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tishdoescrochet · 2 years

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And here we are! My Rusty Quill Gaming crochet blanket. It was made for the fanzine titled Look Out! Lots of Magnificent Gifts by The Ones Who Got Away ( @towga ). And I couldn't have done it without the incredible help of my friends @sugar-peanut-cat, who crocheted a significant portion of the squares, @mori-stuff who helped me find good quotes to use and made sure they were well and truly accurate to the source, and of course @apolloborealis who ignited my excitement for this blanket, helped me with choosing colours for the over 200 episodes, and last but not least made the center square with the highly impressive embroidery of the Rusty Quill Gaming logo. Thanks folks!!!

Early progress pics

Late progress pics

ID: a 20 squares wide and 23 squares long solid granny square crochet blanket based on Rusty Quill Gaming. Diagonals alternate between being multi coloured with quotes on the squares (representing all 218 main campaign episodes as well as the Ancient Rome sidequest, ordered from left to right, top to bottom), and being solidly white, grey or black (alternating by diagonal between those three). In the center is a four by four sized black square with the Rusty Quill Gaming logo embroidered on it. Blue veins run across the blanket, increasing in density near the bottom and especially the bottom right corner. There are noticably more quotes filled in near the top than near the bottom. End ID

ID: two close ups of five by three squares. The first shows the top left corner of the blanket, the visible episode squares are:

1 - We start in the skies above London

2 - Bertie! Wellington!

3 - Go make more of yourself

11 - He's happy enough

12 - Keeeesh (which is an alternate spelling of quiche)

21 - If we die, it's on us

22 - Maybe he just forgot to breathe

23 - Does anyone speak morse?

The second shows the top right corner, with episode squares:

9 - I cast prestidigitation

10 - A friendly Other London hello

18 - I shall make a cringe roll

19 - You cannot give a skeleton scurvy

20 - I'm gonna make another cringe check

29 - Single Female Lawyer

30 - Sacrifice of the self. End ID

ID: the first is a close up of episode 179, a lavender square with three overlapping quotes. Where the words of the quotes overlap, they are embroidered with both or all colours. The quotes are:

It's good to have you here. (In black)

Okay, good. (In pink)

Good to have you back. (In white)

The second shows three by three squares, with in the center episode 181, which is the same deep blue as the veins and reads: It's okay to hope. From it, blue veins spread in all directions. To the top left is a purple and pink square without a quote, episode 171. To the top right is 172 - See you on the other side. End ID

ID: a four by four square consisting of black squares. On this the Rusty Quill Gaming logo is embroidered. A beige banner with the text Rusty hangs over a gear with the text Quill. Beneath it in a bright red semi attached font, with a fancy starting letter id the text Gaming. Behind the gear, to the left stands a grey microphone with red sound lines coming off it. A grey quill stands diagonally in the center back, with the tip resting within the G from Gaming, and the other end of the feather partially covering and ending above a red twenty sided die without numbers. End ID

ID: image one is a three by three grid with a fair amount of blue veins. The quotes are:

168 - Alexander Jalexander Nalexander

178 - What did they choose? (In white) Wrong. (In black)

187 - My turn.

Image two is a closeup of episode 50, a yellow square with an aqua outline reading: Sometimes you have to try. End ID

ID: the three by three squares in the bottom right corner of the blanket. The blue veins are coming in dense from up and left, and converge on the edge of the final episode square and final blank square. The blue veins are not able to break this border. The final episode (218) reads: There's always hope. To the top right of this episode is 208, which reads: Almost lost ya. End ID

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bulkkerlon · 2 years

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Gigi allen

#GIGI ALLEN TV#

He was intelligent, well-read, friendly, and on top of business – if you wrote to him, he replied that day. The man I interviewed was Kevin Michael Allin (as his mother renamed him). I interviewed him for Flipside fanzine in 1987, a piece that triggered a years-long letters column debate. "Anybody who played with him knew how talented he was," says Basso, who first became aware of then-drummer GG and his bassist brother Merle Allin via their mid-Seventies rock band, Malpractice.Īllin was also possibly an undiagnosed schizophrenic. Jesus Christ Superfly leader Rick Carney, who volunteered to stabilize the club's booking, believes the Cavity was the opening shot in Red River becoming Austin's punk/alternative epicenter through the decade and into the 21st century.

#GIGI ALLEN TV#

Wagner roped in former Ritz soundman Dave Herman and Squat Thrust's Jimmy Bradshaw in 1991 to transform weirdo cult-cum-commune-cum-public access TV show Zendik Farms' old location into a punk club. "To this day, I still sing some of those songs to myself," says Cavity Club co-founder Staryn Wagner of the 1988 cassette-only Allin retrospective Hated in the Nation. "I got hooked on those early singles, because they're very pop-punk, experimental. But a typical sing-along chorus might be, " Needle up my cock/ And I can't get fucked no more."īrandon Burke, who attended Allin's Cavity gig with his IV Violent People/Gomez bandmates Ryan McDaniel and Chepo Pena, became a fan after picking up several early 45s at Waterloo Records. Allin's tight, melodic verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-end tunes were played in a raw, Detroit 1969 protopunk style that got looser and grimier over time. Rob Basso, guitarist with GG's first band of note, the Jabbers, says the bands that bonded them – other than the standard late-Seventies punk litany (Sex Pistols, Ramones, etc.) – included the Monkees, Paul Revere & the Raiders, the Seeds, and Flamin' Groovies. He loved pop music – the garage-ier, the better. "That's what I wanna know."Īllin actually wrote very good songs. "But at the end of the day, where's the songs, man?" he grinned. This guy pooped on the stage, that guy peed on the audience, on and on. "First it was GG, then it was Jimmy Gestapo, then it was some other guy, then another. "Every now and again, I'd hear about these guys who wanted to out-Iggy Iggy," he continued. "Y'know, I heard about GG over the years," Iggy Pop – who knew a thing or two about transgressive showmanship – drawled with a smirk 10 years later, in a conference room at Virgin Records' New York offices. And unlike the Drive-By Truckers' country weeper account of Allin's 1991 Memphis gig, he didn't escape before APD officers shut it down. He and his band the Murder Junkies managed a nearly 25-minute performance. I noted a white male on the band stand was nude and staggering around the stage bleeding from the forehead."Ī typical night for the shock-rocker born Jesus Christ Allin on August 29, 1956, in Lancaster, N.H. I advised dispatch via radio tht I needed additional units to dispurse the crowd. "I saw a arm holding a spray canister above the crowd's head and it appeared that a member of the crowd was spraying the Mace. "he crowd was running away from the stage gasping and covering their faces," the Austin Police Department report continued, ungrammatically. “he crowd was running away from the stage gasping and covering their faces.” – Austin Police Department’s Official Arrest Report

#Gigi allen

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passionate-reply · 3 years

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ABC are known for their high-brow sophisti-pop, but did you know they started out as something closer to an industrial band? Find out all about The Lexicon of Love, on this week’s Great Albums. Transcript below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today’s album is one of the more unique triumphs of early 80s synth-pop: ABC’s The Lexicon of Love. The Lexicon of Love would be the first album released under the ABC name, but prior to their metamorphosis into ABC, the band had been known as Vice Versa. They also had a very different sound than the one they’d later become known for.

Music: “Riot Squad”

Vice Versa had been a heavily electronic, experimental outfit, more in line with fellow members of the Sheffield music scene like Cabaret Voltaire and the early Human League. As ABC, they would pivot dramatically towards lushly arranged sophisti-pop, and produce some of the most iconic hits of the early 80s, like “The Look of Love.”

Music: “The Look of Love”

Between the minimal synth lashings of Vice Versa’s EP Music 4 and The Lexicon of Love, the band that would now be known as ABC saw a major addition to their lineup, in frontman Martin Fry. Fry had been a member of the Sheffield music scene prior, as the author of an underground fanzine, but was recruited to become the new lead vocalist of Vice Versa after interviewing them. Fry’s crooning is certainly one thing that makes the album sound different, but I’d also be remiss not to mention the influence of its producer: Trevor Horn.

By this point in his career, Horn was mainly known as a member of The Buggles, of “Video Killed the Radio Star” fame, and the progressive rock group Yes. He also brought along two of his more consistent collaborators, with whom he would go on to form The Art of Noise: J. J. Jeczalik, programming digital synthesisers, and Anne Dudley, arranging and orchestrating electronics and strings. The Lexicon of Love was one of Horn’s first major forays into production, something he would go on to prioritize in his career. Still, I think tracks like “The Look of Love” demonstrate Horn’s signature style of rich, bombastic, borderline campy pop in full force, as much as his later work with artists like Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Seal. Horn is certainly known for his complex and painstaking orchestral arrangements, which are something you’ll hear a lot of on The Lexicon of Love. The lone instrumental it features, “The Look of Love (Part Four),” makes that particularly easy.

