Yesterday I let my contempt for “Trotskyist Entryist Dickheadists” spoil what was otherwise an interesting and heartening afternoon. Silly me, but at least it drew a clever re-naming suggestion for those Leninist parasites – “cuckoos” (hat tip to Leavergirl).
We had visited, y’see, some interstitial spaces, some cracks in the pavement.
Actually, that’s unfair. Cracks happen all on their own, but welcoming non-corporate spaces like Format and the Reading Room need energy, ambition, hard work and persistence. They are more like the flower pushing up through the concrete. For me – and others – they act as a refuge, a pool away from the mainstream like the ones that salmon have on their upstream journeys… (the metaphor could get clunky, so I’ll leave it there with just a special thanks to Sam, Dan (?) and Tiffany.
At Format I bought three zines.
Notional Geographic is sinuous, smart without being “clever”, self-aware without being self-obsessed. There’s a little distinction between symbiosis and parasitism, an email home about a road crash in Cambodia, reflections on “purpose”, a “diving drama” and “much much more.”
Couple of great quotes
It’s a sad truth, but the ‘better’ a job you’re in, the more rich idiots you come across
My interests: cooking cats and missing out commas.
Rena Versus World is great fun. In 10 separate 9 panel cartoons Rena Littleson takes the reader from her birth through time in Greece and rural Victoria up to adulthood and homeownership in Melbourne. Well-drawn, arch without being clever, what’s not to love?
The third was “more poetic” (February 2010), which is the personal experiences/books read/movies seen/recipes/reflections of Silvia Chenault
There’s good stuff here too, and recommendations for many books, including Memoirs of a Beatnik by Diane Di Prima and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
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