Modernizm

chingozine: ChingoZine 3 Release is around the corner, and we...

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:37:42 -0400

ChingoZine 3 Release is around the corner, and we have all sorts of surprises. For the release we will have an ice shot block, water guns, moonbounce, and indio among other surprises. Click here for more details!

Dang, wish I could go to this next weekend.

Fall of Autumn Press - Zine Distro and Independent Media Resource - Be A Zinester: How and Why to Publish your own Periodical

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:22:28 -0400

Fall of Autumn Press - Zine Distro and Independent Media Resource - Be A Zinester: How and Why to Publish your own Periodical:

Fall of Autumn - Independent Publishing, Creative Resources & Distribution. (zines, buttons, crafts, DIY, podcasts), Anne Elizabeth Moore writes talks about being a zinester and how to publish you own periodical.

This article right here!!! Perfectly sums up everything that I love about zines. It also made me think a bit differently about them to be honest. Anyway, give it a read if you have time. It’s a good one.

biblioboard: “BiblioBoard is moving self-publishing...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:09:57 -0400

biblioboard:

“BiblioBoard is moving self-publishing forward…typically when you talk about self-publishing, you talk about publishing ‘your own book,’ maybe an ‘e-book.’ In this case, think about individual people creating these anthologies, these environments…using an array of different media, ephemera, letters, photos, songs…think about research and how it becomes much more democratic, much more pluralized, much more participatory.”

— David Ensminger

Professor, Author, Internationally Recognized Historian, and Anthologist

Get the full scoop on David Ensminger’s project to create a “visual DNA sequencing of punk rock culture” on TechFaster and The Economist.

See how David stuck it to the man on the free BiblioBoard app or rock out your own anthology with the Creator platform.

Thanks Rene for making Zine Fest look so dope.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:17:39 -0400

Thanks Rene for making Zine Fest look so dope.

Zine Fest Houston will be collaborating with two new non-profits this fall: the CAMH and the HMRC! ...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:43:11 -0400

Zine Fest Houston will be collaborating with two new non-profits this fall: the CAMH and the HMRC! I’m looking forward to all the workshops this year. But, I’m thinking that a break will be needed after Zine Fest in October…haha.

The Texas Punk Problem

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:14:35 -0400

Sooo, although I have been feeling under the weather the past couple of days, I had the chance to stop by galleryHOMELAND (Paul’s new space over on Commerce Street near downtown) on Friday, June 7 for the benefit/pre-launch of Bill Daniel’s new project called The Texas Punk Problem.

I didn’t know a lot about him and his work to be honest, but it seemed like a cool interesting show and something to do on a Friday night. I stopped by kind of late on Friday, like around 10:30 or so. There was a table with things for sale and I wasn’t really planning on buying anything until I saw this zine (see below).

Photo via Effluvia Blog

This zine is totally awesome and beautiful. As soon as I saw it, I was like, “Ahhh, I want this!!” because it is simply good quality images and layout etc. I didn’t grow up in SF/the Bay Area, so I don’t know a lot of the graffiti artists that are in the zine (I only recognized Cuba because I helped catalog some work by him for a show about artist books in China), but it reminded me of being here in Houston and going around the city to document all the graffiti work being done here and then making a zine about that. Effluvia has a nice review of it here.

Looking through it I was reminded of the feeling of trying to record something that is so fleeting and ephemeral. A lot of the work that I took photos of is no longer around, which is sad when you think about it because the only people who will know of its existence are probably the people who did it and the people who saw it or are friends with the people who did the graffiti/tagging. Maybe there is a way to get these photos out into the community, but right now I am not sure how. I would have to make copies of the zine and distribute it around town and I don’t have the money to spend on printing at this moment. Perhaps in a couple of months.

ANYWAY, this post is mostly about how you should buy that zine if you like looking at great black & white photos of graffiti because it is awesome. Also, check out Bill Daniel’s project if you have time. That’s all for now. Check back later because I’ll hopefully have some new Zine Fest Houston updates. In fact…I know that I do have some so I should probably put those up soon, yeaaaaaah?!?

P.S. I think Shia LaBeouf is following ZFH on Twitter!!!!! WUT THE….!!! Kind of weird, but cool. Do you think it’s because he wrote a comic book or something??

