lindsey originally wrote & published this zine in 2002, but opted to re-issue it in a new format when she completed issue #8, because both zines tell the same story: the story of her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer. in this issue, lindsey offers some background on the ordeal, beginning with her mother's first terminal diagnosis in 1994, when lindsey was still in middle school & her little sister, katherine, was only four years old. her mother managed to beat the cancer & it was in remission for a few years, before returning. half of the zine is comprised of journal entries that lindsey wrote throughout 2001 & 2002, about choosing to continue living at home to help care for her mother & take care of her sister, her mother's various diagnoses & treatments & side effects, & her relationship with her family & loved ones throughout this time. she includes a list at the beginning of frequently mentioned players in the story. the other half of the zine is "vignettes": writing exercises that lindsey did in an effort to get a handle on her tumultuous emotions. she addresses the resentment she felt at having to stay & take care of her mother & her sister rather than go away to college, her fears around her mother dying, her complicated relationship with katherine (being both sister & primary guardian much of the time), the complexities of sustaining healthy romantic relationships when there is so much happening with her family, & more. the layout is predominately text, interspersed with photographs of lindsey & her mother, & a few anatomical illustrations indicating the areas where her mother is particularly affected by the cancer. there are no easy answers or solutions here--just lindsey's experiences trying to cope with a very difficult situation & maintain her own health & emotional equilibirium. this zine stayed with me for a long, long time. the story lindsey tells is very intense. only 3 copies left!
half-standard * 40pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

this issue is a continuation of issue #7. it is probably smart to try to read them both together, in order to get the full story that lindsey is offering, but each also stands on its own. i feel compelled to mention that both issues are very intense. lindsey documents her experiences caring for her mother & other members of her family as her mother struggles with a diagnosis of terminal cancer. i read both issues back-to-back when i received them for consideration a few weeks ago, & i was exhausted for the rest of the weekend. the zines are long, & they are emotional, & they will stir up difficult memories for anyone who has experienced the death or severe illness of a loved one. this issue picks up where issue #7 left off & continues in the same style, as lindsey records her thoughts about her mother's sickness & her own caretaking role via journal entries. she again includes a timeline to date, for readers needing to catch up on the story, & a brief explanation of the main players. the journal begins in summer 2002 & documents the dissolution of lindsey's relationship with her long-time partner (who is later caught stealing from the family), her mother's near-fatal staph infection & suicidal ideation, lindsey's sister katherine's adolescence & behavioral problems, lindsey's attempts to move out of the house, & her mother's eventual decision to go into hospice care & allow the cancer to take its course. lindsey ends the story by moving into her own home for the first time in her adult life & preparing for her mother's impending passing away. the layout is similar to the last issue--predominately text, interspersed with photographs of lindsey, her mother, & other individuals important to the story. the experience of reading these zines really is like reading these zines really is like reading somebody's diary. lindsey is very honest & forthright in her writing--astonishingly so. this is some very powerful stuff. only 3 copies left!
half-standard * 96pp. * $4.65 (u.s.)/$6.65 (int'l)

this is joshua's second issue, but the first was released three years ago, as he explains in the intro, & a lot has changed since then, much of which went unrecorded in this small personal zine that was primarily banged out on an old manual typewriter (you can see the velocity marks in the ink). he writes about feeling conflicted about the idea that family is inherntly familiar & relate-able because of some blood connection, & how this cycnicism was compromised somewhat by learning more about his great-great-grandfather from an old county history book. he includes some older writing from the first time he purchased a car & challenged his devotion to the car-free lifestyle (which doesn't come off as a defense of car culture so much as a person struggling to make his ideals match his actions in concrete ways). in one piece, he finds a quarter on the ground, which leads to taking the new hampshire state motto a little too seriously. he interviews writer & filmmaker valerie park about being a financially strapped independent movie-maker & slapping snoop dogg. there is a pretty interesting piece about the ghosts of snohomish county (washington) & how maybe people believe in ghosts so they will feel less alone. & there is more in here too, all laid out over instructional line drawings of people creating cat's cradles with yarn. a very low-key & quiet zine, but it contains some thoughtful ideas.
half-standard * 20pp. * $2.20 (u.s.)/$3.00 (int'l)

