Eldritch Yourself
Meeni Levi
http://astrangershandwriting.tumblr.com
www.facebook.com/meenilevi

Eldritch Yourself is an A5 full colour zine of art and poems.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, poetry often flied right over my head. I’m afraid this zine is not an exception to that. But, for what it’s worth, here are my thoughts:

Despite the poetry being a little beyond my grasp, I did like Meeni’s use of ‘imagery’ words and phrases. Mirrors and falling into rabbit holes, for instance, are easy (for me) to imagine and gave me something to play with in my mind.

‘Eldritch’ means ‘weird and sinister or ghostly,’ which put an interesting spin onto the poetry and the zine itself. I can’t help but feel like the entirety of the zine is meant to make you feel uneasy (in a good, horror movie viewing kind of way). There’s the combination of bright colours and darker images conjured by the words. The cover art is a splatter with what could be argued is a ‘scribbling out’ using ink.

Even the use of the word ‘eldritch’ seemingly as a verb rather than an adjective throws things a little. (Or does that only inspire weird feelings in editor types?)

Thinking about all of that, it’s quite clear to me that this zine is as much a collection of art and poetry as it is a piece of art in and of itself.

Aesthetically, this zine is great with plenty of colours and thick enough paper so there isn’t bleed through or shadowing distracting from what’s on the next page. It’s a combination of mediums from handwriting on torn up pieces of paper for the table of contents to things written in what is either lipstick or rough crayon.

The binding is great with green thread woven in and out of the spine.

I liked looking through this zine and liked the strong image words, but I think, as a whole, it may have been a little lost on me. If you are poetry and/or art inclined, I think you’ll enjoy checking it out.

Ang Pangalawang Pagtatapat The Second Confessions
Siomai Charlene / notyourleo
notyourleo@outlook.com
notyourleo.space

Ang Pangalawang Pagtatapat The Second Confessions is a black and white A5 perzine about the creation of the first ‘Confesstions’, writing, finding your voice, and more.

Confessions wasn’t meant to have a sequel. Nor was it supposed to turn into a semi-perzine.

With a beginning like that, I’m immediately intrigued.

While reading this zine, I found myself comparing it a lot to water. First in the way that Charlene writes about the first Confessions in that it seemed to dictate its own path despite Charlene’s intentions.

From there, the writing flows easily around bends and over rocks from one topic to another. I started out being interested in the thoughts and feelings of a fellow zinemaker, to learning what life is like for Charlene as a Filipino in Canada, and on to feeling inspired when the topic shifted to their thoughts and feelings on the state of politics in the Philippines.

In carrying along with the water metaphor – there are times when you see a shiny gem and want to stop to examine it further, but you are still carried along anyway. I didn’t feel like I was missing out, but I did want to write a letter and ask about things like that time Charlene got suspended in school for starting an underground newspaper.

What started as writing about zines and self-expression wanders through many topics with ease, ending on a manifesto-like call to action for Filipinos. Beautiful.

Ang Pangalawang Pagtatapat The Second Confessions is an interesting, unique read that I think everyone from perzine enthusiasts to political zinesters to Filipino zinesers could enjoy.