If you talk about the Austin zine scene, there's only one logical place to start. And that would be at: Fringeware This little bookstore / ufo paraphanalia outlet is at 2716 Guadalupe, right across from Blockbuster Video (hours: 11 to 11 M thru S, 12 to 10 on Sunday). Thanks to Paco Xander Nathan's guiding force, this is a cool, cool place. They are unrestricted and a haven for the free press. There is no censorship of any zines. They carry over 100 zines. The manager is Patrick. Scott Casey, who I talked to just a little while ago, gave me the rundown on the hottest Austin based zines. His webmail drop is at http://fringeware.com/bjones The more popular Austin titles: - Apathy Trend - underground culture - Alcohol, Durgs, and Driving - pretty humorous lampoon of people in positions of power. It also has music reviews and some book reviews - Checkout Time - selling well, about a woman's travels, Lucy Friedland, who eventually came back to Austin. - Snake Oil - hilarious send up "kooky kontemporary kristian kulture" picture of Tammy Fay on the cover in a leather suit with her foot on Jimmy Swaggart - Pool of Sick - the poltical zine, it undeservedly has lost popularity but it is the best of the political zines still. What happened to Europa Books? The Chicago owners closed it down. So Fringeware is now the best game in town. It used to be the hottest zine haven, but it went the way of the Armadillo World Headquarters and is in the sentimental favorites from the past graveyard. What happened to IO? According to Scott, Sean said they were doing online stuff. Issue 3 isn't out yet. And no one has heard from Ben. Melissa, as I already mentioned, is betrothed. And Staci L. Stewart is working for the search engine folks, what used to be called Galaxy. Book People also has a pretty good zine collection.

Got any good durgs?

All my durgs dried up!

Well, I don't let my complete lack of knowledge about a topic hinder my flying fingers! Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was at UT (81-85), zines were just starting up in a biggish way. I even had ny own little publication, Out of the Vault, distribution limited to The Virgin Vault (Andrews Dorm). Sorry I have no further comments!

Free Food � Free Drinks � Live Music http://www.capitol-city.com Capitol City Magazine's 1st Networking Party ( get ta know ya! ) Tuesday, April 22nd � 5p.m. - 8p.m. Free Food � Free Drinks � Live Music @ My Friend�s Place (Gourmet Sandwich Shop) - - - - - - -- --- -- - - - - - - - - - 2700 W. Anderson Ln., Suite 211 Next Door to Flores Restaurant 512 � 419 - 1111 **Come visit with the Publishers, Editors, Artists, Designers, Writers & Photographers that are responsible for Austin�s premier A&E magazine. Please RSVP @ 219-1433 by April 21st. Thanks!

I'm rsvp'ing. Take note, Doug, when you check back in.

Sharon Jones, Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief of Mike's Feedback Magazine, Joins Forces, with Capitol City A&E Magazine! Capitol City Arts & Entertainment Magazine is proud to announce the addition of Sharon Jones, the Co-founder & Editor-in-Chief of Mike's Feedback Magazine to our growing staff. Soon after the painful decision was made to discontinue publication of the popular Austin music magazine Mike's Feedback, Capitol City Editor-in-Chief, Douglas E. La Rue recognized the unique opportunity this presented and persuaded Sharon to bring her style and expertise on board as the new Music City Editor. As publisher and editor of Mike's Feedback, Sharon Jones has spent the past two years writing about the extensive and diverse music community that abounds here in Austin. Jones has earned the respect of local musicians and music industry professionals alike with her positive and upbeat reporting and her experience and knowledge is sure to enhance the already extensive coverage Capitol City A&E Magazine has been providing the local music community. With double the circulation and printed in a true "gloss" magazine format, Capitol City A&E is very attractive to Jones, as it gives her an opportunity to still obtain a major goal-to help create a quality magazine for Austin and Central Texas. Jones will be bringing several creative people with her from the Mike's Feedback staff, such as writer/copy editor Kelly Kaos, writer Lindsey Eck and photographer Ursula Coyote, amongst others. In order to allow time for the smooth reorganization of their growing company, Capitol City Publishing, L.L.C. will be delaying the next publication of Capitol City A&E Magazine by two weeks, which is now scheduled for June 1st. Call today to reserve your advertising space in Austin's most comprehensive arts and entertainment magazine. For further information and/or interviews, contact: Doug La Rue: 219-1433

