February 2012
4 posts
Watchthestateimin:
LA Zine Fest Promo Video!!!! It’s actually amazing. I’m not just saying that because I am one of the organizers. I DID NOT MAKE THIS VIDEO! But it is totally freaking amazing and I am SO PROUD of Andrew and Jane who created this out of nothing and everyone else who worked on it and put so much time and energy and love into. watch, reblog, share it with your friends and come to LA...
January 2012
1 post
3 tags
December 2011
1 post
I’m at my parents’ house so that means that I’m at the spa. The ambient temperature inside is about 30 degrees cooler than it is at my apartment and the mess that springs up around me at home is kept at bay by the guilt of messing up someplace I don’t actually live anymore.
Also at the spa, I have a lot time to catch up on my internet reading. One of my early finds was...
November 2011
1 post
On Break
It’s safe to say that this blog is not going to be updated until post-L.A. Zine Fest. It’s not the way I want it, but it’s the way it’s got to be. I’m going 100% insane not writing for myself; the most I can do is write ten sentences every day. They are not exciting. Usually they are about groceries and the extreme decline in attention to personal hygiene...
October 2011
2 posts
Apply to the L.A. Zine Fest!
APPLICATIONS ARE UP AND WE WANT YOUR ZINES!!!
The L.A. Zine Fest is happening Sunday, February 19, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. That’s President’s Day Weekend—a three-day weekend!—so you have plenty of time to get to recover from your bacon-wrapped hot dog coma and get to work looking like a productive member of society.
**Editor’s note: I have since come across a few articles about an MMA fighter who took mushrooms with his friend and then cut out his friend’s tongue and heart. Apparently after the removal, “he cooked the 21-year-old’s heart in a wood stove to ‘stop the devil.’ ” What I’m saying is that maybe not all drugs are an absolute pure good.**
It is very...
September 2011
2 posts
I am not even halfway through this month’s issue of the Scientific American and it’s already making me want to buy a totally anachronistic mail subscription (12 issues for $25; probably delivered by pigeon post).
This issue seems to sync up serendipitously with my hold at the library on Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline, a book wherein he argues for everyone moving to...
I was at FYF yesterday. I had sworn that I would never go to a music festival outdoors but then I did and it was excellent. EXCELLENT. The Weakerthans and YACHT alone were worth the ticket price. Coming from me, that’s a lot, because I am cheap. As for the second most-important facet of a music festival’s success, the food was not overpriced. This is L.A.; I’ve paid $8 for a...
August 2011
7 posts
Please vote for the L.A. Zine Fest!
As an organizer of the Los Angeles Zine Fest, I ask you to vote for us in GOOD Magazine’s contest for $2500. This money, if we win it, would help us get a venue, pay for costs of security, insurance, and maybe even cover a little of the cost of advertising the thing.
It only takes about three minutes (four if you are a slow typist) to vote on the site and it would really help us out....
So, at the Renegade Craft Fair a while back, the truck next to the Urban Craft Center’s was this motorhome-ish thing called the Type Truck. It was closed for lunch at the time, but there were adorable cards for sale outside the truck and I peeked my head inside and saw a what I later learned were a sign press and a platen press. I remember wondering how much work it must have taken to...
Early L.A. Zines, part 1
A long time ago, in what is now the middle of this street, there was a crash pad for the coolest nerds ever. This is a class of nerd we don’t see anymore—mimeograph-using, rumpled-collared-shirt-wearing, totally broke sci-fi nerds. I wish I had a time machine.
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Way back in the 30s, a bunch of sci-fi fen (plural of fans in fanspeak, which there is luckily an...
As a child, my mom took me to the market with her and my job was to go through her cute coupon folder with the yellow flowers on it while we shopped and to alert her to possible savings opportunities. I was pretty good at it. Now that I’m an adult who is cheap, I appreciate those days in the market and the value of coupon cutting being instilled upon me. That said, coupons have started...
If it’s 78 degrees and sunny outside, that means it’s 89 degrees and wretched in my second-story apartment. Something about the design of the apartment quashes any semblance of a breeze. I always said that the architect who drew the plans for the building were still alive, I’d kill him.
This means terrible things for my campaign to start drinking red wine. Who wants a warm...
Today, exhausted on the way home from work, I had a revelation. It occurred to me that maybe the reason I am so angry on the way to work and on the way home from it is that I burning out on my job. This job was never supposed to be a long-term thing, yet here I am, four years later, still working there. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d applied to a job. I recognized...
July 2011
1 post
I am dreaming of a 9:30 bedtime.
