Fight Boredom with Canzine 2009!

Holy epic weekend. Shall I begin from the beginning? I spent Thursday night with Lindsay. We went to this excellent little restaurant for a late dinner of veggie burgers and fries and beer, where we were approached by a couple with apparent journalistic dreams. They came and sat in our booth and asked us to name one thing we did that day. I said, "I took a bus from Montreal to Toronto." Lindsay said, "I worked." They made fun of her for having such a boring life (it's cool, Lindsay, I know your life isn't actually boring). They told us that they wanted to ask the same question of all the restaurant's patrons, but they began with us because we were the least intimidating people in the place. After we paid our tab, they moved on to another lovely dining couple. I sort of imagined that they were doing a 24-hour zine just in time for Canzine, but I never ran into them again. Anyway, that was my first of three interviews that weekend. Friday night I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking, partied with the Tripping Hazard people, drank way too much wine and danced with the likes of Frank Zappa, Willy Wonka, The Blues Brothers, Alice In Wonderland (complete with "drink me" bottle) and Medusa.

Then Saturday came around, the day of my very first zine reading! I was much more hungover than I would've preferred, but it was nothing that a four-cheese omelette, home fries and a whole lotta ice water couldn't cure. Jen, Joel and I had a really excellent breakfast at The Pump, then headed on over to the Toronto Zine Library to truly begin the zinester adventures. As my luck would have it, I was the first person to go on. Although I'd practiced several times at home, I had never stood before such a large audience before - I don't know how many people were there, but the room was packed and there were people lined up in the hallway - good turnout! So I stood up, introduced myself as Pippi and began reading an excerpt from issue #20 of Culture Slut. My hands were shaking and I hoped I wasn't reading too fast. People laughed at the funny parts and made sympathetic faces at the serious parts, so I guess I did alright. I got a lot of compliments afterward and was even interviewed by a McGill journalism student, so that was cool. There were more readings by my sister Maranda (Telegram Ma'am), Teri Vlassopoulos (Cement Flour Saints), Chris Landry (Kiss Off), Suzanne Sutherland (My Bad), Jeff Miller (Ghost Pine), and of course, Alex Wrekk of Brainscan and Stolen Sharpie Revolution. The readings were all diverse and well-presented, though, hilariously enough, there seemed to be a running theme of vomit stories going on. I read about my worst cunt exam ever and being queer, Maranda read about bicycle adventures and living in a small town, Teri read about how she first got into zines... It was all pretty excellent stuff. After consuming the last of the hot apple cider and vegan treats, we packed up our things and headed to Victory Café for a zinester celebration. Had a chance to try the pumpkin ale that everyone's always talking about. I must say, it is so nice to be able to sit down with a group of friends and talk about zines without first having to explain WHAT ZINES ARE. Nothing better. Later on, we headed back to Amy's place for a slumber party complete with zinester gossip and Lisa Frank fangirldom. I won several rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors, meaning I was the lucky girl who slept on the couch while the others took the floor. The best part was when Alex woke up in the morning and said, "There are five tabs of Lisa Frank images open on my laptop!"

Finally, it was time for Canzine! The reason we had all descended upon the city of Toronto in the first place. Like most people, I'd had major problems with acquiring a table in the past, so we showed up super early and hung out on the front steps of The Gladstone Hotel until the organizers were ready to let us in. Our vigilance prevailed and we got the best seats in the house - right below the beautiful ceiling-high windows and in front of the bar. It was so nice to be tabling with all of my friends, and to meet so many people. I got a chance to meet some zinesters I've admired for a long time, as well as people that I'd previously only conversed with through the internet and snail mail. It was definitely a very overwhelming day, and I forgot people's names on more than a few occasions, but it was a good time. Sold enough zines that my weekend adventures had paid for themselves, and I traded quite a few as well. Was interviewed by another journalism student - hopefully I'll find all this stuff online sometime! I think the only downside was the fact that I missed Zoe Whittall's reading upstairs. She wrote a really excellent book called Bottle Rocket Hearts, all about a couple of queer girls living in Montreal. It would've been cool to see her, but hey, another time.

