About the site
Where are the original projects?
What's Your Project?
The Influences Project
Project Maker Interviews
Get The Word Out Project
Cool Project Alert
52 Projects Newsletter
Jeffrey Yamaguchi Bio

52 PROJECTS

THINK OUTSIDE THE CRAFT

52 Projects is a site dedicated to thinking outside the craft. It's all about projects and project-making. Project ideas, projects to make, projects to check out, and projects to participate in. Projects, projects, projects.

Longtime readers of the site know that it began as a simple listing of projects -- beginning with Project #1 in early 2002, and continuing until Project #52 was reached in late 2003. I then took the projects down and began a new set of projects – "52 Projects with One Photograph." I took those projects down (after reaching #13), and have relaunched with the site you are looking at now. The new goal is to create an online project-making hub.

Where are the original 52 Projects? Those, along with many additions and essays and resources, are now available in the 52 Projects book, published by Penguin's Perigee imprint. More information on the book can be found here.

52PROJECTS.COM "CATEGORIES"

What's Your Project? – This is a component of the 52 Projects project. I wrote 52 projects, and the natural progression was to ask "What's Your Project?" People from all over have been sending in some wonderful, creative, inventive projects. Take a look, and please consider writing up and sending in your own project – to whatsyourproject AT yahoo.com. The more offbeat, the better. More details about whatsyourproject.com can be found here. I'm publishing the projects here at 52projects.com, but the main site for the What's Your Project? projects is located at whatsyourproject.com.

Get The Word Out Project – A collection of simple but powerful ways to promote your independent project.

The Influences Project – I've done many interviews with authors and publishers, and I always like to ask the people I interview who they have been influenced by. This ongoing project collects the responses to that question.

Project Maker Interviews – Project makers let us know about their projects, where they find their inspiration, their thoughts on creativity and the creative process, how they work, and other insights into their unique project-making endeavors.

Cool Project Alert – A quick link and summary of a cool project or project-making resource that you should check out.

52 Projects Newsletter – The 52 Projects newsletter mails once a month or so. It's a simple text newsletter. It features short interviews with project-makers of note, lists cool projects and useful project resources, announces collaborative projects, and showcases new projects that you can make your own. You can subscribe by entering your email address in the sign-up box to the left.

You can unsubscribe at any time. I will not share or give out your email address. It's powered by notifylist.com, which is a reputable newsletter mailer. If you have any issues with the newsletter, please email me directly (whatsyourproject AT yahoo DOT com) and I will make sure you are off the list. But please first try to use the notifylist.com unsubscribe link.

Jeffrey Yamaguchi Bio -- I guess it's pretty clear that I'm into projects and project-making. I like making them, and I am inspired by the projects of others.

My online projects, in addition to this one, include workingfortheman.com and whatsyourproject.com.

workingfortheman.com is the popular online work humor site that features a still growing collection of stories by working stiffs from all over the country. The hilarity of these stories - which are required to be read while you're on the clock - help all of us get through the drudgery of another day at the office. The site has been reviewed by countless websites, newspapers and magazines - from Time Out New York to the Utne Reader to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It was a Yahoo Pick of the Day and was named one of the Best 100 Websites of 2003 by Shift Magazine.

I'm also a writer. My fiction and journalism has been published in many print and online publications, including Fortune Magazine, The Industry Standard, Playboy.com, Bankrate.com, Guyville.com, Clamor Magazine, A. Magazine, Pindeldyboz, Inkspot.com, TeeVee.org, The Morning News, FamilyPC.com, Quick Fiction, Eyeshot.net, The Glut, Word Riot, Bullfight Review and more. Links to many of the stories can be found here.

In 2000, I self-published Working For The Man: Stories From Behind The Cubicle Wall - a collection of stories about the world of work.

I have led publishing and writing workshops at the Yale University Independent Media Conference, the Allied Media Conference in Bowling Green, OH, and at the Asian American Writers' Workshop in New York City. I was a presenter at the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards in 2002, and I have participated as an exhibitor in numerous book and zine festivals, events and conferences, including the Alternative Press Expo, BookExpo, the Anarchist Book Fair, and the Allied Media Conference.

If I had to sum it up, I'd say that I love to write, both fiction and non-fiction, and then create projects around those writings.

My wife, Juhu Thurkal, runs the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. The Sex Workers Project is a legal project which advocates on behalf of sex workers, including victims of human trafficking, within the context of harm reduction and human rights. Of all the projects that I know about, this is the one that I find most inspiring. Of course, I'm biased, but it is an amazing project that involves helping people who are written-off or ignored by society, (including agencies that are supposed to assist and protect), have no voice, and face persecution, violence and stigma.

Favorite beverages - Before work: small coffee with two sugars and milk; After work: Budweiser; After a long day at work: whiskey on ice; On special occasions that include my brother, father and grandfather: Johnny Walker Blue Label; At weddings: Gin and Tonic; After a long run: Gatorade (either the blue or orange), then water, then ice water, then Budweiser; On Sunday mornings: coffee, with milk; At a BBQ: beer from the cooler; At the bar: draft beer, trying something new, vodka, sometimes called, sometimes not, and whiskey, pretty much always called. Dinner with friends: red wine, then beer; In Marche: Peroni; In St. Maarten: Carib: Paris: wine; Costa Rica: Imperial; South Africa: Castle Lager and Amarula; Cambodia: Angkor; Peru: Cusquena; LA: Bud Light; Houston: Shiner Boch; San Francisco: Bass; Miami: Corona; London: beer; Occasional, and should have it more often: sake; After midnight: whiskey. When I'm alone: whiskey or Budweiser. Celebratory moments with my wife: Prosecco.

Favorite movies: After Life; Running On Empty; Uncle Buck; Y Tu Mama Tambien; Rocky; My Dog Skip; After Hours; Meatballs ("It just doesn't matter! It Just Doesn't Matter"); Singin' in the Rain; Better Off Dead; To Live; Quick Change; On Golden Pond; Weird Science; Goodfellas; Late Marriage; The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada; Ikiru.

Favorite television shows: The Wire; The Shield; Battlestar Galactica; Star Trek: The Next Generation; The Greatest American Hero; Freaks and Geeks; Six Feet Under; Seinfeld; Keen Eddie; Twilight Zone; Firefly; MI-5; The Office.

Favorite music: I like all kinds of music, particularly the Oldies, then all the music from my High School and College days; every single album by The Beatles (particularly tracks 8-17, less #13, on disc 1 of the white album); John Coltrane's A Love Supreme; John Denver's Greatest Hits; The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack; Tom Waits; Prince; Miles Davis; Frank Sinatra; Chrismas music; Talking Heads; The Moldy Peaches; Lionel Richie; the hip hop cds my friends Kendy and Eva mix and send me every year for Christmas; and this list pretty much goes on and on. Where I am, and when I am there, guides what kind of music I like to listen to.

52 Projects © copyright 2002-2008 Jeffrey Yamaguchi