Ministry of Zines Update

Hello,
The Ministry of Zines blog is effectively out of action. However, the Ministry of Zines will be organising part of the Newcastle Young Writers' Festival Zine and Independent Press Fair, further Academy of DIY events and so on and so forth. All our info is now being run, oddly enough, through our MySpace page:

www.myspace.com/ministryofzines

Do feel free to visit. Otherwise, keep an eye on my other blog, where I'll doubtless be posting stuff as well:

http://nonpapierkrieg.blogspot.com/

yours,
Ianto Ware
Co-Director
South Australian Ministry of Zines

Really Good In Theory

Karl just sent me the Official Really Good In Theory blurb. There's a meeting at Urtext for all interested parties on Sat, March 31st from 2:30.

REALLY GOOD IN THEORY

Saturday April 14th

The Local Produce Market was a huge success last year and has expanded to include even more cottage industry record labels, zines, small press, visual art, distros, badge makers and more. Representing will be the likes of; Fuken Stoner; EC Productions; Blank Tapes; A Perfect Gentleman; Salvage Music; Patterns In Static; Smashed Records; Mercy Mercy; Spiral Objective; Noisy Disturbance; Ministry Of Zines; Paroxysm Press; The South Australian Institute for the Photocopied Arts; Urtext Films and much more. All will have their wares on show. CD's, records, tapes, books, patches, clothes, zines, badges, even, second hand goods, all at prices even the guy from that cheap shop ad couldn't believe. And then there is The History Lesson. A table dedicated to indie and DIY releases of Adelaide's murky past. All over the country there are old releases gathering dust under people's beds and in their sheds. Effort has been made to track down releases from labels like Pop Gun, Hip To Hate, Rim Of Hell, Greasy Pop and others to provide an opportunity for people to rediscover (or discover for the first time) Adelaide's pop underground heritage.Local art will adorn the walls and include such mediums as paint, photography and sculpture. Established and rising stars of the Adelaide art world will be on display for all to marvel at.then from 8.30pm for a cost of seven bucks you can witness the aural and visual joys of HOME FOR THE DEF, AVIATOR LANE, EMERGENCY CRANK RADIO and AVANT GARDENERS (who are also launching their two-years-in-the-making debut cd). there will also be dj's, light shows, films, hecklers and lovely people.

For more info visit:

www.myspace.com/rgit

Or email:

apg@junkcentral.com

Fame and Fortune: 2007 Zine & DIY Fair

Despite the sudden onset of autumn, March 24 saw zinesters, artistes and DIY practitioners emerge in their dozens to attend the second annual Fringe Zine Fair! Huzzah!




Local artist Laura Wills displays her enviable new range of stickers, soy milk wallets and artworks


Wollongong's favourite son Andy, one half of a dynamic duo completed by Wollongong's favourite daughter Maddy Feline (also in attendance but out of frame)


Adelaide's favourite zine import, Luke Sinclair of Melbourne's Sticky Zine Shop smugly surveys his empire.


Infamous Adelaide expatriate, scholarly gentleman, pony lover, street artist and art director of 'Bogue' Magazine, Chris Tamm pretends to eat a papier mache icecream.


Sometime zinester and Free Marketeer Sophie props up her trademark zine suitcase from the prevailing winds.


Greg aka. Musical Sherpa takes a break from the Spiral Objective stall to join the Sticky Pages Soundsystem and drown out the gentle sounds of jangling coins and turning pages.

DIYers victorious!

On Saturday 17th March, DIYers from across the city descended on the Karen Eliot Social Centre & Cafe in Brompton for an action-packed day of workshops, discussions, skillsharing and falafel rolls. Running for almost a full 12 hours, well over 50 people squeezed into the Centre for topics as vast as photo developing with coffee to contemporary feminist activism. An enormous thanks to all who participated in this event, and to those who ran workshops, facilitated discussions, brought equipment or ideas to share or made excellent food.


Laura Wills shares her wisdom of the delicate art of wallet construction from soy milk containers


Anna Svedberg's badge-making workshop (and stack of old comics) provide solace from the hectic pace of handball


Yasmin shares some Turkish during Robin's linguistic crash-course




Matthew spreads the gospel of developing black and white photos with such unexpected substances as coffee, washing soda and salt water


Bike lovers Bonnie and Dan (and Darren) empower the masses with basic bike mechanics

Behold! The complete time table for the DIY Day!

