Chicago Zine Fest is on March 15th

[Ed Blair]

Hey Folks,

so chicago zine fest in on the 15th of march, and patrick and i will be there with our latest issue of Black Metal of the Americas, featuring over 7 interviews(woe, ashencult, hexer, clouds collide, zareen price, and more).  for those of you who don't know, my friend patrick and i have been writing a zine about north and south american black metal for almost two years at this point, and this sixth issue represents the culmination of a lot of that work.

i've also been invited to speak on a panel about music zines.

i'm including the description below:

As the d.i.y. zine community has, in reaction to the Internet,  evolved into a celebration of handmade, personal, visceral stories and comics, it’s natural that music zines have become the shunned stepchild. With their traditions of publicist driven content, ugly ads, and a brand of hero worship antithetical to the current ethos, this is understandable, but the contemporary zine scene is a direct result of the punk and rock n roll zine movement that thrived in the 70s (Sniffin’ Glue, Bomp), the regional hardcore zines of the 80s (Touch n Go, Maximumrocknroll), and the Riot Grrrl zines of the 90s. In addition, the more ambitious music zines have always challenged the clichés and commercialism of mainstream music publications. This panel will discuss the history, importance, mechanics, and contemporary state of music zinemaking, featuring creators who span five decades of publishing: Karen Wehrle (Coolest Retard , 1979-1983), Jake Austen (Roctober, 1996-present), Karen Heeringa (Mixtapers Do It Better, 2010-present) and Ed Blair (Black Metal of the Americas, 2012-present).

i'm incredibly excited and honored to be sharing the stage with these folks, and while this hasn't been officially announced, i wanted to give you guys some notice, as it would be wonderful if you could come.  some of you i know this isn't an option for you, but i did want to share this news with you anyway, so... i appreciate you reading this e-mail. 

i don't know what time this panel is, but i'll let interested parties know as soon as i know.  again, this isn't officially announced as far as I know, so don't go shouting about this from the heavens, but i know everyone's got a busy schedule these days and wanted to give folks a heads up.

i'll probably also be reading from either this zine, or my forthcoming zine about 1980's lucha libre at the next twocookieminimum show.

Tuesday March 4, 9pm at Hungry Brain bar 2319 W Belmont.  it's a chicago zine fest benefit, so... hooray!

anyway.  i hope all of you are well, and i hope to see all of you soon.

thanks.
ed.