A Good Place to Start #1: Music From Around the World
Put Together By: Billy
www.iknowbilly.etsy.com
iknowbilly@gmail.com

Full Disclosure: I wrote a piece for this zine.

A Good Place to Start #1 is a prime example of an ‘I wish I’d thought of that’ zine idea that I love so much I couldn’t possibly get jealous of Billy thinking of it before I did. 😉

This lovely zine is also a great example of how zines can introduce people to things they never may have encountered without them. AGPTS #1 is the music edition of what I’m hoping will be a zine series that will go on for a long time. It includes music recommendations from:

Australia
Spain
China
USA
France
England
Italy
Mexico

(Even though I was born in the US and don’t consider myself knowledgeable about music, Billy was more than happy for me to be the ‘Australia’ component for this zine.)

I absolutely adore the scavenger hunt-esque feel to this zine. There is enough written here that I can read the zine and enjoy it as a zine. But there is another whole step to it in that I can participate in if I so choose. I can go hunting on YouTube and find myself a new world of music that I would have never known about otherwise. Even better, Billy didn’t limit contributors to ‘punk’ or ‘classical’ or any specific genre. It’s all about the love, and that makes it even better.

(Yep, I’ve already told Billy that I need to be a part of the food issue. Haha.)

I know that a beautiful thing about zines and zine culture is the paper, cut and paste soul of it all. Still, I don’t think the internet has ‘ruined’ zines. I think zines that can embrace the internet in some way while still offering something to those who’d rather not participate in the online side of things are doing all the right things to welcome as wide an audience as possible.

I think this is an utterly fantastic idea for a zine series, and I hope I get to participate in future issues. This is the kind of zine series where I can really see needing to have each and every one as part of my collection.

Definitely get in touch with Billy if you’d like to participate – especially if your country hasn’t been represented. I’m not sure if he’s still working on it, but the next issue – Classic Movies from Around the World – might still be open for submissions!

Cute
Serena Pruess & Fishspit
http://aikacooncat.blogspot.com.au/
http://wiseblood.biz/

There is something intrinsically pleasing to me when my expectations of a zine are met by a different reality. A zine called Cute with a cute animal cover, and the first line is:

There I was…in that goddamned van.

I should have known, this being co-created by Fishspit. Haha.

As much as the title and cover may take you in, this is certainly not a zine of fluffy stories. The first line is telling, but the first story is dark with a short and fuzzy ending.

I imagine at this point that I might not be making a heck of a lot of sense, but this zine is hard to describe. The stories inside are a mixture of sweet and bizarre, a combination I wouldn’t have thought would work. They sit along a range of dark humour.

Fishspit’s distinct collage style adorns the interior covers, and Serena’s adorable art is on the cover and inside. Along with a couple photographs, this makes for a well-rounded zine.

I feel like I haven’t read enough of Serena’s writing, at this point, to give an opinion on it. Fishspit’s writing is strange and bizarre in strange and bizarre ways.

The combination? Well, I’d like to read more of that.