RR Interviews: Zan McQuade of the Cincinnati Anthology (Pt. 1)

Zan McQuade is the editor of The Cincinnati Anthology, a pretty incredible 200 pages of the city, what brings it together, what pulls it apart, and how convenient it is that the red and white of Cincinnati jerseys match the red and white of a stitched baseball. The Anthology is very cool, very mixed-media, and very much something you should buy for only $20. Barring that, you could at least read us talking about it:

Cy Schourek:

The Anthology. Why you? What makes you qualified to edit it, what did you hope to bring to it?

Zan McQuade:

I honestly don't think I was any more qualified than anyone else, I just really really wanted to do something like this. I'm an editor by day, so that was easy, but the important part was having the desire to bring together these stories.

Mostly I knew how inspired I was by this city, and I knew there must be others, and so I wanted to draw their stories out of the woodwork.

I actually contacted Belt because I originally wanted to do a website, and when I saw that they were doing something similar, I wrote to Anne Trubek, the editor, for advice. She said, "you should do a Cincinnati book."

CS:

and she was right!

ZM:

They were planning on doing a Detroit book anyway, so the Cincinnati book fell into place. She was write. This city needed its own book.

It needs lots of books! I don't think we fit everything into this one by any means.

CS:

No, and I'm glad that that wasn't the intention. Definitiveness is not a goal conducive to bookmaking, I don't think.

So the next question that comes from this is; why did you choose these writers? ("how" might be a better verb)

ZM:

The writers came from two different sources: some submitted, and others were ones I wrote to and either asked them to submit or asked for permission to use pieces I found and loved. Once I received all the submissions, I started to see how the book was forming, and what was missing, and the ones I contact were the ones I wanted to fill those gaps. I had also read a lot of great pieces over the past few years that I knew had to be in the Anthology.

CS:

who did the design/printing/making-of-a-physical-object? The typography in particular is gorgeous

As a sidenote, I was so freaking excited to see Maya Drozdz' sign art in there. Handpainted signs are such a pretty thing and a Cincinnati-specific thing

ZM:

Full credit for the design goes to Chris Glass. He is an amazing designer, though this was his first full book. I told Belt/Anne that I wanted to be fully in control of the design, because I knew Chris would do such a great job, and he did.

ZM:

Maya [Drozdz, who curated the signs] was a big supporter of the book, and a big promoter as well. Her attention to design detail is fantastic, and her ability to tell a story through those hand-painted signs was a perfect addition to the book.

I wanted the book to be as visually interesting as it was to read: a huge part of how Cincinnati inspires me is visually. That had to come through.

CS:

Which leads me into my next question...

Why Cincinnati? I mean this both as "what is your connex to the city?" and "what makes Cincinnati different than Detroit or Milwaukee or St. Louis?"

ZM:

WELL.

This is a favorite subject of mine.  I lived in New York for 11 years, and when we were about to leave, we thought we'd visit a bunch of different cities and see where we felt was best for us to be.

I'm from Southwestern Ohio, just north of Cincinnati, but I hadn't really considered it in my adult life. My husband and I visited, and fell in love.

When I first moved here three years ago, I heard a lot of "well, we're no Manhattan," and I used to hate the comparison. But I found I was doing it too, and I realized that Cincinnati needed to just be considered for the Cincinnati that it was.

That's what I wanted the book to be.

CS:

Well what you just said is interesting for two reasons that I want to get at

First being, then, where does Cincinnati fall in the idea of regionalism? I realized I loved Cincinnati while living in St. Louis, because the cities are just so danged similar (brick-built river towns).  And now living in California, I've gotten to become a bit of a Ohio River Nationalist in differentiating all of our weird intra-flyover idiosyncrasies

ZM:

To tell the truth, I've not been to that many midwestern cities I could compare it to, other than maybe Pittsburgh (not really midwestern, but you get the idea).

CS:

so how much of Cincinnati's history (and context) is Cincinnati's alone vs. Cincinnati's to share with the region, in your idea?

ZM:

But I think that Cincinnati likes to retain its own identity, and doesn't really care how it compares to other cities.

To give you a story about that: I was recently at the OK GO show at Midpoint, and the lead singer was trying to get us to sing the chorus. He told us we weren't as good as Cleveland, and didn't we want to be better than Cleveland? So we all tried again. And then he said "that's good, but not as good as Chicago. Don't you want to be better than Chicago?"

And everyone went "eh."

CS:

haw

ZM:

I think we're happy to be who we are here, and not really try to present ourselves as something better than other cities. But we like to celebrate the things that we love about our city, so it becomes about being comfortable just being Cincinnati, but trying to define what that is. It's a riddle and a conundrum, and I think it's something we'll always be debating.

CS:

So the second question gets us (finally!) to baseball. This Cincinnati-within-its-own-context is especially true for baseball, where every team is Definitely Not The Big Red Machine, No Sir, Now That Was A Team

ZM:

There can be no other.

CS:

Which is just really frustrating as someone who likes sports, and wants to like them for their own sake.

ZM:

I think you can like them for their own sake AND be loyal to a team.

CS:

Now I don't know much about pre-Machine Cincinnati: my parents met at UC in the 70s so that team is very much part of family lore. But at the same time...am I fair in saying "guhhh, get over yourselves about the big red machine"?

