DJ Mane One – The Thirty Minute Mix #79

I don't know where my head has been. Somehow I've failed to blog about a series of mixes that my homeboy Mane One has been posting to his blog for the past...79 weeks? I mean, there's 52 weeks in a year, so that tells you how long this has been going down, and how remiss I've been.

Mane is a pretty well-known DJ out of San Diego who hosts an internet radio show, but also teaches, macks fly honeys and occasionally makes beats, raps and rocks graffiti. What a pimp. And each of the mixes he makes each week showcases his vast audio catalog and deep love of music.

Whenever I download Mane's newest mix, I never even bother to look at the playlist to see what it will contain. This guy is the kind of DJ that you can just trust behind the wheels of steel, so I just sit back, let the music take over and enjoy the ride.

The cover that you see above represents my most recent artistic contribution to the expanding world of The 30 Minute Mix. A bunch of Manny's friends are really dope artists, so somewhere around #59 we started taking turns making covers. I did my first one back in December, and signed up to make two more in February and March.

Dope as it was, it didn't even occur to me to blog about the first cover I did for what became a RUN-D.M.C. tribute mix. But the second cover will get blogged about when my next zine comes out. A good buddy of ours suggested that it be used to promote the release of KFG5 and Mane promptly gave his blessing. It's gonna be super bad, just chu wait and see.

Anyway, if you like (mostly) hip-hop and old school R&B, with periodic play lists offering samplings of everything from jazz, big band and swing, to funk, rock and electronica, please subscribe to Mane's blog feed. You will not be disappointed. He only keeps the mixes up for about a week at a time, though, so don't sleep.

And now, without any further ado, I bring you The Thirty Minute Mix #79, which is dedicated to the queens of hip hop, because – just like the flyer sez' – ladies love Mane One.

So sayeth...

St. Paco

Octopussy Reviewed in Xerography Debt

Octopussy #1
Subtitled "Ooh, Baby I Like It Raw," this guy is horny. Paco also publishes Kung Fu Grip!, but in his own words: "This zine was just WAY too sexy to be limited to a regular issue of KFG!, so it got its very own title." Contained within are 18 haiku poems to strippers in Arizona and Mexico, some "nasty" graffiti, and features on the Belgian art collective known as Cum, the 18th century master Katsushika Hokusai and India's 'Kama Sutra Temple.' 54 captivating pages with lots of sexy artwork and images throughout. – Kris Mininger


Octopussy #1
From the fellow who brings you the wonderful Kung Fu Grip comes this special issue! While Octopussy is more sexual in its focus, it's similar to its parent publication: a combination of Paco's personal stories and observations with a lot of pictures and text devoted to his love of art.

One of the qualities that makes KFG so interesting is that Paco frequently juxtaposes deep interest in what outside observers might describe as both "high" and "low" art, and he makes no cultural or stylistic distinctions between them. If a work of art inspires him, Paco celebrates it, whether its found in a museum or on a viaduct. Octopussy is no different in that respect; a series of haiku, written by Paco and all about strippers, is followed by a gallery of street art photographs, then an essay about Cum (a highly sexual street art collective), then a celebration of the works of the 18th century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

The stories in Octopussy differ from Kung Fu Grip in that they're concerned with sex and octopi, but this zine is more of the same high-quality stuff. Personal stories and varied street art are highlighted by some surprising artistic interests, and it all makes for a fine reading experience. – Matt Fagan

Xerox Debt & Payin' Dues

As anyone with even a sliver of ethics would feel, I want to state right up front that I feel a tad bit awkward about writing a review of the most recent issue of Xerography Debt. This because the latest issue contains two reviews of my Octopussy zine. Nonetheless, I'm gonna jot down some thoughts inspired by XD28, because I think that it is an exceptional issue.

To tell the truth, every issue if XD is something of an exceptional issue, and that is mainly because the folks behind it consistently offer up their mostly thankless services to the zine making and zine reading community. But I think that the most current issue is just a cut above the rest, and maybe it's because the editor and one of the contributors took the fuckin' kid gloves off.

Xerography Debt is described by the editor as the "review zine with perzine tendencies," and XD28 really got a little more person-able. Before getting into that, though, lemme first judge this book by it's cover.

Right out of the envelope, there's a cool wraparound cover that features an illustration by Hai Anxieti, who turned in great work for the last cover (XD27), too. But this one is really bananas. I have to admit that I'm also extremely biased towards Fritz Lang's Metropolis, and Anxieti took Lang's lovely robot Maria in a clever direction with a Gulliver's Travels mash-up. Me likey.

Behind that nice cover are 60-plus pages of zine-lovin' goodness. And I stress zine lovin' goodness, because the reviewers behind XD don't waste any keystrokes writing bad reviews. Constructive criticism is the name of the game, but an intentional focus is placed on zines they believe have a fairly firm foundation upon which to stand. But I'll say more about this later.

On page 4, the first pair of kid gloves come off when editor Davida Gypsy Breier drops a typewriter on the head of some unnamed noob who wrote somewhere that Joe Biel, the man behind Microcosm Publishing, was also "the man" behind XD. Davida sets the record straight and explains–quite bluntly–the partnership that was formed two years ago between two strong zine supporting entities; I think that the four issues that have come out since then stand as a firm testament to the intelligence of that partnership, and I hope it results in many, many more.

