Irreverence Inc.

#EATURZINES .13 - 13zine by Various Youthzz, online here.

Reasons to Zine - To get your young Massachusetts-based voice out und about - Alternative poetry, quotes, playlists, und art - Smoking is out, zine-making is in.

How this zine makes me fZeel What the fuck was I doing at 13? Listening to this alot and masturbating. No time for poetry that’s for sure. I’m not sure these guys are all that young, but their issuu page does stress that it is ‘youth-run’, maybe that’s just editor Lucy Stone - who makes her own mini-zines too, god I feel old.

#EATURZINES .12 WHITE BOYS by Jacob V. Joyce, tumlbrable and webable. 

Reasons to Zine - Hilarious racial stereotyping - Lots of “shit, that’s me!” moments - In years to come, an artifact of society in the 20-teens.

How this zine makes me fZeel I wanted to talk about this zine a little sooner (see the diary entry a few posts down for a myriad of excuses for being unproductive), firstly after the Rachel Dolezal story broke, then the massacre in Charleston.  Without wanting to sound flippant, I wanted an excuse to go “I know no one cares what this white guy thinks, but here’s my two-cents”, probably dropping in about this Af-Am class I took once (the lecturer was obsessed with Ice Cube, and the darkest person there was a white girl fresh back from holiday) and my dissertation on the struggle of undocumented migrants in Alabama. (HEY LOOK I DID DROP THEM IN AFTERALL!)

But then Jacob’s poems here, and some other political zines I’ve read lately, have all reminded me that I should take a backseat on discussions advancing the cause of oppressed peoples in Western Society. How then, I’m asking all activists here, can we help - if you don’t want to hear from the middle class white guy? If it’s not my fight, why do I get upset by its persistence? Am I not in a unique position to invoke change from the inside? Tell me where to plant the bombs, guys.  We get told to shut up, then people ask why the topic isn’t on the agenda.  Blah. 

#EATURZINES .11 - BOOZE BOOK by Minesweeper Collective, more here.

Reasons to Zine  - Art and poetry from a pretty bad-ass band of alt-types.  This should of been put up before their zine-fair in Deptford this last weekend; if you’ve got a time-machine you should maybe check it out, but if you’ve got a time-machine da fuq are you on tumblr for?

Reasons to drZink - Numbing agent - Forgetting agent - Social lubrication - A defense for when you’re reminded of all those failed chat-up lines and karaoke-embarassments. 

How this Zine makes me fZeel Boring-obvious answer Like drinking

Honest answer Like drinking too much and vomiting on a council building

#EATURZINES .10 - Rum Lad Issue 7 by Steve Larder, more here.

Reasons to Zine

- A better use of time than playing eye-spy on the motorway - A better tour diary than this - Chip-shop based anecdotes - Vegan-food based anecdotes - Coffee-bas-wait.. have I got the right zine? - A5-fits-right-in-your-pocketability-unless-you’re-wearing-skinniesaphobia.

How this Zine makes me fZeel

I should form a band, in spite of my no talent - I mean that never stopped the Sex Pistols, and look at them now! 

I wanna sing and dance like Ian Curtis... but if I do the dance... am I offending epileptics?

#EATURZINES .9 - Flesh World Zine: Coast to Coast by Various.. there’s gotta be a good name for David Lynch’s fanclub.. Lynchpins?  Yea.. Various Lynchpins.  From the tumblr-able withapencilinhand.

Reasons to Zine

- I’m not even gonna. 

- If you don’t see what’s so bad-ass about this single-themed art-anth, then.. well..  - ..trying to think of a good quote..

- Shit. I need to rewatch this. Or follow some TPtumbls. 

How this Zine makes me fZeel Not enough people will ever know how awesome Shut Your Eyes and You’ll Burst Into Flames were, their best song has less than a thousand hits on youtube. I’m really sad. 

#EATURZINES .8 - Paper and Ink #5 - Damn The Man by Various Workerbees, more at this place.

Reasons to Zine

- Poems and prose and junk - Mandamning - An array of fonts, a fount of fonts, if you please - Reasons to collect JSA and watch Jezza all day.

How this Zine made me fZeel

Wish I’d saved that Young Knives quote from .6 for here, did it even really fit there? Should this blog just become an excuse for me to recite Half Timer bit-by-bit?

