When blogger Elizabeth Spiridakis and Marisa Meltzer, author of Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music, teamed up to make a zine about first kisses, we knew it was going to be something special.
How did you get the idea for a zine about first kisses? And why a zine?!
Marisa Meltzer: We were on our way to a party over the holidays and started talking about adolescent sexual experiences and were cracking up at the stories of our various first kisses. I think we had both wanted to do a zine because it felt fun and more tangible in light of everything we do online. so the idea of doing a one-off zine about kisses just seemed perfect.
Elizabeth Spiridakis: We were pre-drinking for a holiday party and reminiscing about young awkward hookups, and totally cracking up. We mad ea drunk pact to make a zine about and pinky swore that we would uphold the pact (truth!!) We both do a majority of our work online and we were really feeling the idea of making an OBJECT, a tangible thing to hold. Plus we like being crafty.
Did you ever make your own d-i-y cut and paste zine as a teen? What were they like?
MM: I had one in high school called And She Whispered Secrets in My Ear. It was sort of both angry and wistful–the cover of the sole issue was a picture of a prostitute from Sicily, I think? Um, yeah. It was the ’90s, that’s my only excuse.
ES: My zine in high school was called “Unshaft”. The cover was of the girl from the Never Ending Story. I made it with my friend Hazel and we had like, show reviews, stuff about boys and a review of the snacks in the vending machine in the cafeteria..(I was in 10th grade).
Top, Marisa; bottom – Elizabeth
Overall, what were the submissions to First Kiss like? Were they mostly tales of heartbreaking teen woe? Or were you surprised?
MM: I had a really unsatisfying first kiss, so I was pleased to see that some of them were actually kind of hot initiations to sexual experience. There was definitely a lot of heartbreak. Also a lot of Jordan Catalano references, summer camp, and pushy friends. Everyone talks about how they think they were really too old to be having a first kiss in the first place–which is something I thought, too–so it was nice to hear I’m not alone.
ES: The stories that surprised me the most were the supersweet dreamy ones, I can’t believe some people have picture perfect first kisses (jealous!). A lot of them were funny as hell. LOTS of Jordan Catalano referencing, one Juggalo reference, a ton of summercamp frenching and one that would be a pefect Sonic Youth video starrng Chloe Sevigny circa 1995.
If there was one song to describe the First Kiss zine, what would it be?!
MM: That’s so hard! I’m sure Elizabeth and I could think of tons and will probably think of different ones. I’ve been partial to “Kissability” by Sonic Youth. A friend sent me Jawbreaker’s “Kiss the Bottle,” which is also pretty great.
ES: “She Loves Me,” by Stephen Duffy. From the Some Kind of Wonderful soundtrack, it’s the jam.
Do you plan on working with each other again?
MM: We’re going to do a zine about 90210. We’re both obsessed with 90210 and watched it as teenagers and still watch the reruns all the time. It will come out on 9/02/10. I mean, how could we resist?
ES: We vowed to make 2 zines a year. The next one is about Beverly Hills 90210!!!! We are both obsessed. It’s on SoapNet 4 times a day, I mean..my DVR is full. It’s gonna come out on 9.02.10, best ever or BEST EVER? (I realze that day already passed for you Brits but here in Amurrrica we have until September to celebrate).
Interview – Katie Coleslaw