Dear Sheila: Erectile Dysfunction

Summer 2012

What to do when a relationship encounters Erectile Dysfunction? How can we be supportive of them while feeling like we are supported in our sexual needs in return? How can we (gals) feel optimistic that we'll have penetration-sex with them (ED boys) some day, or continue to have penetration-sex? Ir us this about giving up attachment to that?
--Edie Limpdick

First off, thank you for writing in and sharing your experiences with me, and the C.L.A.P. readership. As we say in school, if one person has a question we can be sure that other people do, too. There seems to be a few components to this dilemma-his experiences of ED, your experience of ED, and your shared sex life. Vis-a-vis his experience--has he been to the doctore?

Get your hair braided! Help those suffering from domestic abuse!

...at The Mighty Swell's "We Appreciate You" party and preview sale! This upcoming Monday, July 9th, our favorite occasional vintage shop will be hosting an event from 5-8 in which all proceeds go to benefit The Domestic Abuse Project.

In addition to being able to pick up the newest, brightest issue of C.L.A.P., you can get first dibs on items that are slated to be unveiled at the shop's upcoming summer sale (July 14-15), experiment with new braided hair styles courtesy of The Hive Salon, and enjoy Prairie Vodka cocktails (damn this migraine elimination diet!) and delicious treats! It's, like, the perfect way to start your week!


You can pick up your tickets for the event here. Hope to see you there!

Summer 2012 Issue "Weird Things" is out and about!

Simple, lovely stamped covers in three color options!

That's right! The newest issue of C.L.A.P.—our "Weird Things" issue—is now available! Laid out by the fabulous Titi Phan, the Summer 2012 issue features weird articles about topics like Paula Cole, open relationships (do's and don't's), expectations, feet, procrastination, being a storm chaser, and more! We also have some of our regular goodies including a couple creative exercises, a mix tape listing by Jen Hughes of Hot Roxx, a hair-do, Dear Sheila, a comic and more! 

Titi's fabulous table of contents

This issue is available for sale at both locations of Everyday People Clothing Exchange, and on our Double Peace Etsy site, with more locations to come! It will also be available at the upcoming Mighty Swell events (including their July 9th Appreciation Fundraiser pre-sale, and their July 14-15th sale-sale) and the July 16th Coathangers/Heavy Cream/Cadette show at the Triple Rock in Minneapolis! Want to carry copies of C.L.A.P. at your shop, business or organization? Just contact us at creativeladiesarepowerful@gmail.com!

Paula as you have never seen her before

A simply "mad" hair style, by Jen Hughes, laid out by Lisa Luck

Wanted to contribute to this issue but just didn't have it in you to come up with something weird enough? Have no fear! Our Fall 2012 issue will be themed "Peace, Love and Happiness"! Submission deadline is Sept. 1st! Contact us at creativeladiesarepowerful@gmail.com if you are interested.

It's time to get WEIRD!

Brilliant thoughts, ideas, musings from the evening

It's hard to believe we are chugging through May so fast, but since it has been so much fun, who am I to complain? And part of the fun? Getting cracking on our upcoming "Weird Things" summer issue! Our deadline is JUNE 1st and we have already received our first awesome piece, by past contributor Erin Duffey, who wrote about (weird) people you find on public transit. It rules and we can't wait to see what other gems start rolling in! A big THANK YOU to Erin for getting her piece in first—you will be getting some sort of prize. We don't have the prize yet, though, so if anyone has any suggestions for weird prizes, let us know.

Thanks to Low and Kat, two of the lovely ladies from the Grease Rag, C.L.A.P. hosted its first ever brainstorming session for the upcoming issue earlier this month. New and old faces alike showed up to throw around ideas and to hang. As promised, we are sharing some of these ideas for those who were unable to attend, and may be looking for some inspiration/starting points for their own submissions.

So...without further adieu:

WEIRD IDEAS!

