Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, to those who are that way inclined!

Last night, in my jet lagged stupor, I did a silly thing, and I feel I should give a brief chronology of how this silly thing came to pass. First of all, at the end of Chanukah I had another look at Tampon Crafts. They have some groovy Christmas crafts you should check out, as well as an extremely complex New Year's Eve disco ball. So I was already thinking about trying out one of crafts on there. Then I got an email forward from my mom which contained the following message and photo:

My dear friends and relatives……

Somewhat embarrassing to admit, I'm not getting an annual bonus and Christmas is tight this year. I will be making bedroom slippers for you all as gifts. Please let me know your sizes.

* Three convenient sizes: (1.) Regular, (2.) Light and (3.) Get out the Sand Bags.

I've attached a photo of the first pair I made so that you can see the nifty slippers for yourself....

Awaiting your response. It's crucial that I get the right size for each one of you.

(Thanks to whomever originally created this fwd and took the photo, by the way.)

And finally I really did actually intend to get my mom slippers as one of her Christmas presents. We have a big tradition of throwing a few cheesy gag gifts in with the real ones, particularly for my parents. So the inevitable happened, and I got to work using this stuff:



to make these:



After she had a good laugh, we gave her the real ones.

Happy holidays!


Chella

Oh yeah - for constant readers who are also observant, we do Chanukah and Christmas at my house.

Come to NYC for a reading!

We're heading to New York tomorrow morning for a couple of weeks, and I've booked a reading from Adventures in Menstruating #3 at Bluestockings on January 2nd at 7 pm.

Please pass the message on to your NYC pals, or come along yourself - we'd love the support!
Here's some more info from the listing:

Menstrual Taboos are so 2007...

Bluestockings Zine Reading: Adventures in Menstruating #3 – Funny. Period.

Wednesday, 2 January, 2008. 7 pm. FREE.

Start the year with some menstrual mayhem as Chella Quint and Sarah Thomasin launch the third issue of this popular UK comedy zine. Readings will include comic poetry, product testing, and deconstructions of vintage feminine hygiene ads. As always, Adventures in Menstruating welcomes menstruators and non-menstruators alike.

Bluestockings is located at 172 Allen Street between Rivington and Stanton, one block south of Houston and 1st Avenue. (Trains F: 2nd Avenue, JMZ: Essex/Delancey Street.) For more information call Bluestockings on (212) 777-6028.

Drop us an email if you think you can make it, or come introduce yourself if you stop by.

Chella

Happy Chanukah from Adventures in Menstruating!

No menorah?

No problem!

Tampon Crafts


For all your holiday tampon needs.

Seriously, this is a website devoted to arts and crafts made entirely of tampons and ordinary craft supplies like hot glue and poster paints. I wish I'd seen this last year when I had to make an emergency menorah out of play-doh and tin foil. This one has more panache, though, I feel, while retaining the quaint, childhood charm of those 'pull the tab of orange paper through to make the candles light' style ones from kindergarten.

There are crafts for several holidays on this website, so if you've got some tampons kicking around that you'll never use, check them out.

Heck, even if you never make 'em, they're pretty funny. That picture at the top is my menorah from last night, by the way. I found it in the attic.

Chella

Habit-forming...

Ok so I can see now that I'm going to have to label the toilet posts cos there's gonna be a whole slew of them eventually. It's becoming compulsive.

Up till now, I never saw a UK sanitary disposal unit I didn't hate. This SDU is no better or worse than its peers, but it's the placement I find could not go without comment. Yes, in a public toilet in York, amidst crazed Christmas shoppers, I found SDU nirvana. Notice the butt and leg space around the SDU, which is placed at - dare I say it - a rakish angle. I never thought I'd see that.

Sanitary disposal units are a money-making, period shaming, hygiene-fear scam at best, and, in tiny cubicles designed by people who just don't think, most are a practical irritant as well. As you can see, though, the spacious cubicles in York are worth the 20 pence entry charge. (Although both times I used the public conveniences there, a different nice old lady clandestinely held the door open so I wouldn't have to pay. Thanks for the hook ups, old ladies of York!)

You'd think that for once, I wouldn't feel I had to photograph a toilet, but my lack of ire was so thoroughly replaced by self-righteous joy that I had to take a 'well done' picture and post it here, in case any public toilet designers see this blog and take note.

Ironically, this was the only un-crowded area of York last Saturday.

Chella

Something else Chella's parents can be proud of.

