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Broken Pencil
Copyright Broken Pencil
COPYRIGHT Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved
from January 2008
Last Number: January 2009
ISSN 1201-8996
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editor
A feature on Sarah Evans is presented. Evans has worked on several do-it-yourself projects and innumerable zines including one that document the things that punctuate her life. Also, she started teaching zine workshops in schools and libraries, and twice went on tour.
Deleted Zines: Digging the Dirt On Ex Zinesters
Moore discusses several tips for deleting zines. This includes by secretly placing little parts of zine in various parts of workplace, church, house or psychiatrist's waiting room.
Kay's introduction to Do it yourself didn't begin with zines or craft shows or self-produced punk tracks, instead it come from her grandmother that had the resourceful fix-it-yourself attitude. Then it came to her realization that DIY is not the norm the other day when she was having a conversation with a friend about sewing. Since then her projects had moved to more complicated things like making her own crafts, learning to knit and sew and making zines.
Sharpeners
Roberts comments on SideMart Theatre's stage adaptation of the novella The Haunted Hillbilly by Derek McCormack. SideMart presents rough approximations of some of the characters. He bemoans the lack of shiny things glittering onstage. With a little time and effort, the cast and production company hope to relaunch the production sometime in 2009 for a larger audience and longer run.
From Hip Mama Zinester to Superhero Author
Rosenbaum talks about Ariel Gore, creator of the zine, Hip Mama. Gore decides to be more long-winded in a full length book after she found that many readers were asking about the zine. Her book, an essay collection called The Mother Trip, helped her get through depression and a nasty family court battle. She soon became addicted to the rhythm of book writing and went on to write her favorite book: a novel-memoir called Atlas of the Human Heart.
Running On Fumes-the Impossibly Cheap Political Campaign
Rossi comments on what a candidate should do to run for an office. He states that candidates need household name status in order for voters to know them. He also contends that candidates must represent something or affiliates in a political party. Furthermore, Gori adds that candidates need some bartering tools to run for office but not necessarily conventional cash for campaigning.
Warnock and Rosenbaum feature avid subscriber of Broken Pencil, Carolynne Warnock. Insights of her life include writing poetry and her love for reading and discovering new things. Four years after being diagnosed with breast cancer, she died surrounded with her kids at a palliative care unit in Nainamo British Columbia Canada.
Franklin features actor and comedian, Devon Hyland. While studying film production, Hyland's desire to write and perform comedy surpassed his interest in the technology of filmmaking. Finding that his professors did not appreciate his sense of humor, he decided to drop out of the program and pursue comedy on his own terms.
Excerpts
Excerpted From I Am a Camera #11
An excerpt from I am a camera #11 by Vanessa Berry is presented.
Reviews Zines
Healey reviews Alien Sloth Sex, a zine featuring black and white photos and also a kind of eerie and comics in French.
Bipedal, by Pedal: Experiences and Thoughts Around the Critical Mass Bicycle Movement!
Franklin reviews Bipedal, By Pedal: Experiences and Thoughts around the Critical Mass Bicycle Movement, a zine featuring the history and organization of the movement, practical advice on traffic blocking tactics, and tips on how to start someone's ride.
Cereal Boxes and Milk Crates: Zine Libraries and Infoshops Are Now
Marrone reviews Cereal Boxes and Milk Crates: Zine Libraries and Infoshops, a thoughtful assembled introduction to zine libraries and infoshops. The first half features sections headed with the probable questions from the uninitiated and its latter half comprises an excellent bibliography and a handy list of zine libraries across North America.
Pinder reviews Sandra Alland's Some Poems by People I Like, a collection of poems by Chrystos, Naila Keleta Mae, Jorge Lara Rivera, Leah Laksmi Piepzna Samarasinha, and Andra Simons. These poets address lifetimes of struggle against violence through poverty, racism, abuse-giving strong narratives of walking through fire and lessons learned. Highlights include new work by Piepzna-Samarasinha, telling stories of navigating love in the midst of homelands at war.