Music: “The Look of Love (Part Four)”

While the album’s famous single is often referred to as simply “The Look of Love,” its full title is actually “The Look of Love (Part One).” Before you ask, yes, there are second and third “parts” of this suite, which were all released together on their own EP, or perhaps extended single. In the context of the album, though, parts one and four bookend the second side of the LP, with part four arguably serving as a sort of reprise of that unforgettable hit single. Speaking of singles, “The Look of Love”’s success in the charts was actually preceded by that of another entry in the top ten: “Poison Arrow.”

Music: “Poison Arrow”

As the title implies, “Poison Arrow” is focused more on the darker side of love, when things don’t go one’s way. The Lexicon of Love is a sort of loose concept album, which deals mainly with romantic love, and the trials and tribulations of those who seek it. Perennial subject matter for pop, of course, but it is executed with a lot of style. While “Poison Arrow” certainly has synthesisers, they’re hardly the first thing you notice in its dense arrangements.

Ultimately, The Lexicon of Love is a very backward-looking kind of album, particularly in the context of synth-pop. Where so many of their contemporaries were looking to the future, ABC were committed to capturing this suave, traditional pop glamour, somewhere between Motown and Sinatra. Despite all the efforts being made to embody this classic sense of cool, there’s still an undeniably 1980s sensibility about the album that I think shines through in the end. But I don’t think of that as an indictment of the material, simply a neutral feature of it. I don’t really believe music can truly be “timeless” or “dated”--those terms get thrown around by people trying to ground their taste in objectivity, but at the end of the day, we all like what we like. I think The Lexicon of Love sounds like it was made when it was made, but also holds up, insofar as it’s still enjoyable to listen to.

One of the most endearing features it does have is Fry’s witty, clever lyricism, full of unique rhymes and lofty allusions. He had studied English at Sheffield University before entering the band, and that literary flourish really sets him apart. While Vice Versa certainly had some indignant numbers, Fry sells us on a much more posh kind of anger on tracks like “Valentine’s Day.”

Music: “Valentine’s Day”

The cover of The Lexicon of Love is nearly as busy and complex as the album’s arrangements. It shows a scene from a theatrical narrative of some sort, in which Martin Fry catches a woman falling backwards, seemingly fainting with fright. With determination, he points a gun at some unseen, off-stage antagonist. The bright red of the curtain, at stage left, draws our attention to that suspenseful absence, and gets us to wonder what’s happening here. Adding to that sense of the incomplete or not fully known is the way the action is boxed in, almost claustrophobically, by the eye-catching, high-contrast text showing the album title and band name. In the lower left-hand corner, you’ll find a surprisingly large block of text--I think this album has a higher word count on its cover than anything else in my collection! That text consists of an amalgamation of lines from several different songs on the album. Both the inclusion of this lyrics box and the title “The Lexicon of Love” put emphasis on the concept of language, and, perhaps, the difficulties of putting the most powerful of human feelings into communicable words. Given that Fry’s lyrics are such a standout, I think that angle benefits the album a lot.

Over the next fifteen years or so, ABC would see several further lineup changes, and add infusions from house and early hip-hop to their take on synth-pop. They continued to see modest chart success up through the late 80s, though they would never crack the UK top ten again, after The Lexicon of Love. In more recent years, Martin Fry has revived the ABC name and released some new material, including, most notably, an album called The Lexicon of Love II, intended as a proper sequel to his magnum opus. As ambitious as that is, I think it really works, but you can listen for yourself and decide.

Music: “Viva Love”

My favourite track from The Lexicon of Love is, without a doubt, “4 Ever 2 Gether.” The average song in my music collection sounds a lot more like Vice Versa’s efforts than it does this album--I like a lot of harsh, synth-forward stuff. “4 Ever 2 Gether” is closer to that sound than anything else on the album, with a chilling vocoder part that really stands out against the rest of the album’s sonic footprint. It’s also got some of Fry’s most striking lyrics--deeply abstract, but still bitingly bitter. That’s all I’ve got for today--thanks for listening!

Outro: “4 Ever 2 Gether”

#music #album review #album reviews #great album #abc

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untitledtallgeesepodcast · 3 years

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Our fandom artifact for episode 04 is a dōjinshi anthology called Phallus Sex Symbol, collecting works by the circle 黄色の畑 Yellow-Farm from 1999 to 2003. Yellow-Farm was made up of writer Minazuki Yuina 水無月ゆいな and artist Takakura Row 高座朗 and was dedicated entirely to making works where Duo tops everyone. Takakura lists some original published works in the back of the anthology, so they seem to have been succeeding in commercial BL manga and art as well. The anthology was published on August 16th, 2003 and republishes short works which were originally “copy zines” with released in limited quantities at dōjinshi events from 1999 to 2003. Dōjinshi is the Japanese word for self-published magazines, now often used to refer to fanzines with fan comics and fanfiction sold at big all-fandom events such as Comic Market and smaller “only” events dedicated to one series, character, or pairing. They are also sold or resold at stores such as Tora no Ana and K Books. “Copy books” or “copy zines” usually refer to short event-limited releases printed on the fly, nowadays often day of the event at the convenience store copy machines on the way or at Tokyo Big Sight.

Phallus Sex Symbol is an all-seme (top) Duo collection. I feel like usually (this is just a personal impression maybe from my biases) fujoshi want their favorite character to be the one who bottoms all the time—maybe it’s just me, but I want to see the boy get wrecked. But there’s another type of fan out there and that’s the one who wants their boy to be the greatest dick in the land, the dick of dicks, and the heroes of Yellow-Farm are those types of fans, dedicated to making sure everyone gets some of that Maxwell D.

A character relationship chart shows the relationships of the Phallus Sex Symbol universe, as well as “canon” pictures of each character so we know what they looks like transformed into Takakura’s distinct and beautiful style. The biggest transformation is Duo, which is what drew me to this cover in the first place: he’s big, broad, tall, his hair is even longer and more flowing, it’s blonde! He looks like Zechs. A great example of a fan adapting the art style to suit their characterization. The other pilots get minor updates: Wufei gets two cute braided buns, Trowa gets bangs drawn in a way that makes sense, Heero gets the most beautiful eyes and eyelashes and his hair color is darkened, and Quatre… remains a cute blonde.

The main Duo pairings get descriptions so we go into their stories knowing what the deal is:

Wufei’s feelings for Duo: Won’t say it but love (Duo’s back: Hides his feelings but a good guy)

Heero’s feelings for Duo: A tenacious love. “Mine only.” (Duo: Taciturn, unfriendly, rash; Heero and Quatre are mutually locked in a “Keep your hands off my Duo” relationship.)

Hilde —> Duo: LOVE ❤️ (Duo: Living together ❤️ ; the note for Hilde on the side adds that her feelings are one-sided, but Heero still considers her an obstacle.)

Trowa —> Duo: A secret romantic love (Duo: Kind and quiet)

Quatre —> Duo: “My darling.” (Duo: A gentle little rich boy)

Rashid —> Duo: Likes. Paternal love?! (Duo: Relies on him)

That last note is particularly ?! since Rashid, whom you may recall is the manly leader of Maguanacs Corps, the fighters who assist Quatre, gets an amazing comic where Duo fucks his insecurities right out of him. I’m glad to see Rashid getting some love, even if the story is a bit of Rashid feeling bad about being old and ugly and worshipping Duo’s young (white?) cock; at least Duo finds Rashid beautiful. I’m pretty sure Rashid and Duo interact during the arc where Quatre and Duo hide out in that problematically(?)-Middle-Eastern town, so I judge that to be enough interaction for the ALL-SEME DUO AGENDA to do their business.

Heero and Quatre’s rivalry comes up in a short comic where Wizard Quatre steals Duo’s penis while Heero is using it (discussed on the pod.)

Another short comic plays off the story of the King with Donkey Ears: Duo is a king with donkey ears and his lovers (guard Heero, hairdresser Trowa, cook Wufei, and a neighboring country’s prince Quatre) are sworn to secrecy. But Lover D, Quatre, can’t stand it anymore and he digs a hole in the ground. Into it, he shouts: “THE KING IS HUNG LIKE A DONKEY.” And so the secret gets out. Yes, this is a joke about Duo’s giant donkey dick. I love it and respect it.

In between the comics, the anthology includes four fanfiction stories by Minazuki: Advent: Risc Factor, Marvelous: Duo Maxwell Rape Story, Milky Shot: Ghost Love Story, and Criminal (罪人). These are various pairings but Duo/Trowa is prominent! Who knew! They’re all non-canon but the degree of AU-ness varies. The first one is the most interesting: it’s a modern AU where Duo is a college student and private detective. I didn’t delve very deeply into the others, but it’s fun to see how fanfiction tropes are universal.

After reading all this: I think I’m default a bottom-Duo fan but this has made me see the light of top Duo.

