give me all your money, all your hugs and kisses too

sponsor my race for life run/limp here

ta

don't worry your silly little head

dear ladies,

you probably haven't even realised that there's an election happening in 8 days.

eminent feminist lobby the fawcett society has issued a list of clear guidelines to help any floating femmes towards a clearer understanding of the issues that affect them.

everywhere i look yoof media are lining up to bullet-point politics into a 'helpful' format for me. i'm almost 24 and i've never exercised my democratic right to vote. no wonder they're so scared.

all the best
x

my deepest sympathies

there was tonnes of stuff to see at the zine fair on saturday. unfortunately i couldn't attend any of the workshops because i'd made unbreakable plans for the early evening, but i made sure to scour every stall during the time i had there.

i hung around the shoebox distro table for ages, browsing the array of pastel-toned treats. taryn hipp's girl swirl zine caught my wandering eye. the cover of GSZ #10 is a mock up of an original sweet valley high cover, with the trademark high school logo replaced with the zine name. which is exactly the 'idea' i had for the cover of my fantasy mag Small Town Flirt, of course.

girl swirl is a perzine, combining the personal and anecdotal with the zinester's own fiction and reviews. issue 11 even contains a darling mini-zine, which is a letter addressed to gwen stefani. it is the cutest thing.

what made me buy girl swirl, though, is the zine's recurring theme of childish (by which i mean not adult) grief. it's an examination of how the loss of a parent affects the family left behind - but it's not sad - well not intentionally anyway. taryn has corresponded with other teen/twentysomethings through her zine who have lost parents too.

it's at times like this that i wish i had really gone to SVH...

how may i help you?

I got an email this morning from a lady who works for a local authority, explaining that the local library where one of our authors is speaking next month is now '____ Community Resource Centre, not ____ Library.'

How enlightening.

Local authorities everywhere were inspired by the example of Willesden Green Library Centre whose wheelchair-friendly doors slid open a couple of years ago. It advertises itself as an Information One Stop Shop. My local 'library' has recently relocated a bit further down the high street, to make way for some charming luxury Barrett commuter apartments. The building it now occupies was once a Presto, then a Safeway, and then, finally, a discount fabric warehouse. It now houses a room with some shelves, lots of computers, a cafe and a youth centre.

This is Wealdstone, which has the misfortune of being located at the end of the 'Are we there yet?' Bakerloo Line, a tube track that bears all the scars of bad town planning and late 20th-century suburban neglect. In many ways it has become a satellite of Brent, the borough that the aforementioned train intersects.

Harrow and Wealdstone station is where are I start and end each day.

horror!

ah yes, manners. a very english complaint, i think. as soon as i started visiting (english) friends' houses after school it became clear that i had a lot to learn. i held my knife and fork in the wrong hands (an absolute no no), i READ at the table (i really couldn't help this) and certainly didn't know that one had to ASK before one could leave the table.

it's no surprise then that since acquiring a mobile (rather late as it happens - i didn't get around to buying one until the end of my first year at uni) my ever sloppy manners have slippery-slipped ever lower...

the end is nigh

sweet little mystery

as anyone who has read my 2003 interview with sara-lee will know, i worship any dancefloor she sets alight. she's been in australia for almost 2 months and i can't wait to see her next week... bee-atch! x

welcome home

polkadot gals

if you want it done properly, do it yourself

going to try and be here on saturday...

my indie heritage

art star

giselle's* final show opened at the royal college of art on thursday. intriguingly called 'do not interrupt your activities', it promises to showcase

works by visual and performance artists who reflect on the social, cultural and political frameworks that shape the way we act. Some artists adopt or parody the mechanisms of contemporary democracy (the discussion group, the lecture, the symposium, the workshop). Others intervene directly in the structures and conventions of society. These artists’ gestures, whether anarchic, poetic, optimistic, subversive, cynical or introspective, invite us to take a second look at what appears familiar and what we take for granted. From the solipsistic to the more politically engaged, the artists present acts that assert their own voice or offer other voices a platform.

I can't wait to see it...

*giselle is besotted with shoes. if the way she chooses her outfits is any indication of how she judges art, this show is going to delight and inspire. x karaoke girl!

'what exactly is it that young women are rallying against?'

Le Tigre - They want to make a symphony out of the sound of...
Fabolous - This is my Party
M.I.A. - Galang
A-ha - The Sun Always shines on TV
Gwen - What You Waiting For? ('for all the girls in the world')
Trans-X - Living on Video
Annie - Chewing Gum (Mylo remix)
Madonna - Get into the Groove
50 Cent vs NIN - God in da Club (Satanic Mash-up)
Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen
The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers
The Killers - Somebody Told Me (some US mix)
Daft Punk - Da Funk
Madonna - Like a Prayer
Frank sinatra - My Way (fronk fronk fronk sinatra)

april 9th: working girls

summer lovin'

miss kittin's 9 lives