At Least I'll Have More Free Time...

So you may know that since moving to the Bay Area 15 months ago I have had a number of jobs. Some were temporary, some didn't pay enough and some just didn't work out.  I would love for postcard making to be my full-time job (only 790 more subscribers needed! more or less...) but I have been lucky to have a variety of print-related jobs.  I have also had one steady, there-when-I-need-it, restaurant job.  The hours were flexible, the pay was good and my co-workers are great.  Really really great.  Recently, as a seasonal job came to an end, I decided not to get another job but to stay at the restaurant a few days a week and focus on more printing and bookmaking.

Then a few days ago, on the morning of our holiday party, the owner of the restaurant decided to close it down.  In two weeks.  Since then, he has recanted and thinks maybe we'll stay open for awhile longer.  Not because he employs 20 amazing, talented individuals who are about to visit family or work extra hours so coworkers can do so, but because he was advised financially not to close. Not yet. I get that business is business, and this is how capitalism works. Our restaurant was losing money and there are definitely things that could be done to make it more efficient.  We all did our best with that but ultimately, those decisions aren't up to us.  We knew it might end but we didn't expect it mid-December, while adjusting to new changes.  Some co-workers wish he would've given us more notice, while I think that the incertainty and impending job loss has sunk morale, added stress and leaves us generally unmotivated. I still show up for my shifts and do my job but it would be foolish to not be looking for alternate employment.  Our job isn't changing much in the world but it is amazing to work in a place where people care about each other and consider each other friends.  It is pretty special as far as restaurant jobs go.

I've thought about what is going to happen to us all. None of us are financially secure and I'd bet few of us have savings. Four households have 2 folks employed here which means 2 people loosing income at the same time.  I am angry at the guy who thinks this is an acceptable way to treat people and then I realized it doesn't matter.  It sucks to be job hunting and it is stressful and unemployment won't even cover my rent, but we are a lucky group of folks, youngish, educated and experienced and creative.  So while I want to complain, to vent, I also want to check myself.  We are lucky to have support systems and no dependents. We can creative folk with varied talents who are sure to work out something and probably,  eventually, something better.  But I also want that guy to think about he is affecting our lives, how making business decisions on a whim will not win you loyalty nor love nor even decently motivated employees.  The owner was there the other day, after telling us we might have our jobs for a few more weeks or not, and I wanted to tell him that the reason we showed up for work that day was because we are loyal to each other and we all need one more paycheck.  But I chickened out. And I didn't think he'd get it.


Maybe I'll start an employment agency.   There is a great variety of skill and talent among my co-workers.  Or if you were thinking of starting a vegan sandwich shop but need a staff, let me know.  I think I have something for you.

Ebb and Flow

Using a space heater to coax the ink across the rollers.

I won't complain about the cold because I am not that Californian yet, even if it is below freezing at night making our little space heater work its hardest.  Because in the middle of the day I spread mulch on hte garden which is getting along just fine.

Two days of printing and one cup of tea

We've been busy here, printing and printing and binding for the holiday season and already our sale season is over.  You can still but journals, blank books and post card subscriptions as gift on etsy.  If you order any blank books or datebooks for $10 or more, I will send you five randomly selsected postcards from the Keep Writing archives. This offer is good through the end of the year but you have to order by December 17th to get it in time for Christmas.

this could be yours!

Last weekend, we set up to table at Oakland's First Friday but packed up immediately as it began to rain. The light mist continued all night, enough to bum anyone out but luckily we went home.  It would have been our first tabling event with Gazelle and Goat but it seems it was not meant to be.  Instead, we went out for pizza and went to bed early in anticipation of the East Bay Alternative Book and Zine Fest.  I was seated next to the sweetest, most excited pair I could hope for.  I went home with an armload of new reading, including a bunch of poetry.  I have barely dug in but the prose poems of Julian S. of Ash and Bone and the comic zine by Lacey both made a surprise afternoon off even much better.

basket of zines!

