BLOG TO COMM

FANZINE YOU-KNOW-WHAT!

Before we get started well...I know that I'm not supposed to feel happy and gloat over the misfortunes of others, but it sure makes me pleased as punch hearing the Dave Marsh has gone and plopped his last turd on this planet of ours. As any tru-blu BLOG TO COMM fanatic knows in his heart of hearts knows by heart already, Marsh was one of the many worst examples of that sordid business known as "rock criticism", and his usually sappy takes on the music at hand whether it be rock, soul or even rap was something that always curdled my stomach juices to the point of surrender. Sure people are up and about remembering the jiz by mentioning all twenty-six volumes of his Bruce Springsteen biography not to mention his ROCK AND RAP CONFIDENTIAL which more or less espoused the guy's outdated youth radical zeal applied to sound which has aged just as much as Gary Trudeau's hippie bewilderment, but all that's popping into my mind is his horrid book covering the "Louie Louie" phenomenon as well as his purposefully vengeful review of THE DICTATORS GO GIRL CRAZY which I guess didn't hinder any sales of the platter at the time, but certainly didn't help them.  More will come to minf, and probably keep me awake all night. The living turd always seemed to get it wrong whether it was  calling 16 a fanzine or misconstruing punk rock in the most candyass golly gosh WEST SIDE STORY fashion imaginable. Good riddance to thee Dave, although your passing certainly came a good half century too late. Wonder how Greil Marcus is feeling these days...

Anyhow, on to more tasteful things. I miraculously managed to get hold of a few more of these wondrous (some of the time) home-produced efforts that have thrilled me seemingly from time immemorial (and considering how old I am it might as well be!). I even got some long-wanted ones too which you can bet makes me feel happier than a teenage boy with a periscope who lives next to a nudist colony. 'n so, here goes...

What the world needed during them mid-seventies fun-packed days of Gerald Ford losing his balance, NYC in default and decay plus an overall beautiful jaded attitude amongst the smarter amongst us were fanzines devoted to some of the more over-the-wall bands who were permeating the planet. Well, we did have some like HONEY THAT AIN'T NO ROMANCE and IGUANA representing the views and opinions of the German and San Francisco branches of the Iggy Pop Fan Club, and if only had Constantine Radoulovich gotten his Velvet Underground fanzine off the ground a few years earlier maybe we wouldn't have had to wait so long before WHAT GOES ON eventually made it to our doorsteps in the late seventies. But as far as I know TEENAGE NEWS was the only fanzine on the planet that, at least during this period in time, was devoted entirely to none other than that group that immediately drove people in polar opposites...the New York Dolls! And yeah, if you would have asked the teenbo populace of the mid-seventies which group they should think have their own mag dedicated to 'em it woulda been the Dolls, right? Oh well, it woulda been nice if the teenage mindset of the day was more affixed to the Dolls than to Elton and his Johnson, but at least the Dolls had their fanbase that thankfully enough cranked out a fanzine at a time when one was most surely needed.

You can see why people like Jymn Parrett really flipped over this first ish and raved about it in his own DENIM DELINQUENT mag. I mean hey, sure it was a xerox one-side job not exactly reproduced the way some of you more demanding readers would have wished, but it sure was something you could say was plugged into the grittier aspects of mid-seventies rockist living which really woulda suited many especially in those days of heavy duty media blackout (not as blackout as the eighties on, but still bad enough).

Montreal in origin, TEENAGE NEWS is everything that I like about these mid-seventies reads. You can tell that the people who put not only this 'un but a hundred other fanzines out were hotter 'n ever for the sixties explosion and gladder 'n glad that they were lucky enough to live through and experience the big beat firsthand. Via the likes of groups like the Dolls they were more'n just willing to seek out any remaining fragments (or big chunks even!) of that glory that Davy Jo 'n company bestowed on many a lost frosh cramped up in detention.