lauren & kendra compiled this zine, which is really more the size of a book, as part of their theses for college. kendra is a photographer & took care of snapping pictures of the interview subjects engaged in their daily activist lives, & lauren edited the interviews. they traveled all over the eastern part of the u.s. interviewing anarcha-feminists about what their politics mean to them, focusing on the following six questions: "how were you introduced to anarcha-feminism?", "what does anarcha-feminism mean to you?", "what form does your anarcha-feminism take?", "does your community help or hinder your anarcha-feminism?", "are you 'out' as an anarchist in all areas of your life?", & "how do you feel about privilege (both access to you & denial of)?". the result is a collection of nineteen incredibly detailed interviews with a wide variety of activists from a lot of different backgrounds. some of the responses are diametrically opposed to each other, which illustrates the wide variety of opinion than can fall under the umbrella of "anarchist" or "feminist," & you are guaranteed not to agree with every opinion put forth. kendra & lauren didn't, & neither do i. but all of it food for thought, as people talk about the activism they do in their communities, reproductive health, parenthood, gender identity, queer identity, sexual assault & abuse, punk rock, & a variety of other topics. the interviews are structured a lot like essays or monologues, allowing the subjects to talk in their own voices, & the photographs are all really beautiful & vibrant. i think this is an amazing resource--i was really excited to find it lurking on the zine shelves in my local infoshop one day, because there isn't a lot of writing out there specifically about anarcha-feminism, & of course, i am always fascinated to find out what projects people are working on or what issues concern the communities in other parts of the country/world. highly recommended, whether you consider yourself an anarchist or not.
half-legal * 104pp. * $5.65 (u.s.)/$7.65 (int'l)

i have to say, i really like aaron's zines. they're a little existential, but good, literate reading. the first half of this one is reflections from some time aaron spent in new york city. his outlook is a little darker than mine; i continue to be sort of guiltily awed by the vastness of the city everytime i am there, but aaron captures the essence of the city's underbelly & doesn't have time for romanticizing anything. he writes about borrowing a house bike & being denied the use of a wrench at a hipster hardware store, drinking coffee in a fancy indoor mall & realizing that the purpose of gentrification is for disaffected twenty-somethings to do what everyone else does while surrounded by the subcultural ilk. he writes about attending an art show at a gallery in the interest of patronizing the open bar, & the second of liquid courage it sometimes takes to subvert the mechanizations of authority. the second half of the zine finds aaron traveling around in brattleboro, working out the complex etiquette of being a good houseguest & wondering if the traveling lifestyle is a symptom of mental illness. he closes with a story of driving to a greasy spoon in north carolina during a freak snowstorm, wondering where all the genius ideas go when they are not written down or acted upon. this zine is heavy on the text, but written in short bursts that make it easy to swallow & offer room for reflection. a little cynical, a little snarky, but amusingly self-aware.
quarter-standard * 28pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

it appears that all my years reading zines have paid off & i have developed eerie psychic powers, because, true to my description of the last issue, this issue is a comic all about working at a donut shop! or maybe, actually, i just read this issue before i wrote up the last description. but let's pretend i have mystical abilities instead. so, indeed, this issue is a comic with a fancypants silkscreened cover, charting the development of aaron's brief stint working at bloomington's cresent donuts, described therein as being located "on the uneasy precipice of city & country." but i've been there & it's more like just a midwestern strip mall. whatever. one friend made the astute observation that aaron has a real knack of rendering himself in comic form & actually making it really look like him. maybe he just has a comic face. we open with him strolling into the shop to procure an application. we learn about the interview, the initial rejection, the surprise hiring, the fantastical punk rock daydreams, the other employees, the mistakes in judgment that arise from working all night at a donut shop, donut-related sexual innuendoes, & the anti-climactic donut-stealing-related firing. good times. a comic that uses words like "fortuitous" & "misanthropic". someone went to college! check it out.
half-standard * 36pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50(int'l)

