We’ll Always Have Paris review
By Lindsey | February 4, 2009
Ray Bradbury
We’ll Always Have Paris
HarperCollins
224 pages
$29.95
Ray Bradbury’s newest collection, We’ll Always Have Paris, is full of stories about the eerie, strange, and creepy, but also showcases Bradbury’s talent for writing about feelings of nostalgia. We’ll Always Have Paris features 21 short stories and one poem, all previously unpublished.
In the book’s introduction, Bradbury lists “Massinello Pietro” as his favourite in this collection because it actually happened to him many years ago: “Pietro became a friend of mine who I tried to protect from the police and help when he was brought into court. The short story that was inspired by this friendship is, in many ways, basically true.”
“Massinello Pietro” begins the collection and shows Bradbury tackling the persona of the watcher, the observer. Bradbury splits his time observing and also giving the reader the strange and creepy sci-fi tales he’s most renowned for (like in “The Reincarnate”). Creepy and dark stories like “Murder” and “When The Bough Breaks” especially demonstrate Bradbury’s gift of writing speculative fiction. We’ll Always Have Paris brings to life heart transplant patients and their organ donors, radio personalities, and babies who were never born.
Bradbury explains that he writes in explosions or impulses, never over-thinking his stories—something he recommends the reader to also participate in. He explains further: “The stories, one by one, came to me throughout my life—from a very young age through my middle and later years. Every one of them has been a passion. Every story here was written because I had to write it. Writing stories is like breathing for me. I watch: I get an idea, fall in love with it, and try not to think too much about it. I then write: I let the story pour fourth onto the paper as soon as possible.”
The only downside to We’ll Always Have Paris is the poem, “America,” which seems out of place, almost as if it were tacked on as an afterthought. It is thought-provoking, just not necessary to this collection.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in Bradbury’s very short stories, wanting nothing more than to just simply sit back and enjoy them. He has a different way of thinking and looking at things, and translating that to the written word.
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The Idler’s Glossary review
By Lindsey | November 11, 2008
The Idler’s Glossary
Joshua Glenn, Mark Kingwell
Designed and decorated by Seth
$12.95
Biblioasis
136 pages
Author Joshua Glenn, Boston-based journalist and scholar, examines the etymology and history of hundreds of terms and phrases used to describe idlers and the act of idling in his new work, The Idler’s Glossary. In doing this, Glenn looks to clarify the misconceptions about idling and introduce a new way of thinking about working and not working.
Glenn examines why work time—slaving away in a cubicle, factory, or elsewhere—is more valued than free time in today’s society.
Alongside Glenn is Mark Kingwell who contributes an introductory essay to the glossary.
Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and also well known for his appearance in The Corporation. His involvement in the project stemmed from a longstanding online friendship with Glenn, who had edited a magazine called Hermenaut out of Boston, MI. Kingwell became interested in the magazine and donated money when it was strapped for cash. The two became long distance friends that only met offline for the first time earlier this year.
An early version of The Idler’s Glossary, which appeared in The Idler Magazine in the U.K., caught Kingwell’s eye.
“I thought it would be a great standalone book. Around the same time I had been talking to Dan Wells at Biblioasis who was looking to start a pamphlet series, and I thought this is the perfect kick-off project for that series,” said Kingwell.
Seth, the pen name of Gregory Gallant, a Canadian comic book artist and writer, has a keen sense of design that contributed greatly to the look and feel of The Idler’s Glossary. The raised print on the cover accented in gold along with the old-timey feel of the graphics gives the reference guide a unique look.
“As soon as we had the package together we knew that if Seth could make time to be a part of it, it could really bring it to another level,” said Kingwell.
As for what Idler terms he can best be described with, Kingwell opts for flâneur. “I like to spend a lot of time walking and specifically walking in cities and the flâneur is an indication of that sort of idling where you’re not going anywhere particular you’re just kind of drifting through the streets and experiencing the variety of stimulants a city has to offer,” explained Kingwell.
Recently, Kingwell released a collection of essays called Opening Gambits, which he says is kind of related to The Idler’s Glossary because “it looks at art and philosophy as forms of play. A lot of what we talk about in Idler is really a kind of play.”
Furthering the concept of The Idler’s Glossary, Kingwell and Glenn are currently in talks of possibly working on a sequel.
“We’ve found so many words even since this book came out that are interesting and relevant,” said Kingwell.
The focus of the glossary this time around would be more on the words that characterize the working world.
