Coming up: special year-end Cool-Off extravaganza!

This is a special edition of the Cyberpunk Apocalypse's monthly event, the Cool-Off. We're partnering with HackPittsburgh to bring you a bigger and more encompassing "what I did this YEAR" project showcase. To coincide with HackPittsburgh's weekly Friday Night Series, we've switched days this month to be the second Friday instead of the usual second Saturday.

Here's how it works: local creative types give very short presentations of the coolest project they've worked on during the course of 2011. Although it's free to get in and/or present, to vote costs $3, and the project with the most votes at the end of the evening wins half the proceeds (the other half being split between the Cyberpunk Apocalypse and HackPittsburgh as small-scale fundraising).

If you would like to present, please email cyberpunkapocalypse at gmail with a short summary, mostly so we can have an idea of how many people will be presenting. We're asking people to present projects that they have completed (as opposed to ideas for future projects) and also that this be limited to projects done NOT as part of one's job.

Have you been awesome this year? We bet you have, and we want to hear about it.

Friday, Dec. 9
7 pm sharp!
HackPittsburgh
1936 5th Ave., around back in the alley called Watson St.

Cool-off this week!

Now that the weather actually is cooling off, show your Pittsburgh cohorts what you've been working on this past month. Have you written something? Built something? Drawn a comic? Made a video? Something else? Bring it and $2-4 and present it. Or if you haven't done anything this month but want to see what other people have done, bring that $2-4 and gather 'round. At the end of the evening, all attendees vote on coolest project, and that person wins a trophy and half the door money. We're still saving up for a video projector, and the other half of the money will go towards that.

Saturday, September 10
7 pm SHARP!

The Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writer-in-Residence Program and JustSeeds present:

Readings by

Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela

and

Adriana Ramirez

SUNDAY, August 28th, 2011

6:30pm

At the JustSeeds spot: 3410 Penn Ave

Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. The store will be open starting at 2pm-- arrive early to check out the art and merchandise, including a beautiful exhibit by artist Thea Gahr. Come around back to the second floor entrance.

Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela is Pittsburgh's Cyberpunk Apocalypse writer-in-residence for the month of August. She writes stories. During her stay in Pittsburgh, she has been working on completing her first novel which starts in Detroit then moves to a fictional Latin American country. She is a 2005 recipient of a Leeway Transformation Award for her work as a social change writer and DJ. She is a co-founder of Thread Makes Blanket, a small press out of Philadelphia, that published Letter from Tombs Prison, 1917 a publication that features work from Justseeds artists Mary Tremonte and Shaun Slifer. Marissa is currently an assistant professor of Creative Writing at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. As part of a new educational component of Books Through Bars Philadelphia, she will be instructing a free correspondence course in Latino History and Culture for inmates in solitary confinement in PA. She lives in Philadelphia.

Adriana Ramirez, nonfiction writer and performance poet, has over fifteen years experience in theater, spoken word, and advocacy. Once ranked the 26th slam poet in the world (iwps 2006), she helped found and co-hosted the Latino/Indigenous Showcase at the National Poetry Slam; she now hosts the Steel City Slam in Pittsburgh. Her poems and writings have appeared on the internet, on subway station walls, and occasionally, on pieces of dead wood. She love technology and refreshments—mineral water, limes, and cheap Mexican food. Adriana lives in Pittsburgh, where she is writing a book about her death fantasies, Colombia, and the way we tell stories around violence. She roots for el tricolor in the World Cup. Adriana teaches at The University of Pittsburgh.

We're gonna have a portrait party tonight, all right!

Come by the house at 7 pm tonight for a portrait party. We'll all draw each other drawing each other. The more the merrier. Although we have some materials, you might want to bring your favorite stuff to draw with or on.

Maximum Family Story Hour!

The wonderful stay of our current visiting writer Max Wheeler is coming to a close. If you haven't met him yet, you have less than a week to right that wrong. His end-of-the-residency event will be on Friday, July 29 at 7 pm at the house. He will be reading stories from his own family and encourages you to do the same. Bring a 1-5 minute story to read/say aloud. You know, one of those funny and/or touching family favorites? Yeah, one of those. Max will also be showing the prints he's been working on at AIR this month.

Thanks to everyone who helped us reach our house Kickstarter goal, by the way. We're excited to have so many more sbscribers to our Zine of the Month Club. Meanwhile, Max still has a week left of his Kickstarter project to put out a record and comic for the band Spooktober.

(Also coming up on Saturday, Artnoose and the zine Ker-bloom! will be at the DC Zine Fest, so if you're in or around that city, stop on by and say hello.)

library reading coming up

Last September, the public library invited us to perform as part of their monthly Sunday reading series... in nine months. Since none of us even had 2011 calendars yet, we suspected our schedules would be free the following summer. We happily said yes.

