READING TO UPLIFT YOUR MIND, RATHER THAN YOUR DICK AND/OR TITS
I happened across a previous issue of this publication in a coffeeshop here in Kingston, and wrote to the author way back when wanting to swap. She doesn’t do the swap thing…and now I see why…
You know I didn’t mean it like that, kids!! She doesn’t swap because she puts a lot of time and effort into her ‘zine (and has a crappy service job, which means she does not have money to burn…and there are other reasons outlined for her reluctance to go into debt in Art’s name) – and it shows!
The brightly coloured, ultra-keen cover art couldn’t have been cheap, and, though it’s the size of those little books on astrology and possessed kittens you see in supermarket checkout lines, it’s very thick
A fair amount of this personal ‘zine, as the title might suggest, deals with her adventures at Ladyfest, a musical/artistic festival that took place last year in Seattle (and is evidently going on again this year in the Midwest– a sort of listenable Lillith Fair, I would wager…much like YoYo a GoGo, I suppose I shall have to wait for the soundtrack to find out…). Exhaustive coverage of bands and ‘zines and lusting after girls, with little being held back (it made me feel voyeuristic, but I suppose that’s the intent…).
Other parts deal with her illnesses and the medical establishment, and are detailed and disturbing.
I realize it may sound alternately depressing and insular – but trust me when I say it’s not. I reached page 110 of this pocket-sized ‘zine and wanted more, more, more…
Sound Collector #6 (Issues, Elements and Histories)
(ed. by Laris Kreslins, available for $7.50 US (about $11 CAN) from P.O. Box 2056, NY, NY, 10013, USA, [email protected] (this issue comes with a 25 track, 70 minute CD, with the 26th track being a video)Stylish – challenging, but never impenetrable – this guide to eccentric, experimental, edgy or cool-but-ignored-or-forgotten music has kept me under its spell for three issues, and including a generous CD was just overkill.
It’s a 200-page handsomely bound book, with pieces on: Flying Lizards (old folks will remember their deadpan take on Money from 1979); Comet Gain (a band that started in the Riot Grrrl scene and evolved); Lee Hazlewood and Phil Ochs (60s legends, one still alive); Kurt Ralske, formerly of Ultra Vivid Scene, and now an engineer and electronic music maker; Margaret Leng Tan, a toy piano virtuoso; and much more.
Simply too cool to be missed. Look for it in bigger book stores – nay, DEMAND it!! J