Publications Received: The Cultural Aether

Folks at The Cultural Aether blessed me with a good mail day when they sent me three of their illustrious zines to review. Writing about these zines with no accompanying visuals is a challenge: they all feature eye-catching cut and paste collage mixed with thematic text. The most straightforward in this collection is The Doomsday Clock, which is a chronicle from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists of how close we have come and how close we are to nuclear annihilation. Love and Beauty #1  includes “words to yearn by” with brief or extended quotes, philosophies, conversational fragments related to love, beauty, and the angst of relationships. Here’s one gem: “Immature love says I love you because I need you. Mature love says I need you because I love you.” The centerpiece of The Cultural Aether #5 includes lyrics to It’s a Beautiful Day’s song “Time Is”, surrounded by gorgeous clock and hourglass graphics. Each page is a journey unto itself.

Essential reading.

Send some love & cash to:

The Cultural Aether

2440 E. Tudor Road #364

Anchorage AK 99507

Zine Review: Les Carnets de Rastapopulos #10

The zine community is celebrating two decades & ten issues of Les Carnets de Rastapopoulos. This edition features articles, collages and sketches from the past ten editions and is a joy to explore cover to cover. Les Carnets de Rastapopoulos is delightfully old-school, typed on a typewriter, images cut by hand, everything pasted up and mailed via the postal service. Issue # 10 is bilingual (French & Anglais) and delves into cool Czech pop music 45s, a primer on Rockall, literally a rock in the Atlantic Ocean, and a description of other remote islands. That article alone had me intrigued by geography - I love obscure and forgotten places. Les Carnets de Rastapopoulos is wondrous in every sense of the word. Here's looking forward to the next ten issues!

Les Carnets de Rastapopoulos is FREE upon request - I suggest sending some $ for postage, zines, postcards, a letter, etc. to:

2-7 Larch Street
Ottawa Ontario
Canada K1R6W4.

Zine Review - Library Ghosts

This cool mini-zine by Celia Perez has disappeared from etsy since I purchased it so I'm not sure where to find a copy. Library Ghosts is a complete delight, celebrating the magical wonders found in libraries that have mostly passed into history. Celia also includes a piece of microfilm and a card from a card catalog with this zine! I love libraries so ... I wish I had 100 copies of this to give to my friends.