“Some of them are already in this glossary, but there are a lot of terms on the edges of the working world that we didn’t really think about, and that could make another book,” Kingwell explained.
The big misconception about idling is that the term is interchangeable with slacking. Not so, according to Kingwell.
“Slacking is avoiding work and it’s closely related to procrastinating. True idling is to set yourself free from all those worries about what you should be doing instead and live in the moment of not doing anything in particular,” he said.
The definitions are funny, but only because they’re true. One of the definitions that sum up the idlers versus slackers debate pretty well is Asleep at the Switch: “Why demonize those unfortunate souls who lose focus and zone out while on the job? No matter how focused their caffeinated colleagues may be, aren’t they sleepwalking through life?”
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Klosterman explores the world of fiction
By Lindsey | October 26, 2008
Chuck Klosterman
Downtown Owl
Scribner
288 pages
$28.00
Downtown Owl serves as Chuck Kloseterman’s first non-autobiographical novel. His previous efforts, full of pop culture, music references, and stories of ex-girlfriends and drugs, gave me the impression that this novel was going to be much different than it turned out to be.
While Klosterman is known for his wit and cultural commentary, he is also successful in creating his own world with Downtown Owl.
Set in the fictional town of Owl, N.D., residents who never cross paths in this book appear to have more in common with each other than it would seem. The book illustrates how three very different people are all connected.
The story begins with a newspaper clipping about a winter storm. It’s reported that at least 11 people are dead. From the initial clipping, the reader is taken back a few months to where the story begins.
Each chapter is dated and moves between Mitch, Horace, and Julia.
Mitch Hrlicka, or Vanna White, as he is referred to by his coach John Laidlaw after making a joke about Mitch needing more vowels in his last name, is a rock and roll-hating jock. He doesn’t seem to connect to anyone in Owl and goes so far as to compare the dystopia in 1984 to his small town.
Mitch sees Big Brother as another version of Owl residents knowing everything about everyone else. He finds nothing wrong with the dystopia since he’s been living in a similar situation his entire life.
Next we are introduced to Horace, a widower farmer, whose story gets off to a slow start, but quickly becomes the most fascinating of the three storylines. We learn of his wife’s death and her struggle with fatal familial insomnia, among other tidbits about Horace’s life.
Finally, we are introduced to Julia, a young seventh and eighth grade teacher from Wisconsin. Julia is from a big city and often compares it to Owl. She’s a budding alcoholic, something that flourishes her first night in town. She is quickly accepted into the community, but that’s not to say that she doesn’t have her share of problems along the way.
There’s a sense of isolation conveyed in Owl. Sure, Klosterman makes it a point to mention 1980’s cultural items, but he chooses his references wisely, although some seem forced.
The novel takes place from August 1983 to February 1984, yet Klosterman has Julia listening to Foreigner’s 4 album, released in 1981, and she is asked out on a couple dates to the theatre to see E.T.—which came out during the summer of 1982. Other times Klosterman incorporates the timeframe of the book flawlessly, like when Julia reads off a translucent plastic sheet resting on an overhead projector.
Although sometimes the references feel forced, Klosterman shows the small town atmosphere of Owl.
Whether you’re from a small town or a big city, Julia’s love interest, Vance, says it best while high for the first time: “What I have come to realize is that totally different people are still basically the same.”
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Random Acts of Poetry
By Lindsey | September 30, 2008
Watch out for Random Acts of Poetry
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
October 1, 2008
With poetry books and guerrilla tactics on hand, poets across Canada will be committing Random Acts of Poetry from Oct. 1-5. Launched in 2004 by B.C. poet Wendy Morton, Random Acts of Poetry features 28 poets across Canada travelling through their cities, reading their poetry, and giving away books to people wherever they can.
Some authors feel that poetry is an underappreciated literary form. Random Acts of Poetry serves to raise awareness about literacy issues and to get people excited about poetry.
Among this year’s participants is Windsor poet Mary Ann Mulhern, author of The Red Dress, Touch the Dead, and most recently—When Angels Weep, a collection based on the Father Charles Sylvestre molestation cases.
Mulhern will be reading to UWindsor creative writing classes, Catholic Central high school students, elementary school students, and anyone else who crosses her path—like those standing in line at the Toronto Dominion bank.
“I’m going to read to some of the people that are lined up there to get their money and they’ll get a free book,” said Mulhern.
