On the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war, how can I pass this one up? And really, what more do I need to say about Profane Existence? You get it, right?
Okay, let’s just get this out of the way: This is “the magazine for the family bisexual” and it’s called Anything That Moves. Yep. Factual. And I would not have any idea how to handle that one if the editors had not addressed it right on the inside cover. Phew.
Here’s what they wrote:
Our choice to use this title for the magazine has been nothing less than controversial. That we would choose to redefine the stereotype that “bisexuals will fuck anything that moves” to suit our own purposes has created myriad reactions. Those critical of the title feel we are perpetuating the stereotype and damaging our image. Those in favor of its use see it as a movement away from the stereotype, toward bisexual empowerment.
We deliberately choose the radical approach. We are creating dialogue through controversy. We are challenging people to face their own external and internal biphobia. We are demanding attention, and re-defining “anything that moves” on our own terms.
…What you can expect is a magazine that, through its inclusive and diverse nature, creates movement away from external and internal limitations. This magazine is about ANYTHING THAT MOVES: that moves us to think; that moves us to fuck (or not); that moves us to feel; that moves us to believe in ourselves.
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
When I first discovered this little gem, I pegged it for an early-’90s rag. Stories on COINTELPRO (the nasty, nasty FBI campaign against the Black Power movement and other activist efforts) and the “Police Computer Complex” plus comments by Noam Chomsky. If you told me this was Z Magazine’s January 1993 issue I’d believe you.
I was wrong. Public Eye, Vol. 1 No. 2 was published Resources for Community Change in 1978. It was edited by Harvey Kahn. Here’s a little something from the editor’s note:
“An essential part of any social or political movement’s activities must be to develop an understanding of the forces trying to prevent progressive change. In this issue, Public Eye focuses on the domestic intelligence apparatus.”
Reading through this issue, I’m starting to think I should be blogging excerpts from these dead magazines. What do you think?
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
The quarterly Bike Culture was published by Open Road, “a small company based in York, one of Britain’s few cycling cities.” There is a note on the inside cover that delighted me: “A full, parallel German edition is published for readers in German-speaking countries.” Of course it is.
The magazine was published by Jim McGurn and Alan Davidson. You fellas out there somewhere? It was edited by Peter Eland and Edgar Newton. The designer was Brian Holt.
It’s a delightful read. I wish I could pass it to you somehow. But you are in the internet. Wait, so am I! Hmph.
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
Issue #13 of Practical Anarchy was published in Spring 2001 by Chuck0 Munson, Joe Average, Dave Neal, Eric Laursen, Ian Mayes, and Richard Singer.
This is the “Food & Anarchism” issue and it’s a good read. The article on guerrilla gardening is really more of a fact sheet prepared in advance of a big IMF/World Bank protest. It features the following discussion starters:
What does gardening have to do with the IMF/World Bank?
and
What does the IMF/World Bank have to do with a bunch of middle class white kids?
And from the back cover, these practical anarchy tips (warts and all):
Visualize a world without the World Bank. Make it happen.
Start a Book through Bars group
Spraypaint murals on the roads
Set up a barter network in your neighborhood
Support low income people who face housing evictions
Start a worker-owned collective
Refuse wage slavery for one week
Read a book to a child
Don’t talk to the police!
Use software created by the Free Software Movement like Linux and Gnutella
Shut off everything electrical in your house for one day
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
I have no idea when this magazine was published. And I’ve come to doubt my ability to guess such things based on print quality, typeface, and design. The other day I guessed that a magazine published in 1994 was from the late ’80s.
What I do know about Body Play is that it is filled with dramatic photographs of body modifications and that it was the project of a man called Fakir. This is from his editor’s note:
“We aren’t born with wasp waists or pierced ears or bold tattoos. These are deliberate changes made to fulfill a vision, work some magic or express some other need of the Spirit. In my own experience, I’ve discovered, the change itself is frequently only a symbol, a reminder, of the underlying lesson of the act. The ‘process’ of change is what’s really transformative.
“I personally feel that the pursuit of Change-of-Bodystates can be a powerful way to explore one’s own spirituality—can be a way to prepare one to live life more fully and consciously, even prepare one for the ultimate Change-of-Bodystate called death.”
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
All we have of BB Gun in our library is issue #5 from 2001. This magazine was the baby of Bob Bert, who at the time was drumming for the Chrome Cranks and before that he drummed for Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore. Bert doesn’t reach too far outside his inner circle and that’s just fine. It was a charming magazine.
In his editor’s note, Bert dedicates the issue to his dad Angelo (Bertelli, a Heisman winning quarterback who played in the ’40s), “who inspired me with his humorous spirit and love, to create and play the drums instead of going out for football.” Later in the issue, in the intro to his interview with Nancy Sinatra, Bert writes: “Pinch me. I still can’t believe that I had the extreme pleasure and thrill of interviewing the beautiful and legendary Nancy Sinatra.”
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
Volume 1, Issue 4 of Feminist Broadcast Quarterly of Oregon was published in Spring 1993, and like many of the dead magazines in our library, only a single copy remains.
From the editor’s note:
“…we are the critical mass. Each one of us sitting silently in our rooms, our houses, our cars. Each one of us raging silently against the injustices done to us every day. While in the next room, the next house, the next office, the next car, is another woman raging silently against the same injustices suffered daily. Another woman powerless as you because she doesn’t know you are sisters.
“Two hands stretched to each other. Two women sharing their experiences. Switching stores to support allies. Switching your dollars to women’s projects. Putting women first.
“A simple act of sisterhood, multiplied by the masses that we are, is all it takes to reach critical mass.”
The editor, publisher, and graphic designer was Mimi Yahn. Listed next to her are the “FBQ Goddesses”: Haifa Al-Salamin, Teresa Enrico, Sandra I. Rueda, Debbie Shuey, and Anne Sweet.
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
Issue #24 of American Indian Review was published in Spring 2000 and lists editorial offices in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was a quarterly publication printed on thick, glossy paper. The art on the cover is by Ojibway artist Joe Geshick. The editor and publisher at the time was George Georgson.
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
Issue One of Altar came out sometime after September 11, 2001. Editors Mandy Van Deven and Alex White were based in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is from their mission statement:”It is imperative to have socially progressive women and men fighting on all fronts of the movement whether that is anti-racist work, feminism, anti-heterosexism, economic justice or any other political action. We want to create a space where critical thought and understanding happen simultaneously.”
Mandy? Alex? You out there?
The Dead Magazine Club is a project of Utne Reader.
