AD:  Hi Ben!!  How are you doing this fine day?

BB:  I’m doing well. I’m sitting at a café right now, enjoying the sights and sounds and watching the people.

AD:  You edit a fine print journal called Cause & Effect.  When did you begin this journal and can you tell me a little bit about its concept and mission?

BB:  Cause & Effect is a journal of art, pop & words. Our first issue came out last September. We pressed two issues in 2007 before moving to a monthly print schedule this January. We continue to be a monthly digest, which is a challenging yet rewarding process. From its inception, C&E has for all intensive purposes been a zine, even a perzine in some senses. I started with two co-editors, Jack T. Marlowe and Ashly Salmon. The staff is two at this point, which is fine for now.

            Over a hundred artists and authors, from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Columbia, France, Ireland, Mexico, Nigeria, Sweden and the US, have been featured in Cause & Effect. Our current issue, which is our first stab at a Poetry Issue, features work from over forty contributors, all of them extremely talented. So I think we’re making a small splash around the world.

            I look for art and words that I find compelling. I tend to gravitate towards poetry in the vein of Bukowski or Brautigan. I find simple work compelling. I call it pop, in the sense that it’s easily digestible and caters to short attention spans. Magazines are pop, Maupassant was pop; literature is moving in a pop direction. I’m looking to print powerful yet simple prose. I think that’s what people want.

            I try to infuse each issue with some pop culture references. For me, popular culture, especially now, is an interesting study. Each issue features a handful of quotations that I find noteworthy from individuals like Beck, Hunter S. Thompson and Terrence McKenna. In January I began a monthly feature called Poptritus, which is basically a presentation of a pop artifact that I find intriguing. Pop culture and the individuals who inhabit it interest me tremendously. I think there are elements of pop culture, past and present, that are meaningful, and others that are essentially meaningless. I can’t necessarily demarcate between the two, but I gravitate towards certain historical and contemporary individuals and groups and movements. I want to include their words and thoughts in Cause & Effect, in part to acknowledge them.

AD:  Why did you decide on producing a print journal when the going trend seems to be publishing on-line?

BB:  Print is, for me, much more attractive than an electronic journal for various reasons. It’s gratifying to hold a book in your hand; you don’t get that gratification from an electronic journal or a Kindle. You lose something at once intangible yet invaluable in that shift. I think that this shift away from print is inevitable and maybe even necessary, but I still don’t like it.

            I have both a personal and a professional interest in print. There’s something important about the printed word. And I want to be part of that heritage; I want to contribute something meaningful, while I can. I’d like to continue to be a part of it, beyond Cause & Effect.

AD:  You seem to be a mysterious person and I had much difficulty finding any information on you other than your love for chess.  Do you have any educational or personal writing background that might have spurred you to create Cause & Effect?

BB:  Yes, and no. I do feel that I’ve been lead to this point in a very circuitous, convoluted way. Something just clicked at one point, and the next thing I know I’m putting out a monthly zine. The learning curve has been steep, and I keep adding variables to the equation—but that's what makes it fun.

            One of the main reasons I publish Cause & Effect is, I enjoy providing a forum for talented writers and artists who for whatever reason don’t fit into the mainstream. I’d like to think that what I’m publishing is meaningful. I have to believe that. So I’ve got a vested interest in what I print.

            I’ve always enjoyed building things. I enjoy the process. Publishing a print journal allows me to be an artist and editor and writer, all at once. There’s something very appealing about that. I enjoy the process—some parts more than others.

            Print design appeals to me. Typefaces do it for me. Art appeals to me, photography especially. I like poetry and flash fiction; I consider myself a casual consumer of the written word. I enjoy reading philosophy. Music is vital in my life. I think magazines are important cultural artifacts. I get to combine all of this and more in Cause & Effect, and to do it in a highly personalized way.

AD:  Jack T. Marlowe is your associate editor in this game.  How did you and Jack meet up to work on this project together?

BB:  Charles Bukowski introduced us, as a matter of fact. Jack and I share a great working relationship. We share an affinity for strong, dark poetry. We compliment each other’s strengths and weaknesses. He knows good writing, and I value his opinion highly. Jack’s also well connected in the small press and indie and underground writing scenes, so he’s helped me to establish some good connections. Networking is one of Jack’s strong points.

