h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*eager to have this Punk Rock page*

skugga

I'm eager to have it too! I'll try to get it done tomorrow

Fortunately I didn't drink that much tonight, so I won't have a hangover

OK, it's 01:07 and I just finished writing the intro to the Punk Society page

It could do with improving, but that really will have to wait until the morning. Can you think of a better name, as 'h2g2 Punk Society' sounds a little boring?

Man

*just found out that her most famous W. Allen movie is on german TV tonight* What about "What you always wanted to know about Punk Rock but didn't dare to ask?"

Hi Rocket Man,

I just found the Punk Society from the announcement in the Post. It's nice to see that your intro page for the Society is inclusive. I hate when people start writing about what constitutes "real" punk to them, moaning about "this new crap today that passes for punk." Let the kids have their own version, they can't take away our safety-pinned oldies. They can mishandle it, but they can't break it.

Maybe some guide entries on zines could be rounded up for this thing too. ...If there are any entries about zines. And if there aren't, somebody will have to remedy that situation, by golly.

T-shirt slogan: "I guess I was punk once..."

Yeah, I tried not to make the society seem exclusive, and was concious of 'defining' punk because it's nice to let people find out what punk is for themselves and to include everyone

There aren't any guide entries on zines at the moment, it's a disgrace! Perhaps one day someone could write something about punk zines as a whole, that would be cool, but I'd imagine that a personal perspective about zines/zine culture would have the usual trouble that personal entries have in PR

That reminds me, I must buy some more zines when I go shopping tomorrow!

They still sell zines in stores? Where do you live, San Francisco or Ann Arbor or somewhere like that?

Have I grown too old and distant from the hip culture, or did zines really dry up a lot after the web took off? My wife and I both published zines around the end of the 90s, but it just doesn't make sense to pay for photocopying a limited amount of zines, when you can write tons of stuff on the web and most people can read it for free.

Bah, PR! We're trying to get an unofficial group together to subvert the dominant paradigm on h2g2. If we can sit up straight and behave, the Editors are hinting that they'll let us have a tidbit of front page space to promote quality entries that don't fit the guidelines for the Edited Guide (like fiction, interviews, opinion, personal accounts, poetry, satire, etc). The tentative title of the project is "The Underguide," and you can't see more about it at A928929 or check out the email list at http://groups.msn.com/theh2g2underguide

Actually, I can picture how a straightforward entry about the history of zines could get into the Edited Guide. Did you know that Mike Gunderloy, founder of Factsheet Five, contributed to h2g2 for awhile? I just stumbled across some messages on a blanked-out & deleted researcher's space, and discovered from the message that it was him.

Later,
Deidzoeb

Nope, I get my zines from a really cool record shop in Bristol, UK. It sells a rather limited selection of about 10 zines, which tend to be more about music and politics than of a personal nature. Sometimes I order online, from Microcosm Publishing, but shipping rates to the UK tend to be a bit expensive.

The store also has a great selection of music of all varieties, but is noteable for its good selection of well priced punk 7"s, LPs and CDs. We're blessed really, as you don't find shops of a similar standard very much in England. My friends and I are more than willing to pay our £2.50 and take the 20 minute train to Bristol just to go to the record store

Webzines are cool, but you can't beat a nice old paper zine to shove in your bag and read on boring train journeys. Do you have any good webzines to recommend, as I tend to neglect them?

I'll have a look at the Underguide info in a minute. It looks like an excellent idea, and I'd definitely be up for doing some writing with it in mind in future.

Any webzines to recommend? That's another odd thing about the migration from paper zines to the web. I used to get excited reading Zine Guide or Factsheet Five, thick magazines that listed reviews and contact info for zines. I'd go through them with a marker highlighting the titles I wanted to send for or trade with. But even though I know a lot of those people are producing similar things on the web, there are hundreds of times more people writing on the web. So many that I don't know what to look for. You can use a search engine for topics that interest you, but it seemed easier back when zines were on paper. As a result, I can't think of any webzines off the top of my head that would be equivalent to the paper zines I used to read.

And I agree, there's a different feel to paper. I used to love seeing a big stack of zine covers all the same, after photocopying them and folding and stapling. And my wife has done a few paper issues, just for old time's sake, maybe to get that feel for paper again, even though she constantly updates her website.

Later,
Deidzoeb

I agree about the paper thing! Some of my best reads have been poorly photocopied 'zines with flesh tearing staples in them but you could feel the passion in 'em.