so, this issue follows in the footsteps of the classic punk rock genre of greyhound travel stories. aaron here re-counts a trip from portland, oregon down to texas, & the developments recorded herein will be instantly familiar to anyone who has worked off any of their own sentence in purgatory aboard said coach: cancelled buses, attempts at waiting room sermonizing, terrifying mountain blizzards, the mandatory crazy person who scares the shit out of all the other passengers & the driver & is carted off by the highway patrol, alarming bus stop diners, & the overwhelming sense of dazed euphoria that overcomes one once they have reached their final destination. aaron also writes about going back to north carolina for a family reunion. it brought back memories of the reunions i attended myself as a surly teenager, shocked by the realization that these staid middle americans that represent everything i hate about the world do in fact share blood with me. the zine is mostly text, broken down into stories that last a page or two & are topped with some thematic imagery. it is, as usual, far more literate than most what i am used to seeing in zines, with some self-consciously sprinkled kerouac references, & i'm not talking about on the road, either. always recommended.
half-standard * 32pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

this has been described by some as a "back issue" of sorts, because it is all stories about aaron's late adolescence in north carolina, rather than anything he might have been up to in the last six months or whatever. i will say this for aaron: his writing is consistently really good. he has a really strong literary voice & obviously reads a lot, knows how to structure a narrative, & manages to transport a reader into the little world he has created & once inhabited. though it sounds like his late teenage years in the south were the petri dish in which festered much cynicism & bitterness. this zine is pretty text-heavy & the emphasis is on the writing more than anything else, so it's sort of more like reading a short book than a traditional zine. the theme here is mostly, "north carolina stole my youth with the assistance of punk rock nihilism & women to whom i didn't know how to relate." it's a mixture of aaron's own personal stories about flailing around in the social morass (resulting at one point to him calling a local singles hotline!) & his observations of his sad bretheren, made all the more pitiful because they are captured forevermore at what i certainly hope is their worst-- staying up all night drinking just to read the paper in the morning, having a neighbor that takes breaks from making meth or pick up hookers, etc. fewer punk rock tour stories & greyhound travels than previous issues, but still the same high quality writing & crusty embittered self-deprecation.
half-standard * 40pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

this very special edition of "big hands" is in fact a fairly exhaustive history of english anarchist punk band chumbawamba. chumbawamba has a certain widespread cultural currency as "that 'you knock me down, but i get up again' band," a reference to their worldwide hit song "tubthumping," which secured their place in history books addressing one-hit wonders. but many punks are aware of the fact that chumbwamba existed as a communally-minded & explictly political punk band for well over a decade before they opted to sign to EMI & release "tubthumping". responses to their decision to sign to a major have been mixed, with many punks believing that they sold out completely & are beyond salvaging. others respect their decision to funnel the money they made off the corporate music industry into anti-corporate political groups like indymedia & corpwatch. aaron more or less shies away from sharing his own subjective opinions on the issue, choosing instead to explain the history of the band, their move away from crass-style lifestyle anarchism, the debt they owe to english party/techno scenes for sharpening their pop sensibilities, & the varied political activism they have participated in, collectively & individually, outside of their music. this will of course be a zine that will greatly appeal to other chumbawamba fans, & it comes with a tape of hard-to-find chumbawamba music, of interest to both fans & other people curious about what this band has done besides that song we all saw nine thousand times on MTV in 1998. but it's also a really fascinating document for any punk/anarchist type wondering how one might live their ideals in the belly of the capitalist/imperialist beast. aaron reports the interesting phenomenon that chumbawamba's friends were split along class lines when it comes to the issue of the band signing to a major, with working-class friends supporting them, & more affluent friends accusing them of being sell-outs. i think this is something a lot of radical types can relate to, as they start wondering how to interface with the real world in certain necessary ways but hold on to their political ideologies. the zine is primarily aaron's own history, drawn from a variety of sources, & augmented with original liner notes from old releases & interviews with band members from "maximumrocknroll" & "flipside". pretty interesting shit.
half-standard & cassette tape * $6.35 (u.s.)/$7.95 (int'l)

