Sporadic Travel Newsletter

I'm writing this at Changji Airport in Singapore (business lounge), after a stint in Indonesia with Athonk and pals. You can read about the trip and current travel at http://quickdraw.pitas.com , and see my (new!) list of Indonesian comic artists ("Komikus") at http://www.qdcomic.com/qd/list.htm . I've also made some general format changes to all sections of the list, check it out, I think you'll like it.

Depending on when my flight leaves I'll upload this here or in Phnom Penh.

Okay now here's the goss.

FESTIVAL FRENZY: Both in Newcastle and Mexico.

NEWCASTLE YOUNG WRITERS' FESTIVAL is gearing up for October. Marcus Westbury writes:

I am working on preperations for this year's Newcastle Festival (writers festival and electrofringe). Amanda Kerley and Anna Polleti have taken over the writers component and i am concentrating on expanding the Festival into a broader DIY media festival. This will mean a lot more radio, video, music, and electronic stuff and i am keen to hear of any people and ideas that may suit that expanded program.

Does anyone have any suggestions there? I am keen to hear of anyone who you think would be good, likely to enjoy themselves, and have something interesting to say - whether they are known or unknown. They can be professionals or enthusiastic upstarts and i am particularly looking for media people who may not have been incluced in the past because they aren't strictly writers or electrophiles...

Any interesting people, ideas, or media based topics would be welcome.

Last year's writers festival programme is still online at http://www.renewal.org.au/writersfestival, the electrofringe program is online at http://www.octapod.org.au/electrofringe. New web sites will be up for this year in the next few months.

Feel free to email or call me about any of this...

marcus@va.com.au
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contact Zines/Comix organizer Kylie Purr.
http://freespeech.org/catpounce/comix.html
Ongoing discussion re: comics program at Comics Australia message board:
http://comicsaustralia.com.
Festival planning discussion group at http://www.egroups.com/messages/nywf
and http://www.egroups.com/messages/ef2000

FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT PRESS, MEXICO:
Rather than reprint the lengthy (and entertainingly worded) press release,
reference the following web address for it in entirety:
http://www.egroups.com/message/zines/4093
To get in touch with organizers, try amoniaco@gemtel.com.mx

LOUDER, HARDER, FASTER:

Marcus of LOUD/Newcastle Youth Festy Fame also writes:

As some of you may be aware i have just scored myself a new gig as the Creative Manager of the Australia Council's new Media based arts festival thing that will be happening in late 2001 or early 2002. It is essentially the sequal to LOUD but we are thinking everything through from scratch and it won't be called LOUD or LOUDer - we are still sorting that out.

We are still refining exactly what it is that we are going to do but essentially the festival will be a media based arts festival for people 25 years of age and under. It is essentially about taking anything that can be delivered via the media and working with all the media in the country to get it out and show it to people. That includes internet, tv, radio, music, video, print and just about any other medium that you can dream up. At the moment i am trying to come up with the ideas for projects that we could potentially include in the festival and while i have plenty of my own, i just thought i'd flag with you all that i am interested in any suggestions.

If you aren't familiar with what LOUD did last time, see the old program at: http://www.loud.net.au/program . And if you want to see who we were working with last time and the sort of resources we may be able to access: http://www.loud.net.au/sponsors. Although, as i said this is not meant to be a guide for what we will be doing this time around. We recognise that there are a lot of things we could have done better and the sheer fact that several years has passed means that there are a lot of new possibilities (particularly online) that just didn't exist last time.

At this stage, i am really interested in broad ideas of the "wouldn't it be great to see ___ on tv" or the "someone should do a book of .." or the "why the hell hasn't someone done this before" or the "maybe we could do
this" type. It is probably going to be several months before we start fleshing out the details and it will be next year some time when we actually hold the process open to public submsissions.

Essentially, this is a fishing expedition at this stage, and i am keen to hear any ideas that any of you may have as you all have some connection with the media, youth stuff, or the arts side of things. Many of you with relevant big wig type jobs are likely to recieve a more formal approach from us at some point over the next few months but now is a good time to float ideas.
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Again, contact marcus@va.com.au

POLYESTER UPDATE:
The T-Shirt competion has garnered heaps of entries. Check out the gallery on the Sick Puppy site:
http://www.overdrive.com.au/sickpuppy/tshirts/polyester.htm

DIGITAL MEDIA COLLECTIVE has a new site up explaining their plans for a global comics CD-Rom: http://www.mig.net.au/dmc/index.html

M/C COMICS FEATURE: M/C - An online journal of Media and Culture published by the University of Queensland, plans to have a comics feature soon. If you've got an article in you, start thinking of what you could write. Squizz the site at http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/

OZ COMICS CONTENTION: online on the Comics Journal message board. Keep in mind messageboard links may evaporate over time. http://www.tcj.com/messboard/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000423.html

NOTABLES IN THE NEWS:

LARK PIEN is in Malaysia, and is thrilled to get her hands on some LAT
books.

NICOLA HARDY is going to be teaching a class on comics to wee tackers.

RICK BRADFORD of POOPSHEET has a new gig:
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Friends of Poopsheet,
Just a friendly note to let you know that I'm now providing Toonscape.com with a regular news column that covers the world of alternative/indy comics.
The plan is to update the information every 2-3 weeks (although if you'd like to see it updated more often, let them know). I tell you this so you know that -- while I'm working on a new Poopsheet -- I may be running your
comic-related news at Toonscape, too. The first column is up at http://www.toonscape.com/comicbooks/index.html
Just click on the 'go' button by "Independent Comic News" near the bottom of the page.
Rick Bradford / PO Box 1591 / El Cajon, CA / 92022 USA
My comic and zine reviews can be seen at http://www.indymagazine.com, http://www.thecomicstore.com and in the sporadic e-version of Poopsheet that appears at http://www.marsimport.com/poopsheet.html. rickbradford@earthlink.net

CORRECTION:
MOIRA writes: hey, you listed me as a new distributer but you got the details slightly wrong: http://rocket.samizdat.co.nz is the website of moon rocket distribution. It has an online catalogue, and more details of what i'm looking for. i've mostly got zines, but am detinitely looking to expand my comic section, especially with local/almost-local stuff.
http://nutmeg.gen.nz/zines is a page about my zines.
the address is p o box 7754, wellesley street, auckland, new zealand yay shameless self promotion. send me stuff.

READING:
http://www.lathouse.com.my
Kimon: Indonesian (Javanese) Martial arts comic Terompet Rakyat (People’s Trumpet)

DATES TO REMEMBER:
Hell, figure 'em out yourself. I'm busy.

Newsletter archived at Comicsaustralia.com and Silver Bullet Comics.