International Zine Month started on July 1 and instead of writing about my progress every day, I decided to post a weekly recap to detail my activities in the form of journal entries. So here is what I was up to this past week.
July 1: CanaZine Day
I was going to read The Happy Loner by Canadian zinester Izalixe Straightheart while I was at the doctor’s clinic this morning, waiting for the doctor to call me in. But as it happened, the doctor called me in right as I took my number. Soon after that, I went home to eat something because, goddamn, I was so fucking hungry. Now I’m at the office where I found a stack of work waiting for me. I’m still in the process of closing the month of June and sending out bills and invoices for the month of July, and I realized that I may not even have time to do any zine-reading at all.
But I did it! And I’m glad I did! I won’t write a whole review about the zine right now (I’ll leave that for July 25) but one small thing I will say is this: At some point in the zine, Iza slightly digresses from their main topic to discuss the difference between the word “toque” and “tuque” and how much it frustrates them that Anglos keep using the former when actually meaning the latter. And that is just like EVERYTHING and I’m so happy someone finally said that! I always use the word “tuque” and never the word “toque” when referring to a winter hat. I even use that word in Hebrew and pronounce it with an Israeli accent (which sounds like “took”). And of course, nobody but my husband understands me, but I don’t give a rat’s ass. But I have seen/read Anglos using the word “toque” and I kept wondering if I was getting it wrong or if they’re just stupid because, like, hello? Tuque is a French word and you’re like totally misspelling and mispronouncing it! So thank you, Iza, for pointing it out. You rock, and so does your zine… and your tuque!
July 2: Zine Rewind
I read Overthrow the Status Quo by Nyxia Grey which is a zine about making zines. I already wrote a review about it back in December of 2017 when I read it for the first time. Back then, it came at just the right time as I was way too busy taking care of my baby daughter to be doing any kind of zine-related activity. But this zine inspired me to make an effort anyway, and today, as I was rereading it, it had the same effect, again! So, getting super inspired and super pumped, I started writing my work-in-progress zine for this month, issue 16 of Purple Moon Spawn, focusing on the alternative activist life in Jerusalem. I barely got through the intro to the zine when I started feeling all the excitement I usually feel whenever I create a zine – a sense of elation and pure joy that you feel to the core, a sense of floating across a star-filled sky and never wanting to come down. I haven’t had any of those feelings since January when I wrote my last issue of PMS Perzine, and man I missed it!
July 3: Teach someone about zines
Yesterday, I was awake since fucking 5 a.m. and went to sleep at night only at 2 a.m. The reason is the Disturbed show that my husband and I went to see in Rishon. It was fun as hell, but it also meant being tired as hell today, which I am. I didn’t think I’d be able to stay awake and alert long enough to get any decent writing done at the office. But, again, I surprised myself, and wrote a whole bunch of stuff. First, I wrote a blog post about the Disturbed show. It was so amazing, I said even if it’s got nothing to do with IZM, I need to write about this. After that, I wrote another article for my work-in-progress zine, and the product came out so powerful that it actually made me cry. So yesterday, when I wrote in my WIP, I was so fucking happy I couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. And today, it made me cry. And it wasn’t tears of joy either because the article I wrote is about Jerusalem Pride and there are many painful themes in there. I added a trigger-warning to this piece.
On to today’s prompt, I decided to teach my daughter about zines. When I brought her home from daycare, I laid a plastic tablecloth we never use on the coffee table, took out her glitter paint and brushes, stapled a few A6 pages together and let her paint all over the pages with reckless abandon. She eventually decided to do some finger-painting which turned into hand-smearing work as well, so she got all nice and dirty just as I had intended. She had such a good time with it, she didn’t want to stop. It was time for her bath but she would have none of it and went right on smearing paint. It took a promise of candy and a threat of giving her pizza dinner to the dog to get her to stop and take her bath. But I was so happy to see her having such a good time!
As part of the crash course on zines, I told my daughter “Now that your zine is done, you need to give it a name.” She couldn’t come up with one so I gave her a few ideas.
“It could be the name of a cat or a dog, or your favorite color, or your favorite song. Anything at all.” So she promptly said “MICHAEL JACKSON!”
I said “Great! What’s your favorite song of Michael Jackson?”
“There’s a place!” She said (referring to “Heal the World”). Wonderful name for a zine!
I hereby give you samples from There’s a Place Zine by Edi Bear:
July 4: AmeriZine Day
I work the afternoon shift on Thursdays so I thought I’d have all morning to get some writing done, but then I had errands, then I had to cook dinner, then I had goddamn dishes… so yeah. I’m at the office now. I went on Google to find some American zines by marginalized people, but none of them really appealed to me. I mean, I didn’t find many, and those I did find, I never heard of. When buying a zine, I always prefer reading a review of it first by another zinester, so maybe I’ll hold off on my research for a while. Besides, I want to get some writing done and not spend my entire day on the computer.
July 7: Zine Pride Day and Zine Distro Appreciation Day
I just placed an order at Sea Green Zines Distro. I ordered BUJO – A Bullet Journal Zine and Brainscan 33 DIY Witchery – An Exploration of Secular Witchcraft. Since Nyx had already sent me a few zines before which never arrived, I decided to go for the more expensive shipping method with the tracking. So I blew a nice and hearty $50 on my order. But I’m very excited for the zines I ordered. Reviews will come later.
Today, I read an LGBTQ-related zine as part of Zine Pride Day (officially, it was yesterday but I was too busy sleeping my weekend away in Be’er Sheva). I decided to read Whatstheirname – More Adventures w/o Gender by Julia Eff. Julia is neutrois, which is a gender identity I never heard of before. Their zine is powerful and painful and inspiring all at once. They talk about the struggles they face in society as a neutrois person and describing feelings and experiences boldly and eloquently. I really loved the in-your-face flavor of their writing and style. The layout is wonderful, though the script is rather small, but the message is potent.
Personally, reading zines by LGBTQ people is important for me because as a straight cis woman, I often feel blinded by privilege and am completely ignorant of the struggles that non-binary and LGBTQ people face on a regular basis. Reading such zines helps to make me a little less blind and a little more sensitive to these issues. I’m always learning and want to keep learning in order to keep an open mind.
Peace, love and IZM kicks so much ass, on with the prompts!
Get messy and follow the bleeder: Like my page, PMS Mess!
♀ Riot Grrrl ♀ בישראל 
What an awesome week! And exhausting. Haha. I’ve only ever seen it spelled “tuque” and only ever heard it said by a gamer I watch where you can craft tuques in the game. I had no idea there was so much more to it.
It’s great to read about the fun and inspiration you’ve found in reading zines. And thank you again for ordering from me. The tracked shipping goes up to 500 grams, so I’ll be able to sneak in some extras. 😁
Thanks a lot for the extras in my order! I hope that sending it via registered mail actually does the trick and I get the package soon 😀