Robinson reviews Paul Riddell's The Hell's Half-Acre Herald, a zine featuring urban gardening and horticulture. The zine provides bits of intriguing information on caring for carnivorous plants. Riddell peppers the zine with ill-advised attempts at humour, relying on cheesy photos and general groaners that pilfer overused pop culture references.
Healey reviews Trees, a sweet little quarter-page per-zine full of stories taken straight from Samantha!'s diary. The zine is a great bedtime read-it's reflective enough to be interesting, and it's angsty, but not cringe-inducingly. The zine has to do with the inserts by a few of Samantha!'s friends, which are about problems they're currently facing like depression and Crohn's disease.
Marrone reviews Milo Rutherford's I am the Flame; I am Mexico, a large, illustrated zine which seems to aim for expansive beauty. The illustrations can be evocative but do not stun; on nearly every page, they simply depict what is being described in the text, leaving no conception gap between word and image, which is not particularly productive in a work without a linear narrative.
Healey reviews Indy Mum, a zine for mothers. The zine features articles about putting the child in playgroup, getting a C-section, staying creative while living with kids and making a puppet theatre.
Jelly Cake:Blueberry Marinade (the Bonus Issue)
Franklin reviews Jelly Cake: Blueberry Marinade (the Bonus Issue), a disorganized collection of scenes that were either deleted or not included in Ben Castle's other zine. The zine was missing something for the first couple of pages and does not focus on making more of the diary entry style scenes.
Pinder reviews Treasure Maps, a zine summarizing Kathleen's trip from Victoria to St John in Canada where she had strengthened her spiritual identity, and reached a higher levels in awareness of universal connectedness. A mini-narratives of what she addresses as her destiny.
Healey reviews Untitled, a zine featuring a well-done, black-and-white, pink-and-ink sketchbook kind of thing. It's only five pages long, and consists of simple line drawings of four musicians. Other section works out sort of along the same lines; incredibly well-drawn, realistic pictures of musicians.
Greenwood reviews Very True, a collection of poetry and random strings of thought written by Lacey Hedtke. The zine serves as an anthology of sorts-adages and assertions borne out of Hedtke's introspection of her life experiences.
Tau reviews Kathleen Neves' Xploited Zine, a collection of short pieces from a diverse array of contributors. The zine marks the San Franciscan tribute to public restrooms. Here, the subject matter includes everything from restroom reviews to toilet photography, and even a couple of bawdy sex stories.
Greenwood reviews Kyle Bridgett and Dan Carter's Naif, a comic zine featuring a dozen or so pages of various comics that range from satire to political incorrectness and artistic expression to humor. It is cleanly designed and skillfully illustrated zine that thrives on mocking the underbelly of modern society.
Greenwood reviews Danny Martin's Public Occurances, an art zine designed with an uncanny knack for lino printing. Posing as a miniature yearbook filled with black-and-white ink portraits of students, the zine recreates the 1925 graduating class of The Manual Training High School in Peoria, Illinois.
Robinson reviews Mile Murtanovski's Weak Species, an art zine packaged like a magazine complete with satirical ads, an index and a glossary cover. The presentation is pretty impressive, complete with well-drawn and detailed illustrations. A comic called "Mobile Millie in Cute Shoes" shows Millie walking around town with a cup of Starbucks oblivious to issues such as gas shortage, striking workers at a factory, poverty and violence.
Greenwood reviews Elizabeth J.M.W.'s 398, a quarter-sized zine, pack to the brim with short stories and tossed with some cartoons. It is a litzine that has created a Wonderland all its own with stories of crazy cornfield mazes, swimming pianos and magic. Its reading level will provide a comfortable challenge for children but will also engage older readers.
Franklin reviews Devon Hyland's Barkey Always Barks, a litzine of short story that hangs loosely on a plot line about a young man whose landlords hires an assassin to kill him. After making it through five introductions, and heaps of self-referential footnotes and parentheses, Hayland is more interested in the act of writing than he is in the story he is telling.The narrative doesn't always make sense, but the tangents are strange and hilarious.
Pinder reviews Rob McClennan's Glengarry Notes: March Break, a litzine of poem of rumination. All the gaps and spaces in this poem accent the feeling of dreamy drifting the brain but sometimes the loping stroll of this poem, with it's occasional rhymes and random wordplay, diffuses it's strength.
