Guest blog: a break-up letter to Doctor Who

Dear Doctor,

I never thought I’d write this letter but I’m left with no other choice. To get to the point: I don’t think we should see each other anymore. This was not an easy decision and it’s definitely one I’ve been struggling with for some time but you’re just not the Doctor I fell in love with, you’ve changed so much and I just can’t keep living in the hope that you’ll change back to the man you used to be and stop pissing me off.

I still remember the day we first met all those years ago back in 2005. You burst into my life and it was love at first sight, how could it have been anything else? You came out of nowhere and suddenly my life had adventure, fun, excitement and danger and our weekly dates were something I looked forward to and will always cherish.

After a few months you thawed and became a different man. You still had the charm and charisma you had from the start but now this was accompanied with a cheeky smile and less of a dark persona. Sure, you still had the scars and depth you’d been carrying for some time, but you now seemed to embrace life more and took each day with a fun-loving swagger. With a flick of your coat you’d take me on more weekly dates and the adventures took on a whole new aspect. Your ‘survivor’s guilt’ seemed to all but diminish, you were outgoing and joyful.

Years went by and I was happy. Things were fantastic! There were ups and downs, of course there were, it would be ridiculous to assume there wouldn’t be. But we weathered every storm and kept on going. You were still prone to moments of dark introspection, but you didn’t let yourself get too preoccupied with them.

But then you changed again. I hoped it would be ok and we’d just go about our adventures like we always had but things just weren’t right, something was a little bit off. Ideas would appear and rather than coming together neatly, there were loose ends everywhere. Things that could’ve been interesting and clever became either convoluted or totally forgotten about. Your character would swing wildly from one extreme to another, bouncing from one grandiose speech to another. The adventures stopped being ‘fun’. Rather than have a companion who was resourceful and could’ve easily gone on and had a life of fulfilment even if you hadn’t crossed paths with them, you’ve seemingly become obsessed with companions who were puzzles, rather than being equals and friends they were just mysteries to be solved.

But now… You’re *literally* not the man you used to be. When you said of your current companion “… the mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a skirt that’s just a little too tight.” You made my skin crawl. You wouldn’t have said that in 2005. You wouldn’t have said that in 2006. I don’t think you would’ve even said that in 2010. It was a horrible and creepy thing to say. Even if you’d said “skirt that was just a little too short” that would’ve maybe just been a phrase that revealed a slightly prudish side to your character, you are quite an older gentleman after all. But no, you said “tight”. This said to me that you’ve been looking at your companion with more than friendly or loving eyes, you were looking at her and reduced her to a sex object. Something to be lusted after. Your puzzles and mysteries aren’t just for solving anymore, there’s now a hint of sexual side to it which is just vile. It almost suggests that there will be a level of sexual gratification when you do solve the puzzle.

So I’ve decided to move on. I won’t be with you on your adventures anymore. I wish you could appreciate just how hard and upsetting this is for me, I’ve adored you since we first met and cutting you out of my life won’t be easy. You might change again at some point in the future and we could feasibly bump into each other, but for now I think it’s best if we go our separate ways. I hope you can one day rediscover yourself and find someone you can travel with and have a mutual respect for, someone who doesn’t need solving.

Your friend in time,

D.

—

This is  guest post by my partner Daf Turner!  Daf is a VFX artist, writer, and sci-fi geek.  You can follow him on Twitter or tumblr.

Upcoming gigs, & a few of my favourite things.

Exploring the abandoned bunkers at Pembrey Country Park..

GIG NEWS – I’m performing this Friday (April 19th) at The Masons Arms in Llanelli, 7.30pm onwards.  Details about the event, including location, can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/320683288034616/

I’m really nervous, but also quite excited.  It’s going to be fun.  I’m also performing at the Uplands Tavern Open Mic on Monday (April 22nd), 9pm onwards. Details here: https://www.facebook.com/TheUplandsTavern

Would be great to see some of you guys there!  I’m trying to get over my nerves and remember that this is what I want to do, and that my life will begin outside of my comfort zone… it’s still scary though.  The more people there to woop for me, the more relaxed I’ll feel

Anyway.  Here are some other things I’ve been getting up to recently!

