DIY Life Zine: Looking for Submissions for Issue #2!

Remember the DIY Life Zine?  The first issue--with a selection of wonderful articles, poems, and artwork from some really great people--was published around this time last year (in December, I believe), and can be read here if you'd like to check it out.

And, a year later, I'm looking to put together a second issue!  I have a few submissions I've received over the last year, but not enough for a whole 'nother issue.  Which is where you (and your friends, if you want to pass the word along to someone you think might be interested) come in!

What is DIY Life Zine?

It's a zine about doing things independently of experts, professionals, institutions, corporations, and similar things.  A zine about taking our lives, and our communities, into our own hands.

Who can submit pieces to be considered (and most likely accepted) for the zine?

YOU (and you, and you).  Regardless of age, political view, whether you know me or just heard about this zine from a friend or another site, or anything else.  The only requirement is that it fits with the theme (the theme is DIY Life, as described above in What is DIY Life Zine).

What am I looking for?

Submissions of articles, opinions, artwork, poetry, and anything else you want to send me. I chose this theme because I feel it gives a ton of freedom in what you submit (anything from physical DIY projects, to articles on radical political philosophy, to education, lifestyle, and beyond!) while still retaining a more radical feeling and outlook.   As a side-note, your submission can also be ANTI or AGAINST something you see as being opposed to a DIY lifestyle (i.e schools, capitalism, whatever).  Note that I'm also looking for cover art specifically!  To find out some more nitty gritty details like word count, go here, and to get some ideas of topics you could cover, go here.

What type of circulation does DIY Life Zine have?

It's available online, and that's mostly how it circulates (the first issue has been downloaded more than 2500 times), but I also encourage anyone who wants to to print out/make copies and distribute them wherever/to whoever they wish.

Deadline for submissions is the end of December, so make sure you send stuff in before them!

To find out more about the zine, you can go to the DIY Life Zine website, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask either in the comments here or by sending me an email at open.eyed.slave@gmail.com.

I was really excited with the terrific content featured in the first issue, and I'm excited to see what all of you have to share in the next issue!

Looking for submissions for the Summer 2010 issue of DIY Life Zine!

(This is cross-posted from the zine website, DIY Life Zine)

I'm now looking for submissions for submissions of articles, opinions, artwork, poetry, quotes, and anything else you want to send me for the Summer 2010 issue of DIY Life.  I originally chose this theme because I feel it gives a ton of freedom in what you submit (anything from physical DIY projects, to articles on radical political philosophy, to education, parenting, crafting, and beyond!) while still retaining a more radical feel and outlook.   As a side-note, your submission can also be ANTI or AGAINST something you see as being opposed to a DIY lifestyle (i.e. corporations).  I'm looking for submissions from EVERYONE who's interested in creating (writing, drawing, etc.) something that would fit the general theme, no matter your age, political leanings, or anything else (this is added because of several questions I've received asking about this)!

The theme is pretty flexible, but I do reserve the right to not accept submissions that really do not fit with the theme (i.e. why public schooling is absolutely necessary), though I don’t really expect to turn down many things, if anything!

Word count can be as much as 1500 words.  If more than that, it will be split up into multiple parts, to be published in consecutive issues of DIY Life.  To see what the Winter 2010 issue looked like, go here, and to get some ideas for what to write about, go here!

This is a biannual zine, that publishes a Winter and a Summer issue.  The current deadline for the Summer 2010 issue is June 1st. If you're interested in writing something, but want opinions on what to write about, or have any questions, please contact me at open.eyed.slave@gmail.com.

I'm really excited about this issue, and I'm going to actually work on making it a real zine this time, with more artwork and stuff, since the last issue was sorely lacking!  Because of this, I'm putting an emphasis on looking for sketches, artwork, cool Crimethinc style political stuff/art, and anything else you think would be good in a zine, as well as cover art.

When you send something in, please include a SHORT bio (maximum 250 characters, not words), that includes your personal website, email address, blog, Twitter or deviantART account, or any other web address, if you want it to be included.

Have any questions?  Contact me, Idzie,  at open.eyed.slave@gmail.com

Thank you to everyone for your interest and support, and I'm really looking forward to what you have to share! :-D

Peace,
Idzie

DIY Life Zine now has it's own website!

It's been several weeks since the zine came out, and I've loved getting such great feedback on it! :-) But it's occured to me that the info for it on this blog is very scattered and rather hard to find.  So, I gave it it's own website!  Go check it out here.  Please do.  I'd love to hear your opinions on the site, information you think I should add, and stuff like that.  This also gave me an excuse to play around with Wordpress, something I've been wanting to do for a while!  I've considered moving this blog over to Wordpress, since there are a lot of features missing from Blogger that Wordpress has, but so far I've decided not to.  Either way, I enjoyed setting up the site for DIY Life Zine!  The link to that site can now be found permanently on this blog in the list at the top of the sidebar.

