VTOTW (video tape of the week)

I found this gem in a box of old video tapes while cleaning out the garage this week. This is some of the raw footage of the great Portland pop punk band The Automatics that I shot back in 1996 at my house. They were supposed to play the Missoula rock club, Jay’s Upstairs, but unfortunately Jay’s was overbooked. I asked them to play at my house. This is quintessential mid-90’s punk which represents such a profound place and time for me. During their set, people would wander in and out of my house, grab beers from the fridge, and then go back outside and listen to the music. I stayed inside, drank beers, and cheered like a Scandinavian metalhead. Jesse Kimball’s bass amp blew out early in the performance so he just set his guitar aside and grabbed the mic for the rest of the 20-plus song set. I recently saw Jesse on an episode of ‘Diners, Drive-ins & Dives’ Chefing at The Memphis Taproom in his home town of Philadelphia. It was great to see how well he is doing. He was also the man behind the Portland drink punk mag, Beer Can Fanzine.

sound & video quality: shit

Last Century Zinesters - Chapter 1

Last Century Zinesters - Chapter 1 from Márcio Sno on Vimeo.

Green Woman Vol. 1

Green Woman: a Literary Garden
summer/fall 2011
two issue subscription $12.50
POB 6587
Colorado Springs, CO 80934-6587
www.greenwomanmagazine.com

The world is in rough shape right now. Green Woman Magazine seeks to help this battered old world out a bit. The primary focus of this magazine is gardening, and how to live a more earth-conscious lifestyle. As a fan of people who are trying to do this, I really like this stuff, but am not very good at it myself. Every time I try to grow an herb garden in my back yard, either the deer eat it or it dries out because I forget to water it. I’m not willing to subject vegetables to this. I’m also one of those who thinks that Michael Ruppert is mostly right, and because of this I’ve been fascinated with seed storage and procurement for a while now, there is a great article on that very subject in here that I really dug. I also really enjoyed the articles entitled ‘Organicize Me’ where a dude goes one month eating and drinking nothing but organic products(prices included) , and a personal account of life in the medicinal medical marijuana world (‘Hello, Doobie Tuesday’) that helped this confusingly great idea come to life for me. This is a excellent first issue with a hell of a lot of soul that today, is more important than ever. Order it, read it, live it.

Martha Stewart’s Prison Reader of Blather & Malarkey #1

Martha Stewart’s Prison Reader of Blather & Malarkey #1
$3
Tarnation Collins
pob 4377
Tulsa, OK 74159
msprobam@gmail.com
MSPROBM is Tarnation Collins first attempt at making a zine. He’s married, has three small children, lives in Tulsa Oklahoma, and is often overcome with a profound sense of loneliness, all of which he writes about in a very approachable way in this issue. This is a nice first issue that felt like it was written by someone who needed a creative outlet that probably wasn’t being satisfied from blogs and other sources. I’ve always felt that the simple, physical act of putting a zine together can be profoundly cathartic, MSPROBM felt like it could have been just that for the author. This is a perzine full of perzine stuff: poetry, original stories, opinion pieces, games, and even a parable. I liked this zine a lot and hope Tarnation keeps it going.

Upheaval #14

UPHEAVAL #14
one 1st class stamp
upheaval.fanzine@gmail.com
Upheaval used to be a full sized zine that covered hardcore, crust, punk from around the world. Due to personal & financial issues that the author, Craig talks about in this issue, he has decided to scale back a bit. This issue is simply one page, but still covers hardcore, punk, and crust from around the world. I checked out all of the bands mentioned in this issue and found a couple that I really dig. One stamp is the price, and if you’re into this type of music, it’s definitely worth it.

Monkey Squad One #7

Monkey Squad One #7
$2.50
Monkeysquadmailbox@gmail.com
There is so much going on in every page of this comic, so much attention to detail throughout. This particular issue of MS1 is about a rapper named Trik Erl Dub and three of his young fans getting lost in a zombie apocalypse. It has all the trimmings of a fine zombie kill fest: gore, humor, and toilets. This comic comes out pretty regularly, and the back story is pretty elaborate, so you might want to order back issues before jumping into later issues if you haven't read it before.