Me and Bruce (And my Dad) - www.coolschmoolzines.blogspot.co.uk
Bruce lovin' not necessary here, as Holly Casio's buoyant energy shines
through so resoundingly that this zine will draw you in whatever your feelings
on the man. Personally, I left the zine wanting to write to Holly and ask her to
make me a Bruce Springsteen compilation tape!
I love the honesty and the slant that Holly has chosen to write with here -
it's so unique, yet represents many themes that others can relate to. She
recounts what a comfort Bruce's music was to her at university when she felt
alienated for not being from the same sort of background as others she
encountered - especially within the queer and feminist scenes, to the point
where she felt the need to cover up a bit to fit in. She draws parallels between
Bruce's poor upbringing and her own, and how Bruce's songs are often about
working class anger (hard work, low pay, feeling trapped in crummy jobs in small
towns), and she looks to her dad's factory job, its long hours, how bad it is
for his health, how he is still in that job now, but how her dad rocks and goes
to gigs at night (her dad sounds cool). She finds in Bruce's songs she
can feel the characters' desperate need for adventure and escape - and the
sentiments and the big loud choruses are so freeing.
I love that Holly has also made a comic about Bruce and sent it to him! I
should also mention that this zine is in nice, old school zine style, with
typewriter-y font and cut up text with simple photo/collage layout, and that
Holly is a 90s zinester.
Moving down to London from a small northern town, Holly still feels a sense
of adventure about being in a big city, having left smalltown life behind
(smalltown life that wouldn't accept her being queer). I think a lot of people
will relate to how Holly feels priveleged to be here and as if she doesn't quite
belong, and how she might be grown up now, but is still poor, and still finds
formally academic speak about queer and feminist politics alienating. I'll leave you with this quote from the zine:
'For those that read the Guardian and have credible record collections, and
go to farmer's markets and have brunch, then you can get away with listening
to Bruce Springsteen's and thinking of his songs as nothing more than quaint
stories and characters for your record collection. But for a lot of people those
songs are a reflection of their lives.'
Clod Magazine - http://www.hightown.org.uk/
Issue 24 and Luton's finest Clod magazine is still going strong. If you've
never heard of it, it's a bit of a sin, as it is in a league of its own with its
pulp-magazine style approach. It's crammed with loads of cut up text, lots of
silly messsing about, and so much cleverly witty satire.
They sell this zine at the ICA in London, which is always a good reminder
for me to buy it, when I am browsing the magazine racks there.
It's produced by an older generation, and it makes for unique reading
because new zines are often written by young people. So there is that original
zine approach, and it's a bit different.
I love that Clod is from Luton and that the guys that make it fondly take
the piss out of the place, but at the same time are trying to put something
artistic back.
If you like made up speech cut out of loads of different
magazines/newspapers, stuff that is surreal and that'll genuinely have you
laughing aloud on a boring journey or at work, I recommend Clod.
Best article this issue had to be the one about social networking. Why do
we do it when it is full of: narcissists, fraudsters, celebrity murderers,
kidnappers, and terrorists ! ('Who invented this? I think they should know what
a lousy interface they have made.') How you have to keep updating or people will
think you are dead: 'You can't stand still now that you have started... You need
to be revised, on a weekly basis, at least... You are basically working for an
employer who does not pay you! You get no lunch breaks, and to make things even
more humiliating, that employer happens to be you!' I was nearly falling over
laughing on the commuter train when I read about the alternatives that we
supposedly had before internet social sites: putting newer and newer photographs
of yourself in a scrapbook, sending photos of yourself to complete strangers in
the post, asking lager monsters in the pub to threaten you, etc etc!
Attempt to do the 100 things before your dead list (e.g. smash up a toast
machine, join an orchestra), and download the reworked version of America by
Simon and Garfunkel - the lyrics are all about bizarre food.
