These Reviews Will Change Your Life.

So we're not quite sure yet whether These Reviews Will Change Your Life is going to become a re-occurring feature here at This Blog Will Change Your Life, we still need to focus group this, but we are pleased to let you know that TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer has most excitedly accepted a greatly expanded role reviewing zines, books, comics and CDs for the always excellent Wonka Vision magazine. Some of the reviews will appear in their webzine and others in the print edition and today's post covers the recent batch of reviews we did for the current edition of the webzine. We read, and listened, to a lot of good stuff, but thought we would take a moment today to highlight the quite delightfully punk graphic novel Snake Pit from Microcosm Publishing and the re-issue of Devo's Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! All the reviews can be found at the above link, but if you are craving a sneak peak, please feel free to look below.

"Ben White, a.k.a, Ben Snake Pit, is a member of cool bands. He draws. He endlessly gets high and drunk. He has a babe girlfriend who cooks him rocking meals. He has a cute dog and gets to live in Austin, Texas the slacker capital of the free world. He also has to work a day job that isn’t so great, but at least he has one. Basically, Ben Snake Pit lives the DIY life you once lived, wished you had lived or are happy to live through vicariously by reading his comics. The Snake Pit comics themselves are all three panels in length and while entirely in black and white, they are vibrant and fun. Each strip more or less follows the one before it which allows the reader to follow Ben Snake Pit on his day to day escapades. One of the fascinating realizations in doing so though, is that as you follow someone day to day, you are reminded that even the coolest life has its quotidian elements. Like all of us Ben Snake Pit fights with his significant other, gets colds and experiences disappointment, frustrations and sadness. If Snake Pit at times lacks a more in-depth look at what Ben Snake Pit is truly feeling much of the time, it does subtly capture how even punks slowly, inevitably, get older and start to grow-up, as they open bank accounts, lose friends, occasionally need more sleep and discover touches of gray in their beards. Ultimately, we all need to get through the day, but as the Snake Pit comics remind its readers, how we get through it is up to us."

"I approached the re-issue of Are We Not Men? We are Devo! wondering if it would sound as good to me as I remembered it when first released back in 1978. I also wondered if it could still sound as fresh as it did then, a work of art wholly unique and original at its inception, but coming with a built-in 30-year interlude between listenings. What’s fascinating on the one hand is how different it still sounds, still of a piece like nothing else anyone is creating. Sure, they were New Wave and post-Punk, and many others were as well, but Devo really didn’t sound like anyone else in 1978 and they still don’t. What is more fascinating to me however, is how much of what they accomplish here can feel so current. It’s not like their technology meets anxiety vibe wasn’t relevant in the late seventies, but it’s hard to imagine it feeling more relevant then than it does now as we slowly find ourselves subsumed by new technologies at every turn and fresh anxieties with each new day. This is particularly striking with their remake of (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, a song the Rolling Stones turned into a paean to sexual frustrations everywhere, but which Devo turns into the endless struggle to get through the day when your anxieties are only too happy and willing to paralyze you every step of the way."

This Book Will Change Your Life - Stories II by Scott McClanahan.

First off, we just want to say that we are looking to go a little Lovelace today with what looks to be a multi-sectional and multi-photoed riff on Stories II by Scott McClanahan. This has happened once before when were in the immediate throes of the quite excellent Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball and it felt good, real good, and if it didn't actually change anyone's life, well it certainly changed ours.

And so here we are again. But here's the thing, writing about Scott's writing suddenly seems like a trickier thing to do then when we wrote about Scott's last collection Stories. We say this, because lately the stuff we've seen on Scott sometimes feels like it is wrapped-up in Scott himself and what he represents to whoever may be writing about him. We think he is as awesome as everyone else does, but our concern, is that what might get lost is discussing the quality of the work, and even the quality of his reading of that work, because of this potentially Dylan-like love of Scott and his Scottness. Now please note, we get it, we do, really, because we're there too, and we have probably abetted it, but we still want to fight it.

Which brings us back to the fantastic Stories II, which is fantastic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is in comparing it to Stories. As we read Stories II, we were reminded of when we read the quite rocking When I Moved to Nevada by Jamie Iredell. We were clearly in Iredell territory, bars and chicks and the like, but as compared to the also impressive Atlanta, Jamie had found a way to expand this universe, making it less claustrophobic by embracing nature and the natural world. It was quite a feat and it should be celebrated as such.

Which brings us back to Stories II, a collection that exists firmly in McClanahan territory, a world where some guy named Scott seeks to not just make sense of the world around him, but embrace it for all it has to offer. Its a world filled with death and illness, dog's goiters, iconic kidney stones and adulterers being beaten to a pulp even as the narrator eats said adulterer's pizza and watches the aforementioned beating. And yet, here's the thing, Stories II is more than that as well, because in this collection Scott bends his stories further in terms of religion and ghosts, adding a layer of mysticism and spirituality that both enriches the stories and takes them from the near fables of Stories to actual fables, fables about a guy named Scott just trying to make sense of the weirdness, humor and sadness that permeates the world around us.

