Crash Site
URL: http://www.directnet.com/Crash/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Patrick Joseph
*So you say you want a revolution, we-ell you know...*
The kids at Crash Site, part of the Big Gun Project (which is really big), play at apocalypse, nihilism, and destruction, (emphasis on the word, ³play²). Despite all the jawing at this site about militias (they ³heart² them) and guns, (they heart them, too), and revolution, they¹re really just disaffected kids, fresh out of college or the suburbs (N.B. I don¹t really know their backgrounds, but I¹d bet my shoes on it), badly needing to vent some spleen. The pages are all rife with the same unrelenting dissent and dread of the future. And something else, a kind of ³white rage,² that would be laughable if it weren¹t so persistent.
I don¹t mean to suggest by ³white rage,² that this is some sort of skinhead prop or anything. No, it¹s less focused, and takes aim more at that amorphous thing called ³the system,² than any race or creed. So, that¹s part of it: the *rage* part. The *white* part has something to do with the panoply that finds its altar here, and something I noticed about it: the cultural icons are almost exclusively white. Consider: The Beastie Boys and House of Pain, two white rap bands -- one Jewish, one Irish -- are, unofficially, Crash Site emblems of rap. Charles Bukowski and Kathy Acker are predictable literary heroes, but where are Leroi Jones and Ralph Ellison? Militias figure largely in the Crash Site trope, but Malcolm X and the Black Panthers? Absent. Which isn¹t to say that you won¹t find any black voices or emblems, here, but to show which way the balance leans.
Crash Site is page after page of challenging, in-your-face imagery (the graphics are consistently impressive, some of the best on the Web) and argument. Most of it is stuff that, to put on the jargon, I ain¹t down with. Not at all. ³We'd like to say we dig all militias, but along with espousing admirable values of violent overthrow,... many of these cuckoo-birds promote a goofy neo-christian anti-semitic viewpoint.² So starts one argument. It ends like this: ³ Would we want to have these folks ruling? No. But that's not really the point.The time is well nigh to split the whisker, roll your own, and start a militia.² All right, sure. Then what?
Crash Site, finally, is long on gripes, short on answers. Clicking on the hypertext that reads, ³Join the Crash Militia!² brings you directly to the free merchandise page. Posters and stickers. Dissapointing to say the least.
If you¹ve read this far, you¹re probably wondering why I deemed this a site of the month in the first place. Fair enough. I¹ve been asking myself. I suppose it has something to do with respect for effort. Reluctantly, I have to admit that the scope of these pages is impressive, even if the quality of the rhetoric sometimes flags. There is a strident sincerity behind the project, which, even if I find it wrong-headed is good to see in a generation (my generation) known for its apathy.
So, while I hope they never find anything to aim their guns at, I also hope they keep it up. If I don¹t often agree with them, I never find them boring.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Retro
URL: http://www.retroactive.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Under the banner "anything that was ever cool," Retro preserves 20th-century pop culture online and does it well. In addition to articles examining such cultural bygones as down-home blues and Southern painting, Retro boasts classic movie clips and audio samples of music from the old days. Leave messages for other Web browsing anachronists on Retro's own bulletin board. City Guides to experiencing the best of the old are still under construction, but
promise to be interesting. Features are updated every two weeks, with
new postings daily, which is pretty current for a site dedicated to the passe.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Stim
URL: http://www.stim.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
I was well into an issue of Stim before it dawned on me that I had no idea what I was looking at. I followed the "What is Stim?" link but it didn¹t do much good; the folks at Stim like speaking in riddles. Nevertheless, I think I can say this much for sure: Stim is a boisterous and chaotic 'zine with excellent graphics, boasting a stable of writers with a pinpoint sense of irony, off beat humor and relevance. The subject matter is broad, the tone irreverent without being adolescent. Recent features include an interview with *Geek Love* author, Katherine Dunn, an expose on trashy French cinema, and a rumination on the power and appeal of ³skanky girls.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Tokyo Rockin¹
URL: http://rd-gk.ntv.co.jp/tko.rockin/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: Yes
Author: Wayne Cunningham
Japanese pop culture has lately enjoyed a wave of popularity in the American underground. With Hello Kitty characters accessorizing the young hipsters, Manga racks beginning to dominate comic book stores, and more and more slickies paying lip service to Anime, the trendsetters appear to be residing in Tokyo. To rise above the tired crowds, then, with their shallow, cliched references, the true hipster needs to dig just a little deeper. That individual at the art reception who can posit, knowingly, ³You¹ve just got to hear the music of Demi Semi Quaver. Emi-san¹s voice is ethereal,² will surely stay out in front of the competition.