            I really can’t say enough about Jack. But I don’t think he’d want me to say too much. Jack’s just a good guy to have around the office, so to speak. I owe a lot of my success with Cause & Effect to Jack.

AD:  I have noticed that several issues of Cause & Effect are sponsored by MastroGiacomo Foundation For The Arts, do grants play any special role in allowing you to take more chances with what you publish than if you didn't have this backing?

BB:  I wouldn’t say grant money has allowed us to take more chances artistically, or in terms of what we print. Grant money hasn’t influenced or censored the content in Cause & Effect in any tangible way. I think money often gets in the way of artistry. Instead, the MastroGiacomo Foundation has been an ideal patron, in that they have encouraged me to develop C&E in any way I see fit, and have supported me fully. It’s reassuring to have that backing, both financially and artistically.

AD:  What type of writer or writing style are you most interested in showcasing on the pages of Cause & Effect?

BB:  The words and art in Cause & Effect are easily digestible and will appeal to anyone. I sincerely feel that anyone will find the content in Cause & Effect worthwhile reading, no matter their age or gender or political or sexual orientation or their interests and avocations.

            Part of my agenda is to provoke a reaction, to inspire thought. I’m interested in printing work that is provocative or unusual, but which also says something meaningful. Some of the content can be a bit edgy or incendiary, but that’s what I gravitate towards; I’m not going to censor my zine, or myself, for better or for worse.  The words and images in C&E tackle love, sex, drugs, drink, relationships, parenthood, death, birth, philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, art, and more. Ultimately, I want to document the human condition, as told by poets and academics and artists and everyday people. I feel that there’s a shift that’s taking place. I can’t deny this shift, we can’t deny that it’s taking place. It’s here, it’s happening now. Artwork and literature are caught up in this shift. The future is now. This shift is upon us—it’s exhilarating to be a part of it. Because we are, I am, you are, part of it.

            And I do want to be a part of it. I’m working on being a part of it. I want to print words and images that correlate with my state of mind, but which also correlate with the greater state of mind—with this shift.

AD:  Do you have any big plans or new directions for your magazine this year?

BB:  Beginning with our April issue, Cause & Effect will be available in digital format through our website. This is something I’ve wanted to make available for a while now, so it will be exciting to see it come to fruition. You will be able to download each month’s issue for free, which we hope will gain exposure for our contributors. Rather than charge a fee for the download, as some journals do, we feel that offering it free is the right approach for us.

            We’ll be having a one-night show on June 27^th at Steynberg Gallery to celebrate the release of the July issue, which will be our first Art Issue. This show will exhibit artwork and contributions from past issues, as well as look towards the future. This show should be a lot of fun, and will more or less mark one calendar year since C&E first started. So I think it will be an opportunity to reflect, to meditate on the past year.

            I’m also in the process of getting a small press off the ground. I hope to develop projects with writers who I am personally drawn to. This will essentially be an extension of what I’m doing with Cause & Effect. I’m hoping to have a few projects see the light of day this year; there are some really amazing poets and flash fiction writers out there right now.

AD:  Lastly, I want to know what you feel the state of the poem is in this day and time.  Do you think the quality of poems written today are opening or closing doors to its acceptance in the world, and are we doing anything to elevate its status?

BB:  What is the state of the poem? For one, that’s an impossible question to answer. I can’t even begin to answer that. I can’t comment on the state of poem—no one should try, either. You can’t put poetry or the poet on a pedestal; you can’t take a step back and objectively assess.

            I do feel we’re reaching a terminus, though. I think we’re there now, actually, that we’ve reached this terminus: that we’re at this critical junction: a proverbial fork in the road—except the fork is real, not proverbial: the divergence is real.

            I see a sort of coalescing of the arts right now, of things in general. Conversely, and at the same time, there seems to be a sort of fragmentation occurring along with this convergence. Poetry is evolving, most definitely.

            I think poetry, in the traditional sense, might have to be discarded at some point. But maybe it already has. I feel this might be the case.

AD:  Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.  I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.

BB:  Thanks, Aleathia. It’s been fun.