Posted on: December 13, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

ARC #2 / $4 / :45 / 108M /http://www.artrevcult.com / 4996 Broadway, Suite 4L, New York NY 10034-1669 /

When I first picked up this issue, I really wondered where the “Revolution” part of the title was. I noticed a number of music (culture pieces), and some art (the architecture of Rafi Segal), but the political leanings of this zine really missed me until I had a better chance to look at the zine. When I actually had time to pour over ARC, the beauty of their political features really became clear. This is not a zine that is all-politics, and by interspersing political content with music and art, they avoid the Julia effect (individuals are socialized to find politics boring, and are much more likely to tune out if it is an all-politics focus). The book reviews move from music to politics and makes some interesting commentary during the review of “The Yes Men”, a book about a comedy troupe that shows individuals what the ramifications of the WTO are. The piece on disenfranchisement seems a little date and has been covered in a much more specific format elsewhere, but Amanda Raab’s piece does the thankless job of operating at an introductory level, so that individuals who do not know about this injustice can get all the facts easily. Each of the interviews/feature pieces have a political leaning (Les Savy Fav, David Cross), and really are able to couch political discussions in a much more palatable way. The reviews in this issue are very in-depth, and really provide a potential buyer a number of reasons to buy or not buy the piece in question. Overall, a very solid, professional zine that mixes all three elements of its existence in an informative way for a cheap price.

Rating: 6.0/10

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