(Note: Sharing parts of dōjinshi online is a contentious issue for fan communities, so I kept the photos just to my poorly angled camera shots rather than scans. 黄色の畑の皆様がこれを見て消して欲しいなら、ぜひご連絡してください。)

#untitled tallgeese podcast #episode 04 #artifacts

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buzzdixonwriter · 3 years

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I've Told You A Million Times To Avoid Cliches Like The Plague

Recently a year old re-print of a 1959 Writer’s Digest article by Donald Westlake started circulating on social media.

First off, if you don’t know who Donald Westlake is, go find out. You like rough edge crime stories, try his Parker books published under his Richard Stark pseudonym; you like funny crime, dig up the Dortmunder series under his own name; you like odd ball history, check out Under An English Heaven “being a true recital of the events leading up to and down from the British invasion of Anguilla on March 19th, 1969 in which no one was killed but many people were embarrassed.”

Second, Westlake was a serious writer in that he took the craft of writing Very Seriously indeed, no matter how light hearted and funny some of his books could be. He wrote a blistering letter (later turned into an essay) in the fanzine Xero (starts on page 97) where he excoriated the sci-fi field of the era as being neither artistically nor commercially viable.*

So who am I to challenge this master’s assertions?

Well, I take the craft of writing Very Seriously indeed myself, and to quote a late, lamented friend: “Fools rush in, and there we are…”

The Writer’s Digest article is a mixed bag, partially a quick off-the-cuff job for a few bucks, partially a valid observation on pitfalls in writing popular fiction in September of 1959.

Bear the date in mind, it’s crucial to this discussion.

This was an era when Americans read a lot. Millions of people subscribed to The Saturday Evening Post or dozens of other slick magazines (not to mention the digests, which are what the form the old genre pulps mutated into), and this meant each week dozens of new short stories or serialized novels were available to them (and that’s not counting non-fiction).

Westlake in 1959 was commenting on an over saturated market, one where too many writers and editors simply replayed old tropes over again and again because they knew a significant portion of their audience felt comfortable with them (this is particularly true in the slicks, more so than the digests).

Westlake divides his 36 plots into three groups: Mysteries, science fiction, and slicks.

My first quibble lays in what Westlake means when he says “plot”.

From the original article:

“A plot is a planned series of connected events, building through conflict to a crisis and ending in a satisfactory conclusion. A formula is a particular plot which has become stale through over-use.

“My own working definition of plot is what I call “5C.” First, a character. Anybody at all, from Hemingway’s old man to Salinger’s teenager. Second, conflict. Something for that character to get upset about, and for the reader to get upset about through the character. Third, complications. If the story runs too smoothly, without any trouble for the character, the reader isn’t going to get awfully interested in what’s going on. Fourth, climax. The opposing forces in conflict are brought together. Like the fissionable material in an H-bomb and there’s an explosion. Fifth, conclusion. The result of the explosion is known, the conflict is over, the character has either won or lost, and there are no questions left unanswered.

“5C: Character. Conflict. Complications. Climax. Conclusion.”

All well and good, but in his article Westlake provides almost no examples of same.

To me, a plot is a quick summary of a story that lays out beginning, middle, and end: G.I. Joe captures a Cobra secret weapon but doesn’t realize what it is. Cobra needs to get the weapon back without alerting the Joes to its potential, and the Joes must figure out what Cobra is after before they can get their hands on it.

(There’s a lot you can do with that plot. It can be a slam-bang action oriented story, a techno thriller, or a slapstick farce depending on your angle of attack.)

What Westlake presents are more along the lines of story springboards: ”What would happen if…”

A lot of the situations Westlake presents are rife with potential: “John Smith is sitting in the park, feeding the other squirrels, when a beautiful girl runs up, kisses him, and whispers, ‘Pretend you know me.’”

Okay, let’s list the possibilities, shall we?

She’s being stalked by a creepy guy and needs protection…

She’s been hired to set Smith up for some reason…

She’s mentally disturbed from trauma in her past…

She’s a flipping psycho intending to kill Smith…

She’s a secret agent slipping a secret code in Smith’s pocket…

She’s a silly college girl doing this on a dare, unaware Smith is a serial killer…

Six stories right off the top of my head, and each one could be played in several different ways, from deadly serious to over the top farce.

That’s a lot of potential in a single trope.

Here’s another: “John Smith, private eye, is sitting at his desk, when Marshall Bigelow, thimble tycoon, trundles in waving thousand-dollar bills and shouting, ‘My daughter has disappeared!’”

Well, d’uh, isn’t that what private eyes do? Find missing people? Or uncover who committed a crime when people don’t want the police involved? Or find out if a spouse is cheating?

Name a private eye story that doesn’t play off some variant of this. From Murder, My Sweet to Harper to Shaft, hiring a private eye to find a missing person is a perfect way to get a story started. “You find my Velma.”

Of the dozen story springboards he offers in his mystery section, none are unworkable, though two remain overly familiar to this day and probably are best avoided unless the writer can provide some incredible new spin.

The science fiction section is more problematic, and here’s where I suspect Westlake was slumming (there ought to be an article on the type of articles one shouldn’t write for Writer’s Digest that includes articles like the one Westlake wrote).

Seven of the eleven clearly reference classics of the genre, and if this wasn’t a deliberate dig at those authors on Westlake’s part, one can only argue that while they may be shopworn now due to retreads by the untalented, these ideas remain strong enough to support a good story.

The other four remain headscratchers. Two -- Adam & Eve and “atoms are tiny solar systems” -- are indeed hoary old ideas, burned off by EC comics earlier in the decade.

I can’t say there weren’t thirteen year old aspiring sci-fi writers who submitted these to publishers and editors back in the day, but they seem more likely to have been found on the pages of fanzines (i.e., what sci-fi geeks had before the Internet) than a professional slush pile.

We know Westlake was active to some degree in sci-fi fandom of that era; could those two tropes have come from seeing those stories in the pages of amateur magazines?

The remaining two ideas represent a ribald attitude I don’t recall seeing in sci-fi digests of that era.

Oh, sex was starting to rear its beautiful head in science fiction, and there were a few cutting edge stories, but these two seem more like set ups for smutty fanfic, not genuine submissions of the time.

Again, something I’d expect to see in a fanzine, not a professional market.

Like I said, I think this tips off that Westlake is having us on, that this whole article came off the top of his head in a matter of minutes instead of being carefully thought out.

On the other hand, his critique of slick magazine fiction seems pretty spot on and devastating.

While he covers several sub-genres, his primary focus seems to be on stories written for a female audience, the type found in McCall’s and Ladies Home Journal. He doesn’t come close to a dozen examples, however, as several (even those labeled as sub-examples) are just the same story springboard in different settings.

Two of his bad examples, however, stand out quite clearly as a dislike (whether personal / professional / aesthetic, I can’t tell) aimed at a specific series of stories found in The Saturday Evening Post, i.e., the Alexander Botts, tractor salesman stories of William Hazlett Upson.

One of Westlake’s verboten plots isn’t even a plot but a literary device: “Any story told in an exchange of letters”. The other one that ties into Upson’s oeuvre is “Joe Doakes, a traveling salesman for a paper clip company, gets involved in some pretty unbelievable adventures in a small town in the Midwest. The other participants are a local belle and a salesman for a rival paper clip company.”

The two combined describe Upson’s Botts stories to a T. The second one is richly ironic since Westlake eventually used the same basic premise for his Dortmunder series (the only change being Dortmunder is a thief, not a salesman; po-tay-to, po-tah-to).

Finally, Westlake left himself a huge out with “If you can take one of the 36 clichés listed above, and give it a brand new twist, so it doesn’t look like the same story any more, you may have a sale on your hands. If you search hard enough in the magazines on the stands today, you’ll find one or more of these variations currently in print.”

Look, I get it. I’ve faced deadline doom before myself, and more than once have fired off a short piece that contained all the depth of a dixie cup.

This isn’t the worst writing advice I’ve seen, but it’s far from the best, and Westlake coulda and shoulda done better.

* He wasn’t alone in his opinion, though ironically the 1960s proved to be one of the most fertile eras for the genre. Yet Westlake and other writers such as John D. MacDonald, Frederic Brown, and John Jakes left sci-fi for other genres because it couldn’t support them either as artists or professionals.

#Donald Westlake #writing #how this writer's mind works #William Hazlett Upson

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fieryanmitsu · 4 years

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The Heart-Pounding Sunrise Trek of Bonding | A3! | “Take the Stage” Fanzine

I am very honoured to announce that I am one of the contributors for the recently released A3! Take the Stage Fanzine! It was such a great experience working with so many talented artists and writers! Everyone's pieces turned out AMAZING, and I would highly recommend to check out the full zine! The fanzine can be downloaded for free here!

And, now that the zine has dropped, I'm able to share my piece with you all here! This story is based on the "Campfire Bonds" event and stars Muku and Citron as the focal characters!

Please enjoy~!

