I’m looking forward to Mercury going direct on the 26th. How about you?

Last week was expensive. I spent about $400 in button parts, $400 buying all new toner colors, new laser paper, and a bunch of postal stamps. There were a couple other small expenses. I had the money, I just hate it when I have to spend all of it at once. ugh. So, if you were thinking of ordering buttons, now would be a good time. I’d like to have a little extra cash before my trip east at the end of September.

Stuff that happened at my house this week:

-Paul and I ate the first tomoto from our garden. There are seriously few things tastier than standing in the garden barefoot and eating a freshly ripened sun warmed tomato. I planted lots of tomatoes because I’m going to can them to make soup in the winter.

-I have been picking blackberries from the tiny patch in our back yard and I plan to make jam out of them instead of pie. I always make pie, eat one piece, and then try to get other people to eat it because I’m just not a sweets person. I have all these scratches on my arms from picking blackberries and I worry that people will think I’m a cutter!

-We had two lovely folks staying in the guest cave for a few days. They just got back to the US from WWOOFing in New Zealand. You can check out their blog about their adventure here. On their last day they made us a great meal and then…

-OJ jumped up on the table to get attention/entertain us. We had this berry basket on the table with candy and weird toys left over from the symposium. There were 3 or 4 DumDum lollypops in it and OJ would pick them out with his paws and drop them on the table. Sometimes he would chew on the end of the stick, sometimes not. But, if you put the lollypops back in the basket he would fish them out again. What a silly cat!

-Paul has to leave for work at 6:30am and he always comes up stairs to hug me and give me a kiss goodbye. Today, he came up stairs as usual and when he  let go he grabbed something under my pillow…there was a Sharpie there. Then he told me the Sharpie Fairy must have came to visit. I checked my mouth to make sure I had all my teeth! My hair is getting long enough again to put it up with pens so I think one must have fallen out in bed. it still made me giggle this morning to think about.

-I decided to tweak Brainscan: Nine Stories and Brainscan: it’s complicated and release them as issue numbers later this year. Hooray for tiny zines that require me to do a lot of work. I’m a glutton for that.

-I went to the book store at the community college down the street to buy a pen and a new notebook. I’ve joined a group on facebook where we plan to write 15 minutes everyday in September. Let me know if you want to join. I plan on using it to work on the fiction stuff for the split zine I agreed to do. I was also thinking I could spend a week using that 15 minutes to write down recipes for the cookzine I have been meaning to do.

Speaking of cooking…I’m going to go think about what to make for dinner tonight. We got out Organics to You box yesterday and we have some many vegetables!

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!

notes fron Denver and my zine concept band!

Greetings from Denver! Paul and I got in last night, ate some awesome food at Sputnik, picked up some beers we have never tried before and drank them as we watched the sunset into the Rocky Mountains from our hotel room. good times! We picked my sister up at the airport this morning, she was rocking her Dead Milkmen shirt from the last time we flew to a different city to see a band. She was also with me at the last show we went to for old time’s sake where I was elbowed in the head by a skinhead causing me new gnarly facial scar. She promises not to piss off any skinheads at the Warlock Pinchers show tonight

Speaking of bands… I started a band with Steve while he’s in town! We are called The Copy Scams. Steve plays guitar, Marc played bass, Paul played drums, and I sing. It’s a zine themed band and we hope to play a show before the symposium. We have one song down and the skeletons of two more. We’re hoping for a 5 song concept set. The songs are all about zines. The first song is the intro song that is all about excuses for why the zines/band is so late. I also have lyrics about the 24 hour zine challege, and getting caught stealing copies from Kinko’s! Steve and I are talking about making a 4 track recording and only selling them on tape!

Ok, off to try some more yummy vegan food in Denver!

year of houseguests!

Last year was the year of zines and travel. I put out the new Stolen Sharpie Revolution and Brainscan 24 &25 and had a zine artist residency at the Anchor Archive in Halifax. I had a small UK zine tour and attended 7 zine events in 4 different countries: Zine Librarian (un)Conference in Seattle, WA, Lond Zine Symposium in the UK, 20th birthday of La Fanziotheque in Poirtiers, France, The Portland Zine Symposium here at home, The Halifax Zine Fair in Nova Scotia, Canada, Canzine in Toronto, Canada, and the Richmond Zine Fest in Virgina.

