Date: Sat, 3 Apr 93 16:35:02 PST Reply-To: Return-Path: Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (ohel nyy zl qernzf va gur pbyq-pbyq tebhaq) To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal) Subject: [surfpunk-0073] REVIEW: _Black Ice_ # Please subscribe me to your newsletter. My 8 year # old daughter likes to show it to her classmates. # Phil Here's a SURFPUNK submission on _Black Ice_ and an excerpt from the WELL that its author mailed around. strick ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 93 17:49:02 CST From: matthew john baggott To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com Subject: _Blackice_ magazine I recently ran across the first issue of a new cyber-zine called _Black Ice_. I thought I'd pass my impressions on to the surfpunks. Since I usually adopt a stodgy-old-hacker persona, I tend to react badly to hacker/cyber media. They always disappoint me with their concern for fashion rather than technical (empowering) how-to information and perpectives on the larger "important" issues. Yup, I'm a dyed-in-wool _mondo 2000_ hater. Given half the chance, I'll rant at length about how "out of it" and disappointing _mondo_ is. I was able to stomache them back when they were _High Frontiers_, a psychedelic _emigre_-wannabe, but I've found them less and less palatable as they've glossed up. And if I might allow myself another short digression: I noticed an article on dumpster diving in a major SF newspaper some weeks ago. It was in the style/fashion section and focused on people who get perfectly usable goods by looking through the dumpters of malls. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry about this article. Members of the computer/telecommunications underground (as well as detectives and law-enforcement types) have long used dumpster diving as a technique for getting information. Given my background, I saw two elements at play in this article: (1) transformation of hacker techniques into part of the consumerist 'spectacle' (no longer does one 'go trashing' for information, now it is an alternative method of consumerism); and (2) trashing as the logical outcome of the Reagan/Bush upward distribution of wealth. In a way, those are sad things, but on the other hand, seeing dumpster diving represented as the latest hip thing is also incredibly funny. This sort of tragicomic expansion of a once anarchic subculture was in the back of my mind when I looked at _Black Ice_ (how's that for a seque?). However, I was happily surprised to see Black Ice's introductory editorial say "Spurred on by sheer boredom with what's available on the high street newsstands, overdosing on media incest and rampant egos in the industry -- a band of writers, graphic designers and photographers have conspired to make something we really want to read and enjoy and I hope you do to (sic)." They continued: "We've been working on it as a concept for over a year, motivated in part by Mondo 2000s (sic) decline in editorial content." Bingo! I had obviously stumbled upon kindred spirits. I bought the zine and went home to read it. It had two pages of ads (out of 67, not counting the front cover). Not as good as no ads, but not offensive. The rest of the zine was broken down like this: p 2-4 'ACCESS: News and Products.' Decent short blurbs about upcoming and new things. Minimum of hype. Comparable to what one might find in a computer magazine, but with coverage including communications technologies, robotics, etc. p 6-11 'HIGH RESOLUTION MEDIA: The Kids Gloves Come Off for a Look at International Media, Film and Television in News and Reviews.' Included an article on Godzilla with contact info for the Church of Godzilla and a filmography; an favorable review of Blue Man Group's performance art/ theatre piece 'Tubes;' a nice essay on why _The Lawnmower Man_ was so terrible and the nature of modern cinema; a short description of _Ren & Stimpy_ (which Europeans have apparently not yet seen); an interactive European television series called _Piazza Virtuale_ in which users were invited to participate using picturephones, faxes, computers, etc; a short review of Shinya Tsukamoto's _Tetsuo_; a pan of DC comics' _Hacker Files_; and a short, unfavorable review of the Beyond Cyberpunk hyperstack. p 12-19, 54-57 'W INDUSTRIES: Interview with Jon Waldern the Man Behind the World's First VR Arcade Games.' An ok interview, much of it concerning JW's career as a VR engineer. Since I'm not a VR fetishist, I wasn't too interested. p 20-25 'ARTIFICIAL WORLDS: Home Based VR Systems on the Horizon? Virtual Reality News and a Review of New Yorks first VR Exhibition.' Mostly short blurbs. Shrug. p 26-31 'GENERATION X: Feeling out of Place? Sick of the Sixties? The Lost Urban Tribe Behind the 'Grunge' Movement And How They Might Change The World.' Based on something which appeared in _i-D_ magazine, mostly about Douglas Copeland (author of the book _Gen X_) and his perspective. It's a relatively thoughtful piece which gains points for quoting Hakim Bey, but who really cares about people watching and what they're calling us? A waste of space, IMHO. p. 32-33 'JAPANESE JUNK FOOD: Cute, Weird and Sometimes Inedible -- Black Ice Takes a Trip to the Local sweet Shop.' I liked this article, although you wouldn't want this type of thing to dominate an ostensibly cutting edge zine. But if you're going to have cultural reporting, why not focus on the things the people never notice or talk about? p. 35-39 'STELARC: Interview with the Man who Gets Intimate with Technology and Does It In Public.' One of my friends had this guy as an art teacher in grade school in Japan. That amuses me to no end. I think that Fakir Musefar's take on Stelarc (that Stelarc doesn't/didn't do his suspensions long enough to experience ASCs and that this is too bad) has some validity. Nonetheless, Stelarc does have some interesting things to say. p. 40-45 'BUSTING THE SIMULACRUM: MOVIES AND DRUGS: Opiates for the Masses or Harmless Escapism?" An interesting essay which asks whether movie going represents the first mass experimentation with mind altering drugs. IMHO that is a fairly stupid question, since by the article's standards earlier theater should also be included. However, the