Toronto Dominion is a corporate sponsor for Random Acts of Poetry, and has also sponsored a book of poetry written by children for children, We Can Say This.
The Random Acts of Poetry program purchases 50 copies of their 28 poets’ books. The authors then give these copies out to whomever they read to.
“Those sponsors are putting out quite a bit of money. But it’s tied in with literacy. Wendy Morton has always believed that poetry is for everybody and so there’s no point in leaving the books on the shelves, they should be in the hands of people. This is one way of doing it. I think it’s a pretty good way of doing it,” explained Mulhern, who will be giving away all three of her releases.
This is Mulhern’s third year participating in Random Acts of Poetry. “The response is always really good,” she said.
Mulhern is currently working on a book of poetry about medieval witches.
“I’ve also done some research on the Salem witch hunt. Then I’ve made some reference to the present terrorist hunt. I’ve made a comparison or so. I’ve got quite a few poems,” she explained.
“Right now, I’m at the point where I’ve written about 60 poems that I would present to someone. What I want right now is another pair of eyes to look at that work and give me some direction with it. I’m going to do that very soon,” said Mulhern.
In her research, Mulhern came across Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft, written in 1584.
“Essentially, it says that witches don’t even exist, that it’s the fault of the Roman Catholic Church that all of this is happening. When James I became king of England, he ordered every copy of that book to be burned. How the University of Windsor ever acquired one is amazing to me,” Mulhern said.
For more information about Random Acts of Poetry, visit them online at http://national-random-acts-of-poetry.blogspot.com.
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Stuff White People Like
By Lindsey | August 5, 2008
Author examines white people and the stuff they like
By Lindsey Rivait
Lance Arts Editor
August 6, 2008
White people like all sorts of things—expensive sandwiches, eating brunch, ‘80s nights, and not owning TVs, among a list of 150 things as outlined by Stuff White People Like author, Christian Lander.
These aren’t just any white people, though. The list consists of stuff left-wing hipsters enjoy. Whether you identify with that class or not, the book and blog it is based off of are worth the read. Since the book’s release, updates to the blog have been slow, but Lander promises that new content lies ahead once his busy schedule dies down. “The study has not been completed by any means,” he said.
As for how white people react to the long list of stereotypes, Lander says most of them get it. Most people say they laugh out loud at some entries, but some entries make them cringe because they feel guilty.
“Some people get offended and say, ‘Well, I don’t like sushi, so I guess I’m not white,’ and they get upset, like ‘How dare he make generalizations about white people that don’t apply to me, I’m really offended by that.’ That’s always my favourite reaction,” Lander said.
Lander gets his inspiration for the entries from his own life. “I go after myself on this,” he explained. Lander digs into himself in the entry about bikes. “I ride a six-gear bike, so I know how pretentious I am for doing that and I know how pretentious it is for me to talk about how much I love it. So, I had to call myself out, and it hurt a bit. And the ‘Knowing What’s Best for Poor People’ one, my family grew up voting NDP, so that one hurt me,” he said.
While the chief purpose of the blog is to make people laugh, Lander, an aspiring comedy writer, says it inspires discussion about class and the changing face of North America. “I think by breaking it down to stuff, I mean, it’s just stuff, sandwiches, strollers, Priuses, these are just things. It makes people a little more comfortable to talk about race because it is just things. It’s done in a humorous way. You’re meant to have a laugh here, and not a mean-spirited laugh,” Lander explained.
In the back of the book is the “How White Are You?” quiz, where readers can calculate their white percentage. Lander says his is in the 92 per cent range. “But, I don’t like outdoor performance gear,” said Lander, who is adamant about staying indoors and not camping.
As for Lander’s top white people guilty pleasure, he’s a big fan of the TV show, The Hills.
“I live in LA. They have those establishing shots in the city. I ride my bike everywhere, so I’ve always wanted to be one of those bicyclists who bikes past Lauren and Audrina having lunch or something, but it’s never happened,” said Lander.
Lander’s other projects include a clip-on bin for garbage cans to make the world a little more efficient for those collecting cans and bottles with a return value.
“In Ontario it’s super easy, you just bring it back to the Beer Store and buy more beer. In the U.S., the supermarkets don’t take back the cans; you have to bring them to a recycling centre. A lot of people throw them in these big recycling bins that look like garbage cans,” explained Lander. The bin would have an indicator on it to alert can collectors when it was empty or full.
For more information about white people and the stuff they like, visit Lander’s blog online at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/.