I also put together the first square foot zine fest at the IPRC, hosted and 2 day zine retreat at our family cabin, had several zine readings and answered a lot of questions for interviews. Paul and I also flew down to California and drove a bunch of books back stopping in the Red Woods, and Crater lake. We took another trip down to San Francisco just to see Jarvis and another trip to Riot Fest in Chicago to see The Dead Milkmen and Screeching Weasel. It was a pretty full year!

I’ve pretty much stayed put this year but it looks like people from all the places I visited are coming to see me! First Caleb from Halifax, the Lucas from Halifax, and Tiphanie from Utah/the world. Next up, another friend from Utah and a bunch of kids from the UK. And those are just my friends! Other housemates have some too!

I’m so glad we put together the guestroom!  We even have a guest bike now! I also picked up a guestbook and started filling it with lots of useful information like places to eat, drink and get a bike fixed. I started with things that are 15 minute walk from our house and hope that other people will fill in the rest. I picked up some maps of Powell’s books, downtown, and brew pubs. Now I need to get one of bike lanes and the rest of Portland.

Guest book!

OJ posing with the guest book.

Other than that, we had like our 3rd false spring this year and now it is raining again but at least it isn’t cold.

Caleb Came to Visit Part 2!

So, last Friday Caleb and I went to go pick up the rental car at the airport and then headed up to the Riverhouse to see my parents. I wanted Caleb to meet my mom because my mom is rad and Caleb is rad… and I also wanted Caleb to see the Riverhouse. We climbed along the rocks on the banks of the river for awhile, drank the beer my mom got for us, hung out with the next door neighbors and then my parents took off for dinner with friends. We made food and spent the evening staring at the fire and talking talking talking. Webly and Brain showed up later and my parents came home much later. Caleb and fell asleep on the couches in front of the fire.

The next day was glorious. The sun was shinning but the next few days had predicted rain again so we thought this might be our last chance to head up The Gorge so we took off in the afternoon down the old highway on the Oregon side. Our first stop was Crown Point.

Hard to take these kinds of photos when I'm short and it's super windy. Check out part of my new awesome purple hoodie with unicorns and stars on it that i picked up at a the Good Will in the the way out of Battle Ground! It is my favorite new hoodie.

We skipped Multnomah Falls because it was packed and there was no room to Park and headed to Hood River. We stopped at the Full Sale Brewery and ate some food with the awesome view of the Columbia River right outside. Then we headed up Mt. Hood to get to the Timberline Lodge. It’s at about 6,000 feet above sea level and we had some epic sites with Mt. hood looming majestic but were too in awe to take photos.

Caleb ever laughing. The exterior of the lodge was used in The Shining.

Looking the opposite way you can see several mountains looking south and the clouds were rolling in.

Looking South East.

We got home just in time to meet Paul to go to see one of his bands’ play a show. Paul left a bit earlier and I went with Caleb and Maggie. It turned out that the venue had shut down without notifying the bands. So we all went to Vendetta for beers but there was some weird party going on. Paul was gifted a child sized accordion and was playing it under the table. Everyone seemed to dig it and seemed to need to mention to Paul when they realized it was someone actually playing and not a recording at the bar!

The next day I had work to catch up. Caleb has a button maker too so he helped me out a lot! People often offer to help me make buttons and sometimes it seems more time consuming to have to teach them than just doing it all myself. I have been making custom buttons for almost 10 years now and I have a system about it… or you could say I’m a little neurotic about the details. It was nice to know I didn’t have to explain things like making sure you cut the circles perfectly, which way the parts go in the machine or to make sure to check that you aren’t pressing two mylars.

Maggie and Caleb later went on their own adventure and I went to a zine symposium meeting where we chose the artwork for 2010! The site should be changed soon and the tabling registration should be up in a day or two. Remember the dates! August 28-29!

I walked home from the meeting with Doug from some crucial talks. He’s a great supportive and understanding friend and I’m glad to have made his acquaintance. I still find it odd that we both grew up in Utah but it took zines and Portland for us to get to know each other.  We got to my house and met up with Caleb and Maggie then walked down to the Alibi for Sunday Karaoke. I don’t ever sing Karaoke but it was fun to hang out with friends and stuff.

Monday I can’t remember what we did exactly. I know that Steve called me on Skype in the morning to let me know that his Visa, that I wrote a letter of invitation for, was approved! I was excited to find that out. I think Maggie and Caleb went on another adventure trying to find the 3-D Museum that was closed.

