I've just finished my zine for the 24 hour zine thing project - we were supposed to make a 24 page zine from scratch in July in a single 24 hour period. since this was my first zine, I didn't quite fit in with the project rules - but I made the zine within 24 hours, though spread over the weekend. I typed it up on my new old Gabrielle 25 Adler typewriter - which took me ages! and gave my fingers a good workout. I went to Office Works today to do the photocopying and wasted a lot of money trying to get colour copies done - tip if you're new. do b&w copies for the test prints whilst testing the photocopier or you'll waste $$. the colour print worked on the first run but then lost the colours anyway, so I ended up doing 1 set in colour for the master copy and seven black & white copies for the actual zines. the zine is called "24 things I've made..." - not very original, but it was fairly easy to write up a list and a page on each thing. I think the zine's layout is a little plain and it's very self-indulgent in content - it's definitely "all about me"!!

download a scanned version of the zine (5.6Mb) - note the formatting is different in this scanned version to the printed copy. and the hand-made sheet of paper is not included/scanned.
also available at archive.org

photos of the paper versions :

and this is Gabrielle... when she was in the store just waiting for me to come along and get her working again

I've made a quick pdf picture book of photos of some of the food & meals I've had during the past 5 years as a digital nomad. inspiration for food to prepare

For the past 5 years (2004-2009), I've been a
digital nomad of sorts - traveling for work in
countries such as UK, Australia, India, Turkey,
New Zealand, Israel and Malaysia. Living in
hotels and eating at hotels, cafes, and
restaurants. This is a picture book showing
some of the meals I've had during that time.
No wonder I've put on weight! -- kath
http://www.AliaK.com

download "food for digital nomads - picture book" pdf file (27.5 Mb)

"food for digital nomads - picture book" is hosted on archive.org

drinking tea, reading zines and listening to jon hassell's music - a lovely way to end the long weekend. and Happy Birthday QEII. the washing has been done, the clothes are in the dryer which is heating up the apartment (& saving me from putting on the heater this afternoon / tonight - as it's cold!)

listening : "Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street" Jon Hassell

zines : I pulled out the zines I've recently come across + some from a few years ago. I've been sending them little thank you emails as I read them - I'm never sure if zinesters like this or not or if you're meant to - they have their contact details and sometimes say to write so I guess it's ok, but it's always nice to receive a thank you message.

the trouble with reading zines - or rather, perhaps the good thing about reading zines, is that I start reading a couple then I get inspired to write something down in my own notebook - even if it is just little random thoughts or ideas. for me, they help get the creative juices flowing. the problem is, that sometimes I don't end up finishing reading the zine in one sitting. sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. also the DIY / grassroots feel about them makes me feel like I could make one too, though perhaps I'm too old for this these days, and if I write it should be about serious issues or in an academic manner (though I don't tend to write in this way anyway)

(not in any order)

100 fishes - an illustrated guide. illustrated by Mel Davis, Amy Ranck, Richard Scott & Anna Vu - a collection of hand drawn fish pictures with labels of the names of the fish and pronounciation. rather cute

310 Danceskool - photo zine with pictures of stencil art & graf & a band in a bar / performance space in Sydney that no longer exists. nice documentation of the ephemeral place.

antithesis - phase shift - issue 2 - by Daniel Cotton - A Zine of (mostly) science fiction short stories. I remember picking this and the other issues up at the TINA zine fair a few years ago. he says in the cover intro, "This zine is a result of my desire to become less one dimensional. It is titled Antithesis since it represents a portion of my personality that I am unable to express as a Physics student. Every moment I've spent on it is one I haven't spent working toward my PhD thesis.". I suppose he has his PhD now, as this zine is dated 2005.

two heads - part one - janus - by Ben Platt-Mills and Wes White - I bought this one for it's 28th December entry on the first page about remembering - premembering
http://www.ecartilage.co.uk/twoheads.htm ::: @weswhite

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printing press :
All Thumbs Press
Ptilotus
Vignette Press
Overland
PressPress

zine distros & stores
Sticky Institute - zine distro & store - Melbourne
Bird in the Hand distro - Sydney / Newcastle
Click Clack distro - Virginia, USA

zine projects
International Zine Month
24 hour zine thing

zines
Mulch Zine

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on We Make Zines forum a question was asked how do you market/advertise/dissiminate your zines?
my reply :

you could try sending to one of the zine distros?