I am also taking some time to look ahead to the new year, to think about making paper like I have been talking about, writing more, finishing a new zine and hopefully so much more.  This morning I gathered these marigolds seeds to save for when the weather is a little more hospitable.  Until then, hunker down with a warm drink and take care.

Thanks for Five Years

so much thanks!

Five years ago I had just arrived in Baton Rouge from New Orleans.  I was eighty miles away and a 31 year year old freshman in college at a big ol'state university.  I missed my friends. I wanted to do well in school, and moreso, I wanted to use all the great stuff at my disposal.  But how would I find time to write to all the people I loved most?

the first moht of keep writing! and still one of my favorites

And so I started Keep Writing.  Maybe you know this story. I sent out a postcard to fifty friends, to see if anyone was interested.  The first months included a few creative ways of making postcards without letterpress or silkscreen--lots of sewing, color copies and handcarved stamps. Luckily I got a key to the letterpress studio soon after the 4th month.

keep writing number 56!

This month marks five years of sending a monthly postcard to friends and strangers who have asked for it.  The past 2 1/2 years have included an interactive portion where you get to send something back to me.  Like the month I gave you a Venn Diagram to fill out and send back.  It's been super fun, a monthly challenge and full of surprises.  So, to thank you, you can renew your subscription (or sign up!) for the month of November for whatever you can afford from $5 to $30 (the regular price is $30 for a year). Email your payment through paypal to gutwrenchhope@gmail.com . Don't forget to include your mailing address!  Thanks y'all!  Now if I can get 800 more subscribers, I can quit my day jobs and spent all my time making mail!

New Orleans Visit

My stand-by flight to New Orleans wasn't bad because I got bumped from a flight and was stuck in Denver overnight, it was bad because people were not kind, selfish and I felt like I was on a Greyhound bus trip.  Sure, it is gross to sit next to someone who has just regurgitated their Lorna Doone 100 calorie snack pack onto their sweater, but I cleaned up the best I could and you could've parted with just one of your handi-wipes.

I made it anyway.

Stuck on an airplane with a rolled up sweater feeling gross and dehydrated and anxious and not ready at all to be locked into the airplane again, I did not get off in Denver, I did not cause a scene and I made it.

Luckliy I have some of the best friends ever who made the whole trip worth it.

art show in a church, a bunch of people I have never seen before

I went under the pretense of selling things at the New Orleans Anarchist Bookfair, which I did, with my suitcase strapped to my borrowed bike (thanks, John) in a light rain.  I chose a table next to a friend from Maple Leaf Books who took turns with me buying each other coffee and beer (thanks, Matt).

I got to talk with a friends who have been living in the Bywater, who want out, who are frustrated and conflicted and want all the best for New Orleans and are pretty sure that the best for New Orleans doesn't come from San Fransisco or New York. I heard a little insight from urban planners (thanks, Jason) and mostly was on vacation, if by vacation you mean not working on projects (sorry, Scott), sitting with friends while they work (yay Bear!)  and taking a lot of time to listen.

carrying my wares on a borrowed bike

 So, last week in review:  the sky was amazing.  The bookfair was not the bookfair of years before, which is happening a few weeks later and it will be interesting to see if the two combine, split, work together or if one engulfs the other. There are people who will be there next month who I wished I could see (hi Sara).  A week of contradictory forces.  I went to a fancy photography show in a church near my first New Orleans apartment,    The church has a plaque outside denoting the dates it was built, burned, rebuilt.  I always liked that little monument to the struggle.  The church was still only partially rebuilt or perhaps partially falling apart.  The photos were staged but looked exactly like the deep south at night, humming with eerie light.  I was a little drunk.  It was surreal and made me sad and angry and so so happy all at the same time.  I had coffee with many friends despite swearing off coffee. I rode and rode and here are some photos.

Thanks.

