Richmond ZineFest 2007

I almost didn't go to this, but I thought it would be cool to see what kind of underground paper culture is floating around Richmond. The Richmond zinefest was held at the Firehouse Theater and at The Camel and according to the people I talked to, it was the first such festival in Richmond in about 14 years. As it turns out, about half the zine publishers were from out of town. Knowing nothing about zine culture except a vague reference from a 1990s Harvey Danger Song, I decided to learn more about zines from the people at the 25 or so tables.

I talked to most of the participants and picked up a lot of free schwag. The setup was rather like a flea market or comic convention, with each zine person sitting behind their own own table or half table. Some people had tee shirts and stuff for sale, but a lot of people gave me free stuff because I was talking to them.

You know this was a Richmondy event because RVA Magazine was there and it was at the Firehouse Theater (co-founded by Harry Kollatz Jr., aka senior writing editor of Richmond Magazine and guy with the funny hat who is always fan walking in Carytown). The guy from Patchwork Collective was manning the info table, and the Zinefest program he had put together was about as DIY as you can get.

Keywords for noobs:
* Zine -- a Do It Yourself(DIY) magazine-like publication, usually 10 to 50 pages containing original art, poetry, opinion pieces, doodles, and random whatever.
* Distro -- sort of a zine middleman; a person who publishes lists of available zines and will send them to you. Examples include PaperChaseDistro.com, , parcell press , Valiant Death (records and Distro). Zineworld ("A reader's guide to the Underground Press") seems to be a good place to start... they review zines of all quality levels as well as writing articles on how to do zine stuff.

* PerZine -- someone who writes a zine about their PERsonal experience.
* Tower Records -- Apparently Tower used to be zine central, but now that they have filed for bankruptcy.
* Tabling -- I saw this on a flyer... not sure if it is zine scene lingo but it works... it's a verb... "who will be tabling at that event? Oh, I have a bunch of people who want their own tables"

As some of you may know, I originally intended sceneonerichmond to be a "newsletter" for the Richmond <>< scene. When my co-conspirators in the sceneone project bugged out in 2004, I started this blog in 2005. Even as I am now mostly internet presence, I have always had a place in my heart for making and distributing paper information pamphlets around Richmond. Here are some things I learned about the craft in case there are others like me who think about this kind of stuff...

* Frequency -- most zine kids are far less productive than they originally intended. The distro people told me it was fairly normal to have zines be created bi- monthy (that is... every other month). Some people put out zines only once a year. One guy shared a table with another "zine buddy" told me he put out two zines in August 2006 and started a third that didn't get done until last week.
* Media -- Most people published in 8" X 6" staple-bound "fold copy paper in half" format, and several mentioned to me that they relied heavily on the Staples copy center honor system or friends who had access to "free" copy machines. Several people went beyond the low-fi DIY norm and actually had impressive art and copy. The twine guy (28 Pages Lovingly Bound With Twine) was using a wooden spoon to get the twine the right length. I was also particularly impressed with the stuff at the substanceInk table (these guys were VCU art students). The other people who set the curve at this festival were the folks from Young American Comics. Not only that but, they gave me their price list for making buttons. Buttons!
* Content-- HOW TO tips like Gardening ... musings about love... documentation of experiences... Richmondy stuff... anarchists calls to arms... stories about a particular location... absurd anecdotes... tripped out doodles(brains melting, etc) ... personal poetry... artsy comics


My overall memory of this event was that it was a lot of down to earth people who are trying to build community by putting a little bit of themselves on paper. Many of them got into "the zine scene" by first reading other peoples' stuff and saying, "I can do THAT!"

I am struggling for a pithy conclusion here. I guess I'll just say that I also got the feeling that zine-ing can't be that hard. I have even though of a name if I ever do catch the zine bug... " ZineOneRichmond!"


-RCU

Summer Fun in Richmond -- Schedule

This post will be regularly updated with concerts and other fun stuff occurring this summer. **** This was last updated April 28, 2007****

If you want weekly schedules, go to weeklyrant.com or check out the event links to the left.

1. GENERAL CALENDAR

------MAY------
* Friday Cheers and other weekly summer concert venues (see below) kick off
* Jamestown 2007 kicks off, including Godspeed visiting Richmond and Henricus May 23-26
* Richmond 1977 "30 Days of 30 Years" kicks off ...
May 5 -- Cinco De Mayo on Brown's Island


------JUNE------
June 9 -- (tentative) River city Beer and Seafood festival

------JULY------
* July 4 -- Fireworks at Dogwood Dell and The Diamond... followed by Fan Walking
* July 5 -- Kingsfest at King's Dominion
------AUGUST------
* TBD -- Carytown Watermelon Festival (Sunday Afternoon Early in August)



2. Innsbrook After Hours (Wednesdays, and some Fridays)
May 9 -- Wierd al Yankovic
May 16 Elliott Yamin
May 23 -- Dark Star Orchestra
May 30 -- Huey Lewis and the News
June 3 -- Three Days Grace/Braking Benjamin
June 6 -- LIVE
June 13 -- Gin Blossoms
June 20 -- Doobie brothers/Little Feat
June 22 -- Sugarland
June 27 -- TBA
July 4 -- No Concert
July 7 -- Taylor Hicks
July 11 -- Hootie an the Blowfish
July 18 -- Los Lonely Boys/Pat Green
July 25 -- TBA
July 26 -- Sara Evans
July 28 -- Chicago
Aug 10 -- The Wailers


3. Groovin in the Garden (Thursdays)
May 10 -- Seldom Scene... and the Avett Brothers
May 17 -- Dickey Betts & Great Southern
May 24 -- Medeski, Martin, & Wood
May 31 -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
June 7 -- Big Head Todd and the Monsters
June 14 -- Son Volt
June 21 -- TBA
June 28 -- 1964 the Tribute (Beatles covers)

4. Friday Cheers (uh... Fridays)
May 11 --- Carbon Leaf
May 18 -- Lee Boys / DJ Williams Project
June 1 -- Soullive/Exister
June 8 -- Keller Williams
June 15 -- AAE/Crucial Elements
June 22 -- Drive-by Truckers
June 29 -- The Slip

5. Other concert venues I will link but not list
* Fridays at Sunset (weekly)
* Dogwood Dell Festival of the Arts (Daily )
* Third thursdays at VMFA (monthly)
* Fourth Fridays at Artworks (monthly)
* First Fridays on Broad (monthly)
* Richmond Kickers games... not a concert but fun to watch with friends.


6. FALL 2007 EVENTS
* "Swingin on the Tracks" at the Science Museum (September/October) (weekly)
* October 5-6 -- 2nd Street Festival
* October 12-14 -- National Folk Festival

I suck at blogging, but...

... I have been linked, so I have to blog now. Let the real blogging begin!!!!

Ok, stream of consciousness wikification:

Today is April 23, which is, let's see... the third day of Taurus... that number 23 is coming up like in that movie.

I paid off my car today... I talked to my sister in Kita, Mali on a three way call for the first time since Christmas.

I am turning 30 in May, which means you should take the pledge. ... Richmond1977.com, aw yeah

All I need to be a great blogger is... practice! I think my slant for this blog will be that I go out in the world and assimilate random information and post it here so that other people can read it and assimilate it some more and then ... hopefully someday... it will be useful to someone.

...so you should expect lots of random but interesting links and facts!!!!!!!!!!