Mad Hatters’ Review – Summer 2005
Issue 2
Summer 2005
Anna Sidak
Alice would love Mad Hatters’ Review—as I do—there’s something, including the astral threats of summer, to delight everyone.
Alice would love Mad Hatters’ Review—as I do—there’s something, including the astral threats of summer, to delight everyone. Among its text-art-music combos are Marty D. Ison’s text, narration, and art for “Wake up, Damian Hirst!”: “—but none of it can exorcise god-want from the pleading soul.”; and Brett Powers’s “Pathology” with Wayne Yang’s art, Steven Kane’s music: “[ . . . ] all it would take to change everything for the better is three little Phillips head screws cast upon the still water.” The impressive poetry collection contains work by John Barbato, Lynn Lipshin, Corey Mesler, Caroline Zonailo, and others. Beautifully formatted, this innovative quarterly journal features—in addition to usual categories, plus original art and music—a play by Timothy Matos; Spent half the morning here with: five mini-movies by Mona-Lia Ventress, three by Donna Kahn; cartoons and parodies: “Campbells’s Soup Can (Botulism)” by Tony ‘Baloney’ Juliano; “The Wave: Moving Sculpture” video and text by Reuben Margolin: “The Wave has many origins, but somehow I always associate its soul with a wheat field in Andulsia,” music by Paul A. Toth; columns; and the zaniness of cartoony hat-doffing icons scattered about an elegant layout. And Alice would recognize that Paul Slapion’s eerie cover artworks, the fragmented and/or hallucinatory nature of individual contributions confirm the title’s awareness of cultural poison and the need for respite of laughter and art. I echo the following sentiment: “[. . .] we’re going to enjoy the ride while it lasts and we sincerely hope that you’ll join us in spirit, if not in deed,” from Editor’s Rave by Editor/Publisher, Carol Novack. [Mad Hatters’ Review. E-mail: [email protected]. Online only: www.madhattersreview.com] –Anna Sidak