I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it, but at 4.30pm yesterday afternoon I dropped off a bundle of zines at the Sticky Institute as my contribution to the Target 168 synchronised zinemaking project.
It’s only 12 pages long – 16 if you count the cover – but I reckon it’s pretty okay for a full-time-working dad of two to be able to find enough spare hours in a continuous 168-hour stretch to put together a 16-page zine from scratch.
If you’re dying to know more about Ukrainian Eurovision competitors Ruslana and Svetlana Loboda, or you want to read some cursory musings about chicken Kiev (yes, I went there) and the Soviet Space Program, or you just want to read some zine reviews written by the nation of Ukraine itself, then this might be just the zine for you.
I’m not sure how I feel about the end result. There are times when I feel like there’s too much about Eurovision and not enough about Ukraine in there, and there are times when I worry that my attempts at joking about the trashiness of Eurovision come across as pervy and bitchy.
I definitely wish I’d had more time to put more about the Soviet Space Program in there. I also would have liked to have found time to write about Yevtushchenko and the Orange Revolution, and to have found some way to work Alexi-stop-spleening-me from Everything Is Illuminated in there somehow.
On the other hand, I’m really happy with the cover, and the bits about Laika, and the zine reviews. And the chicken Kiev bit amuses me too.
It’s in stock at Sticky right now, or if Melbourne’s not that close to hand, there’s copies for sale in the shop (sorry – I sold out and these days I kind of don’t like it enough to reprint it) for the paltry sum of two Australian dollars (plus postage for those outside Australia). And while you’re there you can browse through the other fine printed materials we have for your consideration.
The Other Adam Ford 
2 thoughts on “Target 168: Signed, sealed and delivered.”