Her Breathing Next to Me: A Poetry Ep
Blackmore reviews Nicky Tiso's Her Breathing Next to Me: A Poetry EP, a long poem full of allusions and metaphors and misplaced syllables. Tiso's fevered incoherence sometimes could be seen as the voice of love, and the sequence comparing the way sex and words make connections was a pleasant surprise.
Blackmore reviews Marvyne Jenoff's Hercules By My Side, a haunting and strange little chapbook. The book's premise is confusing at first, but ultimately endearing. The narrator's single-minded devotion to Hercules is the source of much of the humor.
Blackmore reviews Jenny Sampirisi's Hush, a poetry zine that should never have been published as zine. It is written, but not arranged, with the cadences of a performance piece, and it suffers from not owning up to what it truly is. Its words and letters are arranged artfully but without any real skill.
Lady Churchillíís Rosebud Wristlet Fiction
Blackmore reviews Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link's Lady Churchilliis Rosebud Wristlet Fiction, a zine that showcases the masturbatory heights and depths that fiction is capable of. All the stories have an other-wordly quality, like the stream-of-consciousness writing of a syntactical genius. These stories are a catalogue of madnesses, all carrying a sense of dread that never finds resolution, only the respite offered by the story's end.
Pinder reviews Jim Johnstone and Ian Williams' Misunderstandings magazine, an easy-to-navigate poetry collection. A mixed-bag of styles and genres, mainly focusing on poetry. The litzine is a packed of collection of thematically diverse, well-written work.
Zines Reviews
Healey reviews Eaves of Ass: The Music Issue, a zine all about music, but more specifically, it's about Craven Rock's musical life. Its best part is the longest: a winding, profanity-laden story about Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kansas and Ireland and racism and Amsterdam and Craven's southern upbringing that switches from past to present to retelling to reflection almost seamlessly.
Edmonton Social Justice, Activist Contact &Amp; Resource Handbook
Blackmore reviews Radical Randy's Edmonton Social Justice, Activist Contact & Resource Handbook, a zine of lists broken up by short essays on globalism, neoliberalism, and other political agenda. This is essential reading for any activist living in the Edmonton area.
Tau reviews Fat, Fifty and Punk, a zine comprised of Alexander Hryshko's photographs of punk legends, including Iggy Pop, Joe Strummer, Henry Rollins in their middle years. The zine intersperses wilder "punker" images with gentler, more mature portraits.
The Amazing Adventures of Mr. Cocoa and Crappy Dog
Healey reviews Marilyn Douglas' The Amazing Adventures of Mr. Cocoa and Crappy Dog, a zine made up of haphazardly glued text overtop of pictures cut and pasted from magazines. There are cartoons of the two titular dogs hanging around in the margins and commenting on everything through little speech bubbles. The articles are about stuff like libraries, the history of stamps, and the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
Pinder reviews Former Fetus, a zine about abortion from conception to post-abortion. A ragged narrative, with the author torn between gleeful and terrified.
Greenwood reviews Lickety Split, a pansexual smut zine that advocates positive thought and expression about sex. It aims to address the complexity of sex by encouraging people to get under the covers with others and make art. The zine's ability to transform the obscene into a sexy chic; while models unabashedly shed their layers for the camera or use every adjective to describe a certain sexual encounter is most absorbing.
Sayej reviews NDN Uncensored, a 32-page colour zine, which is part-fanzine, part-sketchbook venture spearheaded by Stacia Loft, an organizer with the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. Here, teens, tweens and young adults take turns shedding the spotlight on each other.
Blackmore reviews Plogg, a collection of posts from blogs, reborn in dead-tree form for the edification of Jakob Rehlinger and people everywhere who don't have the Internet but do have access to zines. The Christmas issue is a collection with a festive theme that ranges from the pathetic to the obvious, with wry observation and holiday depression thrown in for good measure.
Blackmore reviews Martha Grover's Somnambulist, a perzine story after story of the author's embarrassment, discomfort or impotent anger. The one article by Grover that is not about her ends without resolution formatted story. There is no purpose served here except the promotion of the author herself, and often not a flattering portrait.
