Author: Nyx

The Radical Uprise 6: Summer Kicker!
TheRadicalUprise

I know the timing of this might not be the best, what with the northern hemisphere heading into autumn, but here in the southern hemisphere, we’re pretty excited about spring. And, well, what follows spring…

The Radical Uprise 6: Summer Kicker! is an excellent example of a zine that is unabashedly and wholeheartedly what it is. What does that mean? In this case, it means this zine is a list zine with an abundance of ideas for what to do about your summer boredom – or the fact you should, you know, see the sun and the outside world.

With suggestions like ‘Learn Calligraphy’, ‘Flea Market’, and ‘Go Raw for a Week’, there’s a great combination of active and quiet activities to suit various personalities.

The real beauty of something like this is that, though it’s a summer boredom breaker, it’s good all year ’round – regardless of boredom levels. You could grab this zine out for finding out something new to do for the day or for winter activities, too. Okay, so walking around barefoot might not be the best idea in winter, but there are plenty of ideas that are definitely year-round or could be with just a little tweaking.

The extra touch I really loved in this mini-zine is the extra space at the end to put in your own ideas for kicking the boredom (and the computer addiction). Either that, or listing out your answers to the prompt that comes before it: Create a summer soundtrack. I’m not sure what the original intention for these lines are, but either way, I love it.

Falling Apart: A Zine on Death, Grief, Mourning & Loss
Zippity Zinedra Press
https://www.facebook.com/ZippityZinedra/

Sometimes there are zines that I know are likely to confront me in one way or another – and this zine is one. I struggle with the entire subject of death, so the thought of reading people’s stories of grief and mourning was a bit daunting.

Falling Apart is a collection of stories, photos, quotes, artwork, letters and more from people dealing with death. I didn’t expect there to be such a variety not only in the content itself but in how people expressed their grief. It didn’t occur to me before this that grief and mourning happens in more ways than I’m acquainted with. One of those things taken for granted…

There is the cut and paste element that makes zines so awesome and has a combination of text, pictures, and even (readable!) handwritten pieces. I mention this because I appreciated that Zippity Zendra did it very well, keeping things in zine style while still letting the stories and photos remain the focus. Given the subject, I think this is the best way to go.

While I did have to hunt down the link to the Facebook page because I couldn’t find a URL or an email address in the zine, that is negated a little bit by the cover collage artist not only being given a special spotlight in the front but his details are listed as well.

This is another zine that I think you will know fairly easily if it’s something you’d like to have in your collection. Or you could be like me and take the chance with a zine you really aren’t sure how you’ll handle but read anyway because you might learn something…