Pages 5 through 7 of this issue continues the "Where Are They Now?" feature that was introduced in XD27. The newest installment continues to provide readers with updates on the lives of other largely missing in action zine makers.

On page 8, that other pair of kid gloves come off. These had been previously worn by Dread Sockett, Davida's co-editor from Rigor Mortis zine. I haven't read Sockett anywhere before (I don't think), so this was a nice, no-nonsense introduction for me.

Sockett doesn't name any names, and the list would be quite long if he did, so he pretty much drops a roll of 1976 bi-centennial quarters in one of the gloves he took off and pimp slaps a lot of people at the same time. I could easily imagine this guy saying in an indignant tone, "I demand satisfaction!" But even at one against a multitude, it would still be a lop-sided duel.

Writing with regard to XD's "positive review" policy, over the span of about three good pages Sockett manages to give a quick 'Zines for Dummies' level overview of the last two decades of zine history and culture. Included in that is an accurate summation of the associated aches and pains that once went hand-in-hand with trying to publicize zines in the Internet-less days of yesteryear.

Sockett also shows careful consideration of the pros and cons of the XD review policy, including the seemingly common complaint that many of the same 'ol zines are continuously reviewed. And I guess this is indeed true, when the writers behind them continue making new issue after new issue. Meanwhile, a lot of the people who bitch and whine are here today and then gone in 60 seconds.

Honestly, though, I do see the validity in that particular criticism. I too would like to see a larger variety of different zines being reviewed in each issue of XD. But I kinda understand the reality. And the reality–as I see it–is that there would need to be a bunch more quality zines being produced to justify kickin' some of the multiple issue all-stars to the curb for a while. Unfortunately, though, many a paper ream gets sacrificed for the sake of the bullshit that people decide to commit to paper. And when it comes down to it, I would actually rather just read good reviews of the usual suspects than bad reviews of works made by folks who, like those poor fools in the American Idol auditions, think that they're infinitely more capable than they actually are.

[Watches tumbleweeds blown across an unpaved road by the wind]

To anybody reading this who falls into the category of zine makers whose work has never been reviewed by XD or any other review source, step your game up. Seriously. Each zine that I've sent in has been reviewed. Some that I didn't even bother to send were bought at Quimby's or Atomic Books and still got reviewed. And let me tell you, there's no higher compliment than that.

I bring this up to say that I'm not part of some imagined "zine clique." I'm just a guy who works hard to produce good publications. To that end, I put every bit of who I am and every bit of what I think I know into what I make. Counting on my fingers how long it's been since my first zine, I've been making 'em for 14 years, and I'm as proud of that first one as I am my last. If you too put all of what you are into what you make, you will earn the validation that you think you deserve. But don't just expect to get it because you put some ink on paper. Even as great as I think my zines are, I don't just expect a review. And when I get one (well, two in XD28), I really appreciate the fact that someone took the time to read and write a considered opinion of my work. An opinion that serves as a recommendation to others. 



That said, the people who write reviews like these put their opinions and their creative reputations on the line, so give 'em something that they can feel good about recommending. Do this by learning what you can from zines that reviewers have been impressed by. Or maybe you can just write reviews yourself, so that you can be a part of the change you wish to see in the (zine) world.



Back to XD28: On page 11, the ever reliable Jeff Somers writes more about himself [yawns], and then on page 13, Gianni Simone provides another informative column on the field of postal art in which he's so enthusiastically involved. If I ever manage to get to Japan, me and that guy are gonna hit up the strip clubs... er, the bookstores.



Pages 14 through 66 contain the zine reviews that we buy publications like Xerography Debt and Zine World for, and they do not disappoint. I've now highlighted a bunch of zines that I think I should check out, including Booty #23 & #24, Burn Collector #14, Fish With Legs #13 and Octopussy #1. Oh, wait. I already have that last one.



Australia's own Stuart Stratu, who's old to writing great reviews but new to writing 'em for XD (page 62), mentioned recently on his blog that this issue is so jam packed that you probably won't read it all in one sitting. I thought the same thing, too, but got so engaged that I laid on the couch with a yellow highlighter and read it from cover to cover. The unexpected adrenaline rush of seeing reviews of my zine might have had something to do with that. 



'Spect due

I want to also mention that I bought my copy of Xerography Debt #28 from the Microcosm website. I also bought copies of the zines 9 and Half Left #10, Shotgun Seamstress #1 and Nostromo #1, which I also hope to post reviews for either here, or at one of the review sites that invited me to contribute my–very rarely written–zine reviews.



In light of the previously observed XD connection, I'm gonna say that I am aware of the Degrassi level gossip that's out there, and purposely ignore most of it. I mean, there's business shit and then there's personal shit, and most of that shit seems like some really personal shit. From my first order, placed nearly 10 years ago, to the one placed a week ago, Microcosm has proven to be a reliable zine resource, and a radical advocate of the self-publishing culture that I love.



So sayeth...



St. Paco
Kung Fu Grip! Zine