I have somehow managed to find an unsecured wi-fi network that is giving me The Internet in my very own home. I do not know how long this lucky bit of joy will last, so will keep this post brief. My posts are going to be quite intermittent until I figure out an affordable way of piping many zigabytes of Internet bandwidth into the new place… I am thinking of writing a revision on Virginia Woolf’s famous essay, updated for contemporary times and entitled ‘Broadband of one’s own.’

In the meantime, let us focus on Zinefest and on the essay by Sophie Peck that I picked up in Pickle Grief therein. The essay concerns Sex And The City: The Movie and expresses many of the concerns that I voiced myself after watching the film, plus some additional criticisms. Where my review tiptoes diplomatically around some of the issues I took with the film, Peck’s essay is more directly defamatory about All That Is Pernicious And Evil In SATC: The Movie. I have been enjoying reading (and re-reading) her intelligent dismantling of the film’s subtexts, along with the artfully arranged words of Anna-Marie and Phoebe in Pamflet.

I hope that Pickle Grief and Pamflet comprise the beginning of a decent Zine collection. I have been extremely energised and inspired by properly reading these two publications. The central thing that leapt out at me at Zinefest was the vitality of confident, shameless writing. I love the lack of apology exhibited by the Zines I checked out at Zinefest and the fearless style of many Zines that I perused; it was inspiring. I don’t think it’s inspiring when people just yaw off about any old thing that is on their mind, but there is a certain way of concisely and specifically making a point – in an unorthodox way – that can be very energising to read. I found a lot of this at Zinefest and it made me want to make loads of cartoons about Monkl and loads of ranty little articles about various this and that things that I haven’t found the guts to write about yet.

Tomorrow, I start work on my repairs basket. It is a good time to mend things.