Her Blues and the Art of Feeling

I don't review every zine I read on here, but I do try to get a few lines out about my favorites. Her Blues is one of those zines that like good poetry, art, etc. captures an experience in such a way that it resonates completely with something that you thought was yours only, and reading it you feel less like a freak, less alone.

Two such instances from Torie's zine:

And then the problem with precocious children--the eagerness to be adults, to have conversations with them, to know what they seem to know and assume equality...Of course it can't be done. Grown-up's get annoyed. They don't want you around. They want you to act like a kid, not the little creep you think you are.

Walking in the empty streets at sundown looking for a chip shop and someone to love. It's an ongoing theme.

When am I ever going to get to where I am going? ... And then all I can think about is home, where I can't go back to without being crushed by the weight of all this memory.

The handwritten, stab bound zine starts out with four dreams and continues with musings on childhood, memory, American vs. British sensibilities, travel in Japan, and then youth again. For me the most poignant element of the zine was its quality of being a moment in time. You feel like you're with Torie while she's thinking and writing and knowing that what she is experiencing, that youth, will be over soon. She'll be left with just the memory, which is why it's so important to get it down.

The zine is illustrated with drawings, well-chosen clip art, and photographs.