Happy New Year

What a long strange hiatus it's been. Things are stirring in menstrual zine land, which I'll get posting on. In the meantime, please enjoy the following New Year's greeting photo and explanation courtesy of the H2G2 for our friends outside of Germany. :)



Here's a video link if you'd like to re-live New Year's Eve. One of these years we'll have to perform the lesbian zine girl version in Berlin! All the best for 2009.

Chella and Sarah

Election Fever, Literally

So, to quote my friend (and Official Adventures in Menstruating Bluestockings Gig Groupie, so some of you may know him) James, a lot of us had the best Guy Fawkes Day ever because of this guy. Our collective buzz was harshed the next day when all the votes were confirmed in California to be supporting Prop 8. Please don't hate on California as a whole, tempting as that is, or you'll be forcing all the hip and liberal Californians to pretend they're from Oregon, just like we Americans abroad always had to say we're Canadian...until Wednesday. But yeah, it was amazing to hear Our Barry say 'gay' on national television and use it as a normal adjective, so let's hope there's more good news to come.

If you're not suffering the credit crunch too badly and are in the area, you might like to attend Ladyfest Manchester this weekend. We'd been planning to but have been stymied by the flu, so just a quick heads up to people who were expecting us that we will be taking a lot of vitamin C and waiting for next time, unfortunately.

I've been kicking around an idea for a while to do a blog about our wedding, tracking it in retrospect so there's a bit of distance to reflect on it and really share what we did and why and how and what it meant. It was difficult to find the time to do it as we were planning, and I didn't want to just throw another blog out there if I didn't need to...but I'm feeling more like even if people choose not to use any of my ideas for their own weddings, at least another lesbian wedding is out there in the public domain, just kind of...being visible. What do you think?

In the meantime, bed and the US remake of Life On Mars for us, I think. Night!

Too early to call.

While I'm up, waiting for the election results (I voted by post, which fed my mail-art fetish as an extra bonus), here's some other non-election related stuff.

In news closer to home, Sarah's just told me that the Mooncup got a mention on Women's Hour today in the thrift section. (You may also want to check out the piece on sexism and homophobia in the workplace, which I haven't listened to yet but will check out tomorrow.)

Also, props to M L Madison and Brittany Shoot for their Feminist Review co-editorships!

More later.

Chella

The motif continues.

Happy Halloween!

I went as Ms. Scarlet from Clue* to our Cluedo**-themed Halloween dinner and cocktail party. It was fun dressing up as characters from a different Tim Curry film for a change, actually.

Just a quick note to say that Zine Yearbook 9 has just come out and it includes 2 pages from Adventures in Menstruating, as well as lots of other good stuff. It's kinda like the Doctor Who Annual and it's pretty rockin'.

I was lucky enough to get a free copy as a contributer, and it's at my mom's house as we speak. She's loving it and sent a couple of pictures.


I can't wait to read it myself. Hooray for parcels in the post!

In the meantime, I haven't forgotten about Adventures in Menstruating #4, which is long overdue. We've had some big distractions over the last couple of months, but are getting back into the swing of things now, so I'll keep everyone updated if we get time to do any live stuff before the end of the year.

Until then, careful now with the candy corn.

Chella


* Clue is called Cluedo in the UK.
** Cluedo is called Clue in the USA.

Digesting with a short attention span.

I have become a matzoh ball.

Watch the pretty colours as we roll off to bed.

Happy Passover to those of a passoverly persuasion.

New Year's Resolution: Say it with tampons!

Thanks to swissmiss for pointing out this inspired addition to the collective tampon art canon. This UnBeige logo was designed by Melanie Rodgers, and it's screaming out to become a font or text generator of some kind, no? I can think of a hundred uses.

In other news, I'll be posting some highlights from our recent New York trip in the coming days. Jet lag has hit hard this year.

And a couple of people will be pleased to note that I've finally routed out the obscure (to me) bit of blogger that wasn't set to display comments. You can now comment at will!

Happy belated 2008!

Chella

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