Truth Serum

Press!

2007-05-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

We're getting press for CineMental!

Bay Windows article on the Gay and Lesbian Film Fest, with a reference to CineMental at the bottom.

The Phoenix wrote a review and an article on The Odyssey.

An In News Weekly article on two of the shorts being shown in the Film Fest, one for which the after party at the milky way is being thrown (5/13).

2007-05-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry I havent been posting, though I dont know if anybody but me and Aliza have actually noticed. But if you have, and were wondering why, I moved to Eastie on Friday and havent gotten my internet hooked up yet. This is gonna be a long post, I'll cover everything that has hapened this week. By the way, this is my last week as Aliza's intern, so after this, no more blog. Unless of course I find some other use for it.

Monday: Mondays are always short days because I have to go to school in the middle of the day, but after that I went out to allston to post flyers. I had gotten almost everywhere when I ran out of tape. But that was okay because I was exhausted anyway. I think that I'm starting to get allergies. :(

Tuesday: Tuesday was dedicated to tie and bandana making. Youth Pride is on Saturday, so we have to get ready to sell them there. The bandanas look really cute, we have a couple with skull and crossbones, and one with swallows. I think those are gonna sell really well. We also started on some ties. Aliza's sale at RISD went really well so we have to replenish our stock. I was supposed to do some myspace promoting, but we ran out of time

Wednesday: Yesterday we started early (nine) which sucks because now that I've moved it takes even longer to get out to Dorcester. I got to the myspace promotion for the events coming up. I'll post those flyers + info later. and continued to work on the bandanas. Then we went out to post some flyers. We went to the garment district, coolidge corner, and Jamaica plain.

Today (thursday): Today we went around to do more flyering. We did allston, the art store on Comm. ave, and some places in harvard square. I might be forgetting places because it was really hot. Now I am about to do some more internet promo and probably work on some more ties.

Coup!

2007-05-03T15:03:00.000-07:00

Today I staged a coup against Aliza, and I have taken over her website. She has taught me too much and now I am using it against her! Plus I learned more about HTML and I learned how to update the website and post photos on it.
Stay tuned for more of my evil plans!

HTML

2007-05-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today I learned some of the basics of HTML coding and whatnot. Besides putting links and pictures in here( which Aliza taught me in the beginning) I had no idea how to do anything, but I had always wanted to learn. I know what it looks like, basically, but other that that the internet is just magic as far as I am concerned. So now she showed me how she uploads stuff onto her server. I went through all of the links in the photo page of her website and made it so all the liks open in a new window. It took a really long time, but I guess thats how im going to learn this.

2007-05-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today I just did some miscelaneous work aliza had for me, like prepping for the MFA's gay and lesbian film fest, and CineMental and doing some myspace promotion for that and Dr.Sketchy. This kind of stuff is not the most interesting but I know it needs to get done. Myspace is a huge help to bands and indie promoters like aliza because it gives you such easy acess to so many people.

TDB Records

2007-05-02T10:08:00.000-07:00

Monday I went and hung out with Jonah at Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records after I got out of school. It was nice to get a change of scenery, not that working for Aliza isn't super exiting. We mostly just talked about the stuff I was interested in working on, and I met the guitarist for his band Ramming Speed who was cool. I really am looking forward to working with him.

more flyers

2007-05-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some flyers for upcoming stuff:

This is Aliza's new Queer film project

This is for the next Dr. Sketchy on Mothers day:

2007-04-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

The sister spit thing was great, definitely better than expected. Im going to have to take some time and put names to faces and stories, so I can figure out who's who. I am terrible with names. Yesterday was the punk rock flea market (last one ever!). We didnt sell much stuff but it was pretty fun anyway. There wasnt much "punk rock" stuff being sold, it was more craftsy stuff, but that was cool anyway. I met Jonah from TDB Records there, and Im gonna go help him out with some stuff later today. I hope that goes well.

Ties

2007-04-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, yesterday was our tie day. First we sorted them by color, then taped them all down on big peices of cardboard. Then Aliza showed me how to stencil the Truth Serum url onto the end peices, and I did that for a while. Other that that I set up a myspace account for Letta Neely. Check it out. Today we're gonna put the pictures on the ties, and go see Sister Spit. I hope thats good

Blog!

2007-04-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Today was my day to catch up on this blog. I've kinda been slacking. Its a good way to keep track of what I've been doing, I just have to be more consistent. After that I took inventory of all the ties Aliza has. Some of them are pretty cool. We're going to be selling them at the Punk Rock Flea Market. People should come check them out. Tuesdays are a short day for me because I have to leave Aliza's by four so we didnt get too much done.