THE HEART-POUNDING SUNRISE TREK OF BONDING

THEME: “Campfire Bonds” event

CHARACTERS: Muku Sakisaka, Citron, Sakuya Sakuma, Masumi Usui, Tsuzuru Minagi, Itaru Chigasaki, Tenma Sumeragi, Yuki Rurikawa, Misumi Ikaruga, Kazunari Miyoshi & Izumi Tachibana

My fanfic masterpost: Here

AO3: Link in my Blog Menu

Muku stared intensely at his phone as he checked for the umpteenth time that he had set his alarm properly. Seeing that the numbers really did read ‘3:00am’, he locked his phone and placed it beside his pillow.

“Ugh. I swear I can still taste the tabasco in my mouth even though I brushed my teeth,” Tenma groaned as he entered the tent.

“Did anyone get a normal chocolate for the s’mores?” asked Kazunari, looking up from his phone.

“Izumi liked hers!” Misumi chimed in.

“That’s just because she’s a crazy Currian! No one would normally like a curry-flavoured chocolate,” Yuki snapped back.

“Anyway, everyone’s here, right? I’m gonna turn off the lights,” Tenma announced. “We have to get up early tomorrow, so we should sleep now.”

A flurry of mumbled goodnights flew around the tent as their leader turned off the lamp. Before long, the air was filled with the sounds of heavy breathing and light snoring.

However, sleep continued to elude Muku as he stared fretfully at the ceiling of the tent—his brain whirring with his anxieties. Though the Summer Troupe’s first two plays had gone well, deep down, Muku felt that he had barely squeaked by with his performances. He knew that he was still the weakest link, and was terrified of dragging everyone else down.

Just once, Muku wished he could give back to the ones who continually helped him so much. But, he didn’t even have any special skills—like Yuki or Kazunari—that he could put to use for the Summer Troupe or the Mankai Company.

So, when Izumi had first announced this training camp, Muku had immediately volunteered to be one of the organizers, even though he had never taken on such a role before. At the time, it had seemed like the perfect opportunity to prove himself and be helpful to the others. Surely, even someone as untalented as him could manage to do this much.

Inspired by a scene out of a shoujo manga, Muku had manically researched to formulate a grand plan. First, they would strengthen their bonds as they hiked side-by-side through bountiful nature. Then, they would share a heart-racing special moment together as the rising sun etched its image into their memories. Plus, with the fresh mountain air, he was sure they would get more mileage out of their vocal exercises.

However, when they had gathered to discuss the itinerary, his excitement had quickly been extinguished when his plan had been met with unenthusiastic faces. Some of the Company members hadn’t seemed interested in witnessing the sunrise, and many others had groaned about the early start time.

After the meeting, Citron had clapped him on the shoulders, looked him in the eyes with a mysterious, all-knowing smile and said: “Do not worry, Muku! Your idea is most wonderful! Everyone will be super duper happy when they see the sun grating them! I will make sure of it—trust me!”

Though his brain continued to worry and fret, Muku clung to the words and reassuring grin that the Zahran man had given him that day and allowed the darkness to finally lull him to sleep…

The next morning, with much struggle—along with Citron banging some pots and pans together—the two organizers managed to wake up their fellow troupe members and line them up outside of their tents. Though, they may as well have still been laying in their sleeping bags. Masumi was draped on top of Tsuzuru’s back, fast asleep. Itaru was crouched on the ground, muttering to himself with a half-dead expression on his face. Even the ever-chipper Kazunari had his chin propped on Misumi’s shoulder, both of them nodding off despite being on their feet.

Citron came to stand beside Muku and nudged him gently. With a gulp, the pink-haired boy mustered all of his courage and stood up as straight and tall as he could manage.

“G-Good morning, everyone! Thanks for waking up so early to join us for the first item on our itinerary today: the ‘Heart-Pounding Sunrise Trek of Bonding!’” Muku announced. “I know that it’s silly to want to follow someone who’s more annoying than the itchiest bite from a mosquito that arrived earlier than the usual mosquito season—”

“Muku, literally no one said that,” Yuki interrupted with a sigh. “Just lead the way.”

“O-Oh right! S-Sorry!” Muku responded, snapping out of his rant. “P-please follow me and watch your step!”

As Muku led the way to the forest trail, with the others shuffling groggily behind him, he couldn’t help but cringe as he heard someone yawn loudly and another person let out a groan.

“Ugh, this sucks…”

“Masumi, stop it! The Director wouldn’t be happy to hear you say that,” Sakuya protested in a hushed tone. “Look! She’s enjoying herself, so you should copy her.”

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, after all… Muku thought to himself, worrying at his bottom lip.

“Muku, why don’t you tell everyone about the path?” Citron suddenly said from behind him. “Did you not do lots of the research?”

“Really, Mukkun?” Kazunari asked, perking up and looking more awake than earlier.

“O-Oh, yes! Apparently, this path dates back to the Sengoku era. Monks used it as part of a pilgrimage route and this campsite actually used to be an aesthetic training ground,” Muku explained.

“That’s actually really cool,” Tsuzuru remarked. “Who knew that there was so much history in a place like this!”

“Ah! That signpost there marks the quarter-way point! We can take a quick rest here!” Muku explained, noticing that they had lost a few members.

“I-I can’t go on…” Itaru wheezed as he finally caught up to the others several minutes later.

“C’mon Itaru, we’re almost there! You can do it!” Izumi chirped encouragingly, passing the salaryman a bottle of water.

“It’s okay, Itaru! You will soon have your senses delighted by a surprise up ahead! Tell them about it, Muku,” Citron implored.

“Y-Yes! Ummm… Just down this path is a beautiful waterfall that the monks used as part of their training,” Muku responded, taking the older man’s cue. “I… I actually purposely picked this path because it would take us by the waterfall. Legend says that, if you make a wish there, your deepest desires will come true! So, I thought that you would really like to see that, Itaru! Maybe it’ll help with your next gacha pull in your games!!”

“Seriously? Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”

Muku felt his heart flutter as the others started chattering excitedly about what wishes they would make. With this renewed vigour, their group continued on their hike, making a stop at the wish-granting waterfall on the way.

Then, almost an hour after they had left their campsite, Muku spotted the sign marking their final destination.

“We’re here, everyone!”

There was a collective sigh of relief as the members of the Mankai Company cleared the last steps and planted their feet on the plateau. However, their mutters quickly died in their throats as they came face-to-face with the view before them. A forest of trees spread out endlessly ahead, surrounded on both sides by jagged cliffs. The sun peeked above the horizon of the valley and the sky was dyed a gorgeous blend of soft oranges, pinks and straggling blues.

“Amazing!” Sakuya breathed softly. “This is beautiful, Muku!”

“Beautiful doesn’t even begin to describe it!!” Kazunari added, immediately taking out his phone.

“You did good, Muku. Here’s a triangle!” Misumi said with a smile, handing the pink-haired boy a smooth and shiny triangular-shaped rock.

“Yeah… It made waking up worth it,” Masumi murmured, showing a rare smile.

“This was great, Muku. Thanks for planning this for us,” Tenma said, punching him lightly in the arm.

“Yeah, seriously! I’m so glad that someone was able to plan a normal activity for this training camp. Unlike a certain someone’s crazy ‘Russian Roulette S’mores’ idea,” Tsuzuru said with a sigh, throwing a baleful glare at Citron.

“Oh, Tsuzuru! You wound me! I put so much thought into making an unforgiveable event for everyone!”

“I think you mean ‘unforgettable’,” Itaru piped in.

“Look here, it’s not ‘Russian Roulette’ if all of the options are weird!” Tsuzuru exclaimed in exasperation.

“No kidding! I can’t believe I had to eat that awful wasabi chocolate because of you! I thought my mouth was on fire!” Yuki added, jabbing a finger into Citron’s chest angrily. “You’re lucky this sunrise made up for that atrocious game!”

As Citron dramatically crumpled to the ground from Yuki’s attack, a hand clutched over his heart, he turned his head towards Muku and shot him a wink.

At that moment, Muku felt a rush of warmth surge out of his chest and envelope the rest of his body. As he suppressed the tears prickling behind his eyes, Muku thought that he could now truly understand the meaning behind all of those times his shojo manga had compared someone’s smile to the brightness of the sun.

Writing this story was such a fun challenge for me! I had to work with a word count restriction, but I also wanted to make sure I somehow included every other character from the event — so it was definitely a juggling act, haha! It was also my first time writing about both Muku and Citron, so that was a new challenge in itself. Especially since I wanted to make sure I did two of my favourite characters justice!! In the end, I'm really happy I had the opportunity to write this and am so thankful that I was able to be part of this zine! Again, do check out the full zine if you have a chance!|

As always, thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts!! Any reblogs are always appreciated!!

-Anmitsu

#a3!#act! addict! actors!#a3! act! addict! actors!#muku sakisaka #a3! citron #act addict actors #a3! game #a3! actor training game #sakisaka muku #a3! muku #citron #anmitsu writes #a3! take the stage fanzine

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wonders-of-the-world-zine · 5 years

Photo

It's a sunny afternoon in Vesuvia as you make your way through the marketplace, the sweet aroma of pumpkin bread from your favorite baker flowing through the drift of people.

