Rhododendron
Still going strong, Kees delivers another big zine for a small price, and it’s nice to see that in a zine community where stapling together anything can be passed off for a zine, here’s one that continues to take his writing seriously. To those of you new to Rhododendron, it has often focused on Canadian culture in its topics, as well as delivering music and zine reviews, poetry, and fiction. This time around articles include a piece on the Niagara_On_The_Lake town of Virgil; a really interesting piece on the CanLit movement through the 60s and the Bohemian Embassy club in Toronto that helped it grow; an article on how passe being urban/gay/goth/punk is literature; and a well_intentioned article on tolerance towards homosexuals that comes of sounding way too defensive of the author’s heterosexuality. You can advocate tolerance of homosexuality without your own sexuality becoming an issue. The real gem of this zine though comes in a wee stamped envelope pasted inside the zine. In it there’s a short story in the form of several haikus, which is both original and well written. Overall, another strong outing for Rhododendron. (KJ)
zine, #11, $1, Kees Kapteyn (editor), Box 564, Virgil, ON, L0S 1T0