I found some very exciting news this morning when I opened my google reader, a new zine distro is starting up in fair old Sydney town. Take Care Zine Distro will be the combined efforts of Emma D. from Flying Machine and Tim who plan to have a regular stall around town as well as a mail order system for buying zines. They are looking for zine makers to send them zines, so this is a big old call out to all of you zine makers out there to get posting.

Find out more info by e-mailing Emma and Tim at takecarezines(at)gmail.com

Check out the original post here

Most importantly, spread the word! Feel free to repost the info!

That’s it
From your long lost blogging brother/sister
Fetus

I mentioned to a friend yesterday that if it wasn’t for the stress of impending exams and essays, and subsequently an increase in my procrastination activities, I’m not sure whether I’d ever get around to writing zines. But considering that it’s the end of semester, and despite all intentions otherwise, I’ve managed to watch enough interesting films in the last couple of weeks to inspire a new Panacea for Loneliness.

A6, 20 pages, black and white

I wasn’t particularly aware of it whilst writing this zine but this issue contains some of the stranger films I’ve seen lately –  from The Piano Teacher to The City of Lost Children; from Wings of Desire to See the Sea; from Repulsion to The Vanishing. 

I’m going to send it out to Sticky on Monday, otherwise it’ll be on Etsy or as always available for trades.

x amanda

Ok, so I intended to take all these photos and attend as many panels/workshops/launches as humanly possible and write this huge update about the annual This is Not Art festival in Newcastle but it didn’t quite work out like that. I camped at Tent City, and my tent collapsed every night because of my non-existent camping skills, my camera battery ran out on the second day and I got rained on repeatedly. BUT, I had an amazing time [most of the time].

A couple of the highlights included midnight swimming at the [absolutely freezing] Newcastle baths, the presentation by the Canberra and Sydney Dorkbots, the roundtable at Staple Manor about printing techniques and the Rizzeria, the Totoro’s Tea House Grand Opening on Friday night which featured an amazing lecture on disco called ‘You Can’t Stop the Musing’ by Craig Schuftan…

…and some beautiful musical sets by Maddy and Pip. If you stop by the Tea House I recommend a pot of Earl Grey and Red Flower tea or the fruity iced tea.

The Great Gatsby Ball on Saturday night contained some excellent party times and it was heartwarming to see so many people make the effort to dress up. The Spelling Bee at The View Factory was pretty fun and the Sunday zine fair was, as always, completely packed and non stop selling/trading all day.

Below are our amazing felt doppelgangers made by the fetus!

I always look forward to the fair, it’s wonderful to see so many regular zinemakers turn up and I finally put some faces to the names of people I know from interstate. And there were so many lovely people that I met throughout the festival who also stopped by the table, which was really nice. If you traded or bought our zines, thank you! We’d love to hear from you if you picked up our zines, please let us know what you thought by emailing tinypapermail [at] gmail [dot] com. Or, if you didn’t get to make it to the fair you can always trade by mailing your zine to the address on the right.

And that’s pretty much it. I’m really really really happy to be at home with a proper shower and a warm bed but at the same time incredibly inspired. Although I have to say I think the zinemaking may be on hiatus for a little bit while I recover. Did anyone else catch anything amazing at TiNA?

x amanda

It’s amazing what a zine fair deadline can do for your word count. Another T.I.N.A., another Epitaph for my Heart: a survival guide to being social.

A5, 20 pages, b/w

This issue was several months in the making and is mainly the product of several embarrassing incidents I was involved in earlier this year that I thought could have some possible pedagogical function. That is to say, once again you might be able to learn from my social blunders. So #6 includes a discussion on the likely/unlikely social ramifications of casual profanity, the ethics and logistics of Facebook stalking, a little guide on how [or why] not to be intimidated by other people and a special A3 centrefold which is my own personal ‘Not That Social’ flowchart designed to help you predict the trajectory of your garden-variety night out on the town.