Peace,

Idzie

First ever issue of DIY Life Zine NOW AVAILABLE!!

The long wait is over: the first ever issue of DIY Life Zine is now available!!  For anyone who's just anxious to see it right away, I'll cut to the chase.  There are a couple of ways you can read it.

1. Go here, where you can download the file off of zinelibrary.info.
2. Send me an email at open.eyed.slave@gmail.com (with the subject "DIY Life Zine" so I can find it quickly and easily) and I'll send you the file (in PDF format).  NOTE: hotmail doesn't accept larger files, so it probably won't go through on a hotmail account.

If you like what you read, I'd be thrilled if you shared the link on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog.  You can also print it out and photocopy it as much as you want: hand it out to your friends and family, leave it lying around in a bus stop or at the library...  Or not.  I'm just being optimistic and saying all the cool things you *can* do if you want to. ;-)

Some random notes about the zine:

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who contributed SO MUCH!!  You guys made this project a success.

Secondly, I originally planned on having a cooler layout: more of a gritty, zine-y feel to the whole thing.  However, life and procrastination got in the way, so it's not quite as nice as it could have been.  Sorry about that!

In terms of language, I received some pieces with Canadian spelling, some with American spelling, and for the most part, that's how they were left.  Also, my proofreader flaked out on me partway through, so I'm blaming her for the typos I'm sure are there! ;-P

I'm sure there's so much more I could say about the zine, about the process, the content, the everything, but right now I'm just feeling frazzled and brain-fried, so I'm going to leave it at this!  Oh, wait, one more thing: I'd love love LOVE to get feedback, so if you read it, I'd be very happy if you left a comment or sent me an email (open.eyed.slave@gmail.com) to let me know what you think, what you liked and disliked, suggestions for ways to do things better in the future, or anything else you can think of.  Thanks a bunch!!

EDIT: I used the wrong version of one of the poems in the original version, which is why if you click on the link now, it says "revised version". :-)

Peace,
Idzie

DIY Life Zine table of contents

You know how I was going to have the zine up today?  Yeah, well, y'see, there was a pretty major crisis earlier this week, which meant I've been dealing with high stress levels and lost sleep, but despite that it probably still would have been ready for today had my computer not been difficult.  So, as it is, I'm going to be getting some publishing software from a friend tomorrow, and I'll really really try and have it up tomorrow, or at the latest on Tuesday. 

Until then, I leave you with the table of contents: all the interesting things you'll find in the very first issue of the DIY Life Zine! :-)

1. Power To Change by Wendy Priesnitz (article)
2. Basics of Self-Defence by Stefan Latour (article)
3. Unspeakable by Josh Sterlin (poetry)
4. Zentangle by Cheryl Hulseapple (artwork)
5. Radicalize by Ze'v the Wonderer (poetry)
6. An Introduction to Safe Research and Computer Usage for Radicals by Artemis (article)
   
7. Winter Haiku by Emi (poetry)
   
8. Anger is a Gift by Ze'v the Wonderer (artwork)
9. Woman Not Seen by Cecelia LaPointe (poetry)
10. Seeing and Feeling the Ground...As Well As Other Things: Thoughts On Unshoeing by Michele James-Parham (article)
11. (Native) North America (Ours) by Josh Sterlin (poetry)
12. Unschooling and Trust by Eli Gerzon (article)
13. The Other Two R's by David Boone (article)
14. Excerpt From 101 Reasons Why I'm An Unschooler by ps pirro (article)
    
15. Dirt, Soil, Remnants by Cecelia LaPointe (poetry)

 I hope You're as excited about this as I am! :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Christmas, Solstice, celebrations...

Wow, long time no post (compared to what I usually do, anyway)!  And I don't even have a good excuse! ;-) But anyway, I did not decide to write a post about the fact I haven't been writing posts, so I will move on...

