You would think that I would learn that I can’t do every idea that comes to my head that involves zines, apparently not. Yesterday ath the Square Foot Zine Fest I met a lot of awesome IPRC members that I didn’t know. We played boggle and talked about zines and zine culture and had a nice casual hang out day at the IPRC eating cupcakes and Voodoo doughnuts.
Anyway, a few of us came up with this neat idea to assemble some or or guerrilla stlye quick response zine unit that could be made up of independent publishers in Portland that would gather at things like First Thurdsday or Last Thursday with light weight maybe cardboard structures to sell and trade zines from. I figure there are enough of these people in Portland that even if we only have 5 show up that’s a nice representation of zines and comics. I’m not exactly sure where it is going yet but I think it will be fun. Let me know if you might be interested in being part of it. Even if you don’t make a zine yourself you can still be supportive. more details to come!
I’m also in the early planning stages of a possible zine tour with some folks from the UK who are going to come over here and rock out zine world! More info on that later.
In other news, Paul and I are headed down to Oakland next Monday. We are going to pick up my books at 1984 printing and take 2,000 to AK Press and sticker them with ISBN stickers. Then we are going to put the remaining 1,000 copies of Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 in a car and drive them back to Portland. Just in time too because I think I’m down to less than 200!
From there the plan is to drive up the coast and stop at the breweries we love, try samples and fill or beer growlers so we can drink when we get to our destination each night. I’m really excited because we have sort of been planning this trip for a few years. Breweries of Northern California that we are excited to see: Lagunitas, Russian River, Anderson Valley, Northt Coast, Lost Coast, etc. Then we want to camp in the Redwoods and then head over to Crater Lake. Neither of us have been to the Redwoods or Crater lake so I’m stoked!
When Paul and I first did the math it was cheaper to buy plane tickets, rent a car and pay for gas than paying to have the books stickered… but we didn’t expect the one way driving fees and the plane tickets were already bought. Now we are just lookinmg at it as a trip that will be awesome! It is a few days after my birthday so we’ll just call it my birthday trip!
My 32nd birthday is next Friday! Paul wants to buy me a new knife set so we are going to go knife shopping this week. You know you are an adult when you are stoked about the gift of kitchen knives!
Today I am teaching a workshop about Etsy at the library in St. John’s and then headed to an IPRC shift at 5. It will be a busy day.
Alex Wrekk 