Uncle Fun in Lakeview has long been the place to go for stink bombs, mini harmonicas, dashboard hula dancers, and John Wayne paper dolls. But this weekend the toy store’s upstairs gallery will feature a different set of oddities–zinesters, poets, bloggers, and progressive punk publishers–in a reading hosted by Uncle Fun employee Billy Roberts, who publishes the zines Proof I Exist and Her. It’ll be the first live performance event in the store’s 13-year history.
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The longtime editor of both the zine Tail Spins and Zine Guide, a roughly annual compendium of information on more than 1,000 indie publications, complete with an index cross-referencing them by subject matter, Ritzel knows the scene’s tastes and trends as well as anyone. He’s published six volumes of the guide since 1998 and hopes to have the seventh out by the end of March, but he didn’t discover the world of blogs until about eight months ago. Once he did, he says he was impressed by that scene’s activity level, sense of community, and political incisiveness. In November he, Diatribe’s Aaron Cynic, and a handful of other local zine writers (Alicia Dorr, Brandon Wetherbee, Kate Sandler, and Emerson Dameron) formed SPEC Chicago. Their goal: to unite the various circles of independent publishing.
Under the banners of Zine Guide, Tail Spins, and Diatribe Media, Ritzel and Cynic had sponsored readings, panels, and workshops over the past two years, including regular events at Quimby’s, but SPEC decided to actively seek out new and unique venues for shows. Always staging readings at Quimby’s makes it easy for people to take the events for granted, Ritzel says, adding that some potential participants and audience members are offended by the store’s fetish and erotica sections. “A lot of people actually won’t go to Quimby’s for shows because they have lots of pornography there,” he says.
The reading starts at 7 PM on Saturday, January 10, at 1338 W. Belmont. Besides Roberts and Ritzel, readers include Cynic, Dameron (Kazoo), Dorr (Random Life in Progress, Zine Guide), Sandler (SPEC’s Web master), Andrew Mall (Living Proof), poet Ken Hunt (Perpetually Bad Timing), Michelle Aiello (Indigo), Larry Roth (1544 West Grace), independent writers Julie Larson and David London, and blogger Christopher Barton. There’s a suggested donation of $3; for more information see www.selfpublishers.org.