But getting the inside track on what¹s hip-happenin¹ on the Japanese pop scene has never been easy. Fortunately for you, Tokyo Rockin¹, a Japanese e-zine that publishes interviews with artists and musicians from the native avant garde, has an English language version on the Web. Not just any English, mind you: This is English a la *Nihongo*, a beautifully offbeat patois born of bad translations and cross-cultural confusion. Consider the rap issue, featuring Japanese hip-hoppers Shakka Zombie and King Giddra. ³King Giddra came from Venus,² says the rapper of his namesake. ³He is a space monster. Light beams come out from his mouth, but in this case it is our words that come out. It is aiming peoples brain. It comes after listening to our songs sensuously. We want to break every persons mind.² Isn¹t it great to see that Japan is still captive to the monster fetish?
The far-out graphics and weird text are well-integrated at Tokyo Rockin¹, each interview accompanied by a generous amount of artwork, including photo layouts of interviewees, sound bytes, and movie clips. Navigating the site takes a bit of work, however, since the first page doesn¹t give many clues as to the scheme of things. Just remember, unless you read Japanese and have the corresponding language kit on your system, don¹t take the Domestic route: You¹re an Alien. Also, keep in mind that the cover page graphics are generally enormous; Tokyo Rockin¹ is nothing if not high-bandwidth. If you want a listing of all the Tokyo Rockin¹ issues, head for the Super Index.
Perhaps the most endearing thing about Tokyo Rockin¹ is the name of the creative team that launched it. The Space Travolta Crew (dig the logo), a group of graphic designers and writers, also produces a wild multimedia show for Japanese television called Neo Hyper Kids. Only in Japan. Go go, Godzilla.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Beer Frames
URL: http://www.core77.com/beerframe/index.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Here¹s a site based on a print column ³which examines a variety of products and services -- some unusual, many exceedingly ordinary, but all worthy of close inspection.² So says Paul Lucas, author of Beer Frames, the Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption. And if you like consumerism at its weirdest, this is the place to be. Myself, I don¹t get it. Either Mr. Lucas has an abundance of free time or he¹s just unnaturally preoccupied with senseless commercial products. He¹s hip to the absurdity, mind you, of products such as toasting bread -- that is, bread make exclusively for toasting -- aerosol lawn make-up, and canned whole chicken, and, as such, the site may well be an attempt at deconstruction; however, I found the product reviews preposterously overwrought for subject matter so frivolous. Of course, who am I to talk? I review websites for a living.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
George Jr.
URL: http://www.georgejr.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
The best that could have happened to George, Jr. did happen: George Magazine, John F. Kennedy Jr.¹s big time political rag slapped a cease-and-desist order on the zine for alleged copyright infringement. I think I¹ve got that right. To his credit, George Myers, Jr., the beleaguered editor has not made much of the whole brouhaha, aside from a few editorials in the latest release having to do with trademark law -- none of them written by him. Mr. Myers¹s casual attitude in the face of John John¹s attacks has, however, won him something of a following. That¹s good. He deserves it. An eclectic, thoughtful literary zine that looks at topics outside the ordinary, George Jr. is a good mark by which to judge all the rest. This is self-publication at it¹s best.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 18
Furious Green Thoughts
URL: http://members.gnn.com/furious/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
What we have here is a lot of vitriolic ranting on topics such as the futility of college degrees, and mind control. A disclaimer at the outset proclaims loud and clear, "We Have No Morals!". It¹s a prominent strain in cyber-publishing: "unconventional material" representing marginal points of view thrust out there for all to see. There's no agenda, nor any ideological consistency in the critique of the system, but nevermind: shouting this loud takes dedication. Much of the writing is borderline, but that's at least half the fun.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
La Paranoia
