Journeyman Technician

Operating as a traveling repairman + educator.

I'm a few weeks into towards the end of the next of my repair tours—currently (1) waiting for a bus to leave South Station in Boston (2) in Queens, about to head to Bryant Park (3) on a plane to Minneapolis for the first time (4) hanging out with Secret Room before assembling books for Short Run. This trip includes/included visits to:

1. Providence, RI: Childish Books (but I didn't have time to visit Queer Archive Work & Binch Press, or check out AS220)

2. Portland, ME: New England Art Book Fair, Pickwick Independent Press, Fantasy Fiend

3. New York, NY: TXTbooks, Wendy's Subway, Printed Matter St. Marks, Roller Ink Riso, Secret Riso Club, Lucky Pocket Press (day trip up to Connecticut), the Penumbra Foundation, Endless Editions

4. Minneapolis, MN: Midwest Queer & Trans Zine Fest, Late Night Copies, Boneshaker Collective, Back of Beyond, La Mano

(The next bit gets a little fuzzy because I haven't planned that far ahead yet.)

5. Milwaukee, WI: bearbear, The Bindery, Woodland Pattern

6. Grand Rapids, MI: Issue Press

7. Chicago, IL: Paper Worm, Perfectly Acceptable Press, REESO, Inga Books

(Update, the trip shifted around a little bit—I spent more time in Minneapolis, so the back half was just skipping through town. I'm set to fly back through PDX though!)

8. Portland, OR: Outlet PDX, Secret Room

This post is a little about how these little tours come together, the work I do while on them, and where they might go next (metaphorically and geographically).

Any time you see a new format of image/text on paper, you must wonder how it could become a book. In this case I could see a stab binding or two-prong clip on the left flap, then treat the seat check perforation as a destructive component—tearing photos or poetry in half to make a new composition.

TRAVEL PLANNING

Since I operate on slim margins, especially when traveling, a lot of the game is figuring out how to balance travel expenses with the income I can make from repairs. Generally a trip doesn't come together unless:

1. I have someone who can put me up in each of the cities I'm staying (so I'm not getting an AirBnB or hotel)—in exchange for this I comp any repairs for my hosts (if they'll let me) while I'm there (and they get a little live-in tech. for a few days!). I collect potential people to stay in all the cities I'm visiting—if I can't trade services I try not to stay more than 2–3 days with friends.

2. There are a number of other presses in the city/region who I can work with to make some income.

3. There's a fair, teaching gig, or other event with sales or a stipend attached for secondary income (usually this covers travel expenses, leaving repair income for rent + bills + such—and any books/zines I pick up on my travels).

4. The city has a good public transit system (I can't drive) and/or I have friends who will tote me around (mainly in Detroit and smaller towns). I would love to get more comfortable biking, and rent a bike for my longer stays. I also love transit cards and have a little collection going—it's very nice to flip through and grab the ones I need before a trip.

A new card this time (a temporary one)—I haven’t taken the train from JFK before (and may never again, it’s far too expensive) but this was the back of the standard yellow MetroCard when you get it from a JFK kiosk.

Some more favorites (cobbled together from internet images): the Septa Key in Philly, the Hop Fastpass in Portland OR, and the Ventra Card in Chicago. While they aren't the tokens of yore—I find a beauty in their utility. Remembrances of all the beautiful transit currencies that are no longer with us.

5. There's enough time built in that I get at least one rest day per city (this means I'm usually staying 4–10 days in any given place). (This buffer is often cut into with unexpected repairs along the way.)

After that it's essentially a traveling salesman problem within the region itself as I try to figure out how to visit all the cities that need repairs while minimizing the costs of trains/busses/planes to get between them. If I can, I try to make my flights leaving and returning to home the most expensive travel expenses and minimize those where I can. If there are risos in a layover spot, I stick around for a bit to do repairs—lots of hopping around like this; living in Seattle often means flying out of PDX (depending on the airline)—which means I stay for a day or two to fix things with friends there and then get a ride to the airport from someone.

Highlighted sections are reminders to me of how urgent it is that I iron out certain details before I get there.

I'm actually quite bad at travel planning—I leave way too much up to the last minute , and always kick myself for the more expensive last minute tickets I have to get. Unfortunately that sort of complex multi-city scheduling is more executive functioning than I often have access to. More often than not I lightly gauge ahead of time: "is it possible to get from point A to point B?" and if it is then I just sort of figure it out on the road.