Blackmore reviews Animal Lover, an art zine collection of line drawings of various animals. A beautiful collection filled with variety, motion and disconcerting frisson of the ordinary and mundane meeting the comical and fantastic.
Blackmore reviews Crab Boy: Year of the Crab, a comic zine of drawings that seem to be attempting to interact with the reader. The comic itself is confusing and funny that gives the reader the feeling of being on the outside of an inside joke.
Tau reviews Ed Morton's The Day is Gone, an interesting zine chronicling Morton's return to sketchbook. Morton has a fascination with horror imagery, and is particularly adept at drawing gnarled, depraved faces. He also specializes in the grotesque and the disfigured in this disturbing collection of sketches.
Drawings of David Smith's Sculpture
Tau reviews Wesley Mulvin's Drawings of David Smith's Sculpture, a zine of several interpretative drawings of sculptor David Smith's steel shapes. Mulvin's work, produced at the Guggenheim's David Smith retrospective, is an interesting sketchbook full of stuff.
Blackmore reviews Satchi's The Flip Side, a collection of drawings that were rejected from other publications. Satchi's art zine has the disturbing, surreal, magnetic quality of nightmares.
Greenwood reviews Mark Connery's Have A Nice Mystery, an art zine that embraces the joy in creating something. The photocopied pages feature detailed doodles of random geometric shapes and monsters that embody the physical peculiarities as those in Picasso's Guernica.
Healey reviews Delete: Imagined and Real, a pretty zine from different contributors, including Elise Bayle's short story, Osuch's untitled photo, Ian George's poem "There Ain't Nothing", and Tammy Kenward's piece about strippers.
Tau reviews Front&Centre, a short story collection of hard-hitting new fiction. This compact litzine features six pieces of short fiction as well as a lump of book reviews.
Tau reviews Salvatore Difalco's Outside, a collection of tales. The litzine leads off with the gritty and haunting "Alicia," a horrific portrait of senseless violence and poverty. It is hard to take, but for all its exploitative titillation it manages to be quite an affecting piece of fiction.
Renovations in the House of Mirrors
Healey reviews Jason Heroux's Renovations in the House of Mirrors, a zine featuring a collection a poems. Every poem in this collection describes something happen. There are interesting images and ideas in almost every poem, and they're all creative, there stories are trapped in the wrong form.
Healey reviews Andrew E. Cleland and Lisa Guimond's Scrivener Creative Review, a zine featuring the works of David Starkey, Peter Biesterfeld, Aileen Bach, Teisha Ruggero, and Julia Chiplis. They all share a straight-forwardness that's pleasing to read or stare at. Starkey's words are all the right ones and Biesterfeld's dialogue rattles and clicks.
Pinder reviews Andrea K. Bennett's This pace between us, a collection of zine that addresses love's both familial and romantic, often laden with images of viscera and teeth.
Ugly: An Instant Spoken Word Chapbook
Franklin reviews Joe Blades' edition of UGLY: An Instant Spoken Word Chapbook, an anthology chapbook of poems by spoken words artists.
Books Reviews
Bovaird reviews Do-It-Yourself Screenprinting by John Isaacson.
Marketing Your Own Book: An Author's Guide
Kobayashi reviews Marketing Your Own Book: an author's guide by Alison Baverstock.
The Diy Wedding: Celebrate Your Day Your Way
Nene reviews The DIY Wedding: Celebrate Your Day Your Way by Kelly Bare.
This Will Go Down On Your Permanent Record
Bator reviews This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record by Susannah Felts.
Plourde reviews When Pacino's Hot, I'm Hot by Robert Levin.
Ziniuk reviews All The Pretty Girls by Chandra Mayor.
McNemeny reviews Stunt by Claudia Dey.
Kobayashi reviews Cleavage by Theanna Bischoff.
Rozillis reviews Local Girl Makes History by Dana Frank.
Ponka reviews Blue: The Derek Jarman Poems by Keith Garebian.
At a Crossroads: Between a Rock and My Parents' Place
Fairless reviews At A Crossroads: Between a Rock and My Parents' Place by Kate T. Williamson.
