Hiroshima Yeah! #148 [June 2017]

Mark Ritchie, Contact: donbirnam [at] hotmail [dot] com Price/Trades? Send a nice email and ask!; Size: 11.75" x 8.25" Page count: 4

If you have never read a copy of HY!, I could write a big paragraph trying to convince you how great it is, and once again declare that it's one of my TOP FIVE FAVOURITE ZINES, but reading the first very short poem on page one of the latest issue would take much less time to answer the question: "Would I like this zine, or newsletter, or whatever it is, or not?"

GIFT
Nothing says
"Happy Birthday,
You Total Fuck-Up"
like three self-help books
and information about
counselling sessions
stuffed into a gift bag.
But thanks anyway, cuz.

If this poem makes you laugh, or even smile, the answer is YES, you would like Hiroshima Yeah! and you should email Mark today and tell him, "I have Stratu to thank..."

Also in this issue - Part Two of Gary Simmons's completed Probation Office form in which Gary had to write about his predictions/assessment of his health, lifestyle, relationships, personal development, leisure, and housing.

Mark reviews albums by Magnolia Electric Co, The Mountain Goats, Jesu/Sun Kil Moon [this rap trip Mark Kozelek has embarked on sounds SICK and DISTURBING], Milovan Srdenovic, Dinosaur Jr, Rocket From The Tombs, Dirty Three, Songs Ohia [thanks for the tip! 'Almost Was Good Enough is one of my new favourite songs], Animals That Swim, Teenage Fanclub, Richard Skelton, and Silkworm.

These DVDS are also reviewed: Salad Days: A Decade of Punk In Washington DC (1980-90), Drive, The Wicker Tree, and Better Call Saul: Season Two.

Hiroshima Yeah! #146 [April 2017]

  

Mark Ritchie, donbirnam [at] hotmail [dot] com - for a sample issue just send a nice friendly email! [Yes I know in this age of vicious Twittering it seems 'nice friendliness' has gone down the fuckin' toilet, but I know that you, my dear readers, are not like those awful garbage people!]; Trades? Yes! Again, simply send a nice, friendly email and propose your trade! Size: 11.75" x 8.25" Page count: 6 [including one blank page for your Notes].

Another month, another issue of the wonderful Hiroshima Yeah! This issue's cover star is a dog with something in its mouth. I can't tell what it is and I'm not sure I want to know.

Also on the front page are the usual collection of poems. Here's my favourite:

WHY THE HUMAN RACE IS DOOMED

When the young, rich,

thick sports star cunts

and the young, rich,

thick pop star cunts

are all covered in

dusgusting tattoos,

it's no wonder

that the young, poor,

thick infamous cunts

want to cover themselves

in disgusting tattoos also.

And that's why

the human race is doomed.

Page two features Gary Simmons's regular column, '13.2 BILLION YEARS OF HELL', This instalment subtitled: "Further self-pitying existential crises, short-tempered sexual dysfunction, social isolation and the environmental catastrophe of domesticated chicken in the early Anthropogenic epoch. Ya CUNTS" It could be the title of a Gerard Ashworth comic. [Except for that last bit.] Anyway, this time Gary includes an anecdote about a fellow prisoner [from back when he was 'inside'] - "a little old man." "None of the other lags would fuckin' TALK to him, something about dead children in the back of a car..."

Pages three and four contain my favourite part of HY! - Mark's reviews of CDs, gigs, DVDs, and books. The one CD he reviewed this issue that I have made note of to track down is 'Josephine' by Magnolia Electric Co [Secretly Canadian, 2009]. As Mark describes it: a "...stunning array of consoling hymns and heartbreakers which seem to whisper the secret truths of the universe in your ear before disappearing in puffs of smoke."

Page five contains two poems by Jason [Media Junky] Rodgers, and Mark's micro-fiction.

I think I've said this before, but if I had one zine subscription for the rest of my life on that desert island, it would be Hiroshima Yeah!

Hiroshima Yeah! #123 [May 2015]

        

6 pages, 11.5" x 8.5", by Mark Ritchie & Gary Simmons >>> donbirnam [at] hotmail.com ... $1.00 or friendly email should [might? may?] get you a copy

Gary's life-in-prison series is about to wind up - this issue's instalment we find Gary with a mere seven days to get through until he's let out of the cage like a little bird, but it's not gonna be easy when there's a retarded douchebag calling him "wolfman" through the door of his cell. What's he gonna do? Smash the bloke? the twat deserves no less, no doubt about it, but smashing some prick who deserves it was what landed him in gaol in the first place. ... Mark's reviews are always a pleasure to read, and the one of The Eagles 'The Very Best Of' album was funny because the person who sent it to Mark probably thought he would - and hoped he would - do a "hatchet job" on it. However the plan backfired since Mark has always had a soft spot for the band. Which fact shortly leads to further admissions of "guilty pleasures". For example: "Oasis (but Liam is still a twat)" and 'Come Undone' by Robbie Williams, "(also a twat)". ... Among the reviews, Mark gave my diary comix the thumbs up! [Phew!] ... The other great piece in this issue is Simon Morris's 'Guide to Sex, Love and Relationships Part 2'.

• Current Music:7 Horns 7 Eyes - 'Phumis: The Falsehood of Affliction'

Review by Stratru

http://blackguard23.livejournal.com/148748.html