Last month, Ami Greko and Rachel Fershleiser announced a fundraiser for Stock Tips, a zine that they were putting together that explores the world of soup. As both are friends of mine, I was immediately interested; as I now have the zine in my hands, I can also say that it’s a fine overview of soups. The title can be taken literally–there are, in fact, tips for making stock–but there are also recipes in abundance, trivia, and essays. (The more literary-minded […]

Radiator Hospital made one of my favorite albums of 2013, Something Wild. Earlier this month, I saw them for the first time at Glasslands. It was a terrific show, incredibly catchy and energetic; I’ve described Radiator Hospital’s music to a few friends as finding a good space somewhere between The Weakerthans and The Microphones, and that aesthetic was definitely present on the night I saw them. After the show, I went over to the merch table to see what they […]

There’s a phone number on the back cover of the latest issue of Gigantic; dial it and you’ll be given an archetypally robotic list of authors’ names to choose from. Select one from there, and one of the authors featured in the issue will provide a pre-recorded message — Mitchell S. Jackson delving into some of the nicknames and slang used in his contribution to this issue.  The theme of Gigantic‘s fifth issue is “Talk,” and it suffuses its pages, from snippets […]

The first zines I read were about music, and were invaluable in pointing me towards a lot of the bands and music that have become essential to me over the years. The three zines covered here are, in their own way, a return to basics for me — three zines where the primary focus was music, even as each of them has their own thematic and aesthetic concerns as well.

If this week is any indication, a brief autumn appears to have given way to an early onset of winter. Do I dare call it zine-reading weather? Is any kind of weather not well-suited to the reading of zines? (I mean, torrential downpours might pose some problems.) But right now, it’s time to put thoughts of zines past aside and turn towards the zines of today. We’ll start with one on the artistic side. Elizabeth Graeber’s A Coloring Book of People is […]