TURNING OVER A NEW PAGE (THE OLD ONE SHAVED HIS GOATEE AND ISN'T CUTE ANYMORE...)
As someone who has always felt like a bit of an infiltrator (hence my interest in ANOTHER publication to be reviewed further on), the concept also drew me in. Authenticity as an identity marker intrigues and irritates me, having been told by numerous individuals that I am not gay because I do not like such-and-such, dress in a certain fashion or go gaga over any boy who thinks showing his ribs or lack of facially reflected testosterone is sexy, but I, nevertheless, feel there must be somewhere where I am not an outsider (if only in a community of exiles).
The back story is about a guy who loses his job at a slick queer mag (the spooky part is, I can picture someone launching a publication called Phag...and the image terrifies me...), and decides to write a piece about the bear community at the prompting of a friend, which leads to him undergoing ursinification (it's a word now, okay?)
Along the way, he meets Ben (who is not all that gentle, but definitely Bearish) and finds himself falling in love with someone the polar opposite of his partner (who becomes his ex in the course of the book). The story of their eventual coupledom is tender, funny and bonerizing.
It's an affectionate tribute to AND sendup of Beardom, with intrigue, gossip, cattiness (bearcattiness?) and useful subcultural signifier tips, concluding at a Bear Run combining slapstick and sinister conspiracy. And remember: "Bear is a state of mind. If you think you're a bear, you are one. At least until ten other bears get together and tear you to shreds." (p. 25)
I was sad to see the book's end (which I was reading on the way to a Bear event, its arrival at my local indie emporium well-timed), and hope to see more from the author in the future.
Two woofs up (someone bear-hug me to death before I do that again...you may volunteer for the act of homicide, Billy Mays...).
What Right? Graphic Interpretations Against Censorship ed. by Robin Fisher, (Arsenal Pulp Press, 103-1014 Homer St, Vancouver, B.C., V6B 2W9, 2002, $16.95 US/$21.95 CAN; book benefits
Little Sisters Book and Art Emporium in its battle against Canada Customs; the store is at 1238 Davie Street, Vancouver,
V6E 1N4, phone 604-669-1753, [email protected])
As the companion to What's Wrong?, this represents the kinder, gentler face of anti-censorship activism.
This is relative, since the person who works for Canada Customs and believes s/he is protecting the nation from family-destroying pornography (the most disappointing aspect of that industry is its failure to end nuclear fallout togetherness) is as offended by ****ing as by fuckin*.
Having said this, it is more subtle than its sister, what with Karno's exhortation to youth to create their own comics and George Metzger's gentle satire of Gutenberg; however, Tony Arena and Alison Bechdel go for the knives and Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow try too hard with Fetus-X, while Julian Lawrence makes the painfully obvious point that the Bible is full of incest, murder, cruelty and sadism.
However, a valuable tool and an entertaining one, so please support it...
Bear Cookin by PJ Gray and Stanley Hunter (Harrington Park Press/Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY, 13904-1850, 2003, $12.95 US soft/$24.95 US hard)
Do you like a little fur with your food?
Hmmm...perhaps a bad hook line. Nevertheless, this book is full of recipes for the fat, furry and friendly fellas known (biblically, in some cases) as Bears.
This is not a book for vegetarians or many diabetics, however, of which there are more than a few in the woof-based community. Furthermore, should you be watching your waistline (or that of the twink to whom you are irrationally attracted and for whom an extra ounce is an erection-killer), you might also want to pause and reflect whether you are the intended audience.
However, this slim (eek) but well-padded (grin) volume is packed with recipes for just about everything, from Beef Stroganoff (*drool*) to Cub Salad, Fur-Ocious Pot Roast and (Squeal Like A) Piggy Mac (yes, Bear puns abound *grrrr*).
The serving suggestions for just about everything, including the Banana Milk Shake (though, to its credit, the book says 'perhaps not'), include Beer, which will also be dubious to we teetotallers or possible twelve-steppers...but no-one says you HAVE to follow the serving suggestions. Surely people like we Bears, at whose entrance buffet owners tremble, should know better than to blindly obey such restrictions. :)
So, you get recipes, adorable bear drawings, humour AND the secret to Beef Stroganoff (hey, for the latter alone I would sacrifice my virtue to Richard Karns...oh, heck, I'd probably have done that anyway, though... :) ).
Edge by Jeff Mann (Southern Tier Editions/Harrington Park Press/Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY, 13904-1850, 2003, $16.95 US softcover/$34.95 US hardcover)
This collection of personal essays, ranging from European travelogues to appreciation of Dark Shadows (the Sixties vampire soap opera) to meditations on the tortured closetry of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, do not respect borders between intellect and lust, aesthetics and frank drooling, or gentleman and Bear/leatherdaddy. As an internationalist, I cannot help but approve.
