Time Enough At Last

It Was A Noble Experiment

2006-03-20T19:46:00.000-05:00

Just short of its one year anniversary, I’m closing the book on Time Enough At Last: A Reading (b)Log. The posting has become extremely spotty, and there are many, many more reading and book blogs that can do this job much better than I can.

So, as of tonight, Time Enough At Last, along with the blog Papercuts, will be shuttered. However, I will be leaving the blog archives up, since I do think there are some decent book and zine reviews, and plenty of useful information (although some of the links may be dead by now).

And yes, perhaps it’s ironic or counterproductive or something to be shutting down two blogs only to start up a new blog, but it’s time for something new. The Syndicate Product Covert HQ will be under construction for a while, especially the link collection. This site will incorporate the occasional book or zine review, as well.

So, please feel free to wander about the (small) archives, and be sure to bookmark the Syndicate Product Covert HQ .

Thank you for your time.

Zines of Note: 2006

2006-01-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

For the past few years, the fine folks at Tugboat Press have published BEST ZINE EVER!, a collection of zine readers and zine publishers picks for the zines they enjoyed in the previous year. Look for it to drop in February. Here were my picks.

About my Disappearance / 52p / Quarter / $1
Dave Roche (On Subbing) has Crohn’s Disease, a nasty digestive ailment. This zine is his journey through the health care system as he tries to find out what is wrong with him, how to treat it, and how to live with it. It’s not for the squeamish: “I shit myself three times over four days. Do you know what that does to your confidence, to your self esteem? I had diarrhea five times a day or more for over a month and a half.” Hopefully, writing this zine was therapeutic for Dave.
Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Minnesota Ave. Portland, OR 97217-4551

Breakfast #4 / 72p / Digest-sized / $3
Breakfast is my absolute favorite meal (seriously), so I was happy to find this my mailbox again after a long drought. More donut tales, lots about breakfasts in San Francisco, breakfast food haikus, comics, zine reviews and photos of random diners (buildings, not people while they eat.) Great writing, clean and readable layout, lots of fun.
Vincent Voelz, 575 12th Ave. #3, San Francisco, CA 94118

Caboose #5: The Improvement Issue / 40p / Digest / $1
Liz Mason defies the out-of-shape zine slacker stereotype and shares her diet and fitness regimes in this issue. Since this is Liz, there’s an extensive discussion about the crappy music (provided by the Muzak corporation) at the gym. Liz also recently appeared on reality show as a “zine expert,” helping one of the women create their own zine. Her extensive account of the experience is interesting, especially the contrast between what was filmed and the itty-bitty bit that actually made the cut. Toss in a review of a Madonna concert, weird neighbors, and “Ridiculous Names for the Cats Part II” and it’s another fine issue of Caboose.
Liz Mason, PO Box 476802, Chicago IL 60647 / caboosezine@yahoo.com

Cartography for Beginners #5 / 56p / Quarter-sized / $2.50
April loves Morrissey. Let me rephrase that. April loooooooovvvveees Morrissey. The centerpiece of this issue of CfB is her 2004 tour diary, where she followed the Moz around to six different cities, saw nine shows, met him, and gave him a “Jon Stewart for President” t-shirt. Lots of fun! Also includes funny neighbor reviews and the usual dose of April’s wit. It always cheers me to find an envelope from April in the PO Box. This is classic zine-making.
Emotion Lotion, 2221 S. Catalina St., Suite #1, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Emma Goldman / #3 / 48p / Digest / $3
Rebekah is a PhD student in Urban Education. This issue includes rants about white men who can’t accept their granted privilege, moving, overviews of classes and dissertation, the politics of Live 8, and some Philly-only material, such as the photographs of images of women around the city, from murals to the Bottoms Up strip club sign.
Rebekah B., PO Box 3482, Philadelphia PA 19123 / Emma Goldman Zine

Extranjero #4 / 32p /Digest / “A modest amount of US$ or a trade” (send about $2-3)
A much in love couple – an American (him) and a Spaniard (her) publish this charming zine from Spain. Go along with them on their tapas tour of Plasencia! There’s alos contributions from two other expat zine writers, Gianni Simone (Call & Response, Japan) and Robert P. Helms (Guinea Pig Zero, France but returning to US). It’s always fun to read about this couple’s cultural clashes, as Kris continues to adjust to Spain, and Lola ponders Americans.
Kris & Lola, Calle Obispo 4 Bajo, Plasencia 10600, Caceres, Spain

Full Tilt #2: Dancing Away from Home / 40p / Digest / $2
From ages 13 to about 17, Megan studied ballet a performing arts boarding school. Dance instructors, dorm life, clothes, hair, bodies, weight issues, dance styles and more are all chronicled. She also addresses why she left the program before graduating to return home, and attend a “normal” academic high school. Megan still dances, but has suffered a few nasty injuries (two knee surgeries already!)
Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Minnesota Ave. Portland, OR 97217-4551 or order direct from Something’s Begun

Here be Dragons #9: Punx Over 30 / 44p / Half-legal/ $2
This is another zine that resurfaced in 2005 after a LONG absence. Welcome back, Mike and Eric! This issue is about growing into adulthood. Both Mike and Eric discuss how, yes, you can be married and own a house and still embrace the ideals of punk rock and DIY activism well into your thirties. Eric’s frustrations of teaching writing and English at a community college, and how depressingly conservative and lazy the students are insightful. There’s also a thoughtful discussion of the Mr. Roboto project, an activist space just outside of Pittsburgh. This zine should be required reading for every 17-year-old self-righteous snotty punk rock kid.
Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Minnesota Ave. Portland, OR 97217-4551, or order from: Mike Q Roth, PO Box 8131, Pittsburgh PA 15217

The Hungover Gourmet / #9 / 32p / Digest-sized / $2
Another mouth-watering issue of the alternative food zine – no expensive ingredients required here! Stories of Trader Vic’s, NYC’s 14th Street of old, a cheesesteak showdown, restaurant reviews (including Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, just like in Tapeheads), and the Berlin (NJ) Farmer’s Market.
The Hungover Gourmet, PO Box 5531, Lutherville MD 21094-5531

I Dreamed I Was Assertive #7 / 56p / Quarter-sized / $2.50
Another great installment of page-turning goodness from Celia. I have no idea why she views her zines as “whine fests” because they most certainly are not. Well constructed, designed and written, IDIWA is full of astute observations about mix tapes and libraries. Share her excitement about stumbling across a “find” at the library: “Do you know that feeling of excitement when you find the book you are looking for? Have you ever experienced that even greater feeling of finding what you aren’t looking for? A spine on a shelf catches your eye and you discover something you never even knew you wanted. It’s a treasure hunt. The library is safety and comfort and adventure.”
E-mail perezeeb@yahoo.com for ordering information.

Mediageek / #3 / 36p / Digest-sized / $3
The Midwest’s definitive Media Watchdog shares continuing adventures in cheap, plastic camera-land, the stranglehold that Christian radio stations have on the FM spectrum, and details about a pirate radio broadcast from a parking garage. The issues rounds out with an in-depth review of a new documentary about electronic bulletin boards systems – The BBS Documentary -- which existed long before the Internet as we know it.
Mediageek, c/o Paul Riismandel, PO Box 2102, Champaign IL 61825-2102

Not My Small Diary / #12, Volumes 1 and 2 / 192p / Digest-sized / $6
This set of Not My Small Diary features 74 different artists, two volumes, luscious, silk-screened thick cover stock, and – the best part – twist-tie binding! The theme for this issue is “After Midnight.” Lots of great work here, but my favorite comix is actually one that doesn’t directly address the theme – it’s Ten Foot Rule Industries’ Shawn Granton drawing about his “man purse” – a.k.a. his bike/messenger bag.
Available via PayPal to delangel3@hotmail.com, or e-mail or check My Small Webpage for a mailing address.

OFF-Line #34 / Free but donations appreciated
Vincent’s life expressed in yearly embarrassing moments from birth to age 22. Very daring concept and brutally honest confessions make for compelling reading! There are many surprising, dare I say shocking, revelations contained within. Most people just want to bury their embarrassing moments from life, but Vincent makes it work. Also includes embarrassing moments from guest contributors.
Vincent Romano, 35 Barker Ave., #4G, White Plains, NY 10601

On Subbing: The First Four Years by Dave Roche / 128p / $5
In the introduction, Dave suggests, “I think this book is best if you read it in intervals…”, and he’s absolutely correct. This is Dave’s diaries of four years of working as a substitute Education Assistant with special needs students in Portland. It’s a very harrowing read, since both Dave and the students he’s trying to help get the short end of the stick from the system (and it’s a really short stick). Dave gets sent to the wrong assignments, treated rudely by teachers and staff, often not given any direction (or even keys to open classrooms he’s supposed to be in). The students also seem to get knocked around the education system in the city quite a bit. Are the programs even going to be helpful for them in the long run? Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Minnesota Ave. Portland, OR 97217-4551

Skate Tough You Little Girls / 24p / Digest / $2
It is so cool that Celia is in her 30s and into skateboarding, unafraid of breaking bones. In this zine, she explores some of the lesser covered aspects of skateboarding culture: the International Society for Skateboarding Moms, an artist who makes bags out of old skateboard decks, and – most interestingly – an analysis of the Vision Street Wear ads that appeared in Sassy Magazine in the late 80s/early 90s.
E-mail perezeeb@yahoo.com for ordering information.

Underworld Crawl #3 / 32p / Digest / $2
A detailed look into the life of a night shift employee and his assorted co-workers. While you have to deal with fewer people working overnights, you deal with much stranger people. Compelling read from R. Lee, nice clean layout, and a great change from reading crap from 16-year-old whiners.
R. Lee, P. O. Box 1421, Oshkosh, WI, 54903

Suspended Animation

2005-12-29T14:41:00.000-05:00

Again, I’m still here. Not like you would have known from the 2.5 month lack of posts to this and the reading blog, Time Enough At Last.

While I wish I could say that my absence was due to finishing the aforementioned NaNoWriMo book and having it “discovered”, in the words of LL Cool J, that’s a lie. Truthfully, I got about 10,000 words in and then just hit the wall. I think I’d like to work with it some more, but outside of the constraints of National Novel Writing Month.

