckons to be misunderstood, misinterpreted, misappropriated. Note the following instructions: “People think that they know how to make it. It seems so easy. Too often they’re not careful. It should cook anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes not two hours.” From Marguerite Duras’ treatise to leek soup, one hones those critical culinary distinctions: the minutes. As critical as minutes are, are the lovely informative instructions Mrs Jackie Robinson advises “drops of butter and lemon juice before place top crust on.” Such tips make the difference. Just try it. Make the apple pie with the recipe enclosed and you sure would get the jist. The individual tips determine the success of the pie or the soup. Recipes are only fitted to the cook, and the proportions of the individual—their eye, their sense of measurement, their sense of taste. So one might have the recipe, but do they really have the secret. What is necessary is the secret. But what is the secret? Nothing more than shared knowledge. As Duras says of her yearned for leek soup: “You can want to do nothing and then decide to do this instead: make leek soup, I mean. Between the will to do something and the will to do nothing is the thin unchanging line: suicide.” Ain’t nothing but the real thing baby.

Devon Dikeou
New York, New York
1997

Judith Findlay is a writer who lives near Curden Bay on the North East Coast of Scotland.

Jade Dellinger is an independent curator currently working on projects for Art & Idea in Mexico City, the Musee d’art Contemporain in Lyon and the University of South Florida. He is the great grandson of Baseball Hall of Famer, Edd J. Raush—and close personal friend of Evel Knievel’s.

Matthew Ritchie is an artist who lives and works in New York. He is currently working on a large scale project called “The Hard Way.” Part I of “The Hard Way” was exhibited at Galerie Mateo, Paris, Part II was shown at Basilico Fine Arts, New York and Part III will be shown at C/O Atle Gerhardsen, Oslo. In the last year, Matthew Ritchie’s work has also been exhibited in numerous group shows in Europe and North America.

Uscha Pohl just opened UP & CO, a “mutable open space” at 257 Church Street in Tribeca, a showroom for art, fashion and business!! Tel 212 966 7847 Fax 965 0697 Email UPANDCO123@AOL.COM

Jonathan Horowitz is an artist living in New York. His picture book Stair Master Anthology, and Bach piano recital CD are forthcoming. He is currently working on his first painting.

Paul Lamarre is a multi-media visual artist working in collaboration with Melissa Wolf since 1983. Eidia (pronounced idea) is used to identify their collaborative works. Their current project THE NEA TAPES INITIATIVE involves a video documentary of 200 participants. It addresses the subject of the NEA and its threatened demise.

Janet Biggs is an artist living in New York City. Her video installation, “Girls and Horses,” was shown at Chassie Post Gallery, NYC on March 1996. Her latest project, “Pleasure Ride,” was exhibited at Anna Kustera’s Gallery in September 1996.

407 is a group of architects, artists and musicians which operates out of the meat packing district in NYC. The focus of their projects has been design work and installation with an interest in acoustics. 212.627.0801 x407@smartec.com

Gregor Muir is the co-curator of “Lucky Kunst” (1993), which featured the work of Gary Hume, Sam Taylor-Wood, Jane and Louise Wilson. The following year he curated “Liar” (1994), which featured the work of Jake & Dinos Chapman and Cerith Wyn Evans. In 1995 and 1996, respectively, he curated the video programmes of “Speaking in Sofas” and “A Small Shining Sphere of Serious Culture.” Presently, he is developing an exhibition which opens in June 1997, at London’s ICA. A London-based art critic, Gregor Muir is a regular contributor to various art magazines and has written numerous catalogue essays including “General Release” on the occasion of the XLVI Venice Bienale.

Mike Ballou, artist and co-director/host of Four Walls and Adam Simon, artist and co-director/founder of Four Walls, were invited to Oslo, Norway to present a sampling of Four Walls events. They took with them a documentary video on a recent New York art movement, Dissociationism. The transcript of the video is presented in this issue of zing.