watches too much, it’s just not healthy
Fire (?)
fire.as.a.metaphor@gmail.com

watches too much, it’s just not healthy is an A5 black and white zine featuring Fire’s ponderings on #100-#91 of their 100 favourite movies.

“The rest of the movie is great enough. A brain-melting, gleeful in ways I never knew possible, exhausting tale of how everything would be better if people found their trash side.”

I think I’d watch the movie based on that sentence alone.

watches too much, it’s just not healthy opens with a very brief introduction about the idea that started this zine before launching right into the movie features. Each movie is given its own full title page with details like the title, director, run time, and more all set against a full A5 picture from the movie itself. Following the title page, Fire then examines each movie in a mix of synopsis, critique, mental wanderings, some nostalgia…

I called these spread movie features rather than reviews because this zine certainly made me realise just how many movie analysis and review videos I watch/listen to online. Without realising it, I’ve become quite used to a certain general structure for these things – a structure Fire more or less doesn’t follow, preferring to textually wander as the spirit takes them.

Fire explores their favourite movies in different ways. Some start more traditionally with a short opener, synopsis, and then thoughts. Others mix in different facets like facts about the actors and/or directors, personal memories associated with the movie, etc. I have to admit that this did throw me a bit. I had to reread certain sections and take my time with others to really keep up. I was expecting a bit of that simply because there are so very many movies out there and there were bound to be references that I didn’t understand.

(For example: “Desperate Living: AKA Punk Story. AKA the one without Divine”)

Fire definitely writes like someone who is familiar with movies inside and out. They also express this aesthetically as well in the layout. There’s a fun element with small pictures of movie scenes running alongside the text like a film strip. It’s the little things like that that really make me smile.

As you may have guessed from the question marks in the top details, there aren’t any socials within the zine other than an email address, from which I decided on a name to use. There could always be a reason when people limit what they share, though, so it’s only ever really a mention rather than a nitpick.

While I do enjoy recommendations and will be watching some of these movies (I haven’t watched any mentioned and have only heard of one), I think I personally prefer a bit more expected structure to these kinds of recommendations. That said, I can appreciate a refreshing take on things for what it is, and some of Fire’s thoughts had me smile and pondering quite a bit. I’d also still check out the next in this zine series, if it exists.

Hello, zine friends! Yes, your fluffy zine enthusiast and reviewer is cheekily slipping in a prompt for you to review a zine too…

Review a Zine

Okay, so it was also super cheeky of me to put zine review day on a day when I usually review a zine anyway, but what can I say? Double the jam for one scone. Haha.

I think there is a lot of value to be had in singing your love of a zine (or analysis or…) from the rooftops, but also there is value to be found in examine one’s own reactions to things. Asking why you liked something, why something had an impact on you, so on and so forth. It’s with that in mind that I included reviewing a zine as the prompt.

Coming soon…

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Other Participants:

*https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
*@spaghettinightinc
*@juelule_
*Echo Publishing
*Rachel Getts
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Get the full list of prompts and find out what this whole ZineWriMo thing is all about here.

Hello and a sublime Saturday to you, zine friends. Today was a busy but beautiful here in this little patch of Oz. Today in the ZineWriMo list we have…

Make a ‘NaNoZine’ full of words in honour of National Novel Writing Month

The prompt is for a NaNoZine, but Hadass let me know that ‘nano’ also implies ‘very small’. While I love an itty bitty zine, today is actually a nod to NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month.

I thought about writing some fiction for this prompt, but I ran out of time and didn’t want to put anything partial (like a first chapter) into a zine. But the more I thought about it, the more I realised my real calling for this zine was a collection of quotes.

Quotes have taken an important part in my life in recent months as inspiration, comfort, and more as I’ve dealt with various things. What better idea for a word-filled zine than filling the zine with words that have brought so much to me?

I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve enjoyed making a zine again a lot and am looking forward to finishing it.

Did you make a zine today?

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Other Participants:

*https://hadass420.wordpress.com/
*@spaghettinightinc
*@juelule_
*Echo Publishing

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Get the full list of prompts and find out what this whole ZineWriMo thing is all about here.

What’s it TEA you?
Shadree’s Den
https://www.instagram.com/shadreesden/
https://www.deviantart.com/shadree

What’s it TEA you? is a full colour, slightly smaller than A7 zine about tea.

Australia turned me into a tea drinker. Just putting that out there.

What’s it TEA you? launches right into the world of tea with an introduction to various tea types. White tea, yellow, tea, oolong, and more each have their own page. Each page features the tea type, a brief description, a white cup to show the contrasting tea colour, and a small picture of the tea itself.

I’m not at all knowledgeable when it comes to tea, so I found this easy-to-read zine quite helpful as a basics, 101 type of learning experience. I had no idea yellow tea was even a thing. I like that visuals were included as well, because I am definitely inclined to learn better when there’s some involved. While the descriptions are short, it actually helped me to finally get a grasp on why I like some kinds of teas and not others. (Oxidation is important!)

The addition of iced tea and bubble tea at the end made me smile. Trying out the latter is actually on my bucket list, so this served as a little reminder as well.

What’s it TEA you? is a fairly quick read that taught me a few things along the way. I quite like it, and I think it’d be a great little addition to a tea-themed gift or even as a stand alone to tea enthusiasts and tea newbs alike.