Anyone know any more details on this: Sent from: FringeWare News Network Dear Friends, If you've wondered why you haven't heard much out of FringeWare over the past few months, here's our story: The Earth is a harsh mistress, and consequently we have lost everything, even the backups. Four years worth of everything -- but we've come back, perhaps even stronger than before. End of story. Or, rather, a nuther beginning... Now we'd like to make contact with all the kind beings who've participated in this Internet discourse over the past few years. All that we have to start from is a very old version of our email list and press release list. You may receive a couple copies of this message, depending on whether we've known you by different email addresses in the past. Please disregard this message if you don't wish to hear >from us further. If you do wish to hear from us further, then take a peek at: http://www.fringeware.com/msg/ or send the message SUBSCRIBE to our infobot at: info@fringeware.com Quite obviously we're going to miss contact with many assorted sentients who might care to be included -- so please tell your friends and help spread the news. We apologise for the inconvenience, and welcome your resumed participation in the fray. Thanx - pxn FringeWare Inc.

Austin Songwriter Group has recently announced that Doug La Rue of Glaze Studio http://www.io.com/~larue and Capitol City A&E Magazine http://www.capitol-city.com has been picked as the new Editor of Austin Songwriter Magazine and Webmaster of "Songwriter Online" http://www.songwriter.org "Songwriter.org will take on a new style in the next few months as I work it over and expand its content. I had a hand in on the redesign of the Dec. issue of Austin Songwriter Magazine which is out now. Check out the music section of http://www.capitol-city.com to get the latest scoop.

check out http://www.15minutes.com/

What's the scene there?

brief.

terry, have you ever had anything do to with the creation or publication of any zines?

I have, I have!!!

how cool! what have you done?

this and that, co-published my own, stayed broke.....

Only one, the Farm Net News, which reached a paid circulation of about 250. I still have a few of the original copies, it was a nice publication done up with Pagemaker and had a lot of good graphics and photos. Pre-web days.

check out http://www.mikejasper.com/ and http://members.tripod.com/~poopunk/ as I've invited both publishers to come and participate here...

A couple of good zines I have enjoyed (although only one copy...) was Reign of Toads, Crash Collusion, Twisted Times, and Iron Feather Journal. Of those four, only Iron Feather is the only zine I have multiple issues (3 so far...) I also liked Mondo 2000 but they seem to be puting out one issue a year. I liked them alot more when they first came out and were kinda cybergeeky and oh-so-optimistic about the house music scene, computer stuph, the net, etc. Later issues got kinda glossy and pretentious but still fun to read. Id buy the next issue if and when it ever comes out. later cosmo

all four you mentioned are great zines, cosmo, ever seen an issue of Crank? bet you'd like it, too...

Hey There Nope, never seen the zine Crank but the name rings a bell. I wonder if it was at Fringeware? Or maybe mentioned in a zine review section. BTW, is Factsheet5 still around? A couple of other rags I forgot to mention was .tiff and Maximum RockNRoll which appears to be the only zine which gives due credit to DIY punk and just good old hard assed garage rock. Last MaxRNR I read was from a while back which covered the Pirate Radio scene. BTW, there was a new rag - Hobby Broadcasting which came out which is dedicated to the LPFM and pirate movement. Only up to issue 3 but I hope it can make it being that LPFM is a pretty good concept which just might bring back true community radio. One thing about the zine scene is that it kinda peaked back in the early 90's when alternative was in force and did not de-volve into 'alternative' (as in Madison Ave and El Lay marketing dweebs suddenly realized they could make some money off this movement). Its kind of funny but Chicago has a radio station it calls its 'New Rock Alternative' which plays the same crapola as several other stations - i.e. main stream alternative. Hows that for an oxymoron... Still the only true 'underground' (another overused term...) music is coming out of the campus stations that play the stuff on 7 inch singles, metal tapes, home dats, etc. The same goes for those basement photocopy zines and limited distribution rags that you might only find one or two issues of at a book store then it will wink out never to be heard from again. To quote Stills and Young... 'Long May You Run...' Mike aka _cosmo_

yep, Factsheet 5 is still around, but they are down to two issues a year the last I checked... my name and address is still making the rounds, as I got in an issue of Phantom Gambler the other day...