essay goes on to raise some interesting points about how cinema portrays drugs and the relationship between cinema and war. I felt this article ended too quickly. p. 46-57 'BUZZ INTERVIEW: with the Duo who Created One of Television's Most Avant Garde Magazine Styled News Programs." Yawn. Too many pages. p. 58-60 'SYSTEMCRASH: Is Barry Manalow In Your Computer? News and Reviews about Computers Going Wrong." Nice short newsblurbs about hackers, big brother, and telecom. Some of this is from _2600_ magazine. I consider this sort of coverage to be a good sign since it shows where the editors' heads are. p. 61 'SPACE THE FINAL RIP-OFF: Sampled TV Comic Strip.' Not particularly interesting ST:TNG-derived comic strip. p. 62-63 'ARCHIVE: New and Old Books, Videos worth Chasing down.' Capsule reviews of products function to say 'this is neat, check it out.' Therefore, they're only useful if they have things of which you've never heard. This particular feature scored 1 'I should get that' out of 16 products for me, but then again they are in England, so they may be slower in getting books like _Technoculture_. One gripe I have with this section is that all the products but one (Chick comics) seemed like slick, professional jobs. Europe must have its share of wonderful fringe-culture zines and products. Why not mention some? p. 64 'HOW TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB: Home DIY Project.' Intended to be a joke. Another waste of space. Either give a serious description of the project or put something useful here. There are so many great projects that they could tell us about (like 'how to build a pirate radio transmitter') that it really annoys me to see them waste space with a stupid reprint. And that's the first issue. _BI_ can be contacted at PO Box 1069, Brighton BN2 4YT UK. They don't give an e-mail address. --Matt, bagg@midway.uchicago.edu ________________________________________________________________________ From: Mike Godwin Subject: From the WELL To: eniac Date: Fri, 26 Feb 93 15:07:06 EST Topic 409: Cyberpunk on the cover of TIME Magazine #381: Mike Godwin (mnemonic) Fri, Feb 26, '93 (08:52) 46 lines I was just talking about the differences between traditional print media and computer communications last night at a meeting of the Northern New England Unix Users Group. I wasn't talking about market share or audience size so much as about the difference in the dynamic. Here's a relevant excerpt from my recent article in INDEX ON CENSORSHIP: --- This reliance on the printed word is, of course, something that the computer-based services share with traditional print media. But they differ from print media--and from broadcast media--in two very important ways. First, the means of communication are cheap enough for almost everyone to gain access: a desktop computer and a modem can be purchased now for a few hundred dollars (still another way in which the new medium is far more democratic than its predecessors). The second difference follows from the first: while traditional print and broadcast media rely on a "one-to-many" model, computer-based communications of the new sort are "many-to-many." A newspaper is a typical "one-to-many" system: information gathering and reporting is supervised by hierarchy of editors and other management personnel who control the flow of copy and make numerous editorial judgments about what information to include or discard. Information tends to go in one direction only: from the editors to the readers. Computer information services, in contrast, are "many-to-many" systems--in general, they rely on little or no hierarchical editing function. Instead, these services are a colloquy of different voices with different styles, with information flowing in multiple directions at once. The "filtering" function performed by newspaper editors is left to the readers, who are also contributors. The very distinction between "reader" and "reporter" is blurred. This may sound like anarchy, but in practice it's more like a town-hall meeting, albeit one in which everyone has a chance to speak, no one is shouted down, and everyone has time to develop and explain her ideas. Some systems, like Compuserve, rely on moderators to keep conferences on track, but their role is less that of the editor, who may make line-by-line changes of a writer's copy, than that of a discussion leader. At their best, these online conferences manifest a give-and-take that surpasses even that of face-to-face discussions. When we're face-to-face, the intimacy of physical proximity tends to be offset by inevitable starts, stops, and hesitations of oral conversation, and by the distractions of physical presence. Online, we each have the chance to write paragraphs rather than sentences--to develop arguments rather than interject comments. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern California matrix. Quantum Californians appear in one of two states, spin surf or spin punk. Undetected, we are both, or might be neither. ________________________________________________________________________ Send postings to , subscription requests to . MIME encouraged. Xanalogical archive access soon. SURFPUNK, the final ripoff. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ From: eugene@jimmy.public.su (Eugene SKEPNER) Newsgroups: alt.emusic,alt.rock-n-roll,rec.music.country.western, rec.music.misc,rec.music.gaffa,rec.music.bluenote Subject: TWaits ( TWaites ? ) Date: Sat, 20 Feb 93 15:27:50 +0200 Distribution: world Message-ID: Hi friends, we here in Russia not only know where is screen and where is keyboard, but listening Tom Waits also. But catching not all the words. As well as some Americans we've found here, according to our tests. I'm interested in two texts especially - "In The Morning I'll Be Gone" & "Cold, Cold Ground". Does anybody have a copy? - I'll be grateful. Please, PLEASE don't send me a full songbook - I'm scored both for outgoing and incoming traffic (so don't score me for my language at least), though I'll appreciate someone indicating me where on the net can I find it. Sorry if I've knocked a wrong door/newsgroup - would you please lead me to appropriate one? - and don't bury all my dreams in the cold-cold ground. Mike.