this is the triumphant return of sarah's arty little zine about menstruation. in simple engaging language, sarah explains how she came to the consciousness that traditional feminine hygiene products are really bad for a person's body. she explains some historical basis for demonizing periods, & names some of the corporations that have been aiding in the spread of assorted misinformation on the topic. she explains the dangers of dioxin, a chemical found in traditional pads & tampons that have been bleached, which is very toxic & not approved for any level of human exposure, as well as some ecological arguments against using store-bought products. finally she goes through some of the alternatives--the keeper, sponges, & she includes an explanation on how to make cloth pds, plus some remedies for cramps, including herbs & yoga. by no means an exhaustive resource, but it covers the basics with plenty of old-fashioned clip art to hold one's interest. only 5 copies left!
5" square * 28pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

this is a very valuable resource for anyone interested in learning more about using fertility awareness as a birth control method. for those who don't know, fertility awareness is a method of learning the signs of the body's impending ovulation & fertility in order to avoid or schedule a pregnancy. it doesn't involve any hormones or special equipment. it's an ideal method of birth control for anyone who doesn't want to or can't take hormonal birth control treatments ("the pill," for example), & it's useful information for any vagina-having person wishing to know more about her body. this zine goes into much more detail than i can here, but it's a good primer for those curious about learning more about the method. most of the information is taken wholesale from the very good book, taking charge of your fertility, but this is a good place to start for someone wanting to spend $1.50 instead of $20. the authors include notes in the margins & underline parts they find important, & there's an herbalism supplement (most information from susun weed books) in the back that might be useful.
half-standard * 84pp. * $2.85 (u.s.)/$4.45(int'l)

if you have read more than a couple of issues of "cometbus" within a few weeks of each other, then you know that disorienting feeling of thinking, "wait, didn't the last issue tell this exact same story, but with a slightly different perspective? & wasn't this calvin guy named fred last time? what's going on?" yeah, jeff does that sometimes too. it's like this thing that happens in punk rock storytelling zines, especially the monstrously huge hundred-page handwritten ones, like this. stories get recycled & their bones are sucked dry of all folksy subcultural wisdom that might freeze their characters in time like bugs in amber. this issue is the first of the "ghost pine" name switch & jeff says it took two years to write it. i used to carry it--i think it was one of the zines i opened the catalogue with back in 2003, but i sold out at some point & thought it was gone before. then jeff decided to re-print, so it's back like one of those vintage hollywood revival movies jeff documents in his piece about movie theatres shutting down in montreal. this issue is about moving from ottawa to montreal, "being killed in new & exciting ways, like with frostbite, for example," being unceremoniously evicted by a roommate with a passion for 7am fiddling lessons, & landing back in ottawa, working at a donut shop & re-connecting with high school friends. lots of stories here about touring, hitchhiking, living in punk houses that are pretty much unheated squats, & lots & lots of telling other people's stories about being a gay man in montreal as the 80s started picking off friends, or the heartbreak of falling for a traveling girl who really doesn't want you to join her as she farms her way to mexico. jeff has a knack for making life a little bigger than it probably ought to be, & romanticizing hard luck.
quarter-standard * 100pp. * $3.05(u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

this issue has a theme: family, or blood. it is comprised of five of jeff's stories, carefully written, edited, & proofread for quality assurance. in the first story, jeff goes back to ottawa to house-sit for his parents & work on his zine, & visits his 95-year-old grandmother, who survived a devastating fire that burned down the entire mining outpost she lived on at the age of 2, on 9/11. the next story belongs to jeff's father, a tale of hitchhiking in airplanes as a teenager. next jeff is mugged by two crackheads & his cousin offers to exact some vigilante justice. the fourth story is about family vacations as a child & the vastness of canada. & lastly, jeff writes about spending his birthday at the cabin his grandfather built in the country, throwing a show & skinny-dipping in the lake. jeff is a solid writer who manages to do a lot of interesting things which make for interesting stories. he lets the words speak for themselves--the zine is all text. the only image is the cover portrait of his family circa 1913.
quarter-standard * 46pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75(int'l)

still more stories from jeff, & this time they are about street musicians in the montreal subway, making friends out of fights, visiting chicago & hanging out at the diners & helping kids with art projects & watching the rain, taking the greyhound to new york city & getting a lesson in gentification from the bus driver, faux-swordfighting with a good friend, & childhood in the suburbs of edmonton. the thing about jeff's stories is that they're so much more about other people, or cities, or the things he observes, than they are about him. he is like a medium through which these other people, places, & things tell their stories. plus he refers to hands as "paws" sometimes, which is awesome.
quarter-standard * 42pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

