The following are sample articles from Issue 13. Click here or contact fallopian.falafel@gmail.com to order the full zine (available only in hard copy).
DIY-licious (Hadass S. Ben-Ari, feat. "Badass & Buxy" illustration by Anna Gopin)
View paper
For those of you who have never come across an authentic DIY fanzine, this is essentially what it's supposed to look like - amateurish, ghetto, busted, cut-off, faded, and often times, colorless.
Originally, this is what Fallopian Falafel would have looked like from the very beginning had my ex-boyfriend not intervened and given me a crash course in Adobe InDesign. I quickly realized just how much easier it was to use InDesign than scissors and glue. I was therefore unable (or rather unwilling/too freakin lazy) to create anything more raw, with a greater DIY feel and look. But for this issue, I said a professional static look will not work. FF Zine deserves an extravagent twist even if some of my readers/contributors may feel a little thrown off at first. I have every confidence that they may quickly learn to love it for the very fact that it is very authentic, raw, intimate and every bit as poignant as the other issues.
I apologize in advance for the eye-sore, and please note that this layout is not a permanent deal :-)
About the topic itself:
DIY - Do it Yourself, for those who aren't sure - is anything we create. In the DIY culture of Punk Rock, it is anything we create without letting conventional guidelines limit us - Big Man Corporations, publication companies, commercial record labels, all of those who restrict us, our freedom of expression, and limit our ability to create.
Riot Grrrl culture is pure freedom, without limits, without guidelines, without a dress code. The rules of capitalism and popularity do not apply. Even talent is optional. Some say "I can't do it because I don't know how." That's absurd. If you are one of the priviledged few with the gift of literacy, you can write. If you have hands, you can play guitar. If you have a needle and a string or a sewing machine, you can sew. Hell, if you have the right tools, you can chop down a tree, fashion a pencil and make paper... and put out a zine!
As I said before - you don't have to be Proust to write, or Dali to paint, or the Mother Goddess to create. Your mind and your hands are powerful.
USE THEM!
Kurdt (article by Hadass S. Ben-Ari; art by Eli Dadon)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
My DIY Mama (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Original Handmade Duckt Tape Wallets (Jane Danger)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Stark Naked (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
DIY Feminism (Debbie Snyder-Eliraz)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Genesis - excerpt (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
View paper
With every passing day, I love DIY more and more. If I could be 100 percent DIY, my life would be perfect. I wanna be able to do everything, to make everything, to create everything… like the Mother Goddess creates the tools to create things, and uses these tools to create more things.
I wanna build my own house, sew my own clothes, use my own hair as stuffing for my embroidered pillows, keep using my typewriter and my pen and paper with ink that spills and messes up a page of a torn notebook, bake the best cupcakes ever in an old small vintage pink oven with rusty edges, use a worn-down walkman and a decrepit tape deck, endlessly play guitar until I activate my myotonia and make my fingers bleed, write so much that my hand twists up and freezes for a good 10 minutes and a blue or black stain forms on the side of my hand where my pinky meets its respective knuckle down the side of my palm to the side of my wrist…
But we live in a material, consumerist, capitalist shithole world, with a bunch of greedy assholes who are too stupid to notice that they're just a pathetic worthless product of a material, consumerist, capitalist shithole society, and that they're tools of the corporate government machine that propagates this lust for materialism, consumerism, capitalism and uselessness. They're the antithesis of DIY.
(The rest of the article is available only on hard copy. Click to order).
An Algebra-Geometry of a Dead Love (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
The End of the Links in the Chains (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Book Publishing as a Seemingly Random Creative Act (Hannah Greenberg)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
DIY Grrrls (Alejandra Gorino)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Back in the DIY (Shira Pruce)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
I'd Felt Like a Garden (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
CD Reviews - sample article (Hadass S. Ben Ari
View paper
Francis's Cemetary - HaShlooliyot (Hebrew Record)
For most bands that I see live, I usually say that you never get the full scope of what the band is about if you only buy their studio album. This goes for HaShlooliyot as well. The only difference is that their first record, Francis's Cemetary, is, in my opinion, the best representation of a live band in a studio album. That is, this record has as much character and attitude as the girls have onstage. Yet, they are still worth seeing live, because they're just too much fun.
