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).

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.)

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.

Reading al fresca

Last night's reading was another success. It was the exit reading for Joel, our visiting writer who has been with us all month translating a book from Swedish into English.

It being a lovely summer evening, we began the readings in the yard, with about 15-20 people (and one dog) present. Artnoose (that's me) read two issues of Ker-bloom!, including the brand-new one finished up only hours before.

When the neighbor's pool party next door got so animated that we found it hard to resist crashing it, we moved the reading indoors, and Joel finished up in there. A discussion on the challenges and process of translation followed the reading, and then many of us stuck around for a little while eating snacks.

Every visiting writer we've had so far has been stellar, and although I miss them every time they leave, I appreciate the time that I do spend with them and value the space that we've given them to do important work.

Ker-bloom! reading tonight at AIR

Tonight we are celebrating the release of issue #83 of Artnoose's letterpress zine Ker-bloom!. This issue relates the story of six friends doing a week-long paid medical study together.

Local drag performer SlyShyFruitFly will kick the evening off with a performance, followed by a short set from local acoustic favorite Joddo. After that, Artnoose will read two issues of Ker-bloom! with Joddo accompanying on various string instruments. Yes friends, we at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse can predict the future, which is why we speak in the future tense.

The event is free to the people, although zines will be available for sale. Artnoose will be providing vegan cupcakes, biscuits, and xbeveragesx.

7-9 pm at AIR, 518 Foreland Street (on the North Side, yo!)

The Apocalypse comes to Cascadia!

Cyberpunk Apocalypse resident Artnoose is currently on a zine reading tour in the Pacific Northwest, performing the most recent issues of the long-running letterpress zine Ker-bloom! in a few cities. Here's the last bit of schedule:

Jan. 21 - Portland OR - 7 pm Red and Black Cafe, 400 SE 12th Ave., with former visiting writer Margaret Killjoy

Jan. 23 - Olympia WA - 7 pm Last Word Books, 211 4th Ave. E, with assorted local writers

Jan. 24 - Seattle WA - 7 pm Cafe Allegro, 4214 University Way NE

All events are free to the public, but supporting the local hosts is a plus (and so is buying a zine).

Traded in storage for a printshop

Over the course of three grueling winter days, die-hard Cyberpunk Apocalypse residents and friends successfully moved an entire letterpress printshop into the basement. And that's no small endeavor. Thousands of pounds of metal and wood went up and over Stanton Heights, across a brick yard, and down three steps into the basement. In the snow. Not kidding.

We're happy to announce that the long-running letterpress zine Ker-bloom! will now be printed and assembled on site as well as much whimsy and mayhem. We've been told that 2010 is the year of the Cyberpunk Apocalypse, that it's the year of the dream shop, and we believe it.

Open hours reportback

Unseasonably hot weather may have factored into the low attendance but high fun at this week's open hours. Seriously, it was in the mid-80's--- who'd want to be inside on a day like that? Not us, that's for sure. We brought the household outdoors, even bringing out one of the tables which then Danny and I used to collate the entirety of Ker-bloom! #77, which I had just finished printing this week. Special on the menu were BLTs and bagels with homemade cashew butter. I'm not saying this to rub it in; I'm just letting you know what you missed. Next week we'll fully have iced coffee.

Beyond food and beverage, action and conversation also ensued in the yard between houses. Our new housemate did laundry outside, and Danny and I drank coffee and talked for hours straight while putting 300 letterpress zines together. Mostly the conversation volleyed back and forth between novel writing and house construction. It was like shuffling cards--- no segues were necessary. We jumped back and forth between plot development and partition walls, publishing and copper pipe.