Andy Jenkins and his pals have clear-cut career goals. "We're trying to take over the world," the 31-year-old says casually. So far, so good.
Some time back - the early '90s to be exact - Jenkins, Mark Lewman, and Spike Jonze were the masterminds behind Dirt magazine. Something of a Sassy for boys, Dirt was smart, irreverent, and doomed. It published seven issues and went on to collaborate with ESPN2, a 24-hour sports network geared toward a younger audience, before its publisher, Lang Communications, finally pulled the plug last year.
"We struggled with the corporate side constantly," says Jenkins. "They never put up the money it needed to grow." Today, the trio (which answers to the title Master Cluster) has moved from magazine publishing to planetary domination, one medium at a time. They're omnipresent - in books, films, videos, and sports. After Dirt, explains Jenkins, "The three of us got pretty frustrated trying to sell our product to other people and having them try to get their fingers in it."
Jonze is now a director at the video-production company Satellite Films, and he has rapidly become the darling of MTV. He directed such heavy-rotation faves as Weezer's Buddy Holly, Wax's California, and the Beastie Boys's Sabotage. The latter, Sabotage, a video with all the polyester and sideburns of a vintage Quinn Martin production, received four MTV Video Music Awards nominations and helped earn Jonze Billboard's 1994 Music Video Director of the Year award.
Jonze is now set to break out of the three-and-a-half-minute genre with his first feature, an adaptation of the children's classic Harold and the Purple Crayon. He's also co-writing an original script with Jenkins and Lewman. "The three of us together balance each other out," Jonze says. "We're always going to do stuff together."
They dipped their toes first into start-up skateboard companies Girl Skateboard Company Inc. and Chocolate Skateboards. Jenkins serves as their creative director, in charge of "anything visual" - boards, ads, stickers, and logos. "Girl was the beginning of realizing that we could do projects on our own," says Jenkins.
Jenkins is also putting together two new publishing ventures. Lunchbox Publications, devoted to children's books, is launching three titles this year, including one penned by Douglas Coupland. Bend Press, Jenkins's other publishing effort, takes its name from the zine Jenkins founded nearly a decade ago. The first release is a compilation of letters to Jenkins, entitled I Check the Mail Only When Certain It Has Arrived.
Mark Lewman, meanwhile, continues to produce his own zine, Chariot of the Ninja, a chronicle of "subversive haircuts, bike stunts, and Japanese rap music."
In their efforts to create works of permanent quality - from films to skateboards - all three men are putting in some serious odometer punishment. "Girl is in Torrance, I live in San Pedro, Spike lives and works in Hollywood, and Lew is in LA," says Jenkins.
"I spend a lot of time driving."
As long as they're going where they want to go, no one seems to mind.
Girl Skateboard Company Inc.: +1 (310) 517 0059. I Check the Mail: US$10.50 postage paid. Bend Press: PO Box 886, San Pedro, CA 90733.
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Dirt Alumni Clean Up
