Zine Release Party Video

When I finally finished this issue, I wanted to have a release party. I have always considered the zine to be like a self-produced record and everyone loves a record release party, especially if there are free drinks to be had. When I was really almost done with the issue, I started looking around for a venue to host the party. I wanted to find a bar that had food, enough room for at least 50 people and they would be cool with me having an event there without charging me to host it. I found a really cool new bar called Fuelray that met all of the criteria. I talked to the owner and he was cool with the whole idea. I told him that I would be buying food and drinks for everyone, no one would get rowdy and I would be doing a reading at the end. I sent out invites to my mailing list and posted on my site that I was having a launch party. The Junkie used a pseudonym to get on the guest list and when I confronted him about his real identity, he admitted it was him and he still wanted to come. I hadn't seen or spoken to him in years and I really didn't want to be alone with him ever again so I thought having him come to the party would be a good compromise.

I wanted to give stuff away so that everyone that came would have a souvenir from the event. I ended up buying small flashlights on lanyards because the bar was dark and I wanted people to be able to read the new issue. I also gave away a few other things and of course, everyone that came got a free copy of the new issue. I also made a bunch of funny My Name Is stickers. The date it was scheduled for was September 24, 2004, which also happened to be Yom Kippur. The guest list was more than 50 by the time the date came around and my wife asked her co-workers if they wanted to come, too. It ended up being a great crowd. My brother-in-law Jorge was in town for some reason and he was very excited to attend. There were a few old fans who had been into the zine since the beginning and they wanted to meet me in person.

My friend Ron Rocheleau of Concrete TV brought his friend Ned Vizzini to the party and we had a lively conversation about the zine. I had worked on some of his stories when he was a contributing writer to the New York Press. After the party, Ned contacted me and asked if I would read something for his reading series at Barbes, a bar/lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I dragged my friend Jeffrey Yamaguchi to read as well. My wife brought my infant son and my friend Peter came and filmed the whole thing for me. It was the first time I had read anything from the zine to an audience and it was thrilling and terrifying. I liked it and when Ayun Halliday from the East Village Inky asked me to be part of a reading, I did that one. I ended up saying yes to doing public readings more than a dozen times. It was always fun to force myself to do something uncomfortable. I filmed some of them posted them online but some were only seen by my friends who were kind enough to come out to see me read.

I brought Bok Choy (my chicken) to the party because she loves to get wasted. My wife was also pregnant with our first kid who was born a few months later. The party was a hit, everyone had a good time, I ended up giving away all the zines and flashlights that I brought and when the party was starting to wind down, I read two short pieces from the new issue. They had a back garden area that was outside and you could see all the apartment buildings around the garden. After my reading, the Junkie wanted to talk to me and we spent a little time catching up. I could tell that he was high on heroin but I didn't really care because it was no longer my problem. I shot some video and then made a montage of stills to complete the video. I posted it to YouTube but taken out of context, it doesn't mean that much. Now that you have all of this context, you can decide for yourself if it makes more sense.

Of course, because I used a Tenacious D song ("Dude, I Totally Miss You") over the montage, it has a copyright strike against it. Maybe I should just upload it to Vimeo and solve this issue once and for all.