perzine newsletter | october 2026
greetings
seasonal depression in full swing, let’s go! >:( there have been good times peppered into this month, and i even had a good week in there, but every time i think i’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, i end up back on the struggle bus. i’m hanging in there.
new in shop
i’ve been having a lot of fun making earrings this month. it’s been a long time since i occupied my hands with a new craft. i have an etsy wishlist of charms a mile long and hopefully i sell enough of these to justify expanding my offerings. money is tight again with impending dental work on the horizon, so i’m especially open to requests/customs etc right now (and i can make mask chains, bracelets, necklaces too). just shoot me an email :)
upcoming
nov 1st 5-7 PM masks required roller skate at skateland, costumes encouraged. get tickets! some no-cost tix available.
on this same day at the mortuary from 2-4 PM there is masks required prisoner letter writing.
2 masks required movie showings coming up from covid info south sound this month as well.
nov 21st 3-5 PM covid safer fiber arts meetup at decay. free! ADA accessible.
nov 14th & 28th 4-6 PM free mask distro at decay. ADA accessible. mask bloc is looking for delivery drivers rn! if that’s you, email me!!
garden report
the time of bean harvest is upon us. i got about a pint and a half of scarlet runner beans so far. more than enough to eat some, plant some next year, and gift some to friends. here’s to hoping my idea for next year’s garden yields even more beans! i’m thinkin’ about making a bean zine.
in other news, garlic has been planted; cosmos and some zinnias are hanging on. i have a lotta green tomatoes (no surprises there) and i’m planning to try and save seeds from the heirloom i grew this year. it’s wild that it only really just started raining here.
indoor garden report: thanksgiving cactus is blooming better this year than it ever has for me! i usually get a few flowers and then all the rest of the buds fall off. she’s real pretty :)
some songs
new hello shark album for the first time in ages forthcoming. lost sound tapes is co-releasing it! this album is ruining my life right now (affectionate). official release date is nov 6th, keep your ears peeled for this beautiful record.
i already posted about both of these albums before, but this is the other album i’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this month. big fan of greg freeman’s sound. i first fell in love with ‘i looked out’ which i discovered via bud tapes. i need to go back and listen to the album that came out in-between this new one and that.
some movies
i watched a ton of movies in october. favorite movies watched this month: bones and all, reality bites, lake placid, blue velvet, the kid detective, the girl with the dragon tattoo, the history of concrete, you can see everything (you bet i have a lot of feelings about that last one, jfc).
all my little words
i went to my first show of the year this month. previously inconceivable statement for me. even in 2020, i went to at least two gigs before lockdown. early in the year, i decided i wasn’t going to any shows unless i felt extremely compelled to, because it just hadn’t been fun for me in a while (but i kept going out of habit). lucky for me, jon decided to tour through town with neutral shirt to play some malasada songs, otherwise i likely wouldn’t have seen any shows at all in 2026.
i can’t tell you what a relief it is to not be the only person at the gig wearing a mask. i don’t really like to talk about it, because i feel like i’m either preaching to the choir or just preaching. but live music and the surrounding community was such a huge part of my identity from like 12 years old and onward. it kinda saved my life. and i don’t feel welcome in those spaces anymore. in fact i live in a different reality entirely than most of my peers, and it sucks. so it is extra special to me that there are a few folks left in diy music world that don’t think i’m crazy and we can bond over the incredibly niche music taste we share and i can feel normal for a couple hours.
i’m so grateful (and lucky!) to have community, but my social life looks much different now. it used to be that basically everyone i knew was connected to music in some way. live diy music was one of the greatest loves of my life, and it feels like i’ll never get over it. it’s not even the risk inherent in going to gigs where there are no airborne illness mitigations that keeps me away at this point, it’s the betrayal of it all.
i’ve been involved in punk/DIY/whatever long enough to know that disability access is usually an afterthought. but some idealistic part of me had hope that these people with whom i supposedly share values would want to make things meaningfully safer for the most vulnerable after experiencing this unprecedented thing. inclusion and accessibility are such major tenants of punk. but the reality is that people do what’s easy and/or popular. everybody is quick to say “all are welcome,” but nobody wants check to check and see if everyone can actually get inside the door.
infuriatingly, i totally get why people are over masks. we haven’t begun to collectively untangle the trauma of the early pandemic. most people wore a few awful/uncomfortable masks in the early days and were eager to take them off for good. ironically, the isolation and helplessness of lockdowns that so many “normal” folks still haven’t processed, is what we ask of disabled and immunocompromised folks every day in this new, unmitigated world. the average person’s refusal to even look at this is such a bummer to me.
ideally we need clean air infrastructure baked into public spaces, masks are just the easiest tool to implement in lieu of that. in my perfect world, punks would have developed an affinity for CR boxes. they’re an excellent DIY addition to any sweaty, shithole basement venue.
anywho!!
fundraising corner
i’m working on raising funds to purchase two air purifiers for a high risk community member at the moment. i know no one has any money right now, but if by some miracle you’d like to help, i’m still pretty far from goal.
tiny victories
did you know you can do karaoke with your friends in your backyard? i recommend it!
celebrated 13 years with my partner in crime.
portland zine symposium was so cute and good <3
i went out to the movies with friends twice this month to see the history of concrete and you can see everything. year of the autistic documentarian.
thrifted some fantastic pants and switched shampoo/conditioner, which led to me feeling hot again thank goodness.
drove out to the peninsula to visit a friend (for the first time since loon’s memorial); the drive was gorgeous and hello shark’s new album was beautiful and i cried a little bit both ways.
giving y’all the 24 hour embrace that i so desperately need rn. til next time <3
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this was beautiful
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