Salty shores and soft words. Zine reviews!

Hello, Kittens! I am not usually thrilled by new earthly objects, but tomorrow I will be obtaining a multi-octave singing saw (thanks mom and dad!) and a schoenhut toy piano from the 1070s (Thanks, craigslist!). The opportunities for music making these two will offer is kind of a joy. I am a saw player, and already have two really nice hardware saws that work well, but oh the range! There are a bunch of bands and electronic artists that I really like that utilize toy pianos...I am VERY attracted to the sounds they create. <3! style="text-align: center;">REVIEW TIME
Zines I have enjoyed as of recent - Most new, some Ancient. Stay tuned for more. I am preening through hundreds of zines from the house I live in - A giant collection grew and was abandoned here the year before I moved in...Oh, to be the proud parent of 1,000 issues of maximum rock and roll and french anarcho leaflets about why cows should'nt be exposed to television! Naw, Actually tons of the zines are quality. So, the few hundred that made it through the initial cut, I will be reading.

And, There was the zine symposium. The next post (perhaps tomorrow) will have more reviews, photos from the week, and some excerpts. I read in a zine once that the best way to review is to let the writing speak for itself.

Feedback
John Issacson
John Issacson 3613 SE 10th Ave Pdx, OR 97202
johnissacson at hotmail dot com
John goes to punk shows and writes four panel comics about them. As he says "When sweaty, half naked teenagers are feverishly making out in a crazy pit between songs and the first band has not even finished their set, you know you are at an all ages show"
John makes me smile. His drawings are rad.


So Midwest
Luran Truckface
LBj4prez at hotmail dot com
I found this zine in the Outhaus closet. I'm in love with this zine. The writer, Luran Truckface, worked for an unnamed health food chain. Luran mostly writes about things in relation to work in ways that make me laugh and shudder. college, Crazy roomates, co-workers, touring, parties, iguanas, people of the past, body traumas (In various forms) and serious snark.

"I am a really bad person. Sometimes I get angry when Lucas looks at me. It makes me hate him. He looks at me and I see he's in love and I hate him for liking me as a woman, I become disguested with his heterosexuality, his enjoyment of my Body. I think it is not right for me to be so frigid and nonsexual. Maybe I am not meant to be with him or a man or anyone. I am meant to be alone. I'll take ten miniutes and I'll stop feeling nauseous."


Grrl Noire
Kim Riot
PO box 33654 San Diego, CA 92116
hexestarr at yahoo dot com
Sometimes this is the only zine I care about. The layout and artwork selected are always STUNNING. And the stories and thoughts shared are always very candid - sometimes with stress, others with wonder. There is often an easy-to-relate to stream of conciousness , #7 rang out on love of music, beauty standards, Mental health month, confidence, television, cellular telephones, routine, and more. ANY of her zines are super good, though.

"Why do I miss snow so much? Maybe I have good memories associated with snow or it reminds me of my childhood or something."
"Back then, I was 25. Here, ten years later, should I be worried that my partner will leave me because I've aged that much more?"

Peep
Delphine Bedient
Peep The Zine
peepthezine at gmail dot com

I need to say Zine crush five times fast. Peep has a pretty expansive catalog - fifteen or sixteen issues at least. I traded Delphine for two of them, one under recommendation and one by closing my eyes and capturing one off the table. I have #8 and #15. Each issue is but a few pages long, but OH! the charm in the brevity and lightheartedness. Wonderful clip art and images, collages of items often overlooked.
"peep is an unfinished Mad Lib. Peep is your mother's jewelry box. Peep is the boxes in your attic"

Useful things abound! French phrases, poems, centerfolds, recipes, histories of things in a quarter page or less.
I'm going to order them ALL and give them a tiny box of their own in my zine library.

Mayzine
Mayzie Hart
mayzface at gmail dot com

Mayzie is a total dreamcloud of a zine writer. She writes zine about EVERYTHING. They are precious, unabashedly feminine, and above all - really really fun to read and look at. She talks about fashion, Kanye west, sewing shit, whatever. Rad backgrounds and collages.

Her latest zine "Liberal Myth" takes on a topic totally unique to the zine world, I believe - Pole dancing for confidence, excersize, and sport. She discusses the relationship with her body as it has changed over years. Highly reccomended!