Perzine, Julian Evans, Issue 7 ½, [email protected], $3
Julian Evans is a punk, through and through. This collection of stories conveys a passion for fun and activism, mixing well with his intelligent perception for beautifully subtle details and nuances.
The first story opens with an impromptu transcontinental trip to the Black Fly Ball in Maine, in pursuit of forsaken love and adventure in a bargain sailboat named the Dorothy Anne. On top of that, the captain was convinced of the trip simply by quoting Stan Rogers. Beat that.
Each of his stories are a flurry of memories from past anarchist days. He blends rebellious pop anthem reviews with stories revolving around trying to up the punx in a jumbled, sometimes morally confused world; shoplifting black jeans, hitch hiking to Montreal for a show or participating in a demonstration in solidarity for prison inmates.
His stories, while self-confessed half-baked and unpolished, reveal a rawness and sincerity rarely encountered in memoirs. They lack the arrogance and self-involvement one innately expects. Rather, they offer insight into the life of an anarchist punk torn between identity and capitalism; anarchy and activism; love and imagination. “I saw a giant moon rising on the horizon, and felt myself broken apart and put back together again.” (Andrew Melanson)