PS.  I won't be at the East Bay Anarchist Bookfair after all.  No room.  But I will be at a table in the east bay near you soon.

post-book-fair-pizza-wait

I Am Having Fun! I Am Doing It Right!

print by Cecilia Hedin

A few weeks ago, a friend emailed me forwarding a request to reprint a postcard-sized print.  I love printing postcards and I love helping someone make something silly and special they love.

drawing on film by Cecilia Hedin

Cecilia Hedin is a designer with drawing skills. She drew the image of the Chickenoseros directly onto film, which I then made into a plastic plate.  To draw onto film, you have to use something sharo to scrape away the emulsion.  And there is no erasing.  It is similar to etching but using a plastic film and then photosenstive material instead of metal, wax and acid.

preparing to print...that is tea not whiskey

printing on the Universal 1

With the plate made and the paper having arrived from the east coast, I set up the press.  I printed both her image and the text (in fluorescent red!) but you will have to wait until I deliver them to her tomorrow to see the final print.  Hopefully it looks close to her orginal.

this is the mess I make (registering the second color

Fall Tour and Working Together

While this tour is happening farther east,leaving the house a little quiet,  there is plenty going on this coast. 
Astropress and Gutwrench Press are friends, and tabling near you. We will be hauling our prints, postcards, handbound journals, datebooks and a tiny spiky plant around the Bay and beyond.
After our superfun SF Zine Fest weekend two weeks ago, we needed a little time to rest and make more stuff for the following dates:
September 29th SFCB Roadworks, 16th and Rhode Island, San Francisco, 11 am- 4 pm.  Even if you don;t care about seeing us, come see a giant steamroller make prints, including a new linocut from Dutchdoor Press's Anna Braning.
October 19, 20th New Orleans Anarchist Bookfair Zeitgeist, New Orleans.  Come say hi while I am in town for a few days, with just our prints to keep me company as Astropress will have to remain on the west coast.
October 26th East Bay Anarchist Bookfair Oakland.  I'll be home in time for this. Don't sleep through it! Come by!

Also, I have finally posted more postcards on my etsy site, including this collaboration wtih my friend and hero of awesomeness, Jeremy Sedita of Sea Monster Workshop.  He is a fantastic illustrator and worker of magic, so when I saw this illustration, I wanted to print it.  He wanted me to print it too! Now you can buy these collaborative postcards and encourage us to make more together.

Thank you friends, and we will see you soon.

PS, if you followed the link to the Thou Tour Video, know that you have been impressed by Mitch Well's filmmaking.

Living the Dream

on the bay bridge bike path--a spot to sit and contemplate the water treatement plant

A year ago we arrived in Oakland, tired, excited, willing to bike 7 miles for vegan treats.  All that is still true.  Six part-time jobs later, I may be working a little less, for a little more money with more time for mornings like this: riding across the new Bay Bridge Bike Path to nowhere.  I met up with Eric and Cecilia two days ago to ride with 1,000 other cyclists on opening day.  It was Cecilia's second trip because she was so excited, she couldn't wait for the group ride.  It was so lovely, I went back this morning, without breakfast, just water and a camera.  The ride is 8 miles total, a long walk but  a perfect slow uphill, slow downhill trip past the dismantled end of the old Bay bridge, up and up, almost to Yerba Buena Island.  Yes, it ends without making it to the Island, and it may take 2 years before you can get there. For now you can ride up, near traffic, between the old and new. The path starts in Emeryville or West Oakland and you have to ride through shipping yards and service roads.  They made the path acessable and palnted some flowers to make it pretty but the industrial roots can't be ignored.  It is a great contrast.  I'd be a fool to complain.  I ride my bike up a bridge into a beautiful Bay, eat delicious food, make some prints, visit a friend. Hey Oakland, thanks for having me for the past year.  Here's to the next.

the end of the old bridge

up and up

it looks like I took this while riding a pelican

Oakland!