The Urban Pantheist

In this snapshot from the weekend, Alexis rolls herself a cigarette after having planted veggie seeds in the starter pots. In the background, a broken picket in our fence gate taunts me.  But hey guess what we did last night?



We went to the taping of NPR's Ask Me Another! We've been excited about the show since Jonathan Coulton first announced that he was a part of it. I was very critical of it when it first started, but I've listened to every episode as a podcast. Part of my criticism had to do with host Ophira Eisenberg, (I just had to backwards anagram "her ripe begonias" to get close to spelling her name right) I didn't think she had good flow. But seeing her live was revelatory--she improvises very well, handles difficult guests with aplomb, and has polite but authoritative control of the stage.

Here she is preparing to interview Barney Frank, who got massive applause, especially when his work for gay rights was mentioned. He quipped that when he became a congressman in 1981 it was not acceptable to be a gay man in public life, but when he retired last year, his same sex marriage was respectable--but being a member of congress is very unpopular.

JoCo played "The Future Soon" as a full length warmup, a short version of "Brookline," and the first bit of the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man" (after the Barney Frank segment).

In the mid-90's, when I was publishing a comics anthology zine called "Don't Shoot! It's Only Comics," I was asked to be on a panel discussion at a library. I don't remember what the point of it was, but there were a handful of us zinesters there, explaining what we did and why we did it. I remember someone in the audience offered an almost hostile line of questioning. Basically he asked, "aren't you all doing what you are doing out of vanity?" which I guess is true on some levels but totally irrelevant (what's your hobby, asshole?) but more to the point of this this post, he asked "why aren't you publishing your zines on the internet?"



At the time, the internet was pretty new, and had a relatively small population of mostly upper middle class people. The internet is still largely a place for the privileged, but at that time it was inescapably so. Zines are populist, and they reach out to the disenfranchised and the marginalized. Using an elitist technology ran counter to most zine publishers' sensibilities.

Also, when I answered, I pointed out the awkwardness of the interface, particularly when compared to a comic book or a magazine. I used what became my standard refute for this challenge: "you can't take a computer into the bathroom to read it." Laptops, netbooks, and smart phones have made that into an absurd statement.

So now, 15 years later, why don't zinesters simply publish on the internet? I went to the Papercut Zine Library to donate lots of my zine and comic collection, and found myself wondering why zines still exist. The librarians there said they were hoping to plan more, smaller zine fairs soon in the future. That's great, I said, but in the back of my mind I wondered who the fair would be for; who finds going to the photocopy machine a more rewarding and less expensive exercise than simply banging away for a few minutes on a computer and getting feedback emailed to them? I mentioned the two zines I used to do, and that I no longer put out The Urban Pantheist in print, but that it was now online only. (I didn't tell them that it was a daily exercise that has largely become my identity more deeply and broadly than when it was a print zine.) They were visibly disappointed, not, I'm sure, because they were fans of my zines, but because I was a member of their culture who had left it behind.



I became sheepish, and mentioned that I'd had some photographs up in an exhibit--they were paper. That's cool, one guy said without looking at me. I started to try to think of a zine I could do, some worthwhile contribution to a culture I belonged to for over a dozen years. But everything I could express that way could be done here more quickly, reaching more people, with much better options for including photographs or links to other resources and related topics. I do like the idea of having a real printed product of my own in my hands, but at this point in my life, why not a book? None of my ideas are so counter-cultural that The System would refuse to publish them. (Many of the counter-cultural ideas that zines used to be the only source for, like veganism, animal rights, car-free culture, gay civil rights, polyamory, transgender issues, and so on, are pretty much acceptable topics for mainstream publishing and, dare I say it, websites). If I had the ambition and the connections I would be aiming at the book world with my ideas, not the zine world. (I just want to pause to acknowledge the role that zinesters played in bringing those issues out into public discussion. I feel like people in zine culture were behind important changes like what happened in Massachusetts in 2004.)

