Letters, Zines, Films, Friends.

Last night I watched Broken Flowers for the first time since it was out in the cinema. I have to say the first time I saw it I felt perplexed and frustrated by it, and almost bored at times. Which is why I wanted to re-watch it really.
It's funny, this time I really, really enjoyed it. I loved the storyline and the characters and the simplicity of things. What I really loved, and really wanted to share on this blog was the opening sequence, but sadly it's not online anywhere.

We see a pink envelope being posted into a mailbox in America, and follow its journey to the recipient... a Don Juan-esque Bill Murray. Being so bright and colourful you see it amongst all the other letters being processed in the mail system.

It made me think of my own adventures in letterwriting. There is something I have always loved about 'snail-mail' and I will continue to love even though email seems to have taken over.

I have always received a lot of post. I have had penpals since I was 9, and these days I order a lot of parcels from the internet and communicate with penpals still to this day, even if we are also friends on facebook now.

A major part of this is ordering zines and communicating with the people that make them. Seeing the pink envelope in the intro to Broken Flowers reminded me of receiving zines from Amber, who favours bright cheerful envelopes. Imagine how much more exciting it must be for the postmen and women to work with things like that. When I post things I like to decorate the envelopes and the lady who works in the local post office always comments on them and says she likes to see what I've done. She's so lovely. 

I wish I had known about zines as a teenager. I edited my sixth form magazine and loved the excitement of doing the layout and the photocopying and putting the pages together. The feeling of anticipation between finishing the content and getting it into people's hands is almost unrivalled. After a period of questioning myself and my own abilities, I have made my own zine, and two issues now. You can get the most recent on Etsy here and the lovely Sophie reviewed it herself here which was a total honour as I have been fond of her work for a good while. It is also available at Marching Stars Distro and was hanging out on their table at the Symposium. I love that I can self-publish something in a not-for-profit way, and I'm hooked now.

Image by FeverZine (check out their amazing website and stuff they do!)

It's really exciting, and it was only on Sunday at the London Zine Symposium where it really became real. I had gone last year having seen a blog post about it on Sophie's blog but this time was so much better. Seeing all the artists and zine distro people I had come to know from their blogs and twitter and actual zines and letters and everything was so exciting and I felt really welcome.

I don't write about this sort of stuff on this blog, but I felt like taking a break from my usual format to highlight how important zines are for artists and writers and creative types and activists alike, I met some really inspiring people there.

I can't talk about it as well as others have, so read about my companion Caitlin's purchases here, look at Sophie's charming pictoral guide to her day out here, and check out the best take on it I've seen so far, with indepth discussion and photographs by Amelia of her Magazine on her blog here.