Tuesday we woke Paul up sort of early for him and got in the car to head to the ocean. We picked up two hitchhikers and dropped them off in Seaside where I bought a bunch of Salt Water taffy… It is sort of a weakness of mine. Then we headed up North to Astoria, the city Goonies was shot in. We found the bowling alley and the jail pretty easy but got ourselves pleasantly lost in the giant hills of the city looking for the Goonies house.

sad remains of a very large douglas fir right around the corner from the Jail.

The Goonies House!

Years ago Paul and I talked about making a zine out of images looking away from famous places. This is the view from the Goonies house. It is beautiful but I don't think it was in the movie.

Paul and Caleb walking back down the drive way.

We found and awesome brewery called Fr. George where they had vegan chili fries! Paul looked at the menu and looked at the sever and said “You have everything to make nachos on your menu but you don’t have nachos on your menu?” the server said “yup” so paul ordered a burrito. When the guy came out with our food he handed Paul and plate of nachos and said “don’t say I never did anything for ya” Rad! The food was good, the beer was good, the service was awesome. We are so going back there. Also, they had this really great house hot sause made by a 14 year old boy that I wish I could remember the name of.

After that we headed back down to coast stopping in Cannon beach for beer and hoping to make it to Manzanita for sunset. We barely made it! We parked the car by the beach and sat on a huge log and three of us cracked the three beers I had put in the cooler for just that reason, to drink them on the beach as the sun went down.

The view of the ocean from my lap with a beer.

The sun sets into the Pacific.

Then we all walked on the beach for awhile. I brought my cloak along on the trip because it is always warm in windy weather…but I also secretly (ok, not so secretly) love the dramatic-ness of it. We ended up checking into the motel directly across from the beach. It was a bit more than we expected to pay but totally worth it. There were two rooms, a kitchenette, and a huge sliding glass door that looked out to the ocean. The woman at the desk let us borrow her her personal Scrabble game and we stayed up drinking our beer and eating the hummus,  potato salad and other snacks we had brought along.

In the morning we let Paul sleep. Caleb and I got up around 8 and went for a walk on the beach and then a walk around town checking out the little shops, checking maps to figure out how I could get there on the bus with my bike, and getting coffee for us and some to take back to Paul so we could check out by 11.

I gotta say that at this point Caleb and I have bags full of silly inside jokes. I was telling stories about how every year people are killed by logs at the beach each year. We were sitting on a log on the beach and I kept saying it was going to kill us. Well, in the motel room there was a warning on the wall about how logs can kill! I wish I had taken a photo of it.

We headed down south stopping at the Tillamook Cheese Facotry because it is sort of a tradition. Then headed south stopping at Cape Mears and a lighthouse.

The reason there are logs that can kills you is the forest abruptly ends at the sea cliffs and the tress can fall into the water.

The Oregon coast also has cool rocks that stick up out of the water.

Then we headed to Pacific City to what I call the “real” haystack rock. It looks like two rocks together with a hole like a needle between them. I forgot to take a photo. But here’s one of Paul and Caleb.

I love how misty the Oregon coast is too.

At this point I was getting sort of tired of driving but Paul and Caleb don’t drive. We went back through Mcminville stopped a brewery we hadn’t been to before but we weren’t that impressed. Paul got home in time to take a nap before he went to work. Caleb and I rode bikes and took beers to the Bluffs. He was sort of surprised at what a punx picnic it was. There were at least 50 people there in small groups all drinking and sharing the view of the bridges, train yard and west hills. It was a beautiful night and it seems like lots of other people were there to share it.

After that we rode to the Voodoo Doughnuts on Sandy to meet up with housemate Maggie and see Paul at work. It was the first time I had seem him at work there before. That place is a mad house! We were there for 45 minutes and the line never ceased! We headed over to The Sandy Hut to wait for Maggie to get off work and Caleb’s voice was failing from our week long coversations so I got him a Hot Toddy and we wanted for Maggie. She showed up, we go another drink. When we left the Sandy Hut the sky had opened up and it was raining down on us but we rode north to the Florida Room for another drink and some food before heading home. Caleb and i got some water and started a fire in the fireplace and sat up talking until late in the night.

The next day I got some much needed work done on the computer and then Caleb, Paul and I sat around and watched the entire series of Spaced as the rain stormed and pounded the windows. After so many days of go go going it was good to have a chill day of hangouts, especially when it was so miserable inside. It was Caleb’s last night and trying to look back on the past week and a half seemed like a blur. My throat hurt for talking so much but it felt like the conversations needed to be had before we were left to the 4,000 mile continental divide, the postal system , and sterile e-mail. It was a great trip and it only leaves us discussing out next adventures! I’ve been to his coast and now he’s been to mine. We are thinking that we are going to have to meet in the middle next time!