Well, it's that time, so join us for a reading at the Carnegie Main Public Library on Sunday, June 19 at 2 pm sharp. The event is free to the public and is a great way to meet the residents and find out what we're all about.

Our event even made the short list for the local City Paper (see photo).

Fleeting Pages for the win!

In case you haven't heard, Pittsburgh has been fortunate enough to have with us this month Fleeting Pages, a pop-up indie bookstore which has for the month taken the place of the old Borders Books in East Liberty. It has been a very exciting project, not just because it's been selling many small press books and zines but also because the literary people of Pittsburgh have stepped up to create lots of interesting events to utilize this otherwise abandoned space.

There have been many readings as well as workshops, meet-ups, and even a speed dating event. Our awesome visiting writer Eva has been volunteering there quite a bit. On Tuesday, May 31, we're hosting our two-year anniversary with a reading there. Residents past and present will be taking stage and wowing you with readings, storytelling, and at least one stand-up comedy routine. Maybe one of us will tattoo another one of us--- we haven't figured out the details yet.

It starts at 7 pm and is free to the public. If you like, show up an hour or so early and enjoy the Writers' Happy Hour being organized by some other writers in Pittsburgh. Also if you like, stay late and enjoy a poetry slam event organized by still more writers in Pittsburgh. Holy cow! That's a lot of enjoyment!

Out of Towners Reading Explosion

At 7 pm on Thursday, April 28, we're excited to be hosting a special night of readers who live outside the bounds of our fair city of Pittsburgh.

Matt Whispers and Richard Wehrenberg are traveling through on a reading tour and joining them will be our current visiting writer Andy who will be going back to NYC a couple of days later.

The traveling readers will have zines for sale to offset tour costs.

Fall of Sauron

As a counterpoint to our Bilbo Baggins birthday party last fall, we're throwing a celebration of the fall of Sauron, which is March 25. We'll watch the fated moments in video form and do some readings from the book. We'll also have Lord of the Rings Risk for people to play in epic fashion. We're hoping to have secured a copy of Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit as well--- if you have one locally, let us know.

In addition, we will have a vegan chocolate cake in the shape of Barad-dûr, complete with flaming eye on top.

7 pm

5431 Carnegie St.

Upper Mordor

park fell beasts out front, bikes in the yard

Valentine's Day Candy-grams and Singing Telegrams

Our around-the-wood-stove think tank has come up with something fun, and we're pretty excited to announce it!

This Valentine's Day, the Cyberpunk Apocalypse writers' collective will be delivering candy-grams and singing telegrams all across the city, powered by bicycle! (place order here)

We'll be bagging up assortments of handmade and store-bought candies into little ribbon-tied bundles with fancy letterpress printed tags on which we will write the recipient's name. We're also practicing song development and performance in the hopes that we'll each be singing lots of songs all day long.

Here's how it works: $5 for a candy-gram delivered by a resident via bicycle, or $10 for candy plus a singing telegram by one of our residents. We will deliver in Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg, or Braddock. We have a PayPal button for you to place your order. We will be delivering during the day of Monday, February 14th, so please be prepared to give us the recipient's daytime address and phone number. In the event that the recipient is not there, we will sing the song to them over the phone and leave the candy taped to the address in question.

If you have any information that might be pertinent to our delivery (recipient is allergic to nuts, leaves at 3 pm, works in an office building where we'll need to get buzzed in, or is heretofore a secret crush) put it in the address box in your PayPal order. We'll do our darnedest to accommodate special requests, but no matter how many comic books we read we're still not superheroes.

All proceeds will go toward sustaining the Cyberpunk Apocalypse writing project, which hosts many free and low-cost literary events throughout the year. Please link this page to your own blogs and social networking pages so that we can make this a Valentine's Day to remember!
Place order here.

Cooling off this December!

We are so busy around the house these days. Some nights we even invite some friends over and all sit around the wood stove working on projects at the same time. Certainly there's a lot of writing going on, but also comics. There's a local compilation comic zine called Andromeda, and it's really spurring a few of us to draw comics more frequently.

What are you working on that's cool? We'd love to know. This Saturday, December 11th is our second monthly Cool-Off, where we invite you to present your cool project to a warm room of your peers. Popular vote will decide who wins half the door money. 7 pm. Be timely, friends.

Scary Story reading tonight!

Now that we've all had our fill of Thanksgiving pierogi, brave the cold weather and join us at 8 pm for a free evening of scary stories, hosted by our visiting writer Jamie, who's only in town for another few days. Jamie will read from recent original work. Artnoose will read from the HP Lovecraft story "Call of Cthulhu" and our uphill neighbor Dave will come with something to read as well. Bring a scary story if you would like, or just come to enjoy the ambiance. Oh, and Artnoose is making a Cthulhu cake, so come if for nothing else than to see the Old One in sweet delicious cake form.

