Lone Ranger Radio: The Zinetown Beantown II Interviews download mp3 or rm

In his zine Avow, Keith Rosson had an essay with a title that captures the reflexive and critical spin of the punk/zine movement: "Punk Consumerism or 'John Mellencamp rocks harder than some of you fuckwits out there.'" (Zine and punk album titles rule!) In the essay he wrote, "Punk isn't a meat market or a fashion show for me. It's about the presentation of ideas." Randyman complements this idea, "For me, spirit is the key here — a zine has an individual spirit, a personality that is truly personal rather than corporate." Elissa puts an agitator spin on it all, "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."

I am using all means possible. I take Jello's maxim of, "Don't hate the media. Become the media" seriously. While I can't articulate my message in 10 words or less, I'm writing, photographing, and recording everything I can — maybe one day I'll make a video! While the learning curve of audio is steep, it was fun and gave me a real sense of accomplishment. Unfortunately, it also takes a lot of compulsive dickering in front of a computer, which is bad for my hands.

Regardless, one of my '99 projects was to do a ten minute documentary akin to the style of This American Life. I'm finally done! (Ironically, as I was searching for Ira's email address (of This American Life) I discovered a guide on how to produce your own show! If I only had found this five months ago!) Lone Ranger Radio: Zinetown features yours truly, Rich Mackin, Duncan Wilder Johnson, and two Lisas for the price of one (Jammy and McColgan). I had other great interviews, but with ten minutes, what can you do? I've provided the program in two non-streaming formats:

1. lone-radio-zinetown.mp3 [high fidelity 5.3M, variable bit MPEGI-Layer3 encoding]
2. lone-radio-zinetown.rm [low fidelity 1.3M, 16Kbps realaudio encdoding]

Like everything I do, it could be better, but as Voltaire says, "Better is the enemy of good." Feel free to check out my Zinetown Beantown II Interview Production Notes for more information on how I did what I did. (As an aside, Lone Ranger Diary: Bumming a Ride  to the Rising Sun also includes a few short MP3 interviews I did in Japan last year.)

Contributors at Zinetown Beantown II

I knabbed the following on-line information from some of the zines I brought home.

* Other online local content can be found at the Diary Register.