Article 2847 of alt.zines: Path: news.cic.net!ddsw1!news.kei.com!eff!news.umbc.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.uoregon.edu!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!docgen From: docgen@u.washington.edu (Dan Braimage) Newsgroups: alt.zines Subject: Dystopinion online #1 Date: 25 Feb 1994 03:34:41 GMT Organization: Wangifesto Mailroom Lines: 416 Message-ID: <2kjrkh$6sv@news.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: stein.u.washington.edu Summary: It's an e-zine Wangifesto Press Presents: DYSTOPINION ONLINE #1 The following information and reviews have been culled from DystOpinion #s 12-16. We decided that in presenting our first e-zine we needed to offer something different from just the text of the current issue of the hard-copy zine. Due to the importance of graphics in DystOpinion that we are unable to reproduce in this format, if you enjoy this e-zine, we highly suggest you send a S.A.S.E. to Wangifesto Press P.O. Box 45622 Seattle Wa 98145-0622 for the latest issue. Since we are able to pick and choose the reviews for this "best of" edition, we are only including those that reflect things that we really enjoy, unlike the regular DystOpinion, where we review honestly practically anything we are sent. Please feel free to forward this publication to anybody who might be in the slightest bit interested. We love you here at Wangifesto Press! DystOpinion was thrilled to receive word from "Saucer Smear" the ultimate in UFOlogical skepticism. Extremely cynical and in depth, Smear goes to UFO and paranormal conferences around the world, and lets you know what is phony, and in rare cases what might not be. Mixed in is gossip, odd newsclips about people like Uri Geller, and letters from the likes of Robert Anton Wilson. Send them something cool, and they might mail an issue or two to you. P.O. Box 1709, Key West, Fl 33041. It's not exactly a hip secret that with e-mail, the zine world has gone boldly into cyberspace, but nonetheless, once you get online it's not always easy to figure out where to get started. One highly effective e-zine that we were sent is Assemblage, a "deliberately ephemeral, occassional, mobile journal" about rave music and culture with "articles on the social implication of this music (if any)" You can get an issue e-mailed to you merely by contacting Russell Potter via rapotter@colby.edu, and if you have any reviews or articles about techno, ambient, house, hip hop, or related music and art, you are encouraged to submit them as well. Science fiction fans who want to experience exotic worlds in an exotic culture will want to attend the First Baltic Science Fiction Convention BALTCON and the 1994 Lithuanian National Science Fiction Convention LITUANICON in Vilnius from the 24th to the 26th of June. Expect to see interesting people from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and all over the world indulging in films, panels, debates, RPG, exhibitions, and masquerade. If you can handle the airfare, the con is cheap at $25 U.S. For more info contact SF Club DORADO G. Beresnevicius, Antakalnio 65-33, 2040 Vilnius, Lithuania. Be sure to request a copy of their excellent newsletter The Contact to whet your appetite. Not only is Bill Clinton the first U.S. President to admit having smoked pot (sort of,) but he will also be the firs robot president to give a speech at Disneyland. (We're not making this up!) It's a small world after all... Azalia Snail played to a disturbingly empty Capitol Theater in September. Their music echoed in our collective cerebellum for weeks, more so because Ms. Snail was so kind as to give us her album Burnt Sienna and single "Into Your World" b/w "Warm Front." The songs are timelessly psychedelic, with electric and effects-laden acoustic harmonics fused with minimal percussion. Live the "drummer" plays thumb-pianos over a steel barrel. Ms. Snail's voice is haunting, as is her personae when she sings. Songs like "St. Nowhere" and "Hit by a Car" invade consciousness like sweet aether and stay unceasingly. Send eight to ten bucks to Funky Mushroom Records PO Box 100270 Brooklyn, NY 11210 for Burnt Sienna. IF YOU REALLY WANT FREE SMASH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY The Experiment at Petaluma is a bizarre video of Terrence McKenna melting in psychedelic cinematography while talking about the way that sqids communicate using light, and they have to spray ink to get any privacy. We rented our copy from Mandala Books, 1 block off of Roosevelt on 64th Ave. in Seattle. You can buy it from Rose X, 17 Coleridge, SF CA 94110. "The monster stumbles into pretentiousness and eats himself" is at least part of the theme of issue #18 of FARM PULP Magazine, perhaps the strangest and most well executed trip into the surreal to grace our coffee table(s) recently. Top notch black and white graphics mix with textual suggestions of monstrosity; some stories, some little more than ideas. Luke McGuff contributes "On Getting Pierced", perhaps the most "realistic" piece. Otherwise myth meets B-movie with no clear winner. WELL WORTH the 2 bucks. 