No Better Voice #22 / 1:00 / $1.00 / 68S / No Better Voice, 764 Channing, Ferndale, MI 48220
Another issue of Jami’s personal zine, this time a litany of show reviews show off various facets about this interesting person and eir friends. The layout of the zine is fun, feeling as if 64 different collaborates created this issue; very hodgepodge, and as such, an individual will not get tunnel vision from reading things that are laid out the same way ad nauseam. Moving from the straight-forward narration to pseudo stream-of-consciousness pieces that are triggered by various events in Jami’s life, such as “your friend is hotâ€. By far though, the 3rd-person narrative story describing Jami waking up with an uber-hangover is the gold in this pot, with such ludicrous statements as “upon smelling the water promptly vomited into her cupped hands.†Perhaps I’ve never smelled water, but I wasn’t aware that water smelled like…anything! Never allowing the boredom of society to drag eir down, each event that Jami chooses to cover is chalk-full of the personality that makes No Better Voice such a winner – “during the two hour car ride the home brew needed to be burped ,which smelt not unlike vegan fartsâ€. Other pieces in ths issue stand out, including Jami’s trip down to the Southern Girls Convention in the anarchist stronghold of Asheville, NC. By far, No Better Voice is the sterling example of a zine that captures the essence of living; instead of being detached from the larger scene, individuals can feel they are standing alongside Jami as all the events happen.
Rating: 7.1/10