Another boring monday

2007-04-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

At least I got to sleep in a little. Then I went to meet with Aliza so she could sign my papers for school. At school the seminar was way to long for no good reason. I hate those things. After I got out of there (finally) I had to go flyer Chinatown, but first I had to go change my clothes. It was almost (gasp!) hot out. So I walked down to Washington st. and hit up some of the chinese grocery stores there. I would have walked to chinatown, but like I said, It was hot, so I caught the silver line. In chinatown I was a little nervous about just walking into places and asking to put flyers up, but after the first two or three people said no I realized that was the worst they could say, so I got over it. Still, a lot of places turned me down. Maybe it was just because they had no precident for putting posters up, but it was frustrating. After an hour or so I gave up.

Leftovers

2007-04-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

So today was devoted to flyering all the places that were incovient for me to flyer before. So now they're really inconvenient. Boo. I had to do Davis and Inman Sq. The problem is i've never gone to inman square by public transportation before. Davis square was nice. Places like that are always fun to visit when its nice out. I got food at anna's taqueria and then headed to central square. Somebody told me that i could get a bus there that would take me to inman sq. after i got there I realized that maybe I should have done more research. I asked a bus driver and they (very grumpily) told me to take the 91. so (after a while) i found the bus stop and had to wait for 20mins for the bus to come only to realize, when i finally got to inman sq. that it would have taken me 10mins to walk. so i walked back and went home.

Flyering Cambridge

2007-04-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

today I did the route from Harvard Square to Central Square. Nothing interesting really happened. The zine library was closed again, and so was the Brattle. At least my luck with weather is getting better. It was actually nice out instead of raining or snowing or hailing or something else horrible. After that I tried to figure out how to walk to Kendall so I could go to the Garment District. I ended up getting kinda lost, and when I got there they already had a poster up. Then I had to find the Kendall sqare T stop and I got lost again. At least now I know where it is.

Flyering Downtown

2007-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

At least its nice out today. I walked through the south end and up to newbury street this morning. It was nice, I like just walking around. Since that is all I have to do today I got to take it slow and enjoy myself. I finished up that pretty early so I headed out to Allston to post more flyers. I went into the pet store and got to look at all the snakes. I totally want one. or a hedgehog, but there like $200. someone should buy me one. I went into horror business and said hi to troy. he offered to put one of my flyers up, but i dont think the people who shop there are really into musicals. I got lunch at this cute little diner, and then headed back to the city.

Organizing Newspapers...

2007-04-19T19:16:00.000-07:00

is so much fun! except not really. Aliza has a ton of papers with articles in them on Truth Serum stuff. My job is to go through them all, organize them by date, find the articles, and then cut them out. My fingers are turning black and they smell like newspaper. Its kinda cool to look at all the old news, though. I keep getting distracted and start reading articles instead of sorting them. It's interesting to see how many different newspapers Boston has. They all have their own perspective on what's going on. There are the youth oriented papers like The Dig or The Phoenix, there are the queer ones like Bay Windows or In News Weekly, and there are the general ones like The Globe, The Herald, and The Metro. I guess its lucky that I live in a place where I can get so many different interpretations of the news

Press

2007-04-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Okay, today was devoted to going to all the newspapers in the area and giving them a press release on The Odyssey film being screened by CineMental, the new queer film series in Boston. Anyways, went to Bay Windows, In News Weekly, and The Phoenix. It was cool to see the inside of all these newspapers. I was surprised by the amount of young people who worked at The Phoenix. There weren't that many young people at the other newspapers.

More street promoting

2007-04-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much dedicated to putting up flyers. Wednesday me and Aliza did it together, which was cool. We kept stoppin because Aliza kept running into people she knew, but it was fun. Thursday I did it by myself, I did Harvard and Central square in cambridge. it was alright, except for the rain. I have really bad luck with weather. Unfortunately when I went to post flyers in the Democracy Center the
zine librarywas closed. After I finished with that Aliza gave me the rest of the day off and i got some much needed sleep.

pic

2007-04-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Me and Aliza inside the inflatable thingy at the ho-ag show

Monday & Tuesday

2007-04-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Alrighty. Monday was a short day because I had to go into school again. very boring. Then I went to Aliza's to do some work. typed up her address book. She knows a lot of people, in a lot of different places. All in all, not a very interesting day.

Tuesday I woke up early and still managed to get to Aliza's house late. finished typing up all the phone numbers, then I worked on keeping this updated (it's more work than you'd think). Boring work, but that's okay because I've been exhausted lately. I think I'm getting sick. This work needs to get done, and I guess its just part of running your own business

Tomorrow we're going out flyering. I hope it doesn't snow.

Flyers

2007-04-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some flyers for upcomming truth serum events.