No, it was a more banal combination of laziness, inertia, depression, distraction, burn-out, the job, the change of seasons, lack of inspiration, wah fucking wah, that kept me from posting on even a semi-regular basis. It’s not as if I wasn’t enraged about anything the past two months, or didn’t have anything to say. It’s just that it all seemed so useless, hopeless, and not worth the pixels. I never wanted either of these projects to turn into what a friend calls “I took a shit” blogs, where the author writes incessantly about themselves and their lives. To me, those aren’t blogs, those are journals. And very few people have interesting enough lives to warrant journals that are read by potentially millions of people.

I’m not even sure where to pick up from on this blog, which is more of a problem over on the reading blog. My reading notes fell into disarray a few months ago, and I’m not sure if I’m going to even attempt to put together a “Time Enough at Last 2005” print zine edition. I will look through my notes, zines and blogs and make a decision soon. I’m not sure anyone would miss it if it didn’t happen.

I am going to strive to post on a more regular basis. (Where have I said that before?) I really envy people who can keep their blogs going day after day with truly interesting content. (Not just, “I did this and did that and then I took a shit.”) There’s some blogs that I actually have stopped reading just because they were just too good and it made me feel even worse about my neglect of this little here blog.

But then again, would anyone really miss Papercuts or Time Enough At Last if they disappeared? Blogs, like zines, are ephemeral. There are probably more “dead” and neglected blogs on the Internet than actively updated ones.

So, that’s the story, that’s the update for now. Maybe the new year will inspire or anger me enough to start posting every day or so. I certainly hope so. In the words of the late Joey Ramone, “I’m looking for something to believe in.”

Yep, more for the “to read” list.

2005-10-17T22:00:00.000-04:00

Yet another “best of” list: Time Magazine’s 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to the present.

A few observations: Totally cool that they included The Watchmen. Ugh, the long, overly dramatic The Corrections is on there, but not the elegant The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay? Nice tip of the hat to Judy Blume by including Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Why Jerry Kosinski’s The Painted Bird and not Being There? Good call on White Noise.

Review: Chicago Noir edited by Neal Pollack

2005-10-11T20:08:00.000-04:00

“They tell me you are wicked and I believe them,
for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.” (Carl Sandburg, “Chicago”)

In the introduction to Chicago Noir (Akashic Books), editor Neal Pollack (an expatriate of the town), writes “Chicago’s literature, with a brief detour into the world of Saul Bellow and occasional forays by Theodor Dreiser, has rarely concerned itself with the vagaries of the upper and upper-middle classes.”

New York City had Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Dawn Powell and witty tales of old uptown money and downtown bohemians. Chicago had Upton Sinclair writing about Polish and Hungarian immigrants falling into vats of beef tallow in the slaughterhouses, Nelson Algren, and the essays of Studs Terkel. With its rough edges, “big shoulders” (as poet Carl Sandburg wrote), and status as the Second City, Chicago was a natural choice for Akashic Books next installment of their Noir Series.

Chicago Noir is an even, well-paced collection of stories representing the varied geographies, ethnicities, races and cultures of the city both old and new. Traveling geographically from the far south to the Illinois/Wisconsin border, it spans the Eastern European, Hispanic, black, gay, and middle class neighborhoods of the city. Some of the stories are short, terse scenes (M.K. Meyers’ “Monkey Head” and Todd Dills’ “Arcadia”), while longer selections have a back story, character development, and conclusion. Of the longer stories, Achy Obejas’ “Destiny Returns” (the story of an aging drag queen from Cuba), Claire Zulkey’s “The Great Billik” (a creepy supernatural-tinged tale with a great neighborhood feel to it), and Jim Arndorfer’s “The Oldest Rivalry” (or, what really happens when Bears and Packers fans square off) are especially notable.

Since this is noir, there’s plenty of anguish, pain, death and other assorted human miseries between the covers of Chicago Noir. Some is garden-variety noir (Luciano Guerriero’s “Goodnight Chicago and Amen” and Amy Sayer-Roberts’ “Death Mouth”), while other stories have more unusual approaches to revenge, such as the police scanner junkies in Kevin Guilfoile’s “Zero Zero Day” and C.J. Sullivan’s pissed off aging boxer in “Alex Pinto Hears the Bell.” One of the most chilling stories doesn’t take place in Chicago at all, but is structured as a letter written by the newly-freed Nathan Leopold, now living in an island paradise (Peter Orner’s “Dear Mr. Kleczka”).

Joe Meno (Hairstyles of the Damned and Punk Planet columnist) pens vintage jazz noir in “Like a Rocket With a Beat.” Editor Neal Pollack introduces an unwilling participant to “Marty’s Drink or Die Club.” Often, big names like Meno and Pollack in short story anthologies contribute little more than castoff pieces left over from elsewhere. This is not the case here.

Truthfully, there are no clunkers in Chicago Noir. (And I’m not just saying that as a former Illinois resident, albeit of downstate.) These are well-chosen tales that reflect a city that always had a chip on its big shoulder. While many of the plots are well-worn noir themes, when set against the backdrop of Chicago, they seem surprisingly new.

Akashic Books should find great success with the Noir Series. Collections for Baltimore, Washington D.C., Minneapolis-St. Paul, Los Angeles, Miami and others are in the works. (Hey, how about Philadelphia? There’s enough Noir in this city for two volumes!) Hopefully, they will be of the same high quality as this installment.

Chicago Noir edited by Neal Pollack (Akashic Books)

Review: Good Advice for Trendy Young People of All Ages by Jennifer Blowdryer

2005-10-10T12:57:00.000-04:00

The new “advice” tome edited by Jennifer Blowdryer, Good Advice for Young Trendy People of All Ages (Manic D Press), can be summed up thusly:

Rule Number One: Don’t be an asshole.
Rule Number Two: Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Rule Number Three: “All the booze in the world will not help you write like Charles Bukowski, likewise heroin and William Burroughs or Jim Carroll. You are not as bright as them.”

A collection of essays by performance artists, writers, musicians, addicts, convicts and assorted other scenesters, Good Advice for Young Trendy People of All Ages is an amusing tome for hipsters and wannabes everywhere. It won’t be of much use to the jaded downtown New York City crowd, but will probably give hope and inspiration for kids stuck in dead end towns. While a sixteen-year old in a faded rustbelt city probably won’t really need advice on How To Work a Room, it will at least prepare them not to act like an asshole if they finally get to do so.

While not really a serious advice / self-help book (it’s classified as “pop culture”), Good Advice… is hardly a joke, either. For example, if you really want to be an ArtStar, stop blathering about the projects you want to do and go out there and actually perform them. If you’re not on the guest list, don’t try to use your alleged indie cred to get you in for free, because the door guy really doesn’t care. It’s okay to have a job, but the right kind of job – bartender, hairdresser, flunky. Other trendy people can be your allies (and help you find gigs), but watch out for Arch Rivals who are up to no good. Finally, tip well, and “Never tip less than a dollar. You just look like a boob.”

Overall, a fun fluffy read for the trendy, wannabe trendy, and even those with no interest in being trendy at all (just to see how the other half lives, darling).

Good Advice for Trendy Young People of All Ages by Jennifer Blowdryer (Manic D Press)

Shameless self-zine promotion: SYNDICATE PRODUCT #11

2005-09-19T21:48:00.000-04:00

Announcing:

SYNDICATE PRODUCT #11

(The zine formerly known as Low Hug, 1998-2004)
68 pages / 1/4 - legal sized / $3.00
Now Available and featuring…

Jettisoned! Terrifying True Tales of Trashed Treasures! Ugly lamps! Favorite rocks! Legless mannequins! Prom dresses! Cars! Mandolins! And many other items left behind while moving, given away, or just tossed out before their time! A fantastic compilation of familiar contributors, including: Ken Bausert, Davida Gypsy Breier, Mark Campos, Delaine Derry-Green, Lauren Eichelberger, Mike Faloon, Bruce Henderson, Juleigh Howard-Hobson, Clutch McB, Carrie McNinch, Kannan Naik, Jason Pankoke, Terry Perez, Jack Persico, Rae [the angry goth queen], Jackie Regales, and Sean Stewart!

And that’s not all! There’s High Bias (Another Mix Tape article), the Evolution of a Mediageek, Yellow Fever: An Ode to Dollar General, and more Castoff Culture!

All in a swank package! All for the LOW price of only $3!

To get your copy: Send $3 well wrapped cash to A.j. Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne PA 19050. Or, you can order using PayPal for $3.40 (to cover fees) using the e-mail lowhug@yahoo.com

Don’t delay! Get SYNDICATE PRODUCT today!

Review: Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker

2005-08-30T22:29:00.000-04:00

If you’re thinking of writing a travel zine or one discussing the lofty idea of “space”, first read Letters from New Orleans (Garrett County Press) and ask if you can do it as eloquently as Rob Walker.

Walker, writer of the excellent “Consumed” column in the New York Times Magazine, lived in New Orleans with his girlfriend (here only identified as “E”) from just before the beginning of 2000 until late 2003. The best justification they give for leaving good jobs in New York City and moving south was “… to make a long story short, we just like it here more right now.” That’s the most honest reason I’ve ever read for deciding to pull up stakes and move – not for a job, not for a relationship, not for familial obligations – but just because. Letters began in a very zine-like form, as occasional e-mail dispatches to friends. Eventually, some of the pieces appeared in Slate and other online and print magazines.

Letters from New Orleans is not a book for tourists looking for the clichéd cheap thrills of the city. Although Walker writes about extraordinary New Orleans (e.g. Carnival and Mardi Gras seasons), it is the ordinary, everyday New Orleans that turns out to be spectacular.

For example, Walker explores under the I-10 highway on North Claiborne Avenue, an area that used to be a nice sunny, landscaped respite in one of New Orleans’ bleaker areas. It’s now a sunless, glass strewn, concrete expanse, but people still use it as a public area for sitting, picnicking, and even art. The concrete support columns for the highway have been painted with murals; one column is covered with layers of obituaries clipped from the local papers.

Walker and E try out the traditional four-or-five hour alcohol-laden Friday luncheons at Galatoire’s, and attend services at the St. Paul Spiritual Church of God in Christ to hear the gospel choir. He mourns the demise of Yvonne’s, a corner bar in his neighborhood that he wasn’t even sure was in business until he pushed on the door one day. He wasn’t a regular patron, but still hated to see become a hipster bar: “It’s a small story, I know. Just another little outbreak of gentrification, the kind of thing people like me spend half our time complaining about and the other half causing.” There’s also an in-depth story about the long, slow disintegration of the Desire public housing complex, the failed promises of the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and the few stalwart residents who refuse to leave. One of the most interesting Letters is only tangentially tied to New Orleans – a history and analysis of the song “St. James Infirmary.”

