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Flow Chronicles
Urban Hermitt, a young, queer hiphop artist, poet, and hard-traveler, is the center of this celebrated zine. His picaresque look at queer life and love begins with a teenage Hermitt navigating a dirty, pock-marked trailer park landscape of sketchy stoners, confused punks, and sinister hippies. A raw, druggy, sexed-up, coming-of-age story, it is irreverently humorous with tender moments in the midst of horror.
- GenresQueer
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Urban Hermitt
1 book1 followerThe Urban Hermitt is a zinester known for his perzine, The Urban Hermit, which documents his lifestyle and travels in the Pacific Northwest, Northern California, and Hawaii. He began publishing the zine in 1998. He has also contributed to The Whirligig and Slush Pile.
Urban Hermitt formerly identified as a woman and a lesbian.
As he states about himself in his book, The Flow Chronicles: "Besides frantically writing the flow of life, the urban hermitt likes to shop at natural foods co-ops, take naps, listen to and perform hip hop, freestyle, skateboard, hug trees, and to be a zine geek." He often ignores traditional grammar and stylistic constraints.
Urban Hermitt formerly identified as a woman and a lesbian.
As he states about himself in his book, The Flow Chronicles: "Besides frantically writing the flow of life, the urban hermitt likes to shop at natural foods co-ops, take naps, listen to and perform hip hop, freestyle, skateboard, hug trees, and to be a zine geek." He often ignores traditional grammar and stylistic constraints.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 19, 2008
I love the Urban Hermitt. This book is soooo cute, Hermitt is an 18 year old boy dyke who is experimenting with being a hippy and coming out and it is adorable and funny and Microcosm Press is the best ever. They also were showing "Applicant" and "On Subbing", two other books I bought at other times, at the Anarchist Book Fair so I think that they have exactly my sensibility. Urban Hermitt, you are a shining shining star, stay away from those mushrooms they are not for people like us who worry and talk a lot.
June 20, 2007
This is a review that I wrote that hasn't been published.
I read a couple issues of the Urban Hermitt’s eponymous zine a few years ago and really enjoyed them, so I was excited when my partner sent me a copy of The Flow Chronicles, Hermitt’s first book. Like the zines, this book was super fun to read!
Hermitt writes about coming of age and coming out as a tomboy dyke, avoiding creepy hippy men and trying to hook up with hot sexy women. From crappy foodservice jobs to drug experimentation, Hermitt chronicles a young adult life that I can relate to.
I read this book quickly—tore through it in a few hours—and got a kick out of it as an easy and entertaining read. I chuckled a lot at Hermitt’s social awkwardness, but in an empathetic rather than mean way. In many situations, Hermitt’s embarrassed discomfort could have been my own.
I appreciated Hermitt’s rap poking gentle fun at “ a pc kind of love.” Here’s a sample:
“I first met you at the Recycling Center.
Your tee-shirt said you were a ‘Green Party Member.’
You were eating apricot flavored cliff bars.
You came here by a vegetable oil run car.”
I found it rather amusing, as I’ve many times met the type of people this rap is about. Heck, in some ways I am the type of person this rap is about, but I can still appreciate its humor.
For folks who maybe don’t understand all of the terms used by Hermitt and an assortment of friends, housemates, and co-workers, “The Urban Hermitt Style Dictionary” is included at the end of the book. Now you too can learn the meanings of cool words from “andro” to “yoni.”
I do have a couple of criticisms of the book. It’s full of typos, but I’m not sure if they are genuine flaws or if they were thrown in to increase the writing’s down and dirty street cred. In any case, I found them annoying and distracting. I was also slightly irritated by the “letters” that the Hermitt uses to advance the plot. I understand that they are supposed to break the monotony of Hermitt’s first person narrative, but while they are often humorous, I think they also interfere with the smooth progress of the story.
Despite those minor flaws, I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs some light and funny reading.
I read a couple issues of the Urban Hermitt’s eponymous zine a few years ago and really enjoyed them, so I was excited when my partner sent me a copy of The Flow Chronicles, Hermitt’s first book. Like the zines, this book was super fun to read!
Hermitt writes about coming of age and coming out as a tomboy dyke, avoiding creepy hippy men and trying to hook up with hot sexy women. From crappy foodservice jobs to drug experimentation, Hermitt chronicles a young adult life that I can relate to.
I read this book quickly—tore through it in a few hours—and got a kick out of it as an easy and entertaining read. I chuckled a lot at Hermitt’s social awkwardness, but in an empathetic rather than mean way. In many situations, Hermitt’s embarrassed discomfort could have been my own.
I appreciated Hermitt’s rap poking gentle fun at “ a pc kind of love.” Here’s a sample:
“I first met you at the Recycling Center.
Your tee-shirt said you were a ‘Green Party Member.’
You were eating apricot flavored cliff bars.
You came here by a vegetable oil run car.”
I found it rather amusing, as I’ve many times met the type of people this rap is about. Heck, in some ways I am the type of person this rap is about, but I can still appreciate its humor.
For folks who maybe don’t understand all of the terms used by Hermitt and an assortment of friends, housemates, and co-workers, “The Urban Hermitt Style Dictionary” is included at the end of the book. Now you too can learn the meanings of cool words from “andro” to “yoni.”
I do have a couple of criticisms of the book. It’s full of typos, but I’m not sure if they are genuine flaws or if they were thrown in to increase the writing’s down and dirty street cred. In any case, I found them annoying and distracting. I was also slightly irritated by the “letters” that the Hermitt uses to advance the plot. I understand that they are supposed to break the monotony of Hermitt’s first person narrative, but while they are often humorous, I think they also interfere with the smooth progress of the story.
Despite those minor flaws, I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs some light and funny reading.
April 7, 2010
I cannot find my copy!!! I cannot find the zines, either! I am so sad :( I have read most of Urban Hermitt's zines and the bound book, The Flow Chronicles, when I was in grad school. The Hermitt is not really a hermit, as her queer+vegan adventures take her many places (from Oregon to Australia) as she meets many different people (crazy dumpster-divers to road-kill-eating environmentalists to skinheads to you-name-it). Sometimes the types of "alternative" politics and lives she describes, whether it be her own or those of the people she meets, were almost unbelievable to me, though I have met similar people with similar lives or have at least met people who would discuss such options (like never buying anything from a store and instead dumpster-diving for food and clothes as a non-consumerist choice). When I read the zines I always thought the language and the style of writing was unlike most zines; the storytelling was impeccable and well-edited, her language crisp, clean, and funny, and her attitude well-balanced with just the right amount of criticism and understanding towards her life choices as well as others'. I remember at some point when I went back to order the next zine (I read them well after she wrote them) I saw the bound book, which was no surprise, considering the quality of her writing and how interesting her stories were. I highly recommend all of Urban Hermitt's writings to those who are curious about radically-yet-not-so-radically different lives that one can lead in the capitalist, consumerist western world, those who like travel narratives, good story-telling, queer politics, and, uhm, interesting culinary alternatives. (Some of the zines as well as The Flow Chronicles are available from Microcosm Publishing, microcosmpublishing.com)
January 3, 2009
seriously. i always read great great reviews for this. not my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews