New Zine – Letters To A Sister

Hey kids,

It’s been about a year since we last posted on this blog. I’m sorry if you’ve tried to contact us or have been checking back but a lot of things happened just after our last post which has meant that the fetus and I have kind of disappeared from zine making and trading. I have though just finished a new zine which is pretty much about this disappearance (from my end at least)

 

Letters To A Sister, A5, 36 pages, bw & colour

So this is the zine. It has a colour cover and centrefold (not that kind!) and is pretty much a personal zine written after the death of my little sister last February. I’ve given some to Sticky for the 2012 Festival of the Photocopier (see below for details) and some will be going out to Take Care Distro but other than that I guess it’ll be a pretty small run. It has been a tiring year, and I feel as though the energy I had when I first started writing zines is pretty rapidly dissipating. If you want to trade though, please email tinypapermail@gmail.com for my address (the PO Box expired while I was overseas and I was too late to renew it). I’ll be checking the email address again, I promise.

xx Amanda

Zine School Update

Quick update about Zine School that is happening this Thursday 15th April at Wollongong Youth Centre

Zine-making is about creativity and self expression. Come along to ZINE SCHOOL for lectures by zine-makers who illustrate, write or collate; learn about their creative process, and be inspired by their work. There will be the opportunity to sit and browse through zines at the zine library, or go to a zine tutorial to work on something of your own and workshop your ideas.

Current lecturers include:

AMANDA BAIRD
CARLIN MCLELLAN
JESSICA-ROSE HARDY & BODIE JARMAN
and I’m guessing although it hasn’t been stated MADDY PHELAN AND LICKY THE CREAM (Natalie!)

I’ll be heading down to cheer on Amanda and I may even sneakily film her. I guess if she stabs me one day, I’ll know why.

Anyway, point is, if you have thursday free, come on a lovely train ride with us and get schooled.

Event thang here

Is there going to be a MCA Zine Fair in 2010?

I’ve been getting a little anxious as the time for the MCA Zine Fair draws closer and closer without a word about it anywhere. So I went directly to the source and I am happy to announce that the MCA Zine Fair will be on again this year.

For those who haven’t attended before it is usually a pretty crazy busy day, but what a fun crazy busy day. With over 40 stalls of zine makers, trades become like the stock exchange, minus the suits and stocks. Not only does it draw zine people from all over NSW into one spot for the day, it brings our lovely interstate zine peeps!

So, I have been informed that all we have to do is just be patient, that call-out e-mail will come. If you aren’t on the MCA mailing list, it might be a good time to subscribe, alternatively you can subscribe to our blog and you won’t miss a trick.

Pencil the details into your diary:

MCA ZINE FAIR
Sunday 23 May, 11.00am – 5.00pm

Take care, more info when we know
Fetus

Festival of the Photocopier and other fun times

Miraculously, the first zine trip made by me and the fetus to Melbourne went remarkably well. Her artwork was installed without a hitch, despite some unexpected flooding in the Degraves St subway on Thursday, and is up til the 27th February if you’d like to have a gander.

 The finished artwork!

A giant thanks to Melissa Reidy who organised the exhibition, everything looked amazing and the Friday night opening (or what we remember of it) was filled with good times.

 Opening night

We may have also been a little bit overexcited following RZA’s signing at Wax Museum Records opposite Sticky earlier that afternoon and, personally, I thought the impromptu skateboarding challenge that followed lent an interesting flavour to the night. Keep an eye out for a series of zinemaker interviews conducted that evening for Channel 31 (of which Mary-Helen was one of the interviewees) – we’ll put up a link when we get more information.

Last minute photocopying, folding and stapling aside, the zine fair on Saturday was a bit excellent – made more excellent by deliveries of food and homemade ice-suckies to our table. I much prefer indoor zine fairs anyway, I often find the trade-off for non-zine people foot traffic when outside is unpredictable weather wreaking havoc with your zines.

