Got some zines in from Asia of Revenge of the Nerds distro (link currently not working):

Chaos Grrlz is a feminist sxe zine 'for grrlz and boys'. For my distro, Asia sent me a few copies of CG4, which is in English and also a copy of CG5 (Polish).

CG4 has interviews with 3 all-girl SxE bands: Trust (Argentina), Reason to Live (Norway) and Choke Cocoi (Phillippines) as well as with Vienna's Phoolan Devi activitst Kollektiv. Confusingly, the zine turns upside down partway through, and apparently is intended to be split with itself. Having all the sort of things I like, it was my sort of zine for sure. Particularly enjoyable was the international survey asking people why they were/were not sxe, what 'don't fuck' means, etc. Also there's a reprint of a rather good history of straightedge article from the internet. Basically it's a smorgasbord of feminism and sxe.

CG5 is in Polish and contains more stuff better organised and layed out on computer. From what I can make out, it includes music reviews, zine reviews, a sxe Brazil scene report, interviews with Voetsek and Six Pack, a write up of the G8 in Heiligendamm, a piece on Suicide Girls (against, I think), an article on women in Iran and adverts for various grrl zine distros. Highly recommended to anyone who reads Polish.

Marcepan 2 is mostly in Polish but with an English translation supplement. This is a little, personal zine in which Asia writes about wanting to draw comics, the difficulty of socialising in a foreign language, depression (not translated), an illness, reading books about the holocaust, getting over illness & depression & hosting someone who doesn't speak Polish - the story came full circle. A highlight is the story of the writer's aunt who went missing believed dead in Dresden, and an account of her recent visit to the city.

CG4 and Marcepan are old school cut&paste in a v. appealing way with lots of nice images apart from some photocopied photos that didn't come out well. It's all honest, earnest and with a great diy attitude just like all zines ought to be.

The one thing missing from these zines is bike stuff, but here's a distro dedicated to bike zines - Urbanvelo

Total Destruction 4
XDonX, the gay, anarchist/communist, vegan, straightedge lad from Kentucky put out the summer issue of his zine Total Destruction awhile ago and I've read it now. It can be downloaded/read here: http://www.impassionedinsurrection.info/pamphlets/td4.pdf
In this edition, Don seems to be feeling socially/ideologically lonely and a bit sorry for himself. Like previous issues, this is word and heavy on theory and this one includes reflections on anarchist direct action, being friends with marxists and hating leftists and wanting to 'slit their throats'!? Something/one called Monsier Dupont kept being referred to, and unless I read to quickly it was never actually explained. Don also reprints an essay by a 1930s US left activist on the futility of revolutionary movements because of the conservatism of the proletariat. So a sombre tone to this issue then. It's a ranty one that gets the brain going. Don is hoping to get new radical/queer penpals.

XTDX 4 made me think a lot about what works and what doesn't in the cause of revolution. In Maximum RockNRoll's 25th anniversary issue, Lefty Hooligan wrote that he stopped being an anarchist (20 years ago) and has now stopped being a communist (after 20 years) because both ideologies have failed. He pointed out that anarchism is now 200 years old (counting from Godwin, which I don't think is justified), and since in all that time anarchists have not succeeded in their goals, we never will.

What I believe will never succeed at this point is a mass confrontational uprising against capitalism, and this is because 1. capitalists are so overwhelmingly powerful and 2. mass movements are so prone to internal weaknesses like factionalism, personality cults, corruption etc. as well as 3. being undermined by their enemies. At any rate, there is something patriarchical and top-down about revolution by force, and since the means create the ends, could that possibly create the society we desire?

I think the traditional anti-capitalism/authoritarian movements have failed to realise their goals because they started with ideology and not with what makes a good life. Yes, it sounds like the same thing but the difference is that the latter begins with personal action - one person living as she wants everyone to live. By setting this example, one person can be a concrete example of a revolutionary who succeeded. Good examples always influence other people (though not of course every other person), and both inspire and create more favourable conditions for the pattern to continue.

Collective action makes the process above more effective, but the mistake to avoid is the collective itself becoming the goal: 'carry on recruiting'. In fact collective action with the sole intention of winning hearts and minds is less effective than art. Artists are far from perfect, but they are prophets even if not intentionally. Anyone from the punk scene knows that a great music performance can change lives and boost or even create a social movement. This is another reason it is vital that music not be co-opted by capitalism, but that's for another essay.

Positive social change progresses like a virus and is brought about by individual action, art, and collectives that support the other two.

Here endeth the lesson.