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All I Could Bare – Book Review
By Lindsey | July 9, 2008
All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.
Craig Seymour
Atria
256 pages
$26.99
Who said you couldn’t strip your way to an M.A.? Craig Seymour uses stripping as the topic for his master’s thesis, experiencing the scene in Washington, D.C., and examining how it changed him—for the better—in All I Could Bare.
Seymour’s love affair with strip clubs surfaced shortly after he ventured out to one to see a special appearance by his favourite gay porn star, Joey Stefano. Soon, the timid Seymour was at the strip club on a regular basis.
Citing that he was happy with his life and his boyfriend, he rationalized that things were getting too soft and predictable. Going to the strip club was something different, and something for him to look forward to. Later, Seymour decided to do his master’s thesis on strip clubs as an excuse for going to them so often.
He interviewed the strippers about why they worked there, and the customers about why they went. Included in his memoir are snippets of his interviews and a history of the gay scene in Washington, D.C. At the time, Washington was the only place in America where a dancer could be completely nude on stage and have the customers touch them any way the dancer allowed. Strip club regulations are not so lax nowadays.
Eventually, Seymour took the plunge into actually stripping after one of the male strippers, Nico, accused him of thinking he was better than the dancers.
Seymour soon discovered that the stripping world was much more complex than he first assumed. Seymour examines racial dynamics in the stripping world, his toffee-coloured skin making it difficult for patrons to determine his ethnicity. He admits this worked to his advantage since he could be whatever his customers wanted him to be.
Most interesting in this book is a tale of Seymour’s relationship with conservative Internet pundit Mike Drudge of the Drudge Report. Seymour remains vague about the nature of his relationship with Drudge, except to mention their mutual obsession with The Young and the Restless.
Different types of intimacy are examined in All I Could Bare, especially the intimacy between customer and stripper. Stripping is generally thought of as cold, but this is definitely not the case for Seymour. Because of the touching and the fact that customers confided their problems and desires to the strippers, stripping became more of a warm physical relationship.
Seymour takes us from his stripping jobs to his gig as a writer, where he uses snippets of interviews he conducted with Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, and Janet Jackson to show the reader more about himself. More than anything, All I Could Bare is a story of risks, and if Seymour never took the risk of becoming a stripper, he may not have become a writer, either.
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Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea
By Lindsey | May 14, 2008
I love writing book reviews! Sorry for neglecting this thing. I’m writing for another couple publications, more details once everything is kosher. In the meantime: Go pick up this book! I read it in one sitting. That’s rare for me!
Are You There, Vodka? Handler’s cocktail for a successful book
By Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
May 14, 2008
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea
Chelsea Handler
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
272 pages
$28.99
Underneath it all, Chelsea Handler is a normal girl like you and me.
In this collection, her new book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, she reveals stories we can all relate to—from Asian massage therapists believing her to be a lesbian because she demands they use their bare hands instead of a towel to massage her, to dealing with a boyfriend who has affairs with small dogs, and pretending you’re on a honeymoon with your own father in a scheme to score first class treatment.
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea focuses on Handler’s youth and later relationships.
Handler recalls fondly the 1967 banana yellow Yugo jalopy her father would drive her to school in. Of course, this was in 1984.
Her home life and childhood is certainly bizarre. Handler, the youngest of six children, admits her mother told her that she was a mistake. This led Handler’s childhood to be largely unsupervised as her parents were just tired by that point.
This freedom leant to Handler in her childhood worked its way into her adult life as she represents herself as a smarmy, midget-loving, Jewish-princess always looking for money, booze, and a good time.
The collection opens with Handler telling everyone in her elementary school that she is to star in a movie alongside Goldie Hawn, the sequel to Private Benjamin, something that is clearly a lie. Handler’s reflections on her childhood behaviour pave the way to explaining her behaviour in her adulthood.
As for her writing and ability to keep the reader entertained, Handler is right up there with such authors as David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell.
While her style is admittedly much more vulgar than either Sedaris or Vowell, the truth she conveys in her work is on the same level.
From the essays in this collection, you’d assume Handler does nothing but drink, have sex, and act smarmy, she does keep herself busy.
This is Handler’s second book, the first being My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands, in which Handler recounts her stories of sexual encounters, both successful and failed.
In addition to writing, Handler has her own late-night TV show on E!, Chelsea Lately, and appears regularly in the online series In The Motherhood with Leah Remini and Jenny McCarthy.