My family is not Christian.  Not even close, really!  I'm animistic and generally spiritual without being *religious* at all, my dad comes from a Catholic background but isn't exactly a believer, my mom is spiritual and doesn't really like to label herself, and Emi refers to herself as a "superstitious agnostic".  Quite a bunch, aren't we?  However, like many North Americans, we celebrate Christmas each year.  Both sides of the family are Christian to a greater or lesser extant, so I suppose it's logical that we do.  And I love Christmas, I really do.  The glorious music (even the religious music.  I just love Christmas music!), the Christmas tree glowing softly in a darkened room, great feasts, glittering decorations, and yes, Christmas presents.  I can't imagine, and wouldn't want to, stop celebrating Christmas!  However, I don't feel a special significance in WHAT Christmas is celebrating.  I could honestly care less about the birth of the baby Jesus.  So for the past couple of years, I've wanted to celebrate the Solstice.  Marking and taking joy in the natural cycles of the Earth.  Now that makes more sense to me. So, although I know few people who live nearby who would appreciate such a celebration (and when I say "few" I mean one, other than my immediate family, unless someone else I've overlooked pops into my head), and actually take it seriously, I'm still going to have a small celebration myself.  I will drag my family along for the ride, make some lovely decorations out of natural materials dragged out of our local woods, cook some tasty food, light some beeswax candles (I've been moving away from petroleum based ones), and just have a good time.  So that is my plan for the Holidays! :-)


In zine news, I now have all the stuff I need!  Woo hoo!  I want to send out a big thanks to everyone who sent stuff in. :-) I now have the slightly intimidating task of putting it all together in an actual *zine*, instead of just a pile of papers.  I say slightly intimidating because there has been A LOT of interest.  I find it slightly unnerving that there are many people enthusiastically waiting to read it... :-S Also, I've been putting thought into what style I want it to be.  It could be more *magazine-y*, with columns and a more professional look, or more traditional *zine-y*, with scissors and glue and different fonts and handwritten bits, and I've decided after very little thought to go with the latter.  The unique, artistic, free-form style of zines is what drew me to them in the first place, so I don't think going for an overly *shiny* look is the best idea! :-P

Oh, and I just have to mention that I can't believe it's December already!  Time passes too fast!  I need to be thinking about buying gifts, and helping to clean the house, and all those other holiday preparatory things...

Peace,
Idzie

Zine reminder

So, it's been a month since I first put out the call for zine submissions, and I have half a dozen pieces that people have sent in.  However, I was silly and never really mentioned a proper deadline.  SO, I'd really like to have everything in by December 1st, so I can start putting it together then and have it completely finished before Christmas (when I won't have time to do much of anything)!  I know how easy it is to get sidetracked and forget about stuff like this (I know I have done so more times than I would like to admit...), so I figured I'd send out a friendly poke to everyone who said that they may want to contribute something to the zine... *Grins* If you do want to send something in, but aren't able to by December 1st, that's still totally fine.  Just drop me an email at open.eyed.slave@gmail.com to let me know when you're able to send it in by!

Thank you so much to everyone who has expressed interest in this project, whether or not you're able to submit something!  Just having this much interest has made a big difference to me. :-)

Peace,
Idzie

Bits and pieces

The poll just closed! The results are below:

What subjects are you most interested in me writing about?

Unshooling	25 (32%)
My daily life/what I'm up to	9 (11%)
Green Anarchy/Anti-Civilizationism	11 (14%)
All of the above	31 (40%)

Total votes: 76
----

Also, I know that a couple of people asked me to keep them posted on how the zine was going, so I'll give a litle update on that! About 30 people have said they will, or probably will, contribute to the zine, which is really exciting! I've actually received 5 different things from 3 different people, and am hoping to get more stuff soon... ;-) So that's going well.

In other random news, we, we being my mom, sis, and a friend, went to the Anti-Colonial Thanksgiving dinner a few nights ago, where we ate delicious vegan food made by a local collective, watched a very interesting, moving, and thought-provoking documentary film called Club Native, listened to a couple of interesting speakers (notably a woman from BC who had some very interesting things to say about the Olympics, organizing against the Olympics, and similar things), and just left with lots to think about. And talk about! From the moment we left, we were having fascinating conversations on Indigenous rights, colonialism, sexism, minority groups, counter cultures... I love the wonderful conversations mum, Emi, and I have! Emi also commented how very much she likes being around the more radical type counter cultures, including both unschoolers and anarchists (the type of people to attend an anti-colonial dinner are not exactly State loving types)... I agree that it just tends to be so much more of an open and friendly environment!

Oh, and as a funny side note, I commented that I was mildly surprised at how many people there were who were dressed "normally", and Emi looked at me as if I was crazy. "Idzie", she said, "you've forgotten what normal is. You think if someone doesn't have huge holes in their pants and political buttons attached to their blue hair, they're normal. And they're not." Well, excuse me. :-P Apparently most of the people at the dinner were dressed in "that flaky hippie style, wearing clothes from thrift stores that were 'normal' years ago, then adding a knit hat"... According to Em, that's a style that many unschoolers also favour. I love my sister. :-P And while we're talking about Emi-isms, she recently described anarchists as a whole as being "hippies without all the flowers", which sounds pretty accurate to me, actually. She says all of this with an air of slightly exasperated affection, which is not in the least insulting, and considers herself an anarchist (though she's not as loud about it as me), though she does not consider herself a hippie (she really isn't at all), just in case you were wondering. Yeah. I really love my sister.

