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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30day Photo meme- day 24 and my new zine

Day 24- Something important to you

Portland Button Works

Clearly Portland Button Works  is important to me, so important that I have been ignoring this blog. It’s been 3 months since I worked on this meme. Normally this time of year I would be posting photos of my garden. The irises have come and gone and the borage is on its way out. Paul presented me with the first strawberry of the season and the cats are happily hanging out with me during the small amount of time I have actually spent  in the yard working.

I have a new zine! It is two tiny mini zines about my experiences at Coachella! I’m only selling them through the Portland Button Works brick and mortar and the online shop.

2 day of Alex Wrekk’s adventures at Coachella helping Zine Works teach the glory of zines to the masses and sleep in the desert. This is two short mini zines about about meeting new friends, getting yelled at for climing lemon trees, seeing awesome music, and amusing observations about the sights and sounds of Coachella.

$1 and only available at Portland Buttons Works. See, that’s the trick. I’m hoping that you’ll go to the site and see other rad stuff you want to get and them too!

I swear I will finish this meme!

Day 25- Graffiti you have seen
Day 26- Something you do everyday
Day 27- Your favorite place
Day 28- A favorite piece of clothing
Day 29- Something you like
Day 30- A photo of you today

I’ve been busy

Generally I don’t like to make excuses for my absence from wherever. It just means that my energy has been diverted to some place else and that with the ebb and flow of life I’ll end up back at someplace comfy. Lately the Portland Button Works shop has consumed me. I’m here everyday from 9 or 10 am to 3 or 4pm. It has been a long time since I had a place to go with specific hours for work and I’m still adjusting. I mean, my commute has gone from 10 feet vertical, to 2.5 blocks from my house.

The shop is open and people trickle in but we are still working to build our space in the neighborhood and also online. I’m slowly transitioning Small world buttons and eventually my Etsy shop into Portland Button Works. Right now we are working on getting all the zines in the shop up on the website and well as all of our buttons. It is a tedious project but we are making headway everyday.

I’d sort of rather being working in my garden, and I know Jackie and OJ would rather have me there too, but growing this shop is something special too. Please check it out and see what I have been up to:

Portland Button Works

Portland Button Works facebook

Portland Button Works tumblr

Portland Button Works flickr

Portland Button Works: 1322 N Killignsworth Portland, Oregon 97217

Portland Buttons Works and zine distro needs your help!

We signed a lease for our brick and mortar shop in Portland, Oregon last week before I headed to Coachella to teach zines! We have signed a lease at 1322 N Killingsworth, just a block away from the Killingsworth yellow line Max stop and down the street from the PCC Cascade campus. We are totally excited about this. Right now our shop is bare and we are working the fill it up with fixtures, buttons and zines! We are also going to offer a space for people to make their own buttons in the shop. We have zines for the distro that are slowly trickling in and a friend helping us build awesome fixtures!

How can you help?  We have launched an Indiegogo fundraiser campaign. We wanted your contribution to be an investment for you to get something you would already want so reward levels range from copies of our zines (brainscan and All Things Ordinary), a Portland Button Works bottle opener, pre-orders of custom items, lifetime discounts on custom orders, gift certificates for when the distro is up and running, and even being able to name something in our shop!

And look!

Portland Button Works made it to the front page of Indiegogo! I’m really stoked on that!

While your monetary contributions would be greatly appreciated, we would also love it if you could help promote this project and spread the word about our fundraiser, or even send your zine for for distro consideration.

We only have 6 more days and we just got to the half way point! Please,  go here and help us out!

30 Day Photo Meme – Day 16

Day 16- The view out your front door

I took these the other day when it was rainy and cold and Portland Winter-y. I think my neighbor works for Stumptown, that's why the van is there. Across the street is the sound wall and the freeway onramp to I-5 south is on the other side of that. Classy, eh? My yard is a a dead mess. It is supposed to be nice today so I hope to get some work done.

Day 17- What’s in your bag/purse/pockets
Day 18- Where you work/go to school
Day 19- Something you love
Day 20- Your mailbox
Day 21- A photo you are proud of
Day 22- Something you cooked
Day 23- Your desk or work area
Day 24- Something important to you
Day 25- Graffiti you have seen
Day 26- Something you do everyday
Day 27- Your favorite place
Day 28- A favorite piece of clothing
Day 29- Something you like
Day 30- A photo of you today

2011 Portland Zine Syposium dates! Chicago Zine Fest! New Tattoo! More! More! More!

First things first:

The Dates for the 2011 Portland Zine Symposium are August 6-7, 2011

I got back from Chicago late Tuesday night and I have been playing catch up ever since packing zine orders and making buttons. What’s with all the international orders this week? Croatia, Finland, Norway, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and Singapopre. My first thought is that the American dollar must have tanked?

Anyway, Derek Neuland and I took the train from Portland to Chicago and recorded an episode of Noby Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast while we were on the train. We discuss our anticipations and excitment with the sound of train and conductor announcements interrupting us. Listen to it here!

Bree Adorn and Rae Logios met us at the train station holding signs that say “nobody cares about your podcast thingie” and “nobody cares that you are from pdx. Put a bird on it!” We all made our way to Ramsey’s house and met up with Amy Leigh from twelveohtwo distro and then went eat at the Handlebar then I got to crash onto on something that wasn’t a train seat.

Friday we gathered everyone up and headed to the first day of zine fest where we had our first Zine Organizers Event (ZOE)! We had about 20 people talking about organizing zine events and sharing stories. Not a lot of new stuff came out of it and it seems that a lot of people struggling with the same things. It was good to be on the same page. We did start a google group to continue sharing.

After that was the Silver Tongue reading in the other room then the Q&A with Al Burian and Aaron Cometbus. It was interesting to hear what they had to say. I sort of wish they had been giving the questions before so that they could have given more thoughtful answers instead of the multiple blank stares and silences. Oh well.  (*edited to say that a Chicago Zine Fest organizer contacted me to say that were informed on the questions ahead of time and that the blank stares and awkward silences were all their own) After that we headed to Earwax for some food then to the big reading. The reading was awesome! It was so diverse in style and I hears a lot people read from their zines that I had never heard before so I was stoked to fine more good zines.  I met up with some more friends and met some new friends. I went and grabbed some beer before heading to Quimby’s for zinester karaoke. Zinester Karaoke turned out not to be zinesters reading from other zines 😉 it was just regular karaoke done by zine folks.

Now, I don’t sing karaoke. I have this thing. I have been in real bands and in real bands everyone has the ability to fuck up. With Karaoke, it’s just you. My brain can’t comprehend that.

Before the karaoke there was the Long Arm Stapler award presented by Quimby’s. I was notified a few weeks before that the award was going to Jerianne from Zine World and Zinewiki. Somehow I had been chooses to accept on her behalf because she wasn’t going to be able to make it. I had spoken with Liz at Quimby’s and to Jerianne and I was under the impression that Jerianne was going to call in on Skype to accept the award so I thought I had wriggled out of it. So, there I sat with Eryca and Megan drinking a beer not really thinking about it. Milo and Chris who had accepted the award last year for their works with QZAP were up with Liz reading the nominees. Well, apparently I was nominated for the award and I had no idea,  it was nice to hear people cheer when my name was said, but I already knew who the winner was. Then they annouced Jerianne and all of a sudden I got called up to accept the award on behalf of Jerianne! I was mortified! I did not expect it at all. I thought we had it squared away. So, I went up there beet red and stumbled through something about how much Jerianne deserved it and what a resource both Zine World and Zinewiki were. Then I disappeared away to my beer and my phone to send Jerianne and e-mail. Other than that the night was rad. I had some great conversations and had a good time but didn’t get to bed until 3 or 4.

Saturday we all dragged ourselves to the college again. The tabling was split between floors and I had heard I was on the 8th was kind of bummed but then the elevator doors opened and I was met with the glorious sight of Lake Michigan from 8 stories up as really great lighting with windows on 3 sides showing skyline. It was nice and the workshops were on that floor so people had to come up for those anyway. The tabling was pretty busy I think I made it down to the 1st floor twice and still didn’t see everything and only saw about half of the tables on the 8th floor. A few things struck me. There was a lot of people with cassette tapes to trade. I had a bunch of Copy Scams tapes and traded for a lot of mix tapes and original tapes too. There was also a lot of dudes with zines. It was really different than a lot of zine fests where there are lots of ladies. I got a lot of good trades and read them on plane ride home.

That night was the Out Of This World zine (in)formal. I brought the dress that packs easiest but since it was freezing I had to cover up in multiple layers to get to the dace. I had a great time dancing with zine friends and having chats. there are lots of ridiculous pictures that bring back fond memories. I also realized there are a lot of ex-Portlanders in Chicago. I can think of 4 people there who were ex zine symposium organizers.

Sunday I got a new tattoo on the back of my right leg.

The rest of the trip was record shopping, dropping off zines and Quimby’s and eating lots of food. Day by day a new person would leave. On the last day it was just Derek and I. We walked to the Flying Saucer diner and the guy behind the counter was super nice. We mentioned that we were from Portland to which he responded with “Put a bird on it!” it was the first time a stranger had ever done that to me. He also gave us a piece of vegan brownie for free. I guess Chicagoians (is that right?) like people from Portland because last time I was there with Paul the bartenders bought us drinks for being from Portland!

I have a new zine! but I only have a few left. Let me know if you would like one and we can arrange something. I wasn’t sure I would have any after the fest but I have some. they are 1/12th legal and it is just one story that happens between the 9 stories between the office of a divorce lawyer and the ground floor. it’s got my usual photocopier art and instrospective snapshot writing. You can send $1 and a stamp to the address on the side of my blog “while supplies last”

All the bits

Let’s see what else? We are still looking for a housemate but I’ve sort of decided not to make a decision while Mercury is retrograde. That sounds woo-woo but whatever. I always have  frustrating experiences when that happens. We just want to wait for the perfect person and I can hold out a bit longer with my bills so why not?

I have a new zine friend coming to town for a visit next week. I feel like I have sort of template of where to take zine friends but maybe I should start making a multiple choice type form to see what they can do depending on how long they are here. I’ll write more about that later. I just wanted to jot down some thoughts about my trip while they were still fresh in my head. Back to work now!

I get to speak a city council about zines this morning…weird.

I’m about to leave for Portland City Hall where Mayor Sam Adams will read a proclamation recognizing August 28 & 29th to celebrate zines and zine culture in Portland!

Then I have to speak words about Portland, zines, and DIY culture at city council.  It is an honor to have this opportunity.

Caleb came to visit! Part 1

The past two weeks have had lots of great highs and one deep, unexpected low.

My friend/penpal, Caleb, I met in Halifax at the Anchor Archive during my zine residency last fall came to visit on the 15th. We had little more than one long day to hang out before I left Halifax but I already knew we would be great friends and we started planning his trip to Portland almost immediately! It seemed sort of ridiculous to be planning a trip 4,000 miles away and 6 months in advance to hang out with someone we had only spent a few times with… even if one of those times involved a 13 hours conversation, but I knew it would be fun! We continued penpal-ery and e-mail-ery for months and all of sudden it was the 15th and I was headed to the airport to meet him!

I met Caleb at the airport and we took the train into the city, met paul at XV for food and some beer then headed to Powell’s for Smallpressapalooza. The readings we caught were great. My sister showed up and immediately burst into tears. Her doggie companion, Coda, wasn’t doing well after over a week of treatments for a weird blood disease. I was honored that Webly would show up to my reading when there was such heavy stuff going on in her life.

I read the pieces I had selected and Paul played guitar then we sang a song at the end. I was nervous about the singing but I think it went ok. Webly recorded video of us but I guess the video is 2gigs so we need to find a way to compress it for the internets and my embarrassment. We stayed for the people reading after us and they were great too. After that some of us headed to Deschutes brewery which was closing so I left a New Kids On The Block rock card I found in my bag on the door to let the people following that we were headed to the Low Brow Lounge. After that Paul, Caleb and i caught the train home and crashed out.

The next day I woke up early to head to my sister’s house to see Coda. It would likely be the last time I saw her so even though I was up late with friends it was really important to me and my sister to visit one last time to see my puppy niece. Then I headed home. I think Caleb and I made buttons and ate burritos. That night my sister called to see if we wanted to go to Hungry Tiger Too with she and Brian. Coda had been put to rest and they didn’t want to go home to a house without her. They don’t drink so I was sort of a surrogate drinker and let Webly pick out what I should drink. Caleb was blown away by the place having two menus. One vegan, one no vegan. It wouldn’t be the first on his trip to Portland.

Coda was a black Cocker Spaniel found on the street the summer my sister had moved to Portland after graduation from the Uof O. Webly had always wanted a dog and a friend found Coda but couldn’t keep her at her apartment. Webly took her in, cut off all her dreadlocks that were constricting her leg movement and even the blood circulation to one leg. Webly wasn’t sure she was going to keep her but they fell in love and Coda was part of the family ever since. She was my first doggie niece and I dog-sat for Webly when they would go out of town. Coda liked garbage, treats and squeaky toys. She will be missed dearly.

There are lots of photos here of Coday and Webly plus images of Goody who left this world on Christmas. It’s really not fair to lose two canine members of our family within 3 months.

That was the super sad bit of my past two weeks but I still had a lot of fun ahead. The next day Caeb and I went downtown. We realized too late that it was St. Patrick’s day which is like Amatuer Hour of drinking. We first stopped by the world’s smallest park also forgetting the lephrecan/St. Patrick’s day reference to find it coved in stickers about the luck of Irish and whatever.

it's basically an island in the middle of the road.