despite what were apparently my best efforts to discourage him, aaron has written a new personal zine. you just can't keep this kid away from a pen & a piece of paper, which is what some of this zine is about. he writes about his commitment to his undefinable work, which involves sitting in the library for hours researching various aspects of local history & writing, enabling a life of financial insolvency which prescribes his unsuitability as a romantic partner, culminating in a dumping at a party. he records this experience as he records so many others: with self-effacing detachment, saying that he "took notes on her merciful dumping technique". this could also be construed as something of a holiday issue, as aaron writes about getting together with his family for thanksgiving in years past, & how such experiences usually result in dysfunction. this ties in with his research into the moravians, a group of traveling puritans who settled in various parts of the country, including the greensboro area where aaron lives. he writes about visiting the re-created colonial village on an elementary school field trip & coming to the conclusion that the entire area is cursed somehow. the zine is laid out in aaron's usual style: big chunks of computer-generated text designed to emphasize the primacy of the stories, sparsely decorated with small images demarcating shifts in topic. i enjoyed this issue quite a bit.
half-standard * 24pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

this is the first issue of this zine i have ever carried, & i wanted to pick it up because it's about an important topic that i think a lot of people will be able to relate to: surviving & eventually ending an abusive relationship. alex made a smaller version of this zine last summer, distributed primarily to friends & pen pals, but the response was such that she decided to expand it & make it more widely available with the hope that other people in similar circumstances could derive some insight & courage from her writings & get out of some bad situations. subtitled "irreconcilable differences," it is about her relationship with her ex-husband, whom she was with for close to a decade, running a business & owning a house, & how their relationship gradually fell apart as she came to understand the sources of her unhappiness & dissatisfaction. everything is laid out really nicely in stark black & white photocopies with key points written in bold typeface, & alex omits very little in the furtherance of delineating the breakdown of the relationship & her eventual departure. & yet, the whole zine has a very factual tone & doesn't really fall into the trap of recounting petty grievances or bitter recriminations. worth a read for anyone who has potentially been involved in an abusive situation, be it with a partner or not, although these things can always be potentially triggering.
half-standard * 44pp. * $4.05 (u.s.)/$5.25 (int'l)

alex subtitled this zine, "a practical body modification." it's all about her experience getting an IUD (intra-uterine device--a form of birth control shaped like a tiny T that is inserted into the uterus to prevent the implantation of fertilized eggs). she came up with this name after discussing birth control options with a bunch of different people & experiencing the irony of a punk with a face full of piercings remarking upon the ickiness of putting unnatural metal into your body. i personally have also always been weirded out by IUDs & the concept of storing foreign objects inside my uterus for years at a time, but alex explains how she came to this decision about her birth control choices in the zine. she also explains exactly what an IUD is & how it functions, with lots of objective information for people that want to explore their own birth control options. the IUD that alex got is non-hormonal & might be a good choice for people looking for something more effortless than fertility awareness, but less hormone-ridden than a pill. alex also describes the process of having the IUD inserted & what her immediate recovery period was like. i appreciated the balance between factual & objective information, & the personal story of alex's experience with the IUD. there is also a perverse ring toss reference that made me laugh for days & days. each cover is hand-crafted & each zine comes in a small hand-printed envelope. the layout, as always with alex's zines, is heavy on typewriters & high-contrast photocopies.
quarter-standard * 36pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

