Rambling Towards Summer
Held together with sunshine and string
Hi there. This is issue twenty-two of Not From Around Here. Every other Wednesday, I share some notes from my corner of the universe. Thanks for checking in.
In this dispatch: warmer weather, zines, and Walter White.
I’ve been spending a lot of time outside. It’s nice seeing the daffodils and tulips, the trees budding, the sun staying out past seven PM. I love summer and look forward to it being here soon.
I wrote recently about going to Luna Moth Zine Fest and getting a nice big stack of zines to read. Now that school is out, I can work my way through my zine collection! I finished this one yesterday: 27 Countdown by Wesley Sueker.
When I first saw it, I opened it up to a random page, and it happened to have my birthday and a playlist featuring The Clash. So that’s neat.
I really enjoyed how candid this zine is. Reading it felt like sneaking a peek at someone’s private diary. The personal writing, handwritten text, and simple layout make this zine pretty inspiring. Like, zines don’t have to be overly complicated or fancy; you can just grab a pen and make something.
That being said, you could also make a zine on a computer, which is what I did for my Diners, Cryptids, and Dives zine. I took scans and photos of my original paintings and organized them in GIMP. Then I printed the pages out, made some color copies, stamped some cardstock covers, and sewed the zines together with some heavy duty thread.
They’re listed on Etsy now, if you’d like to get one for yourself or your favorite paranormal foodie friend.
✨ Recent Glimmers ✨
- Seeing a single red tulip underneath a tree
- The shadow from this random bottle of car stuff on the deck
- Free Comic Book Day! There was a great artist’s alley set up in Rochester, and I got to get some original pieces from Bill Mitchell (the werewolf) and Kimball Thorpe (Frankenstein’s monster). You can see more of their work here, including Bill’s 50 Years of Star Trek, which is one of my favorite books.
That’s all for this time. I hope that Spring is being good to you.
I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
- Mouse
PS: I did a presentation on Walter White for my Personality Psychology class, and I made a 100! I really enjoyed getting to put this project together, so I uploaded it to YouTube.
If, like me, you are a nerd for both Breaking Bad and the social sciences, then you might find it entertaining. My professor said it made her want to watch Breaking Bad again, so I’m pretty proud of that feedback.