This is for a queer hip-hop/spoken word show featuring deadlee and feloni. Very cool. everyone should come.

This is for a book reading by local authors. I've just finished SuperVillanz by Alicia Goranson. It was really good, expect a review here soon.

Zombies!

2007-04-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

Im going to be working this really cool midnight movie/concert/bulesque show thing at the coolidge corner theater on friday.

Easter!

2007-04-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

bunnies and chocolate are always fun. plus peeps. so yesterday was Dr. Sketchy. It was a lot of fun. There was a pretty good turn out, considering it is Easter Sunday. Some of the people were pretty cool, some were a little dorky though. I got an email from Jonah at Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records and he said that I will be able to work with him at some point during my internship. That'll be really cool. I wanted to do my whole internship with him but that didn't work out because he didn't get back to me in time, which sucks. I still haven't heard back from the guy at Lockin Out Records which is another place I wanted to do my internship. He couldn't do it because he works a day job and couldn't commit to giving me 30 hours of work each week. Hopefully I'll get to work with him a little too.

show

2007-04-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today was a long day. first i went to aliza's house and did office work. wrote an introduction letter that she's gonna send out to people I might do some work for. I sent out myspace flyers for Dr. Sketchy. Then we went to a gallery opening for one of Aliza's friends. It was alright, even though there were a bunch of people i didnt know and i didnt like the art that much. after that we headed out to harvard square to go to this lecture/show. First there was a powerpoint presentation on these two guys art. they call themselves Posttypography. very cool. Then there were some bands playing inside a big inflated mylar(or something) tube. That was pretty interesting too. you could walk inside the tube to go watch the band. very fun. I only stayed to see Ho-Ag and then i left to party with some punk kids in quincy. good times.

Cambridge...

2007-04-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

More flyering! so much fun. went to harvard sq. and visited all the places I used to go. I haven't been there in a while, im not sure why. I found a shoe store with very cute boots that I want. now i just need $160. So many hipsters, was it always like that? luckily hipsters let you post flyers in their windows. walked to central. realized that I dont really look around when I go there. im really only familiar with the section between the train station and the Elks Lodge(good shows). went in some cute stores. then i met up with Aliza, went to inman sq. another place ive never really been. Went to a lilypad show there, but thats it. cute place, i should go there again, maybe when it gets warmer. Then we went to allston, another place I havent been since I was younger. used to go to the thrift stores and record stores with my sister. apparently theyve closed diskovery. very sad. Went into Horror Business and got lectured on going to college. Blah. The guy Troyseemed nice though.
It's fun, doing the independant work. Not having somebody looking over my shoulder like in school. Its good experience, learning all the diy tricks and whatnot. I get to go to the Dr. Sketchy thing on sunday, which is cool. It looks like fun. Im also going to some show tomorrow night, inside an inflateable structure. Looks kinda weird and very art school. not sure how that'll go. The bands look like the type that would call themselves "experimental." not really my thing. more on that tomorrow.

Snow

2007-04-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

Did lots of flyering today. thats about it. First I met up with Aliza, we went to Flour. Then it started to snow. Bad. I walked all down Tremont st. to Mass ave, then down newbury st. I visited GLASS, it looked cool but i didnt have a chance to hang out. maybe ill go back sometime. Then we went to the Garment District. Very cool. I got a cute little dress with shrimp on it.
Even in the snow this is better that working in an office. Even if Truth Serum isnt the punk rock record label I was looking to do an internship at, this type of work would be the same. All the indie promotion is done the same, so this is great experience. Even the big labels have people out posting flyers. Cold & Tired & Going to bed.

Day 2

2007-04-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Woke up early. It's cold outside. Went to Aliza's and started organizing the calendar. There's a lot of stuff coming up. Worked on the press release, which I still dont think I've done right. Started a letter introducing myself to other businesses, still have to finish that. Worked at her house for a while then went out to do flyering and eat. Went to The Theater Offensive to pick up posters. They seem like cool people. The play we're promoting, Surviving the Nian, looks interesting (even if it is a musical). Put up posters for that and Dr. Sketchy and the Rap show in Davis Sq. There were some cool people, some not. Very tiring.

First Day

2007-04-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

School was boring. Some kids were all dressed up in business clothes, talking about how they were goiing to be filing papers for the next six weeks. Glad im not doing that. Then I went to Aliza's house. She has cute kitties. Talked about what I'm going to be doing and what's going on in the next few weeks. Some of the stuff looks pretty cool. I tried to write a press release. Dont think I'm very good at it. Have to go finish that. Aliza gave me two books from a book reading she's doing. The one I started, Super Villanz, is pretty good. Short day today, more tomorrow.