Letters is not ironic, hipster writing. It’s not “oh, aren’t we cool, being such urban pioneers, living in a semi-downscale, semi-dangerous area in New Orleans.” Walker is observational, descriptive and questioning. He tries to address issues of race, since New Orleans is still a very segregated city, as demonstrated at the fancy society balls during Carnival, attended exclusively by white residents of the city, the self-proclaimed royalty:

“The basic transaction seems to be that these aristocrats give us all the gift of Carnival, and in return they get to play dress-up, and belong to exclusive clubs. Their goal is not to recognize and welcome new members into their society; their goal is to protect what they have. In the guise of upholding the past, they live in the past. This is the classic logic of aristocracy.”

I’ve read very few essays, articles, books – almost anything – that really captures a city, a town, or a “place” so vividly as does Letters from New Orleans. Few writers can transfer the essence of a place on paper well. (George Orwell was a master of it; currently Sarah Vowell is pretty good at it, as is Chuck Klosterman.) The book’s designers also deserve credit – the smaller size (5.5 x 7), clean layout, and use of small photographs to accent the text create a very pleasing package. (The fonts even deserve mention, both for the body copy as well as the running heads.)

Letters from New Orleans is for anyone who wants to experience “somewhere else” from the view of a transplanted, temporary local. It brings into focus a New Orleans that is rarely seen, and, unfortunately, will probably never be seen again due to the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Katarina. Perhaps it will inspire other writers to focus on their surroundings when visiting (or relocating to) a place, as opposed to only their own personal troubles and experiences.

Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker (Garrett County Press)

2005-08-21T21:23:00.000-04:00

Spanking new book blog

Robb Lott of the very-worth-your-time Hitch Magazine has just launched his own book blog, Bookgasm. It’s dedicated to “reading material to get excited about,” including “…graphic novels, trashy paperbacks, cheap magazines and other things that much of America pretends to be ashamed of, for no good reason.” Books currently reviewed include titles such as The Loch by Steve Alten, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way! by the Human Chin (um, Bruce Campbell), and Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion. I look forward to his further commentary and reviews.

Current Zines of Note: Two favorites publish spanking new issues

Mediageek / #3 / $3 / 36p / Digest-sized
Available from Paul Riismandel, PO Box 2102, Champaign IL 61825-2102 or www.mediageek.org
The latest print installment from the Midwest’s Media Watchdog includes the further adventures in cheap, plastic camera-land that’s inspiring me to go hunting on eBay. There’s also an article that helps to explain the stranglehold that Christian radio stations have on the FM spectrum; also details about a pirate radio broadcast from a parking garage. The issues rounds out with an in-depth review of a new documentary about electronic bulletin boards systems – The BBS Documentary - , which existed long before the Internet as we know it. Use the Mediageek print zine as a companion to the often updated Mediageek site.

The Hungover Gourmet / #9 / $2 / 32p / Digest-sized
Available from The Hungover Gourmet, PO Box 5531, Lutherville MD 21094-5531 and www.hungovergourmet.com
Another mouth-watering issue of the alternative food zine – no expensive ingredients required here! Stories of Trader Vic’s, NYC’s 14th Street of old, a cheesesteak showdown (hey, Dan, you really have to try Tony Luke’s), restaurant reviews (including Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, just like in Tapeheads!), and the Berlin (NJ) Farmer’s Market. As with Mediageek, the print edition of The Hungover Gourmet supplements the frequently updated blog, and comprehensive web site. Order up!

Listening up.

I’ve started listening to the occasional audio book on my commute. My local library has a nice selection of books on compact disc, and can get almost any title through county-wide interlibrary load. Recent listens include Morgan Spurlock’s Don’t Eat this Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America. I really enjoyed it, in no small part that it was read by Spurlock, who really threw himself into it. Of course, it only re-enforced my commitment to never eating from a fast food chain ever again. Nauseating facts such as that a burger from a place like McDonalds could be made of meat from a thousand cows. Or that there are more McDonalds in the United States than public libraries. He also recounts his 30-day all McDonalds diet he did for the film Super Size Me in even grosser detail. Gack. But, it’s a great listen. I don’t think I would have enjoyed reading the book nearly as much, since it has some very “listy” sections.

Currently, I’m listening to Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs, which I had actually read earlier this year. It’s also read by the author, and I think I’m enjoying it more than when I read that book. Next up is Tobias Wolf’s Old School.

Review: Fatal Distraction by Sonja Ahlers

2005-08-15T19:36:00.000-04:00

At first read, Canadian artist Sonja Ahlers’ graphic novel Fatal Distraction (Insomniac Press) doesn’t seem to be much of one, especially if you’re used to graphic novels that resemble big fat comic books. In Fatal Distraction (a loose play on the Fatal Attraction story), some pages feature only a small drawing or doodle and a few scribbled words. Others have scraps of text lifted from other places: books, newspapers, movies. Fatal Distraction resembles more of a handmade artist or altered book, as opposed to a “traditional” graphic novel, incorporating collages, original drawings, random words and lots of other scraps assembled and re-assembled. It’s almost like a fictional Found magazine.

Work through Fatal Distraction, and you will discover the story. It’s part self-examination (I know I survived the hard times by being obsessed or I strike when the iron is unplugged); part of a catalog of a relationship falling apart (Not only am I a fool 4 love I’m a fucken idiot and The stupidest thing I ever did was you and I had to sit on my hands not to call you); and part reflections on being in a rock and roll band and the surrounding rock criticism (I don’t want to be in the opening bad singing about the artist working in the art supply store). Finally, Ahlers’ “fierce bunny” returns, embodied in the protagonist.

For many people, Fatal Distraction will not be an easy read until you become comfortable with Ahlers’ style and flow. It doesn’t read like a comic, it doesn’t read like a novel. It’s poetry, not prose. Overall, a challenging project and interesting literal interpretation of the graphic novel form.

Fatal Distraction by Sonja Ahlers, Insomniac Press

Review: What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store? by Bill Talen

2005-08-03T19:43:00.000-04:00

If you are at all familiar with anti-consumerist movements (e.g. Buy Nothing Day, No More Sweatshops!, the Clean Clothes Campaign), you may already know the Reverend Billy (nee Bill Talen), leader of the Church of Stop Shopping. With his white jacket, $5 collar, and Elvisy-closer-to-god hair, the good Reverend and his church preach out against consumerism, gentrification via chain stores, commercialism, senseless wars, and the homogenization of our lives. His group performs original, creative street (and often in-store) theater, 100% non-destructive, designed to get people thinking: What third-world child produced this piece of Disney-branded crap? Should we really pay extra for the so-called culture that is foisted by Starbucks when all we really want is a cup of coffee? Do we need so much crap, period?

Now out in paperback, What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store? (The New Press) -- the book’s title comes from a secret memo circulated to Starbucks managers in 2000 when RB was planning his “Rage Against the Caffeine” tour of all the locations in Manhattan -- gives readers an overview of the birth of the Church of Stop Shopping, and accounts of some of his performances.

Reverend Billy’s origin story actually does begin in a church. Bill Talen was the live-in house manager for St. Clement’s Church / American Place Theater, located deep in Hell’s Kitchen. Inspiration hit as he watched Times Square – and the rest of NYC – fall prey to gentrification and a Starbucks on every other corner. In the mid-90s, he got himself a collar, a portable pulpit and started preaching his anti-consumerist gospel in Times Square, alongside the few other remaining street preachers who hadn’t been cleaned out by Hiz Honor Rudy G. Slowly he branched out into guerilla in-store performances, and the creation of the Church of Stop Shopping, complete with full gospel choir.

What should I do…? includes stories of “The Cell Phone Opera” performed in the Times Square Disney Store, where members of the Church pretended to shop while on their cell phones, sharing anti-Disney messages with the “people” at the other end. (“I’m not such a political person, Aunt Martha, but if you don’t want sweatshops, then don’t rain that kind of indentured slavery down on little Audrey’s head!”) In an attempt to get them out of the store, employees threatened: “If you are not shopping, I can have you arrested.” (If that sentence doesn’t disturb you, then just stop reading right now and go out and buy some more crap, okay? You’re obviously too far gone to be helped.) A Starbucks performance is also included, and the story of the campaign to save the Edgar Allen Poe house from destruction by New York University. It’s amazing to read an account of that night; I can only imagine what it was like to be in the middle of it all, chanting “Nevermore.”

This is not a “how-to” book for staging your own anti-consumerist protests. For that, please see the often-updated Church of Stop Shopping site (including scripts for Starbucks actions), or check out Recipes for Disaster by the Crimethinc Collective. However, What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store? is a passionate treatise from the Reverend Billy – if it doesn’t move you to action (remember, Buy Nothing Day is the day after Thanksgiving), it will hopefully at least make you stop and consider your purchases of worthless consumer crap (really, what purpose does a three foot stuffed Mickey Mouse serve?) and maybe just put your wallet away.

What should I do if Reverend Billy is in my store? (The New Press)

Review: Starstruck: When A Fan Gets Close to Fame by Michael Joseph Gross

2005-07-31T22:37:00.000-04:00

During the Michael Jackson child molestation trial, most news media (including Triumph the Insult Comic Dog) presented the fans congregated on a daily basis in the parking lot with a constant “look at the freaks” veneer.

It’s difficult to analyze fans, fandom and fan culture as a fan, or so far removed from it that fans are viewed with a smirking sense of irony and amusement. Is it possible to understand fan culture from both the inside and the outside? And furthermore, can it be written about it in a way that is both intelligent and accessible?

In Starstruck: When a Fan Gets Close to Fame (Bloomsbury), author Michael Joseph Gross brings his unique perspective to fandom. He’s been a fan (a teenage autograph collector, amassing thousands of signatures), a journalist, sometimes mistaken for actor Sean Hayes of the show Will and Grace, and a friend of celebrities (he became close to Sean Astin while working on this book). Equipped with this varied dossier, Gross looks at fans, fandom, and celebrity worship from interesting P.O.V.s.