Richardson reviews Milk Teeth by Julie Morstad.
Reviews Books
The Chainbreaker Bike Book: A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance
Concannon reviews The Chainbreaker Bike Book: A Rough Guide to Bicycle maintenance by Shelley Lynn Jackson and Ethan Clark.
Huebert reviews What It Is by Lynda Barry.
Consumer-Isms in 12 Easy Steps
Nene reviews Consumer-isms in 12 Easy Steps by Alexandra Kitty.
The Solitary Vice: Against Reading
Plourde reviews The Solitary Vice: Against Reading by Mikita Brottman.
Ende reviews Slash by Jeannette Armstrong.
Kasprzak reviews Imagination in Action edited by Carol Malyon.
Fry reviews Otherworld Uprising by Shary Boyle.
Greene reviews Hagiography by Jen Currin.
Feature Music
Sutherland discusses successful preparations bands do when going for a musical tour and the contingencies that may affect the scheduled performances. Among others, he suggests being flexible and creative, being nice to everyone and not being afraid to ask for favors. Break into lighthouses, don't drive when you're too tired, and make friends.
Music Reviews
Villeneuve reviews Earth Sciences by Laura Barrett.
Brown reviews In the Future by Black Mountain.
Zorgel reviews Apocalyptic Feasting by Braindrill.
Carter reviews Tarnish and Undress by Breech.
Villeneuve reviews We Are the Hunters by The D'Urbervilles.
Everything All the Time, Independent
Seale reviews Everything All the Time by Everything All the Time.
Villeneuve reviews Haunting Moon Sinkin by Forest City Lovers.
Lines reviews How to Slaughter a Lamb by Haitian Knife Flight.
Sutherland reviews The Onlys by Shotgun Jimmie.
Sutherland reviews 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons by Three Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-la-la Band.
Carter reviews Ode to the Ghetto by Guilty Simpson.
Sutherland reviews You Will Land With a Thud by Tom Fun Orchestra.
Brown reviews Rip it Off by Times New Viking.
Zorgel reviews I Spy by Twisterbait.
Reviews Music
Villeneuve reviews Happy Birthday by The Burning Hell.
Sutherland reviews 30 by Buzzcocks.
Sutherland reviews A Caesar Holiday by A Caesar Holiday.
Seale reviews Sloppy Ground by Eric Chenaux.
Constellation of Luminous Details
Zorgelton reviews Constellation of Luminous Details by Philip Davenport.
Villeneuve reviews The Jealous Girlfriends by The Jealous Girlfriends.
Zorgel reviews Beer Metal Sex Guitar by Made Austria.
Brown reviews Rabbit Habits by Man Man.
Villeneuve reviews In Transit by James Murdoch.
Seale reviews OPOPO by OPOPO.
Villeneuve reviews Proof of Ghosts by Proof of Ghosts.
Seale reviews Shortwave by Shortwave.
Brown reviews Waco Express by Waco Brothers.
Villeneuve reviews Mission Control by The Whigs.
Brown reviews Women as Lovers by Xiu Xiu.
Heart Palpitations of the Rich and Famous
Villeneuve reviews Heart Palpitations of the Rich and Famous by Greg Yeti and the Best Lights.
Film Feature
How to Put On a Covert Outdoor Screening
Ways on how to put on a covert outdoor screening is presented.
Reviews Film
Feesey reviews Flicker directed by Nik Sheehan.
King reviews A Few Good G-Men directed by Glass Randall and starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.
Reviews Ezines
Worth reviews Art-e-zine, an Internet resource located at art-e-zine.co.uk. Art-e-zine is a highly visual, beautifully laid out site where people share their own visual projects and give details on how they can do them.
Worth reviews Burst, an Internet resource located at terra-media.us/burst/Spring2008.html. Burst is a microfiction ezine that touts itself as "small but filling".
Fabro reviews the Feminist Ezine, an Internet resource located at feministezine.com/feminist. Feminist Ezine is a great tool for research papers, or for the casual feminist reader, the site is tidily laid out and peppered with insightful quotes, entertaining pictures and comics.