And that little bit of rambling is all there is for now, folks.

Peace,
Idzie

Making a Zine, and looking for submissions!!

Guess what? I’m putting together a zine!! Zines are just so cool, I decided that I’d love to put one together myself, with the help of all of you, of course! The theme of the zine is:

DIY Life: Doing things independently of experts, professionals, institutions, corporations, or similar things.

I’m looking for submissions of articles, opinions, artwork, poetry, quotes, and anything else you want to send me. I finally decided on this theme because I feel it gives a ton of freedom in what you submit (anything from physical DIY projects, to articles on radical political philosophy, to education, parenting, crafting, and beyond!) while still retaining a more radical feeling and outlook, which makes me, personally, happy! As a note, your submission can also be ANTI or AGAINST something you see as being opposed to a DIY lifestyle (i.e schools).

The theme is pretty flexible, but I do reserve the right to not accept submissions that really do not fit with the theme (i.e. why public schooling is absolutely necessary), though I don’t really expect to turn down anything, and am really looking forward to seeing what you guys have to share!!

Once I’ve received enough submissions, and with enough prior warning to everyone who’s interested in submitting, of course, I will then put everything together in a proper zine, which I will then send by email (most likely in PDF format) to anyone who wants it (if someone can point me towards a good, safe, file hosting website, then I may also have it there for easy downloading), or if someone wants a hard copy, you can send me a few dollars to cover printing and shipping and I can send it straight to you (sorry guys, but I’m broke, so that’s the only way I can do it!). I will also distribute some hard copies locally, and I’d love it if you guys also chose to do so, but really, share it as much or as little as you want to, and in whatever ways you want to!

If you have something already written that you’d like to submit, send it straight to me. If you simply know that you want to submit something, but don’t have it done yet and/or haven’t decided what you’re going to do, please send me an email letting me know that, so that I know you will be submitting something at some point!  Oh, and I will happily help with editing if you want me to, just ask. Otherwise, I will fix spelling mistakes and obvious grammatical mistakes (the same word repeated twice, for instance), but will touch nothing else without your permission. Send all submissions to: open.eyed.slave@gmail.com

IMPORTANT: If you want people to be able to find more of your work if they’re interested, let me know when you send in your submission if you have a website, blog, Twitter account, or any site that you want to be included in the zine (example: Urban Foraging by Cindy Jones (www.foragingwithcindy.com).

Suggestions, just that I can think of off the top of my head, and please know that you’re entirely not limited just to the items in this list:

Articles on:
• Education (unschooling, homeschooling, skill sharing, community classes, educational co-ops)
• Parenting (attachment/natural parenting, radical unschooling, non-conditional parenting)
• Personal health care (herbal medicine, wild medicinals, nutrition, first aid)
• Sustainable living (gardening, food preservation, foraging, non-toxic and homemade household products, re-purposing projects, cooking and recipes)
• Community building/living/good for community/people stuff (community organizing, collectives, cooperatives, non-violent communication, peer counseling, autonomous living, intentional communities, any by the people for the people type stuff)
• Independent travel
• DIY projects or crafting projects of any sort (building a kiln, soap making, jewelry making, bow and arrow making, whatever you enjoy doing!)

Art such as:
• Any artwork, in B&W (photos aren’t great though, since they don’t photocopy well)
• Any poetry
• Any copyleft (not copyrighted), or licensed under creative commons, artwork other than your own that you think would fit with the zine

NOTE: Because of its nature, your own artwork and poetry does not need to conform to the theme, though it certainly can.

Miscellaneous stuff such as:
• Quotes, verses, or similar things, yours or copyleft stuff
• Anything else you can think of!!!!!


NOTE: by submitting anything, you agree that it is “copyleft” (not copyrighted), and can be copied and distributed by anyone. That’s just the way zines work: people often appropriate content in them for other uses (usually with proper attribution, although there are no guarantees).

For this to work, of course, I need submissions (sent to open.eyed.slave@gmail.com!)!! I’m really hoping I’ll get enough, really looking forward to seeing everything I do get, and just generally really excited about this project. :-D Also, if you have any questions or suggestions, please drop me a line as well! (Same address as above: open.eyed.slave@gmail.com)

Oh, and please feel free to pass this on to anyone whom you think may be interested!

Peace,
Idzie