Metrics. Shout-outs. Mass love. Or if you prefer, a Fire Sale Week One Wrap-up. Well, that and the Rules of Fire Sale.

There has been one week of Fire Sale. We have changed lives and we have sold books, ten alone to the awesomely attractive crew at Dispatch Litareview. The video has been watched almost 300 times on YouTube, the Fire Sale post at Orange Alert has been visited almost 400 times and there have been endlessly heartwarming shout-outs from our newest and bestest friends at HTML Giant, Dogzplot, Hambone's Heartache, Modern Confessional, Moondoggy's Pad, No More Hot Lunches for Eddie Socko and ML Press. We are much appreciative for all of the support, but before we go we just want to be sure we are clear about the rules of Fire Sale. The first rule of Fire Sale is ,you do talk about Fire Sale. And the second rule of Fire Sale is, you DO talk about Fire Sale. Any questions? Cool. And as you were.

Coolness. Fields of Fame & Glory by David Cleutz.

Coolness. Friend and former soccer coach David Cleutz has a new book out called Field of Fame & Glory - Col. David Ireland &137th New York Volunteers which we think you should probably take a look at. You know what else you should probably take a look at? The Fire Sale.

Fictionaut Five. Gina Frangello. Fire Sale.

We were most thrilled to run into a Fictionaut Five with the quite awesome Gina Frangello and we think you might be too. Do you know what else we're thrilled about? The Fire Sale.

Big Other.

We are digging the BIG OTHER. You know what we are digging? The Fire Sale.

26% voter turnout in Chicago yesterday. Sigh. On the other hand, there is Fire Sale.

Blago jogging is by local artist Ray Noland. And the Fire Sale video is compliments of Orange Alert Press and The Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine players.

Greg Santos. Rocks. As does the Fire Sale, had we mentioned that?

We were most happy to read this most excellent interview with TBWCYL, Inc. favorite and This Zine Will Change Your Life contributor Greg Santos at the Orange Alert. We think after you read it you will be happy as well. We also think it just might change your life. Meanwhile, speaking of changing lives, we also wanted to be sure that you were aware of the Fire Sale, because its on, like totally on, and sort of beautiful really.

Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale. Fire Sale.

There is Fire Sale. And for more information please do hit the Orange Alert.

"Think Annie Hall, or more recently 500 Days of Summer." Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine gets Deckfight'd. And likes it. A lot.

We want to thank the fine crew at Deckfight for their most kind and thoughtful of review of Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine. For an excerpt feel free to just read on and for the full review, well, you know, just hit the link. Cool?

"Repetition is important here, so important that I didn’t realize that it was central to Ben’s writing strategy, which initially made me loathe it a bit. At first, I didn’t get the threads like “Geoff finds Paul and asks him if he wants to spark one in the alley behind the office. They spark one.” Ben was being kind of glib and stupid in an effort to be too ironic and too flat, but the humor came to me and by the end of the book, I got the trope and looked forward to it, especially advice from Descartes the management guru. And then I got it or think I got it. The office scenes were routine and everyday in light of a possible, life-altering, non-routine relationship. What was thought initially to be routine eventually became something beyond the routine, but it all started in the routine. And that routine expanded beyond just simple office scenarios, but also into how Geoff and Jen date, their old routines influenced by habit and family and friends. Everyone has dirty laundry and it must be sorted through. "

The Fire Sale is coming. Monday. Please prepare accordingly.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live, hard to say and all Weigel. Or something like that.

The new edition of This Zine Will Change Your Life is live and hard to say. Or something like that. We have a new short story Sometimes It's Hard to Say by Sally Weigel, which we are way excited about, and, as always, photo action from Adam Lawrence, a music selection from Jason Behrends and state of the union prose love from Pete Anderson. We hope you enjoy this edition and we appreciate all shout-outs and links. Finally, please note, that we think you look especially slim today. All of you.

"It's funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to." The Catcher in the Rye

A double-dose of Michael A. Fitzgerald and Radiant Days from the fine crew at Baby Got Books.

Not unlike our terribly fanboy reaction and blog post earlier this week about our excitement over learning about an interview with TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Shannon Burke in The National, today we find ourselves way geeked to see a double-dose of Michael A. FitzGerald over at the always fine Baby Got Books. In fact, you get not only a typically terrific review of Radiant Days, but a bonus interview as well. Not bad, right? No, not at all. Meanwhile, if you find yourself craving an additional dose of FitzGerald, and why wouldn't you be, feel free to check out TBWCYL, Inc. spokesperson Ben Tanzer's tag-term interview with Michael and William Walsh over at the Orange Alert as well. There you go. Nice.