"End." - A Zine

    "End." (named after my favourite Julia song) is a zine I wrote and put together because I had always wanted to make a zine, but got a surge of motivation when I heard about an upcoming local zine show/sale. I wrote most of the zine while working at the record store I work at and got a lot of my inspiration from other 1990s punk zines and inserts and booklets that came with some of my favourite records (most notably various Spitboy releases, Food Not Bombs Compilation(s), the Give Me Back Compilation and Coleman releases). 

    I've felt disillusioned for a long time about the punk/hardcore scene in my city and in general and a lot of what I wrote about has do with that. It lacks diversity, creativity and passion and it's become a bunch of white men competing for popularity and for who is "toughest". I just find it so disappointing considering punk as a genre itself originated as a place for the weirdos and outcasts, a place that was meant to be inclusive to all. The scene has always had its issues with the people who perpetrate violence, but it used to have so much more passion and positive energy. I wanted to write this zine to get my thoughts out there, things that I have been too scared to speak up about in the past so that is exactly what I did. I also discussed the issue of homelessness in our city and lack of aid for these people, as well as the lack of femme individuals in punk and hardcore music. 

    Punk music has always been something that is very important to me and since somewhat recently getting into the niche DIY hardcore scene of the 90s, it's really made me realize and reflect on how different the punk/hardcore scene is today. A surprising amount of the inserts and zines from the music scene back then are shockingly relevant to today, but somehow no one talks about these issues anymore. My goal is to bring up these conversations and try to combat the negativity and hostile energy in the punk/hardcore scene of today even just a little bit. 

    I actually found this zine a lot harder to make than I realized I would, it was a lot of effort to write it, make it look nice, and add the art and excerpts from other works. However I am really glad I pushed myself to do it. That being said, if I make another zine, which I plan to at some point, I will make it smaller and definitely won't print it in colour (wow expensive). 

    I printed and sold copies of my zine at the show/sale back in February but that was the only time I had a chance to get my zine out there. I sold a solid chunk of the copies I printed but it was hard to get any feedback as someone else was in charge of sales for all the zines. For that reason I have decided to share a digital version of my zine here for my friends and anyone who didn't get to see it or has any interest in reading my angry rants. I hope someone somewhere enjoys it and gets something out of it!