The Thousands

Zine royalty Vanessa Berry creates each issue of her Disposable Camera series by giving herself a predetermined number of pages to fill using her trusty Remington Envoy III typewriter, and only a day to fill them. Often this sort of self-imposed deadline leads to sub-standard and rushed-sounding storytelling, but as a means of encapsulating a thoughtful moment during her trip to Melbourne it works especially well. Set on the evening of a house party in Fitzroy, it starts with someone telling possibly the unfunniest joke about Metro train zones you’ll ever hear, goes on to wonder whether North Melbourne is really a time portal back to 1980s Britain (as everyone is listening to The Cure and The Smiths) and ends running away from scary men smashing bottles on the pavement. Yeah, I’ve had nights out like that too.

This issue also comes with a map of Melbourne that lets you navigate the author’s reminiscences from previous visits. So, on this map, Footscray is the place she only visited to get doughnuts, Carlton is the place her friend’s boyfriend shoplifted some ouzo by stuffing it down his pants, and Frankston is the place where she was photographed next to the grave of someone called Tom Cockhead. It’s pleasant for a map, although I don’t think the portmanteau word ‘Melbourne-mory’ is going to catch on.