Month: October 2005

  • Aw, Get A Room!

    The historic Gladstone Hotel.A couple years back they started having Canzine at the rather amazing Gladstone Hotel, a flophouse-turned-artspace in the heart of Parkdale. It was already a huge, eclectic zine fair, and now, if you had an idea for something beyond tabling your zine that needed a bigger canvas, you could get a room — and lots of interesting stuff ensued. This year, to mark the fifth anniversary of No Media Kings, I’m checking into Room 214.

    And boy, do I have plans for this room! I’ll be launching my DVDzine Novel Amusements #5: The Games and Shames Issue with microscreenings; I’m hosting three very casual themed meetups for people into self-publishing books, touring, or videogame-making to chit-chat; and I’ll be moderating two more formal discussions, an indie distribution thinktank and a panel on collaboration: Are You Too D.I.Y.?

    It’s all happening Oct. 30th at 1214 Queen St. W. in Toronto, check the schedule below for exact times. Everything’s free.

    UPDATE: I recorded the collaboration panel: pics and MP3s now available.
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  • The Artist of Urban Exploration

    Ninj designed the best zine logo ever.Almost ten years ago, at the Imperial Pub at Dundas and Yonge, Jeff told me about his plans for a new zine. Quite different than Yip, his humor zine, it would be about exploring off-limits places. I was concerned about having such a narrow focus for a whole zine. I suggested he give it a broader theme, relegating the exploring to a column or subsection. “You could call it Sneak,” I said, brainstorming other sections for scams and other naughtiness.

    Out of spite, Jeff (AKA Ninjalicious) published twenty-five issues of Infiltration, a zine about going places you weren’t supposed to go. And next week, his definitive book on the subject — Access All Areas: A User’s Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration — is being launched in Toronto, to the dismay of lazy security guards everywhere.
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  • Berlin and Londontown

    Click to enlarge.I knew it was going to be a good visit when Dmytri gave me a gift when we arrived. It was a patch with the No Media Kings logo that he’d bought off some local punk girls at a flea market in Berlin.

    It’s always a kick to see people steal my logo, but this really floored me.

    And the show in Berlin was indeed really fun…
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