Two Cookie Minimum LA reading!

This past Monday night Oct. 21st, Two Cookie hit the coast for its first branded reading outside of Chicago! Two Cookie Minimum reading in LA happened thanks in part to fellow zinester and buddy Eyrca Sender (My Little Friend) for booking the venue, readers, promoting and emceeing.
The reading was in a cool little bookstore called Stories in Echo Park. They had the back patio set up for the reading with chairs and a PA system. Their Halloween decor blended in with their wooden fencing and trees. It was pretty welcoming. The best part was meeting new zinesters and hearing some great stories. 

Amber in her dancin' boots

First reader was Amber Garza (Zine Works) who read a story about how dance music, house, EDM has nothing to do with gender b/c it's about the music. Regardless of scene stereotypes and roles, the music is for all to share. She read on and then flipped the page to find the 2nd half of the story missing.We felt her pain but she closed strong and left beginning on a good foot.


Second reader was Brodie Foster Hubbard (Fair Dig). He read about his attempts at joining a Brazilian Jujitsu gym. All he wanted was someone to punch him in the face. Things hadn't worked out so well in the end and he quit going. His second piece was about his love of writing and putting words on the page. He actually worked on a draft of his text in that very patio. Both his selections were a nice balance.

Brodie pointing to where he had wrote his story in that very bookstore

 
Next up was Kelli Callis (That Girl) who joked that people who say they've been making zines for 'a long time' equaled people who've made zines for over 10-15+ years. It showed as she commanded the hell out of the reading. Her first selection was a bit about her trip to India way before outsourcing was a standard business practice. Peeing into a hole while a soaked rat jumped out was the highlight for sure. She then read from her zine Kurt Cobain was Lactose Intolerant Conspiracy Zine. She made the point that his lack of digesting dairy forced him to commit suicide. 

Johnny Misfit unscrewing his skull

Eryca followed reading two pieces, one about her nosedive into the world of SVU on Netflix and the other for a Guide to LA. Both were told in her casual yet witty voice evoking laughs and educating us at the same time. Now we know that 1) if you have to drive around LA for over 20 minutes to find parking, its best to turn around and go home, and 2) that Ice T's character on Law and Order has the same character background as his role in New Jack City. Informative for sure.

I, Johnny Misfit, ended the night reading a selection that's on my website, a fictionalized tale about growing up as a punk kid in Chicago. I noticed someone brought a dog into the store which made sense as this was LA and dogs were everywhere. It also made sense why the store's floor was all unfinished concrete. Then I read some chapters from my Field Manual: Human Body zine. I remember moving my hands a lot to the story, as in gestures. It was probably too much and pretty annoying (as you will tell from the photo).

It was a great night and I am glad to have been welcomed to LA by such gracious people. Nice words were shared, zines traded, and then we went on our way.  The experiences was so refreshing that I hope to do more out of town Two Cookie readings. Email me and let's get it started.

All above photos taken by Kelly Callis. Thanks!