Get your zine on

Hey you guys!
Feeling sad that the long weekend is almost over? I know I am. Don't have a long weekend? That's balls. Well now you have something to look forward to, something to write in your diary and circle. Something to put into your iPhone as a reminder (does that exist on an iPhone? I don't have one). Something to tell your friends about so you appear hip and happening and maybe a little bit dangerous (not really, the only thing dangerous about paper is a paper cut. IN THE EYE! It happens).

Zine Fair! In Canberra! At CCAS! Come!

To my knowledge most of the stalls have been taken by eager zinesters, including (but not limited to) Sticky Institute all the way from Melbourne and local zine distro Little Beats. Which is great as that means CCAS will be overflowing with ziney goodness, so you should pop on by and check it out. I definitely will be (because I'll be helping out...but I would be there anyway! Promise).

Sunday and Pushkin

I Loved You
Alexander Pushkin (1799 - 1837)

I loved you;
even now I may confess,
Some embers of my love their fire retain;
But do not let it cause you more distress,
I do not want to sadden you again.

Hopeless and tongue-tied, yet I loved you dearly,
With pangs the jealous and the timid know;
So tenderly I loved you, so sincerely,
I pray God grant another love you so.

*sigh*

Summer Reading List

I love making lists. Who doesn't love making lists? I love making overly ambitious, lengthy lists just so I can fantasize about the delicious feeling of smugness I'd be overcome with if I could tick even half of the tick boxes hand drawn next to every item on my list. The lovely thing about lists, though, is that just writing them down feels like an achievement; a declaration of intent.

Thus, here is my achievement of today, a picture of all the books I'd like to read this summer:


From top to bottom:

James Joyce - Portrait of the Artist as Young Man. Me Mam's favourite book. Figured I'd better indulge her. Plus visions of grey Dublin might keep me cool in the oppressive summer heat. Maybe?

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five. One of me Da's favourite books, apparently. He was way progressive.

Nick Cave - And the Ass Saw the Angel. Bought this after seeing the very wonderful Nick Cave exhibition at the National Library. I'm a big fan of his music, and he's an amazing lyricist, so it follows that this should be good, right? Plus, not just anything gets defined as a Penguin modern classic. I also really want to read his new book The Death of Bunny Munroe. It pretty much has the best premise ever.

Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children. I loved Shalmilar the Clown. Loved it. But have been too scared off reading this book by others who've attempted it. Still, it's the Booker of Bookers. I think I can handle it. Magical realism is also my new favourite genre.

Helen Garner - The Children's Bach. For my 'Australian' themed book club rotation. I thought Monkey Grip was brilliant and gritty and beautiful, and this has far more universal acclaim and is exquisitely short.

Murakami - Dance Dance Dance and Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I went on a bit of a Murakami binge a few years back before I went to Japan, but never got round to reading these two. After Vanessa's last post I figured I aught to give them a go.

Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road. I talk about this as if I've read it, making references to my life, to 'buying into the lie', etc. But I haven't. I haven't even seen the movie. Probably should do something about that.

Gerald Durrel - The Talking Package. He's pretty much the most delightful writer of all time, and after the aforementioned, I might be in need of some delight.

Andrew McGahan - Wonders of a Godless World. Also for the Australian book club rotation. Am reading this at the moment. It's pretty unlike anything I've read before, almost like a fantasy book for children in its simplistic use of language but much much darker. Intriguing.

Not even pictured is Julia Child's My Life in Paris (sounds like the perfect holiday reading, no?) and Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey, also for book club.

What's on your list, poppets?

Perfection

A perfect summer* evening ~ drinking a gin & tonic, sitting outside in the garden, reading a good book.

* I realise it is still technically Spring, but the weather tells me otherwise!

Zines! Zines! Zines!

Buckle up Canberra zine lovers, Little Beats Zine distro is launching! Tomorrow!
Little Beats is the brainchild of two delightful Canberra girls (Katy & Gemma) who love zines and want you to love them too.

At the launch there will be a bunch of zines (about 30!) from overseas and interstate, as well as works by talented local zinesters. Prices range from FREE (totally my favourite price) to approximately $35, but when you are purchasing a handmade masterpiece price hardly matters. There is a huge variety and I think everyone will find something to float their boat.

The very charming and helpful Katy has provided me with a bit of a run down of some of her favourites from the zines available. So now I plagiarise her writing to give you all a bit of a sneaky peek, so to speak. What lucky readers we have!

Wooooo Mag ~
From NY, printed and bound like a novel. Interviews with musicians, artists etc. Really crazy style of writing, incredibly funny.

Lines on Paper ~
Collected images from artists all over Australia and put together in a pretty little A6 bound book. It's the dream thing you could find in your pocket really.

Love is my Velocity Cookbook ~
From the Love is my Velocity collective in Perth, this is the second edition of their cook book. All recipes are from Perth bands and all accompanying artwork is from Perth artists. There's over 40 recipe cards in the book and it's amazing.

Mashanda zines ~
These are from San Francisco and are easily two of my favourites. You, Sir are a Hottie, is teeny tiny and looks at all the babes in an encylopaedia. Guys I would Totally Date is the other from her, and it's all sketched images of some of the funniest but commonly seen men on the streets.

Dilettantes and the Heartless Manipulator ~
Spurzine in Melbourne got a PO box and started getting strangers to send him mix tapes. He writes his "non-reviews" fortnightly and they'll be restocked regularly. He's pretty brilliant actually. TOTALLY FREE.

