Winter, 2019 YOGURT Culture Zine, established 2017 by two California natives, is a quarterly publication featuring art, music, & culture from around the globe.
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Welcome to our first issue of 2019!! This is YOGURT's 3rd Birthday, and I'm looking forward to another year of making new friends and connections, and sharing my art with others. This past year, I've been to zine fests and swapped zines with other creators, bought merch, and exchanged ideas with artists who share my enthusiasm for zines and art! Please enjoy this issue all about the scaly ladies of the sea: MERMAIDS! See you in the next issue!
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Happy new year everyone!! This morning, I woke up early to see the sunrise. Even though it was so cold, I enjoyed making this memory. This year will be filled with many opportunities, I'm ready for the challenge. Let's work hard and do our best for 2019! Thank you always for your support
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Our fishy friends of the sea, the singers on the waves - weavers of pearls and braiders of weeds! Riders of foam and sirens in the mists. Mermaids have always had a place in folktales around the world, and they continue to be alluring and mysterious. But, this issue isn't just about mermaids! It's about their home, and their fascinations, their mystery... We wanted to explore not only mermaids themselves, but where they live and how they live.
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How nice it’d be to have men throw themselves at me... Only to dash their brains out on the rocks. Or to drown themselves in dark depths at the mere promise of me. To be beautiful but dangerous, sweet and unassuming, silk hiding steel. That’s the kind of mermaid I’d want to be.
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My goddess waits Her siren’s song beckoning She sings of pearls between petals of depths to discover An offering of mermaid flesh Which I devour greedily
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Y t i PLA L S A n n a v o n Ha ussw o l ff
Deathbed Oh No O n o
Swim Jap an e se Br e a kfa st
Diving Woman Fev er Ra y
When I Grow Up Lower De n s
To Die in L.A. The Ap p l e s i n S t e r e o
The Shiney Sea D em en
Niorum
The R e s i de nts & Re naldo and the Lo af
The Sailor Song N ic o
Secret Side (1971) J u l ie B yr ne
Natural Blue Sh ir l e y Co lli ns
Washed Ashore T ia B l a ke
Turtle Dove Vas h t i B unya
If I Were / Same But Different S ib y l l e B ai e r
Remember the Day
Chels e a W o l fe
M o s s y D avi ds o n
Li sa Ge r m a n o
B r idg e t St. Jo hn
Petun i a - L i e b l i n g MacP u m p k in
grouper
MER
Nobody’s Playing Age of Devonian
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Where Does This River Flow Like Never Before water people
Art & playlist by @tunnelterry
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a short story by @netherandvoid
Once, there was a fair maiden with long raven hair. One fateful night, she sat upon a large rock near the ocean's shore, the moonlight illuminating her sorrow. There she wept as the surf rolled in and out, the sea collecting her tears. She wept until her sorrow turned vengeful, and then she wiped her tears and turned her face toward the full moon. "Oh moon, were I as bright and beautiful with power such as yours, I could make any manner of creature worship at my feet," she said longingly. As the maiden sat, a curious thing did happen: the wind went still and a haunting melody took its place.
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The tide pushed in, flooding the shore with an iridescent glow. Before the maiden's eyes, a woman arose from the sea. As the woman approached, the maiden basked in her ethereal glow. The maiden saw the woman was bare, so she turned her face from her terrifying beauty. "Why do you turn from me, child? Was it not your sorrow that called out to me?" the woman asked plaintively. "I turn from your nakedness, for shame you have not!" the maiden replied embarrassedly. "Shame is not known to me, for it is of men," said the woman.
