Little Beats Zine Distro

yay, it's all happening!

littlebeatszines.blogspot.com


if you want to stock with us, our contact deetz are: littlebeatszines@gmail.com


AND, you should come along to our launch party at iskip itrip on October 30.


more info soon, friends.

zine distros and other things

hey friends,

here's some news: i'm setting up another zine distro with my friend and housemate Katy. we're pretty darn excited about it.

loyal fans would remember that i recently got involved in another one called Long Arm Zine Distro, which is still on the go but having a little break at the moment due to general busyness. it will be back soon though. i promise.

my new one is called Little Beat Zine Distro. it's gonna be super fun. stay tuned to find out more as it all happens!



also, i just rediscovered my dirty crush on Sean Morris. he's an australian artist and zinester from Perth, and makes the most beautiful things.
this one's called 'webbed'. mmmmm.

you can check out his stuff at www.illsean.com and papershields.blogspot.com.


much love. x

updates

oh hi,
it's been a while. a lot of sheet has been going down, including:
- moving house
- uni uni uni
- student elections
- personal life business.


also, i got back about a month ago from my overseas adventure! i went to the states and travelled around with a couple of my besties for all of july. it was incredibly excellent, and already feels like a bizarre dream i had a long time ago or something.

here's what i wrote for the Sticky Institute newsletter for September about some of the highlights:

Bam-a-lam! I’m back from the States, and ready to rock n’ report on
what happened in the land of big lakes, big burritos and big fun. Short answer:
heaps.

Pick of the bunch was definitely Portland, Oregon, which I’m sure you all will have heard of considering it’s the home of the amazing Portland Zine Symposium. Which I didn’t make it to, despite being SO CLOSE to Portland at the time. It killed me.

I did, however, make it down to the Independent Publishing Resource Centre (IPRC), and the beautiful bookstore underneath called Reading Frenzy. This is what I will talk about today.

So, just to get this out of the way: the IPRC is a zinester’s effing wet dream. My two friends and I rocked up there and took the tour of the centre, which is on the second story of a building downtown, across from the famous Powell’s bookstore (the largest independent bookstore in the world, I believe). Every room of the IPRC is full of treasure. The front office is also a library of over 6000 zines, which you can go and read there or borrow out. There is also a workshop room, a computer room with the latest design software for all your zine layout needs, and finally the INCREDIBLE old printing press room, complete with a new bookbinder. The deal is that you pay for a years’ membership and get free reign over all the equipment there.

How did this blessed miracle come to be? The IPRC was founded in 1998 by Chloe and Rebecca,
whose idea was to facilitate creative expression by providing a space and tools for self-publishing. What initially began as an experiment has now blossomed into a unique and exciting little project that is the only one of its kind in the world. Comprised of a staff of approximately 40 volunteers, the IPRC supports the local scene, Portland itself having always been a strong zine and self-publishing city, as well as doing school visits and workshops. The thing that Director, Justin Hocking, was excited to tell me about is the IPRC’s new year-long certificate in independent publishing. You choose whether you want to focus on creative writing or comics/graphic novels, and then spend two semesters creating and publishing your work. How effing great!

And Reading Frenzy was a whole other bunch of happiness. It’s Portland’s Sticky, and is amazing. I was thrilled to find two anthologies of one of my favourite zinesters
here – Portland’s Nicole J. Georges, as well as some awesome D.I.Y. guide books and art. So fantastique!

Go to http://www.iprc.org/ and http://www.readingfrenzy.com/ for more info. It’s so exciting to think about all the great things that are yet to be set-up in Australia. Hop to it, friends!

takemehome issue #2: cast of strangers

so the second issue of takemehome, called 'cast of strangers', has just been made, photocopied and enveloped. i'll take 'em out of my room and into coffee shops and record stores sometime this week. it has been a nice outlet for my compulsive desires of letter-writing of late.

second on the agenda is to tell you all to visit http://www.dreamdamage.com/. it's an online music distribution run by these two guys at the ANU, who set it up to support and encourage local music. there are some really great bands on there - my picks are Jonny Telafone, Golden Buoy and The Fighting League. they're all about DIY ethic and stuff. i think i love it.

ah, other news?


here's a picture of a Chinese space baby.






it's one of my all-time favourite images, from this website: http://www.iisg.nl/landsberger/csp.html which has all these amazing propaganda posters of the Chinese Space Program. they're so creepily beautiful.

screaming genie

i went on an op-shop hunt a few weeks ago, and stumbled across this board game.

Screaming Genie: The frantic 3-D race game with the SCREAMING SOUND.

is it just me, or does this game market itself as evoking emotions opposite to those you want to experience in your leisure time. that, and the graphics look completely horrifying. i think maybe this game provided a source of those terrifying childhood memories for some poor kid. everyone seems to have at least one weird childhood memory where maybe they were just too young to process what was going on. one of the most vivid of these for me was watching a video of some cartoons that someone taped for us. my brother and i used to watch this cartoon all the time about some poor Russian boy called Julio who lost his father, and goes searching for him in a snow storm for Christmas. that shit stays with you.

takemehome, issue #1: MODERATION

hey there,
so i just made a little zine which will be hitting the streets tomorrow. they come in the form of a letter, inside horrible Black and Gold envelopes that i bought for cheap and hate because they're crap. this is the age-old problem for me. i'm attracted to cheap. my friend recently gave me the advice that i should always opt for the second-cheapest product. guaranteed success.

i'm trying to bring letters back. i bought stamps and (nice) envelopes the other week, and have so far only sent two. i remain optimistic.


good day, sir/madam.

mel stringer

is the greatest.

http://melstringer.livejournal.com/

wow.

so ms stringer and i used to write for the same youth newspaper in Darwin. we go way back. i like to check up on her sometimes, and see what she's working on.

i received a beautiful parcel in the post from her today:

full of glorious treats:

i think everyone should love her.