functionally ill 32

Hello, how are you doing?  I made a new zine.  Feels important–would you like to trade?  It’s functionally ill 32: autism plus crazy is a whole other thing.

I copied it today at my old favorite copy shop Copy World in Berkeley.  It’s five cents a page–up from three cents a page, ten years ago.  Wow, what a price.  But the smell of chemicals is so strong in there.

“I’m glad I’m not carrying any passengers,” I told Ming.  “I’m afraid passengers would take an early departure!”

Yes, it always smells very strong in there.

“How could anyone work here and live?” I asked Ming.  Maybe I’m getting more protective of health, or more realistic these days.

There was quite a lot of hustle and bustle in the store.  A worker argued with a customer about the quality of some advertisement postcards.  A lady stood at the counter, having an animated phone conversation about some drama.  Elders came and went with bundles of photocopies.  We had to wait for one cut, and they didn’t charge me for it.  Before, they would sometimes charge one dollar per cut.

smaller

Yes, the zine is quarter size, which is smaller than a usual functionally ill zine.  I really wanted to share about this autism idea.  Feels important to the world.  So I didn’t bury it in a huge multi-topic zine.  The entire zine consists of an expansion of this essay from some months ago, plus a contextualizing intro, and some cute frog drawings me and Ming made.

Smaller means it will be cheaper for me to mail, and easier to give away.  It’s 24 pages including covers and cost only 33 center per issue!  Wow!   Thank you, Copy World!  You are badasses.  You are good to the zinesters of the Bay Area.

It was like a homecoming.  Felt healing, to return to this place I went over and over again, when I lived in Sacramento.  It’s where I learned to copy.  It was empowering, and the gratefulness thrums in my body as a form of joy.