Caboose #9 Now Ready For Mass Consumption

The most recent recent issue of my zine is available. It's Caboose #9: Masons On Masons, How to Start a Secret Society. You can order it here at quimbys.com for a mere $3. And here's a snippet from it at my website, if ya wanna a read a nibble from it.


My husband and I did a presentation on fraternal orders and forbidden knowledge, which then inspired this issue. But it wasn't just us doing some research on a topic we were already interested in and then writing it up. We used the pre-existing Freemason-influenced society structure as a template for making your own order. We looked at things like the OTO, Tongs, the Yakuza, the Knights Templar and more, to see what is effective and ineffective in terms of establishing your secret society, DIY-style. But lest you think it's just a brotherhood frat party, we spent some time thinking about things from a feminist angle too; we all know that "auxilary/supplemental" groups for the ladies who can't be invited to join really means "added later" which means "you can have your special boring separate but not equal tea party," which really means "oh yeah, we don't care about you because you're a woman." We also tied things in with some of our favorite mayhem topics like occult, steampunk, anarchistic philosophy, Crowley, Masonic goat humor (yes, it's a thing) and more. Of course there are some hilarious graphics, if I don't say so myself. Also, my dad is a Shriner master Mason and he showed me his fezzes.

Titles of pieces include: OG: Original Generative*The Order of the Pug*The First Rule of Rosicrucianism, Fight Club & The Catechism of a Revolutionary*The Illuminati: Really Just a Book Club* Name-Calling, Lawsuits and Personal Issues* Reaping the Benefits of Secret Societies: Financial Security, Self-Preservation & Philanthropy*Building Your Secret Society's Public & Private Spheres & Developing Pageantry*The Clockwork Universe, It's Overlap With Freemasonry & Steampunk Maker Culture: A DIY Manifesto*Considering Identity In the Formation of a Secret Society*Mirth & Mayhem: Activities In Your Meetings

IZM Day 9: Write a Letter to a Zinester You Don't Know

July is International Zine Month! I'm doing a few of the ideas for selected days. Day 9 was to write a letter to a zinester you don't know. I was chuckling to myself while I did this example, standing in a towel with a toothbrush in my mouth. How hilarious would it be to receive this as a letter? There's something about this type of repurposing that gets to the heart of my sense of humor. It's like the slobs invading the snobs' party.

The 24 Hour Zine Challenge

I made a zine for the Quimby's 24 Hour Zine Challenge, based on pictures of things my dad has pulled out of animals in his years as a veterinarian. Click here to order it if you want it! It's a quarter-page size zine (roughly 4.25"x5.5"), 28p and b&w. It's called Prizes: Things My Dad Has Had to Take Out of Animals.

The 24 Hour Zine Challenge was silly and fun. Some store regulars and zinesters stayed overnight at Quimby's, and made zines or new issues of their zines. We ate snacks (lots of Pocky), drank coffee and laughed a lot. One of my co-workers brought crazy snacks from the food stampesque apocalyptic religious snackarium near his place in Pilsen. He stayed on the clock all night, scanning covers of old Punk Planets for the store website. My other co-worker worked on his comics and then curled up in his sleeping bag and somehow slept. Lots of people visited us to show support and hang out, and once particularly awesome store regular (Carrie) brought snacks for us, which I thought was adorable.

I had all these big ideas about taking pictures of the snacks throughout the night as it had been depleted, and I was going to put pieces of paper out with the time, but I only did it once, at about 7:29pm. A few hours later someone saw it and said, "What's the story with this? Why do you need to have this random time right here? Also, it's definitely NOT 7:29 any more. " So then I decided just to scrap the time-next-to-the-food project. I have this reoccuring theme in my life about how I have this tendency to get so caught up in documenting an event that it overshadows me just experiencing the event. "This is a real slice of life! We're making history!"

When the owner came in the morning, he took one look at me and said, "This was all just an excuse for you to wear your pajamas at work, isn't it?"

I still have the pictures from the event on my camera! But I can't get to my camera now to post them now because I'm on the couch with the cat all snuggeled up next to me, and hell no am I moving when something this cute is happening. Also, it's plugged in in the bedroom, and Joe is sleeping and I don't want to wake him up.

Anyway, on an un-related note:  Here's a link on my website for a free download of my most recent Dance Dance Party Party mix tape as one continuous track. I DJed as MC Escher on 1/25/12.