Handler has a sly way of sneaking in her opinions and making jabs at the expense of celebrities throughout her writing—from calling Scientologists crazy, recalling Tom Cruise humiliating himself on Oprah, and referring to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as home wreckers.
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea is short enough for an easy read and entertaining enough not to be annoying. Handler’s sense of humour, while offensive at times (she refers to midgets as nuggets, among other things), is well-delivered.
When it comes down to it, reading Handler’s work makes one feel a little more functional in their own childhood, home life, and relationships at the end of the day, but at the same time, a little jealous.
After all, I’ve never been dumped by a red-headed boyfriend while another man I was dating hid under the bed, nor have I ever been pulled over for drunk driving and sent to jail thanks to a surly passenger only to experience a strip search—or what Handler now refers to as “anal rape.” I guess we all have our dreams.
If simply reading about Handler’s life isn’t enough for you, be sure to catch Handler in the flesh performing her stand-up comedy routine at the Meadowbrook Amphitheatre in Auburn Hills, MI, at 8 p.m. on August 9. Tickets range from $10-$59.50 USD, and are available through http://www.ticketmaster.com.
For more information about Handler and her work, visit her online at http://www.myspace.com/chelseahandler.
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To boldly go where no blogger has gone before
By Lindsey | April 9, 2008
Here’s a book review I wrote a couple weeks ago about a book on blogging. See, I have been writing something!
To boldly go where no blogger has gone before
By Lindsey Rivait, The Lance (University of Windsor)
WINDSOR (CUP) — The word “blog” and “bloggers” conjures images of overweight men in their late thirties on basement computers, typing away about the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. What you may not know is that blogs are an essential source for political information and are being incorporated into the campaigns of presidential hopefuls for the 2008 election.
David D. Perlmutter, a professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, examines blogs, their history, and what they mean to politics in his latest book, Blogwars.
Perlmutter dedicates his book “To bloggers, who boldly go where many of us could only dream of going before.” Indeed, this medium allows the writer to present facts as well as their own opinions in a friendly and casual writing style.
Political candidates themselves are delving into the world of blogging and new technology — from Barack Obama’s Facebook friends count hitting the one-million mark and Hillary Rodham Clinton launching the “Let’s Chat” campaign on her website, to John McCain announcing his candidacy on the Late Show with David Letterman. Blogwars also examines how Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign used blogs to reach his audience and garner support and funds. While blogs are gaining more and more popularity every day (to the tune of one new blog created per second according to blog tracker Technorati), Perlmutter claims that television is still the number-one media outlet in political debates.
Perlmutter provides an introduction to blogs — what they are, what they cover, and who is blogging. Blogwars is written in a straight-forward, easy-to-understand language. It does well to explain most technological jargon, but it may still be lost on a less Internet-savvy audience.
Blogs are not revolutionary in that the content is not radically new. The idea of spreading one’s opinion through a medium dates to Franklin Roosevelt’s radio fireside chats, and even further to ancient Greece and letter writing. Bloggers don’t just report on the issues; they collect facts and collate evidence for their readers. They are notorious for scouring the Web for anything newsworthy and act as correspondents, going to places we cannot.
There is a high level of interactivity on blogs, changing the relationship between writers and readers. Blogs have placed more importance on the role of the audience as creators, moving from the concept of large industries creating the mass media to the individual production of mass-media products — all thanks to the Internet. Bloggers and blog readers can comment on posts, encourage discussion, link to other blogs, and draw attention to comments and discussions in specific posts. Blogs are unique in that they create endless webs of information. A dialogue sprouts between writers and readers instantaneously in a way that no other medium has been able to provide.
New things are always happening in the blogging world, making it difficult to keep up with. This is especially notable for a book that took its author three years to finish. Perlmutter goes on to explore vlogs, or video blogs. What this newer medium will bring forth to the political sphere, however, has yet to be seen. But the new media won’t stop there. Technology is ever-changing and available for us to take advantage of.
Perlmutter wraps up by stating, “Blogging, thus, is a means, not an end, to a new political culture, but its possibilities, perils, and promises are so great that all of us… should become part of the conversation.” Blogging isn’t everything, but it sure is a stepping stone in the political world to voice opinions and be heard.
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National Poetry Month
By Lindsey | April 1, 2008
Here’s another writing-related article I wrote that I thought you guys might be interested in:
A celebration of poetry
Lindsey Rivait
Arts Editor
With National Novel Writing Month far behind us, it’s time to step up and celebrate a different form: poetry. April is National Poetry Month, and this year marks its tenth anniversary in Canada.