As the author is a professor of Appalachian literature at Virginia Tech, I would expect erudition, irony and wit, and am not disappointed. His woof-based and dead-cow-rooted senses of identity also mean he can wax rhapsodic on the Fur, hot bondage scenarios (including some linked to saintly icons - oh, the blasphemy!) and less-than-platonic fantasies about former students (though he is a gentleman and a professional, so, as it happens, only the FANTASIES were non-platonic, not the actions...).
I did find the cover model a little too cutesy for my taste, but the author may not have had a call in that, or simply has different sensibilities, which is more than fine (as, if I may be so bold, is he, based on the author photograph...). It takes all kinds to make a woof, er, world, and, as a former English major myself, I should certainly know not to judge a book by its cover.
Touching - sexy - funny - deep - insert the laudatory sentence fragment of your choice, and it may very well apply.
Alphabet Soup: Erotic Stories For Your Soul April/May 2003, Volume 1 - Issue 1 by Dwayne Douglas Shaw (Had Enough Sex Yet? Inc, contact at [email protected], $2)
This, on the other hand, is not subtle, and has little in the way of visual art or complex design. It is EXACTLY the thing that Canada Customs might want to sneak home, er, destroy...one handed reading, full of prurience, impurity and filthy, objectifying sexuality.
And this is bad because...?
It is unfortunate that some of the typesetting cuts off words and phrases, but it is in a True Confessions/Straight To Hell style, and I did appreciate the fact that one of the characters in the bathhouse story is described as a 'big hairy bear stud'.
It's not sensitive erotica, but, rather, raunchy fuck tales without apology. Definite potential, and it would be interesting to see where it goes from here...
Boyfunk #2 ed. by Don Boyfunk (Boyfunk, PO Box 503, Chenango Bridge, NY 13745-0503, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boyfunk, $2 US should cover it in Canada; $1 US plus two stamps in that country)
This is a collection of personal essays and short stories by Don and friends, usually queer and/or deviant, tastefully designed and drawn and never short of thought-provoking and/or memory-stirring elements (though, sadly, I have no recollections of childhood sexuality as such...I suspect I was repressed, in denial or, as I've always said to people, never alone or given privacy...).
The piece about fat is disturbing, though has truths to say about the limits of self-visualization (as I was saying to someone the other day, it is difficult to maintain a personal sense of beauty when EVERYONE seems to tell you that you are ugly...it is hard not to imagine there is an objective reality at work...).
The irony of the back cover being a rip from Outpunk about stealing gay culture should not be missed, and likely was not meant to be.
Angry, tender, sweet, bitter...a bit of everything, and, like the sweet funk of boys, it lingers in the air and fills you with pleasure, ecstacy and a vague sense of melancholy when it's done.
Garage and Beat! #8 ed. by P. Edwin Letcher (2754 Prewett St., Los Angeles, CA, 90031, [email protected], $4 US)
This magazine is a breath of fresh air (from a garage...which is ironic, when you think about it...), full of interviews, reminiscences, opinionated essays, tons of reviews and much more, both about 60s garage and its modern descendants.
This issue has an essay by a mysterious teenaged female about the Easybeats; meditations on Blood Sweat and Tears (the first album, before they became bland); information about The Downliners Sect; and, as they say, etc., wrapped up in a tastefully designed package whose cover contains delightful monkey musician art.
If your taste in music inclines to the rough, this is the publication for you. Even if it doesn't, you could try it once...if you don't experiment, you'll never know what you like...I tell goateed gentlemen that, but do they listen? NO! (Oh, relax - I'm kidding...mostly...).
Infiltration #20 ed. by Ninj (Infiltration, PO Box 13, Station E, Toronto, ON, M6H 4E1, CANADA, [email protected], $2 CAN/US)
Not surprisingly, a magazine dedicated to exploring places you are not supposed to be does not have many real names among its contributors.
This particular issue deals with Minneapolis-St. Paul and the labyrinths beneath its streets, where a former brewery can be found, as well as such less delightful places as sewers.
While I have no desire to delve beneath the earth, it is fascinating to think that there is a city down there, and it gives me a vicarious experience. However, having once gotten stuck while exploring the chambers and spaces of a rockpile near my home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia as a child, I'm not eager to do that again (and that was not really underground). Still, interesting to read about...
Jaywalker #1 ed. by Lewis Elliot West and John Cameron (Backyard Sheds, 66 Scott St., Kingston, Ontario, K7L 1H7, CANADA, I would guess that $2 CAN/US would cover postage and copying, [email protected])
This collection ranges from philosophical musings on the situation in Iraq to objectification of Bjork, Gwen Stefani, Shirley Manson and Pink (among others), with overviews of film and local bands, and a useful piece on how to make your own water pipe.