Writing

Check out my last blog post if you haven’t already – on owning your ideas, and sharing your voice.  I didn’t think much of the blog at the time as it didn’t have a neat conclusion, but it was my most popular blog this year, and a lot of people really identified with what I wrote.  I do recommend you read the comments (for once!), as some of my friends had some interesting things to say on the topic.

I’ve also submitted something for my friend Kat’s Stephen King fanzine, and am starting up a new project subtitled ‘Feminist Perspectives on Harry Potter’ with my best friend Kirsty! More details about the HP zine to follow.

Reading

Finally read Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter this month, and really enjoyed it.  I do recommend it as a good basic overview of raunch culture and the social construction of gender roles.  I’ve currently got 2 books on the go - Woman Hating by Andrea Dworkin, and House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski, both of which are fast becoming favourites of mine!

I’m constantly buying cheap Kindle books at the moment – I used to be a bit ‘meh’ about kindles, but I’ve since been totally converted!  Recent Kindle reads include Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Carrie by Stephen King, and Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

I’ve also been reading lots of zines, and making my way through the pile of zines amassed at Sheffield Zine Fest!  Check my most recent zine reviews here.  I’m currently reading the latest issue of Doris (pictured above).

Watching

My partner has a Netflix US subscription, so I’m currently drowning in endless TV shows!  At the moment I’m rewatching all of Doctor Who from the 9th Doctor onwards (Eccleston is my favourite), and occasional episodes of Adventure Time.  Other TV shows on my ‘to-watch’ list include BSG, Arrested Development, The Office US, and Parks and Recreation.  I should probably watch Angel at some point too – despite being a die-hard Buffy fan, I’ve never actually watched any episodes of Angel! Shame on me.

Wearing

I often think I should take more photos of my outfits, but the only full-length mirror in my house is in an awkwardly small bright room so photos always turn out really badly.  Here are some of the few pictures I do have of my recent outfits:

Listening:

I’ve joined a Rock of Ages-style function band (currently in rehearsals), so have been listening to the movie OST this week.  I actually think Tom Cruise’s voice is alright; the same can’t be said for Russell Brand or Alec Baldwin though, ha.  I’ve also downloaded Tegan and Sara‘s back catalogue (instead of listening to them on Spotify all the time as I used to) – current 3 favourite albums are Heartthrob, Sainthood, and If It Was You.

On “owning” your ideas, and sharing your voice.

This blog post has been languishing in my ‘drafts’ folder for 18 months or so now.  I couldn’t work out what I was trying to say.  I think it’s about time I published it though.

Over a year ago, I got an email from a distro with some critical feedback for one of my zines.  The basic gist of it was that, although I made some interesting arguments, I made no attempt to “own” my ideas; instead, I prefaced everything with “I’m not sure about this” and “I’m still working this out“, and similarly cautious statements.  This, he argued, took away any power that my words had.  I hadn’t really considered that before, though as soon as I read the critique I knew that he was completely right.  I thanked the distro owner for the feedback, but kind of forgot about it soon after.

Then, a few weeks later, I read a very critical review of the same zine, which also touched upon that critique, adding that it annoyed him how I kept referencing stuff instead of actually writing about it by making statements like “I could talk about…”, ”…I can’t write about [it] publicly…”, and “…maybe in a later issue…“.

(On reflection, I found the whole review overly-critical and nitpicky, and it upset me for the rest of the week – I’m too frightened to link to said review in case you all read it and think, “Ah yes, he’s so right, her zine is actually a load of rubbish! I’m never buying a copy again!“.  Ack, I know I’m just being overly-sensitive.  I guess I felt the review was tactless… and I’m the kind of person who knows that critical feedback is important, but when confronted with it experiences a knee-jerk negative emotional reaction. I’m working on that.)

Moan over… these comments got me thinking about how I so frequently doubt myself and make qualifying statements whenever I write/say anything that might be construed as vaguely debatable or controversial.  Yes, whenever I write, I stop short of making any bold claims, hold myself back, stay safe – especially when writing about feminism, which is sadly still seen as something debatable and controversial (there’s a lot of hostility even between feminists - but that’s an entirely separate can of worms).  I think it’s because I know so many feminists who are much more eloquent and well-informed on feminist theory than I am, and I’m so afraid of making a poor argument that will get torn apart.  I’m afraid that people will laugh at my primitive attempts at a systematic argument, and I’m afraid that they will lose respect for me if my writing or my verbal contributions in debates are poor.  At least if I preface everything I say with “I’m still working this out, I don’t really know what I believe“, then people may cut me some slack.  Otherwise, I find myself unable to speak out at all.