#EATURZINES .7 - Fill Our Thoughts by NOIAMREISS, tumblr-able: noiamreiss

Reasons to Zine

- Fillintheblankfun - Pictures of the reviewer quoting Poochie - Posters with cut-out space you can put phallic-shaped objects through - FaceCoin.

How this Zine made me fZeel

Urge. To put. Something. Phallic-shaped. Through. That. Poster. Rising. Can’t. Resist. ArggghhhUrrrghhh. 

Well, that zine is ruined.

Rating out of if this zine were a muller corner

Today’s Zines are, as we like to call them in the bedroom I sit alone typing in, wordy-motherfuckers. So to combat the blackandwhiteness of it all, they’re brought to you on gold foil. Kinda like a shiny Pokemon card, but the Pokemon talks too much, about a subject you can’t keep up with. 

#EATURZINES .6 - Recurrent Capitalist Crises and their impact on Africa by Ralph McDowell, for Black Skin Black Flag, buy it here.

Reasons to Zine

- A solid but straightforward explanation of the capitalist machine, all the oppression with less of the jibberish  - A fairly unbiased account of Chinese economic progress in recent decades - Why when the West sweats, Africans starve.

How this Zine makes me fZeel Like I wish I’d had this pamphlet when I was taking Marxist Economics at UAB. If I could remember my teacher’s name I’d send him a copy. Was it Steve.. Steve Something.. you know him.. help me out, he liked me cuz I was English and he liked ‘soccer’, anything?

Rating out of smashing the system from within

#EATURZINES .5 - Ex Masculus: Critical Reflections on Pro-Feminist Men's Groups by a plethora of voices, read it/print it for yourself at exmasculus.wordpress.com

Reasons to Zine

- To show the embarrassed and guilty amongst us fellers how to detach and turn against the patriarchy - Men doing feminism - Men losing their flesh because of all the feminism they're doing - How to make more men do feminemanism, with or without their epidermis showing.

How this Zine makes me fZeel

Awful for having uttered one or two of the examples of defensiveness shown in picture two. That to better review something I should get over that something's front cover.

Rating out of using actions instead of stupid joke-reviews to demonstrate solidarity:

#EATURZINES .4 - Football by Philippe Fenner - more to enjoy at Cargo Collective

Reasons to Zine  - Balls  - Illustrations/Collages  - Advocating East Midlands-based football-filth *spits*

How this Zine made me fZeel Supporters of teams that win everything are dead inside.  Supporters of teams that never win anything are dead too, but it's for different reasons.  Everyone is dead.  Now where are my crayons?

#EATURZINES .3 - Industrial Workers of the World: Bradford Zine  by Bradford IWW Collective - more of this at Location Unknown (safe bet: West Yorkshire)

Reasons to Zine

 - Success stories

 - Unionisation

 - Local history (*strokes Carl Chinn*)

 - Replacing your cannon ball with your employer by screaming like a cat

How this zine made me fZeel

Like I need to stop making shit-jokes and get in touch with the Birmingham branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, and maybe take up a job in... err... industry (?) 

High-Five Meter 

#EATURZINES .2 - home made pickles by Hayley Fiddler - more like this at facebook.com/hayleysartpage

Reasons to Zine 

 - Drawings

 - Cake-eating

 - Basking in the futility of our miserable presents and predictable futures

How this zine made me fZeel

I want some cake.  Boy am I glad my job isn’t ‘on-call’. Now I want some soup.

Rating out of Boss

Boss bottled bottle bossed into a boss-off

I’m a week behind schedule, but as part of my goal to champion the zine-medium I’m gonna be hyping up zines I got trading copies of Bastardised Bob at diycultures, last weekend. Excuse the poor photography, and the format. 

#EATURZINES .1 - PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE  by Ewan Aparicio - more at thee-aparicio.tumblr.com

Reasons to Zine 

 - Collages

 - Skulls

 - To gesticulate offensively at the totalitarian drip found in all man-made structures

How this zine made me fZeel

If this zine, or the medium en masse, goes out of fashion now; will this zine be ironic, or simulacratic, or do I still need to better understand such big words???

Rating out of ten: Seventy