June 2011
5 posts
Iss kuul
The Japanese Popstars Feat. Green Velvet - Let Go from David Wilson Creative on Vimeo.
On Monday at 9:40 p.m., I was careening down Allen Avenue past houses that I could not afford even if I went in with like four people, and I was on a 1970s gas-crisis bike whistling two bars of the three Hall & Oates songs I’m familiar with (not as familiar as I thought I was before that ride). I was whistling because I was happy, and I was happy because I got to do some after-hours...
This tall drink of water is sometimes all the company I need. They’re like a hug under your pants.
Listening to the Mavis Staples live sesh from NPR, enjoying a Wallace—cheap white wine with an ice cube. Pairing: Australian licorice bits.
I’ve been enjoying a lot more NPR now that the NYT introduced their subscription rules. Sorry I made you second fiddle for so long, Public Radio!
Other Things I Like:
-Pretty nature photos at Grassdoe
-Patt Morrison’s show on KPCC on...
Machine Project's Dog Opera
Tragedy on the Sea Nymph from machine project on Vimeo.
First of all, let me just say that I am a total dog pervert. I know dogs are very “now,” but I think what really pushes me over the edge and throws me into the category of full-on pervert is that I don’t have a dog. Much like a creepy man who stands under the shade of trees at parks and watches your kids play from a...
May 2011
1 post
Egads! Does anyone else see those ghostly apparitions next to the Japanese vending machine?
As a ghost rises from the grave to ooooo and woooo, so to have I risen from the tomb of self-pity to blog again!
April 2011
1 post
I have been as busy as the spider that spun that gigantic web in Texas. She or he did it in only about two weeks, so we’re working at basically the same pace.
Some highlights of the last two weeks:
-Saw KIT/Pink Dollaz/Andrew W.K at Dem Passwords
-Got tickets to the Magic Castle (which you can only get if you know a magician or are the friend of a magician’s friend) and now do...
March 2011
12 posts
I’ve been cloistered away in my apartment, on the sofa, drinking stein after stein of mint tea, working on a story for a friend’s book. I’m so excited about the project, but so terrified of fucking up. How could I fuck up? The details aren’t very clear, but it is a fear nevertheless.
The story takes place in the jungle and involves hot girls, blood, and animals....
I initially went to the Science floor of the library because I mistakenly thought there would be a lot less people there and a lot more room for me to sprawl. Once I got down there, I realized that my thought process had been the same as that of every homeless consumptive and flatulent narcoleptic in the metro area. Every seat was occupied in the militaristic sense of the word: people had...
The other night, I took the 10:34 p.m. train home. It’s usually an interesting crowd on there—lots of bikes, almost-homeless people, and food service workers. The train was packed, so I stood near the door. I was absently staring ahead when I noticed a man sitting in the middle seat of a three-seat bench, whispering to the woman next to him. As I continued watching, it became more...
Gotta go!
Tuesday, April 5 ||| 6 - 9 p.m.
Architecture + Design Museum’s hosting an interview with one of the authors of Aerotropolis, to be conducted by BLDG BLG’s Geoff Manaugh.
“Aerotropolis is a book about what the world’s cities will look like as they are designed (or re-designed) according to the logic of globalization. For John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay, the answer is the...
Why did no one inform me of the important things when I studied literature? Why was it never hinted at that maybe Leo Tolstoy was the founder of a Christian anarchist group or that he and his wife, when not having screaming, vase-breaking fights, managed to have thirteen children? Why did no one ever think to mention that his house was full of snakes because his wife was afraid of rodents? These...
I’ve been trying to slow down and enjoy my life a little bit more and this busy man’s idea of a great Sunday is definitely my answer. I wrote a few posts ago that I will now require lazy breakfasts and reading of things, and after reading this, I’m sure of it.
I imagine myself eating toast in this and reading Elif Batuman’s The Possessed (highly recommended), loving...
I’ve got some friends in town and I’ve been busy trying to hang out with them as much as possible. They are great company because their idea of hanging out is drinking pots upon pots of tea and lounging, which, the more I do it, the more I find is exactly what I need. I declared that from now on, my boyfriend and I will have leisurely breakfasts in the kitchen over pancakes or...
Reading Recommendation: John Waters’ Role Models
I read this book because I thought it was going to be hilarious and educational and it was. I think we can all agree that one of the main reasons a person should read is so he or she can learn what it’s like to be someone else, somewhere else, who feels differently about things. I cannot believe the things I learned from John Waters in this book. What a life!
Role Models is a collection of...
I’m planning a trip to Spain in the summer with my sister to celebrate her graduation from college. Wait. I just checked the prices.
