1. That it kickstarted my re-engagement with two things I've always felt deeply about (journalism and politics) after a somewhat bleak, jaded and frustrated period during which I had turned away from those things.
2. That as a reader, I never felt patronized to, that the writers and editors would set a bar for thoroughness and thoughtfulness, and expect the reader to reach up for it.
3. That I could read it cover to cover, and it would take days.
4. That I always walked away having learned a great deal, and often about at least one topic I had never given much though to prior.
5. That it gave good reviews to three different CD's I released.
6. That in the same issue that my first article for the magazine was printed, the zine I had sent in as one of my writing samples was ripped to shreds in the review section.
7. The fearlessness the magazine displayed during the jingoistic post 9-11 march to war on the part of what seemed, at the time, the entire nation.
8. The belief that punk was more than a constrained musical form, that it instead was an encompassing ethos of independence that could be found in many, many forms--in hardcore and in country music, in experimental electronic music and in folk, in emo and in metal, in online forums and in activist dissent out on the streets, among nerds and queers and men and women and trannys and artists and zinesters and comic drawers and fiction writers and drunks and straight-edgers and media wonks and lawyers and pirate radio stations and podcasters, that it could be found in Pilsen, Singapore, NYC, or Iraq. And the belief that creating not only a space for fiercely independent culture, but a far-reaching, wide-ranging journal or almanac of that culture, was an essential task. It was, and it still is.
Anne and Dan and Joel and Josh and Laura and Dave and all of the other people who devoted the time and effort over the past 13 years to produce a credible, inspiring and crucial document of the insane time we have all lived through (and continue to) have succeeded brilliantly at what has been no doubt a near-Herculean effort. Thank you all.
that was awesome. I've never actually been able to articulate what you said in #8 anywhere near as well as you just did but, from the start, that was exactly the idea. I'm glad that at least someone picked up on it.