Zine Librarian (un)Conference Day 2

I woke a bit past 9 and brushed my teeth, cleaned my face and stared at a map of Seattle for awhile, charted by route back up Capitol Hill, and chatted with Wrdnrd a bit. She was headed to CORFLU, the other zine thing going on in Seattle. It is a sci-fi/fantasy fanzine convention. It’s like our zines and their zines live in parallel universes… maybe someone should write a story about that?!
I walked my weighed down bike up half of Capitol Hill. I’m getting old and I’m also not as in shape as I used to be but still, Seattle hills suck. I got to the event as they were discussing topics and in the main room and breaking up what workshops would happen. I could spot Jenna from Barnard on stage with Alycia who I had met in Madison, Milo from QZAP, Jerianne from Zine World and Zine Wiki, Clint from Salt lake’s alternative press library, my traveling companions and several other familiar faces from other zine events.

The first session I attended was on Ethics of zine archiving where zine writers and librarians were to discuss ethics. Some topics were what to do if a zine writer requests to have their zine removed, how we feel about digital documentations, and a bunch of other stuff but I don’t have notes for but there should be some up on the site soon. The idea that came out of this session was to draft some sort of document type letter for writers and archivists to agree upon adding zine to libraries, a sort of code of ethics. Towards the end of the session I asked librarians what could zine writers do to  make their job easier.

These are some of the things they mentioned: Put a publication date on your zine, allow subscriptions… even if they won’t see the zine in 5 years it is just easier for the bureaucracy of the library institution to work that way, somehow note if your zine is a serial or one shot, your copyright preferences, and maybe what category you would like your zine in.

During lunch Marc. Lilly and I walked over to a coffee shop to get sandwiches and soups. There were 4 vegan sandwiches. two were circular and two were diamond shaped. We ordered them by shape. They only took cash but let Marc and I eat our food before we went to the ATM… that was strangely located in the lobby of a police station. weird. After that Marc and I sat down with Jerianne and interviewed her about zinewiki, zine world and 90’s zine. There is some seriously hilarious stuff. I edited the interview on the train on the way home and had to to try hard not to laugh out loud. I also interviewed a few ZAPP volunteers as well. They will eventually be in an episode of Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast.

Since there were 3 IPRC folks we worked out ways to have at least one of us at every session. The next session I went to with Marc. It was about sustainability and it turned out to be us, from the IPRC and 5 volunteers from ZAPP. We discussed outreach, bringing people into the centers, fundraising, and to put it nicely: The cultural disconnect between administration and the people who actually do the work. Meaning that working with a Board of Directors that are pretty clueless to what you are doing day to day can be difficult. We also discussed to coming economic situation and how that might effect our organizations.

After that session Marc and I headed out with a a former ZAPP volunteer to hear the dirt on why they closed a few years ago. I’m not going to discuss details here. But, I did learn that they were closed before the flooded basement.

Marc and I headed across town to the U-District for the zine reading. It was sort of weird to me that my name was the only name on the flier. Shane was there with Amy. I have known them since I was 16 and met them at church youth group things. I don’t think they had ever seen me in my zine element but knew me when I started making zines in Utah.

Milo was the Emcee for the event and decided to go with names starting at the beginning of the alphabet and switch to the end and back and forth so I read first. I read the story about Robert and his wife in New York from my newest zine. Funny cause Shane and Amy knew Robert and seemed amused by it. Next was a guy name Zack and I’m kicking myself for not trading zines with him because his writing was fantastic and his delivery was hilarious. He read a story about going to barber school and painted these ridiculously elaborate fantasy images of expecting the school to be like walking into a musical! good times.

After the reading a bunch of folks went to find Kareoke. Wrdnrd and her partner, Shane and Amy and I went to Big times brewery and had some beers and hung out. We talked and had a good time. Shane and Amy had to leave and we soon left to go back to wrdnrd’s and also pick up some beer. We stayed up drinking  and talking about zines and sci-fi until 2am.  The second day of the conference started at 11 so I needed to get to sleep.

For more info go to the site for links to photos and notes from the workshop sessions.

Seattle Zine Librarian (un)Conference part 1

I met Lilly and Marc at the Portland train station with our bikes. We were taking theAmtrak Cascade so that we could just put our bikes on the hangers on the train. We got one of the sets of four seats where they are facing eachother. Amtrak put some random guy in the 4th seat as we yammered on about zines. At one point he asked us what zines were and where we were going.  I pulled a bunch of them out of my bag. He actually read Doris 26 on the ride.

We didn’t really have much of a plan for when we got into Seattle. Lilly’s friend was out of town and she was going to stay with a a friend of a friend… who was in the middle of finals week. I could stay with my friend Shane but he lived like, across some water and on the other side of some mountains and Marc had no idea where he was staying but was going to meet with a friend.

We got into Seattle and decided to at least find the Richard Hugo House where ZAPP is located. Well, it’s on top of Capitol Hill and for some reason my pannier weighed down bike was having issues with skipping gears. annoying and making me lag behind everyone. We got to Hugo House to find that ZAPP was closed so we headed out to get some food and beer. Well, we rode down a huge hill knowing that we were going the wrong direction and had to ride back up the hill.

We parked ourselves at the Red Wood where we bought several pitchers of beer (Hogaarden pitchers for only $13!) because they wouldn’t take food orders because they were busy. I sent a text to Wrdnrd to see if I could stay with her if it was just me and not our wacky bike entourage. She and her partner obliged which was awesome because she is totally someone I have wanted to spend more time with. They showed up during our 3rd pitcher and Marc’s friend showed up. Lilly had to take off to her host’s house. Marc insisted on singing Kareoke so we set our looking for a kareoke bar.