For example, not only does Gross interview for-profit autograph collectors (a group of people who seem almost annoying and parasitic as photographers), he attends the “Hollywood Collectors Show” at the Ramada Inn, where washed up actors sit at booths all day and charge $10 a piece for autographed headshots. These shows are veritable parades of “What ever happened to…”, featuring lineups such as Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster), Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), random surviving Munchkins (The Wizard of Oz), and Karen Lynn Gorney (Saturday Night Fever).

He visits the Michael Jackson parking lot (in the pre-trial days), and talks to fans who have worked themselves into MJ’s inner sanctum, including access to Neverland. More interesting are the Dolly Parton fans, such as the gay couple whose entire 1400 square foot home is packed with Dolly memorabilia, and donated $2000 to have a “personal audience” with Dolly. Gross relates an especially moving story about Parton’s song “I Am Ready” with the recent death of his mother. When an interview with Parton is cancelled, he is first angry because he won’t be able to relate this story to her. After some thought, he concludes:

“I didn’t need to tell Dolly that story – didn’t even want to tell Dolly that story – because the story was mine. The act of reaching out and reading to Mom had been mine, and Dolly did not deserve credit for the understanding I had come to. Dolly sang a song. Then I did something with that song. She made art. I took art and made it into love. I’d been on the verge of using that story as a chit for trade, to get an extra ten minutes of time with Dolly Parton, and I didn’t want to use it that way, because it was worth more than that – more than a hit of false intimacy with a star.”

The remainder of Starstruck covers starfucking (my term, not his) with Mary Hart and publicists, the algebra involved in canceling on friends when you have a chance to have lunch with Uma Thurman, and “people storms” celebrities find themselves caught in. There’s also a weird drunken night with Mickey Rourke in Park City, well before his “rebirth” in Sin City. Finally, Gross talks to celebrities about their own “starstuckness,” such as Debra Messing’s awe of Dustin Hoffman.

Starstuck is critical without being pretentious, admiring without being fawning, and accessible without being too immersed in fan culture. Using examples from his life as well as the industry, Gross examines fandom from both sides. While not as in depth as a book focusing on one specific fan culture (e.g. Deadheads, Trekkers or other science fiction fans), it provides a solid overview of the complexity of celebrity from fans, celebrities, and those who help create both of them.

Starstruck: When A Fan Gets Close to Fame by Michael Joseph Gross, Bloomsbury

Not exactly Pamela Des Barres

2005-07-26T22:45:00.000-04:00

So I did something kinda dorky tonight. But it's book-related, so it qualifies for this blog.

I went to see Chuck Klosterman read at the Free Library of Philadelphia. And he was quite good. Very entertaining. He picked a great chapter to read from Killing Yourself to Live; fun, lively Q&A. Heck, my pal Steve liked it so much that he bought a copy at the table after the reading. (Although he didn't ask Chuck during the Q&A about how he could possibly think Vinnie Vincent is a better guitarist than Steve Vai, which he writes about in Fargo Rock City.)

So, that's not the dorky part.

And I got my book signed. But that's not the dorky part either.

I made him a mix CD of songs that his writing reminded me of. And managed to give it to him with a few zines without embarrassing myself too badly. Or so I hope.

Quick Zine Recs

2005-07-25T22:40:00.000-04:00

I apologize for the lack of posts in the past week or so. Between the oppressive heat, shifting into high gear at work, and an extra-long commute due to the idiots at SEPTA, all I’ve wanted to do is just collapse into air conditioning at the end of the day. However, I do want to mention that I had a wonderful time at the Philadelphia Zine Fest a few Sundays ago, at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia. It was very well organized, and thanks for providing the icy cold bottles of water to keep us from melting.

Met new zine people, caught up with some others, and traded and picked up a nice little stack of zines for El reading. Two I want to mention right away, because they are really worth your time and money:

Emma Goldman / #3 / $2.00+2 stamps or just send $2.50 / 48p / Digest
Available from Rebekah B., PO Box 3482, Philadelphia PA 19123
Rebekah is a PhD student in Urban Education, and still manages to publish a zine. I don’t know when she sleeps. This issue includes rants about white men who can’t accept their granted privileges, moving, overviews of classes and her dissertation, the politics of Live 8, and some Philly-only material, such as the photographs of images of women around the city, from murals to the Bottoms Up strip club sign. This is a really great zine that expertly blends the political and the personal.

I Hear You Like Stories! / #3 / $2 / 32p / Quarter-sized
Available from Meg Favreau, 300 Parker Ave., #201, Philadelphia PA 19128, or check her site Gladys Sells Things
There a really nice personal essay in here about deciding to leave, but what I really enjoyed was the short fiction piece “Old Mother Hubbard.” Fiction in zines is often hit or miss, but this was an excellent short story. Meg also makes strange collages out of clip art – the one of a bunch of asparagus with arms is captioned: “With its short, stalky body and closeness to the ground, bunched asparagus is great at horseshoes.”

More goodies from the Philadelphia Zine Fest to come!

(Also, if you find yourself in Philadelphia on Tuesday, July 26, Chuck Klosterman will be reading at the Free Library of Philadelphia main branch at 7PM.)

Current Zines of Note

2005-07-14T21:30:00.000-04:00

Not My Small Diary / #12, Volumes 1 and 2 / 192p / Digest-sized / $6.
Available via PayPal to delangel3@hotmail.com, or e-mail for a mailing address.
Delaine Derry-Green continues to absolutely astound me with her projects. This set of Not My Small Diary features 74 different artists, two volumes, luscious, silk-screened thick cover stock, and – the best part – twist-tie binding! Quite an original feat, considering NMSD #11 was bound with safety pins! Another great installment of this comix project, where artists contribute panels about their daily lives. The theme for this issue is “After Midnight.” Lots of great work here, and one of my favorite comix is actually one that doesn’t directly address the theme – it’s Ten Foot Rule Industries’ Shawn Granton drawing about his “man purse” – a.k.a. his bike/messenger bag. Words fail me when I try to describe just how original the NMSD projects truly are. Cough up the cash (don’t buy those damn overpriced lattes for a day or three) and see for yourself!

Living Proof / #4 / 80p / Quarter-sized / $3.
Available via PayPal to livingproof@atm4.net, or send orders to Andrew / Livingproof, PO Box 14211, Chicago IL 60614.
I’ve always enjoyed Andrew’s zines, and this one is no exception. More short fiction, more ruminations on nostalgia, more interviews with independent media mavens (this issue features Geoff Merritt of Champaign IL’s Parasol Records), and photography from Utah. The essays about girls are especially heartbreaking.

The East Village Inky / Issues #25, 26 & 27 / 40p / $2 each.
Available from Ayun’s website, or by mail at Ayun Halliday, PO Box 22754, Brooklyn NY, 11202-2754.
The continuing comic and text-heavy adventures of a Hoosier New Yorker, 3 thumbed 7-year-old, 4-year-old skate punk, and Broadway daddy. While it’s often billed as a “mama zine,” there’s enough here for the kid-free as well. Read about exploits at the Republican Convention, traveling, and turning forty. Get off your heiner and order up! (And, while you’re at it, read about Auyn’s pre-kid life in Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Downmarket Dillettante.)

Footnotes

2005-07-08T22:12:00.000-04:00

I always wince a little bit when a book I enjoyed has been optioned for a film adaptation. The results are often bad or deplorable, such as Striptease or Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (why did Clint Eastwood even try?). Sometimes they’re just weak, like the first two Harry Potter films. The third HP film was a vast improvement, basically because the new director, Alfonso Cuaron, was willing to excise large portions of the novel. Of course, there are always magnificent adaptations, namely The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ghost World, even though they dropped all references to the cryptic “ghost world” graffiti, was another fine film. In very rare cases, the screenplay actually improves on a novel. American Psycho was a surprisingly well-done screenplay and film, considering the complete load of crap the novel was.

One of my latest favorite reads, Killing Yourself to Live, has been optioned for film. I await with equal parts dread and eager anticipation.

Meanwhile, read “When the Film Outshines the Novel”, an essay on this dilemma. (Unfortunately, it’s a NYT link, you’ll need to be registered. Yeah, I hate that, too.)

Green people are encouraging readers to purchase Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from Canadian sources, because that edition will be printed on recycled paper. The covers of the versions sold in Canada (which are the same as the UK versions) are actually much more graphically interesting than the American editions. (Scroll down the pages to see all the covers.) Although, why is there an “Adult Edition” available in Canada and the UK? It has a more “serious” cover design, I suppose. All that’s additionally available in the US is a slipcovered “deluxe edition.”

ZineBook of Note: On Subbing by Dave Roche

In his introduction, Dave suggests, “I think this book is best if you read it in intervals…”, and he’s absolutely correct. This is Dave’s diaries of four years of working as a substitute Education Assistant with special needs students in the Portland area. It’s a very harrowing read, and I empathize with both Dave and the students he’s trying to help. It seems like they both get the short end of the stick (it’s a really short stick) from the system. Dave gets sent to the wrong assignments, treated rudely by teachers and staff, often not given any direction (or even keys to open classrooms he’s supposed to be in). He really wants to do a good job and help the students, but he hits a lot of bureaucratic walls. The students also seem to get knocked around the education system in the city quite a bit. Are the programs even going to be helpful for them in the long run? Reading this book is often unsettling, which is why it’s best to take it in small amounts. A good read, nonetheless.

On Subbing / $4 / 128pgs. Available from Microcosm Publishing, 5307 N. Minnesota Avenue, Portland OR 97217-3826

Review: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman

2005-06-29T20:20:00.000-04:00

“Somewhere, at some point, somehow, somebody decided that death equals credibility.”

At first glance, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story (Scribner), is a thanatological rock and roll death trip across the United States, stopping at sites of demise of musicians and fans. Chuck Klosterman visits Clear Lake, IA (where the “American Pie” was baked), Magnolia, GA (where Lynyrd Skynyrd ran out of gas, literally), and West Warwick, RI, where 101 people died in a club fire while watching Great White. Klosterman describes that incident without even a modicum of snark: “This was not a bunch of hipsters trying to be seen by other hipsters; these were blue collar people, all trying to unironically experience music that honestly meant something to them when they were teenagers.”)