alex heralds a return to form with the newest issue of "brainscan". the last two issues were theme issues, about leaving an emotionally abusive relationship & getting an IUD, respectively, & were a departure from her typical style content-wise. this issue also has a loose theme, but the writing is much more in keeping with the zines alex has been making for the last ten years. the rough theme is travel, or "travel stories that never quite got as far as the travel written about". think of it as kind of like b-sides to those epic travel stories that you find in other personal punk zines. alex definitely covers a lot of geographical ground in this issue, criss-crossing the continental united states & venturing into mexico, a cruise ship leaving from england, various locales in eastern & northern europe, etc. but the stories are more about interesting inter-personal connections or irritations that happened along the way than the actual travels themselves, from a confrontation with the new wife of an ex-boyriend, to a quick kiss with a polish waiter, to killing time as a teenager growing up in salt lake city. the layout features the high-contrast negative imaging cut & paste style that has become alex's visual trademark. long-time fans of alex's zines will enjoy this new issue, as will new readers looking for a personable & engaging zine full of charming stories.
quarter-legal * 40pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

erica's cut & paste typewritten perzine reminds me a lot of "doctrinal expletives," both in execution (the layout is simple blocks of text pasted over patterned backgrounds), & writing style, which is fairly wry & sarcastic, but still attempting to express some deeper ideas about stuff--stuff in this case including mental health, writing science fiction, misapprehensions of the rust belt, etc. some of the pieces, such as erica's scathing critique of a student filmmaker from wisconsin who maligned pittsburgh in an independent film, or her deconstruction of the icarus project & anti-psychiatry (this piece makes up a good percentage of the zine, delving into erica's personal experiences with psychiatry), or her piece about giving up on the pittsburgh science fiction-writing community because it was too focused on getting published & making money, were written especially for the zine. interspersed are fragments from her journal, mostly about mental health & journaling. this zine will be of particular interest to people struggling with mental health issues (regardless of your personal stance on psychiatry) & people who take writing seriously, either through journaling or writing fiction.
quarter-standard * 32pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

teri wrote a regular zine a long time ago--i remember trading with her in 2000 & 2001 or so. she went on a lengthy hiatus & came back with this small thematic zine, named for the topics she addresses. cement is about cities & buildings, highway embankments, noise abatement walls, newly-installed stop signs in her parents' suburban neighborhood, & exploring abandoned buildings. teri writes about all these things with the air of a seasoned researcher. flour refers to teri's newfound love of baking, & she shares recipes for plum crumble, a simple loaf of bread, lemon yogurt cake, pumpkin cranberry bread, & cola cake with broiled peanut butter frosting (!!!--this madness, even though she is canadian!). saints is about teri's exploration of our lady of grace monsatery, hidden away in nova scotia. it's something of a tourist trap (despite its obscurity) & in some ways, for some people, perhaps a real place of worship. teri shares the monastery's story, & the story of the shrine of fatima, a place where the virgin mary alledgely appeared to a handful of schoolchildren, who proceeded to dedicate themselves to selfless devotion & died pointless deaths nonetheless. the zine is mainly text, interspersed with a few photographs, very simply designed. i liked its sense of detachment & its thematic consistency a lot. i like it when people recount things in a kind of obsessive way. only 1 copy left!
eighth-legal * 52pp. * $1.85 (u.s.)/$2.25 (int'l)

tagged "your favorite bicycle zine," & i think, for me, it really is. shelley is a bike mechanic in new orleans & together with a host of collaborators, she has produced this hefty, informative, & entertaining zine, all about bikes & bike culture. the history of bicycles in the u.s. is outlined, complete with illustrations of various bicycle inventions & innovations. there are pieces on the role the bicycle played in women's dress reform in the 19th century, & about historical figures that factor into the political landscape of biking. there are craft instructions involving common biking implements, pieces on street harrassment & bikes, the utlity of bikes beyond simple transportation, & how to avoid being hit while biking on city streets. shelley writes about her experiences becoming a mechanic & especially being a woman mechanic, there are instructions on fixing a flat (illustrated), & a nice piece on plan b, a d.i.y. bike shop in new orleans. there are bike-themed book reviews, & even more. & it's all totally accessible, whether you're one of those 85-mile trip people or didn't learn to ride a bike until you were 13 years old, like me.
half-legal * 40pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

