Zine Review: The East Village Inky #48

THE EAST VILLAGE INKY#48
by Ayun Halliday (EVI)

One-time member of the Chicago Neo-Futurists theatre company, Northwestern grad, writer of several books, zinester and native Hoosier, Ayun Halliday is now the proud publisher of forty-eight issues of The East Village Inky. EVI was begun when Ayun and husband Greg Kotis (Urinetown, look it up!) lived in an East Village apartment. Now in Brooklyn with two children, she continues to produce this hand drawn, handwritten and hand-laid-out zine. This is my first encounter with EVI and just my luck, it’s also the first ever music issue, and I like music. In this forty page mini, Ayun recounts tales of her musical listening history touching upon early influences from grade school through high school, college and beyond. I must admit, I do not have much in common with Ayun as far as musical tastes (Todd Rundgren is the zine’s centerfold for example), but I won’t dwell on that. What I can relate to is the joy of making and receiving mix tapes and I agree that movie soundtracks are good ways to discover new music that is often old music. I enjoyed the section in which a smattering of “hip” Brooklyn teens are interviewed about what they're listening to. They seem to have pretty devloped musical tastes, which is either due to living in Brooklyn, their parents, the accessibility of music on the Internet or all three—the perfect storm for "hip" in this modern age, I suppose.

EVI reads like a conversation you're having with a friend you haven’t seen in a while and you only have a short time to talk. A lot gets crammed in, topics change quickly and sometimes you lose the thread of the converation for awhile but your friend is so happy to fill you in that you really don't care—Chris Auman

Always read Reglar Wiglar!