I hadn’t considered how refusing to own my ideas removes any impact my voice may have, makes it more moderate, gentle, and inoffensive.  How stereotypically ‘feminine’ of me!  And why should I conform to the idea of how a woman “should” speak – cautiously and always open to being swayed by others?  Why can’t I speak loudly and proudly, even if I don’t have everything worked out exactly to the last detail?  I want to be able to say: fuck it.  This is what I believe. This is what I want to do. I don’t care if you agree or not, and I don’t care if I’m wrong.

But I can’t.  Even writing that feels uncomfortable for me.

Then again… maybe I’m being too hard on myself here.  After all, I am unlearning an entire lifetime of enforced shyness and demureness (little girls shouldn’t be brash and arrogant, but dainty and sweet!  Any obnoxious behaviour was punished and I was swiftly put back in my place, whereas my shyness/cuteness was often rewarded by the adults around me, even in my late teens; I have memories of frequently being called “a little lady“).  Perhaps it’s ok to be cautious at first, as I take steps towards being stronger and more confident?

*sigh*  This blog post doesn’t have a neat conclusion, I’m afraid.  I’m just having a bit of a ramble really.

Fatigue, and occasional happiness.

Where does the time go?  I can’t believe Christmas is only 12 weeks away.

The last 2 months have been strange – I’ve had the occasional burst of happiness, perhaps one day where something good will happen, with long periods of drudgery, exhaustion, and inactivity in between.  I’ve had to put Spill the Zines on an impromptu hiatus because I just haven’t had the time to update it, and unfortunately I can’t find anyone who wants to help out, so I’m struggling with running the whole thing at the moment.  I’ve been trying to find the time to put together ‘Pandora Press’ #4 for about 6 weeks, and only today have I finally finished it.  It’s not even a big or a difficult job, but it just took ages for me to find the energy to sit down and DO IT.  I’ve had to take breaks from the Artist’s Way program I’m doing because I keep putting off my morning pages and my writing exercises.  I feel I’d be cheating if I didn’t adhere to the rules properly, so I’ve had to keep redoing weeks instead of moving on to the next week.  I’ve only read one book this month.  I haven’t written any new lyrics for weeks.  I’m averaging one bass practice per week.  One!  I should be playing every day!

I’m trying to remind myself that full-time work IS tiring, and that it’s okay to be unproductive during the hours outside of my job.  I still feel pretty guilty about how little I’ve achieved recently… though I suppose it depends on how you’re measuring ‘achievements’.

Hm. I feel as if I’ve written this before.

So, the best thing that’s happened to me for ages was UK Feminista Summer School 2 weeks ago.  Caitlin and I ran a workshop on ‘How To Set Up and Run a Successful Feminist Group’ at Summer School, I was so proud.

It was something that came together at the last minute, and we were woefully unprepared (mostly due to both of us being so busy with our full-time jobs).  It could’ve been better, but I think we did remarkably well considering the circumstances.  I’m very proud of Caitlin and I.  When I attended Summer School for the first time last year, I never would’ve thought that I would be leading my own workshop a year later!  Of all the wonderful things that have happened this year, this would have to be in the top 5; my confidence has increased tremendously thanks to this.

My next big event is feminist club night REVOLT in Coventry on 13 October.  It looks like a very exciting night, with riot grrrl music, spoken word acts, and zine stalls.  I’m doing a zine reading (probably from HIMH #7), and have a stall there.  Come along and have a drink with me.  RSVP here.

In other news, I bought a car last week!  It’s a beauty.

I desperately needed a car due to the poor public transport in my area – my office is 25 minutes away from my home, but the public transport is such that I have to catch 2 separate buses, which usually takes 2 hours.  I umm’d and ahh’d for MONTHS about what car to get though.  I eventually decided on a brand new car – even though it’s much more expensive than a second-hand car, I was sick of being so stingy with myself and having so many forbidden joys.  So I did something a bit reckless for the first time in my life and bought myself something extravagant that I really wanted.  I’m delighted with my decision.  It runs like a dream, and I feel so happy to have given myself such a lovely gift.  I’ll save loads of time now that I don’t have to wait around for public transport, so hopefully my productivity levels should pick up.  I’m also going to make more of an effort to get some exercise in; that should help my fatigue a little.

