Nervy Girl!

by Lisa Cannon

The top of my dresser paints colors of chaos
With crescents of watchbands and unmated earrings.
Streamers and headbands lash Mexican bracelets
And painted blue bowls sprout dysfunctional pens.
Ribbons and luggage tags wrestle with brushes
While pesos, like paving stones, slide underneath.
It's almost a pattern, a red-and-green party, though
Nothing connects as the clutter collides.

But letters, the letters, postmarked from Ixtapa
Slide into the melee demanding attention.
Written on tissue and read into pieces,
They're seeped in atonement and full of misspellings
Yet they never describe, and they'll never discover
A plane ride, a flight plan, a way back to me.

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You Are To Me
by Bradi Grebien-Samkow

A cigarette dropped from the window of my car
bursts, spark spits
behind at 45 miles an hour
And I watch it all burn out
forgetting the road in front of me
And my heart races
And I think that that is how you are
in my thoughts-
A burst
a quick show in the early spring
And me ignoring the road ahead
to watch you
brightly fast,
burn behind.

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Icons of Hilarity
Compiled by Leah Bobal (with help from Lisa Cannon, Allison Dubinsky, Joanna Present-Wolfe, Jerri Schultz and Angela Toretta)

Rather than bore our readers with our own definition of humor, Nervy Girl decided to feature women who really know what funny is. They're creative, daring, a bit off-the-wall, and, especially, funny. From the satirical wit of Dorothy Parker to the dark mind of Lenore, the following is a very short list of the gals who tickle our funny bones...

To read this article, order this issue of NervyGirl! to be delivered to your door!

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Getting to Know Miranda
by Jerri Schultz
The cover of issue five of the zine Miranda is accented with a pastel diamond-print quilt. Like that hand-sewn treasure, Miranda has a pattern and a purpose.

Creator Kate Haas lovingly stitches together recollections and rants, book reviews and recipes, and tributes to bygone friendships in the recurring "Motel of Lost Companions."

Proving that the intensely personal is universal, Haas probes pregnancy, the mother-daughter relationship, and life's turning points with the needle of humor...

To finish reading this article, order this issue of NervyGirl! to be delivered to your door!

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Reinventing Rock 'n' Roll
by Leah Bobal
The year was 1982. From the basement of a big old brick house in a Chicago suburb, the Go-Go's second album, "Vacation" blared on an almost daily basis. Inside, two eight-year-old girls screamed over Belinda Carlisle's voice; "Vacation/all I ever wanted/ vacation/had to get away..." My best friend Lisa, a Barbie in each hand, flailed her arms in time with the song. The Barbies-now drumsticks-shook wildly, their heads snapping back and forth. I accompanied her on the meanest air guitar ever played on a broomstick...

To finish reading this article, order this issue of NervyGirl! to be delivered to your door!

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CD Review:
paramore what you don't know (Ammonite Records 2001)

by Allison Dubinsky
Where have all the bands gone? Portland's Paramore is yet another boy-girl duo to add to the ranks of upbeat indie twosomes like Quasi and Mates of State. Singer/guitarist Stuart Valentine (previously known as Stuart Gaston, Richmond Fontaine's drummer) and bassist Robin Goff conjure up coy, pretty pop that is as pleasant as Portland rain, though sometimes as predictable. Valentine's melodies are undeniably catchy despite his thin, just-barely-off-key delivery; those tracks with fuller production, like "amaze me," stand out from those that sound like they were recorded in a basement (and apparently were). But aficionados of breezy, winsome pop a la Velocity Girl will forgive these imperfections and keep Paramore's debut album set on repeat for a while.

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