Seth Friedman's Factsheet Five Zine Reader by jenny boe ZINES HOME INTERVIEWS: Seth Friedman, Factsheet Five Paul Lukas, Beer Frame Chip Rowe, The Book Of Zines REVIEWS: Lisa Carver's Rollerderby and Dancing Queen Seth Friedman's Factsheet Five Zine Reader Paul Lukas' Inconspicuous Consumption V. Vale's Zines! Vol. I ZINESTERS TALK IT UP: Personal Media Conference Call CALL TO ARMS: Zine Books I'd Like to See NOW YOU: Survey: What zine books would you like to see? Join Tripod's Media Savvy Conference: members click here others click here

Title: The Factsheet Five Zine Reader Editor: R. Seth Friedman Year: 1997 Publisher: Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishers (buy it from Amazon.com) R. Seth Friedman is the publisher of Factsheet Five magazine, the universally-acknowledged top source for zine listings and info. "I've read probably fifty thousand zines in the last ten years," he states proudly, so it's only fitting that he should take it upon himself to weed through them all and pull out some gems. The Factsheet Five Zine Reader is the result of those fifty thousand zines being filtered through Seth's brain and distilled into relatively few (around 75) select choices. The selections are grouped into categories of the stuff zines are made of: Pop Culture, Sex, Music, Politics, Travel, Work, and Food. And for stuff that just doesn't fit into any of those, there are two more sections, Miscellaneous and Fringe, which begin and end the book. Seth's introductions to each excerpt give some background on the zine, writer, and/or subject matter. If you can't decide which section to start with, just flip through the pages and something will undoubtedly jump out at you. The first one that caught my eye was "Yorinate in Kup" from Hip-Hop Housewife, in which Fran Pelzman Liscio describes some of her kids' rebellious antics, including a list of fun activities they could do: "Mess up house! Throw couwch ocross room! Steell candy!" Another piece that grabbed my attention was "Going Out" from a zine called Theoryslut. Credited to "Straight Up," the article provides a sociological analysis of the activity of going out with friends and the social ramifications involved in this seemingly casual act — complete with a set of rules to help you "keep those invitations coming!" This book illustrates the vast range of writing that can be found in zines, setting to rest any misguided idea that they're a uniform group. Some of the pieces involve quite a lot of research, like John Marr's "Choo Choo Crash Bang" from Murder Can Be Fun — a detailed description of train wrecks caused by errant youth, going back as far as 1926. Others seem like they could have been written on the fly, in one inspired moment, like "Why" by Bob Flanagan from Chemical Imbalance (which Seth tells us was originally written to accompany a performance where Bob sewed a rather delicate part of his body with a needle and thread and nailed it to a board). There are even a few illustrated selections, like Greta S.'s charming comic "The Adventures of Richard" from her zine Mudflap, which tells the tale of a boy and his pierced willy in a world that just doesn't understand. In addition to the excerpts from various zine genres, Seth includes background information on the origins of zine-making. The introduction to the book features a "brief history of zines," going all the way back to good old Gutenberg. And the book's first selection, Candi Strecker's "Tales from the Old-School Zine Years" from her zine Sidney Suppey's Quarterly and Confused Pet Monthly, recall's Candi's early days of self-publishing: "Back then, I couldn't even tell my hippest best friends what I was trying to do, because the idea of a self-published zine wasn't out there as a frame of reference; all I could do was sheepishly hand them my stapled sheets and say, 'Here's my...my...this thing I'm doing.'" Obviously things have changed quite a bit since then, and most people are at least familiar with the concept of zines. The Factsheet Five Zine Reader will probably be a real treasure for people who are interested in non-mainstream writing but never knew where to find the good stuff. With those readers in mind, Seth has included a section on "How to Get Zines," complete with contact information for all the zines mentioned in the book, as well as some zine-ordering etiquette (no checks for one dollar, please!). The only gripe I have with the book's setup is the rather inexplicable naming of the section called "Riot Grrrls." Even Seth's own introduction to this section, after giving a brief mention of the "Riot Grrrl Movement," indicates that these selections are from female-oriented zines that fall outside of that scope. The section features great pieces from Bust, Lilith, Hysteria, Fat Girl, and Princess, but the misleading name bothers me — is Seth trying to cash in on a cool zine buzzword? Similarly, in Seth's introductions to each excerpt, he sometimes veers into a kind of silly, authoritative tone, as if to say Hello, I'll be your subculture tour guide — like when he somberly proclaims that "The music scene hasn't been the same" since Kurt Cobain's death, or encourages the reader to go ahead, shop at thrift stores and "You might come away with some treasures of your own." But Seth's occasional assumption that his audience is somewhat clueless shouldn't deter anyone from checking out this anthology. As long as you have an appreciation for well-written pieces on offbeat and under appreciated subjects, you'll surely enjoy browsing the Zine Reader. Jenny Boe grew up in Berkeley and now lives in Seattle, where she writes, temps, and maintains a Tripod homepage. She has recently rediscovered the joys of the International House of Pancakes. © 1997 Tripod, Inc. All Rights Reserved.