I think what I like best about MJ is the straighforward design. No fancy fonts, no distracting clipart, just plain boxes drawn around everything, four lines connected at four corners. Sometimes there’s a bit of creative play with the way the boxes are placed in relation to one another, but other than that MJ’s focus seems to be on getting the words down on paper so people can read them. There’s interviews, reviews, original artwork, stories and poems. The writing is solid, if at times a little uninspired. There’s a piece called “96 Tears (in my jeans)” which gives a brief description of each of the 96 rips in the narrator’s jeans. Pretty funny stuff, but I found I began to lose interest after about 15 rips. “Cowgirl” by Elizabeth Hay is a great story about the awkwardness of having an argument with an upstairs neighbour whose got a leak that’s causing damage in the apartments below. But then it’s not really about that, it’s about anger and wanting to be a cowgirl, alone out on the range with “maybe a few Indians for company, maybe a dog, maybe a bottle or two of gin.” The highlight of this issue of MJ for me was the poetry of Michelle Desberats Fels: “mouth on a pane/of glass frosted with ice/marking lip marks/that I can see a wavy world/through/sticking my tongue/or as much of it will fit/into the creases of some tree bark/jumping when a wet point/meets mine/turning around, reaching/turning again/touching the same thing/in a different direction/from the first/pressing grass to my chest/letting a kitten suck/the small point of my nipple/its tiny milk teeth/sharp as whispers.” Just a second here while I catch my breath. (KS)
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