zines_from_outer_space! a spark of life returns

[gl@mortr@mp]

On Fri, January 18, 2013 11:01 am, Lucy (diN0bot) Mendel wrote:
> Hi Tony and everyone -
>
> I'd like to get involved (haven't been involved before). Is anyone up for
> some kind of collaborating / brainstorming /working session at NoiseBridge
> this Sunday or next weekend? I'm not sure where we are in the upcoming ZIP
> process: (a) I'd love to learn more about how to make zine's with more
> than
> a typewriter, pens and a copier, and (b) I'd love to contribute, so maybe
> a
> bit of a community-finding and then writing session could be fun.
>
> Lucy.


Hey Lucy,


Please forgive my belated response. I sent you a brief response off-list a
few days ago promising to follow up. Whatever that flu was that's been
going around, I got it, & it was not a pretty sight. I've been kind of a
wreck for the past week or 2 on account of that + my own special blend of
delightful problems, which is why I've been so totally off the ball with
this.

This Sunday is today, & it's doubtful I can successfully take on a new
engagement for what "remains of today" (wasn't that a movie starring
Anthony Hopkins?) although as it happens I may be coming to NBridge this
evening on some business. I assume you've been to the space before? You
said you haven't been involved....with Noisebridge you mean? It sounds
like you have some zine-making experience, at least at the beginner level.
I haven't been to NB myself for a week or 2, ever since I got sick &
flaked on the screenprinting workshop I organized....I'm afraid I
alienated some people with that, & it's making me wonder how much
commitment I can realistically take on at this point. ZiP03, the third
issue of the Noisebridge-y "Zine in Progress" that I do (with
contributions from other NBridgers), is pretty much done & my immediate
goal is to get the rest of it up on the website. Then I need to figure out
how I'm going to print some copies of it - free ones for the contributors,
& hopefully some extra ones to sell to anyone who wants one.

Then I want to take a break from ZiP for awhile & do a new zine, something
different, a low-fi, black & white, easy-to-mass-produce zine in the
classic style (ZiP is more of a zine-magazine hybrid, higher production
values, which is why I call it a MegaZine). I think it's going to be a
zine devoted to alternative housing situations & the various ways that
people in SF & elsewhere live Off the Grid, i.e. without paying rent or
buying a home & all the other things that go along with that prepackaged
stereotypical mainstream existence. This is a subject on which I have
experience to share & quit ea lot to say, so it should be fun. I have the
perfect title, too, one I've been sitting on for a long time now:
TATTERDEMALION.

I'm also working on a sizable data collection project that involves
converting a series of Excel spreadsheets into a database with a user
interface that I can host on a secure website. I don't know how to do any
of that, but I've found a gent named Stan who seems knowledgeable & has
offered to help. I believe we've made a date to meet & work at NB this
Wednesday, & I'll be around other nights as well.

UPDATE: I fell asleep in the midst of typing this letter & just woke up
from a nap at 3am. So Sunday is definitely out :-) Let's meet soon! Can
you help me find other zinesters & build a coalition? A loose confederacy?
A consensual reality subdivision? A Mandatory Enjoyment Commission? What
are you working on right now? Tell me now in writing or we'll talk in
person soon.

+11+

I guess I'm gonna send this to the zine list in hopes it may come alive
again....wake up wake up it's time to work!