I Feel I Must Check In

August 28th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

Dear Reader:

It has been a while hasn’t it? This happens in the blogsphere. Bloggers create blogs, generate an audience and then suddenly disappear. When I got this blog going I swore that would not be me. Even if I just did one post a week I would be sure to keep up with my self imposed duties. I let myself down. And I know I am letting my readers down. Sorry about that.

Though change is in the air. As I write this I have about one day left of my current  job. I am making the leap into the freelance life. A pen for hire. I am pretty excited about it. All my life I have wanted to write for a living but never seemed to get around to it. Now I am committed to making it happen.

A blog is a great place for a writer to keep up the writing habit as well as build a cannon of material. It is my hope that I do just that here at Art Palaver starting next week. The focus of this blog will be art and technology for the self promoting artist. These days there are so many ways to get your message out there it can often get lost. We will be exploring what are the best tools an artist can use to get noticed and get sales. I am looking forward to the discoveries we will make together.

One of the things I could imagine happening on my death bed is wishing I had written more. Most everything else I could give or take. Now is the time to correct that and get to writing.

Wish me luck,

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Taking Art Palaver On The Road

April 15th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

The recipe for my dream job. Part writing, part traveling, part photography, part meeting people, all mixed together with art and artists. Mornings this would be served with high quality, fresh, carefully handcrafted espresso. In the evening high quality, fresh, carefully handcrafted beer. And to make it the ultimate dream job my wife would be my coworker.

Next week I get to sample that life. We are taking a road trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The City Different" as they say. Word on the street is that Santa Fe is a town for art and artists. I hope to spend some time exploring this notion. My goal is blog via photos and video from the road. Though I still have some technical challenges to work through with the video. (My camera uses firewire, my laptop does not.)

Where should I go? Any ideas? Any "must see" places in Santa Fe? Leave a comment or drop me an email at daryle@zaf622.com and let me know.

I hope to meet some artists and get some interviews in. And maybe find out just how Santa Fe got to be known as an art town.

Until next time,

www.zaf622.com

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Take A Moment To Introduce Yourself

March 25th, 2008 Daryle Dickens

I recently read a post on a blog were the author asked his readers to introduce themselves via comments. I thought I would give it a try. If my server reports and Google stats can be trusted there are more readers of Art Palaver than there are people who leave comments. (A lot more.)

I can understand that. I read a lot of blogs but rarely leave comments. Either I am too busy or simply have nothing to say. And I am not one to comment for comments sake. That is what I am asking you to do now though. Say "hello." Even if that is all you say. Feel free to type "hi" in the comment box and push send.

Maybe your not the type to leave comments. That is fine. Drop me an email. Daryle [at] zaf622.com. Say hello that way.

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What Is A Blog Anyway?

December 5th, 2007 admin

A nice little 3 minute video about the very thing your reading.

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The New Home for ZAF622’s Blog

July 19th, 2007 admin

Welcome to the new and improved ZAF622 Blog. I just got it up and running and there is a lot to do still. Some tweaking and defining. But stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe.

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The 16th Issue of ZAF622 Will Have A Printed Version

March 29th, 2007 Daryle Dickens

I grew up on the mean streets of Elgin Illinois. A town I love to hate. But growing up it did have one good thing about it, it was just down the road from Chicago. Spent many a weekend hoping on Irving Park Road and taking it south into the city. Irving Park was nice because if you follow it long enough from the burbs it will take you right to Clark Street, or Wrigleyville as many of you may know it as. Which is one of the better places on planet earth. But before we got into Chicago proper we would pass through the town of Norridge which is where we always made a stop at Rolling Stone Records. A classic big city records store, much like the one in the movie High Fidelity.

I will always remember Rolling Stone Records because that is were I bought my first Jane’s Addiction album. And also the place where I discovered my first “zine.” A tiny little homemade black and white magazine made on copy paper. To be honest I don’t remember the exact subject of that little zine, I am sure it had something to do with the Chicago music scene, I do remember that I was hooked though. I had to seek out more zines. And like many things, once you start looking for it, you find more than you imagined. There are zine libraries and distributors, or distros, as they are called. Zines are mostly found in record stores, comic book shops, and book stores. Their subjects are usually in the realm of music, fiction, politics, or art. Zines are the original blog. There was something about those little homemade vessels of free press that I really got hooked on. It is here we find some of the deepest roots of ZAF622. A zine in the age of the internet.

Issue 16 of ZAF622 will be taking a small detour off the information super highway and onto good old fashioned paper. You will be able to hold a printed version of ZAF622 #16 in your hand, roll it up, swat a fly with it, give mustaches to the people in the pictures, all that stuff, it will be grand. The first printed issue will have a very limited run, I’ll be testing the waters. It will contain stuff that the online version does not. It will be in the tradition of the classic zine, rough and fast, and not too pretty.

If you want to be sure to get your hands on the first hard copy of ZAF622 send an email to info@zaf622.com and just ask for it. Please include your mailing address so I know where to send it.

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