✷ greetings ✷

i survived my Very Busy april! somehow it's may now. we've had some sunny, warm weather here in the dreary pnw recently. i shirked most work duties for a week to just BE OUTSIDE (what is that big yellow ball in the sky???). i smiled at a lot of dogs. i really need a fucking sad lamp to live here lol. anyway, i have a lot to share i guess?

✷ smallpresspolooza report back ✷

i did it! i read my writing at powell's! fucking! books! in front of a bunch of people. i gave an autograph? and i had a really nice day with my friend petra, who used to be a pen pal but lives close enough now to be a regular pal. petra acted as tour guide for kyle and i, took us to some excellent spots to eat, and was just generally the calm center of the universe while i was Extremely Nervous- i was going to say shitting my pants with anxiety, which is funny, because i did indeed read a story about shitting my pants at powell's! it got the appropriate amount of chuckles and i wasn't even the only person to read about shitting themself that evening, so there's that lol. also we did some math and petra and i have been friends for 15 years??? so glad i had a weed blog (lol) on tumblr back in 2008, or we may have never met.

image description: a picture of 3 people waving at the camera in front of a bunch of pizza posters

✷ zine news ✷

i've stalled out on the family recipes zine for now and i feel very guilty about it!!! it'll happen, i just have way too little free time to work on it right now between dodiy, commissions and regular shop business. wanderer 9 is in the same boat. too much has happened since the last issue and i need to figure out what i wanna cover.

✷ do diy ✷

i added a ton of new spots to do diy over april! know of rad all ages diy spaces i should add?? hmu! i'm working on mounting a little awareness campaign with plentiful infographics to explain what do diy is, what type of spots i'm looking for, how to get listed, how to support the site, how to make my life less miserable, etc, etc!

i'm also looking for short video testimonials from folks who have used the site to book tours, for a separate lil campaign my helper andy and i wanna put together. you'd record a lil video answering some questions we supply you with and send it to us. it'll be used as _content which will hopefully go towards getting a spotlight from various diy music friendly sites for further _exposure.

i just did a mini census on instagram that just asked if you've used the site to book a tour or not (i might make a more comprehensive census with google forms eventually to get ~user feedback~). someone replied with, "you should update it more, a lot of it's out of date." yep! it sure is. it's almost like i'm one very tired person lol.

image description: a screen cap from jenny slate's stage fright comedy special, captioned, "i need so much help."

anyway, basically i have no idea who uses the site or how many people use it and i would like to know lol. also someone explain how to use google analytics to me please?? or reccomned me a simpler tool?

✷ open no mic ✷

for the first time since before the pandemic, open no mic is officially happening on may 20th, hmu if you want the address. it'll be in the yard, masks encouraged (and required to use the bathroom inside). i'm gonna supply seltzer and hopefully do a lil decorating. there's no formal sign up process to play, slots are 5-7 minutes (no pressure/beginner friendly). there will be a coloring contest with supplies provided courtesy of my friend kc! i need to find/buy/make a prize still lol. kc is also offering very chill/cheap/covid safe watercolor lessons in oly right now (just saying). kyle is gonna accompany me on bass for a song, and in my dreams i find a drummer before the thing, but that probably won't happen!

✷ pride month incoming ✷

i'm anticipating spending the rest of may doing yard stuff and pride month wholesales (if you're trying to place a wholesale order for pride, pls do that soooon!). feeling some kind of way about pride this year, what with all the gestures broadly at all this violent anti-trans legislation. i hope there's some kind of alt pride thing happening in my city. i rarely actually go to pride anyway but this year in particular i really think we should be rioting in the streets (rioting can be a form of celebrating too).

✷ just stuff ✷

i finally invested in an ipad and digital drawing stuff (procreate), i'd love to hear pointers for beginners. i haven't had the time to experiment with it yet.

my car's transmission is going so i'm in the process of getting that into the shop to be rebuilt. been kind of heartbroken this past week/in many ways it's the end of an era that i don't really wanna elaborate on here (not about my car lol). i learned a mountain goats song (have to explode), agreed to some june shows, saw lots of shows. finally did a little cry to a cd in my car in the sunshine, which means it's offically spring.

the cd was given to me at a gig and it's the respective solo projects of members of minigolf water feature, it's so good! but the songs aren't on the internet. if they were, i would share them with you.

✷ some music ✷

i know i've covered it probably 3 times now but ther's new album is fully out and it's such a beautiful, understated record. if i had to pick, my favorite songs off of it are water that you cannot drink and a brief moment, but jfc they're all gorgeous.

from water that you cannot drink (gives me chills every time): "you were my one bad dream the year that I was 23 / the chirp of a chickadee; you unmade- you unmade a man of me."

from a brief moment (hell yea, sing it heather!): "tell me, how does that song go again? / the one we always sing with our friends / a prayer for the summer. first of november. / it always comes late, which I never remember."

maybe played out, but i've been revisiting alex g lately since he has a couple albums i'd never heard. he really is doing whatever the fuck he wants on those records. there's a lot of winners there, and it's been nostalgic to say the least. i also revisited radiator hospital's last album (weirdly right before they released a preorder for a forthcoming album). there's a song called guitar that opens with a couple palm muted strums and then the rest is just piano lol. just thought that was neat.

i'm trying really hard to not just listen to podcasts! which is mostly what i do when i'm working. i'm very open to music suggestions if ya got 'em.

✷ fucking hooray ✷

✷ IT IS WARM/SUNNY/FLOWERS
✷ the insomnia is still at bay!
✷ the gigs i wanna see have been plentiful lately (in fact i'm going to see pile up and yellow room on this very evening)
✷ i dug up a ton of invasive blackberries in the yard and the secret garden (future location of food forest), just generally crushing yard jobs lately
✷ tulip festival/anacortes trip was very nice/relaxing, anacortes is such an underrated little town and mt erie has one of my favorite pnw views
✷ going on another little trip this month, this time to the hoh rainforest & rialto beach
✷ i'm trying my best :'-)

bless you if you read all that!

love,
alyssa

~ past perzine newsletters ~