On your journey to the Palace, something has caught the corner or your eye.

Whatever could it be?

.・゜゜・ INTRODUCING WONDERS OF THE WORLD - AN ARCANA TRAVEL ART FANZINE ・゜゜・．

Wonders of the World is a non-profit art fanzine focused on the six main characters of The Arcana as they travel to different parts of the world for vacation and soak in the experience, whether it be from L.A. to Tokyo or even Hong Kong to Brazil.

Maybe you’ll find Nadia basking in the golden rays of the sun in the Bahamas…..

or Asra ice-skating in front of the Tower of London…

or Julian and Portia dancing on top of the bar in an Irish pub…

or Muriel making his way to the peak of Mount Everest…

or Lucio standing at Goatman’s Bridge and peering off the edge…

….Who knows what adventures await them? This zine is still in it’s earliest stage of being developed, so that’s why we need your help!

Click here to go to the interest survey!

Reblogging this post and sharing it with those that love The Arcana as much as we do can give this zine project the boost that it needs to actually happen!

This survey check will close on June 23rd at 11:59pm EST, so be sure to fill it out as soon as possible! ♡

#the arcana #the arcana game #arcana #julian devorak #nadia satrinava #asra alnazar #the arcana asra #the arcana muriel #portia devorak #fanart #zine #arcana zine #fanzine #interest check

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meeedeee · 5 years

Link

Copying and pasting

“Greetings, fellow fannish Elder,

I’d like to invite you to participate in an anthology of collected essays and interviews exploring the co-creative aspects of women in fandom, in their own voices, during the latter half of the twentieth century.

This anthology, Geek Elders Speak: In Our Own Voices (with the subtitle, Women Co-creators and Their Undeniable Place in Fannish History), will be published by Forest Path Books, LLC., an independent press.

My name is Jenni Hennig. I’m a published author (most recently The Books of the Wode, a historical fantasy series), and I administer Forest Path Books. Some of you might remember me from Star Trek, Star Wars, Man From UNCLE, and Robin of Sherwood fandoms, where I wrote fanfic, was an artist, filker, award-winning costumer, and publisher of zines such as Far Realms and Against the Wind.

I have a vital and personal interest in this anthology. I remember our history: Fanzines cranked on mimeo, or typed with carbons and passed out by hand at cons. Art and “illos” hand-drawn and hand-screened. Costumes hand-sewn, constructed with fabric, wire, and bondo, with odds and ends like shaving cream can tops or shiny Leggs® packaging. Filks taped at cons on handheld recorders. Music videos made in the oh-so-lengthy process allowed with Beta and VHS. All of us laid claim to our creative power, over the years and in our own terms.

I was there, too.

We have so many stories to tell. And that’s why I’m reaching to you.

You’re probably wondering how the anthology’s title came about. I’m all over giving credit where it’s due, so kindly let me give you a wee bit of background for this project. The idea was sparked at a Seattle convention called Geek Girl Con, where in 2014 a panel called “Geek Elders Speak” proved one of the most popular events at the con.

(See this article: https://geekgirlcon.com/?s=geek+elders&post_type=post )

Four women who had been active with media fanzines in the 1970s and 1980s were speakers; I was an incognito ‘Elder’ in the audience, listening to comments made by both women and men. The younger fans were visibly astounded by the stories they heard—especially the geek girls who’d never heard about the crucial role of women in creating and defining media fandom. Hungry for a history they’d never imagined to exist, they embraced the panel with pure joy. And the older women in the audience? Well, one was in tears, believing her local Starbase fan group would be—and was—forgotten.

The Elder panellists could have answered questions for the rest of the day!

Fast forward a couple of years, and my own repeated attendance of conventions where a great majority of younger fans haven’t the slightest clue about the history of their own fandoms, much less the women’s shoulders upon which they stand.

It’s time, ladies, that we told our story. Not as some at-arms-length and rarefied curiosity of academia, not as seen through the often-clouded lens of those who weren’t there, but IN OUR OWN VOICES. We need to be heard: all our work, all our experiences. We need to be more than yet another lost or wiped-clean anecdote of women’s history.

And, with the recent announcement that a fanfiction archive has been nominated for a Hugo Award, it’s timely.

Many of us have already been silenced by time and illness. Many of us are grappling with the hard realities of twilight. Our voices are dwindling. We aren’t getting any younger, my friends, and that makes it all the more imperative: we need to record these things now.

To this end, Geek Elders Speak: In Our Own Voices is on the Forest Path Books publishing schedule, with a prospective release in the last quarter of 2020. Contributors will receive standard pro anthology pay rates and contracts. We are planning worldwide distribution in paper, e-book, and audio, with suitable advertising and promotion. As the first contributors come on board, we will be registering and promoting a Kickstarter to help with publication costs.

But we can’t do any of this without YOU. Your singular voice, your personal story, your experiences both good and bad… in short, your creative participation in a phenomenon that meant and continues to mean so much to all of us. These are truly the most vital aspects to make this anthology the success I know it can be.

Please consider contributing, either with an essay or via interview. Check out te attached suggestions. Feel free to share this letter with your fellow female Elders. Pitch us your own, unique story. We would love to hear your voice!

All the best,

Jeanine ‘Jenni’ Hennig (J Tullos Hennig) Forest Path Books Jeanine Tullos Hennig P.O. Box 847 ~ Stanwood, WA 98292 [email protected]

#fandom history #women in fandom #dwcrosspost

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brudrak · 2 years

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Last few days before the preorders for @opwarlordzine closes!!

I can assure you won't want to miss that out, everyone's works are amazing!! Here's a preview of my page, featuring a well known goth bird 🏴‍☠️

Grab it here: thosewhostandatthetop.bigcartel.com ✨

(That was also my first time in a zine of this scale, so I'm pretty pumped for this!!! 😆)

#i will share my merchs previews later this week!! 👀#fanzine #zine #those who stand at the top #those who stand at the top zine #warlord zine #warlords zine #one piece zine #anime zine #one piece #one piece fanart #mihawk #dracule mihawk #digital art #brudrak

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wilmaoswalt72-blog · 5 years

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10 Well-liked Music Genres You’ve Never Heard Of

But, as our chat reveals, the discordant story doesn't end there: the naturally talented Neelix attended his first doof little more than a decade in the past, confesses to be in poor health at ease in the studio, and plans to supply pop music within the close to future. The start of EDM can from the disco style, heavily popular in the late 1970's. Disco music aimed to maneuver crowds of individuals on the dancefloor, using drum machines and electronic devices to create synthesized rhythms. Standard disco music that helped to create the EDM scene included Donna Summer time's 1977 synthesized disco hit I Really feel Love ," which was written by Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder, who would later collaborate with Daft Punk; and the 1974 hit Rock Your Child ," by George McCrae, which used a drum machine and Roland rhythm machine.

Bambuco, Pasillo and Vals, three of the foremost rhythms of a genre of music usually performed in a duet with a guitar or mandolin and a smaller, 12-string guitar-like instrument known as a tiple. The tiple is an official national instrument of Colombia, though its use has seen a big decline in latest many years. Pop comes from the word "Well-liked". It is the development that a lot of the common folks are following. The purpose of the music is to enchantment to a common viewers, moderately than to a selected sub-tradition or ideology. Katy Perry was topping on Pop music charts just a few months again, when all of a sudden Gangnam Type came to conquer our playlists. In Pop music, the inventive and technical aspects are given lesser attention than the "poppy" really feel. - Rock genre is gradually decreases in recognition through years, by including much less songs and new genres are emerging. I don't pretend to know the solutions, nevertheless it's arduous to consider listening to New World Symphony or Michael Stanly Band's "Candy Jane" would not elicit some of the identical effects that it has on me. Why? Is my musical receptors more or less heightened , different, or just another huge difficult human spirit that defies rationalization. The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) recently took a survey of 19,000 shoppers around the planet to see what kinds of music had been the most popular.