one of the finest bike zines around, because it admirably recognizes the multi-faceted world of bike culture, as well as the role of bikes outside the bike punk anti-car scene in which a lot of bike zines are ensconced. the theme of this issue seems to be bicycling outside the confines of mainstream u.s.a. you will find no fiberglass frames or moisture-absorbing jerseys here, my friends! instead, learn about the role of the bicycle in other countries, like the many uses of rickshaws in india, or the multitude of useful machines people in guatemala construct with basic bike parts. (learn how to make your own bike-powered blender!) hear all about bike shop culture from new orleans to ireland, & tag along with a bike circus as it tours europe. learn about the wonders of bearings & the evils of vice grips, & the interrelationship of bikes & cameras. & more! fun & educational for anyone who has ever enjoyed a bike ride.
half-legal * 44pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

yay! another installment of the best bike zine i've had the pleasure of reading. every issue contains a whole stack of contributions on the bike theme from shelley's friends & acquaintances, so the tone is always fresh & the perspective is always a little different. in this issue, two women weigh in with their experiences as female bike mechanics, shelley trash talks fixies (huzzah!), we are instructed on how to pack our bikes for travel, we learn how to clean out our hubs & do a tune-up, we learn how to make bucket panniers (like saddlebags made out of plastic buckets), & contributers write stories about riding to the ocean for the first time after recovering from broken bones, staging a midnight food delivery alley cat race, teaching bike repair to middle schoolers, & , if you can believe it, more! some of the writing is just sweet thoughtful i-love-my-bike stuff that will inspire you to ride even if you don't actually know how. this zine truly has something for everyone, from the most nervous beginner to the most grizzled veteran. so good!
half-legal * 44pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

shelley's zine is a perennial must-have, both for bike enthusiasts (of all skill levels!), as well as people that need a kick in the rump to get out there & start learning. though the intro, in which shelley waxes all loving about her chosen hometown of new orleans & how the infrastructure of the city works so well with her love of cycling, might inspire a few misty eyes in the wake of hurricane katrina. but read on, as shelley & her merry band of contributers write about putting together audio documentaries about cyclists being hit by cars, the way city planning is informed by racism & classism (with bonus suggested alternatives), the seedy underbelly of bike culture consumerism, a report-back on a big-ass bike conference that happened in new orleans last year, riding & getting arrested in the huge critical mass that happened in new york city during the 2004 republican national convention, an interview with the chopper gang black label, bike zine recommendations, stories & comics about being a lady bike mechanic, how to fix your brakes, an interview with an organic urban famer who does all his gradening & selling by bike, bike art, several stories about just riding & the freedom & the way it clears your mind & makes you look at your surroundings with different eyes, & still even more bike-related goodness on top of that. this zine is always awesome because it doesn't talk down to anyone, it doesn't make anyone feel inferior if they don't know how to change a flat, or even if they're too scared to ride in the street. it's not a holier-than-thou bike zine--it's a really inspiring bike zine that will make you want to learn to fix flats & try riding in the street. it's all about pure unabashed passion for bikes, with a nice scrappy cut & paste layout, the personalities of the contributers bursting right up through the pages.
half-legal * 52pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

