(originally published 08.20.2007)
Today Portland experienced a tremendous amount of rain, or maybe I did as I was walking across the burnside bridge. For some reason today I had the bright idea of checking out used bikes at citybikes (no luck) and then walking over to downtown to try and catch a matinee. The downpour reminded me why people liked driving so much, or why contacts were invented, still as I reached the middle of the bridge I took off my glasses and paused to look at both sides of the bridge. The river stretched out on either side of me and through the gray and the moisture (and with my horrible eyesight) I was able to see six other bridges, especially my favorites (hawthorne, steel, fremont). I got to the theater, sat down, and immediately took off my jacket, socks, and shoes and let them dry. Afterward I headed over to Powell’s to check out whatever used crap they were selling, but took a detour toward reading frenzy. It was nice. When I arrived I was the only one and I immediately began flipping through all the crazy home-made, photocopied zines about the most mundane activities. I was even addicted to reading this comic-strip type zine written like a diary, where the author would dedicate four squares to each day and try to describe what he needed to in the four squares. It was methodical, mundane, funny, sarcastic, apathetic and earnest all at the same time. I regret not buying it, and regret even more not remembering the title. When I get some extra money, I’ll probably go back and buy it. Still, the two ideas or fragments of ideas that attached itself to me as I was walking back over the hawthorne bridge (yes i walked over to and back from downtown and even strolled through ladd’s addition, which gave me all sorts of surges of nostalgia) was that zines really never quite made it the same way punk or indie music did. Zines, as a concept, in essence was born at the same time (at least under my mythology, or at least from ever since I got into it) as DIY music, in fact it was because nobody quite was up to snuff on writing about DIY music (this includes punk, metal, indie, twee etc.) that DIY zines came about. I guess that might be incorrect, it’s not like one preceded the other but rather they were always part of the same DIY “scene”, people who made zines usually played music or had friends who played music or just really liked music, and people who played music usually had zines or had friends who wrote zines or rally liked zines. It was reciprocal. Nowadays though, in an era where the shins, deathcab, even to a certain extent minor threat and black flag (arguably born from DIY culture) are relative mainstream cultural icons for “indie” or “punk” kids globally, televised on MTV or at least name checked a million times in hundreds, if not thousands, of corporate mediums, zines remain holed up in small niche shops or passed around by DIY purists…(end of strange thought)
Two zines stood out: one from 1994 and the other about finding death metal cassettes. Both were critiques of how expensive CDs were. The one from 1994 dedicated a whole page on how great vinyl was and how buying vinyl in many ways waged a war against CDs and their exorbitant prices. The other commented how nobody wanted death metal cassettes and so they were much cheaper that buying CDs or vinyl, and to add to its utility, one could find cassettes of albums out of print on CD and vinyl (thus much more expensive for used copies). It’s interesting that in 1994, vinyl was thought of as a cheap alternative (at least vinyl of bands you love) to CDs, yet over ten years later, vinyl may be more expensive than its CD counterpart, actually getting a “first printing” vinyl record is guaranteed to be more expensive than a CD. As mentioned in the thought above, I believe that a lot of DIY or indie or punk culture has become co-opted by the mainstream populace. A lot of them have really good jobs or come from really good families, or both, and hence have a lot of disposable cash. It makes one wonder whether if all the punk/DIY fetishes (such as vinyl or vintage clothes for instance) have now become popular mainstream “hipster” fetishes. I don’t quite know, but I know one thing for sure. I definitely need to find a good tape deck.