URL: http://www.paranoia.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Paranoia is at the front lines in the war against censorship and government regulation on the Internet. They don't just talk in the abstract about freedom of speech, either; they exercise it. Paranoia has compiled information on all sorts of illegal and subversive activities, from how-to's on scams and hustles to the low-down on the narcotics your mamma warned you about. The design is smart, though text-intensive, and the user Web pages are enough to merit a visit. Granted, acid-trip yarns get kind of old, but I'm impressed that someone took the time to cull the good ones from countless hours of USENET chit-chat.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Zeitgeist
URL: http://sensei.co.uk/zeitgeist/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
The stated aim of Zeitgeist is to provide the reader with "cerebral delicacies." And the writing is certainly intelligent, but is it interesting? The page looks great, and content-wise, it¹s all distinctively British, from the essay on Morrisey to the dissection of the "mod" ethos. Included in the Art section is a poem on the innocence of childhood, complete with a meadow of flowers in the background; it easily ranks as one of the more inane things I've read this calendar year. The vinyl reviews section is still under construction, but if the focus on Morrissey is any indication, then you have to wonder. To answer my own question: Zeitgeist is a snooze.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Bomb
URL: http://www.bombsite.com
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Miles Orkin
Most modern magazines feel the need to create an online presence, and Bomb is no exception. The pluggable version of this lit/art/culture mag is fully endowed with all the articles of its paper-based parent, plus the chance to engage in further discussion with and about featured people and events. This is both a positive and a negative quality. On the one hand, you get insightful, in-depth coverage of a range of contemporary creative types-for
free. On the other hand, even the most interesting 1,500-word magazine article, when read on-screen, can give you a headache.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Zeen
URL: http://members.aol.com/zeenzine/zeen.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Miles Orkin
Despite its technical savvy and stylish on-screen appearance, Zeen is
firmly grounded in the grassroots tradition of Xerox-based, punk-powered
personal publishing that originally spawned the term zine. Like any zine
worth its toner, Zeen is chock full of angst-ridden rants, unwanted advice,
regional in-jokes, disturbed amateur art, and loads of pint-sized, punchy
reviews -- of books, movies, records and other zines (with mailing addresses
and urls when available). Zeen is irreverent and unpolished, a refreshing
alternative to the legions of cybercool "cutting-edge" e-rags cluttering up
cyberspace. There is, of course, an old-school paper version of Zeen as
well.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Social Justice
URL: http://www.tripod.com/~goforth/socialjustice.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Social Justice celebrates progressive movements in the fight for
gender equality, democratic representation, intellectual freedom, and
human rights. The programmers take their task seriously. Topics range
from murdered street children in Guatemala and Honduras to the
rising tide of feminism in France and India, and the extensive links
make Social Justice a great place to start surfing for other
activist spots on the net. Searching through back issues I
found a great interview with Morris Dees, which made excellent use of
hypertext to highlight points and clarify details. On the downside, Social Justice is not quite as adept with humor: a section comparing current political leaders to computer viruses was flat. Nevertheless, Social Justice is worthy of the movements it supports.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
Fine
URL: http://www.kioken.com/fine/intro.htm
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Fine Magazine, dedicated to art, music, photography, and current
affairs, is visually excellent, but the developers of the site seem to have focused on the aesthetics to the detriment of the navigation and content. The table of contents, for example, looks intuitive enough, but takes many clicks and passes to figure out. Some of the categories are simply empty, others are dead ends. Like a reputedly fine restaurant with bad service and tiny portions, this one left me hungry.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 17
XXX Fruit
URL: http://www.echonyc.com/~xxxfruit/
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Miles Orkin
You can find XXX Fruit on the racks, but it makes a righteous vapormag as
well. Online issue number one, entitled *Witness: Exquisite Corpse*, takes
Johnny Cochran's opening argument for the O.J. Simpson trial and turns it
into an electronic ³exquisite corpse.² Every line links to spinoff spiels and