However, Killing Yourself to Live is not a travel guide. Although Klosterman identifies the general location of the Skynyrd plane crash (watch out for snakes!), he has more pressing concerns to attend to, such as, but not limited to:

Deciding which of the 2,233 CDs in his collection to take along for the ride

Sucking ice, snapping the necks of deer, hitting cars with rocks and other teenage memories

Foghat’s “Slow Ride” vs. Edgar Winter’s “Free Ride”

Radiohead’s Kid A album as prognosticator of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks: A hidden conspiracy?

How everything that once mattered in your life doesn’t anymore (“When you start thinking about what your life was like 10 years ago – and not in general terms, but in highly specific detail – it’s disturbing to realize how certain elements of your being are completely dead. They die long before you do.”)

Above all, Killing Yourself to Live is about girls, specifically: Diane, Lenore, Quincy and DeeDee, with a brief appearance from an Uma Thurman-esque rock critic. Klosterman has many miles to cover in solitude, so he spends endless amounts of time analyzing his relationships. Since this is Chuck Klosterman, he can’t write about his relationships with these girls (“Some Girls”?) without wrapping them all up in a messy, mobile musical package.

For example, it’s fairly common to find songs that relate to your relationships. But Klosterman takes this many steps further, assigning each of his great loves to a member of Kiss, both the original lineup and replacement members. Comparing a former girlfriend to post-makeup Kiss substitute guitarist Bruce Kulick is either fucking brilliant or fucking disturbed. (And while I feel it errs on the side of the former, I’d really personally rather not be compared to Gene Simmons, who was described as looking like “an aging Hasidic Johnny Cash” by a friend who went to his book signing.)

Klosterman’s writing is notoriously scattered. This is a precarious writing style, and can easily dissolve into a pile of self-indulgent verbal trots if not skilled at it. While his writing is not unlike the endless meandering stretches of highway he drives – including many seemingly unrelated, weird stream of thought diversions – he’s a much more coherent writer than Lester Bangs, and perhaps even more passionate about his subject matter. He’s a less snotty Robert Christgau, a less academic Greil Marcus. He’s not pretentious like David Sedaris, Dave Eggers and their ilk. He’ll admit both that he believes the 1978 Kiss solo albums actually had some musical merit, and that Quincy will always be the number one romantic relationship of his life, no matter what girls followed her.

Klosterman once wrote a ranting essay about women who fall in love with John Cusack based solely on his character of Lloyd Dobbler (from 1989’s Say Anything). Well, guess what, Chuck. You can swipe your book title from a Black Sabbath song, work on your Led Zeppelin swagger, continue to buy Kiss albums that no one else does, drive 5,667 miles to eulogize dead rock stars, but the undisputable truth is that you’ve turned into a romantic sap, just like Lloyd Dobbler. Killing Yourself to Live all but destroys any detached heavy metal dude / indie rock boy image you’ve been cultivating for years.

But that’s okay. Chicks dig that sortta thing.

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman, Scribner.

Currently reading: Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman

2005-06-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

And I'm really loving it. I have a such a mad crush on Chuck Klosterman's writing. As I blabbered to my roommate last night, "I'd give up my perfect teeth to write like Chuck Klosterman." Yes, not just my eyeteeth (as the common phrase goes), but the whole damn orthodontically modified mouth of 'em. (OK, they're not totally perfect - I have two small cavities, but for the first 30+ years of my life, they were perfect teeth.) And, yeah, maybe I'm harboring a little bit of a mad crush on Chuck Klosterman as well.

Look for a full review here later this week.

And, holy crap, New Line Cinema has purchased the rights for a film adaptation.

Links temporarily disabled.

2005-06-25T22:21:00.000-04:00

I apologize, but I've had to remove the link column on the blog. Through no fault of my own, the style sheets have somecome become f-ed up. This is a Blogger bug, and I've tried several things to get around it. A few days ago, after I posted the GODLIKE review, a huge gap started appearing between the title and the text of each post. When there was a right hand link column longer than a few items, the blog would become unreadable. So, for now, I've had to remove them. I've contacted Blogger and hopefully things will be fixed shortly.

For now, the most important thing missing from the links column is the new contact information. There is a new real mail address: A.j. Michel, PO Box 877, Lansdowne, PA 19050. Email is still lowhug@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your understanding, espeically if you had been linked on this blog.

Review: Godlike by Richard Hell

2005-06-23T19:38:00.000-04:00

In his new novel Godlike, (Akashic Books) musician / poet / film critic / artist Richard Hell illuminates the Lower East Side of a rapidly decaying - but artistically flourishing - New York City. The story is covered in a film of dirty desperation of the artists and poets of the time, when New York City still had grime underneath its fingernails and a livable apartment could be had "... on the south side of East 6th Street between First and Second Avenues, second floor rear, for $90 a month." Just as Dawn Powell (The Golden Spur, The Wicked Pavilion, and Turn, Magic Wheel) did for downtown in the 1940s, Hell does for the 1970s.

Structured as "hospital notebooks," Godlike is the story of the relationship between the poet Paul Vaughn and his much younger admirer, Randall Terence ("R.T.") Wode. (The married Vaughn is 27 when 16-year-old R.T. arrives in New York City.) Committed to a hospital to dry out in the present day (1997), Vaughn looks back with longing, admiration and despair on the years spent with Wode, writing, fucking, and drinking. Hell shifts the novel between the first and the third persons, lyrically seizing the slacker lifestyle of the time, where time is spent reading, creating, drinking and eking out enough money to survive.

Hell's writing is sublimely descriptive. Here, you can almost feel the scratchy blanket and smell the rotting carpet of the cheap hotel R.T. has holed up in:

"He suddenly realized what a good thing it would be to have a cup of coffee and then to pull the cheap fabric of musty print curtains across the grey window and lie naked in the bed underneath the covers with a book, relishing his own tiredness at 6:45 in the morning, light stenciled in borders around the curtains."

Scattered throughout is poetry, both original compositions from Hell, and pieces from such modern poets as Rene Ricard and Ron Padgett. While it is a novel about poets, the poetry does not overwhelm the text, but compliments it. (The poetic collaboration between Paul and R.T. is actually quite good.) Godlike is a concise, elegant novel that doesn't waste words, a small, creased and dog-eared photograph of the blank generation that yuppie gentrification exterminated.

Godlike by Richard Hell. Akashic Books

Dog eared: Odds and ends.

2005-06-09T19:52:00.000-04:00

NOVEL: A Living Installation at the Flux Factory in NYC ended last week. NOVEL was an art installation where three novelists lived in individually designed habitats for a month and worked on a novel in view of the public. The blogs of the three authors are still up: Grant Bailie, Ranbir Sidhu, and Laurie Stone.

Looking for some summer reading sure to perturb the Bushies? Then consult Human Events’ (The National Conservative Weekly) list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, as compiled by a list of conservative pundits and such. All the usual suspects are there: The Communist Manifesto, Quotations from Chairman Mao, The Feminine Mystique (!), Unsafe At Any Speed and Introduction to Psychoanalysis (both ‘honorable mentions’).

Of course, you can also check out John Doe’s recommended reading list, which is much more sane.

Just finished: Baby Plays Around: A Love Affair, With Music by Helene Stapinski. I found this on the Bitch Magazine Summer 2004 Reading List and loved it loved it loved it. Stapinski weaves her love of music with her years of drumming in bands (I Hate Jane, then Stephonic) and her often-rocky relationship with her husband. After reading this, I found my copy of the Elvis Costello / Burt Bacharach collaboration from 1998, Painted From Memory. Stapinski writes at length about this album, especially since she interviewed Elvis Costello about it. I didn’t really appreciate it when it was first released. I just couldn’t get used to Elvis singing all those slow ballads. But now I’m taking a more critical listen to it. (Oh, Bitch also has a Summer 2005 Reading List posted.)

Current Zine of Note: So Midwest, available from Loop Distro, Quimby’s and Pander Zine Distro. I almost hesitate to call this a zine – it’s 236 digest-sized pages bound with two rubber bands! I’m only half-way through it (reading it during breaks and lunch), and really digging it, especially Luran’s tales of working at the “Food Hole” – you know, that upscale, trendy, organic and expensive supermarket that isn’t Trader Joe’s (which is actually quite reasonably priced). Also includes tales of punk rock touring, Madison WI and much more.

If you haven’t scrolled down and noticed, I’ve added a “shop Amazon.com” box on this blog. If you do shop regularly at Amazon.com, please consider visiting this blog first and clicking through to Amazon from it. You don’t have to enter a title to search for, you can just click on the Amazon.com logo to get there. That way, if you purchase anything, a very small portion of the sale price goes to help fund my independent publishing projects. Thank you very much.

Review: Party Like a Rock Star Even When You're as Poor as Dirt by Camper English

2005-06-04T16:09:00.000-04:00

San Francisco based club and nightlife writer Camper English has written the book (literally) on saving money, getting in free to sold out shows, obtaining promotional swag, and getting good service at crowded bars. Party Like a Rock Star Even When You’re Poor as Dirt (Alyson Books) provides practical, unique, and somewhat scammy ideas on living the rock star life on a garage band budget.

The Practical: Be willing to suffer endless waves of e-mail spam (in a specially set-up account) and put in a little bit of sweat equity to find the free events, hooch and food, and to get into shows and clubs for free. Opt for a basic, cheap work wardrobe. (Would you rather look fabulous at work or out at night?) Visit libraries, shop at used bookstores, and use Web sites like Project Gutenberg for free books. Clean out all those boxes of crap stored at your parents’ house and sell the spoils on eBay.

The Unique: If you want good service at a bar all night long, consider “pre-tipping” for the whole evening when you order the first round. If it’s a fat enough bill, the bartender is likely to remember your face when crowds fighting for his attention. For your next party, have a 40s theme: everyone brings their own 40oz. that will get warm and flat before they get a chance to finish it.

The Scammy: When out with friends, learn how to get out of paying for your round of drinks by disappearing to the bathroom. Host a “stock my bar” party, run out of ice and cups early, and suggest moving the party to a bar. Create your own press credentials to “review” clubs and bars. If taken out for a business lunch, order a soup/salad, huge appetizer and an entrée, and take home the leftovers for dinner.

While Party Like a Rock Star is really a book about thrifty living, it doesn’t read like a boring, dry instructional manual. English doesn’t go to cheap extremes by suggesting you dry out and reuse your coffee grounds, wash out plastic bags until they fall apart, or use empty tin cans as drink glasses. Instead, he focuses on realistic, easy, non-time consuming advice: bring your own coffee to work, hold a clothing swap with friends, check out free days at museums.

