Leor Galil, zine maker

(Of New York Times Magazine fame) [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | April 3, 2024 A couple weeks ago I received an email from a New York Times Magazine fact-checker. The message concerned something I’d thought only a few dozen people on earth knew existed: a zine I launched during the darkest part of the pandemic. At the end of 2020, my friend Sarah told me about a musician from Massachusetts named Matt Farley, who made scatalogical songs a kid she babysat happened to obsess over. I quickly developed a similar fixation with Farley who, under dozens of pseudonyms, recorded and released north of 23,000 songs about seemingly every quotidian subject I could dream up—and many I would not have thought of in the first place. Living through roughly nine months of the pandemic had worn on me, and if I had to continue to live in isolation for a while longer, I wanted to begin the new year with a silly project just for me. So I attempted to listen to the entirety of Farley’s discography and catalog my thoughts in a zine. I love writing about music, but it’s also work for me; whenever I’ve brainstormed some sort of personal project related to music, I’ve inevitably imagined creating something similar to what I do with my job. And that, inevitably, has led to me failing to launch many of those hobby projects. A zine about Matt Farley, a musician (and [film director]( who records every idea, regardless of the quality, felt like the right move for me. I kept it up for a handful of months. I gave it up halfway through a 100-song album of birthday songs, all of which were largely identical save the name of the celebrant in each song’s title. But I did manage to make a couple issues of my zine, which I sold to a few dozen people online, most of whom I assume learned of it through Farley, who shared it on Twitter. (I brought some to [Quimby’s]( to sell on consignment too; I’m not sure who picked those up.) Since then, I’ve mostly sat on ideas for new zines. I love working on a zine; the few I’ve made have filled me with joy and reminded me why I love expressing myself creatively. I get a lot of delight out of reading zines, be it [contemporary ones that help nurture young creative communitie]( or ones from a [publication guided by a singular obsession with outmoded technology](. Zines enrich my world, nourish my curiosity, and often provide me with ideas for Reader stories. But I never expected my own zine to show up in someone else’s journalism. So it was a special thrill to see how Brett Martin folded my zine into [his terrific Times story about Matt Farley](. I suppose now I actually have to make another zine. ◈ [“True Trans Soul Rebel,”]( by Norman Brannon (Anti-Matter) ◈ [“Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ isn’t a country album. It’s worse.,”]( by Chris Richards (Washington Post) ◈ [“Transparent Vice,”]( by Elizabeth Lopatto (Verge) ◈ Cindy Lee, [Diamond Jubilee]( ◈ 1010benja, [Ten Total]( ◈ sonhos tomam conta, [corpos de água]( ◈ Math, [Rubber Musique]( [Sunroom marks three years of its Monthly Flyer Club with a gallery show]( Plus: Live Young Productions and Whats the Word TV launch a concert series with a free show at Chicago State. by [Tyra Nicole Triche]( and [Leor Galil]( | [Read more]( → [Civitas Ensemble champions local composers on a program that features Grammy winner Jessie Montgomery]( by [Hannah Edgar]( | [Read more]( → [Chicago electro-pop queen Brittany Bindrim celebrates her solo debut]( by [Selena Fragassi]( | [Read more]( → [Instrumental duo Zombi release the synth-driven Direct Inject]( by [Monica Kendrick]( | [Read more]( → The Reader takes over Lincoln Park Zoo! [WE’LL SEE YOU AT THE ZOO!]( Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, March 21, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 12]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Become a member of the Chicago Reader.]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Twitter icon]( [Website icon]( [YouTube icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616