"if all of us hated high school so much, why was nothing ever changed?"

Again I didn't read many zines this week (week ending 7/29/06), but I did finish making a zine of my own (see the post below):
-The Home Made Geodome zine
-Small Town City Living #2
-Small Town City Living #3
-Keep Loving Keep Fighting #6

I have a new skateboard. Now that I live downtown it is much easier for me to get around on my skateboard. Riding my skateboard makes me feel young again. It also makes me feel tough. I'm really not that tough, but I ain't saying nothin'.
This weekend was my ten year high school reunion. I didn't go, of course. Why would I? I hated high school and seriously had no friends in my graduating class. There is only one girl that I wonder about. I had a major crush on her all throughout junior high, and then I totally screwed everything up when I got into high school and became an angry and spiteful misanthrope. She asked me to one of the school dances and I accepted, but I didn't say a single word to her the whole time. Not only was I shy and socially inept, but I was also a jaded fool hellbent on falling off the deep end. Everything was so exaggerated back then, but I guess that's high school for you. So, why have a renioun to remember all that crap? That's like taking a trip to hell just to see if it's really hot or not.

The Return of Brown Rot

The Return of Brown Rot
Originally uploaded by juniperbug.

A new issue of Brown Rot...Can you believe it?! And you thought Brown Rot was dead. Or maybe you never even knew it had existed in the first place. Well, it's been almost five years since the last issue, and I wasn't ever going to do another one, but I guess things change...so here it is, issue #9. This issue includes: beyond recycling, Nestle boycott info, interview with Lisa Smith (Sweet Pea Distro and One Girl zine), artwork by Francois Marceau, rant against technocrats and more. You can get a copy for yourself by sending one dollar bill or trade of any type to:
Dan Murphy
PO Box 3154
Moscow ID 83843

"how could you have known the temperature and the distance of the sun"

It looks like I read more this week (week ending 7/22/06) than I actually did because some of these zines were really short or didn't require much reading:
-Touched by an Anvil #16
-Free, Blonde and 21 zine
-Public Notebook #4
-Risin' Up #1
-Ladypajama Is... #23
-Inarticulate #6.5
-Pony Express Zine #1

I should tell you that Public Notebook is one of my most favorite zines. It is written by a smart, courageous, young kid in Michigan. He was 14 when he started. He's turning 16 next month. His zines are small and simple, but his words are honest and real. It's tough growing up. I am glad he has found ways to make it more bearable such as doing a sweet little zine for zine obsessed aging guys like me to read. Also, Public Notebook is one of my most favorite zine titles of all time.

I have a broken tooth. It has been broken for over a year. It is the tooth to the very left of my two front teeth. It looks like there is a big hole in it. I am very self-conscious about it, so I try not to smile or laugh to big in public, and I would prefer it if you stayed on my right hand side while talking to me so that hopefully you won't notice it so much. I should really just bite the bullet and get that fixed, but dental work is so expensive and I don't have any insurance. Soon I will probably end up needing a root canal on it or something, and what is cheaper? Better to fix it now and save money so that I can smile more.

"i'll stay here and fight for lover's rights"

I told you I would read more stuff this week (week ending 07/15/06):
-Permaculture & Seed Exchange Newsletter Spring/Summer 2006
-Local Grub Newsletter June 2006
-The Drama #5
-Mrs. Noggle zine
-Hydroge-Nation zine
-Nontoxic Housecleaning zine
-Scam #5 1/2
-Ladypajama Is... #22
-The Pleiades #16
-Crapulescence #2

My stomach has been bothering me more than usual all day today. It is not uncommon for me to have these stomach problems. I am still not sure what's causing them. Several years ago I decided to let the doctors check me out. They ran a number of tests on me which included putting cameras into my stomach and colon. All the tests were inconclusive. The only thing they could tell me was that my stomach lining was red and that there was more acid than usual. They gave me some drugs that I decided not to take after reading the seemingly endless list of side effects, preferring a bad stomach to all those other less desirables. Thus, the stomach problems continue. I don't trust doctors, so until I find some other option I will just have to deal.
Aren't you glad I told you all that?

"but this is love so we'll survive"

Okay so this week isn't officially over, but I already know that I won't be reading anything more than the three zines I have already read this week before the day is over so here ya go:
-no one noticed #3
-Here It Is #2
-You Can Work Any Hundred Hours A Week You Want (In Your Underwear)!! zine

I promise I will read many more than three zines next week. Is there anything else to report? Well, on the 4th of July I visited the Pullman Community Gardens just across the border in Pullman, WA. I even took some pictures. My garden is looking better than it has ever looked, but it still has a ways to go. Things at the farm are going fabulous. My youngest brother moved to Seattle. I am still dying to get a zine (or zines) done. My distro remains at a standstill because I haven't had a second to do anything with it. I love listening to The Boy Least Likely To and feeling sappy and happy all at once. When the revolution finally takes us into a brave new world, I will send you a postcard. I've spent all this time trying to make myself invisible, and now I can't figure out how not to be.

"Checked myself into emergency, urgently / drove up in my bone camarrow thinking only about you" - The Unicorns

emma reviews the mess

Is it vain or silly of me to post reviews of my own zines for all to see. Probably, but these reviews (albeit slightly dated) are some of the best I've received. They are found in the Flying Machine Zine Distro catalog and were written by Emma of Australia. To find out more about this awesome little Aussie distro you should contact Emma (Flying Machine) at PO Box 4, Enmore NSW 2042, Australia or fake_space_program@graffiti.net

Elephant Mess 15 - Dan describes Elephant Mess as the world's worst perzine, but I can't say that I agree with this self-depreciation. In this issue Dan imagines people all over the world being connected unknowingly through their mutual possession of Elephant Mess. Putting aside the tyrannical connotations of this fantasy, Dan's zine is infused with a sense of longing for another world, a world that is big and noble, while maintaining the sense that this nobility is built with small things - insects and secret obsessions, mix tapes and maps - the places we call home and the little things that keep us going. I like it a lot.

Elephant Mess 14 - Excuse my disregard for chronology, but I felt that #15 was perhaps a better means of introducing Elephant Mess than this, #14, as it's a somewhat darker, more introspective affair, right down to being photocopied in the negative. Subtitled 'the roman numerals issue,' it consists of a seven-part meditation on loneliness, or perhaps aloneness is a better way to describe it. Dan catches something of what it feels to have been alone for so long that upon entering into conversation with another human being you find you've forgotten how to project your voice, and the experience leaves you with a greater sense of significance than it actually bore.

"you've gotta bite into life like it's a big hunk of bison"

Last week (ending 7/01/06) I read this stuff:
-Das Papierkrieg #10
-Connected: Boston zine
-ladypajama is... #21
-Connected: Portland zine
-Jane Boston journal entries
-Mixtape minicomic
-You Live For The Fight When That's All You've Got #1

Some music that I've really been into lately mainly due to having a radio show:
-Starlight Mints
-Dressy Bessy
-The Boy Least Likely To
-Kimya Dawson
-Half-Handed Cloud
-Mates of State
-The Gerbils
-Great Lakes
-The Unicorns
-Destroyer
-Flying
-The Microphones
-Nellie Mckay
-Little Wings

Okay, that's enough name dropping. Am I cool now?