And contrary to the photo above, the zine fair was still incredibly busy with lots of Melbourne and interstate zinemakers filling the subway.

 

Above is our table, you can just make out the felt doppelgängers made by Mary-Helen.

 

Look at all those zines! There’s nothing like fluorescent lighting to bring out the best in people. Thanks to everyone who bought off or traded with us, and once again massive kudos to the lovely people at Sticky for organising and setting up the fair, especially considering that they seemed to be constantly sandblasted by the forces of nature. Also, we don’t have a photo of the Melbourne Tramways Band but they were truly excellent.

I also left some of the new zine Sutures at Sticky at the end of the night, so it is now available from there and from Etsy.

Ok, that’s it!

x amanda

P.S. To the girl who indulged my rant about Pee-Wee, thank you, you made my night.

New zine – Panacea for Loneliness #4

I mentioned to a friend yesterday that if it wasn’t for the stress of impending exams and essays, and subsequently an increase in my procrastination activities, I’m not sure whether I’d ever get around to writing zines. But considering that it’s the end of semester, and despite all intentions otherwise, I’ve managed to watch enough interesting films in the last couple of weeks to inspire a new Panacea for Loneliness.

A6, 20 pages, black and white

I wasn’t particularly aware of it whilst writing this zine but this issue contains some of the stranger films I’ve seen lately –  from The Piano Teacher to The City of Lost Children; from Wings of Desire to See the Sea; from Repulsion to The Vanishing. 

I’m going to send it out to Sticky on Monday, otherwise it’ll be on Etsy or as always available for trades.

x amanda

Somewhere between a fail and a win.

Fellow night owls and/or morning sparrows,

I tried to write a 24 hour zine today [yesterday] and realised, 3 hours into the endeavour, that I’d made a huge mistake. The subject I’d chosen was too large, and far too close to my heart, to whip out in a mere 1440 minutes. Not to say that it wont get written, just that it wont get written by tomorrow [today].

In lieu of that zine I offer Panacea for Loneliness #3 as my contribution to the International Zine Month.

A6, 20 pages, b/w printed on graph paper

It contains the reasons why I love my VCR and Love and Other Catastrophes, comparisons between myself and Martha Plimpton in 200 Cigarettes, why you should watch Pee-wee’s Christmas Special RIGHT NOW and my thoughts on the glorious J.G. Ballard/David Cronenberg/James Spader sandwich that is Crash. And more.

Available at Etsy, Sticky or via zine trade to:

P.O. Box 392

Newtown N.S.W. 2042

Australia!

Ok, it’s now almost 3am. Done and done.

x panda

New zines!

Greeting and salutations!

More zine trade updates to come, but first a quick post about some new zines that we’ll have available at the MCA this Thursday as past of Creative Sydney’s LO-FI AND LOVING IT: NEW DOGS, OLD TRICKS night. Bird in the Hand zine distro will be representing with a bunch of Sydney zines including Panacea for Loneliness #2 and Newdel and Rose [which were both available at the MCA zine fair last month] as well as Ampersand after Ampersand #2, which is hot off the press this weekend.

All three were also hand delivered to Sticky on Saturday [if you’re not in the Sydney area], where I took the opportunity of testing the C3100 photocopier and let me say, AMAZING.

A little something about the new zines…

Newdel and Rose

A6, 38 pages

Our little caped adventurer Newdel is back again! This time Newdel sets out making his own special friend to spend his days with dancing, pretending and star gazing. Let’s hope the friendship never ends.
DISCLAIMER: Keep your tissue box close.

Panacea for Loneliness #2

A6, 16 pages

This little followup to the original Panacea for Loneliness is more of my musings on scenes in films that I like.  This cinematic mixtape includes contemplating the similarities between Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Monte Carlo biscuits, the behind the scenes shenanigans on What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, how Blue Velvet has inspired all my dance moves and things I learned from Don’t Look Now and Bad Education.