The other night, we went to a groovy show to support some bands we've shared the bill with at various Ladyfests. We met the band Valerie at Ladyfest Leicester, and throughout the night, they kept introducing Chella to people as 'the one who photographs toilets'.

Yeah, it's true. Chella did a performance lecture called 'The SDU and YOU' at Ladyfest Leicester and a lot of the slides included photos that name and shame the badly designed sanitary disposal units in public toilets throughout the UK. (They're not so bad in other countries. We don't know why this is.)

For example, the one above is jammed in right next to the toilet seat, and the lid is actually OVER the seat. Now, if, like most women, you a) sit down to pee and b) have an ass bigger than your head, you will not be able to open the lid. You will also have it jammed up against your ass.

Anyway, all is explained in the live show. Just thought we'd share Chella's illustrious new title with ya.

Happy Halloween!

And watch out for those menstrual zombies.

Ladyfest Leicester Workshop.

So here's the scoop on Ladyfest Leicester, from Amy, one of the awesome organisers:

Saturday 6th October
Basement Bar, The Looking Glass, 68-70 Braunstone Gate, Leicester, LE3 5LG

12.30pm - 3.15pm (with one 15 minute break in the middle, approx 2pm.): Zine workshop (as it's so long, people can bring in food if they want) - workshop leaders Alexis and Neely Bat
3.30pm - 4.30pm: DIY Menstrual Products - workshop leader Jenny
4.45pm - 5.30pm: Chart Your Cycle Roadshow! (those who want to stay on from the previous workshop can do, if they want...they will have to pay extra tho!) - workshop leaders Sarah and Chella

All workshops will be £1.50 - if anyone wants to do both of the last two, they'll pay £2.50....we're nice like that! Or obviously free to weekend/day ticket holders.

And then all the fabulous music, spoken word, etc. at Sumo, 54 Braunstone Gate Leicester Leicestershire LE3 5LG.

Sunday 7th October
Upstairs Bar, Firebug, Millstone Lane, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE1 5JN

12.30pm - 2pm: Comic Workshop - workshop leader Selina
2.15pm - 3.45pm: Stitch N' Bitch session - workshop leaders Karen and Jen
4pm - 5.30pm: TBC v. soon

Again, all workshops £1.50 each, weekend/day ticket holders free.

And then more fabulous music, spoken word, etc. at Sumo. Hurrah!

More details at: http://www.ladyfest-leicester.moonfruit.com

So as you can see, we'll be there Saturday with quite a bit of new stuff we've been working on and a few old favourites. Since it's more of a workshop format, the show will be a little more interactive. We'll also be bringing along the Mobile Menstrual Zine Library. Adventures in Menstruating #3 will be available as well, for purchase or trade.

We're really psyched to be sharing the bill with Jenny's pad workshop, and Alexis and Neely's zine-making workshop (which should be amazing, from all indications).

Hope to see ya there.

Adventures in Menstruating #3 Launch At Ladies Rock!

Getcher zines here, folks. Adventures in Menstruating #3 is here with full colour covers, because I finally got my ass to the photocopy shop. The zines will be available all weekend for those who are attending Ladies Rock, with a reading at 1 pm Saturday, and will be on sale at the Windmill, Brixton this Sunday (doors open at 5 and it should be a kick-ass gig).

It's in a limited run but is available to UK distros - if this is you, get in touch!

Please forward to ladies in London.

More info at Ladies Rock.

Hope to see you there!

Chart Your Cycle-The Song...Release Party!

Well. It was the best of times, it was etc.

Due to both slow passport processing and a demanding day job, I couldn't even think about getting to Dublin tonight, but loads of others did and I'm so psyched! The song written for us by Party Weirdo has been released by Stitchy Press and tonight was the launch.

Please support Party Weirdo and get your hands on a copy in 7 inch vinyl or cdr.

And stay tuned - we are going to make it over to Dublin next month and hope to pick up some to distribute with the zine.

So - well done and thanks to Party Weirdo for the props! Good on ya to Siobhan at Magical Girl and Willie and Natalia of Stitchy Press.

Nothing like reading zines on the train home.

We're getting used to this funny old commute down to that London. Zinefest was awesome. We showed some new material to a bunch of decent people who gave us feedback we could use.

I got to have a brief look at the exhibition in the Women's Library, and had a chat to some of the staff there - they were totally welcoming and I had a good chat to them. I bought a Women's library pen. Ok, I acutally bought two because if I ever buy one thing like that, I never use it. I've only just started using some of the Lisa Frank stickers I had as a kid in the 80s. I'm a stationery freak.