I was planning a trip to Spain $1672.76 ago…
Part 2 of 2: The Last Question
The last question in the post-interview Q&A with Carlos Fuentes—Michael Silverblatt’s question— was about ni-nis, which he explained are young Mexican citizens who are neither students nor workers, and the way in which they are very likely to drift into drug or gang culture. Mexico is very young right now. 50% of the population is under 30. As Fuentes explained, the government...
Part 1 of 2: Celebrity Sighting At The Library
I went to see Carlos Fuentes speak at the Central Library downtown last Thursday. I don’t usually stay for the questions because they always make me feel uncomfortable. There are always three or four questions by people in the audience who are trying to impress the speaker in 2 minutes so as to start the machinations of their fantasies wherein they are later approached by the speaker and...
Hey! I’m back!
I was sick AGAIN. I get sick three weeks ago and went to Urgent Care. Yesterday, I was sick enough with a totally different ailment to go back. Of course, the same doctor helped me and was probably wondering what kind of chicken coop I live in that I would get two heinous maladies in three weeks. So, like a chicken, I received antibiotics. I bought some Afrin also, which...
February 2011
10 posts
Photos from the Zine Workshop at Meltdown Comics!
Just a few satisfied customers….
And this adorable tiny chipmunk girl, who thanked me for the workshop…
I don’t even like kids and I was bowled over. I swooned right there in the gallery. See how much fun this is? Keep your eyes peeled for the next workshop!
UPDATE: All of those loldogs would be better without captions.
First off, the next installment of the Little Deaths is expected to come out in late May with full-color illustrations on Drippy Bone Books so save your pennies and buy two copies, okay?
Second, pictures will follow from the inaugural False Start Zine-Making Workshop at Meltdown Comics this past Saturday. The turnout was awesome, and I was unexpectedly excited to see a lot of kids with their...
A while back, I wrote about my going to the San Francisco Zinefest and meeting DrippyBoneBooks owner/founder/dude Keenan Keller. He and his total babe wife really liked my stuff and thanks to their posting pictures of my zines, I’ve gotten my work to a wider audience. Which is awesome.
Tomorrow night, Keenan and I are meeting up with my friend Britt (she designed an amazing chihuahua...
On Feb. 10, I took the Jeopardy! online test. Just taking the test was a dream of mine, although it was in less than ideal settings. Bonked out on Cipro, which I was prescribed by the urgent care doctor because we couldn’t figure out what caused some weird tremors I’d been having but were both hoping that it was something that could be easily killed, I taught for about 8 hours. Then...
Two places I’ve got to get around to seeing in L.A. :
1. The Watts Towers. This article from the NYT shamed me into finally going by telling me that most of the 45,000 visitors per year are Euros who took a plane to get there. I can no longer say that it’s too far. One man worked 33 years to make them; I think I can take a bus and do my duty as an Angeleno and an American.
...
Last night, in bed with a 102 fever, I would close my eyes and see words snake like smoke over the backs of my eyelids. The words would get tangled up in each other then dissipate into blackness. I saw Aztec symbols carved in stone with big nostrils and open mouths. They floated behind my eyelids, too, before I was asleep. I was awake a lot. Once, I woke up to find that the fever had moved...
We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the...
“City administrators have warned for years that Hong Kong will run out of landfill space around the middle of this decade.”
This NYT article confirmed my suspicions when it stated that Americans produce 760 kilograms of trash per person annually, whereas South Korea produces only 380. Wonder if that included recyclable material? When I was over there, I marveled at the meticulous...
A Moment Of Clarity
Last Friday there was a mandatory teacher’s meeting at my work. Subway was served, schedules discussed, and once the agenda was covered, the conversation turned to hoarders. My heart warmed upon realizing that we all love freak-show docu-dramas about people who collect rats and eat seat cushions from their sofas. One of my coworkers, who manages to watch every single show on television...
January 2011
11 posts
I found this really cool zine from Dan Magers called White Collar Worker. It’s a poetry zine, but it’s not like any poetry I’ve ever seen because I’ve not seen a lot of poetry. I liked the subject matter—Wisest Wizard games and young people who are too cool for you—and I liked more than a few of his turns of phrase. An excerpt: “I’ll smoke your pot,...
I know what The Internet is and what it does. I have a vague idea of what it’s capable of. I tweet. I use electronic mail. But I’ll be damned if I don’t freak out still when people from other countries find me online in some backhanded way. I think it’s only then that I’m really made aware of the biblically awesome power of the Web.
I got two Facebook friend...