MSRRT Newsletter was a publication of the Minnesota Library Association Social Responsibilities Round Table (MSRRT). Future editors, step right up. Previous editor Mary Rosenthal is now running for Congress. Editors for this and the previous ninety-nine issues have been: Chris Dodge and Jan DeSirey, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; email: stlibrarian@yahoo.com
Street Librarian lives on.
Unscrew the locks from the doors! Uncscrew the doors themselves from their jambs! --Walt Whitman ("Song of Myself")
It's been a long trip. Beginning with a dot-matrix-printed 2-page newsletter in February 1988 (one double-sided sheet of paper), members of the Minnesota Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table were apprised of MSRRT events and programs. Reviews and commentary soon added, along with annotations of alternative magazines and small press catalog listings, the newsletter wended its way into the larger world. At the best of times, enlivened by the joys of unmediated self-expression, the project rolled along, by turns whimsical, angry, questioning, and impetuous, aided by a multitude of friends. From its early social justice activist focus, the newsletter turned toward intellectual freedom. Now, twelve years past, it has come time for a new journey, and so this issue will be our last as editors. Boundless thanks are due to all readers and supporters over the years, who have supplied grist for commentary and review, written for the newsletter, and provided the feedback which kept us going. To name but a few: Sandy Berman, Jim Danky, Rosalie Maggio, Leavenworth Jackson, Margery Dodge, Cathy Camper, Yusufu Mosely, Katia Roberto, Chantel Guidry, and the extensive "California branch" of MSRRT, including Nancy Gruber, Beth Sibley, and Janet Jenks. We applaud precursors Mike Gunderloy (Factsheet Five) and Noel Peattie (Sipapu), as well as those who carry on the tradition: Charles Willett (Counterpoise), Rory Litwin (Library Juice), Jessamyn West (Librarian.net), and Doug Holland (A Reader's Guide to the Underground Press). --Chris Dodge and Jan DeSirey
In November I left Hennepin County Library after 19 years, joining the staff of Utne Reader magazine. From the basement of the Ridgedale Library to an office overlooking Loring Park in Minneapolis, this has been a refreshing change. Besides having energetic and open-minded colleagues, I now work with supportive and candid administrators committed, I believe, to making Utne Reader live up to its "best of the alternative media" tagline. Likewise, I hold out hope for public libraries. At their best and at their worst, I have seen them. --CD
Still, some sense
light's changing angle
in April.
Fools:
one fearless thaw
and they know love.
A certain dandelion
bravely grows
from a sidewalk crack,
fuse burning
toward the inexorable
dispersion
of its seeds.
By Cathy Camper
Asian pop culture has now stretched itself into mid-America, Hello Kitty toys have their own shelf at Target, and Asian film stars such as Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li are appearing in blockbuster America films. With Pokemon fever at a peak, how can libraries make sure their collections contain relevant materials? Viz Communications, for one, is a distributor of Japanese anime (animated film) and manga (comic books) whose website is a fun place to check out the latest trends. Their recently published book Japan edge: the insider's guide to Japanese pop subculture includes chapters on Japanese film, anime, rock music and noise music, and manga [Cadence Books, P.O. Box 77010, San Francisco, CA 94107; $19.95, 1-56931-345-8]. Its writing style is uneven, but this is one of the only sources I've found with tips for what to order and where. Japan edge also has a chart to help readers choose comic books according to their personal taste, and an insider's map of Tokyo. Another way to expand Asian culture in your library is through videos. While many popular titles are available through the Internet, not all of them are copyright-legal, and some have difficult-to-read subtitles, or horrible dubbing. A fairly reliable source is Tai Seng Video Marketing from San Francisco. The extensive Tai Seng catalog has many reasonably priced martial arts videos ($20-$40) featuring stars like Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan, as well as drama, melodrama, and comedies. Make sure you specify whether you want subtitled or dubbed versions. Check out their web site or call the company at 1-800-888-3836.
Comic books in Japan represent a big industry. Manga cover a wide range of themes and are read by all ages. In North America, though, stereotypes linger. Here comics are largely relegated to specialty shops, niche-marketed to hardcore fans by independent presses who specialize in the form, and only sporadically reviewed in the mass media. Comics Journal, the key source of news and interviews with artists, is all but ignored by libraries. Below are some new titles worth noting, alternatives to the massively distributed "product" of DC Comics.
Joe Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995 (Fantagraphics) is a magnum opus comic book which takes war journalism from the p.r. flacks and gives it to soldiers and civilians to relate. Based on four months Sacco spent hanging out in "Bumfuck, The Balkans," it tells and shows in graphic detail the sort of human stories of war often officially ignored. Also new and notable: Soba, the first title in Sacco's "Stories >From Bosnia" series being published by Drawn and Quarterly. (7563 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115; http://www.fantagraphics.com).
Jar of Pennies, a small handmade comic book by Kalah Allen is dedicated "to everyone who has ever ridden a bus." Deceptively simple, beautifully drawn and executed, it describes a young woman's daily life: commuting, work in "cubicle land" doing telephone technical support for an Internet provider, waiting for the bus home. (P.O. Box 2044, Portland, OR 97208; $4).
Top Shelf Under the Big Top is a gritty, edgy, sometimes gory anthology of comics by Kalah Allen, Garrett Izumi, Jean Bourguignon, Mike Diana, and others. It also includes related articles and reviews of international comics which push some of the form's limits. (P.O. Box 1282, Marietta, GA 30061-1282; $14.95, paper, 1-891-830-11-2; http://www.topshelfcomix.com).