Yeah, the xerox job leaves much for some of you more tight sphincter types amongst us to desire plus a lot of the pictures were obviously swiped from the likes of ROCK SCENE and other on-the-ball publications of the day. Sheesh, the review of TOO MUCH TOO SOON by Lester Bangs at his racist-iest was swiped out of either CREEM or PHONOGRAPH RECORD MAGAZINE, but ain't that just part of the charm of these clip out and paste up fanzines that still had that teenage spirit of being young and there was this world beyond your reach out there and you only wanted just a little piece of it for yourself?

In many ways this resembles one of those Lillian Roxon-urged fanzines that a buncha local gals cooked up around the same time (see ELECTRIC WARRIOR FREE PRESS review below) or such other crank outs along the lines of APPLE CORPS that might not have had the techno-whiz but still made one feel great that there was something around that was worth sticking around for. The future issues of TEENAGE NEWS were a little more universal in their coverage of what was happening in that then-exploding underground rock scene, but this early one does capture that early/mid-seventies sense of fandom and unbridled obsession that more than just a few teenbos out there possessed in their spirits.

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Since the last FANZINE FANABLA I came across yet another issue of the legendary LITTLE SANDY REVIEW and y'know what? This "vol. 2 no. 1" issue dated July 1966 is a somewhat different mag'n the last one, perhaps (but not definitely) because LSR founder Paul Nelson is nowhere to be seen and while the cat's away mouse Barry Hansen is bound to play. Oh there's still plenty of space devoted to the old folk blues type of guys who were only then being discovered complete with a few original photos and detailed biographies, but that evil specter of ROCK 'N ROLL was beginning to veer its ugly li'l head into the mix not only with a bound to get the folkies riled up review of electric Dylan's BLONDE ON BLONDE but snatches of stuff regarding the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Blues Project, Mothers of Invention's FREAK OUT and the first two Fugs albums if you can believe that! Heck, the brief singles review section makes mention of Love's "Seven and Seven Is" as well as the latest Byrds and a record by some group called the Sunday Servants (who sported a certain J.J. Cale as a member) which sounds like a real nugget if you ask me!  I can just see the mag's regular clientele being utterly revulsed at the contents of this one, that is before tolerating it then accepting and ultimately embracing it in typical Alexander Pope fashion.

I gotta admit that the rock 'n roll coverage is a nice progression from standard folk and blues orientation of the mag and perhaps it was the next logical step, but frankly I find the reviews of these records rather dullsville spewing a whole load of words but not really saying anything crucial or enticing in a way that would make me want to go and purchase let alone shoplift any of these records. But leave that to the likes of R. Meltzer and CRAWDADDY which were just around the corner anyway. 

Special attention should be made to the mystical prediction of shapes of things to come which appears in the inside back cover's "Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame No. 1" entry, perhaps the first time that horrid idea was ever laid to print. The first entry in this perhaps somewhat unique way back when concept went to Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, someone who I get the sneakin' suspicion is not in the real deal hall way up there in Cleveland Ohio.

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Here are a few that I don't think I've told you about, both of 'em noteworthy and important mags in the history of rock fandom for reasons I will naturally clue you in on. 

As you all know...back in the early seventies none other than the mother of "rock criticism" herself Lillian Roxon told her just-post menarche gal acolytes to go out and each do a fanzine on their favorite rock 'n roll acts. As a result we got some interesting kitchen-table pubs that were pretty remarkable efforts considering that the females who put 'em out probably averaged a "C-" in English...take for example Lydia Laske who cranked out a few issues of SLADE PARADER while Terri Ferris did well with DAVID'S GIRLS which later became STAR SPECIAL (a review pops up on this blog and good luck finding it). But for today we're talking about Natalie McDonald, a lass who devoted her time and energy (and I'll bet some of her lunch money) to ELECTRIC WARRIOR FREE PRESS. I gotta admit that the gal did a really good job of slapping together what was perhaps the first of hundreds of Marc Bolan fanzines that have made their way into the world of rock ever since those heady days of T Rextacy, and considering the effort and quality that went into this title I'm sure even the most anti-BLOG TO COMM amongst you would have to agree that this wasn't just any ol' gooey drooly paen to the one called Marc.

The world surely needed such a fanzine endeavor at the time and McDonald delivered on something more than the usual oh golly gee wall of air that many teenbo gals (and college paper wannabes) got into for years on end. This 'un's a rather smart mag with quality writing, fun fan art and if you can believe it a whole number of "professional types" helping out. Some contributors in the first issue hadda be axed due to space limitations, including one Peter Laughner which might have been one of the biggest editorial blunders in fanzine history. I mean, who in their right mind would hold up a Laughner article but eh, I guess McDonald didn't know who she was dealing with yet. And unfortunately enough I do not possess #2 so I'll have to forego what Laughner wrote about Marc and Company. Not that it's driving me crazy but...

I can't quite tell which material in this one originally appeared in the ultra-obscure all-gal fanzine BILGE, but you get a lotta good Bolania in these, including a Roxon article detailin' what she would do if she managed Our Hero to girls writing their own prose in the Chariot Choog'lin tradition. There are even a few pieces that were written up by those with a mothering instinct that I'll bet they never extended to their own brood. Rare snaps and of course up to date discographies help fill out this rather entertaining effort. They just don't make teenage girls the way they used to now, do they?

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It's harder than anything trying to get hold of John Kriedl's VIBRATIONS these days but when I do you can bet it's an occasion to toss the confetti over. What CRAWDADDY was to Swarthmore and MOTHER was to Austin, VIBRATIONS was to Boston and the scant issues I've seen were whatcha'd call pretty snat, especially the early slick paper glossy photo ones that had a pretty nice look to match the somewhat sophisticado but readable nevertheless writing courtesy Kriedl and his various contributors which at one time included a pre-Modern Lovers Jonathan Richman.

Nothing by Richman in this second ish from '67 but that doesn't mean the thing is a turdburger by any stretch. The rock scene of the day is covered, only in a to-the-point intelligent sorta fashion (none of that superficial college newspaper glop here I'll tell ya) complete with alla that insight that was starting to pop up in some of the smarter writing of the day. This 'un has Jeff Beck on the front and some good ruminations regarding the state of English rock as well as a piece on soul by Jon Landau (well, it is better'n something you would expect from the same guy who masterminded Bruce Springsteen's climb up the latter to suck sess). We naturally also get a bevy of reviews covering the newies of the day like Country Joe as well as that Velvet Underground review by Timothy Jacobs that was so good it's been reprinted to all heck. Speaking of the Velvet Underground, if only someone would reprint that Richman special insert that appeared with an early '69 issue back when this fanzine temporarily went tabloid.

A nice find here and if you can find any well, goody for you. Just hope ya don't forget yer ol' Unca Chris when yer making xeroxes for all your fambly and friends.

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SurprisesurprizeSURPRIZE but I actually got hold of one of them eighties rock fanzines that I missed out on first time 'round. No it ain't PUNCTURE (almost got one until I noticed a certain J. Neo's name in the credits) but TRULY NEEDY, the fanzine of one Barbara Rice who I understand later ended up as some sort of associate of Bob Dole if you can believe it (I got it from a good source too). Now that might be a twisted rumor (or mangled brainwaves on my part) but it would seem strange for someone who would cop an old Ron Reagan line as a snarky fanzine title to actually be working anywhere near a Republican, but stranger things have happened over the years and I should know!

I mentioned in the last Fanabla about the loads of fanzines that I missed out on back in the eighties due to my depression-era wages making sure every penny I had went towards a worthy enough purchase. It's only now that I'm trying to do a little catch up, and although the prices are way higher than they were back then at least I can get a taste of the kind of scribbling that I should have been privy to but wasn't due to my financial straits. Enough teeny weeny violins...here's a biggie from the eighties that I've only recently have been able to land my paws on, the seventh issue of Barbara Rice's TRULY NEEDY.

