PMS issue 1408

I’m taking a short break from my Fun-a-Day CD reviews to inform you of something you absolutely must have.

Like chocolate and Advil, no PMS spree can go by awesomely without this latest issue of my zine. This is a full color issue featuring photos and stories about my phenomenal trip to Salem and my experience of my first time tabling at a real zine fest in Boston.

If you like zines and spooks, this is the zine for you!

It is now up for sale and for trade.

Check out these awesome pics and tell me you don’t crave this as much as you crave Ben & Jerry’s Cookies n’ Cream ice cream!

Peace, love and can you guess why it’s 1408?

Ecstazine in Messy Mass

October started with my birthday and a trip to Massachusetts for my very first zine fest!

I just came back a couple of days ago and while I’m still struggling with jet lag, I thought I’ll write an entry about this awesome experience.

First, the flight there was much better than expected. My friend and her husband waited for me at the airport and it was so awesome to finally meet them in person! So you see, not everyone you meet online are total scammers and trolls and criminals. Every once in a while, you fall on someone who really is a kickass zinester.

I spent my nine-day vacation at her place with her crazy dog and her big fuzzy cat, mostly making art, buttons and patches and getting ready for the zine fest.

We also toured Salem a bit, checking out some of the Haunted Happenings that Salem is known for around the month of October.

We went to check out Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables. We checked out the Salem Witch Museum. We also went to this enormous art shop where we bought some things for the zine fest. That store was so big and so cool, I almost got lost there.

We also went to see a movie/documentary about the Salem witch hunt of 1692. That movie turned out to be a flop, which is odd, because I think it takes real talent to make a BORING movie about witches. Seriously.

The highlight of the Haunted Happenings was undoubtedly the Texas Chainsaw Musical. Yes, you read it right, Musical! My friend managed to score tickets in the front row known as the “splatter zone”. So the musical, which was funny as hell, and far more entertaining than that movie mentioned above, also left us with a bit of bloody stains here and there. We were wearing plastic ponchos, but this didn’t help people who were in the center of the front row because they really got drenched. If you’re currently around Lynn, this show is running until October 31, so you should totally score tickets to that! Highly recommended!

Another Salem highlight was getting my new tattoo, based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, which I have been planning for about two or three years. My friend’s husband works at Salem Ink and he tortured me for two consecutive days, for five hours every day, and I came out of there in pain but still a happy camper because I now have a totally kickass half sleeve on my right arm. I don’t have a photo of it yet because it’s still peeling and I want to shoot it only once it’s completely healed. But trust me, it’s gorgeous, worth every penny out of the $1000 it cost!

The Boston Zine Fest took place on the last two days of my trip. The first day consisted of a marble-paper-making workshop, a panel about zines as a means of resistance, and a zine-reading. The day started out ok, but slowly, I started feeling a headache coming on, followed by what felt like fever. I had been on a sneezing-and-runny-nose fit for the previous couple of days, but I didn’t think it was anything more than allergies. Turned out I was wrong, and ended up suffering for what felt like an eternity on the first day of the fest. And I was totally bummed out because I was really looking forward to it.

Before heading back to Salem, I bought a pack of cold and flu medication so I could at least have it with me on the second day when I would be tabling and needed to keep somewhat of a healthy demeanor.

The second day was a blast! It was so refreshing to be in a place with a bunch of people who love the same things you do and create the same things you create and who don’t look at you with a questioning expression every time you say the word “zine”.

The zine fest was also pretty elaborate. Aside from the tabling, there was also a screen printing workshop. I got to print the BZF logo on a canvas tote bag and on one of my new tank tops. There was also a photobooth set up for zinesters to take pictures. I sold more stuff than I expected, and traded a shitload more. I now have a huge stack of zines to read and be inspired by all over again.

I will definitely write a zine about this experience which was by far the best zine-related experience I ever had!

I really hope that at some point, the zine scene in Israel will take shape and sizable proportions and perhaps, there will be an awesome zine fest in Israel too! That will so rule.

For now, as hazardous as Jerusalem is these days, I am so happy to be back home. I missed my husband, my dog, my family, my daily routine… And the entire time I was in Salem, I was itching to play guitar, but didn’t have one. So I also missed Melissa, my new Fender Strat, which I love to little pieces!