jeff structures this zine as a collection of "b-sides"--previously unpublished bits of writing from old notebooks & hard drives that never seemed to fit anywhere else. the layout is what we have come to traditionally expect from this zine--text-heavy, with a sort of antique feel to the headline fonts & carefully detailed clip art illustrations. the first half of the zine is primarily reflections on the post-9/11 political climate from a canadian point of view: jeff writes about preparing for an american road trip the month after the attacks, crossing the border as a blue-eyed white person & seeing first-hand the privileges afforded to skin color & national descent in a country brainwashed by anti-terrorism rhetoric--flags waving from every flagpole, activists being criticized by a fearful but apathetic populace for getting too "political" about the issues too soon, laying out zines in front of airport security brandishing automatic weapons. the second half picks up the "review" theme that is sweeping the zine world, as jeff recommends politically radical post-WW2 greek music, the teenage nostalgia of finding the band sloan, getting stoned & reading "x-men 2" as a political commentary against bush, & more, as jumping off points for his own personal stories about friends & muddling through life. i told him that this may be my favorite issue of "ghost pine" yet-the so--called "b-sides" fit together really well to make a cohesive zine with many touching & thoughtful asides.
quarter-standard * 52pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

ah, a new zine from jeff, who is always a pretty damn satisfying storyteller. 100% true stories torn from the reality of his everyday life, but with the detached narrative voice of a raymond carver or one of those other dudes who unflinchingly reports on the mundane but life-changing moments of the common man. this one is subtitled "wires". why? i don't know. the cover is a shot of a parking lot with electrical wires over it. stories here include an untitled dialogue between jeff & jeff, ages 16 & 24 (quite similar to a story i've written but never published, & now i can't 'cause it'll look like i'm ripping him off) in which the teenage jeff finds the 24-year-old jeff contemptible for breaking edge; a lengthy piece about being tricked into starting an environmental justice club in high school & failing to involve the assorted leaders of the high school cliques, which nicely illustrates the complex social strata of teenagerdom; bonfires in the alleys on montreal; squatting in san francisco; & being recruited into helping pack up a family's home after eviction & finding a soft spot for the charming pack rat of a pre-teen son. this zine is always heavy on the text, with perhaps an illustration to lead from story to story. i have been reading it now for eight years (since "otaku" #4) & it's always a satisfying experience.
quarter-standard * 48pp. * $3.70 (u.s.)/$4.50 (int'l)

jeff has finished a new zine! more simple stories of subculture & a youth misspent. this issue opens with a continuation of jeff's experience founding his high school's social justice club, as initiated in issue #10. this time, the first meeting is scheduled, & jeff is convinced that no one will show up & that he has pestered the leader of every social group in his high school for no reason. instead, the room is packed, & everyone is passionate about working on the radical issues closest to their hearts. jeff & a friend are elected leaders, despite the construction of the club as being implicitly anarchist. more to come in future issues...jeff also writes about smoking hash in calgary & reminiscing about the first time he traveled across canada by himself, spending the fourth of july with an american friend in williamsburg (which had to have been a strange experience for a canadian, & jeff does subtly address the constant imperialist underpinnings of every american celebration of america), existential angst visiting a friend working in a security trailer overnight, a very emotionally loaded haircut, dating a woman five years older than him, all the different offices (some rather illicit) in which jeff has worked on his writing, entering a winning a short story contest as a teenager with a tale culled from his zine, & the grand finale: re-prints from a friend's zine that never saw the light of day, "crud". "crud" was written by jeff's buddy stu, who had trashed jeff's zine & been challenged to write his own if he thought he was so great. these "crud" stories are awesomely hilarious & bizarre scenes from the dark side of the crust punk lifestyle. i'm so glad jeff re-rpinted them here. this whole zine is heavy on the text, most of it typed, some it handwritten, split up with titles scrawled in sharpie & strange images drawn, stolen, & found. "ghost pine" is always a high-quality read.
quarter-standard * 48pp. * $3.35 (u.s.)/$3.75 (int'l)

this zine opens really sadly, as sarah finds out that a friend & another woman were killed on their bikes by a drunk driver, & another friend was injured really badly & people are afraid she won't be able to walk again. this accident was also chronicled in "life during wartime" #8, with an interview with caroline, the woman who lived (to both walk & ride bikes again). stories like that always scare me & make me worry about my friends that have been hit by cars & friends who are on their bikes all day, & myself when i am on my bike. but most of the zine is about sarah's epic four-month bike ride from bellingham, wa to tuscon, az. each section of the story is split up by location with an annotated map indicating the highlights & lowlights: the redwood forest, the horrible incessantly talking man, all the backtracking she did in california when the milkcrate rustlers called her & asked her to come roadie for them on a tour out east. there is a special guest comic from one milkcrate rustler about a disappointing trek out to olympia for the original ladyfest (i was there! they actually paid workshop facilitators!). sarah's stories from her bike trip are alternately hilarious & evocative, detailing the many moods a person experiences when biking alone all the way down the coast of the continental u.s., being patronized by fancy know-it-all bike jocks. pretty text-heavy, but broken up nicely with charming illustrations & comics. it kind of made me think for a minute that i should hop on my bike & ride to portland, me to see my friend jessika rae, but then i remembered how i got really winded the other night biking the four blocks to 7/11 for potato chips, so i think i should train a little bit first. i love this zine so much. lady cyclists give me hope for the world.
less than half-legal * 48pp. * $3.70 (u.s.)/$4.70 (int'l)