Found the bar and I drank another beer and stood outside with Wrdnrd talking zine geekery… and just regular geekery. Some dudes came up asking us what time it was stalling us just long enough to tell us what American Indian tribe or tribes made up their lineage pulling huge strands of what they called Flax, which I knew wasn’t really American flax. I knew where this was gong. One guy gave Wrdnrd a stylized rose made of of it with a braid and a knot. The proceeded to show us how they are made. The inevitable asking for money came next so I gave them some change.

"Flax Rose"

We took the bus back to Wrdnrd’s and I crashed seeing as I had been up sice 5 and it was past midnight. I had a whole day of zine librarian to deal with the next day.

Zine Librarian (un) Conference about to wrap up!

Curently in the “meta” workshop at the Zine Librarian (un)0 Conference! This has been a rad experience and I haven’t been able to interview enough people. I got one with some ZAPP people, Milo from QZAP and Jerianne from Zine World and Zine Wiki.

There are just so many awesome people here! I wish I had more time for it but I have to leave and head back to Portland in half an hour.

Trains! Travel! zines! Our podcast rules!

It has been a busy few days of orders. I have no idea where they all came from but I’m just about caught up… so I’m taking some time to write here.

I finally, after much annoyance, got my train tickets from London to Poitiers for the La Fanzinothèque 20th birthday! The envelope came with a buch of  information for ignorant American tourists that made me laugh.

Last night I had an IPRC staff meeting and made a bunch of copies of Brainscan 21 for Cindy Ovenracks’s Doris Distro. Not many people showed up for the staff meeting but Marc and Lillymonster and I got our tickets for us and our bikes to go to Seattle for the Zine Librarian Un-Conference. We aren’t exactly sure where we are staying but we will have bikes and I’m thinking of bring my tent jsut in case… and a flask. I think that might be fun… and travel Scrabble even though Marc would kick our ass.

I’m imagining all three of us in a 2 person tent playing travel scrabble by bike light. we are such nerds.

Did I mention that we chose the artwork for the 2009 Portland zine Symposium? We did! and we lovingly refer to the design as “disco cats” You’ll understand when you see the art. We are hoping to have table registration up by the end of the month.

Nobody Cares about Your Stupid Zine Podcast has had 90 listeners so far! Search for it on itunes and leave us a review!  Also, we are hoping to record a new one this weekend but we’ll have to see. We want to start a Q&A section so if you have any questions for Marc or I about zines or ourselves you can leave a comment here. I should have an e-mail set up soon.

Ok, back to making buttons.

Good Riddance to 2008

2008 sucked.

I tried doing that meme about all the stuff I did in the past year several times and I just couldn’t finish it. Thinking about 2008 makes my head hurt. The only thing that wasn’t a complete mess was my love life… which is probably what helped me get through the rest of the horrible-ness.

I also tried writing some comprehensive thing about my 2008 and it just got tedious. 2008 just really really sucked. My house was falling apart causing me to spend my savings for the Stolen Sharpie Revolution reprint twice, my favorite grandmother passed away unexpectedly, our family dog at my parents’ house had to be put to sleep before Paul got to see her again. My abusive ex-husband never quite stops behaving like an entitled asshat. The Portland Zine Symposium had more than half the organizers quit but we still pulled it off.

By the end of the year things started shaping up. I had raised enough money to reprint my book, Paul was happily making music with three bands and playing shows, the activist community came to my aid in dealing with my ex, and opportunities I hadn’t dreamed of starting opening up to me.

Highlights of 2008: My parents taking Webly, Brian, Paul and I on an Alaskan cruise in June, pulling off the Portland Zine Symposium with basically only 4 organizers, our family riverhouse cabin that has been a nice retreat from life, driving my grandmother’s car back from Texas with my sister across the country, attending the very first zine fest in Salt Lake City.

2009 is shaping up to be fantastic though… especially in the zine department. I already have the money for the Stolen Sharpie Revolution printing and most of the layout is done and should be going to the printer in a few weeks.

In March I expect to have a release party for that at the Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) There is the Zine Librarian unconference in March. I’m also planning a zine podcast with my housemate Marc called Nobody Cares about Your Stupid Zine Podcast!

In April I have been kicking around the idea of a mini zinefest at the IPRC with tables that are only open to IPRC members and everyone has the exact same amount of space so it is fair to all tablers. At the very end of April I will be flying to London.

In May I will be attending the London Zine Symposium where I hope to do a reading and participate in workshops. After that I’m scheming a mini zine tour of the UK. On the 12th I’m taking a train to Poitiers, France to participate in the zine event at la Fanzinotheque.Then head back to the UK and catch a plane home.

In June I think I’ll take a big deep breath and have my 32nd birthday party at the Riverhouse.

July is International Zine Month! I’m hoping to make a 24 hour zine finally. I also have this great idea to have a zine retreat at the Riverhouse, more on that later. At the end of International zine month is the 9th Portland Zine Symposium!

After that, who knows? I have applied for the zine residency at the Anchor Archive in Nova Scotia for August or September so maybe I’ll get accepted to that. I am hoping it would be in September so I can hand around the east coast for some zine fests, maybe Richmond or even Canzine.

All this time away from Paul and the house sort of makes me sad when I think about it too long but I know that he will take care of things and he wants me to go out and do things I need to do. He needs to do the things he needs to do too and that’s why I’m headed to the Satyricon tonight to see his band I Am My Kat play… after  I finish one more Etsy button order.