Ever since the Mozart Effect" increase from the 1990s, individuals have related listening to classical music with increased intelligence. Whether or not the findings of the unique Mozart Effect study hold are a matter of appreciable debate What's plain is that this one examine sparked countless extra research intended to understand the interplay between music and the human brain. As if it nonetheless bears mentioning, EDM and the rest of dance music made using electronic devices are not the identical factor. The etymology of the time period "EDM" is not absolutely recognized, however in response to critic Joshua Glazer (who can also be a THUMP contributor) writing in Cuepoint, it is a " company term used to envelope disparate sounds into one easy-to-market division" that was coined in 1985 within the US, but did not achieve notoriety till the late 2000s. The 90s had been rife with musician-coined genres. Riot grrrl was the name of a 1991 fanzine put together by four of that music's key players: Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile; Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill. Illbient was coined in 1994 by DJ Olive, of the trio We, to explain a multimedia presentation to a journalist in Brooklyn. "Some older man who mentioned he was a journalist requested me if this was ambient music," Olive says, "and I blurted out as a joke, 'Nope, this is illbient.' We all had fun about it." And in 1996, producers Ed Rush and Trace of the No U Turn label minted the phrase techstep to describe their blaring, dense, hard-as-hell style of drum and bass. What distinguishes these sounds and scenes from lengthy-standing genres like techno or drum & bass is they not hold to the notion of center and periphery. They are not shaped from the highest down by a handful of rich, influential cities who transmit the culture while everyone else is relegated to receiving it. If anything, similar membership scenes in places like London and Berlin wish to their Latin American counterparts for inspiration. From this new ecosystem, an unbiased network of artists has begun to take form, and whereas London and Berlin are welcome to join the dialogue, they're definitely not dominating the conversation. For me personally, before I switched to doing EDM, I was a Rock Musician who used to play the Lead Guitar. I really miss those glorious days of Rock and Metallic music box russia truthfully. Another difference between Arduous Rock and heavy Metallic is the power involved in taking part in these two music genres. Initially of the millennium, festivals have been the place you'd hear guitar bands; on Radio 1, guitar music was largely relegated to the Night Session However, in 2016, radio playlists are bursting with guitar music and festivals have shifted their focus. None extra so than V pageant, whose top names this yr are Justin Bieber, Rihanna, David Guetta and Sia.

is the go-to vacation spot for wall art and other enjoyable visible products that categorical private interests, life-lengthy passions and of-the-moment obsessions. With a choice of over three,000,000 photos, AllPosters has one thing for every price range and decorating type. Find your favourite artwork prints from basic masters and discover up-and-coming artists. Browse the most popular posters in music, motion pictures and sports. Explore our range of t-shirts and novelty gifts. You possibly can even flip your own picture into an art masterpiece with MyPhotos. Plus, select from custom framing, canvas and wooden mounting to actually make a chunk your personal — all excessive-quality at wonderful costs.YouTube Music is a new music streaming service with the official audio, official video, playlists and artist stations. Plus, the remainder of the story you can't discover anyplace else: reside performances, remixes and more. I like rock music as a result of it keeps me pumped up all the time. Before I do something that's really nervous to me, I wish to take heed to my music to calm me down, however not too much. I am unable to stand slow music as a result of it makes me actually sleepy and it will get annoying. I might listen to anything, however nation is essentially the most annoying of all for me. I just need to get their cowboy hats and stomp all over them.If you happen to performed someone High Horse," it might take a few guesses earlier than they recognized it as a rustic song. That 4-to-the-ground beat with the funky, Nile Rodgers guitar, that popping bass—none of these are parts of country that must be on a hit from one of the genre's brightest stars. But the elements are all there: the center-American lyrical imagery and references, the light slide guitar solo, the banjo, the background acoustic strings. It is like a winking scrambling of genres that creates a sound entirely Musgraves' own. Some often compare her to Taylor Swift as a rustic artist with main crossover potential. But much less a brand than her uber-well-known counterpart, Musgraves has more in frequent with the likes of Sturgill Simpson or Chris Stapleton, who are crossing over primarily based on musical potential alone.

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inky-thoughts · 6 years

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How to Organize a Zine 101

Hey guys!

Since I'm almost through with my very first zine that I organised myself, I just realised how many mistakes you can make without even knowing, and I learned so much within the last few months where a lot was kind of trial and error. So I thought, you guys might like to learn more about this, and I could share my experiences and newly gained knowledge! Maybe this helps if you are looking into organising your own first zine.

If you have any tips and tricks yourself you'd like to share, let me know, I’m excited to hear about them!

I am going to go through the different steps and phases that you should take into consideration, so this might get a small series of some sort? I hope you're up for this.

Also a small disclaimer:

I'm mostly talking about fanzines that have multiple contributors, and it will focus more on artists/illustrators and writers as that is where my experience lies. I have contributed on several free e-zines as well as a printed charity zine, and now have organised my first printed for-profit zine as well.

Phase 1: The Planning

This might sound really obvious and maybe silly, but there are quite a few things that you should take into consideration before just starting a project that might overwhelm you easily. Don't already head off and create a twitter account before you haven't sat down and thought about these questions first!

First of all, you should think about the zine itself:

What topic/theme should it have?

If it is a fanzine: What ships/characters/... should be the focus?

What format does your zine have (printed/e-zine/both)?

What should be included in the zine? (Illustrations, comics, writing, photographs, ... all of them?)

How many contributors/pieces do you want in your finished zine? (especially important for printed zines)

Do you want to have additional merch, e.g. bookmarks, stickers, charms, postcards, ... , that people can purchase with your zine in a bundle?

How are the specs (how many pieces per creator/how long is one piece especially for writers)?

Is it a for-profit, charity, or free zine?

After you now have a vague idea of what you want, you need to think about competition as well if you're not having a free online zine.

How big is the fandom/target group of the specific zine you want to make?

How old are they and how likely are they to spend money on your zine?

Are there only a few, but very dedicated fans?

How many contributors can you gather from the fandom? How is the general quality of fanworks?

Are there other zines that are similar or maybe with the same topic/theme/focus and what sets your zine apart from them?

Are there other zines going around at roughly the same time with the same target group, and should you perhaps wait a little so people can afford your zine again?

Is it a thriving fandom on the rise or has activity already peaked? If no fanzine: Is your theme at the pulse of time, or has some accute relevance to a lot of people?

Especially on tumblr, there are a few blogs entirely dedicated to zines and specifically fanzines. If tagged accordingly, they'll reblog all kinds of posts about a zine, but mostly Call for Submission, Zine Schedules, and Preorder Announcements (we will talk about these later on.) It is really helpful to check those out, sometimes there are even blogs solely about one fandom's projects, so it gets watered down even more. You can also test waters through polls etc. if you have a loyal followership that might just buy your stuff because it has you in or on it. However, I don't really find those very reliable.

The next questions are mainly about the doablity of the zine for you:

If there is any kind of production costs, do you have funds to cover them if the zine doesn't sell well enough?

Do you have anyone you can trust/are friends with who is also enthusiastic about your topic that they can help you?

How do you want to split work? How much do you want to contribute to the zine yourself?

Are you ready to make the commitment to dedicate basically every free minute of your life for the next 6+ month on this project? Are you in a relatively steady environment where you don't need to handle moving, changing jobs, schools, whatever at any point during your zine work?

I highly recommend you to at least have one other person to do the organisation with you, preferrably are two or even more.

Please do not underestimate the workload you'll get, even if it doesn't seem much at first, you will write so many e-mails because you need to get back to your contributors for one thing or another, you need to make sure the files are all correct, if you have writers you need beta-reading while also putting the zine together and finding a good printing service and making sure everyone is on time. For the last 6 months, this zine was basically my job, because it is just that, just without a clear salary, or none at all.

The next thing is kind of working out a schedule, with the rough stages/phases zine creations usually have.

Application/Gathering Contributors You have the option between public applications where people just send in portfolios and you pick from those, or you invite contributors you think are interested in the zine and you would like to have in it. Sometimes, there are zines that do both, but it's rather rare. There are some zines (usually free e-zines) that accept literally everyone who applies, and while it creates an opportunity for lesser known creators and beginners to gain a little exposure and experience, it doesn't necessarily mean that the overall quality of content is consistent and what you want to hold in your hands. I had applications open for a bit more than a month since I was very eager and didn't establish any kind of excitement or build-up thereof until finally applications open, but generally it's very common to have a full month to gather applications. The minimum should be 2 weeks, though. Also, don't let yourself be blinded by the sheer amount of applicants, especially in smaller fandoms, top tier creators are rather rare and everyone tries to get into a zine about something they love.

Curating Contributors If you don't have an Invite Only zine, you'll have a very busy time ahead now: You need to look through hundred or more applications and filter who is a fit for your zine, and who is not. Bear in mind that you aren't only looking for quality of work, but also which creator's style fits your zine best. Especially if you have several disciplines in your zine (e.g. illustrations and writing), I only can recommend to split the work load according to your speciality. That way you work faster and more efficient. Give yourself at least 2 weeks, the bigger/more popular the fandom, the longer it probably will take.

Sending Acceptance/Refusal E-Mails After you chose your pick, you'll need to let people know who's in, and who is not. I would advise to send out acceptance letters first, since there will be first dropouts immediately after you finally agreed on them. As soon as you got everyone to confirm their participation, take those who barely didn't make it and put them in for pinch-hitters. You will be surprised how many you'll probably need along the way. After they confirmed that yes, they'll be pinch-hitters, send out the rejection e-mails. I consider it curtesy to send them because as applicant, you really want to know where you're standing. Calculate roughly 1-2 weeks for the e-mails because things just tend to drag along and people need a long time to respond.

Confirmations This usually only applies if you offer people to make collaborations. They need to be able to check out who else is in the zine, who is up for collaboration, whose style suits them best to collab with, test the waters with each other, and usually should come up with an idea, so again 1-2 weeks would be needed for that. However, if you have got your contributors confirmed and just need the backup and refusal mails, just set those deadlines parallel.