And with a name like that you know that TRULY NEEDY must be just as dated as the rest of the snarling anarcho/hardcore/punque "'zines" that made their way off of many a pampered pooch's drafting table. Well, yes and no, since editor Rice, at least judging from her letter that appeared in BIOHAZARD INFORMAE, had a sense of what rockist writing should be and how it was to play in a decade that seemed to eschew that previous Golden Age of Rock Writing era that fizzled out with the passing of Lester Bangs.

The mag looks pretty neat with the layout looking uncannily like the last two issues of the should-be infamous HYPE(RION), which not surprisingly came out roughly in the same vicinity as TRULY NEEDY and if it weren't an influence I would be surprised. The list of contributors is remarkable as well, and if I hadda spew anything negative 'bout this particular ish (#7) it is that the under-the-underground music scene of the day wasn't quite the kinda thing that I would want to wax eloquently over. Oh there were plenty of musical acts that would have sated my rockist cravings at the time, but danged if anybody I know would've even known about 'em let alone written 'em up in their mags.

For me hardcore punk was the last burst of creativity and ingenuity that had come out of the 1964-1981 rock 'n roll groundswell, and unfortunately it almost immediately burned itself out to the point where by decade's end the whole concept of punk certainly turned "punque" which only led up to the throngs of tiresome and humorless neo-hippie protestor types one sees these days whether he wants to or not. Of course back then some could start to see the rot setting in if one were to peruse an issue of many a competing rag more concerned with Nicaragua rather than jams kicking, but who woulda thought it woulda led to the kind of anarcho/gender/Maoist moosh many of us have to contend with these days!

Still, TRULY NEEDY's really worthwhile since not of that political pose affects this particular issue (maybe others?). This ish's got interviews with Flipper, Henry Rollins long before the self-conscious leftist moralizing set in, and Ian MacKaye who was probably well indoctrinated already and although I never cared for him you might and if you do get this!

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There were quite a few worthwhile fanzines to have crawled out of Canada, but in all my born days I never heard of BLAH BLAH WOOF WOOF. It's a slim affair (ten pages if you count the front and back covers) but it's a pretty good mag to read, with plenty of Canadian Content and more of that fannish style of writing you just never got outta most Big City Rock Critic types (unless you count Don Snowden, whose position at the LOS ANGELES TIMES was one case of "one of us" penetrating the halls of higher scribedom pretty much unheard of before or since), Material on the Curse and BOMP! magazine faves the B-Girls, the former with an interview even, and reviews of Martha and the Muffins during their early days and various other bands from up there are rather easy to be snatched. It has a good we're fans too attitude and guess what...the thing was the brainchild of one Ralph Alphonso, a name ones rather common in fanzine circles before those circles turned "square", ifyaknowaddamean,,,

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Given how outta the loop I've been with regards to fanzines in general during the late-nineties it's no surprise that FREQUENCY totally missed my radar eyes. It was an important enough effort what with a cover that looks like the eighties-era experimental music mags that you used to read about in OP, and the general layout and feeling really does fine by a guy like me who really isn't that keen on the newer computer-styled layouts that started popping up around the middle portion of that decade. I latched onto this because of the interview with Simeon of Silver Apples fame (never knew about the Warhol connection), and the rest of this is no slouch either even though I must admit that I am not familiar with what else in covered here and it ain't like I'm exactly gonna rush out any buy any records by any of these acts either! I like it in its own smart and well-produced way and there should have been more fanzines like this popping up back in those somewhat communication-starved days.

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As we all know there were rock and related (somehow) fanzines coming outta England at a rapid pace during the seventies and eighties. Many of them were good, others were atrocious and, like with many other endeavors of the same caliber, we hadda really make an effort to choose wisely lest our hard-begged be wasted on some dismal crudzine in the process. 