Epitaph for my Heart #6 will be available [along with all our other zines] at the T.I.N.A./NYWF Sunday Fair on October 4th after which I’ll put it online at our Etsy.

If you want to trade, please do! Send trades to:

PO Box 392                                                                                                                                                                                                          Newtown NSW 2042                                                                                                                                                                                      Australia!

x panda

The other day we received a package from our lovely friend Hayley in New York filled with zines that she collected from the NYC Zine Fest held in Brooklyn in June. Since it was such a excellent surprise and because there were some amazing zines in there I thought I’d call out a few that took my fancy.

First up, a zinemaker who may be familiar to readers as Sticky newsletter’s Philadelphia correspondent, Katie Haegele. Secretly I have a zine crush on Katie, she writes wonderfully and intimately about a huge range of subjects, from church rummage sales to linguistic gymnastics. I hadn’t read the two zines in the package, though, which are part of her ongoing series about language – The La La Theory.

#6 is subtitled Always Already. There is a lovely section on the untranslatability [?] of the Portuguese word ’saudade’ that made me feel as though in a conversation with a friend, the kind where you agree on something at exactly the same time.

# 7 is subtitled Nix Besser which means ‘none better’ in Pennsylvania Dutch [Deutsch] and includes sections about translating poetry, the basic history of Esperanto and a discussion on [and trial of] online reverse dictionaries. She also talks about the historical pathologisation of nostalgia as a ‘hypochondria of the heart’ [I love this line] and has an index to the zine at the end! 

You can find her zines online at her Etsy or email her at katie [at] thelalatheory [dot] com.

Another excellent zine was I Love Bad Movies which, as the title suggests, is a celebration of all bad films – whether they’re so bad they’re good or whether they’re so bad they’ve gone past good and are back to bad. Apparently Hayley had a discussion with the contributors about the absence of The Room in the zine [which I would have though was a perfect candidate] but they claimed that it was too popular for their taste. Doesn’t make it any less horrendous I would argue but their other choices seem pretty solid. Except for, however, their inclusion of Sleepaway Camp rather than the infinitely worse Sleepaway Camp 2: Unhappy Campers. Winona Ryder’s post-felony career does seem to be disproportionately represented but I guess on second thought that seems pretty fair.

If you’d like a copy or to get in touch to contribute to the next issue you can email whoisksen [at] gmail [dot] com.

This last little gem, Is It Bacon? by Matt Wiegle, is one of the more amusing zines I’ve read in recent times. Claiming that “History is strewn with the bodies of those who took for bacon that which was not”, this beautifully illustrated comic attempts to aid those unfamiliar with the popular porcine product.

There is no contact information inside but some simple sleuthing took me to this website which I’m 99% is him. And there’s some good stuff there as well.

Have an excellent weekend readers, next week we’ll have some more updates about new zines for This Is Not Art  and the like.

x panda

Once again, weekends spent inside with nothing to do are always followed by weekends where there is far too much going on to handle. Coming up…

In Sydney!

Saturday is the Mad Hatter’s Zine Fair from 10am to 3pm hosted by the Nowra Tea Club. We will have to unfortunately miss out on this but our sources say they had an excellent time at the previous zine fair and it sounds like a lovely day out for those outside the main metropolis. See the Facebook page for more information.

Sunday features another zine making day hosted by Susy Pow of Bird in the Hand. Rock up with a plate of food and some not-quite-finished zines for happy fun DIY times. More info here.

Plus Radio Social is running every Sunday at World Bar in Kings Cross and they’ve expressed an interest in having some more zine stalls there amongst the records, vintage and handmade fashion, bbq, art, live music and all that jazz. 10% of the bar goes towards keeping FBI radio on the air so it’s for a good cause as well. If you’re interested you can email jenny [at] theworldbar [dot] com or, once again, contact them via Facebook.

In Melbourne!

