LAUGHTER AND THE SOUND OF TEACUPS [Sydney] A monthly zine written on the 23rd of every month between the years 1997 and 2002 spanning 67 issues, written by Vanessa Berry, the title having been taken from the opening of the book 'Jill' by Philip Larkin.
Each issue documented how Berry had spent the day of the 23rd in increasingly minute detail, as well as her discussion of memory and everyday life. Some issues would run to over 10,000 words, and Berry found she was unable to ’live a 23rd exactly as if it were just any other day’
Two issues of Laughter and the Sound of Teacups are published in Berry’s book, 'Strawberry Hills Forever'.
Author's quote taken from Berry, Vanessa 'A Journey Into Deepest, Darkest Detail' Heat 11 'Sheltered Lives' 2006 pp35-38
LEMON [NSW] received critical attention from the mainstream media in 1994 (including the ABC's 'Attitude' program, 'Zines: zine but not heard') for writing of Australian band 'Club Hoy', "These girls need a good raping". Cries of irresponsibility advocating violence against women and overstepping the boundaries of reasonable journalism were directed at Lemon. The editor maintained the comment was merely a joke and she would not hesitate to write it again for it generated a significant amount of publicity for her fanzine.
This information was sourced
from an uncredited paper partially reproduced in zine M4 Issue 17 Feb 1995.
When issue 15 of 'Lemon' was reviewed in 'Woozy' Issue 2, it was described as containing the 'standard fare of reviews, letters etc'.
After the media controversy, 'Gumboots' [Premiere Edition] reviewed 'Lemon' Issue 17 and observed, ' ...editor Louise proves herself a total fool with her mentality regarding the controversy she created by reviewing Club Hoy saying they "need a good raping" then reviews about 3000 releases in this issue with total lameness of opinion. Forget freedom of speech, just send her a few clues this Christmas. Not Australia's most dangerous zine, just occasionally stupid.'
LIES [WA] Mid 90s satirical quarterly magazine mocking the mass media and advertising industry with features such as 'Kirsty McClavicle: The New Supermodel', and a photoshoot of a skeleton 'sporting her favourite beachwear' as well as fake ads such as 'Have A Blue With Tooheys Blue' (Australian beer).
THE LITTLE NERD BAND THAT COULD. Entry in development.
LOSER MAGAZINE [Melbourne] A workforce orientated magazine 1987-1992. Loser magazine explored the mass media, the workplace, and the sheer terror of the ‘mundane, suburban sort of life'. Five issues of Loser were released between 1987 and 1990 and the 6th issue, an ‘anti-novel’, ‘Diary of A Cold’ in 1992. The second issue of Loser was titled Tension Release, and a one-off magazine Yo, Rager! was also released whose front cover promised ‘groovy articles’ to a party-drug audience but instead contained newspaper clippings about death and natural disaster.
Inspired by contemporary Brisbane zines such as Murdering Monthly and Maggot Death, the author, under the pseudonyms of A. Loser or sometimes Arthur Protestant, began experimenting with the medium and the ‘loser’ concept during a four year period in the Queensland public service: ‘You’re surrounded by this menagerie of Losers every single day, and you’ve got a photocopier, and copies of the newspaper sitting around. So – the conditions are perfect.’
The magazine itself took shape in Melbourne in 1987 and was in fact part of a larger cultural one-man project in the early 90s which included promotion for a fake The Birthday Party tribute band, (‘The Christmas Party’, playing again on office culture, with the advertising line in flyers ‘Relive the Passion’); a campaign against Uninteresting Shops on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy which included sarcastic ‘Keep Fitzroy Fabulous’ stickers and a faux protest against the Joel Harris Stationary Supply shop on Brunswick Street which was not ‘groovy’ enough for the cosmopolitan strip. In surrounding suburb Collingwood, a new age shop would be constantly removing ‘Magic [Doesn’t] Happen’ stickers from their windows, and when Nick Cave walked into Polyester Books to find an ‘I’d Rather Be….[Nick Cave]’ sticker, he was apparently nonplussed. These stickers included appropriated advertising slogans such as ‘3MMM rocks…[Your Pointless Life]’ or, in the case of a Benson and Hedges print campaign ‘[None of these ads are funny]’ - ‘I know’. Some of these would be reproduced in the magazine.