Get Real Comics is a series of ad-free all-color comic books geared to teenagers as a way to promote reading while covering their real concerns in a way that is consciously anti-racist and anti-sexist. Four issues have been published so far--one per year since 1996. This nonprofit project of the TIDES Center is reminiscent of Ivan Velez's fine Tales of the Closet series about gay and lesbian high school students. (COLLAGE, 709 W. Mt. Airy Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119-3323, 215-242-3211, collage@igc.org; bulk prices available for teachers).
No more prisons. By William Upski Wimsatt. Soft Skull Press, 1999. 160p. The author of Bomb the suburbs (Subway and Elevated Press, 1994) here writes about alternatives to stultifying public education (e.g. homeschooling), offers suggestions for countering xenophobia and racism, and discusses philanthropy in an attempt to spur a "cool rich kids movement." Fresh, hopeful, ambitious, and full of energy, many of these essays and manifestos first appeared in the alternative press: Adbusters, Who Cares, In These Times, and others. In a society where fear of freedom is rampant, Wimsatt's words have liberatory potential. (98 Suffolk St., #3A, New York, NY 10002-3366, 212-772-3210; $12, paper, 1-887128-42-5; http://www.softskull.com).
Wandering time: western notebooks. By Luis Alberto Urrea. University of Arizona Press, 1999. 130p. Chronicling five seasons of roaming in the West, this slender book sparkles with metaphor: elk-antlered beetles, marmot detectives, a nocturnal city of gems on black velvet. Its lessons are drawn from trail and tavern, from nature's tricksters as well as the Arapaho jokester who pointed out to Urrea evidence of teepee circles on the moon. Crafted with a poet's careful observation, the book is a quiet reminder to appreciate small moments and see the large--the universal--in the tiniest leaf or incident. It's also a fine source of reading recommendations, as Urrea cites and quotes favorite authors from Linda Hogan to Tom McGuane. (1230 N. Park Ave., Suite 102, Tucson, AZ 85719, 520-626-4218, FAX: 520-621-8899; $18.95, cloth, 0-8165-1866-1; http://www.uapress.arizona.edu).
The Freddy stories. By Lynda Barry. Sasquatch Books, 1999. 123p. These poignant serial comics about the inner life of Maybonne and Marlys's little brother Freddy are illustrated in Barry's faux outsider art style. Barry is one rare adult who remembers clearly what it's like to be a kid, even though her imagination can lead to scary places, in this case the mind of an abused child who copes by conjuring up "the Rocka-Shaggy-Baba" man. With an anti-homophobia subtext, this book is about being different, transcending difficult circumstances, and the redemptive power of sibling solidarity. Go, girl. (615 Second Ave., Seattle, WA 98104, 206-467-4300; $12.95, paper, 1-57061-106-8; http://www.sasquatchbooks.com).
Jailhouse stories: memories of a small-town sheriff. By Neil Haugerud. University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 223p. We've driven through Fillmore County in southeastern Minnesota many dozens of times, passing through its small towns, occasionally stopping at a bakery, gas station, or cafe. In Chatfield, a community with burgeoning civic pride, a welder once made impromptu repairs on the borrowed, rusted-out van we were driving, then refused payment. It's the people of these towns--and their skirmishes with the law--that make up the stories of this book, warmly related with the polish of a raconteur who has told them many times. The blurb's promise of "a real-life Andy Griffith" is accurate and appropriate: Haugerud is gentle, down-to-earth, and understanding, whether writing about drunks and barroom brawls, domestic violence, burglary, or suicide. Bringing to life 1960s small-town Minnesota, this book may have readers eager to stop at Haugerud's farm, wanting to pump him for a few more tales. (111 Third Ave. South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520; $18.95, cloth, 0-8166-3361-4).
Deviant desires: incredibly strange sex. By Katherine Gates. Juno Books, 2000. By turns hilarious, titillating, and repulsive, this fascinating book graphically describes sexual fetishes and their practitioners, from "pony play," balloon and body inflation, "messy fun," and fat admiration to slash fiction, "furverts," "giantess" lovers, and people who get off on the crushing of insects. Complete with bibliography and resource listings. (Dist.: powerHouse Books, 180 Varick St., Suite 1302, New York, NY 10014-4606, 212-604-9074, FAX: 212-366-5247; $24.99, paper, 189045103-7; http://www.JunoBooks.com).
subGURLZ. By Jennifer Camper. Cleis Press, 1999. 117p. Not your ordinary comic book superheroines, nuh-uh. Raised in subways tunnels on their own, these three have grown up powerfully twisted. A hospital orderly, Liver keeps an even keel by swilling drain cleanser cocktails and morphine. Bald-headed Byte, a janitor by day, hacks computers and redistributes wealth. Swizzle tends bar in a lesbian strip joint, uproots parking meters, and hefts parked cars for kicks. Loving and protecting one another, three to a bed, living by their own subterranean code, they arouse the wrath of the "street" world after "kidnapping" a girl who's fallen in front of a train. How will they fare against Gotham's woman police chief? Will Swiz learn to be more careful when she hugs? Just what is it that lesbians do in bed? First serialized in comic strip form over several years, SubGURLZ works more coherently as a graphic novel. Kudos to Jen Camper for gleeful trust in her own imagination, an unbridled id, and delight in examining what most other artists avoid. (P.O. Box 14684, San Francisco, CA 94114; $10.95, paper, 1-57344-090-6; Cleis Press).