Originally, National Poetry Month began in the US as an effort from the Academy of American Poets to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry. Two years later, The League of Canadian Poets started National Poetry Month in Canada. Schools, publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, and poets across the country come together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in Canada’s culture.
“National Poetry Month is a unique festival, with collaboration between one central organization and many host venues across the country with their own experience and expertise,” said Joanna Poblocka from the League of Canadian Poets.
To assist the growth of National Poetry Month, the League offers funding for readings and performances which explore the year’s theme thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts.
Each year the celebrations focus on a theme, with this year’s theme being Poetry Without Borders.
Participants are encouraged to celebrate the diversity of cultural traditions in Canada and explore the possibilities of multicultural poetry events, as well as examine how poetry can combine with other forms of expression.
“The goal of National Poetry Month is to expand and educate poetry audiences, especially young audiences, and to increase the profile of poetry and poets and boost the sales of Canadian poetry books. National, provincial and regional media usually report on many National Poetry Month events, review poetry books, and interview poets,” Poblocka explained.
Poetry is everywhere, and while it is a very personal form, it’s also universal. “Poets express their thoughts and experiences through poems, and capture the essence of that experience and present it in such a way that others can relate to, emotionally and spiritually,” said Poblocka.
The League of Canadian Poets also presents Young Poets’ Week, from April 7-13, in order to recognize young Canadian talent and creativity. “Through online mentorships, poetry exercises, a poetry contest, and a video poetry cafe, the League of Canadian Poets wants to let youth know about the poetry in their country and encourage them to engage on a poetic level,” said Young Poets Editorial Coordinator, Shannon Cowan.
The Young Poets website offers tips to teachers and educators throughout Young Poets’ Week to get students interested in poetry.
“Youth will also have a chance to have their poetry critiqued by established mentors online. And, new for this year, young poets will have the opportunity to post poetry videos on our forums while professional poets will offer readings and poetry writing tips through video clips filmed in Canada and around the world,” Cowan said.
The League will also be partnering with provincial writers’ organizations to help bring poets into classrooms. “Thirty poets will be reading to students in six provinces. The League will also be adding additional funds to their existing Poets in the Schools program, which will allow Ontario educators the opportunity to have a poet conduct a school-wide or classroom reading free of charge,” said Cowan.
While Young Poets’ targets students ages 12-19, there are ways for older university students to get involved.
“Currently we work with many undergraduate and graduate creative writing students through a monthly poet-in-residence program. We also welcome articles, interviews, reviews, and more for our youth e-zine [Re:Verse] written for a young audience,” explained Cowan.
As for the future of National Poetry Month, Poblocka hopes that it will continue to expand and that the Young Poets’ program will encourage more young people to get involved with poetry and writing. “We hope that National Poetry Month will grow every year, and that it will get more support, coverage and exposure in the future,” she said.
“I think the best way to celebrate and support National Poetry Month is to go out and support your local poets, and attend readings and performances. Also exposure to new poetry is a good idea. There are many exciting things happening, poetry is a really cool art form,” she emphasized.
For more information about National Poetry Month, visit www.poets.ca/Linktext/npm.htm.
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Cut and paste: zines, ezines, and zine culture
By Lindsey | March 4, 2008
Wow, two posts in one day? Since the They Might Be Giants article wasn’t exactly writing-related, here’s one I wrote on zines. Enjoy!
Cut and paste: zines, ezines, and zine culture
Lindsey Rivait
Lance Arts Writer
Zines have been around in various forms since the invention of the printing press in the 1400s. People have been self-publishing zines and pamphlets expressing their own opinions and promoting events ever since. Zines gained popularity during the punk D.I.Y. movement in the 1970s with underground publishing and has blossomed with technology—spouting forth the zine, the ezine, and an entire culture that surrounds the phenomenon.
A zine, short for “magazine,” is just that—a short magazine-like publication, usually the size of a piece of paper folded in half. Zines have a small circulation and feature original or appropriated texts and images. In general, zines are not made for profit; an issue typically sells for only $2-5 to cover printing fees. These small circulation zines are not often copyrighted, as there is a belief held among zine creators and readers that the material within it should be distributed freely.
