The Golden Fool is a collaborative poetry zine spawned after a break up and an alcohol-fueled idea. When I first got it, the coppery-gold cover and interesting drawings drew me in, but once I started reading the poetry inside, I realized it was pretty much just page after page of shock/taboo writing. Every other word or poem mentioned abuse, pain, rape, incest, blood, alcohol, masochism, et cetera. Apparently, there was also a zine release party in L.A. that featured a lot of “performance pieces,” featuring needles being pulled out of faces, someone “beating the shit out of themselves,” sex, fisting jars of peanut butter, and more. You know, no big deal. The whole zine plus reading an interview about the party just came off as one pretentious piece. They left me with a bad taste in my mouth, which was probably the whole point of the project. –Tricia Ramos (The Golden Fool, no address listed)