Sex toy tales. Edited by Anne Semans and Cathy Winks. Down There Press. 1998. 201p. From the women who brought us The new Good Vibrations guide to sex comes this collection of thirty-five short stories in which sex toys are featured prominently. The toys range from common vegetables to high tech electronic devices, from dildos and vibrators to kitchen appliances and power tools. Some of the pieces included are fiction and others relate true experiences. Unfortunately, there is no indication of which tales really happened and which only occurred in the authors' imaginations. Personally, I was disappointed to realize that many (maybe most) of the pieces in this anthology are fantasies. I suppose the voyeur in me wants to know with which toys other folks are really playing. Expanding collections of erotica and sexual health should include this anthology, possibly the first to deal with the subject, which presents the use of sex toys in an open, honest, and entertaining manner. (Some of the stories may even give the reader an erotic charge.) (938 Howard Street, #101, San Francisco, CA 94103; $12.50, paper, 0-940208-21-0; http://www.goodvibes.com/dtp/dtp.ht ml). --Chantel C. Guidry
Cunt. By Inga Muscio. Seal Press, 1998. 279p. Reading this book is a lot like listening to the righteous rants of your best girlfriend or beloved older sister. The author preaches and teaches a girl power that has little to do with pop songs, tight skirts, or makeup. She proposes that women and girls love, support, cherish, and honor all females of every age, whether they are friends, family, or strangers. In dealing with topics ranging from self-defense to rape, from menstruation to sex, birth control, abortion, and motherhood, Muscio is all for taking care of ourselves and each other. Among other radical ideas, she encourages women to support each other with the power of their money and to storm out of movies with "violently eroticized" rape scenes and demand a refund. This work is highly personal; it is one young writer's book length "womanifesto." (The front cover boldly pronounces it "a declaration of independence.") The book's most positive aspect is that Muscio encourages every female to compose her own "womanifesto", be it written, spoken, painted, sung, danced, sewn, or otherwise stated. To many women, most of the ideas asserted here are nothing new. It is a rejuvenating refresher course for those of us who feel as if we've heard it all before. For women young, old, or in-between who are just discovering feminism, this discourse will be an invigorating and awakening. (3131 Western Avenue, Suite 410, Seattle, WA 98121; $14.95, paper, 1-58005-015-8; http://www.sealpress.com). --Chantel C. Guidry
Trans liberation: beyond pink or blue. By Leslie Feinberg. Beacon Press, 1998. 147p. This third book by transgender activist Leslie Feinberg is a collection of eight essays, many adapted from addresses delivered during speaking engagements in 1997. It also includes ten written self-portraits by other trans people and supporters whose viewpoints are different from the author's. In the essays, Feinberg comments on topics ranging from gender freedom to the U.S. health care crisis, from classism to the evils of big business, using clear and concise language which is accessible but never patronizing. Feinberg's optimism is inspirational, affirming the possibility that society will one day accept all people regardless of gender expression and other physical characteristics. This volume is an important addition to the growing body of work on transgender issues. (25 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108-2892; $20, cloth, 0-8070-7950-2; http://www.beacon.org). --Chantel C. Guidry
The Buddhist third class junkmail oracle: the art and poetry of d.a. levy. Edited with an investigative essay by Mike Golden. Seven Stories Press, 1999. 318p. November 25, 1968: d.a. levy, radical underground poet and artist, underground publisher of the likes of Charles Bukowski and R. Crumb, was found shot to death in his East Cleveland apartment. He was 26. The death was ruled suicide, but 30 years later there are those who have their suspicions. Junkmail oracle is more than just a collection of d.a. levy's poetry and artwork. Mike Golden's essay offers a glance into the emotional, political, and intellectual pressure cooker that was levy's world. Imparting a feeling of the suspicion, intolerance, paranoia, depression, and manic literary activity that were the hallmarks of his life, it readies the reader for the plunge into levy's works. The book is profusely illustrated with levy's collages, newspaper articles (about his arrest for contributing to the delinquency of minors, for one thing), photos, and selections from the Junkmail Oracle newsletter. It warrants the attention of anyone interested in the Beat Generation or Sixties counterculture. (140 Watts St., New York, NY 10013, 212-226-8760, $21.95, paper, 1-888363-88-6; http://www.sevenstories.com). --Michael McClung
The second coming of Curly Red. By Jody Seay. Firebrand Books, 1999. 271p. This first novel by Jody Seay deals with loss and death and kindness, but most of all love. Thankfully, the tears it induced in me were the cleansing kind that washed the sad right out and left me feeling fresh and pure. The author has a knack for writing dialogue that flows smoothly and naturally. This authentic language, along with believable actions, makes the characters come alive. A story about real family values, showing how love and perseverance can lead to healing, this book is for anyone who has loved and lost, or is hurting and in need of encouragement. (141 The Commons, Ithaca, NY 14850, $13.95, paper, 1-56341-114-8; http://www.firebrandbooks.com). --Chantel C. Guidry
The Garifuna journey (Video) . Documentary by Andrea E. Leland and Kathy L. Berger. 1998. Descended from intermarried Arawak, Carib, and shipwrecked African slaves on the island of St. Vincent, the dark-skinned Garifuna people of contemporary Belize exemplify living history. Viewers of this video will watch, for example, as women harvest and arduously process cassava root, then bake it into huge round sheets of flat bread. Although it neither asks nor answers all questions about the people, this documentary lets Garifuna men and women speak for themselves for the most part, while showing facets of their life, from making music tobuilding an annual temple. (New Day Films, 22-D Hollywood Ave., Hohokus, NJ 07423, 1-888-367-9154; $250, $99 for community groups; http://www.newday.com).
