Ditchwater on Wednesday

Yes, I definitely live in the digitalized-to-hell online world, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still keep warm a quiet, soft spot in my heart/soul for things made of paper. Once upon a time I scoured zine racks at SoundEx & Soundwaves, trying to find the coolest, most intriguing, most eye-opening/mind-blowing zines I could dig up, some local and some not (e.g., Punk Planet, I’m Not Afraid, Beer Frame, Cometbus, Brown Paper Sack, Velvet Comics).

These days, well, the realms of zinedom have shrunk considerably, I’m guessing due both to the advent of the Interwebs and cheap-ass blogging technology and the steadily-rising cost of living. I have run across some new(-ish) zine-like things in recent years, but not nearly as many as I used to. Which makes me sad.

One strange benefit of the Great Zine Die-Off, however, seems to be that the survivors tend to be very good. Take one of the newest arrivals, local photo/scene icon Rosa Guerrero’s excellent, excellent, excellent Ditchwater photo-zine. Now, I dunno about you, but as cool as things like Flickr can be, I still get a weird thrill when I look at real-live printed pitchers, and with Ditchwater, that’s what Rosa serves up — all pictures, little text, no filler. Seriously, the zine’s damn neat; if you’ve ever wanted a glimpse into the sordid, self-referencing, sarcastically earnest underbelly of the H-town scene, well, you can feast your eyes upon DW‘s often-candid, sometimes-dirty, always-intriguing Xeroxed pages.

To me, it’s especially cool to witness Rosa’s evolution as a photographer, which is why I’m totally looking forward to this Wednesday, August 20th, ’cause I’ll be attempting to escape the house/couch in favor of the official, real-live, free release party for Ditchwater #2 at Sound Exchange. I’m dying to see the new stuff & how it compares, esp. since Rosa seems to magically appear at every cool show in town, camera in hand. What she’s doing is documenting our scene in all its down-and-dirty glory, and that is absolutely the coolest thing, to me.

So, do like I’m going to try to do and get on out. Like I said, the party itself’s free (although the zine’s not, but that’s kind of the point), it runs from 7-9PM, and it’ll feature musical guests Chocolate Crucifix, about whom I know zero but a name (okay, and the fact that they’re from Pasadena). Oh, and free Smarties will be available to all, in case that’s what really gets you motivated.

Additional Memo to Narcissistic Wannabe-Scenesters: while I can’t say for certain, I’m guessing pictures will be taken at the party, so if you want to maybe get yourself etched into the photographic record of the most bad-ass music scene currently in existence — and no, I’m not making fun — get your ass to SoundEx and somehow make yourself photogenic. Just don’t be the annoying person who jumps in front of everybody. Nobody likes that.