http://www.allthumbspress.net/zineinfo.html is a page written by Keg de Souza that I came across last week (apparently it was written for a zine commissioned by Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art) - it has some distros in Aus & overseas listed

http://groups.google.com/group/zines-aus is an Australian zines mail list. this week there was a thread about selling zines in Aus (timely) so a few more stores/distros listed there too.
http://groups.google.com/group/zines-aus/browse_thread/thread/a42ee...

sending the guys at Sticky Institute a message would probably be your best bet to start with - they're a zine store based in Melbourne. http://www.stickyinstitute.com

&/or Bird in the Hand distro (sydney/soon to be a Newcastle-based store so I've heard) http://zines.wordpress.com

there's an Australian zinesters section on this wemakezines ning site too - asking someone there would be a good start.

(I'm not sure what the stores' policies are about Australian & International zines - I guess they stock both?? so maybe contact them to check)
or trade/swap as mentioned previously

or maybe send to a zine reviewer site? I found a good one (blog) the other night (Aus) but I can't remember the link sorry. google it perhaps?

also flickr has some groups - & you see pics
http://www.flickr.com/groups/zinesters = Zinesters group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1061227@N20 = Zine Reviews group

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City Library Street Press is back after a short Summer break with a new program of free workshops starting on March 11th 2009.

City Library Street Press is an opportunity for all of those interested in the many aspects of street press to gather and discuss ideas, techniques and projects. Our last season of Workshops were a roaring success with every session fully booked, covering many topics from zines to creative writing, page layout and cartooning. This season is no exception and the details of the first half of the program can be found below :

11/03/08 : Clem Bastow and friends discusses Blogging
25/03/08 : Al Cossar of the Portable Film festival ponders the role of film in Street Press
08/04/08 : Geoff Lemon talks poetry
22/04/08 : Bernard Caleo from Cardigan Comics encourages everyone to draw, draw and draw some more
06/05/08 : The National Young Writers Festival (TBC)
20/05/08 : The Craft Cartel demonstrate how to spread a message through handmade goodies
03/06/08 : SYN Community radio shows the simple creation of podcasts

The workshops are generally practical in nature and run from 6 - 7.45 at the City Library, 253 Flinders Lane. Contact (03) 9658 9500 for more details and to book a space.

http://www.stickyinstitute.com for more details

not sure what a zine is? - here's an article called Zines Are Not Blogs: A Not Unbiased Analysis by Jenna Freedman (via Sticky's links page)

the guys at Sticky sent an invitation to join the We Make Zines NING group today. We Make Zines is a online community for zine makers and zine readers. the discussions are all about the zines and issues involved with making them & distributing them. this year I want to try this - maybe take some thoughts / notes from my little notebooks and make a zine. or some thoughts from this blog - though even the blog is mostly project listings, not my own thoughts. maybe time for a shift.. am I too old to make a zine?? hopefully not.. I want to (if I ever get round to it) put some of the info & interviews from brisbane dance parties archive site into a zine (hopefully a collection of them) too - then possibly a book later on. I like reading the zines from the Sticky subscription - they seem to be from a range of people - different ages & backgrounds. I like the letter ones - reminds me of the letter writing I used to do whilst growing up. these days I manage a few postcards to friends whilst overseas - it's nice getting messages in the mail, and I think the kids love them. I wondered about a video zine too - maybe stored on USB memory sticks or dvds. I posted a 'video zines' message to the artists in the cloud group - sounds like people are interested to try it out too.

this is part2 of a quick video showing some of my favourite magazines from the early-mid 90s and now. I tried to save the first part (Mondo 2000, Boing Boing, Arthur) but it's taking over an hour to save and then crashes the conversion program - still ironing out best methods for my new HD camera. I'll try do it tomorrow but I've got to fly to Delhi so not sure if I'll have time (esp. if it keeps failing)

07/11/2008

blog entry :
http://www.aliak.com/content/vlomo08-day7-some-my-favourite-magazines-part2

http://vimeo.com/2179386

VloMo08 : day7 - Some of my Favourite Magazines (part2) from kath on Vimeo.

and here's part 1 - I didn't get a chance to convert this before I left. so I've added it later

Alternative Media in Brisbane by Stephen Stockwell is a paper available on Griffith Uni website. It lists some of the more underground publications in Brisbane from 1965-1985