NO CURE's yet another one of these fanzine rarities that I never heard of before, and unless you're the editor's mother I guess you never heard of it either. Like with most of these outta nowhere wonders that got lost in the shuffle this is too bad because it really is a good 'un that should have gone onto brighter things, or at least whatever there was that was brighter in the English music fandom world. 

It looks like one of the better rags to have hit the world of under-the-underground music, what with the opening schpiel printed in lettering that was very similar to Lindsay Hutton's in the pages of THE NEXT BIG THING. They really must teach 'em how to print over there. The innards, while quite similar to a few thousand other magazines of the same strata, are well written and actually pretty in-tune with some of the better musings to hit the ears during the mid-eighties. There's also a page on the Ramones, The Mighty Stripes (a reggae outfit and not that later-on group with Stripes in their name), some local yokels calling themselves Savage Vinyl and, as a real feather in the cap, an article on NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS photographer Pennie Smith, a gal whose role in that paper and its role in the paper's Golden Era was just as important as that of Mick Farren, Nick Kent and Charles Shaar Murray's. Talk about some outta nowhere fanzine getting hold of a real scoop!

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Here're some more English ones, and given a title like NMX you just know that these two mags are pretty Merrie Olde in their own unique way. I snatched two of 'em up (#'s 14 and 15) and must admit that I marvel at the way these fanzines capture the entire early-eighties avgarde electronic rock milieu quite down 'n dirty. Not that I could actually AFFORD to snatch up all of those imports that businesses like Systematic and Rough Trade were dishing out way back in those extremely penny-pinching times (Believe-you-me, I had to be extremely cautious as to where my hard-begged pennies went) but eh, it is fun reading about Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and reviews of fanzines I never read and never will, thinking back to them days when the world of underground music was laid at my feet and I wondered just how my grass cutting money was going to be put to good use.  

Number 14 has articles on Clock DVA (never heard 'em), They Must Be Russians (ditto), Sexual Lotion (you'd think I'd wanna hear 'em with a name like that???) and other sundry types who perhaps really ain't that sundry to begin with. The following issue does it somewhat better with a big Throbbing Gristle interview, a Sheffield family tree for those of you who are really hot for things like that, pieces on bands you've never heard of before and never will after this, and even an interesting bit on then-current fanzines which did perk up an OCD kinda guy like myself. This kind of fanzine might not exactly be the type that suits my typical cravings for under-the-wire writing that borrows heavily from the type of rockscribing that I tend to settle down with, but I found both of these NMXes very "spot on" as they like to say over there with regards to the then-budding electronic underground music that was making for some rather beyond the pale kinda irritating waves, at least for a short time. 

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While we're overseas here's another English rag that you'll probably wish you got hold of only you lived in rural Mississippi and in no way were you gonna be able to latch onto a fanzine like this. Dunno what the title TEESIDE SMELLS exactly means but so what since this was a rather good effort and a whole lot more'n what anyone would have expected from some upstart fanablas who probably just went out and DID IT rather than settle back and study the fanzine process beforehand. 

This second issue is pretty golly gee, dated late '79 and pretty much capturing a whole load of the musical tension and energy that was still coming out at the time. These guys were into the essentials of the day like the still festering corpse of the Sex Pistols and Patrick Fitzgerald, not forgetting the usual local band roar up and various asides like a review of Ralph Bashki's animated LORD OF THE RINGS making this one of those fanzines that showed a whole load of doofuses out there that there were other things than music to pay attention to, at least for a short amount of time.