1) Yoseftal Hospital: This tune has "single" written all over it. Very radio-friendly, yet still very HaShlooliyot-y considering the random simplicity of the lyrics that is the band's trademark.
2) Shoko-Shoko: Chocolate milk and cheesecake. Enough said!
3) Abarjil: Again, the lyrics can't get any simpler. Great rock n' roll tune.
4) Tzvika: This is a 40 second track in which the girls joke around while one of the members, Neta, is tuning her guit. Pretty funny even if you don't know your Hebrew.
5) Amsterdam: A slower tune where you certainly wouldn't expect to hear any profanity. But with HaShlooliyot, expect the unexpected. Still, quite a moving song; goes great with a relaxing smoke.
6) Andy: As much as I can gather, tjis is a song about alcoholism and eating disorders, but sounds too happy to be depressing, rather ironic.
7) The Couch: One of their better known songs. The lyrics sound like a story about a prostitute, but since I failed miserably at interpreting the previous tune, I'll just say: Great riffs, great beat, super harmony.
8) Digger: A friendly song to their cat. Beautiful and amusing. Makes you warm and fuzzy inside.
9) Ramona: Funniest song in the world, such a Shlooliyot song, super rad. Motherfucker!
10) Silence: Great acoustic riff, pretty melody and harmony. Beautiful.
11) Russian Post-Punk: The only English song on the album and my favorite ever!! It includes the hilarious randomness of the lyrics, fast beat shifting to slow and back to fast, and the best part - GRRRROWLS!!!
Score: 4/5
(Other CD reviews available only on hard copy. Click to order.)
Zines! (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Viva La Menstruacion! (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Punk Cunts (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
My Model Sukkah - Sukkat HaAliyot (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Click here to view Sue's sukkah in full color!
DIY-licious (Hadass S. Ben-Ari, feat. "Badass & Buxy" illustration by Anna Gopin)
View paper
For those of you who have never come across an authentic DIY fanzine, this is essentially what it's supposed to look like - amateurish, ghetto, busted, cut-off, faded, and often times, colorless.
Originally, this is what Fallopian Falafel would have looked like from the very beginning had my ex-boyfriend not intervened and given me a crash course in Adobe InDesign. I quickly realized just how much easier it was to use InDesign than scissors and glue. I was therefore unable (or rather unwilling/too freakin lazy) to create anything more raw, with a greater DIY feel and look. But for this issue, I said a professional static look will not work. FF Zine deserves an extravagent twist even if some of my readers/contributors may feel a little thrown off at first. I have every confidence that they may quickly learn to love it for the very fact that it is very authentic, raw, intimate and every bit as poignant as the other issues.
I apologize in advance for the eye-sore, and please note that this layout is not a permanent deal :-)
About the topic itself:
DIY - Do it Yourself, for those who aren't sure - is anything we create. In the DIY culture of Punk Rock, it is anything we create without letting conventional guidelines limit us - Big Man Corporations, publication companies, commercial record labels, all of those who restrict us, our freedom of expression, and limit our ability to create.
Riot Grrrl culture is pure freedom, without limits, without guidelines, without a dress code. The rules of capitalism and popularity do not apply. Even talent is optional. Some say "I can't do it because I don't know how." That's absurd. If you are one of the priviledged few with the gift of literacy, you can write. If you have hands, you can play guitar. If you have a needle and a string or a sewing machine, you can sew. Hell, if you have the right tools, you can chop down a tree, fashion a pencil and make paper... and put out a zine!
As I said before - you don't have to be Proust to write, or Dali to paint, or the Mother Goddess to create. Your mind and your hands are powerful.
USE THEM!
