Ever wonder how offset printing works? or when they're going to pull the plug on the internet?
This is the first filmstrip in a series Alan hopes to complete on the various printing techniques in use today. Blending education with ideology, the filmstrip presents a run down of the different parts and processes of the offset machine and talks with Eberhardt Press founder Charles Overbeck.
Edited and produced by Alan Lastufka. Cameraman: Joe Biel. Music: Sour Grapes and imadethismistake. Special thanks to Charles Overbeck.
Fall of Autumn to Publish 5th Anniversary Stolen Sharpie Revolution
Written by Alex Wrekk
It has been five years since I said, "Hey, there should be some sort
of comprehensive DIY resource for zines," and someone said to me, "You
will never be able to steal enough photocopies for the demand that would
have." Five years (and 17,000 copies!) later, Stolen Sharpie Revolution
has surpassed many zines and zine distros in age. It has gone from a 96-page
pamphlet with stapled-on covers and inserts to a 128-page paperback book.
Copies of Stolen Sharpie Revolution have been given as gifts, traveled the
world, inspired others to create similar projects, and used as classroom
texts at universities (which I find particularly amusing because I'm a two-time
college drop out).
A lot has changed for me in five years. I have since quit working for Microcosm Publishing, and when looking for a new place to publish the 4th edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution, I had a few offers. I chose to work with my friends at the Fall of Autumn collective. I met and talked with Aaron, Kate and Alan when I was in Chicago and I think they are all awesome people with a really unique and innovative, yet grounded perspective in zines and zine culture. I thought they were a good fit for the new edition.
So, I plan on getting to work updating SSR for the fourth printing this summer and I would love your input! I'm looking for zine distro listings, zine libraries, places that do zine reviews, stores that sell zines, online zine resources, zine events, or any other thing that you think should be included. I'm also really interested in SSR being a more international resource, so if anyone has any postal information from outside the USA they would like to share, let me know.
E-mail me at
I'd also like to thank everyone who has continued to make SSR the great resource that it is. Here's hoping for many more years! -Alex Wrekk
Bailey was a drunk punk that followed me home from a show one night and never left. I didn’t feel inclined to kick him out because (A) he gave me a harbor from Calico’s drama and (B) he was really good in bed. He was an awesome lover and a funny guy.
However, he was also an unmedicated schizophrenic and a severe alcoholic. He was fond of saying that a forty was cheaper than Prozac and didn’t support some multi-million dollar medical company. I tried telling him that the fine folks at Milwaukee’s Best weren’t worried about their electric bill, but he’s have none of it. I also tried telling him that the alcohol made his attacks worse rather than helped them, but he definitely won’t believe that bullshit.
Nothing more frightening than waking to a fat man flickering the lights and asking “What the hell are you doing in MY house?” Knowing a wrong answer would make me the hotdog between his ass cheeks. Would four hundred pounds of pressure or asphyxiation kill me first? My first thought is holding my hands up in desperation to say “Please don’t sit.” Instead I need something else. Like a story. The first ten seconds awake and I’m rubbing my eyes forced to think of a good lie – and fast. The fat man isn’t getting any happier.
“Uh… I'm sorry. I'm having problems with parents, and Mandy said it’d be alright if I stayed here.” Then I look at him, and he looks at me. One second taking too long. But he finally nods.
Click the album art to download the mp3 or click here to get it on iTunes!
Fall of Autumn presents a very special podcast, recorded live at Dulcenea as part of the Around The Coyote Winter Arts Festival. We were fortunate enough to put on (in conjunction with The Machine Media) a series of readings at this year's festival. This reading, hosted by Kate Sandler, features Eric Labrat (Are You There God...It's Me...Labrat, The Machine Media), Andrew Mall (Living Proof) and Liz Mason (Caboose).
"Wait a minute," they say, their eyes wide open. "You don't go to school?"
They are aghast, as I knew they would be. The reaction is always the same.
"I go to school," I reply. "Kind of."
With my friends I laugh that I am a high school drop out, which is both true and untrue. I am still being educated, albeit not in the traditional sense. I am unschooled.
Click the album art to download the mp3 or click here to get it on iTunes!
Fall of Autumn presents a very special podcast, recorded live at Dulcenea as part of the Around The Coyote Winter Arts Festival. We were fortunate enough to put on (in conjunction with The Machine Media) a series of readings at this year's festival. To kick off this monumental podcast series, we're beginning with the first half of Friday night's performance.
This reading features Kate Sandler (Brainiac, Fall of Autumn) hosting and reading a piece called "Ewok Art," Grant Schreiber (Judas Goat Quarterly, Fate of the Union) reading "If Shakespear Were Alive Today," Aaron Cynic (Diatribe, Vices Make My Life More Interesting, Fall of Autumn) reading "Ire," Alicia Dorr (Random Life In Progress, the Chicagoist) reading "Names...or I Didn't Write This While On Drugs," and Kelsey Snell (The Machine Media) reading "Three out of Four Yuppie Bitches Agree, Brian Urlacher Jerseys are Sooo Cute"
Mark Your Calendars: An Interview with Diane Gilleland
Written by Alan Lastufka
DIY Alert! is a new online calendar of craft-related events in the Portland area. Rather than having to spend hours checking online event listings from dozens of craft shops and projects, Diane Gilleland has gathered them all in one singular location for you. Gilleland is no stranger to crafts herself; she’s an organizer for the Portland Chapter of the Church of Craft project and publishes the do-it-yourself instructional podcast, CraftyPod.
With a few randomly placed alphabet fridge magnets, Sigma Kappa Alpha, or SKA House, was born.
Of course, the concept of SKA House was formed much earlier. Tracy came home one Friday to find a sink full of last week’s dishes, a floor full of empty booze bottles, and the remaining two members of the house in bathrobes with no real explanation. Horrified, she screamed, “You guys live like a bunch of stinking frat boys!” Instead of being offended, we had found a goal.
To be used for touring the ‘behind the scenes’ aspect of your town, or staying overnight in campus libraries without getting caught – which is where I sit typing this – using internet computers and knowing I have shelves of books all to myself. The phrase “circulation desk closes in five minutes” had no effect other than giving me a cue to hide. Fifteens minutes later, I emerge with complete control of EVERYTHING – a feeling equated with being a kid left alone in their parents’ house.
Forget rules. Time to go nuts.
Shoes go off, and I run between shelves in the dark, calming down only to peruse the ‘lost and found’ drawer behind the reference desk and read email accounts of people who forgot to log-off last minute. From basement to attic – tonight it’s all mine.