Upcoming June Events

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 21:53:32 -0400

Summer Reading Program for Teens

Spark Club: Zine Making

Thursday, June 20, 2-4pm, Barbara Bush @ Cypress Creek Branch (Harris County Public Library)

6817 Cypresswood Dr.

Spring, TX 77379

Event registration opens June 5, 2013. More information here.

Monday, June 24, 2-4pm, Aldine Branch (Harris County Public Library)

11331 Airline Dr.

Houston, TX 77037

More information here.

Zines 101 (Adult zine making workshop)

Sunday, June 23, 3-6pm, Myth & Symbol

2537 Times Blvd.

Houston, TX 77005

Due to limited space, we are kindly asking that you RSVP via email to contact@mythandsymbol.com if you would like to attend the workshop. Thank you!

Cultured Cocktails with Zine Fest Houston

Thursday, June 27, 5-7pm, Boheme Cafe and Wine Bar

307 Fairview St.

Houston, TX 77006

A portion of the drink sales from the evening benefit Zine Fest Houston, so we hope that you are very thirsty that night! :)

SO! Our workshop this past weekend went really well and it was...

Thu, 30 May 2013 11:23:38 -0400

SO! Our workshop this past weekend went really well and it was so much fun spending an afternoon making something and seeing what others made. We had 5 participants show up, which is about half of the number that actually registered, but it turned out to be a great number and make for a more intimate workshop. The above photo shows the zines we all made during the workshop, after our ranting exercise. You can check out more photos on our Facebook page here. Our next (adult) workshop will be at Myth & Symbol on Sunday, June 23 from 2-5pm. Thanks to all of those who attended and made it a great experience! :)

Sunday Foods one-page zine.

Tue, 28 May 2013 15:20:59 -0400

Sunday Foods one-page zine.

fanzines: AMAZING! Found on the Zinefest Kuching page.

Mon, 27 May 2013 16:20:01 -0400

fanzines:

AMAZING! Found on the Zinefest Kuching page.

fanzines: Photo from Zine Show - a global zine exhibition which...

Mon, 27 May 2013 01:20:52 -0400

fanzines:

Photo from Zine Show - a global zine exhibition which opened on May 18th, 13 in Ukraine

It’s kind of blowing my mind that my zines are in Ukraine right now. You can see three of my mini-zines in this photo - they are hung up on the string in the middle. Check out more photos from the Zine Show here. I’ll update soon about the Be Your Own Publisher! workshop, so stay tuned for that.

lazinefest: Next Wednesday, May 29th, we’ll be teaching an...

Sat, 25 May 2013 12:01:33 -0400

lazinefest:

Next Wednesday, May 29th, we’ll be teaching an Exquisite Corpse collaborative zine workshop at The Pop-Hop in Highland Park. The best part (besides making zines & making friends) is that the finished zine will be available in the store all summer long!

Check out the Facebook event but remember to also RSVP at the following link!: http://thepophop.com/events/exquisite-corpse-zine-workshop

See you next week!

Oooh…I’m getting some ideas now!

Houston: My Invisible City by Anastasia Kirages

Thu, 23 May 2013 21:22:10 -0400

“And Polo said: ‘Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.’

‘When I ask you about other cities, I want to hear about them. And about Venice, when I ask you about Venice.’

‘To distinguish the other cities’ qualities, I must speak of a first city that remains implicit. For me that is Venice.’”[1]

I love Houston and I’m not ashamed to admit it. That’s right, I said it and I’m not taking it back. If you aren’t originally from here, you may have a hard time understanding why someone would want to live in this hot, sticky bayou swamp city, let alone proclaim his or her love for it. H-town has a lot going for it though, and over time you begin to learn this as you live here, if you don’t already recognize the city’s positive qualities.

I’ve had the chance to explore many different cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tipton (a small town in Indiana), Santa Fe, Taos, New Orleans, Marfa, Barcelona, and Paris, and even had the opportunity to live in Brooklyn and Italy for a bit, but I always find myself coming back to Houston. Why is this? Could it be because I was born here and it is familiar to me, or is it because Houston, being the nation’s fourth largest city, exhibits most of the characteristics of my ideal city, my invisible city? Perhaps it is a combination of both. Either way, this city has a vibe about it that is hard to forget and let go of.