Kurdt (article by Hadass S. Ben-Ari; art by Eli Dadon)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
My DIY Mama (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Original Handmade Duckt Tape Wallets (Jane Danger)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Stark Naked (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
DIY Feminism (Debbie Snyder-Eliraz)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Genesis - excerpt (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
View paper
With every passing day, I love DIY more and more. If I could be 100 percent DIY, my life would be perfect. I wanna be able to do everything, to make everything, to create everything… like the Mother Goddess creates the tools to create things, and uses these tools to create more things.
I wanna build my own house, sew my own clothes, use my own hair as stuffing for my embroidered pillows, keep using my typewriter and my pen and paper with ink that spills and messes up a page of a torn notebook, bake the best cupcakes ever in an old small vintage pink oven with rusty edges, use a worn-down walkman and a decrepit tape deck, endlessly play guitar until I activate my myotonia and make my fingers bleed, write so much that my hand twists up and freezes for a good 10 minutes and a blue or black stain forms on the side of my hand where my pinky meets its respective knuckle down the side of my palm to the side of my wrist…
But we live in a material, consumerist, capitalist shithole world, with a bunch of greedy assholes who are too stupid to notice that they're just a pathetic worthless product of a material, consumerist, capitalist shithole society, and that they're tools of the corporate government machine that propagates this lust for materialism, consumerism, capitalism and uselessness. They're the antithesis of DIY.
(The rest of the article is available only on hard copy. Click to order).
An Algebra-Geometry of a Dead Love (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
The End of the Links in the Chains (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Book Publishing as a Seemingly Random Creative Act (Hannah Greenberg)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
DIY Grrrls (Alejandra Gorino)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Back in the DIY (Shira Pruce)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
I'd Felt Like a Garden (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
CD Reviews - sample article (Hadass S. Ben Ari
View paper
Francis's Cemetary - HaShlooliyot (Hebrew Record)
For most bands that I see live, I usually say that you never get the full scope of what the band is about if you only buy their studio album. This goes for HaShlooliyot as well. The only difference is that their first record, Francis's Cemetary, is, in my opinion, the best representation of a live band in a studio album. That is, this record has as much character and attitude as the girls have onstage. Yet, they are still worth seeing live, because they're just too much fun.
1) Yoseftal Hospital: This tune has "single" written all over it. Very radio-friendly, yet still very HaShlooliyot-y considering the random simplicity of the lyrics that is the band's trademark.
2) Shoko-Shoko: Chocolate milk and cheesecake. Enough said!
3) Abarjil: Again, the lyrics can't get any simpler. Great rock n' roll tune.
4) Tzvika: This is a 40 second track in which the girls joke around while one of the members, Neta, is tuning her guit. Pretty funny even if you don't know your Hebrew.
5) Amsterdam: A slower tune where you certainly wouldn't expect to hear any profanity. But with HaShlooliyot, expect the unexpected. Still, quite a moving song; goes great with a relaxing smoke.
6) Andy: As much as I can gather, tjis is a song about alcoholism and eating disorders, but sounds too happy to be depressing, rather ironic.
7) The Couch: One of their better known songs. The lyrics sound like a story about a prostitute, but since I failed miserably at interpreting the previous tune, I'll just say: Great riffs, great beat, super harmony.
8) Digger: A friendly song to their cat. Beautiful and amusing. Makes you warm and fuzzy inside.
9) Ramona: Funniest song in the world, such a Shlooliyot song, super rad. Motherfucker!
10) Silence: Great acoustic riff, pretty melody and harmony. Beautiful.
11) Russian Post-Punk: The only English song on the album and my favorite ever!! It includes the hilarious randomness of the lyrics, fast beat shifting to slow and back to fast, and the best part - GRRRROWLS!!!
Score: 4/5
(Other CD reviews available only on hard copy. Click to order.)
Zines! (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Viva La Menstruacion! (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Punk Cunts (Hadass S. Ben-Ari)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
My Model Sukkah - Sukkat HaAliyot (Sue Tourkin-Komet)
Available only on hard copy. Click to order.
Click here to view Sue's sukkah in full color!
