J5 Zine #5.5 / :10 / 24S / j5@drop.to / http://www.dumedia.tk / Reviewed 19 September 2004
A mini-zine that includes whatever presumably that the editors could dig up, whether it be some beautiful pictures (which are slightly hard to see being shrunk to such a small size and poorly printed), or some often-humorous poetry. The poetry is by and large just some pseudo-prose, never fitting into a rhyme scheme but is usually pretty stream-of-consciousness. What really makes this zine for me is another picture, this time the centerfold in which the sun is burning through a tree, a lovely sight that even through all the problems with printing and lack of color. The poetry is all laid out in the typical windows system fonts, except for one specific piece (…and once again) which is tackled in a script. With this simple change, I feel as if so much more emotion is conveyed, the minor nuances in the script showing subtleties that would never be captured with a computer-created font. Where the handwritten poem is the most hard-hitting, the oddest pieces come towards the end of the issue, the "Brief synopses of the archetype of the mature masculine", where different color blocks on top of a picture indicate different things, such as "the royal blue gives light to the king within". J5 Zine is one of those completely off-the-wall zines that don't have any particular agenda, and as such, don't bog individuals down with a certain slant. Hope to see more issues come out of this group, as while they are not necessarily the polit or perzines I find myself getting into, the poems are written by a talented hand, and the later prose pieces are compelling enough to make me finish the zine.
Rating: 6.2/10
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