1st Draft Depending on how much you're already asking for, you might want them 1-2 weeks after the rejection mails went out (if you really just want to know what kind of ideas people got), or up to a month if you want first sketches/summaries. The first draft is also helpful to see if two people got the same idea, and you can steer people a little bit into the "right direction."

2nd Draft Usually this is where at least 50-75% of the work should be done if you don't take a 3rd draft. Most common are 2 Drafts and the endproduct. Give people at least a month between 1st and 2nd Draft.

Final Draft This is when the finished pieces should be due. Depending on the time of the year, the contributors might be under a lot of stress, so set this deadline roughly 1 month after the 2nd Draft. You will be stressed, everyone else will be stressed, so give yourself the time you need. Also listen to your contributors and observe if there are a lot not cutting a deadline, then maybe push them back for another 1-2 weeks. It will make everyone more relaxed.

Touch-up Phase Especially with writers, you'll need at least 2 weeks to touch up the final draft they submitted.

Buffer Time (don't write that into the official schedule but definitely calculate with it) There will always be unexpected events that will require buffer times. You also will need time to put the zine together if you didn't work on designing the file beforehand while everyone else was creating. Still, you'll need to fix some things and polish the whole thing. Minimum buffer should be 1-2 weeks.

Contributor Preorders With printed zines, it is curtesy to give every contributor a printed copy of the zine for free with them only paying for shipping & handling. This kind of established itself as compensation for their work that usually ends up to be for free as most zines are either for charity or barely cover their production costs. To know who of your contributors even wants a copy, you should give them roughly 2-3 weeks to preorder. Having those exclusive orders helps you to divide between contributors and the regular costumer if you hold both at the same storefront.

Previews (+ Proofs) Before you're launching public preorders, dedicate at least 1 week to previews to get everyone hyped up. Contributors and the "official" zine site post excerps of zine pieces so people get an idea of what the feel of the zine is. If you already got proofs/samples printed until then, post pictures of those, too! If you don't post the link to the shop yet, there definitely wouldn't be a problem to have the previews start at the same time as the contributor preorders. That way, contributors also have the chance to get a glimpse at their peer's works.

Public Preorders Depending on how eager people are for your zine, you can leave preorders relatively short, but no less than 2 weeks if you don't get an insane amount of orders within the first couple of days. People must be able to check out prices and get their paycheck before preorders close again. Some zines have a stacked preorder system where the first X orders are cheaper, and then there will be leftovers or a second phase of preorders after the first bulk has been shipped. However, this doesn't happen very often. If you don't have a hugely popular zine or are cutting way too close to any important deadlines, consider having 3-4 weeks of preorders.

Production As soon as you got your numbers from the preorders, RUN AND PURCHASE EVERYTHING. Depending on where you get your zines printed (also don't forget the optional merch on this!), you can be ready to go within a week or even more than a month. Calculating with roughly 3 weeks if you're getting your stuff from mostly national level is a good rule of thumb, however shit happens all the time anyway, so to be safe use 4-8 weeks. Let your customers know immediately if there are any delays that weren't planned.

Shipping Depending on how many orders you've got, shipping can be a hassle and most likely will take up one week or longer. Since domestic shipping is fastest, ship international orders first, that way customers don't have the feeling that they're forgotten.

E-Zine Currently, a common trend is to first get the physical copies sold, and then sell e-zines to gather more money and cover leftover production costs of the printed zine. Especially international customers and college students prefer e-zines because of the incredibly high shipping rates around the globe. E-zines aren't linked to any production at all after you got the file put together, so if you set up your storefront with the download, everyone simply downloads it. You can have those open as you like, common is anything between 1-3 month and even a whole year. If no money is involved at all, a lot of zines just exist as a permanent free download in a dropbox or other cloud, so this is the least complicated process.

Conventions Really, it's not necessary to put this up in the schedule, but thinking about it might be helpful. If you have a physical zine, you and some contributors might want to sell it on conventions, so offering them to buy a bulk to a smaller rate can be helpful to spread the zine's exposure. We handled this with "buying on commission" - mainly the contributor only pays for the printing costs + shipping, and later will pay part of the profit back to you. Especially with international contributors, be aware of the longer shipping time. Also reprints might take their time. I personally made it a rule to order the reprints 3 months before the con, and reprints can be made up until one year, but really, you don't need to do this.

After you've got your rough schedule, I would advise you to already gather information on how to produce and spread the finished zine. This also helps to know how much you should have in your backup fund for the zine.

For physical zines/merch

Check out printing services! compare prices and quality as well as product range, and find out how long production takes

Find an online storefront where you want to sell it if you don't have one yet

Research on conventions and fairs where you might sell the zine

Learn about shipping rates and which company is suited best for your purpose

For e-zines

Research on your options:

If it's free, what cloud-service are you most comfortable with?

Find a dowload hosting platform you're comfortable with that also lets you charge per download

Is a round-mailing an option? if yes, do your research on online storefronts as well.

Advertising + Web Presence

This is basically finding your social media where you want to spread the word and store all the information of your zine. It is common for a zine with multiple contributors and mods to have its own web presence.

Tumblr and twitter are very popular for this as tumblr basically is a quick-for-setup homepage where you can spread information incredibly fast if you get to the right people, you have the option to answer questions people have regarding your zine, and twitter is nice and handy to keep applicants and potential customers updated. Also think about where you've got a large following and can advertise the zine yourself. Twitter/tumblr is not required, but most definitely helpful.

If you yourself aren't very known or popular, try to get more influencial people interested in participating, or simply promoting your zine. It definitely helps to have a larger audience. Also find out about the tags used by largely popular zines, and what you can learn from them. Learn how the fanproject blogs filter content they might reblog.

Things you also shouldn't underestimate is affiliations! If there is a zine/project with a largely similar forcus and theme, try to get on their better side, and help each other out. They might be your competition, but if you schedule your zine in a clever way, you won't need to worry about this at all since preorder phase won't overlap at all. They might help you advertise your zine while you do the same for them.

There are also forums on zines and fanzines, but I think nowadays it's rare that you'll go viral through those. I personally don't have any experience with those, so if anyone has, I'm happy to hear about it!

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Masterpost

#inky rambles #zines #fanzines #fandom zines #fan zines #how to organize a zine 101 #long post #advice #art advice

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velcro-rave · 6 years

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half shitpost. half serious. all playlist.

I decided to unceremoniously break the one rule I set for myself every single time a new season of this show is released, which is TO NOT POST SPOILERS EVER, because I figured this was too fun not to share. So, instead of outright filling your dash with my critical & ridiculous thoughts, I’ve composed them into musical format via a YouTube mixtape. It’s 27 songs long and will take about an hour and a half of your life.

Keep in mind that this playlist is FILLED WITH SPOILERS. Even though it’s mostly a joke-y song-inspired summary of the events in S6, please do not listen to the playlist until you’ve watched the entire season. It will make 0 sense, as opposed to the minuscule fraction of sense it would’ve made if you had finished watching. Plus, you’ll be mad that you ruined it for yourself. It’s honestly an interesting collection of episodes!

However, if you are indeed ready, listen to it here!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgZlbfm6-3v1V5C74fT9uwDZmWroOczHR

(bonus link if the first doesn’t work)

I recommend going in blind and letting it play through without reading the descriptions below until you get to the song, but if you’d rather know EXACTLY what was going through my mind when I slapped everything onto the tracklist beforehand, go wild.

MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS

I just wanted the thumbnail tbh, but this is a good intro track for the mess you’re about to experience.

E P I S O D E 1 - OMEGA SHIELD

MULAN - I'LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU

Hunk training w/ Dayak. This one was probably the most visceral song. It was stuck in my head the absolute second he held up those weights.

BONNIE TYLER - TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART

Shielding the labor planet from the solar sequences (eclipses are tangentially related, right?) and also a very dramatic way of backing Lance getting saved by Allura.

E P I S O D E 2 - RAZOR’S EDGE

TAME IMPALA - CONFIDE IN ME (KYLIE MINOGUE COVER)

Allura slooowly trusting Lotor more and more & them being awfully flirty. In a serious sense, this is about him convincing her to let down her guard and let him in on what he wants to have.

CELINE DION - ALL BY MYSELF

Lance getting third wheeled hardcore by Allura & Lotor :( poor dude can’t catch a break.

THE WEEKND - STARBOY (ft. DAFT PUNK)

Keith coming to terms w/ Krolia. I also needed a generally serious jam so this was a good fit to fill the space.

Have you seen that one Lance fanzine by the same name though? Holy shit. The art is incredible.

QUEEN - DON'T STOP ME NOW

Keith & Krolia again, this time ft. them living together for 2 yrs on top of a giant space whale with a bootleg Blink Dog for a pet.