English writes with a sense of humor liberally dosed with sarcasm. (He doesn’t really advocate selling drugs for a profit or trolling the bars for a cheap lay.) Thankfully, he doesn’t come off as one of those hipper-than-thou, scenester club kids with their name-dropping gossip columns in every alternative weekly newspaper. There’s no pretentiousness: he realizes people have to work less-than-spectacular day jobs to pay for night life, and there’s no shame in this.

While you certainly won’t need or want to follow every piece of advice English offers, there’s plenty you can glean from Party Like a Rock Star. It would make a fitting college graduation gift for the newly independent wannabe scenester/hipster. It would have certainly been appreciated when I was 22 and freely dropping $5 a day on lunch, buying all my books and magazines instead of hitting the public libraries, and avoiding thrift stores because they were “smelly.”

Party Like a Rock Star Even When You’re Poor as Dirt by Camper English. Alyson Books.

See also: Camper’s RockStar Blog

Current Zines of Note.

2005-06-01T20:54:00.000-04:00

I Dreamed I Was Assertive #7 / 56p / Quarter-sized / $2.50
Available through Pander Zine Distro or e-mail perezeeb@yahoo.com for information.
Another great installment of page-turning goodness from Celia. I have no idea why she views her zines as “whine fests” because they most certainly are not. Well constructed, designed and written, IDIWA is full of astute observations about mix tapes and libraries. There’s an interview with Jenna Freedman of the Radical Reference project, various “flotsam and jetsam” and her Reading Log for 2004. I share her excitement about stumbling across a “find” at the library: “Do you know that feeling of excitement when you find the book you are looking for? Have you ever experienced that even greater feeling of finding what you aren’t looking for? A spine on a shelf catches your eye and you discover something you never even knew you wanted. It’s a treasure hunt. The library is safety and comfort and adventure.”

Skate Tough You Little Girls / 24p / Digest / $2
Available through Pander Zine Distro or e-mail perezeeb@yahoo.com for information.
Another excellent zine from Celia! I find it so cool that Celia is in her 30s and into skateboarding, unafraid of breaking bones. In this zine, she explores some of the lesser covered aspects of skateboarding culture, such as the International Society for Skateboarding Moms, an artist who makes bags out of old skateboard decks, and – most interestingly – an analysis of the Vision Street Wear ads that appeared in Sassy Magazine in the late 80s/early 90s. I’m not sure if this is just a one-shot zine, but there’s probably enough material out there for many more issues.

Songs About Ghosts #1 / 112p (!) / Digest / $2 (!)
Songs About Ghosts #2 / 68p / Quarter-sized / $1
Jasmine Wagner, 302 Bedford Ave., PMB #5, Brooklyn NY 11211
Perzines (short for “personal zines”) are an often touchy subject matter for me. When done well (such as Celia’s, above), they are very interesting and thought-provoking – their content is more than just about the author. However, for every good perzine, there are probably three poorly-written perzines, little more than whine-fests about how haaaaaaaard the author’s life is. Thankfully, even with their text-packed heft, Songs About Ghosts have a firm toehold in the “interesting” category. Jasmine’s writing almost borders on fiction-like. There are many good passages and turns of phrase in both of these thick issues. For example, from Issue #1: “There was a time in my life when I never analyzed anything. I never wondered what I going to be, I never felt my heart breaking. I had my whole life in front of me and plenty of time to fall in love. My friends were happy and everything was as good as it could possibly be.”

From Issue #2: “At some point in your life, the people you see everyday become more important than the people you’ve left behind. Old friendships fall away, you lose track of correspondence, phone calls become too much of a burden to make.”

These zines are not breezy reads, but thoughtful and ponderous. Well worth your time and money. She also has a Web site, Songs About Ghosts.

Burn Collector #13 / 110p / 5” square / $4
Available through Microcosm Publishing or Stickfigure Distro (PO Box 55462, Atlanta GA 30308)
Al Burian’s at it again, with another edition of Burn Collector. This issue is part Chicago journal, part family reunion angst, and part European travel journal. His usual astute observations are scattered throughout the issue, such as some of his feelings about attending an impending family reunion in Germany:
“A family reunion. I have nothing to show or tell. My only purpose at any of these functions is as statistical aberration, dead end DNA of the family tree. … but why can I not enjoy my failures in the privacy of my own room, away from the prying eyes of relatives?”
Upon arriving: “I have come all this way to present myself as an uberfailure, to provide the lowliest member on the family totem pole with some perspective, by illuminating the hidden psychic subbasements of existence.”
(Al, if it makes you feel any better, my family doesn’t understand my existence, either.)

Review: Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-Market Dilettante by Ayun Halliday

2005-05-23T09:41:00.000-04:00

Theater major, zine publisher (the long running The East Village Inky), massage therapist Ayun Halliday (that’s “Ayun,” not any of the other names she’s been mistakenly addressed by at jobs: Pam, Anna, Amy… Raquelle?) finds the perverse humor in looking back on low-paying, back breaking, mentally demoralizing jobs of her youth to early thirties in Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-market Dilettante (Seal Press).

Job Hopper is not another I-hate-my-job grudge project, like the late zine Temp Slave or the web sites The Stained Apron and Customers Suck. Because Halliday understands the equation “pain + time = humor,” the book is not a mean spirited, vengeful collection of work-related sabotage and bitterness. (Sure, there is some spitting in a complaining customer’s manicotti, but it wasn’t she who expectorated.) Instead, Halliday chooses to focus on the truly weird aspects of her previous careers: cleaning Easter bunny costumes, stunningly boring office assignments, squatting nude (with arm extended), and trapped in a Sesame Street “Bert” oversized costume while mobbed by hyperactive toddlers and their even more hyper mothers. While it certainly was frustrating to telemarket tickets to a “Yakut theater performance” at the time, it’s very amusing from a safe distance.

Halliday quickly discovers the quirky unpaid benefits of these jobs: thousands of photocopies on the sly for her own projects, free theater tickets, unlimited office supplies, free food, costume “rentals,” and purloined review copies of books. She works with many talented, fun, downright nice people, who she always mentions positively.

As in her zine The East Village Inky, Halliday’s writing style is witty and engaging. While she’s not always a model employee (crouching behind the sales counter eating shrimp fried rice instead of pushing hippie clothing; lifting endless Sharpie markers for use by her theater group), you pull for her to finally find a job working at something she doesn’t hate. She discovers it in her thirties, when she goes back to school to become a massage therapist, which she loves.

Inevitably, some of the more cranky types out there (such as those people who freely complain about Wal-Mart, yet can afford not to shop there) will squawk that Halliday has no “right” to laugh about her low-paying employment history since millions of people still work in those low-paying jobs every day. Still other cranky types will squabble, “What did she expect, being a theater major?” What all these cranky types are forgetting is that these are her indignities alone, she freely chose these indignities (mostly, anyway), and she’s free to do what she wants with them. Halliday doesn’t degrade her fellow co-workers or bosses – unless they really deserve it, usually for treating others like something they just scraped off their shoe. Jerk customers and heiniehole management are shown no mercy. In the end, she fully acknowledges:

“I like to think that picking up another’s shit is where I draw the line, although I know there are people who do – usually unskilled laborers who haven’t had the luxury of going to theater school before embarking on a life of professional drudgery. Whatever they’re making, it isn’t enough.”

Overall, Job Hopper is a highly enjoyable and a recommended read. Especially at work.

Job Hopper: The Checkered Career of a Down-market Dilettante by Ayun Halliday. Seal Press.

Digital Fresh.

2005-05-19T11:05:00.000-04:00

“Books smell, musty and rich. The knowledge gained from a computer, it has no texture, no context. It’s there and then it’s gone. If it’s to last, then the getting of knowledge should be tangible. It should be… smelly.”
- Giles (the Librarian), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Episode 1.8, “I Robot, You Jane.”

The University of Texas recently announced that it would be emptying their Undergraduate Library of books, and converting it into a “24-hour electronic information commons.” This is not necessarily a bad thing, if the 90,000 books remain accessible in other libraries on campus. (The University of Texas, being a huge institution, has more than one library building.)

With apologies to Giles, I don’t believe the realignment of the Undergraduate Library at UT is necessarily a bad thing, and it’s certainly not the information apocalypse. If the Undergraduate Library at UT is anything like the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois, it was little more than a hangout and meeting place for the u-grad kiddies. At Illinois, the Undergrad Library had a good fiction collection, basic reference sources, and lots of couches for sleeping. The only times I remember having to go there was to get a book that was checked out of The Stacks or any of the many departmental libraries, or if I wanted to get a novel.

This reassignment of Undergraduate libraries at large universities may actually be very beneficial for both u-grad and grad students (who are the major users of libraries at these places anyway). One concept I’d like to see is to have all the digital resources available in one place. While most of the U of IL’s databases (e.g. Ovid, Silverplatter) were available at any terminal in any library, and remotely on-line, there were smaller, specialized databases on CD-ROM that required a trip to the specific departmental library to use (e.g. English, Women and Gender Resources). It would have saved much physical running around – and more importantly, time – if all the electronic resources for an institution were collected in one area.

Also, there is a certain type of “academic classism” in the division of libraries into Undergraduate and “the Grown-Up Library.” New undergrads without well-developed research or library searching skills may just stop their searching at the Undergraduate collections only. Removing the barrier of the concept of the Undergraduate Library might just force them to explore the other libraries on campus, try other indexes, and expand their knowledge base. Or not.

Silicone Synergy.

2005-05-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

From today’s Philadelphia Inquirer Newsmakers round-up:

Turns out that Pamela Anderson’s new Fox comedy Stacked has been exclusively featuring books from HarperCollins, which is, like Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. According to Variety, Anderson’s on-air bookstore is filled with HarperCollins titles such as Jack Welsh’s Winning, Michael Crichton’s State of Fear, and Edward P. Jones’ The Known World.

Not like they’re exactly keeping this information a secret: it’s well publicized on the show’s site. If you click on “About the Books,” and then the pop-up box, you’re directed to the HarperCollins’ web site.

