Stained Pages

Sorry Greg, but Sheryl really steals the show with this zine, starting from page one with her emotional editorial about graduating from cooking school. Actually, Sheryl’s editorial was one of the best pieces of writing in the zine, it broke down the distance between subject and object that zine writers often struggle with. The rest of Sheryl’s articles weren’t half as interesting as that moving glimpse into her life. Her discussion of tv talk-shows was fun, but too reserved and it ended by preaching the obvious (turn off the tv, read a book…). Her lengthy article A Little Bit of Stuff About Coffee is pretty static with lines like “Connoisseurs often sneer at milk and sugar being added to their favourite drink, but I believe it depends on the individual.” I wonder if Sheryl ever read the great .tiff article on coffee? (it’s on our website, maybe theirs too…) The final Sheryl article was a profile of the late twenties silent screen actor Louise Brooks. Like all of Sheryl’s text, this one was detailed, well-written, but a little light. Well, I don’t mean to be hard on Sheryl, I just think she would be a better writer if she could introduce the same level of tension into her external subject-matter that she musters up for articles about her internal feelings. Stained Pages is jam-packed including interviews with Very Vicky comic guy John Mitchell and the band Mistle Thrush. The lay-out is precise, making the lengthy articles a pleasure to delve in and out off.

zine / #3, 64 pages / main creators: Sheryl Kirby and Greg Clow / $5 (cheques to Greg Clow) / Stained Productions, 158 Close Ave., 2nd floor, Toronto, ON, M6K 2V5 email: [email protected]

 

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