MISCmedia for 1/13/00
Back to the (Print) Future

THE WEB'S A GREAT WAY to disseminate writing, 2-D art, and music.

It's just, so far, a problematic way to turn a buck from these things.

In the Web's first half-decade, the only online "content" Net users would directly pay for thus far mainly involved porn, sports-betting statistics, and investment statistics--categories that offer direct material benefit.

More recently, many dot-com entrepreneurs have been trying to sell downloads of MP3 music files, digitized movies, and "electronic books;" the jury's still out on these ambitious eforts.

Banner ads on websites, that legacy of the original Prodigy service, are selling well; but there are just so many damn sites out there that few can generate the kind of hit-counts needed to make ads really pay off.

What has worked, for many content-oriented sites, is using free web content as teasers to promote hard-copy books and magazines, videocassettes, and CDs.

And that's what we're trying here at MISCmedia.

The Big Book of MISC. has sold well. The updated second edition of LOSER: The Real Seattle Music Story looks like it may sell even better.

So, we now move on to the next step: Getting this here online column back into periodical print form.

Starting this weekend, the new MISCmedia Magazine will be available for $15 U.S./year by First Class mail. You can email a subscription request and be billed upon receipt of your first issue; or you can send cash, check, or money order to MISCmedia, 2608 2nd Ave., P.M.B. #217, Seattle WA 98121 USA.

Single copies will also be available at a few select in-person outlets throughout the Seattle metro area.

Why We're Doing This (besides the reason listed above):

While the online column's readership has been steady and growing (up to 10,000 "unique visitors" some months), I keep running into people who've refused or neglected to have anything to do with that increasingly-hyped computer revolution; or who say they just can't get around to aregularly accessing websites, fearing their time-wastin' potential.

Also, we needed a way to promote the books that stood out from traditional advertising-marketing schemes. A regular dose of this kind of skewed worldview just might be it.

The first issue of MISCmedia magazine will mostly contain recent episodes of the online column, plus some recommended books, CDs, videos, and websites. As the print product evolves and (with hope) grows, it will likely add arts previews, cartoons, classifieds, and the works of other writers and artists. Our ultimate goal: To build it into a 21st-century version of the great early- and mid-20th-century smart-humor magazines, like the old versions of The New Yorker and Punch.

Please join us in this new adventure.

TOMORROW: The right and wrong reasons for pushing a certain mayor out.

IN OTHER NEWS: Justice for the Permatemps! Congrats to all; you deserve the victory.

IN OTHER OTHER NEWS: Breaking up is so verr-y hard to do. But sometimes, it's really best for everyone concerned, especially the kids.

ELSEWHERE:

• Let's hear it for those unsung heroes who brighten almost everybody's day, The Flavorists!...
• "The Smurf Village as a Marxist Utopia" (found by Running Tally)....
• For the armchair traveler in everyone, classic neon signage and coffee-shop architecture await at Roadside Peek....

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Why "Attitude" has become such a bore.
• New media buys old media, or is it the other way around?
• A few not-half-bad tunes from among the indie-MP3 glut.
• Why women may become "johns" while traveling but not at home.
• Does "political" writing have to be incomprehensible?
• When California stops being America's political bellwether.
• Why self-proclaimed trendsetters can't imagine a future without trendsetters.
• Musings on the end of Peanuts.
• The always-splendiforous MISCmedia In/Out list.
• Remembering the Nineties, when seemingly nobody else is.
• The Grinch who stole New Year's.
• Comparing punks to neo-punks.
• Imagining life after Microsoft, and exploring the roots of the Gates personality cult.
• The first and second parts of our visit to an imagined Northwest theme park.
• Parts one, two, three, and four of our WTO protest post-mortem; a list of WTO-protest links; and the earlier preview piece.

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, monfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• The origin and future of MISCmedia