Peace, love and more shredding coming up!

Boston Zine Fest, Here I Come!

Remember this post? So Boston Zine Fest is now official and so is my participation in it! Well, I haven’t bought the plane tickets yet, but I’m definitely getting there!

The Boston Zine Fest will be taking place in October 10 and 11. I’ll be in Boston and Salem for about a week, tour the Salem streets and sites which will be in full prep gear for Halloween, go to a feminist tattoo shop and get on with my Dark Tower tattoo, hang out with my zinester friend and of course table with her at the fest.

So in preparation for all that, here is a list of things that I still need to do:

1) Make some patches for the zine fest

2) Complete unfinished zines and photocopy the recent 24-Hour Zine one

3) Make some more fliers

4) Pack all that shit and mail a final box to Boston so I won’t need to carry it in my luggage

5) Design Dark Tower tattoo and set up appointment with tattoo shop

6) Order plane tickets, duh

7) Notify family, coworkers and my Salem friend of final dates

8) Check whatever financial stuff for the trip (have enough spending money, etc.)

9) Plan with my friend places to visit in Salem during pre-Halloween festivities

10) Check up on weather conditions in New England in October. I think I’ll need to pack some layers and some winter gear.

11) Last but not least, I should not forget to freak out over all the awesomeness!!!!! So exciting!

Peace, love and hey all you Bostoniers, come say hello!

Split Ends and Split Zines

As my husband was looking into concerts in the various cities we are planning to go to this summer, I was doing the same only with zine events and spots. I found a few zine events in Montreal, but not in the time that I’ll be there. I also found some zine libraries in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, but I don’t know if I should really go. I mean, I don’t know how inclusive these small local places are, and I feel like unless I go with someone who lives there and knows the scene and the people involved, I won’t feel confident enough and will actually feel like an outcast. So I dropped the idea.

Meanwhile, I’m focusing more on the new split-zine I’m working on with my friend (same one with whom I made the Stephen King split zine). A zine about journal entries is something I never considered until she brought it up, although I’ve always thought of a perzine as a sort of a diary. But I totally underestimated the amount of entries I wanted to include in it, so if the split-zine will have an even number of pages from either side, we are looking at a zine of no less than 96 pages!

Ninety-fucking-six, dude! And my husband will have the arduous task of printing it. I wonder if the binding could work out with staples or maybe we’ll have to design a spine and make it into a book. A paperback split-book written and laid out by hand, all about two zinesters’ adventures with journal writing… Goddamn.

But as my friend so eloquently said “We should never limit ourselves.” So if this zine is destined to turn into a book, I guess that this is what will happen.

Peace, love and make like a banana and split

Zine Slut

While I’m getting ready to travel to the other side of the planet in June, I’m also getting ready to travel there again in October.

I thought that I might catch the Philly Zine Fest in June but it doesn’t look promising, but the Boston Zine Fest in October does! In fact, I think my friend already signed us up as tabling there together, which should be nothing short of goddamn fucking incredibly and wonderfully and amazingly EVERYTHING!

As part of my efforts in gearing up for my very first zine fest (I’ll be so happy to pop that cherry) I’m going over all my completed zines of yesteryear. That includes 16 issues of Fallopian Falafel, 10 issues of PMS Perzine (and perhaps one or two more to come before October rolls around), three issues of End of Words, and a few other random one-off publications like my fiction story insert, Diamond’s photobook and the one of my trip to Barcelona, and maybe a couple more I’m forgetting. That’s a lot of zines. And aside from all that, I also want to make some patches for sale, print a few more copies of my Alternative Jerusalem postcards, maybe make a few buttons with my friend’s help, and also throw in some copies of Mistress Distress‘s CD, not to mention about a million fliers and shit.

Clearly, if I print 10 copies of everything, you can imagine I’ll have a heavy load to carry halfway across the world, which is why my friend suggested that I send at least some of it by mail and she can keep it until the fest.

However, I’ll also have to see whether or not all this load will even fit on the table I will be assigned. You can tell I’ve never done this before.