In The Image of the City, author Kevin Lynch states that:

“There seems to be a public image of any given city which is the overlap of many individual images. Or perhaps there is a series of public images, each held by some significant number of citizens. Such group images are necessary if an individual is to operate successfully within his environment and to cooperate with his fellows. Each individual picture is unique with some content that is rarely or never communicated, yet it approximates the public image, which, in different environments, is more or less compelling, more or less embracing.”[2]

Reading this quote, I wonder, “What is Houston’s public image?” I know what my individual image of this city is, but I find it hard to put a collective image and experience on such a vast area of various cultural pockets and neighborhoods. Also, you probably have an entirely different image of Houston than I do, thus in the way that no two snowflakes are alike, no two experiences of a city are ever the same.

Some cities are easier to pin down than others. For example, if you had to describe a city with one word, you might say that New York is ambitious, Austin is progressive or Portland is eco-conscious. Houston is usually deemed as being international, but I would say that the city is more continuous. Continuous because it is ever-changing and evolving, with its constant highway construction and recent crop of new bars, restaurants and coffee shops, to name a couple examples. Of course these are generalizations based on the inhabitants of each city, which one could argue that are based on stereotypes as well. However, you cannot deny that certain types of people do flock to cities where they feel connected to the other citizens in terms of values and spirit.

I recently went to a talk at the Asia Society Texas Center called Houston’s Immigrant Advantage that featured Dr. Stephen Klineberg, a sociology professor at Rice University, and Claudia Kolker, reporter and author of The Immigrant Advantage: What We Can Learn from Newcomers to America about Health, Happiness and Hope. Dr. Stephen Klineberg talked about his project, the annual Houston Area Survey, which tracks the changes in the demographic patterns, life experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of Harris County residents.

There was a part during his presentation where he showed some slides that displayed the gradual change of Houston’s demographics over time from the 1900s to present day and you could hear an audible gasp from the audience as he switched through the consecutive slides because it made the diversity of Houston a much more tangible notion. This talk changed my perception of Houston a lot; afterward I reflected much more on its urban development and progress. Hopefully we will be able to manage the city’s diversity in a way that is beneficial to its future inhabitants.

Houston’s diversity and its cultural and artistic community are two of the main reasons why I enjoy living here. Being involved in the art scene through my work at a contemporary art gallery and Zine Fest Houston is wonderful, and it’s exciting to watch the population grow and morph into something new and different with each passing year.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Zine Fest Houston: Zine Fest Houston is an event dedicated to promoting zines, mini-comics, and other forms of small press, alternative, underground, and DIY media and art. It is also a grassroots attempt to build the local zine, DIY, and alternative media scenes and form networks with media creators in other areas. The goal of the event is for attendees to discover new zines and be inspired to create their own DIY art and media projects. Recently, Zine Fest Houston is working to branch out into community outreach through zine workshop collaborations with local non-profits and for-profit businesses such as Inprint, the Harris County Public Library, Houston Center for Photography, East Side Social Center and Myth & Symbol.

Because of this small community, I can honestly say that I am rarely bored in this city. When someone mentions they are bored living in Houston (which is a sentiment I hear once in a while), I would suggest that becoming engaged with a community would solve that problem because it gives you a sense of purpose and something to do. Zine Fest Houston gives me that purpose and allows me to help Houston become an even greater city than I think it is already. I probably won’t live in Houston forever, but right now, in this moment, it is the city that I call home and will constantly come back to whenever I need it.

[1] Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1974), 86.

[2] Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1960), 46.

Be Your Own Publisher: A Zine Fest Workshop | An Open Book - The Inprint Blog

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:26:22 -0400

Be Your Own Publisher: A Zine Fest Workshop | An Open Book - The Inprint Blog:

Also, if you would like to find out more about what we do at Zine Fest Houston and what we hope to accomplish in the future, please check out the above short little interview with yours truly on the Inprint blog, An Open Book!

If you still want to buy a 2013 Zine Fest Houston compilation and haven’t been able to stop by...

