[nar:1-email.wav] Hey this is ..., welcome to the audio version of Lone Ranger Diaries. For the first edition. I want to tell you about zines. A while back, someone sent me an email a week after I gave him a booklet of 30 odd xeroxed pages folded down the middle. He asked.
>why do you put out a zine?
He added:
> to an extent i feel sorry for people
>who put them out (including myself!) b/c it shows the extent
>to which they feel they are voiceless in the world
I disagreed. I think many people are voiceless in this world. But I am not, and my zine is why.
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[nar:2-others.wav] Others feel this way too. Any time I travel, I look for local zines in the indie book stores and coffee shops. Sometimes towns even have critical mass: enough zinesters to merit yearly conventions. This year, in Boston, BeanTown Zinetown II was happening over at Mass Art. Last year I only took some zines home. This year, I took my zine, the Lone Ranger Diaries and, a mic.
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[nar:3-question-a.wav] I wanted to ask the question my friend asked of me. Why do you put out a zine? Zinesters are a tribe of self-obsessed Freudian analysts: the literate wing of the punk movement; always questioning: why do I think and act the way we do? If any group of people would talk about themselves, this would be them.
[nar:3-question-b.wav] ZineTown Beantown is lead by the Reverend Rich Mackin. A seasoned punk who works in a copy shop with one of those mail in religious titles (Reverend) so he'd sound a bit more authoritative when he sent confounding letters and questions to the PR departments of mega-corporations. I arranged to speak with him the night before Zinetown while he was setting up the tables.
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[nar:6-chatted.wav]:So we chatted for a while, but after 10 minutes we both began scratching our heads.
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So I did go in search of new friends and I found that the reason people work on their zines aren't all that different from my own. They are looking for a sense of community, a way to be creative in a world that only encourages conformity ... and finally, just because it's just ... a lot of fun.
[nar:14-cour] In the course of my conversations, I spoke with two 15 year old girls who put out a zine decrying the deteriorating state of the Boston punk scene -- ah I remember the old days. I spoke to a fan who published a magazine about those masks that Mexican wrestlers wear -- and of course he was wearing his own. I probably spoke to more interesting people in that hour or two of interviews, than I do any other month.
So I think I found my answer as to why people put out zines and I'm really not surprised. Because I think the real issue here is when I'm asked why do I put out a zine, is why don't you?
Oh, and a final though from Rich on the benefits of being a zinester organizer:
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This work was written and produced by Joseph Reag1e with assistance of those I interviewed and all the others Zinesters who make my days worthwhile. The soundtrack of this is Manu Chao's Clandestino. Further information on this production can be found at goatee.net. Cheers.
Punk isn't a meat market or a fashion show for me. It's not about dressing up. If other people are up to it, awesome. But that's not what I'm here for. It's about the presentation of ideas. The sharing of ideas. It's about the ability to change. The continuation of hope in a world that would often times make me want to feel otherwise. -- Keith Rosson, Avow #7, Punk Consumerism or "John Mellencamp rocks harder than some of you fuckwits out there."
Zines are about having something to say, and saying it. Direct action, personal responsibility for getting your message across. I think the lack of financial reward is relevant here, as well: zines aren't about making money, they're about communication, about getting your message across by any means possible. This leads to more of a sense of community, I think -- zines review each other, trade ads, and generally support each other because there really isn't a sense of competition; it's more about helping each other out. Dialogue is important here too, and the fact that a zine is often just a representation of the person behind it -- people connect because of their zines, and it's a way to teach and inform and enrich on a totally personal level. -- Elissa's Essay About Zines
From: randyman. For me, spirit is the key here — a zine has an individual spirit, a personality that is truly personal rather than corporate.