The Thousands

Whatever you need, Lee Tran Lam has got you covered.

Wondering where to eat? She will tell you here. Wanna read about local music? Click up on this! Want to listen to local music? Aim your ears at her show, Local Fidelity, on FBi. But what about art, graphic design, and object design? That’s covered here. Plus a plethora of amazing zines which we can’t link to – because we’d rather you hold them.

Lee Tran took her fingers out of the many pies they are in long enough to make us a Mixtape!  Download it here, and go tell her how much you liked it when you buy a zine from her at this weekend’s MCA Zine Fair.   

What will you have at your stall this weekend?
There’s Jon Valenzuela’s latest ‘Tilted Page’ comic – you always know where Jon is seated at the zine fair, because you can follow the trail of laughter to his stall. Sophie Braham will be debuting her fashion zine, which is exciting ‘cos her writing is whipsmart and one-of-a-kind – even her emails are worth conserving. I’ll also be at the table, shilling the 11th issue of my zine, Speak-easy.

What makes a great mixtape?
An untameable love of music (rather than indier-than-thou calculation). A lack of musical-shame also helps (and keeps things fun).

Three words that describe your ideal zine?
Individual, good-humoured and feisty (if I’m allowed to get away with ‘good-humoured’ as one word).

How do you get such kick-ass people in your zine?
It turns out people are massively kind – I emailed author Steve Toltz through his website (he’s the Sydney writer who penned the mega Booker-shortlisted novel, A Fraction of the Whole) and he replied directly and revealed how he partially wrote the book in cemeteries and badly heated cafes in Paris, and that the 1000+ page original manuscript was the first book in English that his French wife had ever read.   

Kate Jinx wrote an awesome top five on her favourite French films (including one movie that she originally walked out of) and my friend Nathan wrote a fun piece on what it’s actually like to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

What made you go French with your zine?
I think I’ve had a thing for French culture since seventh-grade class, where you learn your first ‘le’s and ‘la’s. France has fascinating artists, whether they’re lo-fi (like the guys who started the Take Away Shows – basically, DIY concerts featuring The Arcade Fire in a lift, Grizzly Bear in a bathroom, Beirut in front of a boulangerie, etc) or internationally renowned (like Sophie Calle, who took her boyfriend’s break-up email and gave it to more than 100 women to interpret and turn into an incredible and hilarious exhibition). Politically, it’s fascinating, too. Where else could a President cause headlines and controversy merely by jogging?