Summer 2012 Project: Keel’s Simple Diary

As my recent blog entries may have indicated, I am becoming more proactive and productive, setting aside time and energy for creative projects, music writing, zine-making, and self-care.  And about time too!  After years of defining and redefining my responsibilities, and worrying about my low productivity levels, I finally feel as if I’m moving in the right direction.

One negative consequence of this is that I have found myself struggling to regularly update my paper journal.  I’m an avid journal writer, and have been ever since secondary school.  I like being able to work through my thoughts on paper like that, and I love the way a completed journal looks, with its greyed edges and bulging pages.

All the diaries and journals I’ve ever kept! The oldest is from 1997.

(As an aside, I prefer to call my collected thoughts a “journal” rather than a “diary”, as a diary sounds as if I write every day about the mundane details of my life.  In fact, I only ever write when something significant happens in my life, e.g. making a new friend, or when I need to do some “brain admin”, e.g. working out how I feel about a particular issue.  A journal feels more open-ended than a diary.)

My lovely friend Hannah bought me Keel’s Simple Diary for my birthday last year, which I have been writing instead of my paper journal for the past few months.  Each page features a slot for the date, a short description of one’s day, a pithy aphorism written by Keel (I think these were supposed to be inspiring, but I found them to be kinda hokey), and some writing prompts and lateral-thinking questions.  I liked how structured each page was; it was a good way of getting me used to sitting down at my desk every night to write something.

Here are a few of my completed pages (some parts have been blurred out for privacy!):

Here. In My Head. #10 now for sale!

Finally, Here. In My Head #10: The University Years, is out now!

£1.20 UK / $2.00 International

It’s 40 pages, half-sized, with a thick paper cover tied together with a pretty ribbon (the ribbons are all different colours; if you have a preference, let me know and I’ll send you one in that colour)!

Inside, I write about living away from home, academia, making friends, the Students’ Union, and graduation.  It’s mostly a collection of stories about my experiences, but there’s also some practical advice for students and would-be students, and lots of lists.  Perzine writers love making lists!  I’m really happy with how this issue has turned out – definitely the best issue of HIMH so far.

You can buy a copy via Paypal – just send £1.50 (£1.20 for the zine, plus 30p towards postage) to blatant_blitheAThotmailDOTco.uk.  It’ll also be on sale at Vampire Sushi and Marching Stars distros by the end of next week hopefully, if you prefer to buy your zines through them.  Or you can trade zines with me, though because this issue is so big it’ll have to be selective trades only.

By the way, did you guys know that July is Intenational Zine Month?  Alex Wrekk, the lady behind IZM, has posted a list of 31 ways to celebrate, a challenge for every day.

I haven’t had the energy to do all the challenges, but I will be doing a few, including making a 24-hour zine!  I’m hoping to complete the zine next week; I’ll keep you posted.  Join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #internationalzinemonth!

Things I Should Be Doing

by Lizzy Stewart – http://lizzystewartdiary.tumblr.com

Things I Should Be Doing:

- Making my bed/unfucking my habitat

-  Catching up on my appalling backlog of emails in my numerous email accounts

- Learning ‘Very Superstitious’ and ‘Moves Like Jagger’ on bass

- Maintaining my vegetable patch:

- Starting to put together the next issue of ‘Pandora Press’

- Writing in my diary

- Writing zine reviews for Spill the Zines

- Working on the tenth issue of my zine – it’s been in the pipeline for over 6 months now!

- Exercising

- Clearing the unread items in my Google Reader

- Writing music

- Finishing my big pile of on-half books:

 

Things I Am Actually Doing:

- Attempting to read the entire internet, starting with TVTropes.org (if you were planning on getting anything done today, I suggest you do not click that link)

- Looking at pretty pictures of Tom Hiddleton on tumblr (another addition, along with the rest of The Avengers main cast, to the “people my vagina would like to be friends with” list)

- Writing crappy blog posts like this one because I need to update my blog with something already!

—

Sorry guys, I’m working longer hours at work and am struggling to function like a normal human being by doing more than just work, eat and sleep.  To make up for my uselessness, here’s a funny cat picture:

What I’ve been up to this fortnight:

Protesting with the SFN girls

 - Marched at Million Women Rise for the first time
An awesome day – read my photo report here.

