✷ greetings! ✷

consider this newsletter a hand reaching up from the depths! i’ve been buried under wholesales and inventory most of this past month, while desperately craving rest. but then, when i do have time to rest… i feel like i should be doing something! not resting or working but a secret, third thing. (right now the secret third thing is writing this newsletter).

kyle and i went on our annual tulip festival trip a couple weekends ago, here we are being cute with the flowers (and NOT walking in between the rows!) (this is such a niche joke).

image description: two nonbinary people smiling at the camera, there’s fields of pink and white tulips behind them, blue skies & mountains in the distance.

we stayed in bellingham this time and it was fun to explore a new city. one of my favorite parts of this annual trip is visiting mount erie. you can drive to the top (11/10, not a fan of climbing mountains) and it’s a spectacular view. here, look at it lol:

image description: top left & right images feature the view of water and islands from mount erie in anacortes, bottom left & right are brightly colored tulip fields in mount vernon, wa.

✷ upcoming events ✷

may 11th — i’m playing a show! trust fall, the etnos, tender perennial. 3pm at lantern records (outside) for their 2 yr anniversary. free, all ages, masks required. i still haven’t practiced for this, come watch me fuck it up lol.

may 19th — i’m tabling olympia zine fest! it’s a teeny-tiny zine fair this time, at the olympia timberland library, 11-4. free, all ages, pls wear a mask (they can’t technically be required at the library, but i’m requiring it and you have to listen to me lol).

may 26th — oly punk rock flea market! at friendship hall, 12-4. free, all ages, masks required & provided, the whole space is ADA accessible!

may 31st — second home gig! nite sprites, the etnos + more, 7pm at josh’s place. all ages, $10 NOTAFLOF, masks required + provided. ask an aging punk for the address. (it’s me, i’m the aging punk).

image description: hand drawn flyer for oly punk rock flea market detailing the info listed above. it has a chain link border and a death’s head hawk moth, plus a couple stars.

✷ zine news / in the shop ✷

i made a new zine to debut at olympia zine fest! it’s called moth studies and it’s just a bunch of drawings of moths! pretty phoned in lol. that will go to patrons eventually and then it’ll appear in my shop (i also quietly added some new prints to my shop recently!).

image description: a hand holding up a kraft brown greeting card featuring a grayscale digital watercolor of an atlas moth.

speaking of patrons! i uploaded a new digital offering from the diy gig flyer retrospective art show i was a part of in lancaster, pa in april (it’s gonna be up for all of may, too!)

submissions are technically closed for POSTHUMOUS zine (a celebration of life for defunct DIY music venues) but i haven’t started laying it out yet, if you have something for me! (photos, flyers, a lil writing about a diy venue that was formative for you, etc).

last but not least, i’ve started decorating what will be my permanent little free zine library! just in the primer stages right now, but i have fun colors set aside for it.

✷ projects ✷

second home gigs is officially _legit and by that i mean i spent many hours puzzling over confusing paperwork, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, and we also gave a bunch of money to the state (while yelling various obscenities).

image description: some second home zines and forthcoming benefit compilation laid out on a table, featuring art by KC, indiana, josh & me.

our next step is to open a bank account so we can officially begin fundraising. though it seems like every time i think i have all the documents on lockdown, they introduce some new piece of paper i’m supposed to have (so that i can collect other little pieces of paper from our community and bundle those up real nice to hand to a landlord, who will make us sign a triple net lease agreement that will invariably guarantee we shell out large sums of money down the line for building repairs, etc etc). anyway!!! do you know about hunting for commercial real estate? drop me a line!

clean air oly - at the exact moment i’m writing this, the big purifier is on the fritz and i am awaiting a replacement! there’s a handful of events on the calendar and i finally fully hosted the domain, so no more simple redirect (nerd stuff, don’t worry about it).

✷ some songs ✷

i may make an official entry for this on my website later but here are a few songs i’ve been listening to!

fox the dog is one of my favorite local bands, their most recent album is lovely (ffo: folk + killer harmonies)! but i recently saw them play this song and i’ve been absolutely obsessed with the vocal melody ever since.

telescope club rules! and bonus, they’re very nice people! they used a go-pro to film their march set at swamp house and i hope i can see it someday because when they played this song, there was a wild frog chorus happening in the background and it was truly magical.

this cool original song is a bummer in the best way, i feel like nathan is channeling elliott smith’s ghost a lil bit here. i really miss this era of cool original!

✷ hurray ✷

image description: pink cherry blossom petals littering the sidewalk.

• cherry blossom petals are my favorite form of precipitation & it’s been their season lately!

• spring is pretty cool

• i was recently interviewed for the lacey museum’s oral history project, stories of the south sound, “an oral history project to collect stories of underrepresented cultural, racial, ethnic, and identity-based communities in the South Sound.”

• despite being pretty overwhelmed most of the time, i’m really thankful to be able to dedicate my energy towards projects i actually give a shit about

• this would be longer but it’s past 3pm so my brain has stopped working!

thank you as always for being here! til next time <3