As a side note, the last day of Artnoose's Birthday Week is today, so there's going to be a store from 5-8 pm in the front house with back issues of Ker-bloom!, prints, books and zines from the distro, original art, and last-minute holiday cards.

November Cool-Off reportback

Our first ever Cool-Off was a success. That is to say, people showed up, the wood stove created a warm atmosphere, and all the cupcakes got eaten.

There were readings, chili necklaces, videos, technological experiments, and a comic book slideshow. The Queer Negation Tour folks who have been visiting this weekend ended up winning, and will be taking half the door money and the golden torso trophy with them on their way to points elsewhere.

This event will be happening every month, on the second Saturday. Start doing cool stuff now so that you can present it on December 11!

Gender Edge event on Saturday

This Saturday, October 2! 7 pm!

Traveling writer Leah B. and local writer Katie Geise will be reading from their works about gender.

In addition, local performance group "an academic investigation of corporeal presentations and judgments using geographic guidelines also limiting our skepticisms" will be creating a live performance about gender constructs.

Leah's zines will be available for sale, and donations towards tour expenses will be greatly appreciated.

Pittsburgh Small Press Festival

The Cyberpunk Apocalypse will be sharing a table with Six Gallery Press this year for the Small Press Festival. Nearby, resident Artnoose will have a table for the letterpress zine Ker-bloom!. Now's your chance to ask residents of the Cyberpunk Apocalypse all the burning questions you have about the space, the publications, and the visiting writer project.

Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-26, noon to 5 pm
Artist Imaging Resource
518 Foreland St., on the North Side
Free to the public

(Sunday at 1 pm Daniel McCloskey will be facilitating a discussion.)

Birthday for Baggins

We're pleased to be hosting this year our friend Lindsay's annual celebration of the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins. While we can't promise wizards with fireworks (although if you are one such person, let us know) but we can guarantee food and fun.

Shirefolk potluck followed by Lord of the Rings themed Risk game. Other thematic events and treats left up to chance. We do have copies of the trilogy in our house library, so if anyone dares to do any readings from it, feel free. Oh, and speaking of free, the event is free to the public.

Wednesday September 22, 2010 at 6 pm
5431 Carnegie St., Upper Hobbiton, Pittsburgh

Zine release party at the Big Idea!

Cyperpunk Apocalypse resident Artnoose invites you all to a double zine release party on Thursday, Aug. 26, 7-9 pm at the Big Idea Bookstore (504 S. Millvale @ Liberty).

Artnoose recently finished issue #85 of Ker-bloom!, a somewhat metaphorical look at relationships as constellations. It features a two-color cover which Artnoose has described as "one of the best covers ever" as well as "hecka hard to print."

Artnoose also managed to guest-draw issue #9 of local comic zine Attack of the Zombie Soy Bot!, which also happens to have "one of the best covers ever" and besides all that is "hecka cute."

There will be juice and elaborately decorated vegan cupcakes. This event is free to the public, although current and back issues of both zines will be available for purchase.

Call for readers!

We'll be hosting a touring writer in early October as part of the GenderEdge Tour, and we're looking for local folks to perform. It won't be a music show, but more like readings and other similar performances. We're looking for folks who identify as queer, genderqueer, trans, OR whose work addresses/challenges gender constructs. Please get in touch if you would like to perform. We'll post more about the final line-up and specifics a little closer to the event time.

Gorsky Press event tonight!

Gorsky Press authors Mike Faloon and James Jay stop through the Iron City on their book tour. Mike Faloon will be reading from The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock, and James Jay will be reading poetry from his book The Journeymen.

Donations accepted for touring writers. Also, Cyberpunk Apocalypse resident Artnoose will take a break from straight-up zine reading by singing them.

Bloomsday hits Pittsburgh!

Joel and I were talking the other day about how Bloomsday was coming up, the celebration of James Joyce's novel Ulysses that happens every year on June 16, the day in which the novel is set. We wondered if we should host a Bloomsday event at the house.

I offered to see if anyone else was already planning an event, and of course I found bloomsdaypittsburgh.org and their list of events all around the city throughout the day. Check their website for more complete descriptions and locations, but here's the gist:

9:00 am - Bloomfield Crazy Mocha
10:30 am - Homewood Cemetery
12:00 pm - Murphy's Tap Room, Regent Square
2:30 pm - Carnegie Main Library
4:00 pm - Washington's Landing
5:30 pm - Harp & Fiddle, Strip District
8:00 pm - City Books, South Side

Bring your copy of the book to any (or all) of these events and read along.