The drinking game would also be fun, if ultimately incapacitating (it's set in a classroom, and essentially any activity on the part of the teacher of students must be met with a swig).
Sometimes I wish I smoked (other than pole) or drank (no...just NO...) - I feel I am missing a range of self-destructive entertainment.
My Fifth Columnists (no, not Caroline, G.B., Anita, Beverly, Charlotte et. al.) tell me that another issue is on its way down the pipeline.
Irreverent...silly...but intriguing, nevertheless.
Monstress #3 ed. by Una Crow (Una Crow, 229 Willow Ave. #1, Toronto, Ontario, M4E 3K6, CANADA, [email protected], $2 CAN/US)
From the marvelous mind behind Mad Cow, one of my favorite 'zines of all time, and just as twisted, thoughtful and subversive.
There is a wolf theme to this issue, what with participating in a wolf howl at Algonquin Park (I was at one of those, though, sadly, no wolves responded), examining some werewolf legends and fiction, and a peek or two at lycanthropic movies (and I liked the notion that "manly werewolves" prefer other manly werewolves it's a pseudo-Bear thing (plus, my Boy is canine-identified)).
Throw in some show reviews and an expose of a troubling record critic, and you have an opinionated, intelligent read (and there's a sticker included with "Cursed For A Thousand Years" and a mummy on it! Who wouldn't want that?).
This Is The Salivation Army ed. by Scott Treleaven (compendium published by Art Metropole, 788 King Street W., Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1N6, Tel. 416-703-4400, Fax. 416-703-4404; The Salivation Army, 725 College Street, PO Box 31057, Toronto, Ontario, M6G 4A7, CANADA, $25 CAN)
I had read about this 'zine in Bitch Nation (a catalogue/communique put out by GB Jones from P.O. Box 55, Stn. E, Toronto, Ontario, M6H 4E1, CANADA...drop a line, and maybe include a buck or two to be nice for postage...) for some time, but never, as it were, bit.
Then I was informed of a launch at which a compilation was being promoted by an art gallery, but I only heard about it with a day or two's notice, so I could not make it.
Fortunately, it was being sold at the Fruit Market (read about that elsewhere in this issue), along with the video (reviewed within as well) that constituted 'Issue 9' (Scott being a film-maker as well), so I had the chance.
It may seem pricey, but it is very handsomely packaged and copied.
What is it? Well, the fact that the collection's foreword is by Genesis P-Orridge, noted cultural critic/musician/magician/subversive, should be a hint.
There's a bit of 'punk', some magic and Radical Faerieness, a lot of sodomy and history, and many blasphemous/provocative collages within. There's pornography (really cool stuff, I might add, both degrading and oddly tender at the same time...), reviews of queerpunk and queerfilm festivals, cartoons, personal testimonials about individuality and creativity, and so much more.
I am certain that no words could do this multi-media extravaganza justice, except to note that as someone who lacks the spiritual/pagan gene (I mean, if someone told me I had to pick a religion, I'd be more inclined to the anarchic/Wicca side, but that's relative...), I still found it intriguing and stimulating.
Read...subvert...sodomize...and remember: "I have seen the face of new radicalism - and it's cute."
Trade Queer Things ed. by Jon Pressick (#302-135 Bleecker Street, Toronto, Ontario, M4X 1X2, CANADA, [email protected], $4 CAN, spring 2003)
A well-crafted collection of queer portraits, ranging from Liz Lewis, editrix of Whiplash Magazine, to George Smitherman, an openly gay Liberal MPP (of whom I had not heard somehow).
The article on Carla Williams, who has compiled a history of black women in photography, reveals a real problem (the difficulty in finding source materials for Black Lesbian representation).
This issue also includes pinups of Merkury Burn (a queer/gender-bending band from the Toronto area); an interview with Richard Bell , film-maker; an essay on the electronic music project known as The Barcelona Pavilion; and a number of book critiques, mostly of queer female literature. Nifty...
Your Duty To Shop by Stew Innit and Jim Miller (Harrissees Publishing, 23 Northcote Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6J 3K2, CANADA, $6.95 US/$9.95 CAN)
Satire? Goodness, no...it's dead serious. The only way to save America is to shop, shop, shop and prop up the economy...so you can shop, shop, shop...
Of course, the United States military-industrial complex proves this by spending at least 9 times more than countries much larger than itself and in more daily conflict.
Once you remove Russia, France and China, as a chart in this book reveals, the U.S. spends more than most countries COMBINED.
Just chock full of useful arguments for supporting capitalism (yes, THAT's satire...).
