Last Sunday, my first weekend new to the city of Toronto, I caught the Queen Street streetcar and attended CanZine. I was far too early. Many of the tables were not set up. But, I made the mistake of thinking it would take longer to get there than it really did. Still, I paid my admission with a bit extra for the subscription to Broken Pencil. BP are the creators of the event (as far as I know) and they have done a lot to promote it.
I was really happy to meet Liz from Infiltration while I was there. She was interested in seeing my own urban (rural farmhouses) exploration photos. I have yet to email her as the moving chaos continues and I don’t even have my ISP connected yet. Anyway, I bought the Access All Areas book and a few zines. I hoped there would be more geared to the old buildings and architecture as that is what I really like. I’m not very eager to trek into drains and tunnels. I’m not even hugely enthusiastic to pry my way into the old farmhouses, not a great plan when exploring alone wearing open toed shoes. I’m sure it mentions that as a rule in Access All Areas.
I looked at other zines, writers, cartoonists, illustrators and artsy types. I wish I had seen some of the people there instead of just the notes for their places at the tables. Too bad more weren’t early. Torontoist was there but not there yet. Next time I will not go so foolishly early. Maybe I won’t feel so out of place either if I have met a few others in between now and then. I do feel like a fish out of water in the city. Mostly everyone at CanZine was younger and thinner than I am. I still went and I will go again.
Next time I won’t be too shy to take a few names, interviews and digital photos either. Good luck to me!
[tags]zine, ezine, indie, publishing, Canadian, urban exploration[/tags]