Zine

No personal post today. A link instead, something a friend of mine sent my way:

Brat Attack was a highly unprofessional and irreverent dyke SM zine published in San Francisco from 1991 through 1994. All issues are sold out. This site is all that remains.

I've been reading some of the articles and particularly enjoy the "no experts" logo on the front. I like zines, I used to illustrate for one in my teens and have fond memories of scissors, glue and photocopying. I like the rough edged hand made feel of them, that someone actually sat down and made this. I suppose that the scene has moved on, perhaps, though of course I can't speak for leather dykes or San Francisco (and would be overjoyed to find that someone was being made to do artwork whilst tied up or edit copy when gagged).

I think it would be great to have one of these now, to be involved in making one - with or without a gag - or just to be able to get a copy in my hands. I wonder if the time for such things has past though, if the internet has superceded the zine to become the new space for such writing. Anyone with access to a dial tone can get their work uploaded and, in turn. read the work of many others just with a judicious google search. Fringe groups are no longer isolated, on the world wide web we can share thoughts with others like us - it's made it easier to locate and connect with like-minded folk and the only barrier to connecting with other people on the far side of the world is time zones.

All the same, I miss those black and white scratchy pages.