Cassette Pet Comes Through!

Soft Target's have a brand new release of some old stuff on RoosterCow's pet cassette label, Cassette Pet. The Rise & Fall of Soft Targets. This handsome orange cassette features a-sides, b-sides, outtakes and alternate versions of some of your favorite songs from past records. Order one today!

From Reglar Wiglar: Zine Reviews

ZINESTER'S GUIDE TO PORTLAND
(Microcosm)

Never been to Portland—not Portland, Oregon, not Portland, Maine. I have watched five episodes of Portlandia, however. Does that count? Didn’t think so. If I ever do make it to the City of Roses (Portland, OR), I will surely be taking this guide with me. The Zinester’s Guide to Portland was put together by zinesters, but you certainly don’t need to be a zinester to use it. It’s written for the “low/no budget” type of traveler, which is a category I fall into. Museums, thrift stores, record and book shops, restaurants, bakeries, video stores, pizza joints, watering holes, coffee and tea shops, parks and bridges are all listed, laid out by geographic location and neighborhood and explained. It’s a Portlandicopia of useful information complete with maps and illustrations. It really makes me want to jump on the next Empire Builder out of Chicago for a slice of Portland's Sizzle Pie pizza.

DWELLING PORTABLY #5
(Microcosm)

Dwelling Portably is a bit of a turducken of sorts: it’s a zine, stuffed within a zine, stuffed within a zine with reprints of other, similar publications reprinted within its pages. That makes for a jam-packed, endlessly informative guide for people who choose to live on the fringes of society. It also makes for some fascinating reading for city folks like myself who enjoy the escapism of thinking about this type of nomadic lifestyle. The text starts about an inch down from the top of the front cover and doesn’t stop until about an inch up from the bottom of the back cover. In between you’ll find foraging techniques, tips on gardening, shelter building, best natural remedies, best camping sites and all manner of information on how to live sustainably and completely off the grid.

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From Reglar Wiglar: King-Cat #72 Review

KING-CAT #72

John Porcellino (Spit & a Half)

Number 72 of King-Cat Comics and Stories finds John recovering from the end of his second marriage. There's a a move to Florida and a new relationship. There's the end of the new relationship which results in an eventual move to South Beloit, Illinois (population 8,401). This is where John currently resides in between his jaunts across the U.S. selling his wares at various small press and comics fests. As in past issues of KC, we get snapshots of John’s life in the form of comic strips and sketches taken from ideas and notes he jots down in his notebooks. There are some “South Beloit Journal” strips depicting life in a small town (doing laundry and watching basketball at his mom's, checking his e-mail at the library, etc.). There's the “King-Cat Top Forty” with recommendations on books, music, movies, towns and sports teams that give John and boost, and there are various and sundry anecdotes, stories and observations on bats, past drug experiences and life's little, seemingly mundane, moments that one can only hope will serve a purpose in retrospect—Chris Auman

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From Reglar Wiglar: Simple History #9, The Congo

THE CONGO

Simple History #9
J. Gerlach (Microcosm)

To quote the Daily Show’s Earth, The Book: “...no other continent could more truly say, I was raped.’” Talking of course about the continent of Africa. Pretty blunt, but there you have it. The area in central Africa known as the Congo is just one region, albeit a very large one, that was ripe for exploitation by European powers in the mad rush to secure the world's land and resources that started in the 16th Century. In the Congo's case, it was Belgium that took the lead, but they seemed to hardly have the heart for it. Control of the Congo was ceded and regained countless times as slave trading, foreign meddling and the indigenous peoples' inability to work out their own tribal differences and prejudices would plague them for decades to come. Congo's recent history is no less blood-free and has been mired in civil war and struggles with power-hungry dictators and staggering poverty. And that's a summation of J. Gerlach's simple history of a very complicated region of a very complicated continent. If I may again quote from Earth, "our species arose from Africa and we punished it for our failures ever since." Up next: Extreme climate change. Sorry again, Africa.

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Zine Review: Simple History #4, Hawai'i

HAWAI'I
Simple History #5
J. Gerlach (Microcosm)

Number five in Microcosm's Simple History Series chronicles the history of the Hawaiian Islands from their "discovery" by Caption Cook in 1778 to the eventual statehood granted by the United States in 1959. Hawaii's story is a tale of colonization, exploitation, imposed capitalism and governments and corporations slicing themselves up the biggest piece of the poi. It's a story of Kings, Queens, Politicians, Missionaries and, as always, ordinary People caught in the middle. And that, folks, is pretty much the history of everything everywhere. Unfortunately.

Hawai'i's history post 1959 would continue to have highs (the alleged birth of the 44th President of the United States) and lows (Honolulu's perpetual hosting of the National Football League's incredibly pointless Pro Bowl) and then of course there was Bobby Brady's "discovery" of an ancient tiki on September 22, 1972.

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The Adventures of Jim Bob and Pencilneck

Written by Bif LeBeau, the godfather of the Ridiculous Fiction movement, in the late 1980s before his mysterious disappearance, The Adventures of Jim Bob & Pencilneck chronicles the lives and misfortunes of two American kids growing up in the Heartland. The Reglar Wiglar will be running this exclusive serial in its entirety. Read the new chapter now!

New Reviews up on Reglar Wiglar!

NEW REVIEWS!
Check out some of my recent reviews for the Reglar Wiglar blog!

MUSIC:
VERMILLION SANDS
ROBYN HITCHCOCK

ZINES:
SIMPLE HISTORY SERIES #4: THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

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