217 NW 70th Street, Seattle, Wa 98117-4845. The mailroom here at Wangifesto Press can get a little disorganized at times... sometimes envelopes get lost. So when a band packages their single like CONDEUCENT do, with just a weird logo on one side, and a trippy picture of an archetypical little girl on the other, we can get pretty confused as to who the hell we are listening to and where they are from. Thankfully in this case we found the note with label address from Zadfuc Noises 3468 S. 119th St., West Allis, Wi 53227. $3.50 ppd. This is fine post-punk experimentalism and it wails! We at DystOpinion were blessed to receive a copy of ZenArchy, a book by Kerry Thornley that belongs on the shelf of any practicing anarchist. A humorous and thought provoking book sure to keep even those with the shortest attention span thoroughly entertained. Eastern philosophy bred with the "no-politics-is-good-politics" ideology makes for a blissful state of anarchy, thus the appropriate title ZenArchy. Illuminet Press, PO Box 746, Avondale Estates, GA 30002. BAN STRAIGHTS IN THE MILITARY! Based on a tip left on our now defunct hotline by one of our readers, we went to see Manufacturing Consent, the documentary film about Noam Chomsky. We wish more of our calls had been so useful. This is a great movie that we reccomend seeing by any means. There was a certain irony viewing Chomsky attacking the media in very edited MTVish cuts, but the film-makers are aware enough of what they are doing that it is doubtful they missed this irony. While long (3 hours), it was never boring, and we learned about the genocidal invasion of East Timor by the U.S. backed Indonesian government, a fact that our "free press" has kept us quite ignorant of for twenty-odd years. FREE FORUM VS. THE ARM'S EXTENT: Definately two of the best literary zines in Seattle. Free Forum features a lot of the more experimental people who read at Red Sky Poetry Theatre, while Arm's Extent is more connected with the Owl & Thistle scene. Both zines are very open to submissions, but so far AE has considerably more women , and people from outside Seattle than FF. Both zines are free if you can find them, FF is perhaps easier to find with likely locations listed right on the zine. Free Forum is available from Obscure Writer's Press at Box 33087, Seattle, WA 98133. The Arm's Extent can be reached at 1209 E. Denny Way, Seattle, WA 98122. (note: when we originally ran this "vs." column, the people at Free Forum took issue to a lot of what we said, and decided that they don't like us because of it, that's the risk you take in having an opinion.) One of the most exciting and informative books of 1993 was, for us at least, RE/SEARCH Incredibly Strange Music Volume I, a series of interviews with obscure record collectors and fringe musicians. From the Cramps to Ertha Kit, from Amok Books to Lypsinka, the cultural refuse of thrift store vinyl is picked apart and mulled over endlessly. The reader learns about more than just music and bizarre album cover art, there's also tiki barbecues and the Unknown Museum. As the words go by on the page you can practically hear the soothing strains of early moog synthesizers and the exotic sounds of Martin Denny. Warning, if you have overcome your urge to buy and collect records, this book will get you started again! It even has an index. Send an SASE for catalog to RE/SEARCH PUBLICATIONS 20 Romolo #B, SF, CA 94133. The Colonists is perhaps the best serious U.F.O. Watch zine we have come across. Not skeptical or cynical like Saucer Smear, they seem to be true believers. The articles are quite well done, covering intersting topics as well, such as EMFs. Box 1161, Ft. Washington, PA 19034. While you're not likely to hear the name on the radio, Fuckface make very interesting music, in the tradition of strange electirc noises emanating from New York. "Tex/Thorn" is almost tribal in scope, and very aggressive in delivery. Zadfruck Noises Label 3468 S. 119th St., West Allis, Wi 53227. Buy Now! Not only does DystOpinion review music and noises by a wide variety of independent and non-commercial artists, but we are now also loosely connected with a radio show on K.A.O.S. 89.3 F.M. in Olympia, What's This Called? airing at 2 A.M. Sunday Nights (Monday Mornings.) So now if you send us something to review, and we REALLY like it, it will not only get a positive review, but also air-play on public radio. The northwest bible of hip hop culture, and an essential read is THE FLAVOR. If you are into rap, or want to find more out, this is your hardcore mainline. Not a lot about the big names, an underground education. 