Crazy star-crossed moment of the day: Nearly didn't get to meet Daria of Revenge of the Nerds Distro who'd come to London from Poland. Through the magic of a hastily scrawled postcard and messengers from the 56a Library's distro, we were able to finally chat in person.

Crazy star-struck moment of the day: A really nice guy came up to Sarah and said he'd seen us mentioned in Timeout.

Cheers to Naz who taught us bookbinding. Sarah's decided her next zine is going to be a limited edition hardback run of like...5.

I'm going to go back to watching Spaced and go to bed.

Cheers to Red for organising stuff, and all the Women's library staff for letting me use the copier.

Chella

Cheap(er) tickets to Menopause the Musical

Hey, gang. Guess what I got in my email?

"I am so glad that you see it for what it is: a lighthearted look at the changes in life and not some Chekovian disaster evening! We have more fun for sure!!! We would be pleased to offer your readers what we call our Supergroup Rate. What it means is that an individual can call the Shaw Box Office (0870 033 2626), ask for the “Intranet Offer” and receive £10 off a single ticket (this is the group rate but offered on an individual basis). This rate will be valid for all shows through June 3. Additionally, students can purchase a ticket on the day for £19.75 with a student ID. All success to you!"

- Menopause the Musical's press officer

So if you want to see the show for yourself and form your own opinion, that's how you can do it for cheap(er). Don't get me wrong - that's a lot of money to spend all at once, and the show does have a few snags. But it's a kind offer and I'm happy to pass it on. I certainly enjoyed myself when I went. The Guardian sensibly edited out my admission of a moment of madness but I'll confess here - I actually joined the audience participation bit at the end of the show - complete with kick line and jazz hands.

Chella

Yesterday's News

About two weeks ago I went to see Menopause the Musical. I liked it. From the reviews, you might think I was the only one laughing. But no. I wrote about it, and the Guardian blog published it.

Check it out by clicking the title of this post.

Chella

Holy Mackanoly! We're in the Independent!

According to Luiza Sauma in Talk of the Town (the first page of the ABC section), "There's a zine for everything, it seems; from the traditional comics, radical politics and punk music, to self defence and menstruation. (Indeed, I spent a good 15 minutes flicking through the genuinely excellent Adventures in Menstruating.)"

I've corrected two typos in the quote above.

Maybe my future lies in editing.

If anyone could save us a cutting, I have some American fridge space my relatives will want to fill back in New York.

The article was about the London Zine Symposium, and it was awesome. We had the best vegan cheesecake in the world, spent some quality time with old friends from around the country, met some awesome new peeps from around the world, and traded serious zine.

The venue wasn't suitable for readings, which is a shame cos there were some people there who were also hoping to read and we wanted to hear their stuff! Next year, though.

Thanks to Edd, Natalie, Chris, Eran and everyone else who helped get it together!

How does it feel to be immortalised in song?

Kinda like how Mulder and Scully would have felt, I reckon, if they hadn’t actually been fictional characters. Party Weirdo also performed at Ladyfest Berlin last summer. They played crazy good tunes – unpredictable, manic, and yet I enjoyed it…kinda like how I feel about menstruation.

So I contacted them about using one of their songs in a podcast I was planning. Cara, the guitarist in the band, said she’d do one better and write us a musical tribute. A few months later I got an email with the song link, and the day after that it was on the band’s myspace, which can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/partyweirdomusic.

Here are the lyrics:

CHART YOUR CYCLE
ADVENTURES WHEN YOU'RE MENSTRUATING
I FORGOT IT'S ONE OF A KIND
THE KIND I'LL FIND IS ALWAYS ON MY MIND

CHART YOUR CYCLE
MORE ADVENTURES MENSTRUATING
JEMILLA SHEMILLA
PROTECT YOUR WOMB, YOUR WALLS AND ALL INSIDE

CHART YOUR CYCLE
FEEL FREE TO DISCUSS AT ANY TIME
MENSTRUATING
LOVE IT HATE IT CRAMP IT ALL YOU WANT

The lyrics are one thing and the music is something else entirely – I really dig the sound and there’s loads of instrumental experimental grooviness. My favourite part is the end of the song, where you hear a little magical chime. Please listen to it if you can (if you’ve overcome your fear of the borg that is myspace), and show some love for this wicked band.

Oh yeah - I asked Cara who Jemilla Shemilla was.

She said it was her period’s stage name.

Awesome.