‘Loser’ contained writing such as ‘The Dickheads’, written in first person addressing others at a party, and short stories. It would also engage in one-off columns such as ‘Business Loser Money Extra’ (a reference to a section in The Age newspaper), beauty and party advice, Arthur Protestant’s Guide to Efficiency’ (including ‘Don’t Have Friends’ and ‘Don’t Own Heating or Cooling Appliances’) and a reoccurring Problem Page with letters to the editor. These typed writings would be interposed with (and often dominated by) sourced newspaper items, excerpts from classifieds for their sexual innuendo, or ‘loser’ status, excepts from personals (such as 21st birthday announcements, or death notices), and cuttings from magazines, advertising, pamphlets and other cultural debris of the mainstream media. Over time, friends of the author's would contribute clippings and ideas.
The appropriation of mainstream media material were always reproduced without comment; their recontextualisation in ‘Loser’ ‘...being the only statement required’. One issue included the letters page from Dolly magazine. In another, ‘Loser’ reprinted a complete telemarketer’s telephone sales script for Alside Australia: ‘You’ve Probably Seen Our Television Commercials With Leigh Matthews; We’re A Solid Vinyl Weatherboard Company’.
The final issue, Diary of A Cold was a 30,000 word stream-of-consciousness anti-novel submitted to the literary Vogel Award by The Loser Corporation. As an A5 spiral bound publication, the visual emphasis on appropriated media is reversed with the focus on the huge body of writing (in first person) of a disaffected, self-identified punk university student suffering a cold, who obsessively explores the concepts of popularity in biological and evolutionary terms while struggling socially at university. In a dream sequence later referred to as ‘a nightmare or something’, the Loser character experiences an epiphany on the eighth day: ‘Nothing is enjoyable except food and drink and cigarettes and though-reducers like music and TV…This is the true unenjoyment of a cold – not the symptoms, but the fact that you can’t get enjoyment from your normal sources, so you realise how bad your life really is’.
Early issues of ‘Loser’ were made entirely on photocopiers numbering 100 or so an issue; from Issue 4 onwards they were offset printed with a print run of around 1000 copies.
‘Loser’ was a free publication and would be anonymously distributed to indie record stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, never containing any contact details.
With an increased print run for issues 5 and 6, the author engaged in creative distribution practices which were a situationist extension of the zine itself, such as installing a ‘Please Take One’ magazine dispensary box (in the style of Christian publication distribution methods) in the Bourke Street Mall. Wadley also personally handed out magazines at 8:30am at city train stations to workers beginning their day: ‘’Loser’ magazine, sir? A copy of ‘Loser', madam?’. In this way the magazine found its way into workplaces and ended up generating news itself, with one article in Melbourne’s The Truth’newspaper c1989-1990 entitled ‘Who Is This Big Loser?’ creating a stunningly ironical media moment.
In the 90s the author applied the ‘Loser’ concept to the medium of popular music in the form of New Waver, a three-piece band who played regularly in Melbourne venues until 2000, occasionally supporting like-minded bands such as TISM and Snog. New Waver released cassettes and cds which, like the magazines, recontextualized cultural products made for consumption by ‘losers’. The band sampled spoken word formats such as tv, talk radio and learning cassettes, and performed covers of pop songs with the lyrics altered to be about low status life. They have contributed to many indie compilations and in 2006 released the cd Neuters on the Spill Label.
[Quotes from correspondence with the author from September 2007]
LOVE, TRUTH AND HONESTY [NSW] Entry in development.