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:08:35 -0400

If you still want to buy a 2013 Zine Fest Houston compilation and haven’t been able to stop by any of the events we’ve been tabling at, they are now available for sale at Myth & Symbol in the Village! That store is one of my favorites here in Houston. Go check it out if you haven’t been!

steal this idea...

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:35 -0400

commongenus:

hey there lookr/readr/likr/tumblrr…

i was recently talking to my buddy eric mchenry (rad artist you can find here at ttusk.tumblr.com ) about this idea he had… matchbook zines. he’s a smart man. so here i am sharing the process…

Read More

Matchbook zine!!!

Upcoming Events: For The Elephant Zine Jamboree and Inprint Workshop

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:04:00 -0400

Thanks to everyone who came by our table at Pop Shop Houston during Mother’s Day weekend! We had a great time and I hope you all did too. There are some photos documenting the weekend over at our ‘lil Facebook page, so feel free to check those puppies out. I bought a couple of things (some for my mom and some for me, whee!), and we sold a lot of things, so all in all I’d say it was a success! Now we’re getting geared up for two great events coming up soon:

The first event is a zine showcase called For The Elephant: Houston Zine Jamboree on Saturday, May 25 from 2-6pm at the Texas Art Asylum (1719 Live Oak, Houston, TX 77003). There will be high school students exhibiting their zine work as well as a bunch of other artists. Zine Fest Houston will have a booth there with all of our regular merchandise for sale/browsin’. Also, there will be performances by local musicians and spoken word poets!! It is an event that you don’t want to miss.

The following Sunday, May 26 from 2-5pm, we will be hosting a FREE workshop titled Be Your Own Publisher! at the Inprint offices (1520 W. Main, Houston, TX 77006). This workshop will focus on introducing a variety of DIY publishing techniques and we will go over how to create a self-made book through a couple of hands-on exercises. We will be joined by John Pluecker, writer, interpreter, translator, and co-founder of the language justice and literary experimentation collaborative, Antena.

Optional materials to bring to the workshop include any personal writing and/or collage images, but we will provide basic supplies for the workshop such as paper, pens, glue sticks etc.

Also, due to a limited amount of space, we are kindly asking that you RSVP via email to info@zinefesthouston.org if you would like to attend the workshop and if you plan on bringing a +1.

Alright, that should do it for now, zine friends! I know that was a lot of information to digest, but I hope to see you at one (or both?!) of those events next weekend. Have a lovely Sunday! :)

Sassyfrass Circus: on Microcosm Publishing

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:26:00 -0400

Sassyfrass Circus: on Microcosm Publishing:

sweaterves:

clawsbeatskin:

As is probably evident, recently I’ve been having a really difficult time reconciling a lot of my reservations about anarchist organizing and how it complements living actual non-oppressive lifestyles. One thing that recurrently bothers me is seeing many of my…

I am glad that we live in an age where information is readily available to the public and gets circulated around so that others can learn about what happened in the past. Because of this information that I have learned, I am no longer going to support a distro that turns a blind eye to behaviors that cause harm to others. See the above link for more information and decide for yourself what is best for you.

Call for Donations: Orange County Great Park Zine Library

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:11:07 -0400

Hi zinesters! I have another call for donations that I hope you consider donating to. The new zine library is located in the artist studios at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine. The space is open Saturday and Sunday from 10am-4pm and has welcomed over 24,000 guests since it first opened in July 2011. Last summer there were 6,000 visitors to the space.

There are a few guidelines to sending in submissions, which are below (note - I didn’t write these guidelines, just spreading the word):

- You may submit as many different zines as you wish, but we will need a minimum of 2 copies of each title.

- Please submit content that is PG-13 as the venue is open to the public and visited by many families and children.

- Please mail 2 copies of each title to the following address:

Orange County Great Park

Attn: Kevin Staniec

427 South Loretta Drive

Orange, CA 92869

If you have any questions, please email Kevin Staniec, the Arts, Culture and Heritage Program Specialist at the Orange County Great Park Corporation at kstaniec@ocgp.org.

Pop Shop was a success! More updates to come soon.

Sun, 12 May 2013 23:25:17 -0400

Pop Shop was a success! More updates to come soon.