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!