Voices of the lady: collected poems. By Stuart Z. Perkoff. Edited and with an introduction by Gerald T. Perkoff. National Poetry Foundation, 1998. 473p. Based in Venice, California, during the Fifties and Sixties, Stuart Perkoff had five books published during his life and three more which appeared posthumously. All are reprinted in this collection, along with hundreds more poems, some previously issued in magazines, others in print now for the first time. At his worst Perkoff was windy and sloppy, seemingly tossing off lines extemporaneously like the jazz he loved:
Howling in the crowded boxcars
howling in the dark barracks
howling in the hot showers
howling & whimpering in the final chambers
He could go from profound to trite in the space of a four lines and was prone to abbreviated spelling ("enuf"..."laffing"..."thru... "how it shd be"). At his best, though, he got it right through intuition or simple voice of experience:
It is not
loss, what has
been, is.
mother may i go out to fix?
yes, my darling daughter
you may tie yr arm & punch yr vein
but fill the spike with water.
what to me is so
good
is how you are
so brite with being that
young warm thing
alive, it says
alive alive
Edward L. Loper, Sr.: the prophet of color: a disciple's reflections. By Marilyn A. Bauman. Duncan and Duncan, 1999. 136p. This biography allows readers a personal glimpse at a self-taught artist's work and life, as well as his influence on students. Loper, an African American, grew up in Delaware during the 20's and 30's, when racist laws and segregation profoundly restricted his education and work opportunities. A less strong-willed person never would have survived as an artist, especially at a time when jobs for black men in America were limited mainly to physical labor. Loper got his first formal training through the WPA, and over his lifetime pieced together an artistic education that explained and verified what he felt innately as an artist. As his student, Bauman records her learning experiences too, and is quite frank about her teacher's sometimes gruff demeanor. She also mentions conflicts in their beliefs, most notably her feminism and his machismo, and gives insight into Loper's years of suppressed rage at society. The text is personal and often meandering, but Bauman makes clear how artistic inspiration and talent is dealt across the board, not just at museums and expensive art schools. Loper's reproduced artwork shows his fascination and skill at blending light and color. (P.O. Box 1137, Edgewood, MD 21040, 410-538-5580, FAX: 410-538-5584, dunandpb@frontiernet.net; $34.95, cloth) . --Cathy Camper
Bad sex is good: fiction and essays. By Jane DeLynn. Painted Leaf Press, 1998. 205 p. In this case, the title really does sum it up. Not all of the sex depicted in this book is necessarily bad, though. Some of it is embarrassing ("Strange Attractors", about thinking your partner is moaning in ecstasy when she's really just asleep), some deadly ("Patient Zero", a fictional account of Gaetan Dugas' sex life), some self-consciously funny ("I Flunked Masturbation Class"), and some just kinky ("Heel", which takes the phrase "bark like a dog" into an entirely new context). Not all of the pieces work. "The Ontology of Post-Modern Sex" is 17 pages of decidedly unsexy theory, which may very well be the point. This was unfortunate, because I thought reading about why tops get off on having their dildos sucked could have been really compelling reading. Ultimately, the most memorable stories are the most violent ones, namely "An Eye for An Eye" (a chilling account of a group of survivors anally raping a rapist), "Butch" (rough lesbian sex), and "The Roof" (rough hetero sex after an argument). Bad sex is good made me feel awfully vanilla. (308 West 40th St, New York City, NY 10018; $12, paper, 1-891305-00-X; Cocadas@aol.com). --Katia Roberto
Like shaking hands with God: a conversation about writing. By Kurt Vonnegut & Lee Stringer. Moderated by Ross Klavan. Foreword by Daniel Simon. Photos by Art Shay. Seven Stories Press, 1999. 80p. Perhaps better suited to a magazine article or pamphlet, this brief book consists of transcripts from a 1998 bookstore appearance and an early 1999 restaurant discussion featuring novelist Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer, author of Grand Central winter (MSRRT Newsletter, Jul/Aug 98). Most notably, it includes Vonnegut's personal account of the importance to him of trips to a corner store and the post office, and Stringer's expression that "writing is a struggle to preserve our right to be [impractical]." (140 Watts St., New York, NY 10013, 212-226-8760; $15, cloth, 1-58322-002-X; http://www.sevenstories.com).
McSweeney's is an idiosyncratic, ironic, often hilarious journal edited by Dave Eggers, former creator of Might magazine. Its minutely designed contents pages, covers, front matter, and rear matter (ads for titles in the almost-plausible "Chip Chambers Quarterback Series") alone are worth half hours of fun. The 288-page issue #3 includes "The new, abridged dictionary of accepted ideas" (e.g., "Children--Human puppies. Feed them, protect them, watch Disney movies with them, prevent masturbating"), writings by Lawrence Wechsler about "bizarre associations" among images, and a roundtable discussion with biochemists about a bio-engineered material based on spider silk, as well as a list of 121 plausible "provisional beginnings for stories that might never be written, but could" and short stories that push the boundaries in every direction. This is the tip of one interesting iceberg. (394A Ninth St., Brooklyn, NY 11215; $31; http://www.mcsweeneys.net).
