Hallowzine! and Canzine photo fun

Before the zine reading Amy, Chris, and I went to three cent copy for.... three cent copies.

On the wall was sagely advice

After making copies Chirs shot a photo of me and Amy's new hard core band: Three Cent Cop. We rule!

The Toronto Zine Library

More from the Toronto Zine Library

In another photo from Chris I read a zine in front of people... and have no face.

another photo by Chris: Zine Girls on the march to Canzine!

We got to the Gladstone an hour early as Amber points out the time on her imaginary watch.

More waiting!

The view to the right

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Toronto! Canzine! Train Ride! NYC!

Greetings from New York City!

Saturday was Hallowzine! at the Toronto Zine Library: 6 zine kids reading stuff. There were a few that I knew and some that I had only conversed with through the postal system and the internets. The readings were fun and entertaining. Then we went out for food and beer and headed back to Amy’s house amid costumed folks. I had no costume this year. I wish I had one of my cloaks. Instead I was wearing a skirt with my bat leggings that I wear all year round and my big fuzzy hood hat. i kicked up piles of leaves down Dundas as we walked to the beer store down the street. My favorite costume I saw? Tow people dressed as the Yip Yip alien monsters from Seasame Street! Yip Yip Yip Yip Uh hu uh hu! Tel-e-phone!

Kate showed up who I hadn’t seen since 2005 and the per-zine girl party plus Chris was in full effect! Maranda, Amy Leigh, Kate, Amber, Chirs and I sat in Amy’s room and some how we started talking about Lisa Frank and obsessing about the sticker company that we remember as kids. For some reason we wanted to see picture of THE Lisa Frank but could produce none. Instead we waxed poetic about stickers of dancing bears in top hats and unicorns that run down rainbows. I also found some real English cider that sated my desire for more real cider. It was good stuff!

The time changed over night and I got up early to find about 5 tabs in my browser filled with Lisa Frank images! I made coffee for folks scattered around the living room. Talking about Lisa Frank and having a giant zine girl slumber party was pretty rad.

We walked to the Gladstone and go there before 10 but they wouldn’t let us in until 11 so we sat around outside but we were the first people in line and got the seats we wanted when we got in. We had a zine girl bloc and it was great to have good people around me  for great conversations and who could watch each others’ stuff. I sold and traded a lot of zines and met some awesome people but I was super tired by the end of it. It was nice to have a bar right there and I had a beer at one point but then I got a head ache so no more beer for me. The layout was weird to have a bunch of weird rooms in a hotel on different levels. There were the problems that seem to plague all zine fests  these days with overpriced zines and too many things that weren’t zines at all. Too many crafts that had nothing to do with paper. I have other critiques but I’ll keep them to myself.

I got back to Amy’s, packed and crashed out after watching Mad Men. It was weird to watch it on a TV with commercials and not on a computer with no commercials.

I got up early in the morning and made it to the train station for an epic train ride to NYC. It seems like we spent way longer than we should have at the border but we eventually got going. I read a lot of zines including the new Cometbus, Culture Slut, Nothing Rhymes, Riot Wife and a few others and I wrote many letters. One being and epic 16 page tome! Postage to Canadia is going to kill me!

Anyway, I made it to NYC and Jeska met me. We came back to her house and talked until 2am sitting on her stoops and having a good time catching up. I don’t think we have talked too much since I was hear 2 years ago.

Today I’m headed to the post office to mail stiff back to me that is weighing me down. Books and zines are heavy! I have a couple of copies of my zines that I’m going to drop by Bluestockings and see if they want some. I can’t remember what I gave them last. I’m going to leave a few copies of the new Brainscan too. #25 but not #24 because I don’t have any more .Maybe I’ll bring flats to make more zines? Then I’m going to get some food at Kate’s place which I have never been to in my 3 trips to NYC. After that I might just meet up with Jenna Freedman for a beer and reminisce about our trip to France and drinking at an Irish Pub… in France.

Right now I have my own room courtesy of Jeska’s housemate that is away. it’s nice to have a place to put my stuff. I took everything out of my bag to deside what to ship back home today. I fly home a week from today. I’ll have stacks of mail to read and that is exciting. Speaking of mail I’m going to head out to the post office after some coffee.

