Fit?

Brash 3 is here!

...and a new blog to go with. Get your copy from http://brashzine.blogspot.com/

Home of Metal

I went to the Home of Metal Exhibition a couple of days ago during my adventures back to Birmingham. Such a great exhibition thanks to the Capsule ladies, who are responsible for all the best gigs in Birmingham including the mighty Supersonic festival. Some facts about Heavy Metal if you didn't already know...

The term 'Heavy Metal' comes from the metal and coal industry that had been going since the 19th century in the Midlands. Birmingham and the Black Country was a 'hotbed of heavy industry.' The workers and their families lived in terraced houses right next to these factories, had to deal with the constant noise of heavy machinery pounding into their homes. You can imagine why people compared Sabbath's loud and proud new style of music to the sound of factories and their 1970 self titled LP marked year zero of the newly formed genre, Heavy Metal.

Tony Iommi, of Sabbath, used to work in one of these factories and suffered the fate of losing the tips of two of his fingers. He was told he'll never be able to play guitar again, he may as well 'pack it in.' Not to be fazed by that, Iommi made tips for his fingers out of old washing up liquid caps and developed a new way of playing with thinner strings, thus making new sounds with the electric guitar that hadn't been heard before, pioneering the way forward for Heavy Metal.

Punk and Heavy Metal music were emalgulated together in the 80's to form a new genre of music called Grindcore, encompassing screaming vocals with thick distorted down-tuned guitar riffs, but played so fast that it would make you want to throw up. This type of music was first played by Birmingham band Napalm Death. (They recorded their second album in Worcester, where I was born!)

This is how gig poster should be done, man!

Plenty of punk/Metal zines on display, pity I couldn't pick 'em up and a have a good leaf through them!

Birmingham rain

My contribution to Out of Stock

These are the four screen prints I had in the Out of Stock show. There is about a run of 10 prints for each of the pieces and they are for sale. Please email me on harrietalana@hotmail.co.uk if you would like one and we can arrange something.

Out of Stock opening night

You can see my Tony Iommi print to the left of this photograph








My housemate, Rosie, and I came back on a quieter day.


So here are some photos from the opening night of Out of Stock. They are not very good pictures because I turned up to the show on my own, quite late and I was totally overwhelmed and vercome by the whole thing! So friggin' stoked though! Well anyway, I was so excited, I couldn't even take any decent pictures (not that I can ordinarily) and I completely forgot to take pics of my own work... so hopefully someone else did and i can get the images of them and put them up.

But yeah, what a show! Thanks to Toby Renton and Adam Johns for organising the show and letting me be involved.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled folks for more Out of Stock-ness to come...

Observational drawings...

...and Welsh Mountains

Out Of Stock - A skatepark Exhibition (18 - 28 August)

Come to this next week! (private view thurs 18 Aug from 7.30pm) It will be the definition of Rad! And my artwork (and maybe some dodgy footage of me) is in it! Stoked to the bones... :)

Girls + Zines

Last night, Brigid and I went to the opening of Girls + Zines at Tatty Devine, a show curated by Barbara Ryan, and I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time (Lovenskate HQ) to be asked to get involved in this! So Brash 2 is within the midst of this wonderful grrrly goodness, but also, I hope to bring Brash 3 along too (it's making progress folks!).



Valerie Phillips zine! (Gator Motel) She was there last night, but I was too shy to meet her!





For some reason, In my head, I read this as "Science Fiction, Ladies!" As if it was going to be an female friendly introduction to Science Fiction. Not that Science Fition needs to be "female friendly" 'cos it's rad!




Anyway, thank you so mcuh to miss Ryan for letting me be part of this. Check her zine and blog out at http://bfrmag.blogspot.com/
Also, thanks to Lovenskate Stu for telling me about this :)

BMT Stockwell shredders video (including me!)

It's 'blink or you'll miss it,' but I have a 'part' in this. Rad! Thanks Lizo

GRRRLS LONGBOARD CREW in Carving the Mountains

I met two lovely ladies at Birmingham zine fest, Jessica and Kate, the latter who is the only grrrl in Brum to play bike polo! They told me about this sick video...and just emailed me the link. So here it is, and it's fucking awesome! Check the grrrl in the bright orange top! :)

Castle Made of Sand

Zine Workshop with young people at Mile End

As part of my skateboard coaching with Nik at Mile End Skate Park, I recently ran a (very low-key, DIY) zine workshop during an open event at LCB Skateshop and the Skate Arch at Mile End a few weeks ago. I hope to do more workshops like this, but better! :) A Design-A-Deck workshop was also going on at the same time, ran by LCB ladies Mary Anne and Olivia. Rad job sistas!

BRUM ZINE FEST

So, I had a table at Birmingham Zine Festival yesterday and I took my mum to help. As much of an embaressment she was and didn't really 'get' the zine thing, it still meant she manned my stall while I went in search of ziney goodness (shown below). I sold quite a few zines and a few prints too! Super stoked. Thank you to everyone who came and bought stuff and showed interest! It was nice to meet people who wanted to do zine swaps and who had already got copies of my previous zines, really made the whole thing worthwhile doing :)


Zine fest when it had quitened down a bit.




Just some of the zine goodies I acquired.





Doris zine anthology...

*Cindy (Crabb) writes her zine, Doris, like she is figuring out the human condition. She makes writing about the ssimplest and most comman things - playing music, childhood, cooking, or sex - resonate with universal understanding.

She helps us make sense of more complex things like the satisfaction from doing useful work, natural curiosity, the ability to use logic, gender dynamics, introspection, and the need for challenge and change, combating depression, and creating art and literature.

She explores more difficult subjects, like abortion, rape, sexual harassment, and dealing with the death of family, in a context that is enlightening and persoal, feeling like a close friend opening up to you. What's impressive though is that she realtes these things throughout her zine with seemless beauty.*

...blurb on the back Doris. Such a rad book that I found at the zine fest (only one copy on the stall!) which will make excellent reading and research, not only for my own personal gain, but for my dissertation too. I will be looking at zines, specifically looking at per-zines, Riot Grrrl and Feminism.

Check out these videos...

Inspirational or what!

Menstruating Peppers

GNARLY SHREDDER... ha!

Earlier this week, Nik and I went to Saffron Walden skatepark....here are a few shots of me in the bowl with pool coping! Thanks Nik.

re-issues of Brash 2...graf styley

I'm selling these, and the few left over screen-printed ones (£2), at Birmingham zine festival on 9th July. They will be a quid. Only 25 copies so come get 'em quick!

After this, no more Brash 2's. Brash 3 is a working progress

BIRMINGHAM ZINE FESTIVAL

I have a table here! Please come if you're you're in Brum, it'll be rad! Second batch of Brash 2's for sale as well as some prints and other bits 'n' pieces :)