Raleigh Briggs (Make Your Place) takes us on a mending journey through stocking your supplies, quick fixes, types of knots and stitches (like the classic punk whipstitch!), buttons, mending seams, patching holes, darning holes, hemming, fixing zippers, waterproofing canvas, leather, and nylon, resources, and so much more! As always Raleigh’s style is simple, playful, friendly, fun, and builds your confidence. You can do it! Order here.
I’m a banjo enthusiast. That’s something I’ve made peace with. But building a banjo? I never thought I’d be capable of managing a hacksaw while keeping my jugular intact, let alone make a scrappy instrument that sounds rad! While editing How & Why, our latest DIY guide for the next apocalypse, Matte Resist’s instructions for building musical instruments gave me the push to try it out myself—and build a fretless banjo from a cookie tin.
Cookies plus banjos. It wasn’t a hard sell for me.
I bought an old cookie tin with a 9” diameter for $1. It provides a sturdy base to hold the neck (along with the tension of the strings) while being a good carrier of sweet tunes. Bigger equals louder. Then I cut a slot for the neck with a box cutter (see below) on what would be at the bottom of the tin’s side—that way, I can still take off the lid when the banjo’s done!
Want to learn to construct your own banjo f or just a few bucks? Pick up your own copy of How and Why!
Dear awesome pals,
Always looking for new ways to keep print media alive, we at the Microcosm Publishing clubhouse have teamed up with the super sweet Kickstarter.com, a new fundraising website that allows artists and small companies to appeal for donations for upcoming projects. Recently profiled on Pitchfork Media and in the New York Times, Kickstarter works on a time-based system; you set the amount you want to raise for your project; family, friends, and fans can donate via the site; and if the amount isn’t raised by the specified date, no money is given over to the project. Rad.
Our Kickstarter project is publishing an anthology of the beloved long-running zine Scam which will cost over $11,000 to print. Scam is a hard look at finding a better way to live, about pushing for ultimate freedom, and discovering the alternative histories of America. As said A People’s History of America author Howard Zinn about Scam editor Erick Lyle, “Forget the statistics and pretentious analysis of urban society. Take a walk through the city with Erick Lyle and discover the reality of how people live in an American city.” The Scam anthology will collect Lyle’s long out-of-print work and give it a deserved platform for all to read.
Everyone who donates something will receive a gift in return–with increasingly larger gifts as the donation amount goes up! (The gifts are listed below the press release.)
To read more about Microcosm’s Kickstarter campaign and watch a video describing the whole shebang, go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/897079804/scam-the-first-four-issues
Your friends,
Joe Biel, Jessie Duquette, Rio Safari, E. Chris Lynch, Steven Stoddard, Sparky Taylor, Matt Gauck, Adam Gnade, and Wade the Cat.
Pledge $5 or more
You will receive updates about this project and we’ll give you a shout out for making it all happen on our website and in our newsletter.
Pledge $10 or more
In addition to the above, you will receive a copy of 13 Years of Goodluck.
Pledge $15 or more
In addition to the above, you will get a copy of the Scam Anthology and we’ll add your name to the Special Thanks section on the website and in our newsletter.
Pledge $25 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of the Zine Yearbook #9
Pledge $30 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Xtra Tuf #5 by Moe Bowstern
Pledge $35 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Xerography Debt #25 and #26
Pledge $45 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Cantankerous Titles DVD
Pledge $50 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Sounds of Your Name by Nate Powell
Pledge $60 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Dreamwhip 14 by Bill Brown
Pledge $65 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Constant Rider by Kate Lopresti
Pledge $75 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of the Best of Intentions by Keith Rosson
Pledge $85 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a copy of Things Are Meaning Less by Al Burian
Pledge $100 or more
In addition to the above, you also get an original edition $100 & T-shirt DVD
Pledge $200 or more
In addition to the above, you also get a six-month BFF subscription (we will send you all of our new published titles each month)
Pledge $300 or more
In addition to the above, you get all of those plus a copies of Brainfag Forever by Nate Beaty, Chainbreaker Bike Book, CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting #5, Distance Makes The Heart Grow Sick by Cristy Road, DIY Screenprinting by John Isaacson, Dwelling Portably ’80-89, I Hate This Part of Texas/Keep Loving, Keep Fighting, Invincible Summer Volumne I and II by Nicole Georges, Mostly True by Bill Daniel, My Brain Hurts Vol. 1 by Liz Baille, Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance, Snakepit 2007 by Ben Snakepit, Still We Ride DVD, Welcome to the Dahl House by Ken Dahl, X Ray Visions DVD (and soundtrack CD), and Zinester’s Guide to Portland
Pledge $400 or more
In addition to the above, you also get copies of The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting #1-4, On Subbing by Dave Roche, Doris Anthology by Cindy Crabb, Hot Damn & Hell Yeah / The Dirty South Cookbook by Vanessa Doe and Ryan Splint, Best of Intentions: The Avow Anthology by Keith Rossen, Coffeeshop Crushes, Homeland Insecurity DVD, and a Microcosm T-shirt