Also, whether I manage to sell any of my stuff is yet to be seen. But that’s not even the point. The mere experience of being in a zine fest, which has been a dream of mine since I started making zines, is the end in itself. Making new zinester friends and contacts, trading art work and publications, giving and getting fliers and maybe even music – this is the experience I want. Selling a few items here and there will only be a nice little extra, but not the main reason for my participation in the fest.

I’m super-doodly-duper excited for it!

So I’m going over the PDFs of the 16 issues of Fallopian Falafel making sure they’re of good print quality and include the bleed. I’ll print 15 copies of each, send 10 copies to my friend (in batches of course because I doubt I can fit 160 zines in a single envelope), and save five copies of each to post on my Etsy shop – Fallopian Falafel fans rejoice!  Any leftover material from the fest will stay in Boston. My friend said she’ll sell it or give it out or leave it in the library where she works and people can check it out. Whatever she decides.

I get feverish just thinking about all the money I will be spending on printing and mailing out all that shit, not to mention the flight fare, but it’ll be totally worth it, as zine and DIY production usually is.

Peace, love and PMS – Power Mensies Sisters: Out for Blood!

All that Glitters Is Gore

My head is on the verge of explosion. And if it does explode, what will come bursting out will not be blood and brains and gore, but rather glitters and confetti and sprinkles. Because I am so goddamn fucking happy right now. And while I was thinking I might just be PMS’ing (because the timing is right) I have some pretty good reasons to be going mad with joy.

Split Zine Coming Together

My friend from the Land of the Witch (a.k.a. Salem, MA) just sent me her part of the split zine we are writing together. My boyfriend is at his office and should be scanning my part of it any minute now. And when I get home today, I will be working my ass off (quite literally because my ass tends to go numb when I sit at the computer for too long) to put it together and hopefully have it printed by some time next week. I can’t wait to finally hold it in my hands and read it and absolutely enjoy every tiny bit of it!

Letter-Writing

Same friend sent me a package saturated with zines and a sweet letter. So once I figure out how to manage my time, or once I feel like my ass is really screaming bloody murder, whichever one comes first, I’ll write back a nice long letter, soaking with exclamation marks and happy faces.

Zine Plans

I think I’ll write the metaphor issue of the PMS zine sometime between my wedding day and my honeymoon. Said events are separated by a little over two months so that should give me plenty of time. Waiting to continue working on this issue only serves to build up my excitement for it even more. So add more sparkles to the glittery fire!

Zine Fest Plans

Yes, you read that right. Zine FEST plans. Israel is seriously lacking in those. And so, since most zine fests take place abroad, and while my boyfriend and I are planning to honeymoon in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Montreal, should there be zine fests in those cities around that time, then I should be there too! And my Salem friend said there’s a good chance of that happening, and if it does, we’ll table together. And if that’s not reason enough to stretch my smile all the way to the back of my head, I don’t know what is! I’m already thinking about making some extra copies of my zines and what to wear on that day, if that day does in fact come.

Video Camera Fun

I recently bought a little digital video camera. And I also got this free video editing program online. Maybe if I figure it all out, I could even make a short film about something. Making short films is the only kind of art I’ve never really experimented with. I’m very excited to try it out, and if it works out, I’ll be singing the Ren & Stimpy Happy Joy song and bounce around to the beat.

It must be noted that, as I wrote some time ago, we plan and God laughs. So I’ll try real hard to keep my glitters contained until all the pieces fall together and I’m actually in the process of experiencing all these extreme-excitement-inducing events. And I hope that if the Goddess is laughing right now, then it’s because She is happy for me and is also planning on making all this stuff happen, and the sparkly confetti can go bursting right out.

Peace, love and twinkle twinkle black star (metal is always exciting)

So Wacken Awesome!

Purple Myrtle Squeegy – A PMS Perzine issue 8 is now published. This issue is all about my Germany trip, the Wacken festival and my tour of Berlin. It is 50 pages long, size A6, printed in full color, featuring lots of pictures, and the regular Twigz comics section. Made by hand, paper, construction paper, scissors, glue, typewritten texts, and some funky backgrounds.

The zine is available for trade and also for sale on Etsy.

Here are a few excerpts: