Hey all you Winnipeggers: get excited for Ladyfest Winnipeg, the first time the international DIY womens festival is happening in that lovely city. The fest will take place May 25-28 and most events are all-ages. There will be workshops by donation with food and child care provided, shows each night with subsidized babysitters, a DIY gallery, zine fair and the Sugar and Splice film festival.

Workshops include intro to bike repair, Aboriginal womens experience with racism, activism and art, learning HTML and other fun stuff.

Heres the website, or you can email the collective to get involved (ladyfestwinnipeg@hotmail.com) or register for workshops (lfwregistration@hotmail.com). Rock on, grrrls.

A small item in Vanity Fair magazine caught my attention recently. Girl Power by Elissa Schappell tells about a new book featuring girl super spy Kiki Strike, a black-clad, butt-kicking mysterious orphan who, when asked what she wants to be when she grows up, answers, Dangerous.

The book, called Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kristen Miller, gets a glowing review by Schappell. Apparently Strike recruits four Girl Scouts to help her take over the Shadow City (a series of catacombs under New York City) and crazy adventures ensue.

Heres where I was intrigued: writes Schappell, the Girl Scouts have such un-badge-worthy talents as explosives, disguise, computer hacking and forgery. And the book’s lessons? How To Take Advantage of Being A Girl: No one takes you seriously? Let people believe what they want to believe, and the element of surprise will always work in your favor, as well as How To Catch a Lie and How To Get What You Want.

Anyone had a chance to read this book? Id love a first-hand account. Kiki Strike, where were you when I was growing up reading Sweet Valley High and the Baby-sitters Club?

Heres her website.

So, the lovely Darren O’Donnell sent us some photos of the Haircuts by Children event that I blogged about a few days ago. Seeing the utter concentration in these kids’ faces is reassuring. I bet they’re fine hairdressers (apparently they were well trained beforehand). I’m still not going, mind you. I have too complicated a relationship with my hair. But I totally think you should go. Remaining dates: May 13, 20, 27 and 28.

Shameless friend Tori Allen and some other tech-savvy folks are hosting a free podcasting workshop at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on Sunday, May 14. Theyll teach you the basics, talk about what podcasting is and why its so great, and go over tech tips you need to know to create your own podcast. The workshop will also reveal important insights into the craft of audio and radio art. Sounds pretty cool.

The workshop is part of Digifest, a design and media culture festival. You have to pre-register for the podcasting workshop, check this site for more info.

According to Fair Trade Toronto, May 1-15 is Fair Trade Week, as declared by Transfair, Canadas national Fair Trade licensing body so happy fair trade week, everyone! The point of the week is to improve the livelihood of developing world farmers and workers through educating consumers about Fair Trade and building the market for Fair Trade Certified products in Canada.

The next event coming up in Toronto is on Wednesday, May 10th at 7 p.m. at the NOW Lounge (189 Church St.), featuring a film called Buyer Be Fair, a fair trade market and discussion. The event is pay-what-you-can.

If attending events isnt enough for you, something called the Canadian Consultation Committee on Fair Trade is looking for youth who are interested in getting involved. Participants are expected to attend a workshop at York University in Toronto on June 4 and a meeting in Montreal on August 4 (funding for transportation and accommodation will be provided). Theyre trying to create a Canadian Coalition in Fair Trade by November, and need people to help sign up organizations.

For more information and to apply, contact Carle Bernier-Genest at cbg@equiterre.qc.ca.

Shameless is very proud to announce that we’ve been nominated for a National Magazine Award for our Fall 2005 cover story, “Making The Cut,” by Zoe Cormier. Congrats, Zoe! NMA winners will be announced in June, but frankly, it’s an honour just being nominated.

Those of you who missed Zoe’s excellent story on so-called designer vaginas can order a copy of the Fall 2005 issue here.

Exciting news for all you media junkies, especially those of you interested in women’s place in the mediasphere. Women in Media & News (WIMN), a US-based education/advocacy/analysis organization, has launched a lively blog about women in media, broadly speaking. The huge blogging team, which includes Bitch magazine’s Andi Zeisler, well-know ad critic Jean Kilbourne and other cool women, are covering news, pop culture and politics. Check it out.

How often have you looked in the mirror and thought, Damn, I need a haircut — by children? Well, friend, you’re in luck. Today and several other days this month, kids aged 10-12 from Parkdale Public School will be offering free haircuts to the Toronto public.

As the press release says, “HAIRCUTS BY CHILDREN is a whimsical relational performance that playfully engages with the enfranchisement of children, with trust in the younger generation, and with the thrills and chills of vanity.”

Sounds terrifying to me, but a 17-year-old boy once came perilously close to cutting off my earlobe during a home haircut, so perhaps I’m biased.

Click here for dates, times and locations. And if anyone goes for a trim, please send us a photo: submit@shamelessmag.com.

Well, after kicking up a lot of dust, tearing down some walls and rearranging the furniture, the new Shameless website is up! You’ll notice a lot of changes around here, which we hope will make the site easier to use and more interesting to read. For example, our old editors’ blog is now on the front page, so it’ll be easier than ever to keep up to date on the latest Shameless news—and all the news, links and commentary we think you’ll find intriguing. We want the blog to be an interactive thing, so please jump in on the conversation and post your comments on anything that strikes your fancy.

We also have a web exclusive interview with the Gossip to celebrate the relaunch. All our older articles are still up too—just check out our revamped back issue archives.

If you discover anything that’s broken, or if you’d just like to leave a comment about the site, let me know at webmaster@shamelessmag.com or leave a comment on this post. Enjoy the new site!