El Andar ("A Latino magazine for the new millennium") is an excellent quarterly featuring essays, interviews, photos, topical articles, poetry and short fiction, all very alive and cogent, intellectual and full of heart. The 72-page Spring 1999 edition (v.10 #1) contained an interesting conversation with Isabel Allende and Celia Zapata, commentary on Bill Clinton by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, excerpts from new books by Ariel Dorfman and Luis Alberto Urrea, and Rosario Ferré 's paean to "my butt" ("Gate of pleasure"), while the Summer/Fall issue reported on an organized crime family in Mexico (the Hanks) which subsequently drew threats of reprisal. Ongoing: comics by Jaime ("Love and Rockets") Hernandez. Highly recommended. (Box 7745, Santa Cruz, CA 95061, 831-457-8353, 831-457-8354, http://www.elandar.com; $18).
Xerox Debt is a new review zine published by Davida Gypsy Breier (Leeking Ink and The Glovebox Chronicles). The 12-page initial issue contains brief synopses of about 80 zines, comics, and distributors, arranged by genre (literary, personal zines, travel), none more than 21 words long. Founded on the premise that if readers enjoy Davida's zines, they might also appreciate some of the zines that she likes best. (Box 963, Havrede Grace, MD 21078; http://musea.digitalchainsaw. com/gypsy.html; $1).
Do or Die ("Voices from the ecological resistance") is a substantial publication featuring international coverage of radical environmentalism, from protest tactics and sabotage (e.g., "genetic crop trashing") to anti-road activism and animal protection efforts. Issue #8 is a veritable book: 334 pages of action-oriented articles, interviews, graphics, reviews, resource listings, and letters from readers, including material on squatting, tunneling, infoshops, "pirate utopias," globalization, women's liberation, and indigenous struggles worldwide. No longer available by subscription: Americans should send six quid (uh, a money order for six pounds sterling) to reserve/procure a copy of forthcoming #9. (c/o 6 Tilbury Pl., Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 2GY, UK; http://www.eco-action.org/dod; ISSN: 1462-5989).
Urban Mozaik ("Life in Modern Multicultural Society") is a glossy but ad-free magazine intended to promote "cross-cultural understanding and to celebrate the cultural diversity found in cities throughout North America." The 32-page Spring 1999 edition (#4) includes a "travel journal" focusing on the Indian film industry in Bombay ("Bollywood from the balcony: a Hindi film/travel journal"), an article about confronting campus racism in Canada, and readers' writings about race and immigration, as well as a reprinted column on "linguistic collision" and a review of Mitra Sen's film, "Just a Little Red Dot." (Box 1690, New York, NY 10013-0870; http://www.urbanmozaik.com/studioq ; $15).
Hopscotch: A Cultural Review, a new "journal of ideas examining the endlessly complicated Hispanic perspective," is edited by Ilan Stavans. The 176-page initial issue includes photos of Brazil's Yanomami people, a review essay on Cuban music, and articles about Haitians in the Dominican Republic and Yiddish-speaking immigrants in Argentina, as well as comics by Lalo Alcaraz and material on Spanglish, Antonio Banderas, and John Sayles' "Men With Guns." Issue #2 examines Venezuela's "obsession" with Miss Universe, reproduces photos of soccer fans and portraits of Latin American authors, and reviews Ariel Dorfman's Heading south, looking north. (Editorial: Amherst College, Box 2255, Amherst, MA 01002, 413-542-8201, FAX: 413-542-2759, hopscotch@amherst.edu ; subscriptions: Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660, 1-888-387-5687; $50 institutional, $24 individual, $19 student; ISSN: 1098-6995; http://www.hopscotch.com).
Transition ("An international review") is a substantial journal co-edited by Kwame Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Focusing on whiteness, the 217-page issue #73 includes a narrative about growing up multiracial in colonial Kenya, a debunking of "the niceness of whiteness" in Canada, and an essay by Patricia J. Williams on "the secret relationship between race and food," as well as articles about white mercenaries in Africa and Japanese youth who appropriate hip-hop style, an interview with Jim Goad, and a Cornel West conversation with Noel Ignatiev and William Wimsatt. Also: Jamaica Kincaid on Thomas Jefferson, bell hooks on Leni Riefenstahl's autobiography, and Don Belton on The masculine marine: homoeroticism in the U.S. Marine Corps. (Editorial: 25 Francis Ave., Suite B11, Cambridge, MA 02138; subscriptions: Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708, 1-888-387-5687; $60 institutional, $24 individual; ISSN: 0041-1191).
Street Roots is a monthly Oregon tabloid "for and about Portland's homeless community" (replacing Burnside Cadillac). The 12-page August 1999 edition (v.1 #7) contains editorials and columns (some by homeless people), news about state legislation (Oregon police must now give 24-hour advance notice before evicting homeless campers from public property--this is progress?), an interview with a street newspaper vendor, and detailed listings of shelters, food and clothing providers, and transitional housing programs. (1231 SW Morrison, Portland, OR 98205; $35 donation).
Student Activist is a publication of the Direct Action Solidarity Network. The March 1999 tabloid (v.2 #1) contains reports on student strikes protesting funding cuts and increasing privatization, "student sit-in victories against sweatshops," and other student activism worldwide; an interview with Noam Chomsky, an update on the case of Mumia Abu Jamal; coverage of demonstrations by anti-poverty groups in Ottawa and Vancouver; and material on indigenous struggles in Canada. Also: a listing of "radical radio programs." (P.O. Box 522, Guelph, ON Canada, N1H 6K9), 416-812-6765, http://www.tao.ca/~dasn).