squeals from a variety of cyberconscious cats and kittens, plus other
essays and sites connected thematically to various key words. The prose is
cerebral and socially concerned, with a hint of high-concept mumjum-
altogether a dense and webby delight for postmodern hyperhoppers.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Under Wired
URL: http://www.covesoft.com/underwired/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
A self-professed ³postmodern peek into the graphic design biz²
Under Wired spoofs *Wired and *HotWired (NotWired) hilariously. Don't miss Overtired/Underwired, a take-off on the infamous Tired/Wired list. There¹s also: ³Type vs. Design Legibility: Who Gives a Shit,² and *Fetid: Techno-lust for things that smell really, really bad.² While the site won't occupy your brain for more than a few minutes, it's always nice to see an effective parody.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 16
Flakezine
URL: http://www.flakezine.com
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
In the digital age, a hiatus like the one Flakezine has taken can mean irrelevance and utter failure. A zine that goes for the inside line on snowboard industry gossip, Flakezine bitches ad nauseam about the unholy union between the mainstream publications (all of which come out regularly) and the snowboard manufacturers (that pay their bills). Somewhat amusing and they do have a point, but (until the revolution) money makes the world go round.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Split
URL: http://www.lainet.com/nomad
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
As much as I'd like to see Internet ventures like this survive, prosper, even flourish, I can't imagine why anyone would subscribe to Split. For $20/ year you get access to the magazine (which is free to everyone else), plus 1) a personalized Q&A resource 2) a match-maker service in case you can't find anyone to go on that safari with you 3) a free sample of anti-jet lag perfume. Uh-huh. The free part of the mag is fairly pleasant reading: destinations, spots to avoid, etc. They better rethink this strategy. Split can give away perfume by the gallon, but, I promise you, they won't get my twenty bones.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
BigSky
URL: http://www.imt.net/~bgskymac/BigSky_MacEzine.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 0996
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Miles Orkin
Big Sky Mac Ezine is an online newsletter published by a Montana-based Macintosh user group. True to the classic user group archetype, it¹s friendly, informative, informal, and geeky. Every issue has a how-to feature (creating image maps for online publishing was the task in the latest issue), well-documented recommendations for shareware, freeware and payware, a Q-and-A meeting place, and links to other interesting sites. Periodic visits to Big Sky are definitely worthwhile for Mac users -- just be
prepared for emoticons and behind-the-scenes Star Trek Voyager photos.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Freeze-dried Comedy
URL: http://members.aol.com/freezedc/main.htm
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Daniel Alarcon
Hotshot and Mohawk, designers of the Freeze-dried Comedy homepage,
grabbed some jokes, some graphics, and threw it together to see what
would happen. This site is still young (I was visitor 422 on the counter)
and the inexperience shows. Some spots are still under construction,
the organization is a little garbled, and most importantly, only
about half of the jokes are funny. Admittedly, a few jokes had me laughing, but just as many were duds. There is a roundup, however, of a links to other "funny" sites, under the heading, "Weird Wide Web". Their
sponsors page, where they listed Mexico as a patron ("they all
chipped in") was somewhat insulting, and the designer's bios are typical:
confusing nonsense with humor, and zany for zaniness¹ sake.
content: 2
aesthetic: 2
savvy: 2
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Fade to Black
URL: http://www.fadetoblack.com
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
An online comedy mag, Fade to Black is worth a yuk or two. Well,...maybe just one yuk. The problem is that the premises are the funniest parts of the jokes. Consider, for example, ³The Great Publicity Search² in which the editors write to uptight activist organizations and ask to be boycotted. Not bad if you can follow it up with what¹s known amongst professional cut-ups as a punchline. No easy trick, I admit, but there it is. As it is, the resulting letters are mildly amusing at times, but more often tiresome. Other gags include a spoof on *Consumer Report* called ³Which Religion is Best?² and ³Net Nymph,² a fictitious piece of software designed to screen everywhere everything on the Web except porn. Laughing yet?