 - Wrote another column for The Girls Are
This one is all about procrastination.  http://www.thegirlsare.com/2012/02/16/girl-with-a-guitar-procrastination/

 - Baked cupcakes with my mum, and got in touch with my inner child:

 - Co-organised and attended the joint Swansea Feminist Network/Swansea Women’s Centre International Women’s Day event
This was a fantastic day – you can read my review of the event at the SFN blog.  I bought a knitted womb from one of the SFN girls, and when I showed my mum and auntie they loved mine so much that they asked me to buy them one each too!

Knitted womb!

 - Finished building my new website!
Take a look, it’s awesome.  Built thanks to the technical wizardry of Waj.  www.catherineelms.co.uk

 - Took Toby for long walks on the beach, and took my favourite photo of Toby ever:

 - Went veggie for a week
A blog post documenting this experience will be posted soon!

 - Published the third issue of Pandora Press! 
I kinda rushed this issue a little bit so I could get it ready in time for the International Women’s Day, especially the artwork, but overall I’ve had lots of positive comments about it, so maybe I’m being too hard on myself.  It’ll be stocked in Marching Stars distro from next week onwards, or you can pick up a copy at any upcoming SFN event.

Gigs, shifts, and lost productivity.

I haven’t updated my blog for such a long time – I’ve been hella busy with my new job.  It’s going really well, and I love working there, though I’m still struggling to get up early every morning – I used to lie in until at least 9am, now I have to get up at 6am.  My body hates me right now.

As expected, working full-time has meant that I’ve had to devote far less time to my hobbies and other commitments.  Before I worked, I could quite easily take on lots of tasks, arrange to go on various trips, etc – the only limitation was financial. Now I have far more financial freedom, but not enough time!  I couldn’t attend Reclaim the Night Cardiff last week due to a late shift, and haven’t been able to see the SFN girls as much as I usually do.

This weekend I tried to squeeze in lots of stuff, and just about got away with it, though I’m not sure if I could manage it again.  On Friday I performed at the Swansea Feminist Network Music Fundraiser!  The gig was good; I wasn’t very happy with my performance, as I got quite nervous on the night and my nerves resulted in a number of mistakes on the piano. I got lots of positive feedback, so perhaps I thought it sounded far worse than it actually did.  The gig was also my first social outing with my new hair, and most people agreed that I actually look better with brown hair. What do you think?

Ali Morris wrote a great review of the night at Swansea University blog The Siren.

The following morning (6 hours after I got home the night before), I travelled up to Nottingham to visit my friend Rose and attend the Nottingham University Prizes and Awards ceremony (I won an award for the work I did for the Women’s Network zine “Artemis”!).  I had such a lovely weekend, and the 5-hour train journey was totally worth it.  On Saturday we watched some live female comedy at Ladyfest Nottingham, which was lots of fun.  I particularly liked Naomi Hefter, musical duo Lindsey & Catherine, and interactive comedy group The Gramophones, so do check those acts out if you’re interested in fun female comedy!

The weekend was awesome, but I’m not sure I can sustain this level of activity.  I’ve already had to turn down Reclaim the Night London this weekend, as I’m so tired from a week of work that a day in London would just make me ill.  (I bet those of you who work full-time will scoff at my weakness – I’m not used to timetables and getting up early to do things, I’ve spent the past 3 years either studying at uni, or on JSA!)  While I’m sad that I won’t be able to donate as much time to my side projects, I feel good that I have a job, and have some money coming in.

But I have managed to get a few things done:

• My first column for The Girls Are went up last week!  Take a look and comment: http://www.thegirlsare.com/2011/11/11/girl-with-a-guitar-1/
• I was featured on womens literature blog For Books’ Sake on Friday. I’m really happy with how this one turned out! http://forbookssake.net/2011/11/18/five-minute-friday-catherine-elms/
• Spill the Zines – November zine reviews: http://bit.ly/uTV7wr

Hopefully my productivity will get back to normal once my body has adjusted to my work schedule.  We shall see.

 

Some thoughts on feedback in the zine scene.