Winkler reviews MONDOmagazine, an Internet resource located at mondomagazine.net. MONDOmagazine is a volunteer-run, Toronto-based arts, culture and humor webzine.
Worth reviews Pif Magazine, an Internet resource located at pifmagazine.com. Pif Magazine have insightful, smart essays, detailed book reviews and guest columns.
Worth reviews Root, an Internet resource located at rootmagazine.org. Root is a hip publication with a creative, artsy bent dedicated to being " a space for everybody who is willing to exhibit graphic design, illustration, photography, video, etc.
Worth reviews Word Thing, an Internet resource located at bibliographic.net/teri/words.htm. Word Thing is a place where anyone who's ever made a zine, tried will find something to relate to.
Winkler reviews xkcd, an Internet resource located at xkcd.com. Xkcd is a webcomic in which characters are all stick figures, but not due an inability to draw on the part of the artist.
Fabro reviews Yabloko Magazine, an Internet resource located at myspace.com/yablokomagazine. This bizarrely disjointed MySpace page contains lengthy introspective poetry, neat artsy videos and, inexplicably, a lot of interviews with Christopher Hitchens.
Ezines Reviews
Price reviews Shovelleduplikemuck, an Internet resource located at shovellduplikemuck.com/index.php. Shovelleduplikemuck is a new UK music ezine in the shape of a four column irritating nightmare.
Price reviews Sound Bites Dog, an Internet resource located at http://www.soundbitesdog.com/ezine/archive.php. The single page companion ezine is published more or less bi-monthly and provides content that typically includes interviews with recording industry professionals, artists and advice for a successful mastering session.
Stirring: A Literary Collection
Worth reviews Stirring: A Literary Collection, an Internet resource located at soundress.net/stirring. Stirring finds the delicate, beautiful and heart-breaking and puts it out there for the world with a clean, sleek design that doesn't distract or detract from the words on the page.
Fabro reviews T-shirt Slayer, an Internet resource located at tshirtslayer.com. T-shirt Slayer is an extensive gallery of pictures of metal band T-shirts, lovingly updated by a pool of devoted members and their webmaster.
Winkler reviews Uber Underground, an Internet resource located at uber-underground.blogspot.com. Uber Underground is sort of an online catalog of music from three itty bitty labels: Fak Yer Records, ODP and Our Records.
Fabro reviews Vancouver Fashion Ezine, an Internet resource located at vancouverfashionezine.com. This monthly ezine showcases one person from four segments of the Vancouver fashion scene: fashion designer, fashion student, new face, and accessories designer.
Price reviews Venomous Girl Interviews (VGI), an Internet resource located at venomousgirlinterviews.com. VGI is a site that seems to be a forum for the three girls that run it to post monthly diary entries about various shows they have attended, new albums the have heard and pictures the have taken.
Price reviews Weird Music, an Internet resource located at weirdmusic.net/index.html. Weird Music is a collection of reviews and interviews about artists that someone probably haven't heard of yet.
Fiction
A short story is presented.
Feature
How to Get Money to Make Cool Stuff
Niedzviecki comments on the need for money for any kind of arts project. Among other things, he details options in earning money by accepting small jobs from babysitting to cleaning to building a bookshelf in exchange for a place to crash and the occasional snack. Also, he recommends avoiding the full time job which may seem contrary to the stated goal of acquiring money.
Do-It-Yourself Special: How Many How-Tos Can You Handle?
Six contributors, including Amy Johnson, who share ways on how to design their own clothes, build their own instruments, and plan their own festivals over the summer are presented. Among others, Amy Johnson details instructions on how to make a reversible bag.
Feature Books
How to Create Your Own Reading Series (or Not)
Kobayashi features poet Louis Calabro. Feeling bitter about the fact that he actually tolerated author readings, Calabro decided to create his own reading series. Also, he curates a line-up of poets and performers, published and unpublished, completely based on his personal preference, to give readings, if they want.
Ezine Feature
How to Promote Yourself Online
Worth presents several advices on how to promote yourself in a crowded online world. This includes Ellen Jantzen's digital manipulations create stunning, often surreal impressions.