There was a brilliant selection of stalls at DIY Cultures fair. I bought a really wide range of stuff, taking chances on stuff that was totally new to me, as well as incorporating old favourites, and taking on chances to swap random 'zines with people who approached me, covering everything from: Bruce Springsteen fandom (from the point of view of a northern, working class, queer), to feminist politics, to foraging for flowers, to life working as a paramedic, to collecting postcards, to horror film festivals, to touring with a hardcore punk band in the US, to the politics of work, to the history of pirate radio, to Percy Bysshe Shelly, to lost indie music zines from the early 2000s, to superheroes from Croydon, to a kitten tote bag that I simply couldn't resist !
As an aside - thank you to the Polish man who approached me about swapping zines with him. I find such off-chance things really interesting! I swapped a Brian Jonestown Massacre zine with his zine about the history of pirate radio. Ace! Also: How excited was I to find an early 2000s created indie zine with Justine Frischmann on the cover, and coverage of bands of yore, like Elastica, Sleater Kinney, Bis, Brassy - interviews with Kristin Hersh, and Angelica !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never meet people who make indie music zines anymore, it was so exciting to get these zines (alas, the author wasn't around at that moment, it seemed). I am sad to be coming to the end of reading all these wonderful creations. They are keeping me sane on long, stressy train journeys at awful hours of the morning, and enlightening me on new world perspectives. I will aim to post more in depth photos and write-ups on these zines, but I find it hard to keep up, so bear with me if I fail here! Copies of Athemaura 'zine were received positively - in fact, I near-sold out of all copies, which is a first. But it's not so much about that - I met so many inspiring, positive, creative people at this event, and came across so much inspiration and food for though - so here's to many more DIY Cultures events. Zine fairs for ever! Well, this book caught my eye on the £1 bargain trolley outside Housmans radical book shop a few months ago. I had been saving this write-up for months, for a future 'zine, but it seems pertinent now.
The front cover, with its array of 80s female goths, and its Orwellian title struck a note with me. I love reading about pop culture and about social history. I wish I had realised this when I was a student (an abandoned sociology A'Level, forever my disgrace). 'A brilliant exposé of poverty and politics in Britain today', says the back cover. The book addresses the 'second depression' era,f ollowing on from 1937 Great Britain when George Orwell pioneered investigative journalism by way of travelogue/interviews/political observations up and down the UK. Whereas Orwell exposed the shocking and dire living conditions of the working classes (the coalminers of this era, who faced job losses that all but completely finished the industry off in this country – and their families), Beatrix Campbell approaches the situation from female point of view. That is, the wives of the jobless workers, and the wives being jobless themselves and the effect of all this on working class families. I did not realise how crassly the government treated women citizens in the 1980s. There are interviews here with women who were effectively forced back into living with abusive male partners, because there was the suspicion that they would claim dole money falsely! Women were instructed to live back with men who had beaten or verbally abused them so that they would not be homeless or without funds to live. There is also the pertinent portrayal of single parent mothers and the stigmatisation of them then (it is probably just as bad nowadays, however), and how people perceived them as grabbing money off the state, when there was no work that would accept them, that is if it was available in the first place. The coalminers' wives are touched on too. How they fought to get pay equal to the men – when at this time, their work was not seen as equal. They worked as dinner ladies, or did other kinds of physical labour, contributing just as much to their families. Something that still rings true today, sadly, is how when men are out of work it is seen as a great loss, and damaging to their person – yet if it is a woman, she is simply referred to as a 'house-wife', and it might be seen as a lesser concern. Campbell rightly points out that it would be more helpful if women in these circumstances were referred to as wageless rather than housewives. This thought has certainly had me re-analysing my thoughts about myself/housework/my status as a woman when I have been unemployed. I still remember how Orwell recounted in his book that a certain kind of working class northern man who finds himself unemployed will still get the best seat in the house, not perform any housework alongside his wife, and have perfect leisure, tea on the table, etc! A brilliant, brilliant book. One that I am sorely surprised has not been reprinted and re-marketed, given its poignancy in the last few years. But I hear that Beatrix Campbell has been working on a book that recounts more recent social/working history, and I relish its arrival in print. Campbell remains an active feminist and campaigning member of the Green Party. Follow her inspiring blog too: http://www.beatrixcampbell.co.uk It all seems like a dream now, Florence. I only just got earthed yesterday, as I spent a couple of days in a pure daze after returning. The heightened views, the bumpy green rolling mountainous Tuscan hills, warm green olive groves, ancient architecture, towering grand towers and domes, the flowing old river, the history in the elegant, narrow streets, and gorgeous gardens... it was all so sublime. Whenever I was in a museum, I thought of my friend Ingrid, her love of collections/archives, and it made me appreciate the whole experience even more. I took photos galore of museums that I simply passed in the street and libraries too - the buildings alone were stunning, and it made me sad that often in the UK, libraries and archives are not housed and valued with the same permanence and care and reverance. The libraries I came across included: a converted ancient church, and a grand, classical, mediterrannean stone creation, with palm trees and great stone statues with trumpets to fanfare the very place. The above photo is of the Borgello sculpture museum, which was incredible. And, of course, we went to Uffizi. I amazed myself by firstly not only successfully boarding a plane and staying on it for two hours without giving in to all-consuming panic (!!!), but also scaling the ever so narrow, tiny confines of the winding stone steps of the Campanile. The sign said 414 steps to the top, and I wasn't sure I could go ahead with it, but forced myself. It's not so much vertigo, just the confined space and the experience of climbing wide steps with such sharp turns (people coming down the stairs as you go up), and going up up up not able to turn back or retreat at all. Luckily, there are several stages where you can pause to look at the view, which made it more feasible. Many photos were taken of the stunning views, and I really enjoyed it once I was up there. We were blessed with such good, sunny weather. It was even balmy at times! It was exactly what I had been craving in our harsh UK winter (and spring). I felt so healthy, relaxed, happy, carefree. The many gorgeous gardens with so much going on inside (ponds with statues, carefully crafted islands with walkways, and other adornments, ancient coffee-houses, flora, churches, terraces, arbours, terracotta, museums, mazes, walls, and so on) were such a panacea. I was in my element here. Since my beau prefers city holidays, and I love my natural environs, gardens and green open spaces are important. I hadn't seen such elaborate, amazing gardens since Seville's tropicalia. I'm sure I'll 'zine about the holiday in much more depth and care soon. For now, I'll just end by saying how well we ate and drank and delighted in Italy. My second visit to the country, and I can't wait for future visits. I came home with souvenirs of the vegetable variety, because Italy is one of the best climates for food growing (and because other souvenirs are general. I brought home from a friendly little market stall, a bunch of tiny, sweet little red tomatoes on the vine, plus a pepper that was both yellow and green as it naturally would be (unlike the UK's extremely cultivated/possibly force-ripened/sprayed veg); a pepper that was so gargantuan I had to hold it with two hands! Ah, the bliss of the mediterrannean...
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AthemauraEnthusiastic about 'zines, libraries, gardening in the city, independent book shops/record shops/cafes, vegetarian and vegan, London in all its variety, local living/community. Archives
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