this is one of those zines that was cobbled together in a manner of days for a zine fair, but it's still really awesome! all hand-written & almost entirely about bikes, in case you couldn't tell from the cover. we have a piece on the role bicycles played in transforming women's clothing in the 1800's, with the advent of bloomers & lighter skirts for less encumbered cycling, & it is recorded for posterity that at least one woman got off her bike & punched some dude in the face for mocking her fashion. sweet! we also have a piece detailing women's historical biking records for speed & endurance, including one tough-ass lady who broke a man's record & went unchallenged by any gender for over thirty years! all those stories of women riding 100 miles a day in like nine hours flat made me want to try it myself. except that this zine can be read in the time it takes to smoke one cigarette, & i discovered that myself, which means that i am unlikely to break any cycling records unless they involve spectacular falls off bikes due to cigarette-related coughing fits. sarah also offers an overview of portland messenger fashion, which i can reliably attest is a bi-coastal phenomenon, & the bike uniform she has created for herself, as well as her fantasies of out-pacing messengers & drinking them under the table. i can drink them under the table & even out-bike a few, but probably not at the same time. fun times! will make you want to ride a bike & smash up macho bike jocks with your mini-u-lock!
less than half-legal * 16pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)

yay! another bike touring zine from sarah! this time she packed up her gear & went to europe for three months. her storytelling tone here is a lot like issue #4, & they are both really great zines: funny, emotional, witty, charming, & capable of inspiring damn near anyone to test their mettle on a long-distance bike trip. she starts off arriving in london, falling down the escelator & getting food poisoning, & also bikes through holland, germany, & france. although this zine naturally comes from a long line of "american punks go to europe & make international friends at all the squats coated in anarchist graffiti" predecessors, one of the funniest passages in this zine was about sarah coming across just such a squat, lurking outside conspicuously checking out the art, hoping some crusty kid would come out in a gesture of international punk rock solidarity, but being forced to slink off alone, which is probably a lot more realistic. pretty damn text-heavy with lots of thoughts on biking alone & being a lady & being angry at people who act like that's such a stunning concept, like women are inviting horrible things to happen to them by doing what boys do without even thinking twice. lots of picturesque descriptions of european forests crawling with goblins & such forth. & she includes a useful list in the back of everything she packed, to demystify the long-haul bike traveling process. she is also compiling a zine of bike tour stories (anything over one day), with an emphasis on women & trans folks, so pick up a copy of her zine & write for more details on that.
half-standard * 36pp. * $3.70 (u.s.)/$4.50 (int'l)

sarah is again experimenting with letterpress in her newest zine (see "glossolalia" #7 for more forays into unconventional printing methods). this issue is split into two separate halves, & the cover is designed kind of like an accordion to separate them, almost like she wrote a split with herself. one half is about a month spent visiting new york city, staying in her boyfriend's apartment, the repellant nature of new york in the summer, stinking of garbage, & new yorkers criss-crossing the city with that self-important new york-style urgency, but closes with sarah wondering if maybe new york is the place where anything is possible after all. the other half is about portland, oregon, in the summer, all bike rides & swimming & mixed drinks. sarah writes that this is the last peter pan summer where it feels like no one ever has to grow up, which captures the spirit of portland perfectly--especially in the summer when the place is infested with traveler kids & you can't walk three blocks without seeing five people you know. almost entirely text, the stories inside are written in a simple & evocative second-person lorrie moore style & printed with gray ink, while the covers are printed with red & tan inks on textured cream-colored paper. this zine is sub-titled "long distance".
quarter-standard * 22pp. * $3.35 (u.s.)/$3.75 (int'l)

this issue of sarah's zine grows up a little, featuring letterpressed covers on heavy paper, & subtitled "juvenile justice". sarah explains in the intro that she took a class on the topic recently & learned that the united states has incarcerated over 2000 juveniles for life, no eligibility for parole. in comparison, only a dozen children face lifetime incarceration in the rest of the world. the united states refuses to sign the u.n. convention on the rights on children because it would outlaw these lifetime incarcerations for children under the age of 18. sarah has worked for various shelters for over ten years, & shares the story of thomas cherry in this zine, a ten-year-old boy staying at a homeless shelter with his mother & brothers. thomas is one of the children that falls through the cracks: obviously in need of intervention before he seriously hurts someone, but not so far gone as to qualify for existing habilitation programs. the bulk of this zine is comprised of interviews with other folks across the u.s. who work in the juvenile justice field in some capacity: lawyers, shelter workers, after-school program leaders, etc. sarah asks each of them about the work they do & why they do it, what barriers exist for themin helping youth, & what satisfies them in their jobs. the zine is laid out in small, simple type, no adornment. just some stories about sarah's experiences with thomas, & the stories of these other youth advocates. there is a lot of food for thought here, about how the system condemns children before they even have a chance to break the cycles of abuse & poverty that define their lives.
quarter-standard * 32pp. * $3.35 (u.s.)/$3.75 (int'l)