Reviews - Feels Like Friday

By Take Care Zine Distro, about Feels Like Friday #12...

And sadly, after nearly falling over myself to enthuse over how wonderful Feels Like Friday is, it comes to an end. But then, I’m always resolutely behind the times. Ivana made twelve issues of Feels Like Friday over approximately four years. The final issue deals with questions of history, identity and ethnicity, and the problem of finding a place that feels like home. It’s also about embracing a feminist politic and worrying about how to articulate ideas about gender, sex, politics and class. All of these themes have evolved over the course of Feels Like Friday’s existence, and Ivana has decided to conclude the series to focus on a new zine project. Feels Like Friday is a perfect example of the way that zines can function as a sort of self-dare to develop ideas and a dangerous way with words.

By Catherine Elms, about Feels Like Friday #12...

This issue of Feels Like Friday is my favourite of all the issues I’ve read, which makes it so much more saddening when she announces that this issue will possibly be the last! This is quite an interesting zine, actually, and it’s quite different to other zines I’ve read. This issue in particular is quite unique, consisting of an eclectic mixture of short written pieces, including stream-of-consciousness musings, philosophical thoughts, unfinished sentences and pithy statements. This zine is also gorgeous to look at, with a lot of interesting black and white images and backgrounds. Although this style of zine is quite different, the fact that every written piece is less than 150 words can make the zine difficult to read. She flits from subject to subject never referencing back, and by the time you reach the end of the zine it can feel as if you’ve not engaged with the writing enough – I would’ve liked some of her short pieces on feminism in particular to be at least 3 times the length. Having said that, Ivana comes across as a fiercely intelligent and independent woman, and there’s a certain anger and power that comes through in her writing which is very inspiring.
Rating: 4/5

By Take Care Zine Distro, about Feels Like Friday #11...

Feels Like Friday is Ivana Stab’s personal zine, and mighty pleased we are to have it in our distro. It’s full of breathless stream of conscious type writing that manages to avoid being pretentious through its sheer heartfelt sincerity and palpable desire to be heard. I’m not kidding folks, it’s that good. I don’t want this to sound patronising, but reading Ivana’s zines gives me serious flashbacks to the rosy days of my youth (christ Emma, you’re not that old – ed.), when it still felt like punk rock and friendship could save the world and that there wasn’t enough time to know everything that needed knowing. I’m not suggesting that Ivana’s going to end up as embittered and depressed as me, but hopefully you know what I mean. Maybe my friend Lou said it best when Ivana started bring her zines into Black Rose (an anarchist bookshop in Sydney): ‘Teenagers are fucking awesome!’ Yes they are, and so is this zine.

By Vanessa Berry, about Feels Like Friday #10...

A lot is happening after dark in Ivana’s suburb. All her Feels Like Friday’s have dipped deep into her thoughts and given us a chance to reside there for a little while. Smoking and thinking, people lost and found, typewritten, songs and secrets.

By Amber Forrester, about Feels Like Friday #10...

Ivana Stab lives in Australia by way of the Former Yugoslavia. Some common themes in her zines include nationality/ethnicity and identity and her frustration with living in the suburbs. This issue was typed on an Olivetti named Julia Oceanchild during a time when her lover was preparing to move overseas. Of course, this means that it's kinda sad, so maybe you shouldn't read it on a beautiful sunny day when you're preparing for a picnic. But it happened to arrive in my mailbox during a particularly bad week for me, and I was actually glad to have a zine about heartbreak in my hands. It's all cut and paste and almost poetic. This girl has a style of her own, and I've noticed the improvement in her zines over the last few years.

By Miss Helen, about Feels Like Friday #4...

Beautiful angsty post adolescent writing which is cut and pasted and published with little regard to the fact that the Internet happened, which makes it even more beautiful and precious. Every page is interesting and beautifully collaged in a not self conscious way, and it always feels like a really nice zine that you kinda want to pick up and flick through.

other places my zines are found

Some of these places may have run out of copies of my zines but if you’re nearby, why not stop and have a look...

SYDNEY

Black Rose Anarchist Bookshop
22 Enmore Rd
Newtown

Urchin Books
238 Marrickville Rd
Marrickville

NEWCASTLE

Bird in the Hand Zine Shop
100a King St

MELBOURNE

Sticky Institute
Degraves Subway
Shop 10, Campbell Arcade

ADELAIDE

Format Zine Shop
23 Peel St

ONLINE

Sticky Institute Mail Order

Bird in the Hand Zine Distro

Take Care Zine Distro

Vampire Sushi Distro

how to buy my zines

The easiest, most convenient and my favourite way is through my Etsy.

OR

Send me a trade! Your zine or a mixtape or something else you think I’ll like.

OR

Send me well-concealed Australian or American cash. Every zine I make costs $2 (except watch him bleed #2 which is $2.50) and it’d be nice if you threw in some cash for postage too, or stamps if you live in Australia. Because postage costs are a bitch!

Ivana Stab
PO Box 466
Darlinghurst
NSW 1300
Australia

about my zines

Feels Like Friday is a per/lit zine I made from 2005 to 2009. There were 12 issues made. Most of the writing was about nationality/ethnicity and identity; living in the suburbs and hating it; crushes; general teenage angst; and interspersed bits of optimism. Only issues 5 to 12 are still in print.

watch him bleed is my new perzine. In this zine I am going to attempt to stop self-censorship. I want it to be as honest a representation of myself as I can give.

TEETH is the free local music fanzine I make with ANNIE LY. It is our way of sharing with the world the music that we love that may not be very well known. The bands we write about are usually from Sydney. The zine can also be read online.