"You stand on two legs, your hips and bosom are full. Are you not of man?" asked the maiden. "I can take this form but once a month under the full moonlight, but I am not of man. My people are known by many names. Look upon me, and know me as Lorelai," the woman replied. "Are you not the temptress who lures men to the sea depths with false promises?" asked the maiden "I am what you call me, though my promises are not false. Those men paid their price. I heard your sorrow from across the vast ocean and have come for your sake. What is your name, child? What is it that you seek?" Lorelai asked. "I am Lilith, the daughter of this isle's one and only King. I am troubled by my marriage to the Prince of the neighboring isle that was arranged before my birth, for he would take my birthright and make me subservient to him. Once my father passes, I would inherit the land and ascend to the throne if not for him, just as the Prince would in his Isle. Being us both of noble birth, I ask, why then should I lie beneath him? I do not wish to bend to Man's will, but he to mine. I desire retribution
for he who would take my right," Lilith answered defiantly. "If you follow my instruction, your revenge will be enacted. But beware Lilith, my child, for you will pay an equivalent price. Do you wish to proceed?" Lorelai asked. "My will be done, for what price have I not yet paid?" Lilith shot back with confidence. Lorelai nodded and proceeded to explain the ritual. Under the light of a Black Moon, the Princess would gather a lock of the Prince's hair, a lock of her own, and a dagger with a moonstone inlaid in its hilt. "If I follow your invocation, my will be done?" asked Lilith apprehensively. "Aye, your will be done. Be warned, you may still have a price yet to pay, my dear child," Lorelai said. Lilith watched Lorelai as she turned and slipped back into the ocean. The breeze returned, and the glow receded back with the tide. For a while after, Lilith sat upon her rock and thought of things yet to come. Before the sun rose and took the moon's place, Lilith hastened to her castle to prepare for the Black Moon.
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She entered the Prince's chambers and managed to cut a lock of hair from his head. However, the Prince woke from the disturbance. "Dearest Lilith, have you come to lie beneath me, as our communion demands? Or shall I wed and bed another who has been properly bred?" said the Prince. "I tell you again. I shall not lie beneath you if you shall not lie beneath me. You are not my superior; we are but equals. You cannot threaten me with things that do not bring me jealousy. Do as you wish, dear Adam, but I will not be your subservient," Lilith said. She exited his chambers and returned to her own. When the sun rose, she went to town and commissioned a blacksmith to forge a dagger with a moonstone inlay on its hilt. As the Black Moon approached, Adam did take another wife who, being meek, did lie beneath him, and thus was imbued with his heir. But Adam's refusal of Lilith as an equal brought a curse upon this new union. On the night of the Black Moon, Lilith went to the sea. When she reached the shore, she slipped out of her clothes and stepped into the water. She then ran the ceremonial dagger across her palm, drawing blood upon the Prince's hair.
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Then she severed a lock of her own hair and wound it around the Price's lock, chanting: "Mother Moon and Sister Water, I call you in this darkest hour Take eye for eye, and thumb for thumb May all my pain be now undone Strip my heart of all this hate Upon my foe, bestow this fate: When sun doth rise and clock strike morn, Unto them, ill will be born So shall it be; my revenge sought times three."
Lilith cast the intertwined hair into the ocean and watched it disappear into the churning black. She then turned to leave, but when she tried to step on land the sea swelled up and tugged her feet. The more she struggled, the more the waves enveloped her. Water filled her lungs as she was taken by the undertow, but she did not perish. Instead, she was transformed. Where before she had legs, now there was a fish tail with glistening scales, and her once beautiful slender fingers were now webbed like a frog. When Lilith finally surfaced, she shrieked so loud and terrible that her voice reverberated, causing the sea to rage. "Show yourself, she who prays on the weak; telling naught but lies - for she is Lorelai!" Lilith screamed. "Lilith, my child. Was I not true? Was it not I who foretold a price that would yet be paid?" Lorelai replied from behind Lilith. "My will has not come to pass. Adam is well, he refuses me as his equal and has taken another for his bride," Lilith said bitterly.
end. For now, you have the power to make men bend to your will and make any creature worship at your feet, or your tail as it were." Lorelai laughed, then dived beneath the waves and swam away. Lilith lay back in the water and looked into the sky, shrieking so that her voice lifted to the heavens, and a curse was born. "Adam, I shall rise from the sea on the full moon, and you shall know suffering. Any sons you sire, I shall take their health, so they will grow weak and live a cursed halflife. Your daughters shall be mine, for I will whisper in their ears while they sleep, filling them full of disdain for you. They shall rise against you, and you shall finally meet your equal." Lilith, the maiden so fair with long raven hair, had learned the price of magic. She received her freedom from Adam, but at the price of her humanity. She would make Adam suffer his whole life long, but so too would she suffer in her bondage to vengeance.
"This is the price you paid so that your will CAN be done. Think of it as a means to an
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T h is co n cl u d e s is s u e #9 o f " Y O G U RT C u l tu r e Z in e"
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ILLUSTRATION: 1, 8, 9, Back.
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PHOTO: 10, 11. ILLUSTRATION: 4, 6, 7.
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POEMS: 10-11.
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@ tu n n e l te r r y PLAYLIST: 12. ILLUSTRATION: 13-15, 25-27.
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TH A NK YOU!!