I'd already been wearing a Halloween costume for two days, and although I shed it for Canzine, I did go with a theme: typewriters! I wore a typewriter-printed skirt, a typewriter necklace and proudly displayed my typewriter tattoo. A fellow zinester noticed and added a typewriter pin to my collection. Awesome! (Click on photos to enlarge and see captions and credits.)









Left to right: Maranda (Telegram Ma'am), Kate (Riot Wife), me (Culture Slut & Fight Boredom), Amy (twelevohtwo distro), Sarala (Beautiful Mess), Alex (Brainscan & Stolen Sharpie Revolution) and Jeff (Ghost Pine). Big thank-you to everyone who participated in the reading and the fair, all my zine grrrls for being so awesome, everyone who documented the weekend with photos and interviews, everyone who bought my zines and traded with me, and all my long-distance friends who made the time to hang out with me during my brief trip.

What I Got In The Mail This Week: Some excellent zines, including four issues of Doublespeak, Mélange and List #7, letters from Amy and Katie, the latest issue of Bust magazine (Hello, Ellen Page!) and a twenty dollar bill with a note saying, "Send me whatever you can for this!" It was really fun making up a package in reply.

What I've Been Up To Lately: Mostly just feeling overwhelmed and trying to recuperate. I've got a cold, so I'm taking long, hot baths, drinking tea and hot toddies, reading the ridiculous stack of zines I picked up over the weekend and getting my boyfriend to mail out zines for me. A little sad that I missed two French classes this week, but I'll return in the morning and hope that I haven't missed too much. I should be working on my tattoo designs if I want them to be finished by the end of the year.

Fight Boredom in Toronto This Weekend!

I'm getting really excited about this upcoming weekend. I'll be taking the Megabus from Montreal to Toronto this Thursday (holy cheap tickets!) and meeting up with my lovely friend Lindsay from Lindsay for some drinks and good old-fashioned girl-talk. I'm spending the next day with Jennifer Hall, my favourite cotton-candy-haired friend, then attending a Samhain celebration in style - as Pippi Longstocking. On Saturday afternoon I'll be participating in a zine reading alongside Alex Wrekk and some other amazing zinesters (see flier below) at the Toronto Zine Library (upstairs at the Tranzac). I've never actually done a zine reading before and I know that I'll be a little nervous in front of a crowd, but I've been reading my piece aloud to myself for practice and I think it's going to go well. I'm really looking forward to the experience, and to hopefully participating in more readings in the future. I guess reading my zines out loud to an audience is sort of my version of playing in a band, since I've never had the discipline to learn how to play an instrument, as much as I want to.

Of course, the big day is Sunday, when hundreds of zinesters, artists and readers will converge at the Gladstone Hotel for an afternoon of excitement - meeting up with pen pals and zinester friends, partaking in readings by various Canadian authors and of course, buying, selling and trading zines. That's right, it's time again for Canzine. As much as I have problems with their (dis)organization and the general execution of the event, I'm still looking forward to tabling with my new zinester friend Sarala and checking out the wares available. Hope to see you there!



What I've Been Up To Lately: Mailing my zines to places as varied as England, Australia, Portugal and Israel, planning my Halloween costume, drinking white wine, watching a bit of French television, writing my Level 3 French exams, writing lots of letters, putting the finishing touches on my Ontario plans, watching Sebastian sleep in my suitcase, reading The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath and making yummy nachos.

What I Got In The Mail This Week: Lots of zines, including Fallopian Falafel and June Graveyard, plus some Halloween goodies.

Fight Boredom with Queer Girls and Perzines!

Your Pretty Face Is Going Straight To Hell #8 tukrulovesyouATgmail.com
Another lovely zine from Tukru! As usual, she's done some amazing cut and paste work with comics, movie stills, clippings and drawings, as well as hand-rendered and typewritten text. And glorious hand-coloured covers! I'm always excited to get her latest in the mail. This one's a bit of a downer with Tukru writing about her evil boss who makes the ladies cry and her boyfriend recently losing his charity shop job, but she balances it out with yummy recipes, tales of Harry Potter fandom and a list of things that have been keeping her sane - including goat's cheese and The Long Blondes - two things that I love, too. She also included a tiny mini-zine held together by a pink staple. Delightful! I feel inspired every time I flip through a zine from her collection.

Motor City Kitty #13.5 motorcity_kittyATyahoo.com
Bri is another one of my favourite zinesters. You can check out an interview I held with her earlier this year here. This is the latest issue in her series, and a submission for the 24-Hour Zine Thing. She writes about the disappointments within her locally-formed riot grrrl group and trying to talk to the boys who felt left out (refusing to understand that sometimes girls are more comfortable talking in girls-only spaces and that that doesn't mean that boys can't participate in the revolution). As well, she writes about a fling with a co-worker and learning how to say "no" in sexual situations, being distracted by the winter blues and trying to become motivated again. She also includes a copy of the first vegan recipe she concocted after recently discovering that she's got an allergy to dairy products (I can relate - I'm not vegan, but if I drink a glass of milk, I will be in pain for the rest of the day. So, soy milk it is!). Cut and paste, mostly written on a vintage typewriter.

Exploding The Myth #2 kira_swalesATyahoo.co.uk
Kira is a new zinester who's showing some potential. Issue #2 of her half-size perzine is full-colour and made up of drawings, comics, photos and computer-rendered and typewritten text. I think the most interesting part was her piece on her current relationship with a partner who is transitioning from female to male. She wonders what will change when she is no longer perceived as a lesbian or queer girl, but rather as a heterosexual girl, which she isn't. And how she will be able to identify as queer and still feel like she can talk about her experiences living as a queer person and being gay-bashed consistently throughout school. There are definitely some lighter pieces, like a Rebellion Festival 2009 Diary, her love of the East Bay punk scene, an awesome comic about her reaction to the question, "Are you a boy or a girl?" and some super cute drawings of her friends (I'm partial to Daisy's pink dreadlocks, myself). I can really tell that this series is just gonna keep on getting better.

All My Best Work I Do At A Slanted Angle trollgirlcentralATgmail.com
I guess it's been a really good mail week 'coz Bernard?'s zines are among my favourites as well. They made the excellent queer zine series Honey Tunnel, which recently morphed into All My Best Work I Do At A Slanted Angle. Mostly the same style, it's a perzine with a queer angle and they like to write about train-hopping and dumpster-diving with their friends, but I feel like their style has matured. In this issue, Bernard? writes about childhood memories and traveling and consent and pronouns and the way their friends and acquaintances sometimes refuse to call them by their given name. Also included are some book reviews, including one for The Ethical Slut, which I also read recently (and was amazed by). Cut and paste, awesome style.



A beautiful rainbow, as seen from my balcony.

Fight Boredom with Culture Slut!

Culture Slut #19 I guess I would call this something of a "coming out" issue. I write a lot about being queer and how this affects my romantic relationships with dudes, as well as my frustration with the constant assumption that I’m straight. ‘Coz, you know, I’m not. I’ve also included some reviews of excellent queer zines for further reading. Please note, I've written a little bit about abuse, so please keep that in mind and read this zine in a safe space.
Quarter-size, 26 pages, black and white, hand-coloured covers.

Culture Slut #20 This is the latest issue. I write about queerness and (in)visibility, the corporate takeover of Pride, moving from small-town Ontario to Montreal, learning French, riding my bike and being a cat lady. I tell the story of my first period, spread some information about my much-loved menstrual cup and share some more zine reviews with my readers.
Quarter-legal-size, 38 pages, black and white, hand-coloured covers.





Each issue is $2.00 Canada/US and $3.00 International. I also have Culture Slut Superpacks available here. You can purchase these zines at my Etsy shop, Paypal to polaroid.panicATgmail.com or mail well-concealed cash to:

Amber Forrester
10124 Ave. Hébert #8
Montréal, Québec
H1H 3W6 Canada

What I've Been Up To Lately: Dyeing my hair red, baking, hanging out with Sarala, tying a corset for the first time ever, watching Coronation Street, seeing Daniel Johnston live, celebrating my 24th birthday with cheesecake and wine, and preparing for a zine reading at the Tranzac in Toronto (as well as Canzine, Expozine and Halloween).