The Multiplier is a zine created by Minneapolis-based bike shop worker (and former bike messenger) Sam Tracy. Mostly it's interesting firsthand writings about bicycles, biking, urban transportation planning, and related topics. The 50-page issue #4 (format: 4.25 x 11") includes a letter to the IRS and material about workplace justice concerns of bike couriers (employee or independent contractor?), a rant about crummy working conditions at the Fossil Fuels Policy Action Institute (where Tracy worked editing Auto-Free Times), and material on recovering from brain injury, as well as commentary on bombing and sanctions on Iraq, and criticism of Bill Devall and George Sessions' Deep ecology. The 38-page #5 responds to an article in The Economist on traffic congestion, rants against the bike parts industry (under the rubric "Surly Mechanics Against Shitty Hardware") and a yuppie bike shop customer, and contains Beth Hamon journal entries on "do-it-ourselves" Torah study. (1517 Spruce Pl., #106, Minneapolis, MN 55403; $3 each).
Homemade Music is a magazine put out by Brian Baker, former editor of Gajoob (MSRRT Newsletter, Sep 90), as a service to promote "home recording artists." The 32-page Summer 1999 edition contains an interview with Chris Ballew, profiles and contact data for an eclectic range of musicians and composers, reviews of other publications that cover homemade music, and dozens of related resource listings, reviews, website annotations, and blurbs about indie labels. Highly recommended for do-it-yourself recording artists and audio mail artists. Cassette networking lives! (2148 Texas St., Salt Lake City, UT 84109, 801-485-3949, http://www.homemademusic.com; $7/4).
The Wussy Boy Chronicles ("Caught somewhere between gay and guy") is a new personal zine from performance poet/journalism student R. Eirik Ott. Issue #1 presented the Wussy Boy Manifesto (a performance piece) and related stories from Eirik's newspaper internship in Reno (e.g., the temporary escape of one of his cats). Dated February 2000, the second edition covers the editor's role at last year's annual National Poetry Slam held in Chicago (his San Francisco team shared championship honors) and examines thirteen male actors and musicians through the "wussy boy" lens, while #3 includes short fiction, letters from readers, and a sad essay about the Eirik's friend Jen who died in a car accident last September. (P.O. Box 1467, Chico, CA 95927-1467, poetryslam@hotmail.com).
Teen Voices ("Because you're more than just a pretty face") is a nonprofit quarterly written by and for teenage girls. Though slick looking, with glossy pages and color photos, the magazine moves away from consumerism to focus on substantial concerns in girls' lives. Recent issues, for example, have covered such topics as cliques, eating disorders, homeschooling, and being biracial. One 52-page edition (v.7 #4) includes an interview with a young sweatshop worker, material on getting into college, and an article on teen pregnancy and abortion services, as well as poetry and music reviews. Ad content is low, mostly representing small businesses, other nonprofits, and independent publishers. (P.O. Box 120027, Boston, MA 02112-0027; 1-888-882-TEEN, FAX: 617-426-5577, http://www.teenvoices.com; $20).
New Moon Network is a bimonthly newsletter "for adults who care about girls." The 16-page July/August 1999 issue (v.6 #6) contains an article on body-related comments directed toward girls ("When words can hurt"), essays by the mother of a child whose 5-year-old daughter talks non-stop and a father whose oldest daughter died in a car accident just after starting college (with a sidebar listing "grief groups"), and a review of Lyn Mikel Brown's Raising their voices: the politics of girls' anger, as well as a report on an after-school math/science program for girls and the winning essay in the 1999 Spinsters Ink Young Feminist Scholarship contest. (P.O. Box 3587, Duluth, MN 55803-3587, 218-728-5507, FAX: 218-728-0314; http://www.newmoon.org; $25).
HighGrader Magazine ("A voice from the Northland") is an independent Canadian bimonthly covering political and environmental issues from the grassroots. Besides regular columns on northern gardening and occasional book reviews, it includes personal and historical articles, such as a daughter's reminiscences about her home-brewer father, a miner who died of silicosis. Recent issues have examined topics from supermarket franchise wars and terminator seed technology, to fish farms, homesteading with workhorses, and unionizing doughnut shops. The 40-page May/June 1999 edition (v.5 #3) includes a tree planter's journal entries, an article about the Polar Bear Express train to James Bay, and material on contemporary land struggles. (Box 714, Cobalt, Northern Ontario, POJ 1C0, Canada, 705-679-5533, FAX: 705-679-5234, higrade@nt.net; http://www.grievousangels.com/hi ghgrader; $21 U.S. ).
DoubleTake is a noteworthy nonprofit quarterly of documentary writing and photography. Recent issues have included an interview with filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, an article about radon "health mines" in Montana, and short fiction and poetry by such writers as Stephen Dobyns, Mary Oliver, and W.S. Merwin. The 120-page Winter 2000 edition (v.6 #1) contains photoessays on punk concerts and ballroom dance, a long piece about women prisoners in a drug treatment program, an essay on Henry James, a profile of Texas musician Robert Earl Keen, a man's account of an trying to help his schizophrenic brother, and an interview with John Sayles. Formerly published by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. (55 Davis Square, Somerville, MA 02144, 617-591-9389, FAX: 617-625-6478; http://www.doubletakemagazine.org; subscription: P.O. Box 56070, Boulder, CO 80322-6070, 1-800-964-8301; $32; 1080-7241).