Ampersand after Ampersand #2

A5, 24 pages

This is another personal zine inspired by my decision to quit the call centre that I’ve previously referenced in the Epitaph for my Heart series. Includes events that propelled this life-changing [for the better] decision, my take on the etiquette of resigning from crappy jobs, the aftermath of quitting and the politics of office ‘theft’.

Plus we’ll also have a new mini zine called Four Eyes For Life available for free!

So here are the details:

Where? Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay

When? Thursday 11th June from 5:30pm

We’d love to see you there, it should be an excellent night!

x panda

MCA Zine Fair wrap-up

Greetings to new and old readers!

MCA Zine fair 2009

Yesterday was the MCA Zine Fair and it was an amazing day. We’d like to thank all who came and didn’t face plant us into the marble pillars, not that we expected anyone to do that, but who knows what is possible these days. Thanks for trading, buying and having a chat, we really appreciate the support, especially from all the people who had found us previously online via etsy or madeit and came to say hello.

MCA Zine Fair 2009

Amanda and I were both pimping a new zine at the fair which will be available at our online store(s) during the week.

We got some excellent trades which we will blog about during the week and let you know where to get them from if you didn’t already get the at the zine fair.

Keep your eyes on your rss feed because we will be updating about lots of upcoming zine events in the near future.

That’s it!
El Feto

Adelaide you got it going on…

Hello there intrepid travelers!

So after much procrastinating here is our rundown on the 2009 Format Festival in the lovely city of Adelaide.

After arriving on Friday the 13th at an indecently early hour, we convened at 145 Hindley Street for the Zinester Walking Tour where we were informed of several dubious facts regarding Adelaide’s founding fathers, visited what has been statistically proven to be Adelaide’s most terror-inducing alley and witnessed several excellent zine launches by the likes of Maddy Phelan, Simon Gray, Joel Catchlove, Luke You and Dave Roche.

Saturday found us setting up for the zine fair with other local, interstate and international zinesters. Here is a blurry and underexposed photo taken by yours truly.

And a better photo taken by the fetus.

Grump cats on tour!

We had many excellent trades that day so thank you to everyone who stopped by our table, the fetus and I agree that it was one of the best zine fairs we’ve been to.

Later that night was the Bikes, Camera, Action! film screening but we arrived late and, having grossly underestimated the public’s appreciation for short films about cycling, could not find any room to sit.  However other reliable punters gave it two thumbs up.

The Academy of DIY was held on Sunday and started with a blogging roundtable at 11am with Angela from Literary Minded, Gerard from Celluloid Tongue, Lisa from Vignette Press and Kelly Gentle – interesting questions and excellent conversation! Later the fetus and I made wallets out of Bonsoy cartons, hung out for a panel on Independent Publishing that was informative and inspiring, munched down on strawberry and lime cheesecake and vegan eggnog prepared by the talented Pixie Stardust from Vegan Ambrosia and spent the afternoon relaxing on the couches and listening to some handy fashion hints from the Style Council panel. Not to mention the Gender Studies All Stars panel and the girls from the Adelaide Roller Derby! All in all, a pretty awesome day.

And that’s it! Thanks to everyone who organised or was involved in Format, we had an amazing time and it was well worth the flight to South Australia. Definitely more interstate zine trips to come.

x panda

smARTarts 2009

smARTarts Youth Arts & Cultural festival is on again this year and its sure to be a blast! Last year Amanda and I manned a stall at the festival and had a wonderful time. This year we will have another stall and I (fetus) will also have some artworks in the Exhibition (Opening night is Wednesday 25th March 6-9pm)!

We’d love you to come along and say ‘hello!’ Find the details below on the flyer.

The Art market day will occur on the Saturday 4th of April. There will be stalls overflowing with wonderful handmade treats, live music & other entertainment, food and workshops for you to get your hands dirty in! 

Hope to see you there!

Fetus