zine, [zeen] noun. 1. abbr. of fanzine; 2. any amateurly-published periodical. Oxford Reference

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Zeen Review: SPRAK! Vol. 2 # 3

via Simon Gray's Web Candy on 5/23/08


SPRAK! Vol. 2 # 3 by Various

I don't know who specifically put 'Sprak!' together. But their contributors are definitely the same bunch of guys who came together for David Nolte's 'Crimson Celluloid' series. These are essentially movie review zeens with a very strong focus on B-Grade schlock, porn, horror, anything ending in ...splotation. This isn't for lovers of cinema per se, more for lovers of video stores & pawn shops having a huge VHS & ex-rental sell offs. It's not trying to catch up with the latest big deal, it's trying to find lost gems in the waste pile by forgotten directors whom history has rendered accidentally brilliant. It's kind of like 'So Bad It's Good' zeen, only way more depraved. & What I like about it is that the writers here seem to waste so much time watching crap movies, & I get a half decent summary that I can get through in a fraction of the time I wish I had the time to watch this obscure, garbage auterism. & One 'Sprak!' can guide me to the best bits already available on YouTube, without trawling through flea market bargain bins for hours. These suburban anthropologists find & deliver genuinely strange & delightful trophies for my yuppified cultural mantle in a commodified way that avoids me getting burned by bad cinema. It's an applaudable zeen, & it's put together just that little better than 'Crimson Celluloid' which is why I speak so highly of one over the other when the content is so similar. 'Crimson Celluloid' was often a handful of A4 sheets stapled together in the corner, 'Sprak' is @ least layed out enough to bind with a spine & staple, A5 portrait format in B&W. Contact: PO Box 278 Edwardstown SA 5039 (Oztralia).

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