The 2015 LA zine fest was a blast, our DIY Buffy the Vampire Slayer tour was pretty rad, and pdxcarpet is a thing

Did you know the Portland airport carpet is a thing? It’s totally a thing. It’s a thing on Instagram so it must be a thing! I may not have been born in Oregon but my mother swears that the raised me to be an Oregon girl and I’ve been coming to the Portland airport since I was an infant to visit family right up to my 21st birthday trip (it was all about the craft beer!) I moved here in 1999 when I was 22. The Portland airport carpet has been a staple since 1987 when I was 10 years old. I was an angsty teen dressed in a Vision Street Wear or oversized Cure shirt and attempting to drown out the word with my headphones while being dragged away from a Utah summer with friends to hang out at my grandparents or cousin’s houses. I walked on that ugly obnoxiously bright carpet saturated in late 80s jewel tones. I think it was one of the first airports that had carpet and they didn’t allow chewing gum so that the carpet wouldn’t get ruined. That always reminded me of the Shonen Knife songs about no chewing gum in Singapore.

Anyway, since they have decided to update the ugly carpet people have been taking photos of their feet at the airport and tagging it on instagram with #pdxcarlet Let’s make no mistakes, the carpet is old and gross but I can’t help join in the celebration of my favorite city and my favorite airport, and my home. So, here’s my feet on the way to L.A.

L.A. Where it was going to be 85+ degrees and I left Portland in a heavy coat and leggings under everything where it was probably in the high 40s.

I got in pretty early in the morning and my lovely host, Amber, was working but my buddy Jonas was in town so I went to go hang out with him. The house he was staying at had a tangerine tree in the front yard. I utilized his tall-ness to grab one for my shortness. It was perfect. I don’t know why I’m always mesmerized by the fact that you can just grow citrus and avocados in California, but I am.

What’s a trip to the California coast without a photo of the sun setting into the ocean?

On Saturday Jonas, Amber and I had planned a DIY tour of Buffy the Vampire Slayer filming locations!

Our first stop was the house used as Spike, Drusilla, and Spike’s house. It’s a Frank Lloyd House called the Ennis House:

The next stop was an apartment building that served as the Hyperion Hotel in Angel. We could only get into the courtyard.

Next up! A cemetery that some of the scenes were filmed at. Most cemetery scenes were filmed on set, but this was a pretty cool cemetery.

Amber and Did a silly most crypt scene

After that we headed to Torrance to Buffy’s house! 1630 Revello Drive is not actually on Revello drive. The yard had more foliage than expected. There were bushes of lavender lining the walk and we loitered around outside like Spike.

And also took a selfie with the Summer’s residence.

After that we found Sunnydale High, which was actually Torrance High. We were excited and when we walked up there was a guy there who asked me “Are you also here to take a photo of Sunnydale High?”

It was a very “California” high school with lots of separate buildings and court yards to wander around in, not contained at all.

The famous court yard!

those damn stairs

It was super fun! I suggest you make your own tour if you get a chance.

The next day was the L.A. Zine fest Here’s the Portland Button Works table

Here is a portion of ONE of the TWO rooms

Here’s me with the rad shirt my friend Jonas gave me

Prepanel photo with Kelli (That Girl) Aurora Lady, me, and our moderator Joshua James of Antiquated Future distro

here’s me on a panel with some awesome zine friends  talking about perzines and what and how you choose to tell personal stories.

What’s a zine fest without some games of Mystery Sharpie Knuckle Tattoo games! This one was my favorite with Adam Gnade from Pioneers Press.

Photobooths with friends is another staples of zine fests!

And then I headed back to Portland where the weather was unseasonably nice! I didn’t even have to wear the leggings I brought as part of my carry on!

Two more zine things!

I just supported the Olympia Zine Fest’s Indiegogo campaign! You should do that too. You can get a table at a discount!

Also, The Chicago Zine Fest will be in May this year and we just signed up! Tables went quickly but we made the cut!

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Stolen Sharpie Revolution is on tour! A blog tour!

Hey! I’m going on a blog tour with the Stolen Sharpie Revolution book! There will be reviews, interviews, and giveaways! Please check out these blogs on these dates for more info!

• January 17th The Book Adventures of Emily
• January 20th Crafty Mom Zen
• January 21st Literary Lunes Publications
• January 23rd Books and Bowel Movements
• January 26th Flora’s Forum
• January 27th Books are love
• January 29th Book Fidelity
• January 30th Proper Noun Blog
• February 1st Sonya Ellen Mann
• February 2nd The Gal in the Blue Mask
• February 4th my name is Sage
• February 7th Hogwash

Stolen Sharpie Revolution (5th edition!) Is back from the printer!

