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Caboose #14 My Canadian Boyfriend

5.5"x85", 130p, b+w, perfect bound

$12.00

Liz here. This book-length issue of Caboose is subtitled My Canadian Boyfriend, and was many years in the making. It's an in-depth look at my Corey Hart obsession, when I was between ages 9 and 14 (roughly between '84-'88). Yes, you do know who he is. He's the guy that wrote "Sunglasses at Night." And "Never Surrender."

Don't say I never did anything for you. For you I have spent many an afternoon scanning all my Corey stuff from THE LIZ MASON COREY HART ARCHIVE (ie: a cardboard box on the top shelf of my closet) to document here: magazine clips, photos, key chains, t-shirts, all my swag from SHADES The Official Corey Hart Fan Club (um, my membership number was #13881) and more. Not only is that all here for your enjoyment (you're welcome) but really what this is, is a look into what it means to be a fan through the lens of parasocial relationships and media studies. This zine is equal parts memoir, journalistic investigation, music criticism, cultural study, all done with a sense of humor. Professors were talked to, academic studies and books were read. There's even an overview of Corey's second album Boy In the Box, multiple music video analyses, essays about the hauntological push and pull of nostalgia, as well as a look at the stuff on the back of the Corey magazine articles, which is just as entertaining as the Corey stuff.

It's a real doozy if I don't say so myself. And did I ever tell you he responded to a post I put on Facebook of me at age 10 in my bedroom covered in Corey pinups? It's true. I was a little weirdo and he was very nice on Facebook. You don't have to be a Corey fan or to have lived through the '80s to enjoy this, but should either of those apply to you then you probably will like this.

The pieces I wrote in this zine were featured elsewhere, in places like Used Records and Tapes, Slutcake, the Liner Notes reading series at GMan Tavern and more, all of which I refined for this collection. If you really wanna geek out, I did some deep dives into the psychology of parasocial relationships, the science of music processing, and more -- coming up with a few theories of my own. No matter your age, you'll probably recognize some of your own urges toward fan obsession in these pages too. -LM