We walked around the Willmette for a bit continuing what would be more epicly long conversation that would eventually give us both sore throats. We took the train to the Zoo stop and wandered around the Arboretum where we saw this tree.

The Larch

Which, just made me think of this Monty Python skit. I don’t think I would have been able to recognize a larch before that. I knew it was a deciduous conifer and Monty Python told me how to recognize it from a long way away. But now  I can identify it from close up!

After that we headed to Powell’s and bought too many books including Zane Lamprey’s from the drinking show Three Sheets book about drinking. I also picked up a used copy of all three of the Riddle of Stars books in one book. I think that will be the next series in Caleb and my long distance book club after we are done re-reading the Earthsea books. The we went to Deschutes and drank yummy beers and Caleb coveting their epic looking growlers. I’m not sure what else we did that night but my bet it that it had to do with drinking and listening to records.

The next day we had planned a bike ride to Southeast, and area of town I rarely venture. It was a beautiful spring day. I was actually surprised because I was expecting rain while Caleb was in town. We rode by Food Fight! and the vegan mini-mall, and by one of my old apartments before slipping into my favorite Cemetery, The Lone Fir Cemetery. Where there are crumbling mausoleums and lots of neat headstones including this one.

We walked/rode up Belmont and stopped and got a beer at the Horsebrass but it seemed so dark in there when it was glorious outside so then we walked/rode down Hawthorne and got some pretty amazing stickers at the Dollar Scholar. Laser stickers with cats and vegetables! Stopped for another beer at a place where could drink outside and then headed to Los Gordiots! Yet another restaurant with both a vegan and non vegan menu! I had enchiladas that came with rice and beans that reminded me of the Mexican place my family used to go to when we lived in Houston. Caleb was again blown away by the amazing vegan food in this fair city. After a day of riding about 20 miles and my belly filled with food I fell asleep early that night but not before torturing/playing with the cats with the hamburger maggie drew and catnip in the back pocket.

More photos and stories later including a trip to the Riverhouse, Timberline lodge, The ocean including the Goonies house.

Bike rides, zine tours, International Zine Month, Smallpressapalooza, and door to door meat salesmen

So, when I last posted I was nursing my only slightly sore body from my trip back from the Riverhouse. The next day my sister called to see if I wanted to go on a bike ride up to Smith and Bybee lakes In North Portland. On the way to Web’s house I saw this weird failblog worth sign.

I can't even imagine what they were trying to explain with this sign.

It’s a crappy cell phone picture but I still find it amusing. The rest of the photos are also crappy cell phone photos. We rode up north to the very tip of the North Portland Peninsula to Kelly Point. It’s where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers meet. It looks something like this:

There was also this tree that was 3/4 chewed by a beaver. It was wondering how it even stayed up!

We got lost finding out way to Proper Eats in St. John’s. I always feel so good after eating there and combine that with our bike ride I felt awesome! By the time I got home I had ridden a little over 20 miles. 90 miles in a a few days was great to get my winter sluggishness out of my system…. except now the rain is back. We had almost two weeks of false spring.

Paul and I are getting used to his graveyard shift at Voodoo Doughnuts which is making me feel like a crazy cat lady when I start talking and even singing to the cats when we are alone in the house.

Have I mentioned that I’m going on a zine tour this summer with some of my friends from the UK? 3 0f the lovely folks from Last Hours and other ziney projects, Steve Larder from Rum Lad zine and Isy from Moregenmuffel. We were trying to figure out what to call the zine tour and Paul came up with Zines on Toast! Which is a take on Beans on Toast, pretty much a staple of English food. I thought they wouldn’t go for our stupid pun for a zime tour name, but I guess they liked it! That puts us one step closer! More details to come!

I just filled out the paper work to include July 2011 in the Chase’s book of holidays. it is already listed for 2010! So, I guess this means I need to do more work on the International Zine Month site.

Other than that, Paul and I have been practicing for my reading at Powell’s for Smallpressapalooza on March 15. I just finished up with a bunch of big button orders and started cleaning my office. I just opened my last box of Stolen Sharpie Revolution of the 2,000 I had. looks like I’ll have to contact AK Press to send me some more copies.  Oh, and some dude just knocked on my door asking if we were carnivores. I think he was selling door to door meat. weird.

Oh, and someone did a bit of editing on my Wikipedia page. Since I can’t really do any of it myself feel free to add relevant things like me being nominated for an Utne award and also my failed first Wiki page was the reason zinewiki was started.

Brainscan zine release party and open mic!

zine reading!

I have a new issue of Brainscan and I’m doing a zine release accompanied by and open mic in Portland, Oregon.

Thursday, December 3, 2009 7pm at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC)

For more information about Brainscan #24 &25 go here.