After a successfully funded kickstarter the new edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution has returned from the printer! It is available direct from the Portland Button Works Etsy shop and the Portland Button Works website as well as Pioneers Press, Powell’s Books, and Amazon.com More distros and stores to follow soon! If you are interested in carrying Stolen Sharpie revolution get in touch: portlandbuttonworks@gmail.com for wholesale pricing.

If you are in the UK or Europe and would like to save on postage, consider ordering from Steve Larder in the UK.

Stolen Sharpie Revolution

a DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture

Author Alex Wrekk

with contributions by Sugene Mine, Jerianne Thompson, Sage Adderley, Jenna Freedman and illustrations by Steve Larder

Format 4.25” x 5.5” paperback

Pages 152

Price $8.00

ISBN 9780981794112

Since 2002, Stolen Sharpie Revolution: a DIY Resource for Zines and Zine Culture has been the go-to guide for all things zine-related. This little red book is stuffed with information about zines. Things you may know, stuff you don’t know and even stuff you didn’t know you didn’t know! Stolen Sharpie Revolution contains a cornucopia of information about zines and zine culture for everyone from the zine newbie to the experienced zinester to the academic researcher.

Stolen Sharpie Revolution consists of thoughtful lists and step-by-step how-to guides on everything from definitions of a “zine,” where to find zines, why they are important, how to make them and how to participate in zine culture. This book has everything you need to get started creating your own zine, or to figure out what to do with the zine you just made.

Stolen Sharpie Revolution serves as both an introduction into the wide world of zine culture and as a guide to taking the next step to become a part of it.

*Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads * stolensharpierevolution.org *

Stolen Sharpie Revolution (5th edition) Kickstarter Update!

We have 18 days to go and I wanted to post a little run down of the progress.

So, I’m going to make this chronological list of notable things so far:

• Day 3: The Stolen Sharpie Revolution Kickstarter became a “Staff Pick” on Kickstarter AND we hit the first $1,000. Stoked!
• Day 7: We hit 25% of our total total and I started using doubled sided tape instead of glue sticks.
• Day 8: We hit 33% of our goal and I launched a tumblr giveaway. Check it out on tumblr and feel free to reblog for a chance to win a copy of the book and some other goodies.
• Day 10: I finished with all of the content layout! The page count for the 5th edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution will either be 152 or 160 pages depending on a few things that are yet to be determined.
• Day 12: We reached 100 backers!

I’m hoping to break the half-way point: $3,000 or more this weekend. I’d love it if you could help me reach that goal!

Check out the kickstarter here.

in zines we trust,

Alex Wrekk

Stolen Sharpie Revoltion (5th Edition) Kickstarter Campaign! We’re a Staff Pick!

I am launching a kickstarter to print the 5th edition of the book Stolen Sharpie Revolution: a DIY resource for zines and zine culture and I need your help! SSR has been the go-to guide for all things zine-related for over a decade and we want to keep it going for many more! This little red book is bursting with all things ZINE: things you may know, stuff you don’t know and even stuff you didn’t know you didn’t know! Stolen Sharpie Revolution is a cornucopia of information about zines and zine culture. It’s for everyone from the zine newbie to the experienced zinester to the academic researcher. It is beloved by zinesters everywhere and has even been used in university classrooms as a basic text for understanding zines.

With over 21,000 copies in print, this book is poised to break the quarter-hundred-thousand copy barrier at least BUT I NEED YOUR HELP! Help fund this kickstarter by pre-ordering a book or, get yourself a fun reward.

Working on the 5th edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution and I need your photos!

With 21,000 copies of the book in print through 4 editions, Stolen Sharpie Revolution has been the go-to resource for zines and zine culture since 2002. However, Stolen Sharpie Revolution is currently out of print. I’m about to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund a 5th edition and I need your help!
I’d like to make a Kickstarter promo video with photos of Stolen Sharpie Revolution, including your photos! Show me photos of SSR on your bookshelf, in a shop window, on a table at a zine fest. Show me SSR with with you cats, dogs, or hedgehogs! I’d love to see a copy in the middle of you floor scattered with zine making scraps, tucked out of your backpack, or being read in public. All submissions that are included in the video will receive a free copy of the book when it is printed.
All submissions must be received by 2 February 2014 Submissions should be sent to: StolenSharpieRevolution@live.com

STOLENSHARPIEREVOLUTION.ORG

Did you know that the zine resource listings that have always appeared in the back of Stolen Sharpie Revolution are now collected and updated on the StolenSharpieRevolution.org website? The resources were always the most difficult part of upkeep and a website makes this so much easier. Check it out for zine distros, stores that sell zines, a calendar of zine events and more!  As always SSR is only as good as the information I have. If you see that I’m missing something, a new zine event, a shop in your town that sells zines, a zine distro that hasn’t been included, please send a message through the contact form on the site and I’ll get it added.

