Dishwasher

By Pete Jordan

http://www.cityofbikes.com/

Hey! This isn't a zine! It's a book! What gives? Well, parts of it were originally published as zines, so it totally counts. Dishwasher is Jordan's tale of his life and the decade plus he spent washing dishes all over America in his quest to wash dishes in all 50 states. That sounds kind of horrible, but Jordan has a writing style that is incredibly enjoyable to read, which can be seen in the fact that I read this book in two days, and that the 16th issue of Dishwasher (which was never released) was going to have a print run of 10,000! (And I thought it was good that I'd printed almost 100 issues of Two Fisted Librarians...)

Throughout Dishwasher we follow Jordan from job to job, starting with his earliest teenage ventures up to, well really just dishwashing and more dishwashing. Jordan doesn't want any other jobs because he likes dishwashing. His reasons for liking this much maligned job are many and varied, and range from the free food he gets to eat (which in one place was actually written into the dishwashers' contract that had originally been created decades before), to the fact that he can quit at any time and get a new job doing the same thing somewhere else. Because while dishwashing is a job that nobody wants, it is a job that needs to be done, and so even when a dishwasher shows up to work late or drinks on the job people generally don't mind because any dishwasher is better than no dishwasher (or having to wash the dishes yourself).

In between tales of his own dishwashing jobs, Jordan tells about famous people who washed dishes in America, the early days of labour organizing and unions for dishwashers, and about his experiences and romances. From oil platforms off the coast of Louisiana to fish plants in Alaska, Jordan has covered a lot of ground in his travels, and has an incredible array of stories to tell.

One thing I liked about this zine is that it made my current travels seem totally tame in comparison. Some of my classmates were horrified when I said I was going to travel around for a few months this summer, and wasn't totally sure where I'd end up at various points. Sure there are events I've planned to go to, but it's not like I have a super strict itinerary. I mean, in the place I'm currently staying I've got my own room and an air mattress! I think it's actually nicer than the last place I was living because there I was subletting and the room was filled with things I didn't own, now this room only contains things that are mine. It's great!

Dishwasher is a really good read, and I can't wait to check out Jordan's next book, which is about cycling in Amsterdam.

Deafula #4

thecityonfire@gmail.com
deafulazine.com
PO Box 1665
Southampton, PA
19866, USA

So right now I'm in the process of looking for a job. Or rather "looking" for a job, because I'm not being that proactive. I don't really like working that much, or at least working for money. If given the option I'd rather spend my time volunteering for lots of different things and working on a million of my own projects than spending forty hours a week doing whatever so that I can pay rent and stuff.

But as much as I dislike the whole "looking for a job" thing, it clearly could be so much worse as I'm not deaf like the author this zine. Not that they let being deaf stop them from working, despite what many think about deaf people and disability payments.

The zine begins with a discussion of the different types of disability payments available in the USA, why deaf people are often not allowed to apply for these, and how hard it can be to receive these payments even if you do qualify. This seems really lame! I know from from some friends how hard it can be for the government to believe you actually deserve these payments, and our society seems to delight in exposing people who are "benefit frauds" and ignoring the vast majority of people who actually deserve the help.

The zine discusses the "reasonable accommodation" that employers must provide to disabled employees, different ways various employees and coworkers have either discriminated against or helped the author at different jobs, and the question of when the best time to reveal your disability to potential employers is.

I liked this zine because while it tackles a fairly simple and common subject, it came at it from a point of view I'm not really familiar with and was written in an enjoyable style. There were times where I wasn't sure what specific terms, like TTY, actually meant, and I was a bit puzzled by the way the text switches between computer generated,  written on a typewriter, and handwritten (sometimes in the same sentence!). But despite these minor problems I'm interested in reading more issues of this zine and learning more about the experiences of people with hearing loss in general an the author specifically.

(And that's more posts this month than in the first three months of the year, hurray! Let's hope I continue this time.)

Shabba's Crappy D Stories Part: 1

By Saban Kazim
www.shabs.net

I have, thankfully, never worked in fast food. However, as I am currently not working anywhere I suppose those working in fast food have one up on me in that they have a paycheck and know where next month's rent is coming from.

The two brief stories in here are good at showing how terrible these sort of jobs are, and how to find humour in them. The horrible customers, the worker/manager relationship (where all the power seems to be with one, but occasionally the other can get the upper hand), the nonsensical rules, the horrible tasks, the trying to do as little as possible. It's kind of impressive that all of that is portrayed in just a few brief pages, but I guess so much of those things are part of popular culture nowadays that it just has to reference them and I understand them far more in depth.

There aren't many backgrounds and Kazim reuses panels and character art, but you don't really notice that on your first read through. I like the character designs of his boss and the customer, both of which remind me of muppets (is it the eyebrows? I think it must be). Kazim's art style isn't the most polished, but it manages to tell the stories that he's set out to tell, and I was a little disappointed that this was so short, as I wouldn't have minded reading some more tales of fastfood life.

Gissa Job

By Saban Kazim
shabs.net

Ah, the JobCentre, last bastion of the unemployed. The place you have to go to every two weeks in order to say “yes I have been looking for work, please give me some money”. The place I have to go to in about an hour (hire me?).

I’ve actually read three or four comics _this year_ that feature JobCentres in them, which I think is rather indicative of both the UK art scene and the UK’s society in general. ie. This country is not doing so well economically.

However Kazim’s comic is by far the most creative of all of the ones I’ve seen, as it imitates the JobCentre form they give you to fill out. The comic comes inside the same plastic slip that the form is issued in, and was drawn over an actual form and then photocopied.

I’m not sure if people that haven’t been to a JobCentre will really get this comic, but I thought it was really good. It accurately describes the mind-numbing tediousness of going for your biweekly meeting, and the general idiocy of some of the people that work there. (I was recently asked how the non-profit organizations I was applying to work for would pay me since they clearly didn't make any money...)

The JobCentre is not set up for educated people with actual qualifications, they're (I’m) supposed to be able to find a job by them (my) selves. Instead it’s created for those who have no qualifications or education. Want to be trained in basic computer skills? They’ll pay for that. Want actual help improving your skills in your chosen field? Hah, you’ll have to pay for that yourself.

At least I haven’t been asked to apply to be a Bollywood singer. Yet.