Review: The Insomniac Reader: Stories of the Night, edited by Kevin Sampsell

2005-05-13T21:37:00.000-04:00

Captured in paintings (Hopper’s Nighthawks), film (Before Sunrise, Mystery Train), and countless songs by Bruce Springsteen (“Something in the Night,” the entire Born to Run LP), the “night” inspires a different type of creativity. Imagine the lone writer hunched over a typewriter (more likely, keyboard, with the monitor glowing eerily in the darkened room), radio or television serving as white noise, tapping out bleak passages. While there’s nothing quite that cliché in The Insomniac Reader: Stories of the Night, edited by Kevin Sampsell, there are many sights and sounds of the night as interpreted by a range of modern authors, some more successfully than others.

There are several excellent pieces in this collection, beginning with a reporter’s diary of a heavyweight boxing fight in “Everybody Dies in Memphis” by Jonathan Ames. Found Magazine’s Davy Rothbart contributes the gently weird “Lady With the Mannequin Arm,” uncovering the needs and desires of retirement community residents. “Fourteenth Street” by Michelle Tea is a scathing comment on gentrification in her San Francisco neighborhood, mired with drug fueled desire – very good, very vivid writing. Monica Drake’s “Gymkhana” reads like the first chapter of a novel. It’s not as self-contained as the other stories, and hopefully will continue someday. Jonathan Lethem has an interesting approach to phone sex in “Call Waiting.” The sole intentionally humorous piece in The Insomniac Reader is Dan Kennedy’s “Tonight the Muse is in a Popular Suburban Steakhouse,” the exploits of a writer high on his Reader’s Digest magazine success.

Richard Rushfield’s “Stalker’s Paradise ”is the most inventive and truly original story of the lot. A fantastic (in the literary sense) tale about a helpful network of stalkers who assist in keeping track of the people you love but who don’t necessarily love you back, it’s the strongest story in the collection. Also impressive is “The Right Way to Eat a Bagel” by Marshall Moore, which is completely shocking when you realize what the two characters are planning for themselves. It is the only story that will leave you awake and troubled.

The Insomniac Reader suffers dead weight with the contributions from the well-known authors. Indie lit superstars Aimee Bender and “Lucy Thomas” (a.k.a. Dave Eggers) provide little more than one-page vignettes that resemble writing exercises handed out in a creative fiction class. Rick Moody’s “Automatic” is nothing new for him. Several experimental pieces feel forced; it’s almost as if they were included to give representation to that style. Humor is also sorely lacking– surely, more amusing events happen at night along with the desperation and hopelessness?

The Insomniac Reader is a lopsided collection of nocturnal hipster desperation. It’s very difficult to feel any sympathy for many of the characters – after all, these aren’t the people awake at night wondering if they’re going to get laid off from the factory, how they are going to pay the rent, or if they can survive another day at a soul-crushing office job. Which is not to say that The Insomniac Reader is without merit. Much of it is interesting short fiction and overall, more engaging than not.

The Insomniac Reader: Stories of the Night, edited by Kevin Sampsell. Manic D Press. Featuring work by Jonathan Ames, Aimee Bender, T. Cooper, Monica Drake, Elizabeth Ellen, Thorn Kief Hillsbery, Jeff Johnson, Heidi Julavits, Dan Kennedy, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Marshall Moore,Todd Pruzan, Stacey Richther, Davy Rothbart, Richard Rushfield, James Tate, Michelle Tea, Lucy Thomas (aka Dave Eggers).

Bookish zine recommendation: For the Clerisy

2005-05-11T18:37:00.000-04:00

Brant Kresovich has been publishing the zine For the Clerisy: Good Words For Readers for many years; Issue 61 recently graced my mailbox. Brant’s zine is a great resource for members of the clerisy, that is, people who read for the sheer enjoyment of reading. In every issue, Brant writes eloquently and critically about old and new books he’s been reading in a most informative manner. Sometimes the issues have a loose theme: Issue #59 was the “Sex” issue (not nearly as dirty as it sounds), and Issue #61 is “My Country, Right or Wrong.” I always add a few titles to my “to-read” list after each issue – the most recent issue put Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street and the work of Hubert Selby on there. There’s also an extensive letter section, a feature that has all but disappeared in zines.

For a copy of For the Clerisy, send $2 or a zine trade to: Brant Kresovich, PO Box 404, Getzville, NY 14068-0404.

Look at that compound-complex sentence! And now she’s splitting an infinitive!

2005-05-10T09:17:00.000-04:00

Sitting at a coffeehouse or bar or library scribbling in a notebook is one thing. Placing your writer-self on display in a custom designed habit for a month while you try to write a novel is another thing entirely. For the next month at the Flux Factory in Long Island City, NY three writers are participating in NOVEL: A Living Installation. Writers Grant Bailie, Ranbir Sidhu, and Laurie Stone will live in these habitats and try to produce a novel. They will also be keeping weblogs about the experience. There are limited viewing hours every week, and readings from the works-in-progress on Saturday evenings.

I know that I have a difficult enough time writing a short work memo when someone is standing and watching. I couldn’t imagine being on display like a zoo animal while people watched me try to be creative. That’s why I write and don’t play in a band or do anything that requires “performing”. Will the authors be allowed to interact with the crowds who come to see them work? Can they throw wadded up rejected ideas at them?

Review: Recipes for Disaster by the CrimethInc Ex-Workers’ Collective

2005-05-06T10:10:00.000-04:00

This is a handbook for direct action. It’s not the only one – there are thousands: every gardener’s guide is a direct action handbook, as is every cookbook. Any action that sidesteps regulations, representatives, and authorities to accomplish goals directly is direct action.

- From the Preface of Recipes for Disaster

I have been intrigued by the writings of the CrimethInc (Ex-)Workers’ Collective since their previous missive, Days of War, Nights of Love. That collection encouraged me to think deeply about issues scampering through my mind (identity, capitalism, plagiarism, technology). I adopted some of their suggestions, ignored others, and modified some. This is part of what CrimethInc expects of you – to use their ideas as a starting point, make them your own, and then teach others how to use these skills to re-gain control over their lives.

In their new brick-like book (600+ pages bound along the short side and weighing two pounds), Recipes for Disaster, CrimethInc presents a portable skillshare of techniques for direct actions. Recipes for Disaster is not necessarily to be read linearly, from cover to cover, but consulted for ideas, instructions and inspiration. It’s extremely engaging reading, especially the “Accounts” of the direct actions in action (especially those of Antifascist action, Infiltration, Classroom Takeover and Newspaper Wraps). Above all, it’s a handbook, an idea book, a D.I.Y. manual that you should highlight and scribble in the margins of (nice and wide!), dog-ear and just plain use. It should be marked up, bent back and battered.

Recipes for Disaster provides instructions and advice for an alphabet of direct actions, from A (Affinity Groups, Antifascist Action, Asphalt Mosaics) to… W (Wheatpasting). (A minor quibble: Where’s Z for Zine? Guess I’ll have to write that one myself.) Clear instructions are provided, and diagrams when needed. Some of the direct actions are more physically extreme than others (e.g. Blockades and Lockdowns, Infiltration, and Utilities (hijacking of)), but there is a myriad of techniques presented, so there’s sure to be something for everyone to try. You’re not going to agree with every recipe presented – and that’s fine. There are many actions here that I am not extroverted, skilled, or ballsy enough to perform myself. The recipes that I’m excited about are crafty ones, such as Stickering, Screenprinting, Newspaper Wraps and Stenciling, just to list a few. However, if I ever want to organize a Reclaim the Streets party or make an Effigy, I’ll at least have basic guidelines.

Also included are discussions of topics that do not at first seem to fall under the category direct “action”, such as Health Care, Behavioral Cut Ups and Unemployment. The Mental Health chapter is especially balanced regarding their opinions about medication and therapy. A significant portion of Recipes for Disaster is dedicated to building various forms of community, stressing the importance of working together through Affinity Groups, Coalition Building, Collectives, Solidarity, Thinktanks and more. Most every recipe benefits from group direct action, as opposed to working solo. The CrimethInc contributors are aware of dissent and discord among activist groups – even if the end result or benefit is the same, people have different views of how to accomplish it. In the Preface, the contributors refer to this as a “Diversity of Tactics”. In part (a bit lengthy, but important):

Communities that practice direct action are often plagued by conflicts over which tactics are most effective and appropriate. Such debates are usually impossible to resolve – and that’s a good thing. Instead, to the extent it is possible, the activities of those employing different methods and even those pursuing different goals should be integrated into a mutually beneficial whole.

Accepting a diversity of tactics provides for the broad diversity of real human beings. Every individual has a different life history, and consequently finds different activities meaningful and liberating. Insisting that everyone should adopt the same approach is arrogant and shortsighted – it presumes that you are entitled to make judgments on others’ behalf – and also unrealistic: any strategy that demands that everyone think and act the same way is doomed to failure, for human beings are not that simple or submissive.
…
Honoring a diversity of tactics means refraining from attacking those who chosen approaches seem to you to be ineffective, and instead focusing on what missing elements you can add to make their efforts effective. This, it reframes the question of strategy in terms of personal responsibility: at every juncture, the question is not what somebody else should be doing, but what you can do.

Although not a formal “recipe”, this discussion of diversity of tactics may just be the most important part of this book. After all, cooking is much more fun and rewarding with friends working together.

Recipes for Disaster is a welcome addition to any activist’s book collection, but why stop there? Give it to people who don’t expect it.

Then see what happens. You might be surprised.

(Recipes for Disaster is available for $12 postpaid from Crimethinc Far East, PO Box 1963, Olympia, WA 98507. You can order it online from CrimethInc, Microcosm Publishing or Clamor infoSHOP.)

Warm fuzzy library story of the day.

2005-05-05T09:02:00.000-04:00

Man returns library book overdue by 24 years, pays full fine - $2,190. Now, quit whining about the 50 cents you owe and make a nice donation to your local public library!

Review: Lessons in Taxidermy by Bee Lavender

2005-05-03T10:17:00.000-04:00

Although Bee Lavender and I are just about the same age, at thirteen I was preoccupied with which member of Duran Duran to crush on. When Lavender was thirteen, she was having hundreds of skin cysts systematically dug out and burned off her body. Inflicted with a rare cancer called Gorlin’s Syndrome, the removal stretched out over four years and left her body scarred: “After the first hundred tumors were removed, the doctor said I was mutilated, not fit to be seen by other children.” The Gorlin’s Syndrome was diagnosed after Lavender had a cancerous growth removed from her thyroid gland, and lost part of her jaw to another, unrelated cancer. Using the framework of a current health problem, Bee Lavender recounts her life of illness in her memoir Lessons in Taxidermy Punk Planet Books / Akashic Books). In plain, unflowery language, but still full of emotion and imagery, Lavender writes about her sicknesses (cancers and lupus), a brutal car accident at age sixteen (this chapter is especially vivid and difficult to read at times), and how friends don’t know how to react to her weakened condition and often disappear.

