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July 8th: Zine picnic with friends in Guildford! Swapping favourite recent zines, sharing our newly made perzines, and generally sipping and eating and enjoying. We even piqued the curiosity of a duck! Gorgeous entrance to grounds of Guildford Castle, where we picnicked... July 9th:
Headed to our favourite zine library for photocopying of our zines, new and old. I also photocopied some flyers for a feminist charity project that a friend is involved in: Armpits for August. July 6th:
Trip to the library to photocopy the finished 24hr zine - which may or may not be the first of a string of several! The usual capers involving wrong-shaped copies, coin dispenser spitting out coins, and swearing, finally admitting defeat and seeking library assistant's help... but got there in the end! And there is still nothing in the world like that feeling of holding in your hands a finished zine, and cherishing it, and feeling a burst of pride that you made all this. Who's soaking up the sun whilst reading zines today? It's very, very hot... The tenth issue of my perzine Athemaura is ready to go! I did think I would launch it at Bradford's pop up zine shop on my travels there, only I was too caught up in nerves, and feeling tired from travel and overwhelmed by the joyousness of all the zines and creative people around, that I totally forgot to even mention my new zine ! I'm disappointed in myself, but my modesty and inability to promote my work never seem to wane! So, here is the newest issue of Athemaura. I decided that the poor badgers needed some support. If you have not yet signed the petition against the hideousness that is the governement's planned culling of badgers, here it is. The key facts laid out by the RSPCA are that many healthy animals would be killed as the process cannot be selective, and that research has proven it does not make a meaningful difference to controlling the spread of TB from badgers to cattle. This issue not only features a bewildered looking badger (small wonder), but a mini zine that I made by hand, to set out reasons for not supporting the cull. Athemaura #10 also features writing on: the joy of reading your way to work, favourite independent book shops and libraries, the need for solitude, coping with being a radical mind in a conventional work environment, an ode to a friend who recently passed on. There is also writing about feminist literature and feminist networks. And there is a feature about doing battle with assumptions people make about part-time workers (and actually how part-time work doesn't easily = working less hard than a full-time worker, nor is it necessarily less stressful or time-consuming!), and as is becoming usual, lots on gardening, libraries and enjoying a vegetarian diet. There is also a little on veganising
your life (whatever your diet choice), but I shall be writing lots more about that in issue #11 of Athemaura, I think! You can contact me by email for a copy, or head onto this online shop on Etsy. Or look out for the next SW London & Surrey Zines event where you can buy a copy in person! 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...
It's National Libraries Day in the UK tomorrow! I hope to do some library love posts on here over the next few days, plus some library positive actions around where I live.
My current library books: The Waves by Virginia Wolf. Urien's Voyage by Gide. Most loved library loan recently: It Chooses You, by Miranda July. Some favourite libraries and why: Bangor University library (architecture, layout, grandeur, stock, smell of old books!), Milton Keynes Central (profound in shaping and supporting me as a teenager, excellent wide range of stock, and archive, architecture and layout), Performing Arts Library of Surrey (setting, as it's on a vineyard in rolling hills of Surrey! Also stock and staff and layout and huge, unique, precious archive and the smell of old materials), Stuart Hall library @ Iniva (fanzine collection, knowledgeable staff, valuable community facility), Westminster Reference (historical, architecture, traditional shelving and layout, and balcony with ladders to access stock!), Battersea (architecture, and also for the old reference library with its balcony), Guildford Library (interior layout), Hammersmith (architecture and stained glass windows, also the high shelves), Darlington Library (architecture, and staff that are kindly to the elderly), Stony Stratford Library (important small community library), Karl Marx Memorial Library (historical, layout, architecture, stock, so inspiring a place!), Poetry Library (knowledgeable staff, events, stock, archive, wonderful place). and so many more. Missed libraries: Kensal Rise library (closed by the council), York Gardens (services reduced). Favourite library memories: sitting cross-legged on the floor in a corner of MK Central Reference reading Shelley and Ginsberg poetry as a teenager, also reading music magazines there, borrowing the many CDs and books that changed my life, photocopying my fanzines, as a teen, and the excellent outdoor table-top book sales as a kid, doing work experience at various libraries as a youth, Stony Stratford library campaign, seeing British Sea Power play an amplified rock concert at Westminster library! I'm certain to have missed many libraries and memories here. I will come back and write more soon... Feel free to re-post a similar style blog, or to comment. Spread library love! The library of my childhood. I have written much about how greatly it shaped it me as a person in the second issue of my perzine, Athemaura, which is a campaigning for libraries themed fanzine I made in 2012.
I went back recently, and there was an excellent library sale of old stock. For £2.50, I collected copies of art books about Magritte and Dali, a book about soya, a strange art/illustrated poetry book which may form the basis of future layouts for my zines!, plus I got a couple of music biographies for my mum - Drinking Cider with Roadies by Stuart Maconie, and something about Adam Ant (my mum is a groovy lady, who still rocks). I love visiting when I can, when I visit the old town. I love the building, and how huge the library is inside with its vast range of stock, and all the memories the place holds. There are still the odd one or two old staff that are still working there since the 90s, and it was nice to speak to the lady who supervised me as a teenager when I was on work experience at Wolverton Library. People talk ill of Milton Keynes as a place at times, but this library is truly one of its assets, and it changed and made my life amazing when I was young and living there. |
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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