What I Got In The Mail This Week: Letters from Melissa, my sister and my grandparents, birthday money and a new dress.

What is a Culture Slut?

The topic was raised on We Make Zines recently - Where does the title of your zine come from? I started writing my perzine Culture Slut back in 2004, and named it for a photo of the Manic Street Preachers. Oddly enough, I was never a huge Manics fan. I've enjoyed their albums, sure, but their fans are known as pretty hardcore and obsessive and that just wasn't me. I bought two of their albums, and a friend in England sent me another two albums on cassette, complete with handmade artwork. Very kind of her. I'm not sure why I felt such an affinity with this photo, but something about it always struck me. Maybe because I like androgynous boys, maybe because they're sporting a picture of Marilyn Monroe... But something about those two words together - Culture Slut - it's got a nice ring to it. Sounds like a riot grrrl zine to me!

Of course, this begs the question - What exactly is a culture slut? When Lizzy of Marching Stars Distro gave a copy of my zine to Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame), she apparently exclaimed, "I'm a culture slut, too!" According to Urban Dictionary a culture slut is a person who is obsessed with a certain culture or demographic and claims it as their own. For example: "Ugh that Mr. Miller is such a culture slut! All he does is talk about Germany and how great it is while continuously badmouthing America. Go live in Germany if it's so great there!" In my search for information, I also discovered a blog called Culture Sluts, essays on this generation's raunch culture and photos of Kate Moss, Patti Smith and myself (good company to be in, I suppose). And oddly enough, I found mention of my zine on Library Thing. The page lists Ruth Handler as the author - She was in fact the inventor of Barbie, but her photo appeared on the cover of the very first issue of Culture Slut. Seems the Library Thing user was a little confused.

Me, I've come up with my own definition of a culture slut. For one, it's someone who's totally cool with the word slut. I've written a bit about this in past issues, but much like my love of the word cunt, slut is right up there with "negative" female-centered words that I'm trying to reclaim. I've been called a slut many times (really, what girl hasn't?) and I just think it's a ridiculous insult. What is a slut? What's considered slutty? How many people is it okay to sleep with before you've had one too many and suddenly become a slut? In my books, there's no such thing. To me, a culture slut is someone who does whatever makes themselves happy and doesn't live by society's rules of what is and isn't feminine, proper, ladylike, what-have-you. A culture slut is a feminist. A culture slut is creative and inspiring and gorgeous and badass and wants to change the world. A culture slut knows how to fight boredom. She is her own person, nobody else's.

So what culture am I obsessed with? Zine culture.



What I Got In The Mail This Week: A couple of zines, including All My Best Work I Do At A Slanted Angle and Your Pretty Face Is Going Straight To Hell #8, a letter advising me to stop skipping school and some birthday money.

What I've Been Up To Lately: Frequenting my new favourite copy shop and putting the finishing touches on Culture Slut #19 and #20 (they will both be available by the end of the week), studying French, watching lots of movies (Sylvia, The Experiment, Naked Lunch...), playing with Sebastian, reading an excellent book about open relationships called The Ethical Slut, picking apples and baking with 'em, and making plans for Canzine and Expozine.

Fight Boredom with Periods and Nostalgia!

Minutiae #2 www.aijungkim.com
After picking up the first issue of Minutiae at Aijung Kim's Etsy shop, we wound up working out a trade for her second issue. I sent along the split zine that my sister and I had put together earlier in the year. I loved the first issue, but the second one is even better! This issue chronicles her move from Portland, Oregon to Richmond, Virginia with anecdotes and drawings. I love her style because it feels so much more like a fairytale or storybook than a zine, it really is delightful. She draws images from a dream she had, the plants and birds in her garden and even includes a delicious-looking rendition of a homemade peanut butter cup from her local coffee shop. I want one!

shortandqueer #12: Menstruation, not puncuation. shortandqueerATyahoo.com
As the title implies, this one is all about periods. It's got the story of Kelly's first period, as well as the most recent, which happened during the Queer Zinester Roadshow for the first time in four years, after slacking on testosterone shots (Kelly is a trans guy, if you haven't read previous issues). This brought up all sorts of confusion and memories, hence the zine. The last few pages are dedicated to submitted stories of other people's first periods - including mine. I love reading about this stuff!