Here's more stuff from that zine fest at the Women's Library
Chronicles of a Cheating Heart 5- elrestodemivida's new one looks exactly like her previous ones, and this is a bit of a problem for a distributor since at first glance anyone would assume they have read it before. In number 5 she gives us some info on the experience of bulemia as well as the link to her upcoming comp zine - http://uk.geocities.com/fearsome_hunger_zine. Kitty also reviews a poetry open mike night in Liverpool, defines her idea of feminism, talks about her current mental, emotional & physical health problems, gets angry about celebrity cokeheads who claim to be bipolar and she slags off straightedgers in the meantime for some reason. Alli in all, it seems Kitty is having a particularly difficult time at the moment. A quick read for someone in the mood for someone else's angst.

Up Yours - Got this one from Ricochet Ricochet! Distro. UY is a little square zine with a fluffy inverted triangle on the cover evidently symbolysing a vagina. The minizine starts off with 'names for your vagina' including 'fuzzpock' and 'hoohoo' which were new to me. Later on are two pages with names for periods. Every page has some odd and cutey type-written vag-related thing on it including Britney's vag shot. If you don't mind that it takes about 2 minutes to read the whole thing, it's worth it for the silly fun. My favourite bit:
<i>protect ur vage with a rape alarm or something sharp you only get one vagina and it WONT grow back</i>

The Tea & Sympathy Postal Network 4 - Also from RR! Distro, this is a v. mini zine that comes in a little brown envelope and individually numbered. The folded up piece of yellow A3 inside also contains a teabag (organic blackberry). This is a mad collage of drawings, scrap images, written and printed words about tea, how to dress when working at a school, what she eats at school for snacks, the emotional meanings of her music collection and various other interesting & well-written bits.

Get Bent (zine, cd & badge) - From RR! natch. Fun queer music from the likes of Gertrude and a fun board game about setting up a queer cafe to play with before getting into the zine itself which is a good size and printed in dark pink on beige paper - v. elegant.

Other updates:
- Yesterday was spent in Clacton during a gale, so my hair is full of sand
- I just watched Battle of Algiers for the first time
- I can't login to my ftp to edit my site dammit
- Great news has come via the Greenwich Cyclists email: teh ebil Thames Gateway motorway Bridge has been scrapped after intervention from the likes of the London Cycling Campaign and the Greens..
- Today I baked a scone recipe found in the internets and they turned out much better than the previous recipe I tried so here it is:

Blueberry Scones
    •    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
    •    3/4 cup quick-cooking oats
    •    1/2 tsp. baking soda
    •    2 tsp. baking powder
    •    Dash of salt
    •    3/4 cup sugar
    •    1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, softened
    •    2 Tbsp. lemon juice
    •    1/2 cup soy milk or rice milk
    •    1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (be sure to thaw them if frozen)
    •    Preheat the oven to 400°F and grease a cookie sheet lightly with margarine or oil.
    •    In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
    •    Add the sugar, margarine, lemon juice, and soy milk or rice milk and mix until just combined.
    •    Stir in the berries and gently mix. Do not overmix!
    •    Drop the dough in 6 or 7 circular clumps on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.

OK another reason to love Flock - it saved a draft of this post when my laptop mysteriously restarted itself .

I also love the band Dahlia Seed more than ever. They v. kindly run a documentation website from which every single thing they've ever recorded including some studio stuff & live sets can be downloaded free. There are THREE versions of the awesome Statement of Purpose on there. I wish I could sing like Tracy. If only every punk band that ever did a 200 pressing vinyl release of their only 7" or whatever could be archived on the internet like that.

Here are some zines I picked up at the zine fest the other week:

Subtext Magazine 3 - it's a glossy A4 one that I think is aiming to be pretty regular and like a proper magazine. This third issue is still pretty sketchy though with some content that's pretty poor and v. boring layout - straight across the page, centred in places etc. I imagine they didn't get a great deal with the printing either since the price is £3 not including postage. It starts off with feminism-relevant news, which I find useful though this is done better and more up to date at thefword. There are actually three articles about Suicide Girls, and the first two were so badly-written/ideologically shite that I wanted to give up on the magazine, but the last one by Laurelin is by far the best piece in this issue. The rest of the mag was ok overall from then on, with an examination of the media portrayal of the Sussex prostitute murders, a mini-autobiography of an androgynous woman, and an excellent interview with Beth Ditto that was good enough to counterbalance the rubbish bits of this issue. I know that doing a proper magazine is a huge challenge, so I wish them luck.
www.subtextmagazine.co.uk