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Crisp
URL: http://www.crispzine.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Excellent
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
NYC-based Crisp is targeting the same kind of people that write the zine's lifestyle pieces: downtown yuppies with nothing to say. These pieces dabble equally in "fashion," "politics" and "activism", all with an eye to the almighty buck. It's working too. Crisp is nicely designed and plastered with BMW ads which allow it to serve RealAudio and manage a reflector site. To be fair, I did read an informative piece on object-oriented tech and the future of the Internet,
but the rest of the material either lies beyond Crisp's domain, or reeks of
corporate stoogery.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Levity
URL: http://www.levity.com
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Levity, a zine of the arts, was developed by Levi Asher, a prolific guy with some prolific friends who obviously likes having his writing, opinions, and picture on the World Wide Web. There's nothing wrong with that, but there's something a little too self-congratulatory about this site for my taste. Some of the
writing, graphics and ideas at the site are interesting, but they are
overshadowed by the techno/goddess/hypno/psychedelic jargon sprinkled liberally throughout. A little levity would go a long way.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Gray Areas
URL: http://w3.gti.net/grayarea/gray2.htm
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Here it is straight from the horse¹s maw: ³Gray Areas exists to examine the gray areas of life. We explore subject matter which is illegal, immoral and/or controversial. We hope to unite people involved in all sorts of alternative lifestyles and deviant subcultures.² True to it¹s mission statement, this zine puts its shoulder to the wheel with stories and articles on folks out on the margins: porno stars, hackers, prisoners, junkies, etc. Still, it¹s not as far out on the edge as it fancies itself. Writing was all over the place from snoozy concert reviews to compelling stories like ³Heroin¹s Tale² and essays with titles like ³I¹m a Vegetarian...In Love with a Butcher.²
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
The Offerings Project
URL: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~geo/holly_crawford.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
This is an idea in keeping with the notion of the Internet as community, first and foremost. Holly Crawford, of Stanford University, invites you to send her an offer. It can be anything: a sketch, a poem, a recipe, a formula, you name it. If it strikes her fancy, she¹ll make it part of her ongoing collage. Not really a zine, perhaps, but I don¹t know what you¹d call it. The Offerings Project is sort of like the World Wide Web in miniature. A bunch of stuff, posted up along alleyways like so many concert flyers, shopping circulars, lost pet notices, for sale signs, love letters, etc. Chances are you won¹t look at any of it. Leastways, not really.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
HillsWeb
URL: http://mcweb.martin.k12.ky.us/schs/faculty/hillsweb/hillsweb.htm
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
This online project, like it¹s editor, Bobby Allen, hails from Appalachia. An unabashed hillbilly zine, its aim is to preserve Appalachian culture, while portraying the realities of an area and community so often stereotyped as backward, illiterate, and inbred. A simple pasting together of poems, photography, student essays, and jokes, HillsWeb is refreshingly honest and unpretentious production, somewhat marked, though not marred by, rural insecurities. Not too kitschy, and not even a little bit flashy, this is a nice piece of Americana, online.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Stet
URL: http://www.stetmagazine.com/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Stet proclaims itself ³the best in cutting-edge fluff.² If these zines keep writing my reviews for me, I¹m gonna be out of a job. I¹m not joking: that about says it all. Three clever young men have put their wits together and produced yet another digizine without a mission, thoroughly steeped in the attitude so often labeled GenX, and almost totally bereft of fresh ideas. As a part of that generation who detests the label and is quickly tiring of the attitude (call me jaded), I found this one hackneyed and tiresome. Clever but inane features clog up the bandwidth here like hair down the drain. You choose the logo. You pick the winner in The Fight of the Day: ³A jackal or a monkey with a tazer?² Yeah, funny. Who cares? Time to get the cleaning stuff out, kids, pin your ears back, and get to work.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Other Voices
URL: http://www.ibm.com/OtherVoices
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Excellent
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Other Voices, IBM's online magazine, capitalizes on the hard work of others by summarizing or cropping selected articles from some of the best online magazines‹Salon, CNN Interactive, C/Net and others‹then linking to the source. For example, the first few paragraphs of an article from The Red Herring appears with a link to that zine¹s Web site. I suggest going to the source, and skipping the IBM middleman.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
Culture Shock
URL: http://www.communications.hunter.cuny.edu/shock/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
Culture Shock is a collection of hip papers written by New York City graduate students for a course called "The Historical and Social Roots of Mass Culture." What you'll get here are well thought out, well written critical essays and anecdotal tales concerning the many sides of popular culture. For example, a deconstruction of Beavis and Butt-head sits well in the table of contents with the "Fear and Loathing on 42nd Street" feminist take on peep shows, and a study of "Fame in an Image Culture." It seems that Foucault is fine and living in grad school seminars!
