By Kate Bingaman-Burt, obsessiveconsumption.com


A month or so ago, Brianne from Tender Loving Empire contacted me about selling my zines in her shop. I clicked on the link she provided and I was so excited to find out that not only was Tender Loving Empire pretty amazing, but they were located only 10 minutes away in the Pearl District. Sweet! 


cool sandwich board sign!

TLE (Tender Loving Empire) is a retail store, but it is also a media and arts collective, a record label, a publishing company, a gallery, a concert production house and a custom screenprinter. WHEW!

inside of TLE

They just finished organizing a TLE Music Showcase this past friday for the big Musicfest Northwest AND they opened a new show in their gallery this past Thursday featuring the work of Aidan Koch, Amelia Harnas and Jennifer Lee. Did I say WHEW! already?

Detail of a Adian Koch Watercolor currently on display in the TLE gallery.

Sampling of CDs on the TLE label. Image features cds by Nadine Mooney and Finn Riggins.

So let's talk about the goods, shall we?

I had a hard time just picking one item to purchase and ended up with eight choice items instead. Zoinks!

Entering the store I was immediately drawn to the spinner rack of zines and since zines are my guilt free purchase of choice, I bought five of them.

Creation and Super Special Number Two were created by Aidan Koch who is one third of the show that is up in the gallery this month. Mustaches for Fun and Profit was made with love by BT Livermore. Both Livermore and Koch are part of the Portland Zine Collective Robopocalypse. I also purchased Trans-Siberia by Tomasz Kaczynski and Chuck Cheese Please by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson (two zine heroes of mine). Please check out their site Funchicken. Do It!

Chuck Cheese Please came into my hands at an excellent time because I have been a tad obsessed with the history of Chuck E. Cheese ...more specifically, Showbiz Pizza...more specifically The Rock-afire Explosion which was the restaurant's animatronic band. Words can't express how excited I am about the upcoming documentary about the The Rock-afire Explosion. I digress. Chuck Cheese Please is filled with history, drawings and ACTUAL tokens and toys from Chuck E. Cheese. Swoon.

Detail of Chuck E Cheese

For my new office at school, I purchased an Unlovable Tammy Pierce Poster also by Esther Pearl Watson. I have a bunch of Tammy zines and I also have a tremendous soft spot for all things freak and geek (because I was one/ am one).

Unlovable Tammy Pierce can't wait to hang on my office wall. Look, she is skipping she is so happy.

My last purchases were two shirts. One shirt printed by TLE that features a drawing by Mike Bertino depicting boy in a bear suit and the words "stop rock and roll" printed on my favorite AA Tri-blend shirt. The other shirt was printed by Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction based out of Philadelphia. The shirt was a win/win for me seeing that I like super long shirts and I like wearing Walter Benjamin book titles on myself.

I chose the Art In the Age...shirt to draw for my daily purchase drawing.



OKAY! Today's shopping trip is over. For more TLE in your life, please browse through the slide show posted below. If you are in Portland, please stop by Tender Loving Empire and check out all they have going on. If you are not in Portland, go and visit their site, their store and their flickr. Heck, visit those links even if you DO live in Portland. Support TLE!




Post by Kate Bingaman-Burt
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