What is most astonishing about Lavender’s storytelling is its directness. At no point in Taxidermy does she clutch her chest, fall to her knees and cry out “Why me?” She doesn’t experience any sudden religious conversion or think that suffering is bringing her closer to some sort of god. Lavender isn’t particularly angry about her many illnesses, either. She confronts everything thrown at her, looks it in the eyes, terrifies it and perseveres. She rejects both pain (actively refusing pain medications since an early age) and the messages her body sends her, further damaging her fragile health. Did she learn these survival skills by watching the women of her family fight back against their sometimes-abusive husbands and from the edges of poverty? The only time she cries is upon returning home after putting her nineteen-year-old dog to sleep, her faithful companion since age five: “Back at home I sat with his blanket and cried all the tears of an entire fractured childhood.”

Lavender survives all her illnesses, becomes an activist, writer and editor (the hipmama.com Web site, and the anthology Breeder, among other projects), learns to ride a bike, finds her voice and sings, marries a supportive and loving man, and has two healthy children – both conceived against medical advice. Her life is still very much in progress, even with the occasional health crisis, such as the one that frames the book. Lessons in Taxidermy is an extremely compelling read. I actually slowed down my usual reading pace to be able to linger on every word, phrase and image. Hopefully this is only the first installment of Bee Lavender’s autobiography.

Very highly recommended.

Current Zines of Note.

2005-05-01T20:17:00.000-04:00

Scribble Faster #1 / 72p / Quarter-sized / $1
Scribble Faster #2 / 66p / Quarter-sized / $2
Available from Microcosm Publishing, or directly from Megan Gerrity, 955 Metropolitan Ave. #3R, Brooklyn NY 11211
Scribble Faster is one of my new favorite zine titles. Megan has an engaging writing style, an eye for detail, and is refreshingly whine-free. I really loved these two issues. Issue #1 is “Apartment Six,” and all about the three years she spent living in a rent-controlled, cheap East Village apartment in NYC – the parade of roommates, neighbors, roaches and Lt. Peterson, “the fattest cat in New York.” Reading this really got me thinking of my old apartments. Issue #2 is “The Mix Tape,” all about the emotions they bring back. But Megan doesn’t just write about the songs on the tapes. Instead she weaves stories from that time in her life around them. Very entertaining, and has inspired me to do a little bit about some of the mix tapes I’ve been listening to for years in my next issue. Both issues of Scribble Faster are highly recommended, and check out her site, Scribble Faster, for updates on zine projects.

OFF-Line #33 / 64p / Digest-sized / Free, but donations always appreciated
Vincent Romano, 35 Barker Ave. #4G, White Plains NY 10601
Another solid issue from Vincent and Claire. Included in this issue is Vincent’s very entertaining report on the 2005 Boston Zine Fair (“Here I’m in my element, and the context makes all the difference. Everyone is equal, and we’re all here for the same reason: to put our voices to paper and express ourselves in diverse and unique ways.”), Claire’s use of the Socratic Method in the classroom, and a fantastically deep letters section. Send ‘em few extra bucks and order up some back issues.

Assassin and the Whiner #15 / 32p / Quarter-sized / $2
Carrie McNinch, PO Box 49403, Los Angeles CA 90049
After a long absence, Carrie McN is back with another – and final – issue of her fine comic perzine. This issue is a daily diary of January 2005 – her emotions, Milo kitty, neighbors, and random L.A. observations. Good to have Carrie back for this final Asswhine. Look for more of her comics under the new title Danger for Deep Water!

Breakfast #4 / 72p / Digest-sized / #3
Vincent Voelz, 575 12th Ave. #3, San Francisco, CA 94118
This is another zine that I was happy to find in my mailbox again after a long drought. Then again, breakfast is my absolute favorite meal to eat away from home. More donut tales, lots about breakfasts in San Francisco (take this zine along with you if you visit!), breakfast food haikus, comics, zine reviews and photos of random diners. Great writing, clean and readable layout, lots of fun. Highly recommended, and good to see Vincent back in the zine scene.

Go Metric! #19 / 84p / Full-sized / $3
Go Metric, 801 Eagles Ridge Rd., Brewster NY 10509
Another assemblage of fine pop culture analysis from Mike Faloon and Company. It’s so refreshing to read a zine with absolutely no depressing content. How can you be depressed when you have an interview with Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick? The top ten cover versions ever? Rev. Norb’s attempt at “the world’s most verbose pop song” – an epic entitled “Rilly Gonna Mess You Up,” all 12,287 words of it? Submarine movies? A discussion of Brian Wilson’s re-done Smile? Oodles of power pop record reviews, and a new tax guide that includes deductions for television, stimulants and comic books round about another fine issue.

Because I really need to move more books…

2005-04-29T22:27:00.000-04:00

Another book sale on Thursday and Friday, much less impressive and much, much less organized than the previous sale I attended. Not sorted well at all, messy, rude people. I did manage to find a few books, and the money did go to local schools.

Fiction
- Pure / Rebecca Ray
- Libra / Don DeLillo
- The School on 103rd Street / Roland S. Jefferson (this is a reprint from 1976 under the series title “Old School Books” – a reissue series of black urban pulp novels from the 1970s. Here’s an article about the series from a few years ago.

Non-Fiction (these were my big finds for a buck each, especially the Conroy book)
- Commies, Cowboys and Jungle Queens, Comic Books and America 1945-1954 / William Savage, Jr.
- 500 Great Comic Book Action Heroes / Mike Conroy

Series Romance (These are all from a strange new series, Silhouette Bombshell, very Alias-looking, and they are all from the “Athena Academy” subseries. I have no idea if they will be any good, but for 20-cents each, why not give them a try? I don’t read romance novels usually, and certainly not series romances. However, what fascinates me about Harlequin and Silhouette is their range of offerings – they even have “Medical Romances” now. I’m more interested in the branding aspect of the business. To them, books are products, with as many varieties as breakfast cereal.)

- #18: Pursued / Catherine Mann
- #22: Justice / Debra Webb
- #26: Deceived / Carla Cassidy
- #34: Payback / Harper Allen

Trashy Romance (hey, they were 5/$1!)
- Shadow of the Dolls / Rae Lawrence (the unofficial “sequel” to Valley of the Dolls)
- Designer Knockoff / Ellen Byerrum (called “a fashion mystery” on the cover)
- Lucky / Sharon Sala

...plus a bunch of Sweet Valley High series (cheap!) to put up on eBay.

Next posting, I promise some actual commentary on what I’ve been reading as opposed to just buying.

Joining the Litblog Cadre

2005-04-24T16:14:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Time Enough of Last, my attempt at a reading blog. The title Time Enough at Last comes from a famous Twilight Zone episode featuring Burgess Meredith. It’s also the title of the reading log I published in zine form this year. (There’s still a few copies available, by the way.)

Since I write quite a bit about what I’m reading on my alpha blog, Papercuts, I’ve decided to do this spin-off blog. If I can’t keep both blogs semi-fresh, they will be collapsed back into one.

Besides blathering on about what books and zines I’m reading, I also plan to link to articles and other web content of interest. I want to keep the focus on the written word, and write about other topics on Papercuts (like animorphic phlegm and other important things.) I’m working on a set of links to other litblogs, small publishers, and other review sources – check back in a few days.

So, to begin with, here’s an article about the rise of litblogs: "Book Smart" by Joy Press.

Media (PA) Public Library Book Sale: The Spoils

A few weekends ago was the Media (PA) Public Library book sale, one of the best library book sales I have ever visited. It was divided between two of the buildings in the community center, and all the hardcover and trade paperback fiction was actually alphabetized (not strictly, but at least divided into 26 letter sections). The non-fiction was divided well, especially the philosophy and social sciences sections. There was enough space to move around and avoid butt-brushing. I probably could have spent a lot more money, but the fact that the more books I buy equals more books to move held me back. Just a little.

On the first day of the sale, hardbacks and trade paperbacks were $2, mass market paperbacks were $1. The prices were cut in half on the second day. The third day was “bag day” – fill up a plastic grocery bag for $5.

I didn’t pick up too much on the first day (only six books), but really cleaned up on bag day. Although I didn’t abuse the bag system like some people, asking the volunteers, “Can the books be sticking out of the bag?” and “Do I have to be able to lift it by the handles or can I carry it by the bottom?” After one of these people left, the volunteer said under her breath, “Geez, it’s for the library. Just cough up the extra 50 cents per book that you can’t fit into the bag!”

Fiction
The Cracker Factory / Joyce Rebeta-Burditt
The Blind Assassin / Margaret Atwood
Bad Timing / Betsy Berne
Tin House 4: Monsters
Infinite Jest / David Foster Wallace
Sellevision / Augusten Burroughs (I’ve already plowed through this and LOVED it. This was probably my biggest “find”, since I’ve been reading all of his non-fiction books.)
The Mammoth Cheese / Sheri Holman
4 Blondes / Candace Bushnell
Battlestar Galactica / Glen A. Larson and Robert Thurston
Persuasion / Jane Austen
Colony Girl / Thomas Rayfiel
Sense and Sensibility / Jane Austen
The Garden State / Gary Krist
The Torn Skirt / Rebecca Godfrey
The Sun Also Rises / Ernest Hemingway
The Hours / Michael Cunningham

Non-Fiction
MTV: The Making of a Revolution / Tom McGrath
Beats of the Heart: Popular Music of the World / Jeremy Marre and Hannah Charlton
California Dish / Jeremiah Tower
Positively Fifth Street / James McManus
The Orwell Reader / George Orwell
Metropolitan Life / Fran Lebowitz
Kitchen Confidential / Anthony Bourdain
Street Corner Society / William Foote Whyte

… plus a few old “Mechanix Illustrated” magazines, a 60s design book to put on eBay, and a copy of Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis for a friend. (It’s one of his favorite novels, and I’d never seen an edition with this cover before.)

Not bad for what totaled to be a $16 donation to the library. Their next sale is going to be October 15 to 17. Highly recommended.