Elkedearest ~
There are three editions from Elke, Everything's okay I drew this for you, I'll hand it to you and Pictures of people we have not yet learned to look at. She's from Canberra, they're teeny tiny but hold some incredible artwork inside them and are only $1 each.

Little Beats launches tomorrow at Grass Stains 2, at itrip iskip. As well as zines there will be bands, art and fashion and hipster kids. Should be a lot of fun. It all starts at 6pm. Maybe I'll see you there?

Little Beats will also have a permanent selection from now on at itrip iskip and Smith's Alternative Bookstore. You can also find them here.

Poster designed by the very talented George.
All other images from Little Beats.

69 Love Drawings

Thanks to some hardcore face-stalking (thanks Tara), I fell head over heels in love with How Fucking Romantic, an AMAZING blog that illustrates the wonderful Magnetic Fields album, 69 Love Songs. IT'S JUST SO GREAT! My favourite song illustration is 'Absolutely Cuckoo'.

Happy Saturday lovely people.

Crush

So I have a new blog crush, Taghrid. I only discovered this blog today, so it may be a fleeting crush, but we'll see. She is giving me the much needed inspiration I am missing. Desperately missing actually.


Have you got any blog crushes you would like to share? I love new reasons to waste time!

Lazy Line Painter Jaimie

These Cat and Girl comics are probably my three favourite web comics of all time. I'm still crazy busy with uni and work, but promise to write a substantial post soon. I've been told to lift my game.

Enjoy, you crazy hipster's.

Street style favourites

You can call me sad, but...I die, I die, I die...

Garance Doré and Scott from The Sartorialist are coming to Australia! They are two of my all time favourite fashion bloggers/street style photographers and if you don't know them you definitely should.

Scott Schuman and Garance Doré

It's not like they are coming to Canberra, but it is still kind of awesome just to know they're in the same country. Like I said, sad.

The Dangling Conversation

Emily Dickinson by Mark Siegel

Hope is the things with feathers,

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm,

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson; Hope is the Thing with Feathers.

Good Friend, Yr Hunger- Castanets.

Maga fun

Some tasty magazine tibits for all those money poor lovers of the magazine out there.



Now, lets get something straight, I really love magazines. They are shiny, they have pretty pictures, there are words and sometimes they come with free stuff. What's not to love? Most unfortunately there is a sharp thorn in my rose of love for magazines and that thorn's name is Money. Horrible stuff, gives you herpes. But, lo and lets not forget, behold, there is an alternative. What is it you cry? You scream and beg to know. Well dear ones, it is the online magazine. Admittedly not as cool as its close relative the zine, but nonetheless it has many merits (one of them being that I can link to them on this here blog).

Now, I am going to be honest with you all because I feel we are becoming closer, becoming friends even, and one should never lie to friends (unless of course it's absolutely neccessary. For example, you ruined your friend's dress they oh so kindly lent you by somehow covering it in black, tar-like marks, possibly caused from rolling around on the road...). Honest moment: I may have taken all these links from other blogs, ek. Therefore, some of you may actually already be familiar with these magazines, but if not, enjoy!

Sesame A lovely Australian mag with some beautiful photo shoots and pretty interesting articles. I particularly enjoyed the spread about people's favourite items of clothing/accessories and what it means to them. Hasn't been updated recently, but definately worth a look.

prim. A new magazine, only on its second issue, but I love it. Has style profiles of 'normal' people, cute articles on music as well as fashion. I also found from Style Bubble (where I discovered this mag) that the editor is only 14! Man, I have to accomplish some shit. Pronto.

Panda Head Crazy but cool layout. Took me a while to work out how to navagate the mag, but I'm pretty sure that has a lot to do with me and my retardness...

Also, I just had an idea. If anyone has any favourite magazines they wish to share just pop a link into the comments and we can all pass on the magazine love.

Did someone say reality TV?

So I have realised that I have not posted for, well forever. I can't even remember what my last post was even about. Hmm, not noodles (i have eaten noodles, though not as nice as Julia's looked), not house (i wish), I guess it must have been good though (right? right).

As an escape from my many, many essays I have decided to recommend a book to you all. And when I say recommend I mean tell you about a book I just read that may or may not have been trashy.



The novel is OUT, by Natsuo Kirino and is about a group of four woman who work the night shift in a boxed lunch factory, one of them kills her husband and the others help her (for money) to dispose of the body by chopping it up. Everything that follows is how they deal with the event and how it changes them. They also manage to slight a casino owner/Japanese gang member/psycho and basically it all goes to shit after that. Like I said, may or may not be trashy, but I did really enjoy it. I choose to think of it as slightly less trashy because it is Japanese and therefore makes me feel like I am sampling the cultures of the world through the medium of literature and thereby gaining much knowledge.


Now I would like to share with you something that is most definately trashy, but so amazingly awesome. A TV show called "Ladette to Lady". Oh yes, ladette. to lady. Already sounds amazing, right? right.



I came across this gem of reality tv while I was flicking channels the other night after watching Harry Potter and avoiding my essay. I have to say, I could not believe my luck. The premise of the show appears to be; take a bunch of chav girls who like to drink a lot, sleep around and shake their fake titties and make them wear tweed while teaching them how to transform from a ladette (is this really a term people use? who cares, I plan to use it. a lot) to a lady. There are also pearls, cads and sexual etiquette classes (!) involved. best. TV show. ever? I'm starting to think so.