WOODKID - THE GREAT ESCAPE

Krolia & Tex (Keith's dad, still nameless smh) and how they were total badasses together. This is a mix between shitpost and serious because I couldn’t think of anything country/southern-related that fit the bill for their “let’s run off and hide and be together” scenario except for this song. Stuck with the horse metaphor, I guess. :P

THE KILLERS - READ MY MIND

Focus on Krolia & Tex's relationship again, her leaving him for the good of the planet and such. The lyrics are really good here, mainly

The teenage queen, the loaded gun The drop dead dream, the Chosen One A southern drawl, the world unseen

E P I S O D E 3 - MONSTERS & MANA

SKYRIM 8-BIT THEME

for Monsters & Mana aka BEST EPISODE. I can’t believe how nerdy they went. And how accurately nerdy they went. d20s..... playing the same classes after dying.... losing 8 hours in what feels like 8 minutes... Tomb of Horrors... they got it all.

SKRILLEX - REPTILE

CORANIC DRAGON BOSS FIGHT! ‘Cause it’s a giant, fire-breathing reptile.

NITRO FUN & HYPER POTIONS - CHECKPOINT

basically just outro-ing Monsters & Mana. I gotta say, I thought this was the best downtime episode in a while. Maybe not as fun as Space Mall, but really close.

It could also be my favorite because I have 60 D&D characters... :/

E P I S O D E 4 - THE COLONY

AC/DC - BACK IN BLACK

Keith returns not only in his dark black Blade of Marmora suit but also to reinstate his role as the Black Paladin for the time being. Kuron’s nearly confirmed as a danger at this point!

THE BEACH BOYS - WOULDN’T IT BE NICE

Romelle telling the tale of their supposed “messiah” being Lotor and all the abuse the missing Alteans went through. I wanted to get a song that accurately captured my emotions of “what the fuck” but nothing I had could match the tone. So why not go for the opposite?

FALL OUT BOY - HEAVEN'S GATE

def Allura & Lotor, mostly Allura thinking that he's finally the one. “Boost” in the lyrics probably refers to Lotor subtly trying to get out of the immoral shit he did in his past that she doesn’t know about yet.

HOE DON'T DO IT, OH MY GOD

they f u c k i n g kissed are you KIDDING ME, FOR REAL????

THE GUESS WHO - UNDUN

Everyone telling Allura that Lotor, her bf for all of 2 seconds, is actually a manipulative bastard who not only murdered but isolated and horrifically tortured thousands of her kind. You know, the kind that she believed was entirely EXTINCT except for her and Coran? Oops!

I DON'T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME - MODERN DAY CAIN

Lotor betraying the team but AT LAST revealing exactly where he stands. He’s been so ambiguously untrustworthy for so long that it feels nice to get some closure.

Allura yeets him across the castle ship and it’s a work of art.

E P I S O D E 5 - THE BLACK PALADINS

SKILLET - FALLING INSIDE THE BLACK

Keith + Kuron/Shiro fight, alluding to the episode title and both of them literally “inside” of the Black Lion later on. Almost as edgy as their blades.

WOODKID - I LOVE YOU

Keith & Shiro, Keith doing his “I know you’re in there” plea. BROGANES FOREVERRRRR.

god that scene made me cry.

E P I S O D E 6 - ALL GOOD THINGS

TCHAIKOVSKY - 1812 OVERTURE

Coran & Pidge pulling off the craziest technical stunts and saving the day. I figured I needed at least one purely instrumental song on here.

CRAZY FROG - AXEL F

Keith goes nyoom, aka he asks Shiro’s spirit to help him get back to the Paladins. But nyooming feels right, just like the narm.

E P I S O D E 7 - DEFENDER OF ALL UNIVERSES

BLOC PARTY - HELICOPTER

Fighting Lotor and his knockoff Voltron. The lyrics in this one reference him ultimately becoming the father whom he despised so deeply. Sweet, sweet psychological revenge.

GLORIA GAYNOR - I WILL SURVIVE

Acxa, Zethrid, and Ezor getting tired of Lotor's shit and betraying him again. It’s a pretty snazzy battle anthem.

P.O.D. - BOOM

The Castle of Lions is destroyed (BOOM!) & Lotor is maybe dead. Action-y song for AWESOME animation.

EVANESCENCE - BRING ME TO LIFE

Allura reviving the hell out of Shiro. He’s back! Probably! And with white hair!

STEVE AOKI (ft. FALL OUT BOY) - BACK TO EARTH

We're going home.

That’s it! Thanks for listening. Feel free to send me a message telling me what you liked about the playlist; I had a lot of fun working on it for the day. Eventually I’ll post some 100% serious mixes... including lots more actual lyric analysis. Next time you’ll see spoilers from me will be July 15th, 2018!

#voltron #voltron season 6 #voltron s6 #voltron spoilers #voltron s6 spoilers #playlists #p #i'm posting this now in the dead of night because I know I wouldn't ever do it while I'm awake lol #I PROMISE THIS IS THE ONLY SPOILERY THING I WILL POST THIS MONTH #or uh #you have full permission to spam me with various photos of cups placed uncomfortably close to precarious edges.#anyways there are also notes in the YouTube description but due to it being finicky and no one noticing them I've decided to just stick them #verbatim into the post itself; plus some extra stuff just for u #enjoyyyy

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wherearethegirlbands · 3 years

Text

INTERVIEW: THE STRANGERZ

The Strangerz are a self-described Feminist Shouty Punk band. Originally from Doncaster, the trio are now Manchester-based. The 18-year-old students met in college: “Shannon can’t sing so she plays the drums, Tom can't play drums so he plays guitar, Martha can’t do either, so she sings.”

The band’s debut single Straight Gay Brother was produced by Dan Whitehouse, though there’s no management team behind The Strangerz. “It's just us sending boring emails with little replies. However, we are very grateful for the ones that do reply, like the community radio stations that played our tracks like BCB’s Bradford Beat and Yorkshire music Coll, and the folks at Sine FM and many, many more. A great Manchester punk fanzine called Up Yours interviewed us, they’re some lovely students at Manchester uni. A highlight was being posted on Lucy McCourt’s Instagram and reviewed on Louder Than War. So those boring emails do help us a bit. Just got to keep at it, keep sending them.”

I can’t help but wonder what place Feminist Shouty Punk has on the Manchester scene. As expected, the band tend to play on line-ups with lots of indie bands: “At one of our recent gigs, we wrote a new song where Martha screams (literally screams) the chorus and none of the audience were really expecting it or really wanted it, so we got a lot of surprised and terrified faces. We played the same venue the next day and the promotor told us not to do that again. Haha!”

And what’s there to scream and shout about, you may ask? “Our music has some sort of rage, but we’d say it’s a nice rage. It contains a lot of feminist ideas; we’re angry about a lot of things. Straight Gay Brother is about gender and expressing yourself no matter what. Letting boys wear dresses, girls be masculine. The track we always end our set with is called Strange Resolutions and it's about getting cat-called, but then we have songs like Turn Electric which is about nothing but has a good drum solo.”

“We’ve played a lot of gigs in Doncaster and Sheffield and been together for a year, in that time we’ve seen 4 other women musicians play alongside us: Lu Moore, Follow the Giant, The Banquets and Dionne Sturdy-Clow, who all put on amazing sets. We’ve worked with no female promotors or engineers. It’s a big shame really because female creatives are out there. Shows the music industry is still patriarchal.”

I dig it. And where can we expect to find The Strangerz and their rage once the live music scene is somewhat up and running again?

“We play anywhere people are willing to play us, just say yes to everything. We’ve played a lot of pub gigs, but our first gig was in a small theatre called ‘The Little Theatre’. We were the only band playing on the lineup the rest was acoustic acts, but it was a lovely atmosphere and even though we had never played live before it went down well. Someone even reviewed us, which we didn’t expect, another musician who was there called Pete The Drake, compared us to people such as Hole and Babes in Toyland. Martha and Shannon put gold glitter all over their faces and we wore all black, a dress code that didn’t continue in our later gigs (mainly because Tom wanted to wear his Sonic Youth t-shirt and Martha her bright red suit).”

However, the band have unfortunately not had the chance to test out the live music scene in Manchester since moving there, due to COVID. “What makes it stand out though and why we moved here is all the amazing venues here like Dogbowl, Gorilla, Band on the wall and YES. We’d love to play at all those places and more.”

Lockdown has majorly affected the band, as their main source of promotion was gigs. “We’ve just been sitting on our arses, binging Netflix and dreaming of gigs and recording. We have become much more interactive on social media though.” Watch this space, because The Strangerz will be back with a bang before you know it.

______________________________________________________

The Strangerz Top Picks: Shannon (drums) is listening to Yungblood, Bikini Kill and X Ray Spex. Tom (guitar) is listening to Freddie Gibbs, Cate Le Bon and MF Doom. Martha (singer) is listening to Angel Olsen, Mitski and The Zombies.

_____________________________________________________

Social media links: https://linktr.ee/the_strangerz_ https://www.instagram.com/the_strangerz_/

Listen to The Strangerz single Straight Gay Brother here:

https://open.spotify.com/album/3Z3Lfoy5QQKrk725vAcHVw

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