The new issue of Canadian Notes and Queries is on shelves now. The transfer of ownership from the Porcupine's Quill to Biblioasis is obvious from the get-go: gone are the Antique Zephyr Laid pages and self-wraps; there is a colour on the cover; (the proofreading, never exemplary, has gone downhill); and the damn thing has a spine.

Don't you know, dammit? This was the best magazine in Canada. Under new ownership, it still is. John Metcalf is still at the editorial helm, and the new issue flaunts a gratifying variety of articles ranging from Carmine Starnino's considered yet provocative review of the Mercury Press's Shift and Switch anthology of avant-garde poetry (and a plodding yet well meaning rebuttal) to a rambling overview of running the Porcupine's Quill by the redoubtable Tim Inkster.

Cheap at $7.50. Buy the goddamn thing; treat yourself to a treat, and make the Aesthetic Underground very happy.