You didn’t think we’d forget you kids south of border? Our lovely friend Kelly from Catacomb Creative has been busy organising the amazing-sounding Safety in Art workshop/panel/live art/creative extravaganza which will take place this Saturday the 19th from 10am to 5pm at the Guildford Lane Gallery. You’re encouraged to bring any craft, knitting or sewing projects to work on with other crafty people and more. Check out the website for the full details, suffice it to say that the fetus and I are devastated that school work and involuntary simplicity are keeping us from making the interstate trip.

x panda

Well I don’t know about you kids but for me it’s midsemester, which means midsemester essays, which means looking for any excuse to procrastinate.

I’ve been thinking about this particular project for a while as it’s actually the kind of zine that I want to read other people’s versions of. Basically it’s a short list of words, terms and phrases that my closest friends and I use from day to day and where they come from. Most of them are appropriated from popular culture – some of which you’ll recognise, some of which you might not. 

A6, 16 pages, black and white

It has also has step by step origami instructions so that, you know, you’re having fun too. There’ll be copies at the This Is Not Art zine fair on Sunday October 4 or, as always, they’re available for trades.

Enjoy your weekend!

x panda

In further delectable T.I.N.A. news, Totoro’s Tea House is having their official opening party on Friday 2nd October.

Details below!

Since I’ll be up there from the Thursday I’ve already pencilled it into my diary, hope to see you there!

x panda

P.S. If you haven’t already heard, T.I.N.A. has uploaded a snapshot of what we can expect during this year’s festival. Exciting times!

Hey there kids,

Just in case you didn’t get the email or have already heard about it from excited punters, the zine and craft stall registrations for the 2009 This Is Not Art festival Sunday Fair are now open!

It’s being held on the 4th of October from 12pm-5pm in the new ‘Ghetto Town’ [which is actually a new space on top of the King St carpark] and once again is free for zinemakers! They are also really interested in getting artists, crafters and designers involved as well and there’ll be live music and food on the day as well. The Sunday fair is always a fantastic part of the T.I.N.A. Festival so you should probably, definitely, get involved if you can! The fetus and I will be there with hopefully some new zines and we’re looking forward to some excellent trades.

For zine stalls contact  Susy Pow at zines [at] thisisnotart [dot] org, for craft stalls contact Anna Scobie at sundayfair [at] thisisnotart [dot] org.

Details for your diary

Date: Sunday 4th October

Time: 12pm-5pm

Place: Ghetto Town, corner of King Street and Thorn Street, pedestrian access  via Laing Street.

Price: Free for zinemakers, otherwise half tables are $20, full tables are$40, retailers are $50. $5 public liability insurance is also charged unless you have your own certificate.

x panda

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for this panda and fetus – school has started again, we’ve been working on a couple of projects that will be revealed all in good time and we’ve received a good number of zine trades to brighten up our PO Box.

The first of these trades is from Amanda in Wollongong [as opposed to yours truly] who sent us her 24 hour zine July 25.

A visually clean-cut A6 black and white zine, it documents her activities on the 25th July 2009, as well as including flashbacks to what she has done on that day in previous years courtesy of some very diligent diary-keeping. It is sweet and personal without being angsty and was a lovely read from front to back. You can contact Amanda at meiow.meiow [at] gmail [dot] com.

The second trade was from Rachael in Perth who sent us issues #5 and #6 of her zine Love Like Pop.

Both were dense reads, a wonderful mix of graphics and text which included personal writings about her experience with racial identity and online dating, musings about music and joining a band, book and artist reviews and found objects and notes from the library at which she works. I really really enjoyed both of them, they were an interesting and poignant glimpse into someone else’s world which is exactly how I like my personal zines. Dare I say, Perth zinemakers are fast becoming my favourite zinemakers? Anyway, you can contact Rachael at rachaelk [at] gmail [dot] com or find her blog here.

AND THAT’S IT! Well, actually, there are more trades but we’re going to scan them so that you’re not subjected to my crappy photography skills.

x panda