Saturday March 17
Academy of DIY - Day of Workshops and Panels
12 till 8:30ish, Karen Elliot Social Centre, 48 Hawker St Brompton

In theory, this is a day of non-stop DIY education. In practice it's likely to be more of a day long picnic and handball free for all, ending in three panels, a film screening and a dinner provided by Food Not Bombs. It's totally free to take part - although a gold coin donation to the social centre would be wonderful- you can turn up and leave whenever it suits you and there'll be alternative activities occurring for when you get bored. And bring picnic foods.

The time table looks like this:

Tutorials
12:00 Handball with Stan and Ben from Excitement Machine
Stan and Ben launch the day with a training session in the gentle art of handball. This is followed by a non-stop, free for all handball tournament. Those who don't wish to play can doubtless bet vast sums of money from the sidelines.

12:30 Badge Making Workshop 30-40 mins
Probably less a badge making workshop than a badge making free for all, although presumably with some sort of monetary charge to cover expenses.

1:00 Making Wallets out of Long Life Milk Cartons 30 - 45 mins
Laura Wills unveils the genteel art of turning long life milk cartons into striking wallets, which you can use to contain the money you've made betting on handball. She says she'll bring along the necessary supplies, but it probably won't hurt to bring some of your own milk cartons - if only so you can have a wallet reflecting your favourite brand of soy milk.

Seminars
1:45 Chemical Free Photography with Matthew - 45 mins - 1 hour
Using his powerful brain, Matthew with instruct you on developing photographic film using ancient herbal recipes passed down by the ancient Egyptians, or something to a similar effect.

2:45 Robin's Language Crash Course - 45 mins -1 hour
Within 45 to 60 minutes you will learn as much as you can from as many languages as is feasibly possible with the aid of Robin and her team of skilled linguistics experts.

3:45 Ready Set Ride Bike Repair Workshop - 1 hour
Our friends from Ready Set Ride present an overview of basic bicycle mechanics, designed to ensure you understand such vital procedures as changing a tire, fixing your brakes and cleaning your chain.

Lectures
After the primary learning experiences gained in the tutorials and seminars we move on to the evening program, containing three enthralling and painfully educational lectures.

5:00 Non-Famous Rock Stars Panel
Nigel Koop (Home for the Def/Blank Tapes), Matt Banham (No Through Road), Lara Souilo (Star Ten Hash) and the indefatigable Mike Radz (Aviator Lane), discuss the nuances of setting up home recording facilities, booking shows, distribution and generally being an entirely non-famous rock star. At least two members of this panel are guaranteed to be drunk and surly at any given moment.

6:15 The Laura Butterworth All Stars Feminist Hour
Laura Butterworth and her Feminist All Stars discuss feminist activism across the ages. A little like the Harlem Globe Trotters, except with more reference to gender, identity and politics. Particular emphasis on the new IR laws!

7:30 The Power of Community: Permaculture in Cuba with Elvira
We end the day with a special guest lecturer - critically acclaimed Elvira. Sophie sent me the following descriptive blurb:

"Amazing Melbourne non-violence, women's rights, and community gardening activist Elvira will be sharing her inspiring stories and photos of permaculture gardening in Cuba, as well as screening the film "The Power of Community: How Cuba survived Peak Oil" (see http://www.communitysolution.org/cuba.html).
Elvira is endlessly curious about what might go right in our future. To this end, she traveled to Cuba to see a society that went through an energy and economic crisis simultaneously, and had to rebuild its agricultural system from the worms up...Come and hear about a country where cities grow enough food to feed their citizens, where bikes outnumber cars, and where organics is the norm!"
And then, later in the evening:

Dumpster Cycling Tour
I think the plan is to meet at 10pm at the Mall's balls.

The Zine Resource Room

The Zine Resource Room

21 Mellor Street

1st Floor

Inside the Old Balfours Factory/Fringe Offices

Open Seven Days a Week from 11 till 3

Until April 1st or So

I've had a few people tell me that finding the Zine Resource Room was a little baffling. To help ease confusion, here's an elaborate pictorial guide to finding it.

First you need to find Mellor St. This photo (above) is taken from the corner of Waymouth and Mellor, looking south. It's just opposite Light Square, a little south and on the other side of the road from the Grace Emily Hotel.

So you turn down Mellor. At the end is the Balfours Factory. In the middle is a Fringetix office. The doorway to the Zine Resource Room is on the right. You can see it in this picture, just a bit before the scooter.

