From the Stacks: August 17, 2007

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The intense loyalty and pride in Detroit, coupled with an understanding of the city's faults, is something only a Detroiter can grasp. Rose White coveys both in her charming zine Old Weird America: Postcards from a Ghost Town. She opens her collection of vignettes by writing, 'Detroit for me isn't political -- it's personal. If you want to come along for the ride -- well, here we go.' The ride she takes her readers on is honest; she chronicles strip malls inhabited by prostitutes, but makes sure to weave in the poignant stories of steadfast Detroiters who have stuck around while the city flounders. Her second zine in the series, That Olde Weird America: Postcards from the City, is decidedly slicker than its ghost-town predecessor, which is fitting, since it records White's stories from New York. The two are best read back-to-back, following White from a city deemed 'dead' to a city that never sleeps. -- Cara Binder

Funwater Awesome #2, a personal zine by Zach Mandeville, picks up where his first volume left off: enrolling in Quality Beauty College, where he starts school with hopes of becoming a barber. The school, however, is not quite what he expects it to be. Rather than a school that's 'wood paneled, sepia-toned, [one that] smelt of berma-shave and flannel,' Mandville slogs through long hours of parting, combing, and braiding for 'Magnum,' his male mannequin adorned with 'shoulder length hair and a three foot beard.' With a charming, down-to-earth voice, Mandeville captures plenty of laugh-out-loud moments as he recounts making friends in beauty school, attempting his first haircut, and writing and publishing his zine. -- Julie Dolan

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