Going to the suburbs
Depression era carnivals
Stalkers (next to this, I wrote "just trying to network?")
Weird sex positions
"Swingers, that's weird"
Touching someone else's anal beads
Kombucha (I totally lucked out and went home with part of Kat's scoby, to start the resurgence of my kombucha production. Thanks Kat!)
Nude bike ride
Herbalism (tinctures)
Booty Bounce
Misinformation in sex talks
Weird jobs we'd like to do/have done: sorting human remains, cruise line entertainer, parasite doctor
Support networks
DREAMS (wrote this in all caps, four beers in)
Hearing and tasting color
Letters and numbers having personalities

We also did an exercise where we went around and said weird things we have eaten, touched, done (or have wanted to eat, touch or do) for inspiration. Finally, although our women's health columnist was not able to attend this brainstorming event, she is looking for women to share stories of things they didn't want to tell their doctors (if you have one you'd like to share, email her at: molly.rose.harrington@gmail.com)

Spread the love: the kombucha grows

Feeling inspired?! Still in need of some guidance?! Just let us know—we want all of you to be part of our next issue! Our deadline is JUNE 1st, so just email us at creativeladiesarepowerful@gmail.com with any questions, ideas or submissions.  Remember, contributors get a free issue...if you have contributed to the Winter 2011 or Spring 2012 issues and have not yet received your complimentary copy, please contact us to remedy that situation. As a reminder, we are happy to mail issues to out of town contributors, but if you live in the Twin Cities area, we ask that you arrange a pick up of your free copy at Yeti Records—but please contact us before hand to give them a heads up!

We are also in the works of planning a midnight writing session as an incentive to get pieces done. While the timing of this can be flexible (take "midnight" as a general framework), we are in search of a space to do this at. If you would like to offer your home or other space for this event, or if you know of a space we should check out for it, please contact us as well!

Hope you are all enjoying this simply magnificent weather!

peace,

Holly

UPDATE: Had a flash of inspiration while doing the dishes! No time for a full submission? NO PROBLEM! Just answer this question (comments here are fine!): What weird thing(s) are you "into"?...we will share them in the summer issue! 

Spring 2012 C.L.A.P. is out and about!

SO damn sexy!

We have some great offerings in our most recent issue of C.L.A.P.! In addition to the usual goodies (Dear Sheila, C.L.A.P. Creative Exercise, comic by Lillith Fair Fan 6969696, Vagina Speak and more), we have some community-centric pieces for our "community" themed issue including articles by past C.L.A.P. contributors Shieva Salehnia, Stephanie Ratanas and Ryn Gibson. Sweet new offerings including a pieces on what Sara Blair learned from RuPaul's Drag Race, Terese Elhard's no-nonsense blog "Waiting for Boys to Call," and more!

We also have to make a MAJOR announcement in that one of our returning contributors, Christy Hicks, was incorrectly identified as "Christy Hunt" in the publication. Our apologies for any confusion that may have caused! 

If you are interested in picking up a new issue of C.L.A.P., you can do so in the Twin Cities area at any of the following locations: Yeti Records, Everyday People Clothing Exchange, Miller Upholstering and Boneshaker Books. For our friends outside of the Twin Cities, C.L.A.P. is available on our Double Peace Etsy site. We just sent out some copies to the very rad White Rabbit in Iowa City today as well, so if you reside there, look for them coming soon!

In other news, it is gorgeous out. And summer is coming. Which means our summer issue is coming soon! We are aiming for a summer equinox publication date, so that gives us a deadline of JUNE 1st! Our theme will be "weird things," which you can interpret however you'd like. So far there has been talk about kinky erotica, and discussions about our favorite Northern Sun bumper stickers and Robert Plant as a pre-teen fashion influence. In other words, you should take it and run with it.

In need of some inspiration? Low and Kat of the Grease Rag have been gracious enough to offer up their home the evening of May 10th for a Summer Issue Brainstorming session. If you want to chat about your ideas, or just hang out with sweet women, you should totally come. More details on the event here.

If you can't make it to the Brainstorming session, stay tuned for details on our Midnight Writing Session, which will take place sometime closer to the deadline in order to give contributors that extra kick in the pants to get their pieces finished!

YOU ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL!

peace,

Holly