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OUT NOW INSIDE first person colonized immortal technique the battle of algiers national something or other nike vs. minor threat |
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.............................................................. Zine Background In 1999, I came to America with $500, my surfboard and a half finished novel. I decided to move to Portland to live with my girlfriend Alison, as being on the dole in Wales was starting to get rather tiresome and we wanted to make an effort to try and live together. I had not really had much contact with zines until I had moved here as my hometown, Swansea is a bit of an abyss when it comes to underground culture. I knew of their existence and I even had a friend who put one out from time to time but for the most part, I viewed zines as a relic from the 1980s Punk scene. It wasn’t long before I started to frequent Portland’s independent book shops and picked up a few zines. At the same time I was soaking up the DIY ethic that permeates this city. I had a few discs full of writing that I had intended to select from, edit and attempt to get published elsewhere but I soon accepted I might be better off trying to publish them myself. Before long I decided to slap a zine together just to see if I could put something out that was reasonably presentable and also worth reading. I don’t think I would have ever have done it if it wasn’t for the various DIY projects I saw people embarking on here in Portland. The first issue was titled Cymru To Amerika (Cymru, pronounced Come-ree, is Welsh for Wales) and featured three short stories. I made a few dozen copies and handed them out to friends, some of who still have a copy in their toilet libraries. The second issue I began to document my immigration experience and took things in a slightly more political direction. Issue #2 was also the first issue that I put on the shelves of several book stores. Issue #3 came out as the United States invaded Iraq and thus was a war themed issue. This was the first issue that I used contributors in and I also changed the title to ‘Coming to Amerika’ as no one really knew what Cymru was all about. The cover was a photograph taken during the oil fires of 1991 in Kuwait. Giant flames surrounding the title made from a pretty eye catching cover and this issue sold way beyond my expectations. With the fourth and final issue, I returned to the theme of immigration and probably sold/gave away a couple of hundred copies. I had intended to do a fifth issue of ‘Coming To Amerika’ but I was getting tired of the title and all that it implied. Coming to Amerika started out as a zine pretending to document this writer’s experience of moving from Wales to the United States through political rants, fiction, non-fiction and toilet humour- and relate them to the larger immigration experience- but there were many digressions along the way. I’ve been a U.S. resident now for over 5 years and feel almost as at home in Oregon as I do in Wales. Almost. I am at a point where I want to approach things under a broader umbrella, thematically. The truth is CTA never really ended up living up to its mission statement. However, I do plan to continue to sporadically self-publish all manner of political rants, fiction, non-fiction and toilet humour that discus nationalism, immigration, cultural nuances and travel from a largely anti-authoritarian and anti-statist perspective in the format of a zine. This is the end of Coming to Amerika and the beginning of FoulWeather. Thanks to everyone who contributed to CTA: Matt Ekins, Julie Underhill, Dan Newth, Israel Bayer, Jason Powers, Kara Dolan and Gemma Lewis for art and design help. Hopefully, you can still get copies of issues #3 and #4 from powells.com (just search for Coming to America on their website). Black and white copies of issue #4 are also available from microcosmpublishing.com (which is probably the best place to get it and many other zines) and clamormagazine.com has colour copies of issue #4 in their ‘infoshop.’ Or drop me an email. I also have a few copies of issues #1 and #2, if you are really interested. Foulweather #1 will be out shortly and will hopefully be available from the above websites, a few independent book stores here in Portland and from myself. |
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