Wonderful World of Zines

Randomly saw a post the other day from Mitch Clem on Instagram, plugging his participation at San Antonio Zinefest. I didn’t have anything planned on Saturday, so I penciled in the fest as a possible thing to do during the day and then made it a point to check out when I saw that they were going to have some panel discussions on the topic of “Zines”.

I haven’t been to a Zine show since the days of STAPLE out in Austin, Texas. I admittedly didn’t really know where Zines were in 2023 and I was kinda shocked at how much it appeared to be THRIVING in and around San Antonio. UTSA has appears to have a program and community around Zines and people seem to be leveraging the ability to Self Publish at much lower costs and are cranking out self published works in Zine/Book/Large print formats that not only look professional but kinda collectable.

The best part of the day was getting to hear a guy by the name of Patrick Brooks talk about the history of Zines. I had no idea that they dated as far back as the 1920s and i didn’t realize that the synergy behind creating Zines then and now hasn’t really changed much. Its basically born out of needed to create, publish and share outward. I spent a lot of time thinking about print Zines and Electronic Zines…. not to sound like a purist but I did think a lot about the medium of print, the paper stock and the technical ability it takes to put something together that has incredible content. I left feeling inspired to sit down, write and collect feelings and thoughts together with the intent to just share.

Lost Maples

Celebrated a birthday in solitude over the weekend…. It’s still kinda hard to articulate why I push everyone away in the last part of the year. Thanksgiving, my Birthday, the Holidays and New Year are very difficult to push through in recent years. It has a lot to do with people who are no longer here to celebrate these events with and there’s a lot of resentment in not getting to spend it with people I really wanted to invest time and energy into. Truth be told, getting to just be by myself makes everything a lot easier to process. Its like I’m able to process a lot of the pain and murkiness I’m feeling inside at my own time and in my own space.

I originally planned to be in Las Vegas this weekend so that I could take in U2 at the Sphere. I was going to purchase some tickets earlier in the year just before video got released of what the Sphere performances looked like. Said tickets I had intended to purchase went up by 500 and flights into Vegas spiked so I opted to hit up the hill country and hiked Lost Maples on December 8th.

The park was kinda empty and the Maple Leaves had mostly fallen by early December, but the hike and trails were still rewarding. I got a chance to see the famed monkey rock and took some time to meditate at the grotto. The park has roughly 10 miles to hike and there’s sections i didn’t check out so i may go out again during the winter months to finish off the park with my Niece.

Body Swapin'

When asked to help select a movie for “Movie and Wings” nite yesterday, I randomly selected the movie “Family Switch” without reading the synopsis of it. I thought I selected a random “holiday” movie, but I actually selected why might be one of my top five movie genre movies: “the Body Swap”.

Available on Netflix

This genre of film (in my head and heart) requires at least two people to switch their bodies/vessels so that they can experience what their life is like through the eyes of the other person. I think the memorable movie I saw accomplish this was the movie BIG with Tom Hanks. I’ve seen countless of these movies and believe that the last great movie to do this was the Jumanji reboot ‘Welcome to the Jungle’.

Family Switch isn’t a particularly good body swap movie… they kinda up the steaks by having 5 people and one dog all swap bodies. While its set at Christmas time it doesn’t really make that many holiday overtures. It just kinda runs down a number of traditional body swap tropes where they encounter someone magical. There’s a weird time frame that they have to all work together to reverse the body swap curse - but its never the mechanics of getting the thing to work - its as if all the characters have to realize something inside to make the magic happen.

The biggest highlight of the movie was seeing WEEZER make a cameo in the movie. They’re a backing band of sorts and it was just middle-aged-rock candy for people like myself. Kinda wanna stop myself from recommending this movie, but if you’re into this genre like I apparently am, seek it out.

Crescent Bend Nature Reserve (Smiley Face Killer?)

This may come as a surprise to many who have known me for a while, but I recently discovered the joys of “hiking”. It became a much needed outlet when Covid-19 hit…. I used to spend a good part of my free time attending live shows/concerts, so when all that came to an abrupt halt - I found myself completely enamored with re-engaging with the city of San Antonio, thru its greenbelt.

I’ve had the pleasure of walking/biking almost all of the greenbelt and have also explored all of the missions at the heart of the city. I’ve even found some time to fit in some State/National parks… but my favorite retreat of all are the “Nature Preserves”. I’ve found two kinda near me… one is on the Deep South by Poteet Texas and there’s another one that is kinda tucked away in the city of Cibolo called Crescent Bend Nature Park.

I’m told that the area used to have homes but some repeated flooding in the late 90s caused the city to relocate all the citizens who lived there. A decision was made to allow nature to reclaim the area naturally, so it’s a little sanctuary for birds and deers. On any given morning, you can get there at dawn and you will already find dedicated birdwatchers with long lens cameras or binoculars.

I take Canelo with me and we quickly hike the trails and attempt to be as quiet as possible. The park itself used to be pretty vacant… in recent visits I’ve noticed photographers taking people to the area for portraits. Which is cool I guess, I’m glad the park is getting visits. I recently noticed a “smiley face” near the entrance of the park and have privately wondered if the Smiley Face Killers may have left a clue.

Something I don’t recommend doing is listening to true crime podcasts while hiking…. the surroundings literally sound like the backdrops of almost 60% of the shit you listen to. That being said - it’s a rewarding activity and I’m going to do my best to document some of the places I visit going forward.

My hiking co-pilot - Canelo