Overall Rating (out of 18): 15
An Entirely Other Site
URL: http://www.etext.org/Zines/EOD/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Excellent
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Greg Knauss specializes in a variety of dead pan, off-kilter humor that manifests itself in short, short stories about the mundane that inevitably begin with the preposition, so -- as in ³so there I was...² or ³ so this guy comes up to me...² -- and end with you laughing. The whole thing began as e-mailings from Greg to his friends a few years back. You can subscribe to Greg¹s mailing list at <eod@macuser.com> or browse the titles -- like ³Orange Julius Caesar,² ³Reality Chews,² and ³Happy Birthd-Aiee!² -- here at the site. You¹ll be happy you did; Greg is very good at what he does. I¹m just not sure what to call it.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14
Exploded View
URL: http://members.tripod.com/~eXploded_view/index.htm
Category: Zines
Issue: 1196
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
³All form, no content, ² this classic zine is just one big, senseless, toss-off by the site¹s self-conscious creator, Mark Watson, an Oregonian with a day job, a sidline in clip art (some free samples here), and a pretty decent sense of humor. No content? Well, not much. Not much form, either, for that matter. Just style. If you like that style, you can order the paper version, six bucks for ten issues. Either way, not much to keep you here at the electronic version. Follow links to other zines of a similar bent.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14
Swim with Elmer
URL: http://www.asis.com/elmer
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Swim with Elmer, an on-line 'zine dedicated to the idea that "Art is
a State of Mind," warns visitors of the slow load times required for
a graphically rich web site (a debatable point). They weren't kidding. These are some of the slowest loading pages I have experienced, a fact which heightened my expectations while trying my patience. Now, I¹m of the opinion that art is more than just a state of mind: talent is important too. So while this site has an offbeat charm, and gets some credit for it¹s non-profit enterprise, Swim with Elmer just isn¹t worth the wait.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14
Your Mom
URL: http://bird.taponline.com/yourmom
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Good
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Rachel Saidman
Your Mom is an online magazine sponsored by Tap on Line, a popular
site for college students and young adults. Unfortunately, the humor at Your Mom is at the same level as fart jokes and rubber vomit. Featured highlights include ³The world and the way it would be if there wasn't rubber², ³How to win the love of a dairy product², ³A phive minoot coars in stalking,* and *Testicular Trauma.* I'm guessing the staff is made up primarily of young men in their early twenties, and perhaps that is the target audience as well. Myself, I found it pretty puerile.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 14
TUA Online
URL: http://apex.apex.net/users/jyoung/
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: Ananda Nada
Digging into its archives reveals that TUA Online began as a project in
middle school journalism. Mission accomplished, TUA now devotes itself to
the literary aspirations of local Paducah area students, publishing their
fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and essays. In this sense, it's like a school
newspaper without a school. Video game reviews share space with emotional
high school poetry and somersaulting e-mail applets. A piece I read on irc
etiquette that required constant lateral scrolling, and the frames needed some tightening. If TUA corrects these problems and exercises some editorial
control, it could be an exciting forum.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13
Casablanca
URL: http://www.bogo.co.uk/doug/casa/casa.html
Category: Zines
Issue: 1096
Content Quality: Good
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Poor
Site of the Month: No
Author: Patrick Joseph
Check out the publication the Guardian called ³a rude little magazine.² Casablanca trumpets itself as ³tough on slime and tough on the causes of slime,² and claims to represent opposition to ³the humbug which characterizes our age.² Sounds good so far. Sounds even better when you consider that they publish the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Tibor Fischer. Only problem is this isn¹t the zine. I¹m not sure what it is. The splash says that Casablanca *is* going online, not that it *has*. When I clicked on articles, the was a header thanking the magazine for allowing its reproduction. It¹s like a magazine cover with no innards, some kind of weird shadow play, I dunno. It¹s not a zine though, whatever it is. Not yet.
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13
The Dungeon
URL: http://www.primenet.com/~xtorres
Category: Zines
Issue: 1296
Content Quality: Poor
Aesthetic Quality: Poor
TechnoSmart Quality: Good
Site of the Month: No
Author: David Pescovitz
You would think the gloom and doom crowd would be right at home in the depths of The Dungeon--a darkside 'zine obsessed with pain, agony, and torture. But in reality, the site itself is a torture to read, with dark green and red text on a black background. And the content is not at all worth going blind for. One of the things that The Dungeon offers is a place to confess your secret torture fantasies‹like how you want to cut the soles of someone's feet off and leave them at the beach. Or you can relive the "Create Your Own Adventure" book days by traveling through Lurk, a somewhat
inane piece of interactive horror fiction where you see "how many different ways you can die in one sitting."
Overall Rating (out of 18): 13