Friday morning we got up early and went shopping for train ride provisions for Caleb’s trip down the coast. We also stopped for a burrito on the way to drop the car off, rode the train into the city and spent two hours in Portland Union Station. Sometimes goodbyes are best when short, but I think this long goodbye was suiting. Until next time Caleb, in postage we trust.

I’m headed home today!

Just a quick last note on the east coast. I stayed at Nicole’s for my last night. She runs the fabulous Click Clack Zine Distro, has an adorable dog named Oliver that wears a bandana and doesn’t like it when I put my hair up. I have been sleeping in a real bed, this was my first stop that I haven’t even unpacked my sleeping bag! But, tonight I’ll be in my own bed and I’m excited about that.

What I’m not excited about is flying from here to NYC and then the SEVEN HOUR FLIGHT back to Portland. Ugh. I hope it is one of the planes that has the internets because I don’t have that many zines to read since I shipped so many off. I may see if Nicole will stop off at a book store for me to get one of the books recommended to me. I think drinking some beer might also make this trip a bit more palatable.

I also have an abundance of e-mail I need to get to and orders that Paul is dealing with that I need to check up on. Yesterday at brunch with Nicole at Impanema we sat at the bar and I made a list that took up one side of a napkin of things I need to do when I get home. On the rest of the napkin I attempted to create a metaphor that related Rumplestiltskin and spinning straw into gold to the overabundance of boxes of zines in my basement that needed to be cataloged which somehow had to do with a zine residency at our house. It sort of fell apart when I got the the first born child part if the person failed. Actually, it failed because it took so long to explain it even though I was giggling in my head.

Anyway, my stuff is packed and I’m about to don my trusting backpack and head west. In my head sometimes I think that once I have been some place then I have sort of stuck a pin it it, that I’ve been there and done that. But, it’s not like that at all. Most of the time it leave more questions and leaves me missing people and friendships that have only scratched the surface. So, that just means that people have to come visit me.

Which brings me make to musing about our basement room where we can put Marc’s old bed and stack up the epic zine collection to be spun into gold.

Quick response zine unit, upcoming travel and my birthday!

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.

back home in Portland!

9 1/2 hour flight from London to Vancouver. I didn’t end up with first class this time but I did get business class so that’s good for the leg room that I don’t really need and a free news paper with my choice of contries that have crossword puzzles that I’m no good at.

it sort of messes with my brain that my flight left London at 11am and got into Vancouver at 12:30pm. It looks like a 1.5 hour trip but I crossed 8 time zones and got a major headache. Customs was easy except for hte gumpy lady looking at passports who was super slow and didn’t ask me any questions, just scanned my passport and stamped it. On the plane I realized that the only things i brought back were candy and Doctor Who related stuff for Paul.

Met Paul at the airport… in the bar and had a glorious Northwest hopped ale. We tried to do the crossword puzzle but just ended up talking. We came home and I showed him zines and photos and then we were off to our bed. It is so nice to not be sleeping in a sleeping bag and to sleep next to a warm body.

This morning I am up early and not sure of what to conquer first: Surmoutning mail pile, jungle of a yard, a few e-mails that I’ll have to really think to answer, or just lay in bed a little longer and feel situated in my room again. Anyway, I’m glad to be home. i’ll tell more stories of my adventures later.

Nottingham to Leeds

Currently I am in Leeds. Robb and I made it jsut in time for the reading and the Chemic Pub. We caught two train later than expected from Nottignham but it all worked out in the end thanks to a rail system that actually works and makes sense!

On Friday Lizzy Robb and I went into Nottingham to bust Lizzy’s student bubble and eat at the veggie restaurant, Dotty’s. We also wandered around town where i saw lots of silly Robin Hood souvenirs but not silly enought or neat enough that they had to come home with me. Robb left on what we now refer to as a “robbabout” and said he was going to the show/gig that night and would see us later. We sat in the Market Square and watched a lone duck amongst pigeons and then a sudden downpour as the people scattered for cover.

Steve and his friend showed up further busting Lizzy’s student bubble by showing her and awesome comic shop and another veggie restaurant.  We wandered around a bit, stopped a pub for an ale. Steve and I are of the vertical challenged folk and our other tow companions were tall. We had hi-fives over the awesomeness of being small. then Lizzy had to go back to her hall to get ready for that evening’s festivities. I decided I would go to the metal/power violence/hardcore show instead. it isn’t really my kind of music recorded but can be fun live. Going out to a club where they would be playing contemporary British pop music? um, I’d probably just ruin their fun.  We had a few plans including Lizzy meeting up with me to bring zines to sell at the show and her packing our stuff and bringing it to the train station in the morning as I was going to stay at Steve’s. Robb was still on Robbabout.

