I came home to sunny Wales on Good Friday, and have been a busy bee since then. I did a lot of gardening this week at my parents’ house – they’ve got a patch of earth at the bottom of the garden which I’ve claimed as my own, and spent a few days weeding it and putting in new plants. It’s now full of lovely green things, such as mint, lavender (blue and purple), rosemary, marjoram, lupins, bluebells, tulips, dwarf daffodils, and a few other pretty plants that I can’t remember. I’ve spent a lot of time eating, reading, gardening and chatting al fresco. I also took my pal Victoria to Eddie Rocket’s Diner this week, a 50s-style American diner. It’s an awesome place, with 50s decor, American-style hamburgers and shakes, and those coin-operated jukeboxes on the tables! I’m a sucker for kitsch.
Zine Update: My zine Here. In My Head. #4 is now being stocked at TWO distros – Marching Stars Distro and Vampire Sushi Distro! I am over the moon about this news. I’ve also done a few trades, and received a few letters. Letters always make me so happy. <3 Speaking of zines, I have a question for everyone: I’d like to start reviewing zines, as I love writing reviews, and don’t know of more than three blogs that review zines. What does everyone think of this idea?
101 Things Update: I failed my challenge to wear make-up once a week – I don’t think I’ve put anything other than tinted lip balm on for at least two weeks. I set myself that challenge as a way of improving my self-esteem slightly – if I make an effort with my appearance, I do tend to feel better about myself for a while. However, putting on make-up seems like too much of an effort when the people I’m with don’t wear any make-up, and don’t care if I’m wearing any. Ah well, it wasn’t much of a goal anyway, and I don’t feel at all bad about failing that one.
I forgot that I set myself the challenge of going a day a month without using my laptop or my TV, and so I failed it this month. I’ve gone quite a few days without my laptop, but it’s the TV part that’s difficult. How tragic is my life that I can’t go one day without a TV? I guess it was quite a hard challenge. Nevertheless, I’ll try to go a day without laptop and TV every month from now on, and I won’t beat myself up if I can’t do it. I’m actually writing a piece about television for the next issue of my zine, so keep your eyes open for that.
I also watched Trainspotting for the first time last week, and as it is at #153 on the IMDB Top 250 Movies, it’s going down on my 101 Things list. Although I loved the film, I felt so bleak afterwards that I had to watch something cheery before I went to bed.
I love blogs that review zines! I think there’s definitely space for one in the UK.
(I can also keep you with a pretty constant supply of zines if you don’t mind occasionally altering them slightly into descriptions that I can use for the distro!)
Ooh, that sounds like an amazing deal! 🙂 I want to write honest reviews that are sometimes positive and sometimes critical, so for that reason I was considering only writing reviews for zinesters who want/request one, in case I offend them by writing something critical – what do you think?
Um, that sounds like a fair idea… although I would argue that if you do have positive reviews to write you should still post them even if the zinester didn’t ask? So recommend zines you come across in other ways?
Having said that, I think if you write a zine and put it out there then you open yourself up to random critical reviews?
(I will organise some zines for you then – would you like me to send them?)
I guess my sister already gave you some pretty solid tips on your potential zine review blog, but I figured I’d just mention a few more things. For one thing, including zine reviews in your actual zine is always a good idea. People don’t do it as often these days as they used to, but I think it’s an excellent way to let people know what you’ve been reading and then they can contact those zinesters if they like. It also means that you get the pleasure of writing zine reviews (if you enjoy it) but without the pressure of having a blog that you need to update on a regular basis (not that you NEED to do anything, but if it’s not updated regularly, it will be very difficult to build up a readership). I can think of at least three acquaintances (tempting as it is, I won’t name names) who have started review blogs this year only to give them up after a month or so when they realized how much work it is. This is a little bit infuriating for me, because it means that they assumed that what I do is a piece of cake. Personally, I enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take up a lot of my time. Whatever your decision is, I wish you luck. Also, I got your mail the other day and will write back soon.
Thanks for the advice – for the record, I’m sure no one thinks that what you do is a piece of cake! I certainly don’t; I knew it would take up a lot of my time, which is why I asked for tips and advice before rushing into anything. I’m too busy to start it up now, so I’m going to have a think about it for a few weeks.
Ooh, I’m glad you got my mail – I can’t believe it took so long to reach you, I sent it ages ago! I guess the ash cloud had something to do with that. :/
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