This happened to be the last of a stack of zines I was given to review. Cut and paste burnout had set in and I was dreading my ever approaching deadline. I count myself lucky that Stay Awake fell into my hands when it did. I had not even realized what I was missing among all the adolescent-oriented zines that Hal tends to send my way (admittedly at my request). My own summer-long struggle with the conclusion of my perpetuated adolescence meshed perfectly with the contents of Sarah’s adult-angst zine. This is a zine for 28-year-olds like me. Screw the superficial rants about nuclear energy and the never ending odes to Sloan. Here the musical references are Roxy Music, Blue Peter and fucking MEL & KIM (P.S. I’m pretty damn sure this Mel is not Scary “Mel” Spice and I could easily pull out the albums to prove it but fear the flashbacks that might be induced.) And for the first time, there are rants that I can sympathize with: day jobs, life choices, unlocked apartments. There is an excellent personal essay about abusive relationships. There are anecdotes and stories that are actually funny! After every issue of Broken Pencil, usually one zine stands out enough for me to consider keeping. This time, it’s Stay Awake. (TD)
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