Sleep Well, Kinko's

Well, it happened very long ago, but it lingered in its way, for a long time, as another name AND Kinko's, and then just the other name and you might find the old logo in places. And now, not so much.

And yesterday, I went to print the first, rough copy of my first zine. Yes! finally some progress worth mentioning! And of course, as it's the first time I've tried, there were some issues with the formatting and the fellow who was assisting was not interested or impressed. I told him it was a zine I was working on and he sighed and said, "alright. let's figure out YOUR ZINE, then" like it was literally the least important thing he'd be doing that day. Which maybe it was, but not to me, right? jeez.

And it just reminded me of the good old days in South Minneapolis, camping out in the work area at Kinko's, on Hennepin, watching all the zines, and posters and comics and manifestos coming together, by people with interesting hair and clothes and smells... Bags and coats all over the floor, just strewn about, with glue sticks and white out and scissors and exactos and the smell of warm paper, everywhere, in the middle of winter... It felt like the art classroom, in high school, after the day had ended, and all the misfits were still just suitting there, polishing up their works of genius. Heaven, in other words.

That's what Kinko's was, then. Your happy place. The staff were more than happy to help you produce whatever nonsense YOU thought was important. And that was it. I made CD covers, and photocopy art and posters, but never a zine. Watched a lot of them being made there, though, and comics. The long arm stapler and the headaches over how to order the pages. I thought, someday...

Decades later, and Kinko's is dead. Long live Kinko's. You were the best. I'll have more updates on the final edition of this first zine, hopefully before the summertime. Thanks for your interest and stay tuned for Radio Retrofit updates!