ZINE FEST!

It was cold, gray, rainy and the Irish were parading in the city, but despite all those inconveniences we made it to zine fest in one piece. It was a good experience. I had the chance to talk with many talented people and (most importantly) swap zines.

I have a slew of them to read, and I’m eager to start. I just really hope that the people I swapped with will enjoy my zine just as much. Zine Fest definitely had a strong queer presence, and I will admit, I felt a little less-than-worthy trading my zine to some of the exhibitors since my zine isn’t about queer hardship or identity, but I hope they like it nevertheless.

On the way home I’ve been thinking of future perzines, to write about. Future issues of Pieces. One was about girls and boys I once loved or lusted. Another was about video games growing up. Another was about fluid identity: straight, lesbian, bi, asexual.

Maybe I could do a cooking zine with some of my favorite recipes. I also thought of a fetish zine; I always wanted to write about claws. There’s always the Door too. That would make for something strange, most definitely.

So many possibilities. So many routes to consider.

If you are interested in a copy of my zine Pieces, let me know and I will get you a copy. I plan to bring some to the tweetup in a couple weeks as well.

Zero People Love Me

Written with a million ideas by Nichole.
Filed away under starving artist, video, writing, zine

I am fired up and ready for Zine Fest tomorrow. Both Rahsaan and Mary are going, which is nice because that means we can split parking (heh heh for ulterior motives), and the mosey around Columbia looking at a million zines. I have a feeling there will me much schmoozing, which I’m up for. You never know who you will meet, especially in a city as big as Chicago.

As was said in the video, much thanks goes out to Donna of Flanagin’s Bulk Mail Service right here in Valparaiso for offering up her copier this afternoon. I wanted to take some zines with me to swap at the Zine Fest, and was planning to go to the library and pay for copies. When she saw me asking around for photocopy prices on twitter, she said not to bother with that and just come on over. She wanted to support local artists.

I had quite a few free-use photocopy offers, which surprised me, and they were all from people in the NW Indiana twitter circle. It’s awesome. Some people give NW Indiana so much flack, calling us Chicago-wannabes, hilljacks and whatever else you can pull out of that bag of negativity, but the older I get, the more I’m finding this place to have such a wonderful sense of community. Our own community, not part of the bigger entity of Chicago, especially here in Valparaiso. I’m glad we can we’re very local in all senses.

Tangent. I’m pretty excited to write about the Door, which was something else I mentioned in the video. Honestly, I don’t know how I’ve forgotten about it. It’s interesting enough that I think it could be a zine on its own. Yay for being cryptic!

Reading my old journals these past couple days has been a world of rediscovery for me. There were so many things I’ve forgotten temporarily, it’s frightening. I was in a dark place ten years ago, a shell of a girl pulled this way and that until there was almost nothing left. It’s a little uncomfortable to read those journals at times, but it’s also very eye-opening. I’ve come a long way since 2000. That’s when it seemed to all fall apart.

One thing I do sort of miss is the poetics of my younger writing. At times it’s trite, but most of it… is still pretty amazing to me. I should type up some of the entries, as long as people don’t mind the self-loathing and overall teenage angst.

2 Shout Outs

Written with my mind in chaos by Nichole.
Filed away under local goods, northwest indiana, starving artist, video, writing, zine

The thing that made my day was the link my friend Atom sent over for the Chicago Zine Fest which is going on this Friday and Saturday. I will be making the trek up to the city this weekend, hopefully with my friend Mary in tow, to mingle, share and swap zines with those in the exhibit. That means I will be making a trip to the library tomorrow to use the copier.

I’m stoked. Seriously. This should be a lot of fun. Leave it to Atom to find me things that just shout, “Hey Nichole, here is something totally awesome for you, and you should definitely go do it!” Atom looks out for me, and I appreciate it.

In local news, Uptown Cafe (which is owned by the fantabulous Tia) hosted a tweetup this evening. Lots of new faces to learn tonight, and that made me happy. It’s silly and most people will probably fight me on this, but even now I still battle a little bit of shyness when thrown into a large group of people. I run scenarios through my head, wondering how I should act around groups of strangers, but if I take a breath and plunge right in the middle of some random conversation, things usually go okay. I should have danced on a chair.

This guy, I believe his name was Justin, had a great hat. I sort of wanted to steal it once I got comfortable talking to him. I like hats. A lot. Almost as much as glasses.

The weekend is creeping in ever-so-slowly. I am very thankful to the weekend gods. Thanks for blessing me with the okay to be lazy and play video games!

4 Shout Outs

Written with ZINES! by Nichole.
Filed away under northwest indiana, starving artist, video, writing, zine