Pure counterculture style straight from the horse’s mouth, Patient Creatures collects clippings from radical publications from the ’60s and ’70s. Now, I’ve followed the archivist in question on Instagram for quite some time, and it’s one of the highlights of my feed (ugh. “the highlights of my feed.” better get back to the farm before I get to thinking too hard about the bleakness of online existence), so I was happy as a clam when I got word she was doing a zine of the best of the best. Dear reader, it did not disappoint. Seeing these clippings, some brutal, some hopeful, live and in color is far more moving than seeing similar ones on my phone screen. I can see so clearly some kook like me holed up at their typewriter, at their desk, meticulously laying out image and text, hoping—like me—fifty, sixty years on, that fucking anything would change, that this would be it, that some day it would all stop in its tracks and we’d all be free. If I can just say it the right way this time… “IF NOT NOW, WHEN?” the cover of one publication asks. I’ve thought the same thing myself. “A SIGN OF THE TIMES” below a photograph of pigs fire-hosing protests. The only anachronism is the mention of a draft card… and some of that art noveau-y hand lettering characteristic of the era, may it come back into fashion someday. One clip cautions that “america is too far gone for warnings.” They’re still right. Confronting this history that is so close we could brush up against it—and in fact are—hashing out the same wars, I am at once humbled and invigorated. The back cover reads “REVOLUTION IS AN ACT OF LOVE.” Yeah. That hippie shit hits. Truth be told, a good punk and a good hippie are closer than one might imagine. Pick up a brick or a can of paint and let’s see what love really looks like… –jimmy cooper (IG: @patientcreatures, mount-analogue.com)