I'm thinking of starting a queer zine type interesting project. Basically... who wants to be involved/contribute?! I want it to be loosely comprised of content from us lgbt leeds students with creative writing, articles, drawing interesting thoughts - anything that our minds gravitate towards really.
Was thinking of a name, something short and punchy. Had thought of 'SLAP'. Any ideas?
Hopefully it should all be really fun and inspiring! Who's interested?
I'm up for it as you know. I would like to write about queer politics and history (no surprises there) and perhaps give some gonzo journalism a go. Can't think of any names right now. Levent
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How queer? Well I mean a queer tone and general theme to content, i.e. not only reflecting a proliferation of genders and sexualities but also different, exciting and informed by activism and a creative anger at heteronormative society.
Yes, please. I am very interested. I enjoy 'SLAP' - especially capitalised. My other suggestion is Saucebox - less short and punchy, but it *is* Ye Olde for prostitute, so appropriately bawdy. I wanted to call our band that, but Ramzy said no.
I'm well up for this, both for providing articles and illustrations. SLAP is quite a decent name, but only if we can continually refer to contributors to the zine as 'slappers'.
Liz - that's terrible that Ramzy vetoed it. Old-fashioned names for whores make the best band names. Should I ever set up a band I'd like to call it Hyde Park Rangers - sounds like a football team, refers to a place a lot of local students call home, and also the name of a bunch of London prostitutes in the 1940s. You can't get better than that.
Yay, this is great. Well what I'll do is try and organize a time for us all to meet up in the next few weeks and we can have a nice chat about it and who could do what over a drink.
"I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood."
Oscar Wilde
Tim, honestly, if you were to set up this band I would cease my regret immediately and the olde-whore-names-and-related-delight/otherwise-and-related-despair balance would be restored. *gasp* We could even get someone to review it in the zine. Win-win-win.
Yeah I think getting the met in on it would be fine, we shouldn't say no to articles from friends or other people we known as long as they fit in with the tone I think.
We've decided to come up with a name only after we've assembled most of the content. Otherwise the next few weeks are just gonna involve drunken arguments about what it should be called.
So once again, to keep everyone happy, and not to upset anyone, the leeds LGBT manages to not make a decision or take a decisive route of action......well thats what comes from being in our PC bubble.
Or just maybe, Anon, they're just bloomin' indecisive and simply couldn't think of anything they liked enough to keep. But hey, if you want to drag the generic scapegoat of 'political correctness' into this, that's your lookout.
Its still indicative of the LGBT as a whole though......i am sure a really good name could have been thought up, as there are many creative members in the LGBT, i just think giving it lots of different names is just a huge cop out
I dont really feel were very contentious, and I dont really fear saying anything, but I do feel that having a different title each week is a crap idea.
But as well as that, I feel that if properly grounded and worked out, a Zine for the Leeds LGBT student community would be a great idea.
The content of which, I hope will be contributed by many different people and can be as politically correct, incorrect or Pro Queer as any one decides to make it.
Just dont get all politically correct or too overly Pro Queer with the title, and just go for something witty and smart.
I do think it would be nice to have a regular name, something people can remember. Makes it easier to recognise, gives it more of an obvious identity. Though yes, would be nice if it wasn't tacky or overly earnest. We just need to think of a good, short, snappy word to use.
The zine is an independent project from the LGBT soc and assembley. I really don't care much about offending people with this project as I want it to be angry and interesting.
Having a different title for each issue is a challenge to boring, predictable and commercial media that spews out recycled cr*p to create a money making brand.
In no way was this about partisanship. The zine is not going to be PC. It is not a cop out, it is an idea that spits in the face of conventionality.
What is the zine supposed to be angry at? Why does it have to have an angry tone? articles can be angry for sure, but what a weird statement,"I want it to be angry and interesting." anger is a very very dull way of putting an idea across and usually never works.
Having a different title for each issue is not a *challenge*, as, giving it a name at all is still doffing your cap to, as you put it "predictable and commercial media that spews out recycled cr*p to create a money making brand.", so if your going to give it a name you might as well give it a permanent one that will stick and people can look for.
And might i just add, making a Zine is in no way a way of spitting in the face of conventionality in fact now its a pretty conventional thing to do.
BUT its still a great idea, just don't, if your not going to make it all PC and happy clappy rainbows as i first thought, then just don't go totally teenage, "i hate the world and all that makes up normal society" either, as that is just as boring!
Perhaps we can be like the Artist Formerly Known As Prince and just have a bloomin' symbol instead...
As for attitude, both being overly earnest and being overly stroppy are a bit naff. Life is not sparkles and sunshine. Neither is it an endless drudge under the oppressive heel of the heterofascist hegemony. I think we must all remember not to take the damn thing too seriously. It's just a magazine, kids, it won't start a revolution, so let's just have some fun making it. The worst thing it could be is humourless.
I'm fantastically up for the Zine idea, any excuse to force myself to write things on a moderately regular basis I welcome with open arms. My friends were meant to be making one a few years back and it never happened, which I was annoyed about.
I like the idea of the different titles as well, very much so. People who don't like the idea, well, just don't read it. End of. Like Tim said it's hardly going to be anything revolutionary, it's a Zine which could be really quite interesting.
Oh Finn, give it a rest. If you're bothered about having a decent zine then come up with some ideas and actually contribute something rather than whingeing and detracting from what other people have suggested. If you disagree with an idea then it's fine to say so, but say so courteously and offer some ideas of your own, otherwise people are going to get the impression you are only here to wind others up. Which I'm sure is entirely erroneous.
-- Edited by RainbowWarrior at 23:18, 2008-05-07
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As you well know i would not *ever* dream of winding people up!
Find a name that will be constant, definitive and innovative. (vogue got it right), because we cover all sexual bases, we cant be simple (like GT), so why not pic a word that is suggestive (much like the art events title "inclined"), thats what i feel would be a better idea than QUEERZINE or some such.
Other good ideas that i am sure you all have thought of would be: regular features, music (gigs) , art, poetry, shot stories, "agony aunt" (as they are always a laugh), political feelings and views, articles that will tell others what it is like to be trans/bi etc.
Things i don't think the Zine should be are "wishy washy safe space" if that makes any sense, but also not too militantly Queer.
All simple ideas but just making sure they have been thought of.
Can i have a page where i tell the public i hate them?... Except that you won't be able to read it because the ink will be smudged with hysterical tears and clown make up... so really just a page of smeared ink and clown make up actually.
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Can i have a page where i tell the public i hate them?... Except that you won't be able to read it because the ink will be smudged with hysterical tears and clown make up... so really just a page of smeared ink and clown make up actually.
Perhaps a "Sam's thought for the month" regular slot, just filled head to toe with condemnation and opinions?
I'll be submitting to this soon. Just wanted to say that I think having a regular title could only be a good thing. Unless there's some big, big identifiable symbol where you'll know that it's the same strand as the last one, immediately, then hm! Personally, if I didn't recognise the title and was just given/saw/picked up something like this I doubt I'd read it, probably write it off as the rantings of the free venezuela guy and drop it in the next bin.