Nobody cartes about your stupid podcast woes and an unintentional zine tour…

I just found a little time to sit down and take a listen to the interviews I had recorded and hoped to finally put together for a new episode of Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast. I had been editing it on my old computer before I left for the Uk and France in May. My old computer was dying a slow death and I transferred stuff to my new computer. Well, the audio sounds all messed up with weird gaps in the middle of interviews. I’m really bummed because I think most of it is unusable. It might be that I really just don’t like sound editing but I want a good sounding podcast, not one that sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom with a Fisher Price microphone. Gr.

I had some really great interviews too so I’ll see what I can salvage when I’m less annoyed about it. We had some great interviews at the Zine Librarian (un)Conference from the spring.  Marc and I interviewed Jerrianne from Zine World and Zine Wiki. She got Marc to tell a great story about the first time they met. I interviewed Milo from QZAP (Queer Zine Archive Project) he also gave me a cool shirt that says “Zinesters do it on the photcopier” I also did a bit of investigative journalism to try and uncover just what exactly happened to ZAPP in their mysterious disappearance a few years ago. I interviewed a few people and the audio is semi-rubbis. It was on the steps of the Hugo House and there are all these birds tweeting in the background.

So, do I start all over again with new interviews? I need to get Marc to sit down again and record some stuff. We decided that we are never ever going to apologize for the lateness of our podcast. It’s a podcast about zines, what do you want from us?

A few months ago I was riding my bike home and rolled up onto my sidewalk where I saw my old housemate and old zine friend Steve. You may remember him from Journalsong zine. I did a split zine with him and Lisa from Three A.M. years ago. He was playing music with someone down the street and was walking by my house. He said it looks good since I fixed it up and then said he liked the podcast and asked when we were going to do another one. I asked him when he is going to do another zine. He then said “so, there isn’t going to be another one?” That wasn’t my point, my point is that my zines don’t come out regularly and neither will the podcast! I want to do it, I just don’t want to do it half assed.

So, I started thinking about my upcoming trip and how it is a bit like a tour. I didn’t really intend for it to be a tour, but maybe I should. Paul and Webly and I are going to Chicago the weekend of October 9th. Maybe I should see if there is any zine stuff going on there? Then I’m headed to Halifax for my zine residency and the Halifax Zine Fest where I’ll teach a workshop on zine distribution. From there I head to Toronto then I think I’m going  to Ottawa for a zine reading at a book store on October 30. After that I’ll be at Canzine in Toronto on November 1st where I have been asked to do a reading the night before. Maybe I should read something spooky for Halloween!

After that I have a week between Canzine and the Richmond Zine Fest. I’m thinking of visiting NYC, maybe I should do a zine reading there? Anybody else have any ideas?

2009 has totally been a crazy zine year for me. I’m really excited about it. I just wish I could get a new zine done! i have about 3 of them in the works.

Good News!

I just four of that my application for the Anchor Archive Zine Residency for 2009 was acceted! It looks like I’ll be spending two weeks in Halifax, Nova Scotia submersing myself in zine more than usual! I have been accepted for October which I imagine will be chilly in Eastern Canada but it will be awesome!

I have been kicking around the skeletons of the twists and turns of the love story between Paul and I which is also the flipside, of Brainscan 21. I’m hoping that the love story will make the crawling out of an abusive relationship more palletable… or vice versa if you are into that sort of thing. It has been extremely difficult to write because there is so much history, arguably 12-17 years of it. It is hard to write about something and sort out the important bits when there is just so much.

Paul has been working on the original soundtrack for the zine and he is basically done with his part. It loosely tells his story. Some of the music is here if you wanna listen to it and the whole thing ends with a song where I sing back up with a fitting chorus “There’s a lot in life you can’t explain” I’m hoping that a continent’s distance will give me space to write and time to miss him and really reflect and remember what that deep sense of space felt like.

I don’t think they have a photocopier which sort of puts a damper on the layout process. I already have the cover and even the size the zine will be. it will be half legal sized with vellum or transparency covers that have an image of a Brainscan and say: Pre-existing conditions. Strange that in almost 12 years of doing my zine I have never used and MRI on the cover, eh?

On top of all that I am hoping to first hit up the Richmond Zine Fest in Virginia for my second time. I had a lot of fun last time and met some awesome people… and one adorable dog. I’m also excited to try to go to CanZine in Toronto. I have never been to Canzine or Toronto for that matter! Oooo and maybe I can go to West Virginia! I have now been to ever state but West Virginia, I’m going to have to start working on provinces next!

It is looking to be a gloomy day in Portland so I’m going to force myself out of bed to get down to my office for some work and also make some tofu scramble and vegan biscuits and gravy.