Zines are often made in spare moments, becoming a project the zine creator enjoys doing so much that they don’t expect to make money. “You cannot pay the rent with zines, unless you’re on welfare, too,” jokes Adam Thomlison, while speaking to a room full of Canadian University Press members. Thomlison put together tales of love gone wrong for his zine, We Were Writers for Disastrous Love Affairs Magazine, and runs 40wattspotlight press, which releases books and zines.
Some modern zines are laid out via computer and then printed out. Traditionally, zines are pure copy-and-paste; that is, cutting papers up and pasting them back down, juxtaposing words on pictures, getting your hands dirty and your table sticky. Zines are practical, inexpensive, and also fun to make.
Lindsay Gibb, editor of Broken Pencil, a Canadian magazine that reviews zines and profiles independent arts and music, believes that zines have a big impact on our culture.
“Since there are no restrictions on what zine creators do with their zines, they also impact culture in and of themselves, as a piece of culture. In some cases they document history, so they are important as a record of what is happening and has happened in certain scenes. In some cases they serve to document something smaller, such a segment of the life of the creator. In other cases still, they are a piece of art, a way to express yourself, a form of self publishing and do not document anything except maybe a feeling,” explains Gibb. In addition to reviewing zines, Broken Pencil offers articles about zines, and plans to run more articles focusing on the how-to side of making zines in the future.
There are many different types of zines, including perzines (personal zines), fanzines (made by fans of a specific cultural icon), litzines (literary zine), and ezines (online zines). The very nature of zines allows one to really play with the format, to break the rules of journalism, and to publish personal views.
“Zines are a form of publication that is really open to a lot of people who traditional publishing might ignore or leave out. Not only does this make the content so varied and exciting, but it gives zines a lot of personality as they are all unique in their direction,” says local zine creator Kate Hargreaves. “I think there is a much lesser gap between the contributors and creators and the people who pick up the zine,” she explains.
Hargreaves started her litzine, ibid, to help get her own work as well as her peers’ work out there.
“I was thinking a while ago about the number of really creative people I know in so many different areas, and how there are not many outlets for them to showcase their work. I wanted to collect work from a mix of talented people and put it all together, regardless of what format it took,” says Hargreaves.
While printed zines are much more portable than a computer, their popularity dwindled in the late 1990s, in part due to the growth of the Internet and the subsequent rising popularity of ezines. Ezines are available through e-mail or on a website, and began on the BBS (Bulletin Board System) in the 1980s, but are now moving toward the blog format. “Online zines are more popular under the term blog,” says Thomlison. “There’s no handmade aspect to it, no physical personal connection, no face to face meeting,” he explains. It’s easy to meet or get in contact with a zine creator, which is a rare opportunity in the writing world as a whole, bringing the writers and readers closer together.
The production and maintenance of ezines is arguably easier than print zines and allows the content to reach a wider audience. “There’s also less lag time between issues, or the potential for less lag time,” Gibb points out. On the other hand, “A lot of ezines look exactly the same and blend together, where, I feel, more personality can be put into a printed version,” she says.
For those who are considering starting up their own zine, Hargreaves offers some words of advice: “On a technical level, I would say do your best to get your printing as cheap as possible so you can make more zines and get them out to a broader basis. As far as the zine itself, perhaps just decide yourself what you want the end product to be, and go with it instead of getting bogged down by what people might expect,” she says.
Creativity is key to all zines. “When I teach classes on zine making, the most common questions I get revolve around the ‘how to’ of making them. I think people look at zines and think that they can’t do it themselves, but you absolutely can. Anyone can,” explains Gibb. “Just use your creativity, look at other zines for inspiration, and do it,” encourages Gibb.
As for the future of zines, Gibb is definitely noticing different types of zines emerging. “What I see happening right now is a lot more comic zines coming through our door. I think comics and litzines seem to be the most popular use of zine making right now. I hope to see more political zines popping up, though,” she says.
Gibb remains optimistic of the future. “I don’t see the printed zine dying off, as I may have once predicted. Not exactly dying off, but heading back underground so that they existed on a limited scale. But that doesn’t seem to be happening. There may not be as many zines floating around as there were in the nineties, but there are still lots of them out there and new ones surfacing all the time. Canzine is still crammed, and it only represents a very small percentage of the zines that are out there,” explains Gibb.
The Bookroom, located at 2161 Wyandotte St. W. carries some zines from the area, including ibid. For further information about zines and zine culture, check out Broken Pencil at http://www.brokenpencil.com.
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