I’ve been thinking recently about feedback in the zine community.  I’ve released two zines since May – issues #8 and #9 of my perzine Here. In My Head. –  and have had no real feedback for either, apart from my zinester friends telling me they enjoyed reading it (which is lovely and greatly appreciated, of course, but it’s not necessarily constructive).

As someone who used to be incredibly sensitive, I was terrified of any sort of feedback.  No news is good news, I figured.  It’s my personal little thing, I don’t want anyone poking holes in my silly little writings (though some zinesters did anyway, but that’s another story).  But now that I’ve got my spark back, I’m feeling more ambitious and have grown a slightly thicker skin, and I want to improve my art.  I know that my zines are still not as good as they could be – perhaps they never will be – so I’d like to know what’s missing, which bits are interesting and which bits aren’t, which aspects of the visual style work and which don’t, why my zine is or isn’t listed among readers’ favourites, why some distros order my zines without ‘sampling’ a copy first and why some still turn me down – basically, how I can improve as a zine writer.

That’s the main reason why I started Spill the Zines – there seem to be a lot of people around who are enthusiastic about zines, who devour piles of stock from their favourite distros, who order zines by their favourite zinesters as soon as they’re released, and who trawl the internet for zine reviews (that’d be me!)… and yet, there isn’t much discussion of zines online – not many websites dedicated to zines that stay active for too long.  Of course I can think of a few overseas that are (Broken Pencil, Zineworld, and Hello Amber spring to mind), but most of them seem to be paper-based (which is a pain when you’re from a different country, and skint like I am), or dying out a little (e.g. We Make Zines).  I also hear from many zinesters that they don’t get much written feedback from their readers anymore, and that they miss that connection.

Some people are reluctant to be too critical for fear of offending the writer.  I know that us zinesters tend to pour ourselves into our work, so much so that you can’t detach yourself entirely from your zines, and the subsequent criticism.  We’re also often perfectionistic, and rarely have a great deal of self-esteem.

There’s another argument that I’ve heard with regard to feedback – zines are meant to be a mode of self-expression, not academic essays, so being critical is uncalled for.  A zine isn’t something to be improved upon, it’s just the outpouring of your mind.  And I definitely think that many zinesters write zines because they need to share their stories.  Nonetheless, feedback is still good to hear, even if you want to avoid the critical route and just write something like “I identified with this part in particular”.  It’s good from a writers’ perspective as we like to know what our readers like and dislike.  It’s also good from a personal point of view, to know which parts of our stories resonate deeply with others, and to know that we’re not alone.

Having said that, I think it would be naive to think that people who write zines don’t care what people think of them.  There’s always a certain element of pride involved in creating your own little bit of art. Who wouldn’t want to know what people liked and didn’t like about it?

Maybe there should be a disclaimer in one’s zine – “I like feedback, positive and negative”, or “I write this for me, I don’t care if I’ve made mistakes or it’s messy or whatever”.  I don’t know.  I haven’t really reached much of a conclusion with this ramble… I never was any good at providing answers to the questions that float around in my head.  Still, some things to think about.  And of course, I’d love to know what you all think.  Do comment on this blog entry and let me know your thoughts – even if you think I’ve got it all wrong and am just not looking hard enough for people to write about my zines.

Also, I’m tabling at two upcoming zine fests – Sheffield Zine Fair and Camden Zine Fest.  If you see me at either, do come over and say hello, and let me know what you think of my zines, or just zines in general!  I love talking about zines – let’s do it together.

Note: I’ve also been struggling with these feelings with regard to my music career – why I rarely get any feedback or enthusiasm for my music. But I am, unfortunately, putting far more effort into my zine career than my music career at the moment (mostly due to confidence issues, but also because making zines is easier and cheaper than making music) so at least I can hope that if I were to put more effort into my music, then I’d get a little more attention.  That’ll change as soon as I get a job and can afford to buy the supplies needed to gig!

—

On an unrelated note, I’ve been writing in a few different places recently -

The F Word: review of Lady Gaga’s album Born this Way
I’m on the F Word! Yay!

Spill the Zines: Zine Resources
Where I discuss the benefits of using Zine Wiki, We Make Zines, and other online resources.

Spill the Zines: Birmingham Zine Festival, From Behind the Table
A review of BZF as a zinester tabling at the event.

Electric City: Review! Porcelain Black – This is What Rock and Roll Looks Like
Formerly of Porcelain and the Tramps fame, I review Black’s latest single.