The most surprising thing about TEESIDE SMELLS is not only the article on the Who that was more or less written in honor of the deceased Keith Moon but an actual Roger Daltrey interview where the curly-haired one actually settles down and gives more'n the usual uh-huh answers. A real feather in their scalps if I do say so myself. A mag like this makes me glad there were more'n just a few smart lads out there who could write, dissect and appreciate the music at hand 'stead of all of those College Paper Erma Bombeck wannabes who continue to make me gag thinkin' 'bout all the disgusting happyhappy music scribbling they managed to put out!

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Here's an interesting find that is also of English heritage, the first issue of AYLESBURY ROXETTE. In case you don't remember (or have read some of my very early blogposts), this was a newsprint fanzine that was put out by the likes of Andy Childs and Kris Needs back when they weren't' fiddling around with ZIGZAG. I gotta say that I enjoyed the other ROXETTEs that I possess, but to be more honest than Eddie Haskell about it this debut really doesn't hit all of the expected fanzine buttons that I like to be plunked. Being a small foldover this comes off more like any free paper one would see throughout the seventies and eighties (which would figure since it was free!) and the entire package comes off more like an in-joke between all those involved and if you're outta the loop that's your tough turds! Just some stuff on the then post Hoople Mott, but that's really about it as far as anything noteworthy goes. The later ones were filled with the kinda of fun and vitriolic scribing that I enjoy from the worst of us human specimen, so in some ways you could say that the paper "grew" ifyaknowaddamean...

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One more English fanzine 'til we go stateside. Well, actually it is Scottish, and with a name like FEAST IN THE GARDEN I sorta wonder what to expect and even after reading this I have my own doubts considering the mindset I went into giving it the ol' once (and twice) over. Local bands seem to be the thing with these guys which is fine even if for the life of me none of the groups that FEAST IN THE GARDEN mentions seem to ignite my nodes. Maybe its because this was the early-eighties and my interest in local under-the-underground acts tends to waddle somewhere between the late-sixties and mid-seventies, a time before jerks like myself discovered these sounds.

Well, a piece on a local heavy metal group called Sister (I wonder how many groups sported that name in the seventies?) seemed somewhat interesting, and I'll bet this magazine served its purpose as a heralder of what good (I think) was happening in the immediate (Glasgow) area and if you were there you needed this. Features a one-page tribute to the late Ian Curtis and a Wayne County lyric.

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Hmmmm, if it weren't for AURAL INNOVATIONS I wouldn't even know that there was such as thing as a space rock continuum so to squawk. For those of you who believe that the entire idiom fizzed out around the same time that Nektar got stung to death you're wrong as usual. Nice mag here which covers not only a load of super-obscure acts with a few somewhat knowns like Chrome tossed in for good measure. And if you're looking for larger than life reviews Doug Walker of Alien Planetscapes did a big thing on the then-recent BITCHES BREW repackaging with all of the additional trimmings! The modern typeset doesn't appeal to me but everything else about this overlooked fanzine sure does!!!

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There's not much to this issue of ON THE BEAT, but what is in there is sure worth the while. It has smart writing---what a surprise!---and some interesting coverage on Washington DC-area hero Tommy Keene of Razz fame not to mention some reviews of the Oblivious with Holly Beth Vincent of Italians fame not to mention that Velvet Underground reunion thingie that got more'n just a few people like myself all agog (though the shimmer sure wore out once ya realized that this Velvet Underground was being filtered through '90s spic and span polish and glitz without the grittier aspects of sixties NYC gutter vision). One-sided printjob and kinda brief but its got the beat and if you were around way back when you could pick it up for free!

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Back to England. There are so many obscure fanzines that were up and about during the late-seventies/early-eighties that it would probably take a thousand me's to go through them all. Some were great, some feh and many just middling, but I'd gander that most all of 'em were worth at least a quick perusal. CRASH SMASH CRACK RING was definitely a fanzine of the the former variety and a pretty snazz one at that. Not only did this English effort cover the hotter under-the-underground sounds of the era like the then-recently "reformed" Red Crayola but they had a real sense of history to 'em...like take the opening editorial recalling the downright heroes of the seventies from Barrett and Bolan to Iggy and JESSE HECTOR (added points for them even KNOWING who he is) along with writeups on acts that I may have heard of but never heard (like the Door and the Window) and those I never really cared that much for like Essential Logic. Maybe I should give 'em another try because in this company they really do seem to matter more'n I ever knew they would. These guys had it on the ball...really worth the time it took to pour through the thing.