Clamor is an ambitious new magazine put together by Jen Angel (Fucktooth) and Jason Kucsma (Praxis) in order to provide a venue for stories about "real people and real experiences" instead of celebrities. The 85-page initial issue (February 2000) contains interviews with authors Howard Zinn and Richard Smith (The culture of surveillance), articles about the World Trade Organization and anti-WTO demonstrations, a personal account of the first six months of pregnancy, and photo essays on boxing and urban demolition (the latter by Slug and Lettuce editor Chris Boarts Larson). Also: mass media criticism, a bike commuter's rant, a tale of hiking the Appalachian Trail, and a conversation focusing on "the ethics and politics of owning your own business." Forthcoming topics to be covered: non-monogamy, the KKK, women and straightedge, disgruntled workers, green economics, the Labadie Radical Literature Collection, and male sexuality. (P.O. Box 1225, Bowling Green, OH 43402, 419-353-9266, clamormagazine@hotmail.com; $20/6).
Here ("The stories behind where you are") is a magazine-format zine devoted to stories about places. The 48-page issue #2 contains an interesting if meandering article about customized Texas mailboxes (armored to resist baseball-bat-wielding teenagers), a report on privatized tollroad trends in California, and coverage of the closing of New York's City Hall Park, a traditional venue for public protest. Also: a firsthand travel account about siblings' efforts to connect with Dakota and Ojibwe family members in North Dakota. (P.O. Box 310281, Red Hook Station, Brooklyn, NY 11231, neild@echonyc.com; $10/4).
Juxtapoz, a bimonthly magazine covering edgy, provocative, shite-disturbing art, is full of color photos and reproductions. The 88-page November/ December 1999 issue (#23) includes articles about graffiti artist Doze Green, Hong Kong-born painter Saiman Chow ("I love pink"), and performance artist/sculptor Paul McCarthy, as well as an interview with painter Eric White. Also: a Spanish travelogue, reviews, and letters from readers. (1303 Underwood Ave., San Francisco, CA 94124-3308, 415-671-2415, FAX: 415-822-8359; http://www.juxtapoz.com; $14.50).
Variant is a Scotland-based tabloid magazine of "cross-currents in culture: critical thinking, imaginative ideas, independent media and artistic interventions." The 36-page Summer 1999 edition (v.2 #8) includes working-class fiction by Ian Brotherhood ("Tales from the great unwashed"), a history of the London Musicians' Collective, and an essay on prison novels, as well as a woman cartoonist's take on art school sexism, zine and comics reviews by Mark Pawson, and a substantial review of Art, activism, & oppositionality, an anthology of writings from Afterimage magazine. (1a Shamrock St., Glasgow, G4 9JZ, Scotland; http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~variant).
Contemporary Sexuality is the monthly newsletter of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT). The 12-page February 2000 issue (v. 34 #2) features "Of women and Viagra: the debate over female sexual dysfunction," and also includes an article about reaction to Randy Thornhill's A natural history of rape: biological bases of sexual coercion, relevant news briefs, and a list of continuing education opportunities. (P.O. Box 238, Mount Vernon, IA 52314, 319-895-8407, FAX: 319-895-6203, melby@bitstream.net; $42 individual, $65 institutional).
h2so4 (named after the formula for sulfuric acid) is a philosophy zine published twice yearly. Edited by Jill Stauffer, each issue features a list of word coinages (e.g. "insipious" and "pathetiquette"), advice from a famous philosopher, and reviews--not just of books and films, but concepts (e.g. adultery), cat breeds, classes of people ("academic men"), and individuals (Harmony Korine). The 48-page Winter/Spring 2000 edition includes a "surrealist sound displacement experiment," a column dedicated to the interpretation of dreams, and illustrations by McSweeney's editor Dave Eggers, as well as letters from such readers as Ian McKaye and Josh Glenn (Hermenaut). Past issues have examined irony, "lies they teach you in graduate school," and the art of friendship. (P.O. Box 423354, San Francisco, CA 94142; 415-431-2135; http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~h2so4).
Floaty is a mini-zine of whimsical gesture drawings by Keith Saunders. Playful, simple, and expressive, Japan-influenced issues #3 and 4 depict emotions (e.g., "Happydance"), cliché ("Sexy pose"), body parts ("Weenie"), relationships ("Mother and child"), and--amusingly--the receipt of an unwanted present ("Gift horse"). (700 Canterbury, Saginaw, MI 48603, monkeybutt@earthling.net; $2).
Funhouse offers concise reviews of zines, small press catalogs, mini-comics, chapbooks, and other printed marginalia. Get out your magnifying glass to read issue #8, a folded 11 x 17" sheet with about 100 reviews. One drawback besides its tiny print size is that entries are neither alphabetized nor arranged in any apparent useful order. (Brian Johnson, 11 Werner Rd., Greenville, PA 16125-9434; $1/issue).
Meniscus is a zine covering some of editor Yuan-Kwan Chan's interests, from music to travel. The 32-page issue #10 (January 1999) includes an account of visiting Paris, an interview with Japanese ska band Jitterin' Jinn, an article about attending Interlochen Performing Arts Camp in 1992, and an omnibus review of three Asian-American periodicals, as well as tour dates for Phoebe Eng (author of Warrior lessons: an Asian American woman's journey into power) and a conversation with members of a Seattle Chinese Basketball Association team. Previous editions have contained material on Hideo Nomo, Michael Chang (the editor is responsible for a fan web page), and Cibo Matto. (12793 Misty Creek Lane, Fairfax, VA 22033-1728; meniscus@goplay.com; http://www.oocities.org/Tokyo/ Flats/6075).