When back to Steve’s and made pasta. This is when I realized that Steve was actually playing in one of the bands when he mentioned grabbing his guitar. weird that  I didn’t pick up on that. even after seeing them I still don’t know the name of their band. The show was pretty typical as far a people watching and Robb did show up. It could have been any basement Portland show… except that it was upstairs at a club and not a basement and no one was drinking Pabst! Good Times!

After the show we were getting a ride back to Steve’s but our driver had us stop at a shop to get chips and hummus. It was just chips with a bunch of hummus on top like some sort of weird poutine. not bad. I mean, mixing chickpeas and potatoes makes sense, eh? Back at the house steve and I geeked out about comics and zines and I stole things from his bins to use in zine layout. What? They have different security envelopes here! That sort of sent us on a hunt for other layout things around the flat and we fleetings ideas of making a 24 minute zine. We settled on a project that will not be named nor will it ever see the light of day but makes me giggle to myself.

I was having a lot of fun with one of my new favorite zine people and I didn’t  but I had to crash out because it was after two and we were supposed to catch a train at 9… which got pushed to 10… and eventually we settled on a 10:30 train after headed back to Nottingham University to pack our stuff and then back to town to the train station. I felt so gross I don’t think I had a shower in 3 days and I smelled like a power violence gig. yum, I sure do love that I’e come up a punk rocker and don’t mind so much. I just worry that other people do!

We got into Leeds at 1Pm and Amy greeted up, took us home to drop our bags off and walk to the pub just in time! More later because we are trying to figure out the plans for the day.

nottingham… the ‘h’ isn’t really pronouced…

In Brighton somone asked me if I had been corrected on how to say Nottingham without the hard ‘h’ because I was saying it properly. I thought it was funny. In my head it was just like those cities in the eastern US that have lots of extra words that aren’t pronounced. works for me.

I’m in Nottingham staying with Lizzy from Marching Stars zine distro. Robb and I are sleeping on her dorm room floor. Yesterday we took the train up from Brigton. Lizzy refered to it as a long trip…3 hours is hardly a long trip for me. Three hours gets you from my house to Seattle but only in good traffic!

I was here as part of her plan to stoke the fires of the University women’s network zine and get people excited about writing zines and writing for their magazine. Steve from Rum Lad came too. he’s super taleneted. Robb told him he could be the next Christy |Road… and I don’t think that’s too far off.  I forgot that he lived her and that we are livejournal friends! We all geeked out about zines infront of about 7 or 8 confused but intriqued people, I read some stuff from my zines, sold some stuff, then we went to the pub in the student union.

I missed a Real Ale festival by a day! but there were some interesting brews on tap. Steve and I gave eachother geography lessons of our countires in my notebook and he showed me how to order ale here. It has something to do with cocking your eyebrow and tilting your head to the side to get the attention of the person behind the bar. I have not perfected it yet. One of Lizzy’s friends is an American Studies major… which seems a bit odd to me. She was interested in American things like the theory of the Southern Sweet Tea vs. Northern non sweetened ice tea somehow corresponding to the Mason-Dixon line.

Lizzy and her friends have invited me out clubbling tonight. This normally doesn’t appeal to me but I may go. Robb found out from Steve that Capitalist Casualties are playing here tonight and he is excited to go to that. That’s not really my style of music but would be more of my scene than the dance club. I’m still undecided.

I’m waiting for Lizzy to get back from a lecture and then we are headed to town to some vegetarian restaurant. I have been eating some sort of vegan pate like Tartex out of a tube on crackers, almonds, and raisins  for the past day. real food will be good.

Tomorrow morning we are off to Leeds for a zine reading. I’m not sure what to expect… or even who I am meeting as we haven’t met. Never stopped me before.

I found some flickr images of the awesome folks I have met. This is Wes, he bought me a cider after the zine fair and came from |Glastonbury to Brighton to read with us. This is Edd, half of our fantastic host/ess couple in London and really awesome people who do the bulk of the work for the London Ziune Symposium. I’m headed to France with him on Tuesday. This is Andrew from Corndog distro and Beat motel zine.

Oh, the English kids seem to think American accents sound Irish for some reason. I don’t really get it though. Ok Lizzy is back and we are going to head out soon.