Zines by a.a.s Group, Lizz Lunney and ATTA girl
On Thursday night there was a whole host of cultural events going on in Birmingham. The one that I spent most of my time at was the All You Can Eat Zine event at the Sunflower Lounge hosted by Gallery Of Owls.
Since last year they’ve been regularly making atheir own zine, the GZEAN. Soon after An Endless Supply appeared and from the amount of zines available last night it seems like there is a small, but dedicated zine culture in Birmingham, which is definitely inspiring and reassuring for people looking to start their own.
The general price range was about £2 for a zine, which seems fair. Taking a flick through you could take a guess at how some were produced. For example, you could see that An Endless supply is made on computer with desktop publishing software (and possibly the a.a.s Group zine) whilst ATTA girl and GZEAN are clearly put together by hand. In a way it’s reflective of how times have changed and access to tools increases and learning curves to use software decreases.
There were also a few performances. First up was Richard Peel who did an adaptation of Dracular in about 10 minutes. The two actors mimed to the vocal track which really did make it funnier!
The next that I saw before I had to leave was Pez on drums. He had ambient music going throughout the speakers which he drummed along to. In a rather experimental twist he’d sometimes hit his guitar with his drum stick which worked quite well. Have a look and listen for yourself.
(The sound didn’t come out as expected, but I like it more for that reason)
Going to this event really inspired me to start up a zine again. Midge was right in saying that you can sometimes overthink yourself out of doing a zine and part of it is just getting up and doing it.
Watch this space!
2 Responses to “All You Can Eat Zine”
Just pondering on the significance of how a zine is produced:
I think the method chosen is an important part of what you are communicating. We use a typewriter and cutting and pasting by hand because we don’t want a highly polished look. We want something rough and packed with information/expression/encouragement. Something that says “It’s ok to make a mess, to make mistakes” having a go and expressing is the important bit.
That’s not to say that we wouldn’t make a zine with In-Design/ other publishing software. Personally I’m a CS junkie and it would be so much quicker (picture late nights of typewriter and tip-ex, fingers covered in a mash of pritt-stick/ink/tip-ex/fluff(?))!
But ATTA girl is about empowerment and freedom to express. Detaching its production from a computer screen and the restrictions a non-direct (/non-hand-to-paper) medium can impose, is part of that articulation of freedom.
The mistakes and mess are the human bits that support the ponderings.
MESSY MESSY MESS MESS sink your hands into poster paint and write D.I.Y across the magnolia wall of life! But don’t forget to wash your hands before supper x
Yours Very-happy-to-find-a-burgeoning-zine-community-on-our-door-step,
ATTA girl x
(p.s We like the zines: Doris, Morgenmuffell, Reassess Your Weapons, Rum Lad. Doris has also been made into an anthology and was my first exposure to zines.
MORE ZINES:
Look up Marching Stars Distro http://www.marchingstars.co.uk
and Active Distribution
http://www.activedistribution.org )
[...] Antonio Roberts – All You Can Eat Zine Antonio has written up Thrusday’s Gallery of Owls event at the Sunflower Lounge – “it seems like there is a small, but dedicated zine culture in Birmingham, which is definitely inspiring and reassuring for people looking to start their own” [...]