Received slightly fewer submissions for October’s issue but have been able to go into greater depth with each of them. Our theme is… Transformation by Surprise, which I will explain in the next few days or so when the work goes online. For now some shoutouts for opportunities for our artists.

First of all, I recently visited San Francisco’s Valencia Street neighborhood for the Modern Times Books release party of fellow zinesters who produced a guide to community-based approaches to handling intimate partner abuse. Great stories, not technical or boring at all, full of useful information. People from around the world attended the release party, including a traveling performance troupe with members from Zimbabwe, Israel/Palestine, etc. Dropped off Synchronized Chaos cards at the shops and galleries along the way there – also planning to crosslink and mutually promote our zine and theirs (I do this with many different zines with a variety of emphases, would like to consolidate resources and publishing opportunities, promote fellow artists, and encourage networking. I also liked their pragmatic, community based approach to handling an issue without huge bureaucracy.) If you’d like one of their zines please comment here and I’ll put you in touch with them.

Also visited the San Jose Museum of Art, interesting techy Silicon Valley feel with an exhibit on robots, another on old computer memory component history, another on minimalist installations. Sci fi esque – but they take art of various styles and does NOT have to be tech oriented. Paintings, vistas, everything welcome as far as I know. They take proposals from interested visual artists for review by their curators and I took a flyer about where to submit proposals and work samples and will forward it on to anyone who comments and is interested. Preference given to CA artists but CA residence not required. They’re booked for the near future but will consider proposals for later on.

An organization I endorse, the Neighborhood Housing Services of Silicon Valley, provides foreclosure intervention and counseling as well as neighborhood improvement projects. Aims to help keep people of all income levels able to own homes in Silicon Valley neighborhoods. They need a volunteer or more to revamp their www.nhssv.org website to make it brighter, more appealing, and easier to navigate. They need translation, a site map, a hits counter, etc…would love to see someone here get involved, if you know how to improve websites this would be a great portfolio and experience building project.

October issue coming soon!!