I semi-recently made a micro-run of a short (24 page) zine on touring called Just to Get Away.
I'll probably make more copies in the future, but you can download the electronic version here.
I put it together in part because it's something i'd been considering for a while and wanted to get my thoughts down on the topic, but mostly it's a test run for the Survivalist series of zines i'm in the process of putting together (more later).
Just to Get Away follows a relatively simple popular education how-to formula; i position myself in relation to the text, i list what i don't cover, i set out some "how-to" excercises (in popular education these wouldn't typically be "how to sell shirts" or "how to cross a border with a band", but i don't think that makes my case that this is a popular education text any less valid ) and at the end i return to positioning myself in the text.
The return to positioning myself within the text is the important part and in my opinion the rest of the zine really just props up that section. This is because i believe that the choices we make in this life are inherently political and i'm really just using the zine to underscore this.
No one else has to care about that aspect from Just to Get Away though, i'm just showing the mechanics at work.
The zine was originally given away at a popular education conference in Toronto and it shared physical space with zines on Hip Hop and collective education, physical activity and academic performance and using tea parties as a political/ educative process (tea party meaning where people get together and drink tea and talk, not where people shout dumb shit about how awsum 'Merica is and how those damn Muslims terrists are in league with the homosexes).
Re: Survivalist in print. Yes, i've probably been talking about this forever, but if i have an idea, mentally massage it to death and actually stick to the same idea over the period of about a year then i usually do something about attempting to manifest it in physical form.
Each issue will be on a single theme and won't be objective, it will be about my specific experiences and thoughts on the subject. Yes, they're going to be essentially ego-driven.
The first two are slowly being worked on concurrently, expect one of them before the end of the year, depending on other commitments. The third and fourth issues have their themes decided upon as well, but will take a bit more time to put together.
There's no great plan to how many issues i'll make, but i've committed to the first two, anything after that and we'll see how inspired i am.
This morning's listening:
Threshold Houseboys Choir - Form Grows Rampant
Antediluvian - Revelations in Excrement
Excruciating Terror - Expression of Pain
and Benedict Anderson's book on nationalism, Imagined Communities, is still blowing my mind for the third week running, well worth reading and then re-reading.
8 comments:
Yes, I will read your pamphlet. Actually, I've been contemplating a zine myself for a little while now, but I really don't know if I have the energy OR the time. bah.
Re: Microphone to my head.
Bleeding all over the place is far less painful then I ever thought it would be. Maybe I was so stoked because I just saw The Rita (HNW MOSH)? Maybe I was stoked because I could pretend for one night that I was in ECW?
Plus the old dude in Warlock Moon was all drunk the second night at Trauma Tone Fest and told me in great detail about how "badass" I was. Go figure.
Good zine Andy.
Back when I could still bring myself to be involved with a group of people who's collective identity was defined by a particular political affiliation, I went to a conference on popular education. I retained a bit from it, but the strongest memory is of accidentally upsetting someone by asking a question about patriarchy... and no, I wasn't intentionally being dick. Its funny how in these supposedly safe situations for discussions I tend to fumble around feel more like an outsider than usual. Anyway, I'll see if I can recognize the pop education elements in the pamphlet.
Regardless, I'm interested in seeing what you were doing with this. I've been thinking along similar lines lately.
I also noticed that the first band you mention being in started the year I was born. damn.
Excellent guide, there's a lot of practical stuff there I hadn't thought of. Also, I know that it was intended as a zine/pamphlet, but I got the impression that there was a lot more to it, and that it could be expanded. I guess what I'm saying is that if that was a book, I would keep it on the floor by my bed and thumb through it until it fell apart.
I guess in summary, thanks for writing something about being in a band that isn't idiotic and actually takes into account that the reader is probably in the scene you're writing about. This blog is a great resource.
Do you ever actually give out any prizes?
only if you find the hidden agenda
First dibs on the HNW zine.
And you get bonus points for the Poison Idea reference.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading that and - as you usually come across as a fairly grumpy fellow in correspondence - I'm happy to report I laughed a few times, mostly at drunk people/vomit references. Yes I'm that shallow, that sort of stuff makes me laugh.
The introspective final section feels a bit like it belongs to a different text, being in contrast with the mostly practical, to the point guide but that's not really a flaw I guess.
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