Scary Hairy - weakandlovely@hotmail.com
If, like me, you are often cautious of
comic zines and prefer perzines, I recommend this as the best of both worlds!
This is a brilliant feminist zine about body hair and perceptions of how women
should be, generally.
The author came to terms with her family reacting negatively to her having
her unshaved legs and armpits, to the point where she started to cover up when
she would visit them. But she came to realise it wasn't right being herself, and
so she would show her hair more than ever. The cartoons are cute, and the
sentiments are spot on. You know when someone writes out something that you had
only been feeling but hadn't quite expressed aloud or put into words? Well, I
felt exactly that way about Scary Hairy. I have been thinking a lot about 'mens'
clothes and 'womens' clothes, and conventions and assumptions, and negative
judgements. What the author writes about how men can walk with confidence
because typical men's clothing is practical, whereas women's clothing is
restrictive or revealing, needs shouting from the rooftops. Why can't we walk
with freedom of movement, and without consciousness, or fear of our bodies being
so looked at, and men can? But then there is the catch 22 situation, as the
author puts it, if she wears comfortable clothes, which happen to be men's
clothes, then: 'Is there anything wrong with that? Freedom of choice, right?
Either I dress like a woman and be uncomfortable, or I dress like a man? What a
terrible exchange is that!' There is also a lot of history and connotations
about power to men's clothing, and it was really great to see someone writing
about this too.
I also appreciated the cartoons about trying to explain your choices to
little kids, when they have been force fed by the media (and
sometimes parents/family, because of patriarchy) sexist notions, so they are
confused or scared by you. Some good explosions of the myth of 'feminist' as a
label, and fun cartoon strips about being who you want to be, also make this a
fantastic feminist perzine.
Band T-Shirt - vanessaberryworld.wordpress.com
There aren't enough music zines around, in my opinion. I was thrilled to
come across this one, as it is an idea that appeals to me, and possibly even the
kind of zine I would myself make! It's all about band t-shirts, and each band
t-shirt is listed with a story detailing the memories and emotions connected to
when the t-shirt was bought, and what the wearer remembers about that time of
her life. I love it!
This zine comes all the way from Australia, which is also interesting to
me, as I used to have pen pals from there - probably from around the same time
in the 90s when the author writes/remembers about. One of these pen pals was a
Cure fan, and here we have a story about a bootleg Cure t-shirt. The author also
mentions The Hummingbirds, and I recall a pen pal sending me a tape of
theirs.
The zine is a nice square shaped zine, a size and shape that isn't done so
much, and I like the way the band t-shirts are all drawn carefully by hand, and
it is not just photos - tiny little figures of band members and
everything.
I think you'll be hooked on this zine even if you don't necessarily like
all the bands written about, as it's more the theme and the fandom here. But for
your interest, some of the bands included here are: The Pixies, The Cure, The
Birthday Party, The Cananes, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and Bauhaus. The reminiscing
about being a teenage goth is familiar ground to me too.
Good Fuzzy Sounds - thesimonmurphy @ yahoo.com
Music geeks will love this zine. I don't know of any other zines that are
centred around one particular guitar pedal, or just guitar pedals in general.
I'm interested in all things technical about music, and this zine acts as a
great tutorial to the fuzz pedal. There are illustrations of soundwaves, an
introduction to the fuzz pedal, a history of the use of fuzz pedal (a good
example is it's that sound the guitar in Can't Get No Satisfaction by the
Rolling Stones makes). There is a coup of an interview with an early fuzz pedal
inventor, Pepe Rush. There is also an interview with a female queer pedal maker,
Devi Ever, who discusses the barriers and judgements that women face, as well as
discussing the time she was personally commissioned by Billy Corgan of the
Smashing Pumpkins to make his dream pedal - only for him to turn it away in
dislike! (his loss). The zine is red ink on blue paper, which I really like. All music
enthusiasts will love this zine.
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This month's zine reviews were written by Fliss, the lovely lady behind SW Zines - thanks!
