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Best of Intentions: The Avow Anthology, The

Comments for Best of Intentions: The Avow Anthology, The

Avow is one of the best zines I have ever read. Keith Rosson writes with humility, passion and personality. His stories of rainy nights going out for smokes at 3am in Portland, city of trendy obscure artists and homeless alcoholics, are down-to-earth and mesmirising. AVOW has an intense investment in it's words and images, so much so that it's almost a living entity. You could do worse than getting the anthology :) Jason Theodorou
As the name suggests, this is a thorough overview of the best years of Avow fanzine. I’ve never come into contact with any originals of this fanzine, nor have I heard about it. It came to life in Seattle back in 1995 and the first issue, like most fanzines, was a photocopied and self-stapled affair. Setting out with the intentions of blending poetry with music and merging personal ramblings with band interviews, Avow, we’re told by its editor, didn’t start to hit its stride until issue seven, by which time they were beginning to get a hand on things and began to focus more on the personal elements. A ballsy move, as most personal fanzines aren’t worth shit, but Rosson was determined not to let this happen to Avow. He’d primed himself well in the first six issues and felt confident to make the plunge, having gotten his schooling through interviewing bands and reviewing records, before gradually working his way on to becoming a high caliber punk writer himself. The selections from these early issues contained here are pretty thin on the ground, but what I did read I enjoyed. By the time we reach issue seven, Rosson has gone off the idea of being a punk poet, as the poets didn’t like punk and the punks didn’t like poetry, so the fanzine became increasingly filled with stories and his observations on the world. What’s special about Rosson is that he’s a modest guy and truly doesn’t believe there’s anything exceptional about what he does, but a highlighted version of the past ten years of his life (i.e. this book) may make things sound more interesting – “It’s probably not high art, but it’s all that I’ve got!” Issues eleven through sixteen are included in their entirety, as this is where the author feels the quality of his work is at its best. Rosson is successful in transforming his fanzine into a 100% stories and artwork zine, which is pretty heaving going when you think about it. He becomes a keen observer in the various bars he frequents and writes about his lifestyle that inevitably seems to end up in a brawl most times. He’s an honest writer and doesn’t make any apologies for his feelings or thoughts. He questions himself, as much as others and the world around him, but as most people eventually figure out, none of it makes sense. The book is well written, descriptive and intelligent and puts some badly needed life back into the so-called “personal” fanzine scene. Riot77 #10
Zines becoming books is a trend that has really caught fire over the past couple of years. Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't; it all depends on the consistency of writing over the years, and how selective the author is when putting the book together. As Keith points out in the introduction to this collection of his Avow zines, paging through old issues of your zine often leads to more than a few cringes. This anthology focuses on Keith's later, after he'd abandoned poetry and started telling stories of artist struggle and punk rock angst, weaving his awesome artwork in and around them. There are a few pieces from early issues, when Keith's friend Alex was co-editor, and even though they don't comprise the strongest part of the zine, it's interesting to see the progression of this zine to what it is now. Some material in here is from other writers, but Keith's storytelling and drawings are what really stand out on these pages. One gets the impression from reading this that Keith is somewhat of a tortured guy, but he also seems to mellow out a bit as time passes. And that's one of the coolest things about reading a zine book: you not only follow the timeline of a zine, but also of a person, because for many zinesters, it's hard to separate the zine from the person and vice versa. Highly recommended. Sean Stewart, New Pages
 

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