THE KIT

After 5 or 6 of these trips, I've more or less figured out what gets packed in my suitcase. (This is just a stack of lists, so feel free to skip ahead if you'd prefer.)

MAINTENANCE TOOLS

Approximately in their frequency of use: a JIS Phillips #2 screwdriver, a set of metric hex wrenches, a silicone parts tray (from the model making world), a tiny flathead screwdriver (from a little tool jar in my uncle's house in queens), needle nose pliers, 3-in-1 oil + white lithium grease, small vice grips, a fine point red sharpie (for making notes inside the riso), the smallest adjustable wrench, a Starrett 72MA feeler gauge (to set gaps between rollers accurate to 1/100th of a mm), super glue, a lens cleaning cloth, small zip ties, flush cut wire snips, a stubby screwdriver, assorted squares of fine grit sand paper (600–2000), a few tap + die sets for recutting damaged screw threads, 3mm roll pin punch, retaining ring removal tool, and copper + brass shims (stolen from a letterpress shop).

Notably missing (to be added later): double sided tape + packaging tape, a needle file, a small spring puller (essentially a hook with a handle), 5.5mm nut driver (for the sheet metal screws), a good magnetic flashlight, a brass bristle brush, and a small type gauge.

Because of all these tools I always need to pack a bag, my dream though is one day assembling a kit that can be a carry-on!

The common parts bin! I’m working on a post about the parts I stock and the information I provide for them, so expect a bit more of a breakdown on this in the coming months.

REPLACEMENT PARTS

I won't list out all the parts I bring, but I will say I bring 2 little cases (borrowed from an IBM typewriter repair kit)—the first has all the common parts (rubber bits, delicate plastic gears, etc.), the second has many of the rarer parts (bearings + bushings, springs, retaining rings, sensors, etc.). Outside of that I'll frequently pack specialty parts that I know I'll need for some of the machines I'm visiting.

This trip included: (1) a broken TPH to be exchanged for another broken TPH (the one I brought was broken in a known way—the one being replaced was one of many things that could have been going wrong in master making—if after replacing it, the error was resolved and we saw the known broken pattern, that meant we could *confirm* that the TPH was the issue), and (2) a replacement clamp motor + solenoid unit for a GR3750 in Brooklyn that hasn't been able to open clamps for a while. Both repairs were successful!

ZINES (STOCK)

Generally I try to bring 10–15 copies of all my active titles per fair, along with some info cards for whatever projects I'm working on and a couple odds and ends for trading. I have yet to mail a box of stock ahead of time, but I want to try it in the future so that I'm carrying a little less.

I always forget though that I like giving things away to the new friends I meet—so if a fair is at the end of the trip, it's quite likely my inventory will be quite low already. Maybe I need to start adding 2 of each title per week I'm traveling.

The inventory card I kept for New England Art Book Fair—it includes sales, trades, cash counts, and a little time log of when I was away from the table.

TABLING SUPPLIES

Nothing fancy here: 2 table cloths (one to loan), 4–5 flat pack wooden stands, a set of inventory tags + lettering stencil to write messages, a sticker pack for price labeling, my beloved mechanical counter (an old metal flat/round one), a small clipboard with my Venmo QR code, ~$30 in small bills, a Zelle card reader, lozenges + water, an eraser and eraser shield (for stray roller marks), and some sort of display object from my printshop collection (this time it was the automatic numbering stamp from the cover of Some Notes on Education and Publishing—I used it to edition them at the table as people bought them).

I have no standardized inventory sheet yet—Instead whatever scrap I can find (which often comes from unbound books that I brought with me aspirationally) will suit the purpose of a simple tally sheet.

There's probably a full post yet on how these things are all used and some stuff I've learned from tabling over the past few years.

PERSONAL ITEMS

Outside of clothing and meds and such, I carry a few items of entertainment and making/doing: my sketchbook (a small landscape watercolor notebook—I've been using variations of this format for the last 10 years), a smattering of writing implements (including at least a .01 COPIC Multiliner, two 3-color ballpoint pens from Muji, a fine white paint pen, my red grading pen from Natalia Ilyin, and a .03 mechanical pencil), a small sewing/mending kit (and sometimes a spool of natural linen thread if I have books to sew), my little Playdate loaded up with some games, and two books (or more, but often not) (one non-fiction, one fiction).