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And now for something to throw you off track, a non-rock fanzine! I didn't think there'd be any fanzine editors who would brazenly and proudly describe their efforts as being crudzines. Sure there were many of those monstrosities out there in fanzine land, but who in their right mind would have just come out and admitted that they were dealing out a load of crap masquerading as fan-based, insightful, thoughtful writing? Well I know of one that has, mainly THE CRUDZINE QUARTERLY, and although I believe that honesty in advertising is something we all could use a whole lot more of I would consider this effort to be rather non-cruddy, especially when compared to some of the turdballs I've been privy to for more years than I can imagine.

This "crudzine" (edited yearly, published bi-monthly) might be a slim jim but the writing is good and the layout readable enough especially given the reproduction of some of these homespun efforts. Four pages (not counting the cover), this looks more like an entry into some APA than a full-fledged publication, and the contents are strictly fan-oriented talking about home printing methods (the crank kind like Greg Shaw used to do) and inter-fan gab that will never interest anyone outside of the genre but eh, I could be wrong. But the big wonder about this issue is first, when was it published (I assume late-fifties by the looks of it) and second, what fan-based genre is THE CRUDZINE QUARTERLY catering to? I think Sci-Fi since Arthur C. Clarke and QUANDRY get mentioned but otherwise, who can tell?

Still, one of many pretty hotcha publications to come out of the realm and like, it does look nice snuggled next to some of the mags in my should be much larger fanzine collection.

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And to close things out...well, this really ain't a fanzine but it is a magazine and you can read it on the toilet so why not stick it here? And this rag does have some sorta connection to the groundswell that was sixties rock 'n roll, for THE FIFTH ESTATE used to be the home of the Ann Arbor rock 'n revolution crowd whose antics have been legendary ever since the day some jamoke had the wild brainstorm to start a magazine that he called CREEM. Only don't expect the same sorta anarchist abandon that gave birth to such stellar aggregations of the Stooges and Up because well, frankly, the material that pops up in this by-now ancient ish (Feb. 2021) is about as dull as a Left Handed Herniated Latinix Workshop. After reading a few pages you kinda get the idea that each and every person who was involved with this magazine has never heard of Right Guard. The same old same old these people've been rehashing for ages just seems to go on and on, and this special issue consisting of nothing but book reviews just goes to show you how humorless and staid whatever's left of what was "anarchism" has become (and believe-you-me, the only anarchist I care about these days is Lew Rockwell!). In other words, if you think that everything possible that could have been said about the Haymarket Riot has already been written, guess again.

Two bits on music do pop up, one a book on punk rock and Reaganism in the eighties that author Bill Brown evidently lauds but fails to realize that all this sound amounted to was the total hippificaton of punk into punque that practically killed off the form (other'n the usual hidden enclaves where it somehow thrives) and the other a review of the Residents book THE BRICKATEERS which ties in all sorta dada cum Bakunin here and there stuff that I somehow don't think the Residents had in mind while putting this thing out.

But still one can find humor in these pages --- if one has the warped mind capacity to look in the right places. In some women's libber scribed book review (written by someone I'm sure still has a poster of Mao in her crashpad) a woman can be seen holding ta placard reading "A WOMAN'S PLACE IS IN YOUR FACE". After looking over the snap a few seconds I figured that the sign should have read "ON" and if I were there I woulda told the lady just that! What are a few broken teeth in the cause of humor anyway?

And frankly, as far as anarchist rags go should one really trust a rabblerousing radical read like this what with a barcode on the front cover?