"It Came from the Stacks": Why Pandas Do Handstands (and Other Curious Truths about Animals), by Augustus Brown

Did you know that ants communicate by drumming? Owls use snakes to babysit their children? That certain parasites castrate their hosts? If you didn't--and you wish you did--then this is the book for you. Why Pandas Do Handstands (and Other Curious Truths about Animals), by Augustus Brown, has hundreds of the most bizarre, funny, and downright gross facts about the non-human animal world.

Fine Alternative Program: Review of Evanescence

Evanescence—
Not just a whiny wannabe rock band.

The Carnegie Library has two (or more copies) of The Open Door and Fallen, two discs by Evanescence. When you first look at Fallen, you see a lot of clichéd lyrics and from reading the liner notes, you start to think that the lead singer, Amy Lee, doesn’t even like rock music and she’s just doing this to please Ben. Actually Ben left the band in the middle of their World Domination tour in 2003. No real explanation—he just left. And the fact that Amy’s still in the band? Or is the band? Shows that she is an amazingly real rock star. As for the clichéd lyrics? They make it all right with the chorus of people singing Latin doom phrases in the background and the melancholy piano. If you were to listen to their old, pre-Fallen material, like their first “album” Origin, and their EPs, (www.evanescencereference.info/music) then you’d understand that all of this… like, instant fame, came from years of hard work, but I guess also chance played a part in it. They have some really good old music too, and it’s free for download at the site mentioned above. Totally legal too—Amy and Ben (used to—[Ben]) encourage the free download of it all. I really like Evanescence and I think Amy’s vocals are amazing—more drawn out by the heavy, thrashing guitar, and the sweet, melodramatic piano. So go to the library, find an Evanescence CD, and check one out today!!

Do you want to earn $5 for every hour you spend reading, reviewing, watching movies, posting to our blog, or other activities? Call us at 412-622-3121 and ask about the Fine Alternative Program. Some restrictions apply.

Fine Alternative Program: Five Zine Reviews

Dollfazed
Winter 2002
By… Warped Tour Staff??

The first thing I noticed about this zine was the name. Dollfazed. Sounds… very, I guess, scene-y. Cute. Anyways then I noticed the picture and decided that it was an interesting mix. (The picture was of some super hardcore punk holding up an issue of Dollfazed with this super odd smile.) It’s like the perfect example of a true *punk* zine… it has collaged pics, super typewriter font, reviews, and obviously essays on punk life? One of my favorite parts was the essay on how female punks aren’t really considered punks to some people, and then they mentioned a bunch of… punks, I guess?
Like, they mentioned Ella Fitzgerald as a punk. I mean come on. There’s always another way of looking at things, but Ella fricking Fitzgerald? Not saying she wasn’t cool though. They also mentioned Madonna. Wow. Apparently in one of her songs, she mentioned how music was her religion and how she’s trying to find a god in that. One of the other things I liked was the Degrassi Moment… It basically talked about Joey Jeremiah and how he’s bald now… it was nice of them to include pop culture. Even if this was back in 2002. They had lots of interviews with bands like the Bouncing Souls. But the fact that they consider them punk is beyond me… They also reviewed a ton of bands including Bad Religion, Less Than Jake, No Use For A Name, Outspan, Good Riddance… etc. Also had a funny comic.
This zine is very similar to the magazine Punk Planet—and it’s very good. I enjoyed paging through it. Their website is http://www.geocites/dollfazedzine.

About My Disappearance
By… Dave

This is pretty well put together zine about this guy named Dave who survived Crohn’s disease. Well, not survived, seeing as it’s a chronic illness. Dave writes about his first four months with Crohn’s disease, and from what he wrote about it, main symptom is… er, diarrhea. In the appendix he writes 20 different ways how to describe bowel movements. And he has one last note… not to give him advice about how to deal with Crohn’s disease… like how some people would go, oh yeah, my grandfather died of Crohn’s. It’s a little amusing. Good zine.

Beyond Squat or Rot
Anarchist Approaches to Housing
By… Chuck Munson

Chuck calls Anarchist neighborhoods “Anarcho-hoods”. He has an interesting approach to housing—includes valid points like when it’s time to renew the lease and the landlord wants to raise the rent again but the landlord didn’t do anything to improve the apartment at all. Chuck includes good ideas like co-op housing and great ways to execute that… An okay zine.

Girl-16 #2
??

The first few pages were written in really slanted cursive. I could barely read it. But then I got to the typed parts. It was all really moody and emo, like she was writing a letter to him; the author expected him to read it, but she was kind of hiding it from him at the same time. It had a lot of great lines lie, “Sometimes I wished you would just shut up and kiss me like in the movies.”, and “Summer is always with someone leaving me in the fall. If you leave me in the fall I know I will die.” Some parts of it were quite disturbing, like she mentioned an obsession with sharp things, like cutting and things of that sort. Kind of disturbing but a really sweet zine.

Encyclopedia Destructica
Vol. ??
??

This volume (I know it has volume because it had others with the same title) is in the form of a mini composition notebook. It’s got a little cartoon on each page… with a plot that makes more or less sense. Some guy gets sick… and gets better with Absinthe (strong alcohol) and a snake that coils around him. It doesn’t make much sense. And I don’t like those comics that if you’re “deep” you should understand them. If you don’t you’re not.
Do you want to earn $5 for every hour you spend reading, reviewing, watching movies, posting to our blog, or other activities? Call us at 412-622-3121 and ask about the Fine Alternative Program. Some restrictions apply.

Fine Alternative Program: Review of Beautiful City of the Dead, by Leander Watts

In the book Beautiful City of the Dead by Leander Watts, the two main characters stood out. Obviously, seeing as they’re… the main characters. Anyways, Relly is considered the element of fire, he’s kind of crazy, obsessed with making his band (Scorpion Bone) Sound like Ghost Metal, and, of course, fire. Zee, the main main character, is a little timid, unsure, the element water, and is obsessed with fire. But not in a sick way. The plot is pretty creepy. It’s about these two tetrads (four and no more. Groups of four, basically…) that are incomplete, (they are missing their fourth element—water.). Once Zee joins Relly’s band as bass player, she completes their tetrad. But the teachers have a tetrad of their own, and apparently once you complete one you become invincible. So the teachers are trying to steal Zee away from Scorpion Bone. That’s the plot… yeah kinda creepy. I enjoyed the complexity of it all, and the fact that it was about a ghost metal band. I didn’t like how dark it all was… it was kind of depressing not sure how to explain it… and I usually like dark stuff. This book and it’s poetry were well written, overall.

Do you want to earn $5 for every hour you spend reading, reviewing, watching movies, posting to our blog, or other activities? Call us at 412-622-3121 and ask about the Fine Alternative Program. Some restrictions apply.