Cups The Cafe Culture Magazine (1991-1999) aka Cups A Cafe Journal

CUPS MAGAZINE was a free monthly magazine that I was the editor of in the 1990s. We basically did whatever we wanted to do, and it was very fun pissing off people. We got to interview many people like Martin Amis and Mary Gaitskill. Many of the interviews that I did, and have included on The Portable Infinite, first appeared in CUPS. Regular contributors were William T. Vollmann, Dave Eggers, and D. Strauss. We started it in San Francisco and then moved to NYC in 1995. This issue above featured Vincent Gallo. He agreed to be in the magazine only if we would put him on the cover. I have found a bunch of back issues and correspondence. We were once sued for plagiarism. A story by a writer appeared in CUPS. It was by some teacher and the student claimed that she had been ripped off. We settled out of court. Many people who were frequently in the magazine, like Ronald Sukenick, David Markson, Gilbert Sorrentino, and Allen Ginsberg, are all dead now.

CUPS MAGAZINE started out as CUPS a cafe journal. The editor was Camille Stupar. She sold it to Dave Eggers and Lisa Tabb. Then David Latimer was the owner for most of the time. It started in San Francisco in 1991. There is a video of Judd from the Real World MTV visiting the offices in 1993 I guess. From 1991 to 1995 we were in San Francisco. We combined with Java Journal in 1995, and after that became CUPS The Cafe Culture Magazine. From 1996 to 1999 we were based in NYC. The last issue featured the actress from The Blair Witch Project on the cover. So that dates it to around July/August 1999. Although our magazine was distributed in LA and Chicago and other cities, and was available through TOWER RECORDS, we were never based in LA.

Some back issues are available at San Diego State College, NYU, and the University of Buffalo.