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The masterminds behind the Don Schrader paper doll, snarky reviews of Flying Star and gun-toting Ladies of Guadalupe are calling it quits — but only for a year or so.
Eric Bodwell and Adam Rubinstein created “An Underground Guide to Alburquerque” for friends of theirs who were coming to town for a 2005 poetry slam. Rubinstein said the extra ‘r’ in Alburquerque refers to a city in Spain, after which Albuquerque was probably named. The guide features local businesses and the reviewers detail the quirky ins and outs of the establishments they review.
“Basically, our thought process was we were going to have a lot of friends coming in from all over the nation and we didn’t want them going to, like, Chili’s,” Bodwell said. “So we made the guide format to local businesses and places that we really loved, basically letting the secrets out about our city. And people loved it.”
Bodwell, who works as a custodian at UNM, said even Albuquerque natives liked the guide, so the team kept printing them every year. The guide includes reviews of everything from typewriter repair stores to hole-in-the-wall bars to graffiti viewing spots around the city.
“We started figuring out that people who were local didn’t know some of the places we were talking about, so we were like ‘Oh, well maybe this is something we can do, like, all the time,’” Bodwell said.
But because of financial constraints, Rubinstein said the guide won’t be published again until 2014, except for a short “arrival” guide in December. Rubinstein is a freelance designer, and he said he spends nights and weekends working on the guide. Last year, he and Bodwell paid themselves a stipend of $50 each for thousands of hours of work.
Bodwell said they have both paid thousands of dollars out of pocket to fund the project, just to print enough copies of the guide.
“It’s not a huge amount, but it’s pretty heavy considering we don’t get paid ourselves,” Bodwell said. “It’s really a labor of love. We love the project and there are so many people that give us positive feedback. So we’re like, people think it’s important, let’s make it happen.”
But Rubinstein said they can’t continue at the same pace, printing a brand new guide every year, and handing it out for free.
“Part of that is just our business structure, which is part of the reason we’re taking a break, and part of it is that we’re just way more committed to getting books out on the street than getting money out of it,” Rubinstein said. “The two of us could get another 200, 400, 600 bucks, or another 1,000 books could go out on the street.”
Rubinstein said some people were disappointed to hear the guide won’t be printed for a while.
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“There have been some people on Facebook that were sad, and there were a couple people on Twitter that expressed sadness,” he said. “What we can say is that when we get responses like ‘Oh no, I’m gonna miss you guys,’ or when people re-tweet us, there is no more powerful fuel for us.”
In the meantime, Rubinstein and Bodwell will focus on their website and putting out the arrival guide. Bodwell said they always need people to write reviews because the guide can’t be a conglomerate of his and Rubinstein’s opinions.
“Supposedly everyone has an opinion, but god, getting them to write it down and give it to you is hard,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many people say ‘Do you pay for these?’ And we’re like ‘No.’ So apparently people only want to write their opinions if they get paid.”