I also frequently act as courier for press friends, delivering gifts, letters, gear, or sometimes stock for the shops that carry their wares.

Things I've debated bringing but have not committed to yet: a field recorder for interviews + oral histories, some kind of camera I like to use, and my travel watercolor set (which I used to bring, but have not been able to make time for painting during recent endeavors).

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I should mention that during my travels I frequently accumulate zines and books—from fairs, gifts from presses I've fixed, and visits to bookstores old and new. When I practice some restraint, these exchange space/weight with the depleted stock + parts—when I do not (as during this trip), I have to ship myself a box of treasures, lest my bag be too heavy.

WANDERING

Finding myself (heavy words, together) in different places from one week to the next, I try to maintain a healthy practice of wandering. For me this is a quiet meander between points of interest, with the time and gumption to stumble upon unexpected places and people. It is not so poetic as the "flaneur" but is a nice way for me to slow down and get a feel for a place.

My targets for these forays include:

• Places to eat, sit, and talk (most often cafes, but sometimes parks too).

• Places to find and read books—independent reading rooms are my favorite, as I imagine myself operating (out of) one someday, but bookstores and libraries are most common.

• (Public) places of learning (so less schools, more museums, galleries and infoshops).

• Anywhere books and zines are made.

• Opportunities to participate, as an outsider, in community (volunteer things, support for event organizing, an open call).

Facilitating these wanders are little "white-line maps" that I make of the cities I visit frequently. I'll trace a bus map (as these frequently use a scale that matches the way I can travel through a region) with my paint pen onto a piece of yellow onion skin (tracing paper). Afterwards I can use a black pen to mark the places I've visited (or the places I'm interested in).

This is a section of my Manhattan map—it's rare that I pass through New York without a visit to a bookstore or two in the East Village. I've also made maps of Brooklyn and Philly, and I'm working on ones for Chicago, Portland, Minneapolis, and Oakland (Detroit and LA are unfortunately too large for the scale I use, so I've got to figure out something else there). I'm planning on screenprinting multiples of some of these maps for a future project, so probably more on them anon.

The maps have no street names on them (at least in the way I am using them) and landmarks only appear as I visit and make note of them. So I am frequently lost while finding my way around, which is not by design, but is an aid to my wander.

ETHOS + PURPOSE

Why make these trips? Well, a number of reasons: (1) The work needs to be done, there's always repairs to be made to keep the presses running, and very few of us who know how to make then. (2) It helps make ends meet—one of many gigs as I'm try to find balance outside of the institution. (3) It allows me to travel (and pay my way) to new places as I figure out where I want to land next.

But principally, it is because this is my community.

This disparate (or distributed) group of friends/readers/writers are my neighbors—if not by geography, at least by philosophy and material and labor—connected through shared ethos and practice.

On the night after a tough day of tabling, and a few days of being in my own head—I found myself sotting around a fire with a group of queer zinesters, talking about education and production, the (un)sustainability of organizing, what we wanted to make next and what we were learning—sharing time and words and our space—laughing about paper and politics and our selves. And I felt so "in community"—it's something I have found sparingly in life, but when I have, it's often in these interstitial moments—when we friends in small press get together.

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Next Up

1. Short Run is this weekend! It’s the fair I’ll be making it back home for (though I won’t be tabling, just playing a support role). Right now I’m helping friends in PDX finish up projects for the fair, after which I’ll be catching a ride up to Seattle.

2. This ended up getting a little generic—about travel for repairs generally, and not this specific trip—so I’m probably going to do a little follow-up on this post in the next week or so. I’ll go over the finances (some little logistics to see if/how this trip balanced out) and more importantly to share out a bunch of the conversations and ideas and things I found over the past month!

3. I’m going to be reviving a small press survey I ran a few years ago for the Seattle Art Book Fair and writing about it on here—it’s all about how people get started in small press and how they make ends meet. If you want a preview, you’re welcome to take the survey here: https://forms.gle/b7kkBb4F1Bv6wpD47

4. For the past year or so I’ve primarily been publishing riso maintenance things, but I’ve got a little book of my own in the works—and some potential new collaborations! Very excited to get back into my publishing practice.