copillia

The conference was a really good time! I love going on road trips, even mini ones like this, and it was good to be around all my fellow zine-nerds. Ben, Mark, Justin and I got into Bowling Green last Friday evening. It was a cute little college town, and not without its hot spots. We checked in at Grounds for Thought Caf, this coffee shop/zine/used bookstore. I bought a copy of Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of NIMH and we headed to our dorm room at the university to drop off our stuff.

We went to this local rock n' roll bar I forget the name but it was really cool - similar to Delilah's or the Hideout. We hung out, had some cheap drinks and I took some pictures, of course. I played Dig Dug with Billy from Loop Distro for a while, and then he took me over to where the other Chicago zine kids were hanging out. There were a lot of us, and it was good to see that so many people could make it. We played more video games, talked about projects and zine related stuff and drank a LOT (hell, we were in Ohio). To my excitement, a few people came up and said they were interested in my event, so I was talking about that. I got pretty drunk that night, but I still managed to wake up a little after 9 for the conference.

I heard from other people that this was a relatively small turnout (I was wondering about that with school out for the summer and all) but still, a decent amount of people came by throughout the day. I didnt end up making as much cash as I would have liked, and that kinda sucked because I wanted to use it to BUY things at the con. But I think a large part of it was the fact that I was at my table for maybe half the time. The rest of the day I was attending the many free workshops and seminars they had. Learning stuff for free is always cool. I especially liked Marketing Your Indie Project and Integrating Media Literacy and Critical Thinking into K-12 Social Studies. One of the hardest parts was deciding what to go to. There were so many good events going on at once, and someone always had to stay at the table. While I sat at my table, Ben and Justin went to film screenings and Mark went around with his camera interviewing people. I met a LOT of very interesting and creative people and built up my contact list. I think if I play my cards right, this Chicago zine fest Im hosting should be huge.

So yeah, it was a very good time, but I was also glad to be back in Chicago. These last few days were pretty fun. I had to work on the day of the Pride Parade (boo) but I got to hang out with the adorable Mya who was in town for a couple days. Tomorrow Im going to Neo for Smiths/Morrissey night aaaaand I have a date on Wednesday night! Pa-CHANG! I have to make sure I save some time for my class. Im writing my final paper on one of my favorite books The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. It will be awesome.

Oh, and this is totally unrelated but while Im updating I may as well throw it in. A while back Starguitar got me the totally badass SG belt buckle. Now, I want to rock this thing SO bad but it seems that I DONT KNOW HOW TO PUT ON A FUCKING BELT BUCKLE. Seriously. I tried it all kinds of ways and I didnt know what the hell I was doing. So can someone please help me out? Thanks.

And now, here are some pics from the conference...



Here I am looking snappy and ready to go

Making a rather intense face

with benjamin

At my table

I make things

This was written on the bar bathroom wall. I found it hillarious.

with Alycia from Random Life in Progress zine