So who are the people still making zines? People who love paper, people who love print, love getting things in the mail. Probably still some people who feel marginalized, that even with the internet and the limitless landscape it represents that there is no place for them, no community. (Or people who are denied access to the internet? For whom photocopying and postage is still a more practical process?) I heard a technology reporter yesterday say that Apple and Google were competing to "deliver the consumer to the marketplace" with their products. That phrase alone made me contemplate making my own paper out of compost and dropping off of the grid, for fear of being "delivered" somewhere against my will. I strongly object to being viewed as a "consumer," as if my only value was that I have money to give to someone to keep me fat and quiet. So I guess I kind of understand: the culture is still marginalizing people, the Capitalists are still the enemies of progress and ideas, and zines are probably the purest way to get your message out. If you don't have a Livejournal account (or compatible log-in), there is an ad on this page. (What is it? Just curious.) As the internet get easier to use and harder to escape, zines will probably have another huge resurgence.

I look forward to the next zine fair, to see what ideas are out there, and to see what people who value print and paper have created and produced. They're still out there, right?

This should be especially informative for those of you outside the U.S.

In Utah women are primarily vessels for incubating children, and they will be punished if they act otherwise.

In Arizona, thinly veiled racism is alive and well. (bonus fun fact: Arizona was one of the last 3 states to make Martin Luther King day a holiday; the others being "Confederate Flag" South Dakota and our next state...)

New Hampshire is hilariously explicit with its bigotry!


I know you'll think I'm cherry picking weird news stories about politicians being insane, and I am, but fair is fair. My state?

In Massachusetts we equate voter frustration with flying an airplane into a building full of people.

On the minus side, the party of ignorance fear and hatred struck another blow in its War on Culture. On the plus side, the wife is a little more open to the idea of moving to Vancouver.

Also I regret to announce that Maine is no longer part of New England— until further notice it shall be known as East Alaska.

This was never going to be an easy day, but if I don't find my car keys somewhere in the 4 acre dog park where I dropped them, it's going to be a royal pain in the ass.  There's somehow getting to work, being horribly busy at work, then somehow getting home, then the expected lines at the voting places, then there's the fact that I bought beer and whiskey yesterday and it's locked in my trunk.  As soon as there is enough light out (sunrise is at 6:22--I have to be at work at 7) I'm going over there to look.  Last night Alexis and I looked in the dark.  I've never needed a drink (or an Atavan) as badly in my life. 

OBLIGATORY ELECTION DAY NAGGING:
If you can vote in the US election today, do it.  I'm sure I'm the first to tell you this.  Californians especially need to vote down question 8 (or prop 8 or the "we hate fags" amendment or whatever they're calling it) for the sake of the state's reputation as well as for the cause of civil rights, and to keep from encouraging other states to write discrimination into their constitutions.

I didn't think anything could push the anxiety of the election today and Maggie's operation tomorrow into the background, but losing my keys did the trick nicely.  I've been anticipating this day with bitten nails for weeks, now I just want more time and light.

A friend just sent me a link to a music video, in which a sparkly-eyed, chubby young man with an apprentice mustache and a pink button-down shirt sings a song called "God Hates Fags." He looks into the camera lens with a Borat-like appearance of sincerity, telling us that "to enter heaven there's no back door," "Jesus my savior is the only man for me!" and "bein' gay is nothin' but a choice!" He also speaks quite personally in the song of "fighting his urges," and so on.

It's pretty hard to take seriously, even though the video shows the address of "Love God's Way," an apparently serious anti-gay Christian site. There you can find a list (woefully incomplete) of "bands to watch out for" lest your child be swayed by their messages of gay tolerance (I assume). This list includes bands with known homosexual members: the magnetic fields, judas priest, the village people (not the village people) but also a few surprises for me, such as metallica (I must not be listening closely enough) and motorhead (leather and motorcycles are too close, I guess). Jeopardizing the illusion of seriousness is the inclusion of parenthetical explanations for some of the bands. Next to Ted Nugent is the remark "(loincloth)". Next to Elton John is the clarification "(really gay)". I'm not sure what to make of the question marks bracketing the remark next to Morrissey "(?questionable?)" or how to interpret the listing of George Michael "(Texan)".

The internet is a funny place. In a medium with bonsai kitten, a world where the technology allows Creationists an audience, how can I interpret this stuff? I have to file it in a special place in my head, in a buffer zone where information can sit beside anti-information without detonating.

Why has wikipedia permanently removed Poe's Law?

"Without the use of a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to make a parody of Fundamentalist Christians that someone won't mistake for the real thing."