Sticky

The Sticky Institute is a big time zine institution down under Flinders St in Melbourne. They are also running the zine fair which is a part of the exhibition coming up at the NGA.

So anyway, each month or so, they send out an email to let all zinesters know what's happening in the zine world. I noticed there was no Canberra information in the last mailout, so I asked if I could give an update. They said, no worries mate.

Here is what I wrote

FROM OUR NEW CANBERRA CORRESPONDENT, Dan
This month: Canberra is the place to be. (They wrote that, not me, I wrote the rest)

Hello all, this is the first column from your new Canberra correspondent. My name is Dan and I
write a zine called Capital Eyes. I'm currently working on Issue #9, hopefully that will be ready
in a couple of weeks. If you want to read more about that, you can read my blog (http://capital-
eyes.blogspot.com).

So in the big news, we had a big zine fair a couple of months back. That was on the 3rd July,
so actually it was just over a month ago. This was my first zine fair, and it was an interesting
experience. There were local zinemakers, as well as people from Sticky, Bird in The Hand and a
few other distros. There was a really big turnout to Gorman House, I think there were about 500
people. Not a bad debut. I sold or traded all the zines that I brought with me, so I guess you could
say it was a success, or I didn't bring enough.

Looks like we have another zine fair coming up, this one's on the 30th October at the National
Gallery of Australia as part of the "Space Invaders" street art exhibition. That should be a great
exhibition, and best of all, it's free.

I was in the US last week, I went to compete at the World Footbag Championships. If things go to
plan, I will be doing a zine about my experiences, so hopefully that will be complete by the time the
zine fair rolls around.

I have got some interesting zines lately. One by Bridget Chappell, formerly of Canberra, she used to
do a zine called Screwdriver Guilts, probably my favourite from last year. She has been busy being an activist in Palestine, you may have seen newspaper reports about her arrest. As far as I know, she is going to make a range of zines, but this is the first one, Trees Die Standing. It's mainly about her time heading out of Palestine, she has some interviews with some guys who operate a tunnel which sneaks in goods to Gaza, as well as some of her experiences.

Another one is nothing to do with Canberra, I picked it up and the Bound Together bookstore in
San Francisco, it's called Raider Nation. Ok, to admit it, I only picked it up because I am a fan of
the Canberra Raiders. If you can, try and get a copy of the "Rock n Raider" zine from a few years
back. Anyway, this zine is about Oakland, where I was staying, it's a pretty full on place and it was interesting reading about these much more crazy things that happened earlier in the year- police shootings, riots etc.

Your best bet for zines in Canberra while you wait for the next edition, head into Smiths Alternative Bookshop in the city.

Thanks for reading my first contribution, see you next time.
Dan

http://capital-eyes.blogspot.com

I am now wondering about the idea of going to the This is Not Art (TiNA) zine fair. I think the idea has a lot of merit, as I will already be going to the Sydney area that weekend. BUT what if the Raiders make it to the grand final. That could be a dilemma. I don't think they will get there this year, but the next few years, they are on for a premiership. Look at the side they have at the moment, all signed up for a number of years. Very promising indeed.

I'm also working on a bit of a secret project, it's for my Dad. I plan on giving it to him the day before, and I'm actually considering having it as a zine as well.