this zine is the evolution of timothy's fun-a-day project (from what i understand, the fun-a-day project is this thing that kids in philly do where they do something everyday for the month of january & document it somehow--i think there is a website, but i don't know too many details, having never lived in philly myself). everyday for a month, timothy wrote about his father, who died in early 2003. much of what timothy wrote, he kept for himself, but some of it was edited & compiled into this zine--a sort of meandering through timothy's childhood & realtionship with his father, with stories about the political activity his father participated in while living in south africa, stories about visiting him in the hospital while he was sick, letters to his father explaining timothy's transition to being a boy, journal pieces about grief & missing his father, trying to remember the small details that fade away over time, stories about learning to talk about the loss & the relationship with friends. this is really a must-read zine for anyone who has ever coped with a death, especially the death of a parent. even though timothy's relationship with his father is unique to their own interpersonal dynamic, a lot of broader ideas in here about loss & memory resonated a lot with me & my own experience of my father dying. the focus here is on the text & the stories that timothy chooses to share. the only picture is a map of south africa. in some ways, it's a hard zine to read, because it is hard to read about death. but it's also really empowering to see someone's document of their memories, their struggle to retain a relationship with someone who is gone.
quarter-standard * 32pp. * $1.85 (u.s.)/$2.25 (int'l)

i carried david's previous zine, "big swirl quarterly," in the distro, but this is the first new issue of his long-running zine, "day of reckoning," in about four years. he showed me a lot of drafts of this zine while he worked on it, stepping out to smoke while i read, so i was really looking forward to the finished product, which has been banged out with an old manual typewriter on many scraps of paper. he writes about traveling around a bit in these past few years & some of the characters he has met, like an elderly world war two veteran taking an amtrak train across new york state every week for dialysis. he writes about his difficult relationship with a friend who committed suicide several years ago, & the regrets that we always have (rational or not) after someone in our lives dies unexpectedly. he writes about his abiding love for mike watt from the minutemen (among other bands) & receiving a bear hug from mike watt after a show one night. he also writes about playing an impromptu show in his living room when he lived in memphis & the dissolution of his relationship with the lady he was seeing at the time. & there is more in this zine too, which is written in a self-deprecating stream-of-consciousness style that i found both touching & wildly funny. david is a good friend of mine, so maybe i am better equipped to get his jokes, but i still think this is a pretty solid little publication.
quarter-standard * 24pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.70 (int'l)

as a distro lady, i know it's not right to play favorites, but this is a zine with which i can't really help but do just that. every issue is consistently well-written, thought-provoking, inspiring, & stands up to being read over & over & over again. issue #21 is the continuation of cindy's encyclopedia series, letters G, H, & I. one of my friends said, "it was hard for me to read. i've never really read anything so open about sexual abuse before." (clearly he wasn't a riot grrrl in 1994!) it is a lot about sexual abuse, as cindy writes about re-defining rape & seeking retribution in girl gangs, "how to numb yourself," & her own abuse experiences in a piece called "hell". in "gender, part one," she writes about growing up girl in a patriarchal society, learning steps to overcoming girl hate & body abuse. she also writes a little political history of guatemala, inspired by a visit there & the increasing repressions of the u.s. government domestically, & wraps things up with a comic based on a local newspaper full of ads for free stuff. this zine can be triggering for abuse survivors, & cindy recommends reading some of the heavier pieces when you are in good space. but she also writes a really incredible zine full of lines like, "the stories you tell are life, the stories you don't tell control you," & critiques the recent movement to "support perpetrators" instead of survivors in some radical communities. amazing stuff!
half-standard * 32pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)

i was so excited to find a stack of these zines in my post office box. this is the I, J, K piece of the encyclopedia series, with more of cindy's incredibly vulnerable & coherent writing. in this issue, she writes about learning about things like bio-diesel, companion gardening, & building houses, overcoming the fear of what she doesn't already know how to do. some friends interview her about how she came to feminism, anarchism, & eventually anarcha-feminism, & she explains a lot about the women's health group she is a part of & why she sees feminism as a key element to her anarchist politics, all in a very accessible, hopeful way. this is a zine that always manages to strike the delicate balance between theory & storytelling, with information about emergency contraception, as well as stories about trying to re-claim public space from street harrassers, among other things. one of my all-time favorites, & this issue does not disappoint.
half-standard * 32pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)