I visited the Sticky Institute in Melbourne yesterday and bought a few zines and recorded a video asking the team a few basic questions about zines. The store has a wide selection of zines, and there's a membership / mail list where you can sign up and receive zines in the mail. If you're a zine-writer, you can contact the store and have them stock your zines. Their website also includes an impressive "Zineopedia" of Melbourne based zines which is a great resource for anyone wanting to find out more about zines. Though the best way would be to visit the store if you're in Melbourne, their website if you're not in Melbourne, or a local zine-festival and buy & read some zines. Or even better, start your own!

visit http://www.stickyinstitute.com for more details
store details :
Sticky Institute
Degraves St Subway
Shop 10 Campbell Arcade Melbourne
stickyshop @ gmail.com (remove the spaces)
(if you're not from Melbourne like me, it's opposite the train station on Flinders St, about half way (Flinders between Swanston & Elizabeth) - go downstairs towards the station subway and you'll see it)

PO Box 310 Flinders Lane Vic Australia 8009

One of the zines I bought was the "Anyone can.. " zine (anyone can make a zine) which launched the same day by the City Library Street Press. The City Library Street Press are quite active, having a few projects on the go and regular meetings at the library for zinesters and writers to get involved with. The "Anyone can.." zine also includes a MAP of Melbourne city showing writers & zinester spots of interest eg libraries, stores, artist spaces.

I also bought Anna Poletti's book "Intimate Ephemera : Reading Young Lives in Australian Zine Culture" whilst at Sticky. I've been to some of her panel sessions at the National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle & Critical Animals as part of This is Not Art (TiNA) over the years, so was glad to find her PhD book in the store too. The book is also available as an e-book (pdf) or d-book (pod / print on demand) from Melbourne University Publishing e-store

I haven't finished the book yet, but here's one passage about what a zine is [pg 11-12] :

"Personal zines do not share many of the characteristics of he texts that make up the bulk of sources studied in literary or cultural studies and, more specifically, scholarship on auto/biography. Of central importance to these non-traditional texts is the fact that sines are not mass-produced; they are not published by a professional publishing house, and thus not 'sanctioned as significant by [their] status as a mass produced commodity' (Huff 510). Moreover, zines are not easily available, do not participate in standardised modes of presentation and distribution, and are not well recognised within literary communities or among the reading (most commonly constituted as 'book-buying') public. Zines are homemade, ephermeral and amateur. They circulate among communities of readers through the mail, in out-of-the-way spaces, and are passed around hand-to-hand among social groups. They are also non-traditional because of the modes of emplotment that characterise them; in the case of personal zines, we find a unique mixture of established modes of life writing, such as the diary, alongside zine-specific narratives such as cut'n'paste collage. These material and textual idiosyncranasies challenge the literary critic to practise 'connected reading', which Gillian Whitlock describes as a practice which 'pulls at the loose threads of autobiography, and uses them to make sutures between, across and among autobiographical narratives' (Intimate Empire 204)".

I also like this definition by Richard A Stoddart and Teresa Kiser in Poletti's book [pg 27]
"Zines are a written product of the human need for self-expression. Beyond that, zines are hard to define."

on page 7-8, Poletti gives Duncombe's list for a 'zine taxonomy'. I thought this was very similar to the original definitions of video blogs when they'd first started (video blogs came after zines of course!) - my attempt was this video blog mind map before I realised it was crazy to try and define all the combinations - a simple all encompassing definition of 'video on a blog' was more appropriate, and did it matter anyway.. every now and then the videoblogging list starts up a new 'what is a video blog' thread - I suppose it is the same for all sub-communities that are less commonly known / new. the response below also reminds me of the videoblogging list arguments towards a simpler definition (or no definition), and at least a step away from a taxonomy.

"genres of zines: fanzines (broken down into subcategories by subject, that is music and sports), political zines, personal zines, scene zines (covering local and community events in the zinester's area), network zines (which review zine publications), fringe culture zines (covering UFOs, conspiracy theories and so on), religious zines, vocational zines (detailing 'life on the job'), health zines, sex zines, travel zines, comix, literary zines, art zines and 'the rest'"

... "the collapse of Duncombe's taxonomy into 'the rest - a large category' underscores the futility of attempting to solidify or organise a definition of zines based on their content. As Kirsty Leishman argues: 'Duncombe's work reveals that zines are ill contained and thus it is useful because it relieves subsequent researchers from pursuing such an arduous, yet futile, endeavour'(7)."