East Village Inky (MSRRT Newsletter, Sep/Oct 98) has a new address: 122 Dean St., #3, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Hermaphrodites With Attitude (MSRRT Newsletter, June/July 95) and Intersex Society of North America have new contact data: P.O. Box 3070, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; 734-994-7369, FAX: 734-994-7379; http://www.isna.org
Nucleus (MSRRT Newsletter, Aug 89) and the Union of Concerned Scientists have new contact data: Two Brattle Square, Cambridge, MA 02238; http://www.ucsusa.org
Radiance (MSRRT Newsletter, Apr 91) has new contact data since last we noted it: P.O. Box 30246, Oakland, CA 94604, 510-482-0680, http://www.radiancemagazine.com
Alta's Deluged with dudes ( Shameless Hussy Press, 1989) is as wonderfully earthy, alive, human, and full of eros the second time around as it was the first. "I've never loved a man more than I've loved a white page," Alta claims, yet she's known and cared about many fellows and writes about them here, from "Harry the Biker from Antioch" and lawn mower Lorenzo, to Marty--a platonic lover less than half her age. Often erotic, sometimes unabashedly comical, Alta's revolutionary polyamory is active, not theoretical: "For twenty years runaway youngsters & homeless kids have been landing on my porch, waiting to see if I'll take them in," she writes; "some people attract cats." Still Alta employs an epigraph from Lorraine Hansberry: "There's two kinds of loneliness: loneliness with a man, & loneliness without a man." This delicious complexity represents a moist, salty whole.
Mozart
Bach partitas
Beethoven piano sonatas
Dvorak symphonies 6-9; The Wood Duck
R. Schuman symphonies 1-4
Sibelius symphonies 1-4
Franz Joseph Haydn
Billy Bragg: Don't Try This At Home
Charles Mingus: Ah Um
Hal Willner: Weird Nightmare/Meditations on Mingus
John Coltrane: Giant Steps
Thelonious Monk
Diamanda Galas: The Singer
Ruben Blades and Willie Colon
Inti-Illimani
Djivan Gasparian: I Will Not Be Sad in This World
James Brown, Al Green, and Aretha Franklin
Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye
Joan Armatrading
Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil
Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Lazy Bill Lucas
Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht
Klezmer Conservatory Band
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Bob Marley & the Wailers
Avant gardening: ecological struggle in the city & the world. Peter Lamborn Wilson & Bill Weinberg, editors. Autonomedia, 1999. 169p. Includes material on grassroots gardening in New York City, as well as contributions by Dreamtime Village founders Lyx Ish and Miekal And. (P.O. Box 568, Williamsburg Station, Brooklyn, NY 11211, 718-963-2603, http://www.autonomedia.org; paper, 1-57027-092-9).
Dream with no name: contemporary fiction from Cuba. Edited by Juana Ponce de Leó n and Esteban Rí os Rivera. Seven Stories Press, 1999. (140 Watts St., New York, NY 10013, 212-226-8760, FAX: 212-226-1411; $16.95, paper, 1-888363-73-8; http://www.sevenstories.com).
You can't win. By Jack Black. AK Press, 2000. 340p. Autobiography of a hobo, first published in 1926. (P.O. Box 40682, San Francisco, CA 94140-0682; $16, paper, 1-902593-02-2; http://www.akpress.org).
No trespassing: squatting, rent strikes and land struggles worldwide. By Anders Corr. South End Press, 1999. 244p. (7 Brookline St. #1, Cambridge, MA 02139-4146; $17, paper, 0-89608-595-3; http://www.lbbs.org/sep/sep.htm).
Parker Pillsbury: radical abolitionist, male feminist. By Stacey M. Robertson. Cornell University Press, 2000. 232p. (Sage House, 512 E. State St., Ithaca, NY 14850; $35, cloth, 0-8014-3634-6).
Lies across America: what our historic sites get wrong. By James W. Loewen. New Press, 1999. 480p. (450 W. 41st St., New York, NY 10036, 212-629-8081, FAX: 212-629-8617; $26.95, cloth, 1-56584-344-4; http://www.thenewpress.com).
The golden book of Springfield. By Vachel Lindsay. Introduction by Ron Sakolsky. C. H. Kerr, 1999. (1740 W. Greenleaf Ave., Chicago, IL 60626; $22, paper, 0-88286-242-1).
The sound byte society: television and the American mind. By Jeffrey Scheuer. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999. 230p. (39 W. 14th St., Room 503, New York, NY 10011, 212-206-8965, FAX: 212-206-8799; http://www.fourwallseightwindows.com ; $23.95, 1-56858-141-6).
Umbrella: the anthology. Edited by Judith A. Hoffberg. Umbrella Editions, 1999. 164p. Includes articles about mail art and artists' books, related interviews (e.g., Angela Pahler and Peter Kusterman), and illustrations by Leavenworth Jackson and others. (P.O. Box 3640, Santa Monica, CA 90408; $20, paper, 0-9635042-2-3; http://colophon.com/journal).
Hard travelin': the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie. Edited by Robert Santelli and Emily Davidson. Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England, 1999. 256p. Includes essays by Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Ellen Landau, and Dave Marsh. (23 S. Main St., Hanover, NH 03755-2048, 603-643-7100, FAX: 603-643-1540; $17.95, paper, 0-8195-6391-9).
Barefoot heart: stories of a migrant child. By Elva Treviñ o Hart. Bilingual Press, 1999. 236p. (Hispanic Research Center, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872702, Tempe, AZ 85281-2702, 602-965-3867, 602-965-8309; $17, paper, 0-927534-81-9).
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Stay sweet.