ZM:

I came to baseball super late: really just when I moved here. I mean I grew up with baseball, the Pete Rose as manager era, Eric Davis, etc, but when everyone here talks about the Big Red Machine, or Ken Griffey Jr, I'm not just sad I missed out, I'm also a little bit like, can't I have my own appreciation?

But pretty much it's as if I've never seen a game since I never saw Junior play. Or Johnny Bench. But I think this city holds on to its pride over those eras really tightly.

CS:

yes

ZM:

Pete Rose was Cincinnati, as Jack Heffron attests.. Ken Griffey Jr. too. They both grew up here, so it really mattered.

CS:

Do you think it's a citywide thing or just a sports thing?

ZM:

I think it's a citywide thing. I think I didn't really understand this city until I understood its sports, and I Think that's a positive thing that is part of the nature of this city.

Of course people who lived comfortably here in the ‘70s would say it was better then. And people who are being kicked out of their neighborhoods downtown now might say it was better just a few years ago. I think sometimes Cincinnati is a little bit uncomfortable with change, so whatever it was before the change is what people like.

Apart from young people. They love the bikes and the restaurants and the music festivals.  So I think they're cool with everything.

CS:

It was interesting reading in the anthology about how many young people were returnees, and the reactions of complete Cincinnati noobs, and how their reactions to the city were mediated through these returnees.

ZM:

And interestingly, Katie Laur, who wrote the piece about Irma Lazarus, has seen this city through a lot, and still loves it to death, every inch of it. She's a good person to talk to about this city.

Yes, a lot of young people are coming back in droves.

I'm a noob too, if we're gonna be real.

CS:

But baseball is, for the young people, a sort of way to latch onto Cincinnati identity, I suppose

ZM:

Baseball is, honestly, the singly best way I can think of to experience what this city is about.

CS:

I'm thinking of Sam LeCure's #5things when I say this. Because like, what better example then the dude being paid a lot of money to try and figure out what's worth doing in Cincinnati.

ZM:

Sam's #5things piece is probably my favorite thing in the entire book, simply because he could have ended up in any city in the country, and he ended up here, and he embraced it so well.

His appreciation is the type of appreciation I wish everyone would have.

CS:

How did he get involved? You just @ him on twitter?

ZM: Pretty much! I've been a fan of Sam's Twitter acocunt (and pitching) for a while, and I knew a #5things list about CIncinnati would be perfect for the book. I @'d him on Twitter, and he replied with his list like an hour later

CS:

Lecure seems like a peculiarly midwestern sort of baseball player. Is this me projecting? Or do you notice a difference in fanhood between NY and CIN?

ZM:

No, 100%: baseball here is way more down to earth. I went to Yankee Stadium once, and you couldn't hear the baseball through the conversation. I'm sure there are real Yankee fans, but I just feel like here baseball is something really earthy, really visceral.

Sam LeCure is the type of player that you would want to have a beer with, and I think the fans here are those types of fans. We understand that the guys out there on the field are people who grew up with a dream to do something they love.

CS:

(and if so, why do so many Reds fans and Reds-affiliated media people seem to get so much joy out of hating the Reds?)

ZM:

Well, now there's a conversation to be had about what some consider self-loathing, but to me it goes back to the fact that we don't feel the need to be Chicago. I think that here in Cincinnati it's way more about the experience of being the best we can and still being true to ourselves. So when we lose, it's hard because it's really who we are.

This is my deeply philosophical interpretation of baseball, and Ohio.

To tie this to the book, we're Pete Rose. We do our best, and we're amazing, but then we screw up, and people judge us. But it's who we are, and we don't turn our backs on that.

CS:

Confession that will make me enemies: I'm totally done with Pete Rose! I wanna be Joey Votto! Hard worker, earnest as heck, and doing my own damn thing.

ZM:

I have mixed feelings on Pete Rose, but I love him purely for being the perfect metaphor for this city. Joey Votto is Canadian, which is great! He'll just never be as down and dirty as we can be here. We make mistakes. Joey Votto doesn't really make mistakes. Unless he's injured.

CS:

I just don't like Rose-as-icon because it takes away the opportunity for many icons

ZM:

That's true!

CS:

"He's no Pete Rose" no? But he's a very good Eric Davis. And that's also good

ZM:

I actually think Junior would be a better icon for this city. He did his own thing too. And he's soft spoken, like this city...well, at times.

CS:

Junior as icon would be too depressing...which, in a way, might be right.

Who's your favorite Reds Instagram?

ZM:

I am currently obsessed with Johnny Cueto's Instagram account, mostly because he's reclining in nearly every photo.

CS:

YESSSSS

That was the right answer by the way

ZM:

For that reason alone, he might be my favorite.

CS:

Also, his kids (nephews/nieces?) are adorable

ZM:

I call him "Johnny Beisbol In Repose"

CS:

El Lanzador Reposado

ZM:

I am a huge fan of all the players that post family photos. Not because I need to see their families, but because I appreciate that they consider their families an important part of their lives.

CS:

I feel like no PR/agent would let Cueto's Instagram be of him lying around and w/e, and that unfilteredness is great. Though Jumbo Diaz and Ramon Santiago going to Disneyland together was also pretty good, I have to say.

ZM:

It's perfect. Bring on the sauna shots, Johnny. We love em.

Jumbo is my second favorite! Did you see his kid in the bunny costume?

CS:

Yes, his kid is the best kid.

ZM:

Probably the most adorable thing in the world.

Or was it a lamb?

Some fuzzy adorable creature that made me imagine Jumbo going "awwwwww!"