20112 18th NW, Seattle, WA 98177-2210. (note: recent issues of The Flavor have contained a lot more ads, and a lot more big label groups, but nonetheless they are the only NW hip hop zine we've come across, and they believe in their music.) We put the new TVTV$ disc into the player not expecting much. The title "Rap Music Is Killing America" seemed like silly sensationalism, and comments by band members in Flipside always come across the same way. So we had to be won over by good punk rock songs, and we were. Tunes like "What about U.S." recall classic low-budget punk, while the title track actually succeeds quite well as a white noise sampling anthem. It is difficult to tell if the TVTV$ are sincere about the title (or anything!) or if they are mocking media sensationalism in general. Of course if Rap Music really IS killing America, then that is all the more reason to listen to it. Flipside Records PO Box 60790 Pasadena, CA 91116. Now that the city council in Seattle has managed to make it illegal to be homeless, and for anybody to sit down on a public sidewalk, they are once again taking aim at the musicians, artists, and political groups who use the cities telephone poles as a means of communication. Despite a court decision proving it contrary to the first ammendment to prohibit people from flyering, fines of up to $100 have been levied against musicians recently. It is time for the art community to take action. More flyers with anonymous political statements are neeedes (direct them at JANE NOLAND the ordinance's sponsor.) The Seattle music scene must stand up as the powerful economic force it is against this type of bullying. This is a battle that must be fought in the courts and in the streets. Tacoma's most popular export, Girl Trouble, sent us a copy of their true fanzine WiG OUT! (No. 21.) Kind of funny, since Empty hasn't sent us any of their records, but way fun (of course) anyway. We defy anyone to catch Girl Trouble live and not have a good time, and WiG OUT! is the kool kitsch we krave. #21 contains a high school annual version of the archetypical guest list. PO box 44633, Tacoma, WA 98444. !@#$%^&*()_-+={[}]<,>.?/:;"'~`!@#$%^&*()_-+={[}]<,>.?/:;"'~`!@#$%^&*()_-+={[}] Will the REAL Bob please sit down. What follows is a review of a musical recording and the reaction of a couple of our readers. Sound simple? Not when the question of intellectual property enters the picture. There can be no question that "Bob Dobbs" the recording artist from Toronto stole his name and image from Ivan Stang's Church of the Subgenius, who in turn stole their ideas from too many places to list. But does that mean that the music automatically sucks? Read on, listen, and decide for yourself. Bob's Media Ecology, the cd by Producers For Bob, has been out for over a year now, but we just got to hear it for the first time and are compelled to spread the word. Bob Dobbs claims to have inspired Ivan Stang's creation of the same name, while he himself seems like a cross between Marshal McCluhan, and Tim Leary. The music is not unlike the orb; i.e. slowrave. There is a humorous charm to this project, and maybe masturbation really IS "the thinking man's television." DOVentertainment, 2 Bloor St. W. #100-159 Toronto Ontario Canada M4W 3E2. Dear DystOpinion, My enclosed letter to Urban Spelunker asks: who next will fall for the Bob's Media Ecology scam? Now we know, it was YOU! My condolences that you have joined the list of suckers. I know it is not pleasant to be made a fool of. (why yes, we're sure you do - eds.) I write to you as one who has been close to the heart of the Church of the SubGenius for years, who knows Stang & has broken bread with him in his home with his family -- and I can tell you that BMEco is a rip-off of the dedicated toil of the many people who have labored to make this church truly "the Greatest Joke Ever Told." Not only is it a slap in the face to those who have given so much of themselves, but it's not even that interesting of a rip-off. The church encourages heresy, schism, faction & freelancing among its followers -- but the stale melange of tepid Cyber-New Ageisms flatulated by this human excrement from the sewers of Toronto barely qualifies as what it claims, implicitly, to be: entertainment. (we disagree of course - eds.) This outrage must be stopped. Please help to spread the truth, and thus we shall SMITE this anti-"Bob" where it hurts -- maybe if people stop buying his "product" he'll go back to peddling heroin to school children, or whatever it is he does for a day job. Praise "Bob!" Kenneth Huey (206)632-3759 460 N. 39 #B Seattle, Wa 98103 (Thanks for sharing - eds.) The SubGenius Foundation P.O. Box 140306 Dallas, Texas 75214 You guys must be pretty fuckin' DENSE to give "Bob's Media Ecology" the time of day. -- Rev. Ivan Stang But go ahead, SUCK the CONSPIRACY'S ANUS. GRRR. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE ALARM is the voice of the north-eastern Earth First!, as well as a great networking source for ecovists everywhere. They are pushing to make the EF! movement more open to paganism, feminism, and queer politics. PO Box 804, Burlington, VT 05402. One of the most overlooked recordings to be released in the past year, and one of the few that really makes use of the cd format, is actually a compilation of material dating back as far as 1981. Steve Fisk's excellent retrospective Over and Thru the Night, on K records, features 19 tracks of brilliant tape manipulations, found sounds, and multi-tracked instrumentalisms. Some of it, notably "One More Valley" works very well as song, while other tracks, such as "Government Figures" are suitable for answering machine messages. K Records Box 7154, Olympia, WA 98507. Somebody once asked us if Wangifesto Press is an anarchist press. "No," we replied, "we're not that organized." Nonetheless we do feel and affinity for anybody who talks about smashing the state, and we do like to read a good anti-government rag whenever we can. Two of the best we have received are Wind Chill Factor (PO Box 81961, Chicago, IL 60681,) and Unclean (2128 Ward St. Beserkeley, CA 94704.) WCF is almost impossible to read in its entirety unless you are a graduate student in anti-politics, and contains all sorts of great tips for reeking havoc on the phone company and other fun corporations. Unclean is a bit more punk, and quite a bit more violent. We tend to be a bit closer to WCF's "screw up the system" than Unclean's "off a pig" attitude, but we really dug all the neat posters and D.A.R.E. card that Unclean sent. In a related note, we swear that we saw a black flag with a capital @ on it right next to old glory on Willie Nelson's birthday special. Go figure. If you aren't a disciple of the late paranoid genius Phillip K. Dick, go pick up any of his hundreds of novels. If already a convert, you may be interested in the PKD Society, and their now defunct newsletter. They sent us a copy of #30, the swan song issue, containing a beautifully delusionary letter from PKD to a friend, and one of his ex-wife's rebuttals to his accusations. Back issue price list at Box 611, Glen Ellen, CA 95442. In the sleazy world of promo kits and lame overpackaged-underplayed cds we get inundated with, its a pleasure to encounter non-music labels like ROTENROLL and MARV RECORDS who have joined resources to put out the FREE split 45 between hardcorers Negative Reaction and power-popsters Whatsoever. This is great shit, and it's free! Write: N.R./WSE 7", 222 Jerusalem Ave., Massapequa Park, NY 11762. Conspiracy of the Week: DystOpinion #14 contained info on the great left-of-left, off-the-wall, public access show Political Playhouse. The times given were wrong. Sources say thay former C.I.A. director Casey, pretending to be dead for the past 5 years, while hiding in the Wa state town of Ranier, snuck into our office and altered this very important information to prevent YOU from watching this great program. The CORRECT rimes are: 10 P.M. on Fridays and the 1st Tuesday of every month at 8 P.M. That's channel 29 (Seattle only, sorry.) Readers in NYC can catch it on channel 17 Mondays at 2:30 and channel 16 Saturdays at 9 P.M., and it's also on Austin public access (check your local listings.) Clinton Heylin succeeds very well at the difficult task of telling the story of the early New York, Detroit, and Cleavland punk rock scenes in his book From the Velvets to the Voidoids - A Pre-Punk History for a Post-Punk World. Undoubtedly there is an underlying bias of one fan's opinion (such as Heylin's belittling of the Dead Boys), but that makes it seem all the more sincere. It focuses on the following bands in roughly chronological order: the Velvet Underground, MC5, Stooges, Modern Lovers, pre-Pere Ubu roots, Suicide, New York Dolls, Television, Patti Smith, Blondie, Ramones, Heartbreakers, Talking Heads, Dictators, Dead Boys, Voidoids, DNA, and Lydia Lunch. Notably absent in the later half is Sonic Youth, though there is mention of Richard Hell's work with with Thurston Moore in the Dim Stars. There's a lot of info about what these bands were doing that didn't necessarily ever make it on record. Makes us wonder why there are so few bands today as good as most of these. Available from Penguin Books. Now that the Rocket has become a biweekly update of Major Label success stories, where do you turn to find out about the uncorporate NW rock scene? Besides DystOpinion? 