greetings

wow, it’s been a month. i overdid it socially.

^ this is how i wish to be. i’m ready to hibernate. preferably through like 250 commitments.

upcoming

october 26th: masks required roller skate at skateland, 5-7 PM, $0-15! tickets available here. costumes encouraged but not required. hosted by friends!

november 8th: i’ll be tabling at portland zine symposium. say hi! wear a mask!

if yr local and covid cautious, i’m hosting a lil masked karaoke + crafts hangout in a few days- hmu for details.

zine news

corrections corner: i did not participate in virtual bay area queer zine fest cuz i forgot to hit submit on the form :’)

my spotify alternatives zine went viral on instagram and that’s been a trip. i’ve never gone viral to this extent before, it’s mostly been unpleasant tbh! big reminder that social media has people primed to offer the least charitable interpretation of whatever it is you’re posting about. i’ve been more off instagram than usual. thinking about the time jenny slate referred to social media as offering nothing but “treats or poison,” and how neither are ultimately very good for you. in any case, i’m glad to report my lil mini zine has gotten some folks to make the switch ¯_(ツ)_/¯ i’m considering making another lil one with alternatives to streaming in general. and/or one to yap about my love of last.fm + finale for music analytics (if you miss spotify’s wrapped, last.fm is the place).

recaps:

yipee! backyard show

i hosted a gig in my yard for the first time this month, for touring buds in yipee!! here’s a video of trust fall’s set taken by jon from lost sound tapes, who blessed us with his attendance. it was a very sweet gig, i had a great time. i’m not looking to make a habit out of hosting music in my yard, but i’m really glad this particular gig came together how it did. diy lifers are my people, and it was a relief to not be the only lifer in attendance invested in wearing a mask as a regular practice.

oly prfm

the punk rock flea market went really well! so many rad vendors, good attendance, no issues with people refusing to mask. we managed to keep the CO2 under 600 inside the whole event. i was really excited to have KAOS and addendum/dollar tapes there (somehow first time having tapes and CDs at PRFM?!). we had some really awesome new vendors this time; i love my bleach dyed shirt from absurditerra, and kyle got a really cool stuffed animal that i’ve been admiring from ardent tapes & crafts.

some songs

my sweetie made me a mixtape this month(!!) & these first two songs have been the biggest earworms for me so far:

two new amelia cry til i die songs have also been living rent free in my head all month:

i mentioned time thief’s s/t in my last newsletter, but here’s one of my fav songs off it. i just saw them play last night for the first time and it was great! it was rad to meet james irl, who plays in time thief and runs musical fanzine records (one of my favs- each release comes with a zine from the band).

some photos

some art

enjoy this sneak peak- not sure what i plant to do with this one yet.

guilt corner

so lately i’ve been doing this thing where i decided to sort of “soft quit” many of my various “jobs.” but it turns out that doing the bare minimum on 100 projects while feeling guilty 24/7 about not doing more hasn’t actually been very helpful in terms of burn out! so i’ve been strategizing what the hell my next move is gonna be.

let’s name that guilt! — dodiy.org update is overdue as evidenced by the fact that i’ve been double emailed a few times. strategy? i have so little desire to sit down and answer a bunch of emails/update the site on top of all my other stuff, i’m thinking of doing big updates quarterly, on a schedule.

mask bloc really needs more core organizers who can run distros/are interested in tabling masks and doing popups. ideally they could use another person who is tech-savvy/wants to make graphics/update instagram. they always need storage space for masks too. if any of these roles interest you, discord is the place to plug in. currently all i’m doing is graphics and bookkeeping, will prolly move to doing an annual report vs trying to bookkeep in real-time.

clean air oly has been pretty quiet, which has honestly been a relief. i have a fair amount of reservations for october, gonna spend the month thinking about how i can make managing reservations more sustainable for me.

decay has been quiet since the fire marshal debacle, but regular board meetings are resuming as of this week. i handed off my weekly open draw shift to marcus from oly comix cult this month, and that’s been a huge relief. i’m unsure how i want my involvement with decay to look going forward.

i’m doing too much stuff (and have been all year tbh) and somethings gotta give.

tiny victories

• went to two lovely gigs

• did karaoke with my friends

• made my first cyanotypes with clover

• had two wholesale orders and gained a few new patrons <3 (thanks y’all! i had to pay my web hosting bill this month and it wasn’t cheap!)

• saved a million flower seeds from my garden, will maybe put some in my shop?

• made an appointment to get my nose pierced now that i know implant grade titanium jewelry is a thing (i’m allergic to everything, but i have titanium implants in my bones, so should be okay lol)

i hope everyone is hanging in there. we’re living in the worst fucking timeline, but there are still always little joys to be had. they want you disillusioned- don’t forget that joy is an act of resistance.

til next time <3