Pratilipi is an online bilingual magazine featuring Indian writing and stories in English and Hindi & other languages.

Pratilipi is (wants to be) a bilingual / multilingual, multiscript magazine that provides a space for conversation / debate between diverse sorts of writing and writers. Pratilipi forbids itself nothing – except taking on a representational role on the web or catering to such expectations – and, hopefully, never will.

visit the site @ http://pratilipi.in

Maarav is an online art and culture magazine, established to present the contemporary Israeli art world, and to discuss and debate it from the perspective and reality of Israel in the year 2004. They examine the nature and destiny of art and culture that is being created in a place of continuous violence and conflict, as it struggles against extreme capitalism and the rules of the 'free market', as it creates itself under the influence of the great shadow of the 11th of September. Playing a role in the clash of civilizations (indeed clash of civilizations?), and in this era of the digital revolution with all these techno-digital toys that are so captivating but also so threatening. We will discuss art that leaves the confines of museums and galleries and enters popular culture and that its creators are also political activists, computer programmers, journalists, teachers, musicians, philosophers and designers.

visit http://www.maarav.org.il/en for more details

e/i magazine was a print magazine from 2003 - 2006. from 2007 onwards, it has become an online magazine only. the publisher describes the magazine as "e/i was an attempt to establish on the newsstand what I hoped would be the most comprehensive, definitive, intelligently written and artfully designed magazine covering all manners of music electronic, experimental and otherwise. Our editorial mandate was to shatter genre margins while encompassing the past, the present and the future, extolling a broad swathe of artists who challenged the very notions of sound and vision." these days you can join their mail list and every 2 weeks or so you'll receive an email listing the latest reviews and news which are available on the site.

The Sunday Fair incorporates Zine Fair, Independent Music Labels Fair, Small Press and Independent Publishing Fair and the Makers Market. The Fair is part of This Is Not Art, an annual festival of independent, emerging & experimental arts & media.

The Fair will be held on Sunday 30th September between 12 and 6 under the trees of Newcastle's Civic Park. If you trade in zines, independent publications, records, CDs, art wearables, clothes, jewellery, badges, patches, posters, or anything funky cool and DIY and you want to share your work with thousands of other artists, creators, makers and interesting folk from across the country then the Makers Market
is for you.

Read more for more information, then download the information sheet and registration form from www.thisisnotart.org or send an email to markets@thisisnotart.org to register

PDF Mags is a site listing hundreds of free arts and music pdf magazines / zines. they also have a calls for submissions listings area so you can find out where to have your work published

online music magazine and proponent of proper booth plurality

click here or on the image to play the quicktime movie

slideshow video of photos taken during the 2003 This is Not Art and Electrofringe festivals in Newcastle, Australia 01-06 October 2003

http://www.thisisnotart.org has info about this year's festival

http://www.massarcade.com/electrofringe has the 2003 electrofringe website - you can find the program on this site

http://flickr.com/photos/aliak_com/tags/tina2003/ has photos of the event

The IDEA [Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts] is a very simple creative sharing matrix for e-Creative Practitioners and associated individuals & organizations from all over the world to share their works, visions, aspirations, experiments and communiqués, etc. on a common platform that can be distributed, retrieved and archived for the future. The 7 gazettes issued so far are also now hosted online by the e-music pioneer & composer (and Special Advisor to The AeA) Laurie Spiegel, at http://retiary.org/idea

PixelPress' intent is to encourage documentary photographers, writers, filmmakers, artists, human rights workers and students to explore the world in ways that take advantage of the new possibilities provided by digital media. They seek a new paradigm of journalism, one that encourages an active dialogue between the author and reader and, also, the subject.

Himal Southasian is published and distributed by The Southasia Trust, Lalitpur, Nepal

Himal Southasian is Southasia's first and only regional magazine. Stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, from Tibet to the Maldives, this region of more than 1.4 billion people shares great swathes of interlocking geography, culture and history. Yet today neighbouring countries can barely talk to one another, much less speak in a common voice. For two decades, Himal Southasian has strived to nurture, define and amplify that voice.

Perilous is an archive of the fortnightly column from 3D World magazine written by Seb Chan from Sub Bass Snarl.

The column started in 1992/3 and the site has articles up until 2004 so is a great collection, documentation and snapshot in time of the Sydney and Australian electronic music & hip hop community, gigs and artists