10 Things Jesus Wants You To Know of course. 10 Things is fast becoming the voice of NW punk, and an undeniably audible voice at that. #5 has Crunt, The Putters, Pain Teens and lots more including zine reviews and music reviews with a very indie approach (even some demos.) $1.50 cash or stamps to 1407 NE 45th St. #17, Seattle, WA98105. Tried U.F.O.s, Reincarnation, Neo-Paganism, a Bob or two, and you're still looking for something new to cash in all your assets to believe? We suggest Revelations of Awareness the newsletter of Cosmic Awareness Communications and the Aquarian Church of Universal Service. The newsletter is completely channeled, and answers such pertinent questions as: who was Topiltzin or Quetzacoatl? Will our Constitution be preserved? and Well pinhole glasses really help the eyes? Issue #416 deals with the Goddess Energies. Sample Copy FREE P.O. Box 115, Olympia, WA 98507. Punk lives in Reno! Second Guess is a very interesting read. While at times juvenille, we're sure that's the idea, and editor Bob is very honest in opinions (something we admire.) It would be easy to compare this to MRR, but that would only lessen its unique impact. $2 PO Box 9382, Reno, NV 89507. Whether Bruce Roberts' compilation of writings about the political conspiracy and the involvement of organized crime in the U.S. government - writings that consider the Kennedy assassinations, the disappearance of Howard Hughes, Chappaquidick, and Watergate - are reflections of fact, or deluded ramblings, may never be fully known. We find The Gemstone File by Jim Keith to be a noble effort to place the file in a historical context without attempting to substantiate or invalidate any claims made within the body of Roberts' work. By surrounding a synopsis of the Gemstone File (the "Skeleton Key") with historical documents and interviews, Keith examines the people and events in an even-handed manner. Available through Illuminet Press PO Box 746, Avondale Estates, GA 30002. Michelle Rau is an artist/writer who does work for Factsheet Five, and has been corresponding with DystOpinion since the beginning. She sent us two wonderful publications, A Rage of Maidens ($2 ppd.) and Horlodge House ($4 ppd.) Rage turned out to be some of the best erotica we've consumed: line drawings of seductive clothed women, accompanied by text that should arouse all orientations attracted to females. Horlodge is a collection of dreams for the psychological voyeur. How Do You Spell It Productions, Box 460896, SF, CA 94146-0896. Packed with elaborate (she even illustrates the edges of each panel) strips of varying length with tales of 2-headed freaks, a pointy-boobed owner of a pet scampi, a mermaid & her pez-necked friend, and our favorite, the next holy virgin, comes Meat Cake #1 by the lovely & brilliant Dame Darcy from Fantagraphics. Don't miss the chance to enter the world of Dame Darcy (this comic is just the tip of the berg) she even makes dolls. c/o Fantagraphics Books 7563 Lake City Way, Seattle, WA 98115 or Tedium House (box 424762 SF, CA 94142.) (reviewed by a woman in case you care.) Global Mail is a zine that takes networking to a new extreme. Kind of like a postal version of a BBS. Ashley Parker Owens receives over 100 pieces of mail per week and lists every return address 3 times a year, along with what individuals want or can offer. This is a monumental piece of work, and uncopywritten at that! PO Box 597996 Chicago, IL 60659. An incredibly good band with an incredibly big sound is Montreal's Megalo who we caught at the Capitol Theater with four other good but lesser bands. Megalo are a three piece who take the best elements of NoMeansNo and Helmet, then throw in a singer with a good voice and sense of restraint. We bought their tape for 2 bucks to help defray the $450 they blew crossing our wonderful border to play in tiny clubs. It contains two cool songs "T.V. RASH" and "BORN 2 DIE", and can be yours from P.O. Box 463, Place Du Parc, Montreal, QC, H2W 2N9. Booking Info. (514)849-8602. :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):) That's it for this first issue collector's item. There's a lot more where this came from, and still more to come. If you were reviewed in DystOpinion and we didn't choose to run your review in this issue, please do not take it personally, we just got sick f typing! Write us and tell us you would like it included in the next issue, and it will be done. If you have anything for us to review send it to Wangifesto Press, P.O. Box 45622, Seattle, WA 98145-0622, unless it's an e-zine, then just e-mail it to us. We love you here at Wangifesto Press!