I Do Not Want Change pablo_strauss_54AThotmail.com
This zine was put together back in October 2006, but I just came across it recently on the zine rack at Le Pick-Up in Montreal. It's really neat because it's part black and white, part colour and includes Polaroids, drawings, postcards from friends, old family photos and other pieces of visual art. I really like the style. Pablo writes all about change and nostalgia and those old things we love, like typewriters and cassette tapes. The zine kept me company on a bus ride home one rainy evening and I really loved it. He also writes a series called Special. I've only got issue #7 and I'm not sure if it's still in print, but it's pretty cool. I guess I'll have to get into contact with him one of these days...

Sebastian is a zinester kitty!

Fight Boredom with Tutorials, Recipes and French Zines!

Portaging In Purgatory #3 boho.oasisATgmail.com
This is the third zine from Canadian zinester Dorian Shaw and it's as eclectic and interesting as usual. She includes memories of her first crushes and the bedtime stories her father used to tell her, and shares her experiences with yoga, including her thoughts on the death of a person who was a great inspiration within the yoga community. I'm pretty excited about trying out vermi-composting, which is outlined in a tutorial, and using her recipe for peanut energy balls (vegan!). Quarter-size, cut and paste, good times.

Rhetorical #1 blixazinesAThotmail.com
I received this zine in the mail last week as part of a trade and I thought it was pretty neat. I really like Chiara's style, the way she combines her own cute drawings with magazine clippings and text. The content is a little bit all over the place, as is often the case with first issues, when writers are still trying to find their way, but I thought it was pretty enjoyable. She writes about being an introvert in a small town where everybody knows who you are (which I can totally relate to), makes a comic called The Adventures Of Maple & Ginger, and includes a yummy brownie recipe, a short story (fiction?) and interviews with the founders of Cult Cinema Podcast and Cloudberry Records. All in all, a fun time.

Cheap Toys #3 / Social Damage xtramediumATlaposte.net / crazysupAThotmail.com
This one is going to be difficult to review, not because I didn't like it or because I'm feeling uninspired to write, but because the zine is written almost entirely in French. As you may know, I've been studying French full-time for the past few months. Luckily for me, I now have some French zinesters in my life! All the better for my practice. Cheap Toys is a punk rock cut and paste zine compiled by Giz of Beausoleil, France. In this issue, Giz writes about the frustration with seeking out vegan food (a lifestyle that is apparently much less common in Europe than it is in North America) and his distaste of film photography (due to the use of gelatin), includes some recipes from his aunt's collection and writes many zine reviews, including one for my comp zine, Fight Boredom. I was pretty excited to see my first ever French review! The Social Damage half is mostly interviews with punk bands, album reviews and a short comic. I've included Giz's review of my zine below, for interest's sake:

Fight Boredom Compilé par Amber, du zine riot grrrl Culture Slut, c'est tout simplement génial, regroupant par des récits d'expériences vécues, l'amour des petites villes et comme son titre l'indique, tout plein de conseils pour combattre l'ennui. Comme disaient les situationnistes, l'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire.



What I've Been Up To Lately: Baking more vegan cupcakes (this time with dinosaur-shaped sprinkles!), riding the bus instead of my bike because it won't stop raining, planning my Halloween costume, trying to decide what colour to dye my hair next, hanging out with fellow zinester Sarala, playing with Sebastian and sleeping in everyday because David is too cute when he's all wrapped up in a blanket.

What I Got In The Mail This Week: Lots of zines, including I Knew A Motherfucker Like You And She Said..., Minutiae #2, shortandqueer #12 (which includes a piece submitted by yours truly), letters from Tukru, Anne and Maranda and a lovely thank-you note for donating my zines to the Sacramento Zine Library. How thoughtful!