✷ greetings ✷

hi hello! i'm writing to you from the beach cabin at sou'wester on my vacation (maybe a questionable use of vacation? i dunno! let's say no! lol). if you've never heard of sou'wester, it's a "historic lodge & vintage travel trailer resort" in seaview washington. i've been enamoured with it ever since i first heard of it. kyle and i finally booked a stay as an early anniversary present to ourselves (10! frickin! years! our actual anniversary isn't til next month, but RAIN!). we booked it during the week so it'd be cheaper, so i subsequently got myself off work for a solid week. turns out... i really needed a break! 

but more about sou'wester! it has a really cool lodge with a vhs & record lending library. all the vintage trailers have record players i think, and you can rent a tv vcr with your vhs. there's also a little store that thoughtfully sells a modest selection of vegan and gf stuff, local artisan goods & brilliant shit like loose eggs (sometimes you just need a loosie!). they facilitate tons of art and music events. it's like a tiny town for artist weirdos and i love it. i am not being paid to say this (in fact, we paid them, a lot of money!) i just think it's neat! 
 

✷ upcoming events ✷

sunday, september 10th: rapidly approaching! say hello to me at olympia zine fest, 11-4pm outside behind the olympia library! ADA, free, all ages! soo many awesome zinesters will be there. 

also sunday, september 10th: dinner & a punk movie benefit for second home :) josh will be cooking up some classic josh's restaurant fare. dinner at 7, movie in the yard at 8, $15-20 sliding scale, RSVP required! hit up the second home instagram to RSVP: @secondhomegigs (if i have the spoons after zine fest, i'll be there!) 

saturday, september 16th: open no mic! 6-9pm at the secret garden. reply if you want the address. free, all ages, in the yard, some instruments provided. beginner friendly, no pressure to perform! byo blanket. there will be a projector in play for a comics reading, in case you wanna do a projector-dependent performance! 

friday september 22nd: benefit show for second home at le voyeur! 7pm $10 notaflof (no one turned away for lack of funds). enjoy the music of mini golf water feature (tacoma foamcore), guidon bear (self described nightmare pop, oly DIY veterans/past members of little red car wreck), and wavers (very fun oly indie punk). 

sunday, october 22nd: oly punk rock flea market at the olympia armory, 12-4! we're currently full and our application form is now acting as a wait list. over 40 very cool vendors this time! 

saturday, october 28th: portland zine symposium, 11-5 at PSU's smith ballroom (1825 SW broadway). all ages, ada accessible and masks strongly encouraged! there's also a halloween cover show at le voyeur in oly this night! 
 

✷ zine news ✷

preorders for the family recipes zine are open! they'll be open til september 21st. this one will be printed in a very limited capacity (if at all) outside the preoder cuz it's huge and a toner hog lol. so if you want it, now is the time! i'm sending them out in small batches as orders come in. been getting a lot of kind feedback about the zine :) i'll have some copies at oly zine fest and maybe pzs! 

i've been struggling to articulate the reason behind making the family recipes zine, but this is the place to rant, so! my relationship with my parents is extremely fraught these days (for Trans Reasons and also others) but cooking stuff from my childhood remains comforting. it allows me to feel close to them and momentarily forget that we have completely divergent values. in short, It's Complicated lol. 

once the preorder winds down i'm releasing another submission call! all zines, all the time. 

✷ some songs ✷

i guess this is becoming a thing maybe! here's what i've been listening to the past month, and the previous month too, in case you want it (still stuck on that babytooth album). i think the link was dead last newsletter but they should work now! 
 

✷ second home olympia washington (SHOW) ✷

josh is hard at work putting together a little informational pamphlet about our all ages art & music venue endeavor! we'll have that available at oly punk rock flea market and possibly oly zine fest :) prolly pins too! 
 

✷ do diy ✷

i made a VOLUNTEER page in case anyone wants to help me maintain a massive, long-standing diy music resource :) tasks include things like reaching out to places from a list i provide, combing the site for defunct spaces/fests & fairs, being a point person for your scene, etc!

✷ shifting into fall mode ✷

i've been thinking a lot about how i'm gonna have to set boundaries to avoid having a mental breakdown again this winter! oly has good fall and bad fall. good fall is like, "oooh the leaves on the trees are pretty colors and it's cool out!" bad fall is like "okay bye sun, see you in 7 months! welcome to the party, near constant rain!" i'm a fan of good fall, but after that my brain begins to short circut until spring. it's really easy to lean into my workaholic tendencies because brain is like, "there is no joy. you may as well be busy!" and historically, that Does Not work out well for me. here's to hoping and preparing. 
 

✷ fucking hooray ✷

✷ sou'wester vacation, 100 out of 10! 
✷ i've been swamped with work and somehow managing to balance all the spinning plates 
✷ i've been drawing a lot, mostly for flyers but still 
✷ it's round 2 of raspberry season 
✷ i'm just gonna stop cuz this is really long! 

til next time! thanks for reading! 

love, 
alyssa

~ past perzine newsletters ~