Never Grow Up - a documentation of the Fag Club Weekend in Cardiff last month. Riot Grrrl types have a tendency to put together ropey cut&paste zines during/just after their events, and this is the best zine of that variety I've seen. There's lotsa androgynous camp in this. The events are just listed and somehow this gave me more of a flavour of the event than a gushing 'I saw so-and-so play and it was amazing' review. The zine is short but includes a potted history of The Fag Club, interviews with some of the performers and  an announcement of the launch of the 'UK Feminist Forum' which I cynically expect to sink without a trace, but in case it doesn't the link is there. The zine may possibly be gotten from www.fagclub.net, but I got mine from www.ricochet-ricochet.co.uk.

Girls Rock UK - this is really an advert in zine form (8 sides A5) for a new project setting up a rock music camp for girls and another event for women in the UK sometime next year. The site isn't up yet, but in the meantime there's this.

Ricochet Ricochet 6 - ZINE OF THE MONTH. This is from 2 kids who also  distro  run Ricochet Ricochet distro and are a couple of dead nice friendly and supercool vegan kids. This is the funniest zine I've seen since the last Pamzine. It starts off on the title page with a few inexplicable statements including 'all our boyfriends are racist rapists aka vice magzzz'. Well, LOL! Also inside are reviews of some local falafel joints (they are in the South London massive) and my favourite section - a list of 'Good Vegans' (people they like) and 'Rubbish Vegans' (people they don't like eg. 'perve' Moby!! Their distro is ace and includes zines such as 'Vaginas in Turmoil' and 'Constantly Pregnant' which is described as 'hot photos of hardcore boys'. Hurrah for R-R.

Last night I went for the first time to the Sunday Night Adventure Club - a monthly comedy event run by Josie - a fab feminist girl who's a professional comedian. I picked up the new issue of Josie's zine:
Drawing moustaches in magazines monthly magazine whic has a v. riot grrrl aesthetic - handwritten, cut&paste, silly pics & words from silly magazines etc. There's lots of fun stuff and also a list of inspirational artist women. Contributions come from several of Josie's comedy chums. It's similar to her club nights, in fact. At the end is a tribut to her gran who died last year. Recommended & possiby a collector's item someday, or something.

Zine reviews end here

( Now that HeartattaCk is coming to an end )

I am certain there is a direct correlation between the destruction of Spitalfields Market and the total twatification of Brick Lane, and once I figure out what that is I will write it down.

Summer has come in like a lion. Today I was back on the bike and that felt so wonderful I started contemplating riding way up across Tower Bridge to work while the foot tunnel lifts are closed. I've picked up a new swimsuit because I've not had a proper one for about 3 years. It's white and lacy.

Pony For Now 2 Little zine made from a single sheet of double-sided A3 folded. There is of course not a great deal to read - an article on listening (or not) to headphones in London that I liked a lot and the rest was indie music-related. The editor's outlook is enjoyable and it is a good little one cup of tea read, which is all that was intended. ponyfornow@googlemail.com

Immigrant Zine 3 was given to me at the London Zine Symposium. It is from Greece (!) and is half in Greek and half in English. Very good production quality - nice printing and with cool drawings - one for each cover! In English, this issue has a piece by a Mexican American on some of the problems of drugs & racism on the Mexico/US border, interviews with Swedish band Smalltown, No Respect (Germany) and a very interesting Latvian scene report that reminded me I want to go over there.
They've got a website in lotsa languages: http://www.immigrantzine.com, and they've put full pdfs of their back issues on there as well as the English version of the Zegota interview from issue 3. It is wonderful to see such a well-done zine project going strong in 2006.

Last weekend I had a nice meet up with Saxon Wood (- ex GAndALF defendent & former Amnesty-listed prisoner of conscience). I've not seen him since I interviewed him for Synthesis 5 in...1999?! He's still vegan straightedge. Awesome. Here's his current band: http://www.happybastards.net/ And he told me about a sxe band with a girl singer touring here from the US this summer: http://www.iobject.com

In other news, the ^%&%$%^£ North lift at the Greenwich Foot Tunnel is not working for SIX weeks, so I'm taking the train to work rather than injure myself carrying a bicycle up and down those ruddy stairs. Consequently, I'm getting lots of reading done...

( zines )

Very behind on teh ( Crimethink0rz )

Here are some zines I’ve had a look at:

( Reviews )

The new issue of Slingshot zine has a good article about 'punk' porn websites and I'm including the text here
( behind the cut )