Please reblog and spread the word!

In zines we trust,

Alex Wrekk

*Multiple copies received from a single person will result on only one free book. Owner of submitted photo reserves all rights to submitted images but may be asked for it to be included in promotional materials.

International Zine Mon Day 3, 4, and 5

Alright! For the Activity of IZM Day 3 I ordered a zine from Doris Press.

Yesterday the task was to re-read your favorite zines. It seem easy enough, right? I spent the day at the shop pressing buttons and came home and made some food. The Paul and I started going through boxes of old zines. I just kept thinking about a line I wrote for a Copy Scams song:

“My favorite zines are by my friends

and I’ve got room for more of them”

My favorite zines have always been by my friends, or people who became my friends through penpals and travels. So many connections as I dug through boxes stopping to think about the connections to each person. Some I haven’t seen in year, but the feeling was visceral. I could recall exactly how I felt when I retrieved a zine from my mail box of cracked the cover while sitting on the bus.

I’m missing a lot of the “popular” zines. I lost my zine collection in my divorce, but I complained about it publicly enough so that a version of my zine collection was sent back to me.  It was missing old issues of Cometbus, Doris, Burn Collector, etc. But that’s ok. I still had Lunchroom, Paul’s zine that I got from him at a show in 1997, and Maybrick’s Diary and all sorts of mid-90s zines from Salt lake City. Plus, I got back a lot of the zines from my personal penpals. Some of them I lost touch with like nicole from Voice of One from Hamilton, Ontario and Tim from Hello Nothing from Winter Springs, Florida who had the same birthday as me. I wonder where they are?

I took this photo on my table this morning after we sat around reading zines and listening to records last night. I love zines and rereading my favorites reminds me why!

International Zine Month Day 5: teach yourself a new skill

So, I feel pretty confident in a lot of the zine skills I have. However, I did buy a table top photocopier that arrived last week. I’m finishing up a huge button order and I haven’t let myself play with my new toy yet. I hope to get that order wrapped up today so I can see what it’s got in the way of making some fun photocopier art!

New Zine: Brainscan #30 – 30 issues in 15 years!

Brainscan Zine #30!

Growing (literally and figuratively) taking on adventurous tasks year by year from travel to zine tours to event organizing, teaching (or not teaching), and opening and transitioning Portland Button Works zine distro and button shop in Portland, Oregon.

40 pages, 1/4 sized, 5 color Risograph printed on recycled paper

available in my Etsy shop and Portland Button Works distro and brick and mortar shop in Portland, Oregon

Or stick $4 US ($5 rest of the world) postage paid and send it to:

Alex Wrekk

c/o Portland Button Works

1322 North Killingsworth

Portland, Oregon 97217 USA

Or PayPal $4 to brainscanzineATgmailDOTcom

Open letter to Microcosm Publishing

I was contacted a few weeks ago by someone from Berlin sending me a copy of this letter asking me how I felt about it. I was told that it was going to be sent out to collectives, infoshops, etc. Well, once the e-mail went out to more American groups I got e-mails asking if I was ok with it. I wrote back to the person in Berlin and requested to be added to the list of signers to avoid more of those e-mails.

You can read the Open Letter To Microcosm here and, if you agree, you can sign it at the bottom. I think it is reasonable to request for Microcosm to do, you know, what they said they were going to do. I would appreciate people signing it if they believe in the intent of the letter. However, I really don’t expect anything to come of this situation. It is already way too far gone for repair.

How to get your own 31 Days of International Zine Month poster!

Oh, if you would like a a copy of the 31 activities for International Zine Month poster along with a Portland Button Works Quarterly here’s how you get them. send a self addrssed stamped envelope (SASE) to:

Portland Button Works

1322 N Killingsworth

Portland, Oregon 97217

Also, the Portland Zine Symposium is hosting their 4th annual 24 Hour Zine challenge. This awesome event is a fundraiser for PZS and works like a charity walk. You sponsor a participant (or participants!) and you only have to pay-up if the participant/s finish the challenge! If you sponsor someone for at least $10 you will even receive the zine the participant makes! I have taken part in this event for the past two years and have finished both times.  I will be participating again this year at this event that will be held at the new spacious Independent Publishing Resource Center in Portland, Oregon on 21 July. I would love love love it if you could help out the Portland Zine Symposium and sponsor me, Alex Wrekk, in the 24 hour zine challenge. There will also be live cams to watch our sleep deprived scribbling….and also so that you can laugh at us.