 Holy Titclamps Larry-bob Box 590488 San Francisco CA 94159-0488 USA email Holy Titclamps visit Holy Titclamps' website Before commenting on this review please read the FAQ page Home page Notes for publishers Want to be a reviewer? Anthologies. Books. Audio. Magazines. Software. Video. Artefacts. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 19th March 2004. |
Holy Titclamps #19 | |
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This literary broadsheet is from the vibrant heart of San Francisco's gay and lesbian community. Andy Baird's illustration on page one is the interestingly titled WE THREE HOMOSEXUALITIES, which shows two naked men, one very obviously masturbating the other. This and its title should be enough to alert all but the most dim-witted reader to the nature of the publication. If you're one of the millions out there whose narrowminded relatives won't take the hint, and stop visiting you, then leave a copy of Holy Titclamps lying around the next time cousin Walter and his wife Mary pop around, and you'll almost certainly never see them again. Despite this though (and I know it might seem as if I'm contradicting myself here) the broadsheet manages to avoid being either tasteless or particularly sensationalist. In places, for example Sherilyn Connelly's anti-death penalty opinion-piece IF I AM MURDERED, it is actually quite earnest. But mostly a vein of sardonic humour runs through it. Of the fiction a highlight for me was Alvin Orloff's vignette VEGAS VACATION. Orloff writes in a dead-pan, matter of fact style which works nicely: Hovering behind him was a nutty-looking old lady with a crocheted hat who turns out to be his mom. William hasn't got a license at the moment so she's driving us to the Texas Casino, where we're staying. Because her vision is failing, William sits in the front seat telling her when to stop, go, or turn.Jennifer Argle's very short short-story DOG'S BEST FRIEND is a kind of postmodernist answer to Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis ; instead of an insect Argle has her main character, Tina, turn into a slice of pizza. Tina then goes on to be eaten be the family dog, Barry, and to observe a battle between the contents of the mutt's stomach: The fight was on. All throughout Barry's stomach it was Alpo versus hot dog. And not to be left out the cat droppings joined in. Tina watched, her eyes wide with shock, and what was left of her pepperoni had pressed against the wall.Needless to say, the ending isn't exactly a happy one. The poetry is more mixed in terms of quality. Julia Serano's long narrative poem MIX AND MATCH is a sometimes moving (and often hilarious) account of one couple's particularly unorthodox relationship: We are quite a pair a year and a half ago we were pronounced husband and wife and you're still my wife only now i'm your was-band and when we met five years ago i was a pre-transition transexual and you were calling yourself bisexual...It's the sort of poem I have no doubt works very well on-stage; Serano is both a spoken word artist and a musician. However, in places it falters rather on the page. I felt I needed to hear the poet's voice to bring the poem properly to life for me. Perhaps Julia Serano has a CD with this poem on it? If so, I'd certainly be interested in hearing it. Mathue Roth's poem TEETH has some very good lines, and the ocean that I see in my dreams never means the same thing any two nights in a rowas well as some decidedly weak ones, some days I'm refining but mostly I'm redefiningOverall though, I enjoyed the poem. The last stanza in particular has some deft surrealist touches. And so it goes on. There's a very interesting article by Irving Rosenthal about Beat poet Philip Whalen, and a lovely little article ON POEMS — the writing of them and the reading of them — by Edward Mycue. All things considered, a thoroughly enjoyable read. | ||
| reviewer: Kevin Higgins. |