The Doorway looks like this. I've put a sign on it, so it's pretty clear. If it's closed you might need to ring the doorbell, in which event one of the friendly staff from the Fringe Offices will come open it for you.

Then you need to go up some stairs (pictured). At the top there is a scary door. Don't worry. There's no one sitting behind it who will glare at you in surprise when you open it and tell you to go away. It leads into a little annex space thing.

Once you go through the door, turn left. You'll come out into an office space (pictured). The Zine Resource Room is at the back, on the right. There's plenty of signs directing you where to go. If you need anything, the people working in the Fringe Offices are all uber helpful. Keep a particular eye out for Rino and Penny, the most helpful of all.

The Fringe people are uber keen for us to use this space. If there's a proven demand they might be able to get funding for it and next year it'll include more than just a single photocopier. If no one uses it then it won't get funding and it won't exist next year. Thus, use it. Also, take in gifts of baked goods and so forth to give to the Fringe people. Any rumours you've heard about people working in the arts industry being either snooty or well paid are entirely unfounded.

Next Event - March 17th

Thanks to Wizard for the Tour de Suburban Storm Drains, which went down a treat despite me being so tired I couldn't maintain conversation.

Our next event is scheduled for March 17th. The run down of it I sent Excitement Machine goes like this:

***
Academy of DIY - Day of Workshops and Panels
March 17th, Karen Eliot Social Centre
Cnr Hawker St and Coglin St, Brompton
12-6ish

This is a lengthy day of, theoretically, panels and workshops but, more likely, picnics, shit talk and handball. What follows is the conventional run down of events:

Tutorials

12:00 Handball Tutorial
I figure we kick the day off with you teaching people how to play handball, and then you just keep playing handball until your hands are bleeding. It will be like a marathon.

12:30 Badge Making Workshop 30 mins
Anna Svedberg is organising it, but hasn't got back to me yet so I'm not sure what her plan is. I figure she'll let people mess around with her badge machine.

1:00 Making Wallets out of Soy Containers 30 mins
Laura Wills shows you how to make attractive wallets out of old soy milk cartons. I've seen one of them and they're actually pretty amazing. And cheap!

1:30 Non-Chemical Photography
I think Matthew is going to run a half hour tutorial on developing photographic film on the cheap using non-lethal chemicals. I have no idea about this whole photography lark, but I'm pretty sure he knows what he's doing.

Seminars
1:45 Robin's Language Crash Course 45 hour - hour
Robin is getting a bunch of people to teach the basics of a wide array of languages within the shortest possible period of time. I think it'll be predominantly learning how to apologise profusely, order food and drink and probably how to recite select curse words. She's a genius, so I'm sure it will be amazing.

2:45 Ready Set Ride Bike Repair Workshop - 1 hour
Our pals at Ready Set Ride will be hosting an overview of basic bicycle mechanics. They're damn nice and they'll make your cycling related life a hell of a lot easier by teaching you how to stop your bike falling apart.


Lectures
4:00 Non-Famous Rock Stars Panel with Nigel Koop (Blank Tapes, Home for the Def), Lara Soulio (Star Ten Hash), Matt Banham (No Through Road) and Mike Radz (Aviator Lane) - Discussing the nuances of recording, booking shows, playing rock and roll and not being a jerk about it. Most of the people on this panel will probably be drunk and at least moderately entertaining.

5:15 The Laura Butterworth All Stars Feminist Hour
Famous local feminist activists talk about being famous feminist activists, with the guidance of Feminist All Star of the Year (junior division), Laura Butterworth.

We have a late edition occuring from around 6:30ish. Sophie sent me an email saying she has a friend who, depending on whether she can get over here in time, would like to;

...present stuff on community-building in Cuba, based on her time there, which would include showing the film "The Power of Community", presenting some slides and definitely musings on what's working and what isn't in Cuba. She would need speakers, projectors, and a screen (I can organise a projector and the social centre has a screen).

And then, later that night...

Dumpster Cycling Tour with Roxy et al
March 17th
Starts around 10 PM, leaving from somewhere on Rundle Mall.
A cycling tour of city dumpstering locales with a couple of nutrition experts, giving a hands on display of doing your food shopping for free without accumulating dangerous stomach problems.

***

Joel is still in Africa fighting crime or whatever. He sent me an email yesterday telling me that internet access is a little dodgy in the Skull Cave, but he'll be home soon.