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Another adventure at the Greenfield Public Library!

So I'm scoping out the zine section, seeing what looks good
(previous adventure detailed here: elk.zone/toot.io/@swade/113613)

One of them seemed extra-professionally-produced, one from 1997 called "Escargot", which focused on "Music and the internet"

We still have those two things today! What kind of time capsule might I find inside?

1/

I was right - the contents are 100% fascinating, both from a technological and music culture point of view

This is 1997, before Google, before social media, before cable internet speeds, and pop culture was beginning to have an online presence. But only some people had computers with internet access so you didn't assume that everyone was online

It's helpful stuff! Info about how listservs work, email etiquette, basic file management. Here, we uncover the TRUTH about email attachments

2/

For instance, I didn't actually know that Windows 3.1 filenames could only include 8 characters. But growing up with a Windows 3.1 computer, that makes a lot of sense in hindsight!

These articles are for helping people just Use The Internet because a lot of it was new. The article also details how AOL users could only include one attachment per message, and Prodigy wouldn't accept attachments from non-Prodigy accounts

Good info about how to spot viruses and how internet hoaxes work

3/

I also love the terms for Online-people that are used throughout the zine: Net-types, web surfers, netizens, net-user. Interesting to see how internet-people talk and view themselves

The word Web is capitalized often as well, which isn't really done anymore

And man, the email domains! They're all on unique email servers, very few repeats (@aol.com). They're mostly @ regional ISPs or .edu

4/

The zine includes scattered low-tech ads for new record releases, sometimes by a label, but some are simple enough to be DIY

These are normal things for a regular magazine, I just think it's neat to have actually-relevant ads instead of fast food or cars or whatever

5/

The thing that REALLY drew me in was the promise of a companion CD called "For All the URLs I've Loved: An Escargot Compilation From Sick&Tired (SNT002)"

And it includes a track by ELLIOTT SMITH I don't recognize? And countless other indie acts I don't recognize?? And the library includes the CD???

6/

So I'm on my phone in front of the zine stand, looking up more information about this zine (finding nothing) and this specific Elliott Smith song, when someone introduces herself...

It's the main editor of the zine! She happened to be right in the same room at the same time and noticed me checking out the issue

She (and others) made this zine nearly 30 years ago - what are the odds?

7/

And she answered my question: Elliott Smith personally contributed that song to this compilation CD, having gone to Hampshire College and having connections to the music scene here. Also, that he was the sweetest person and made really good muffins

The track is normally titled "Some Song" and was recorded before Either/Or came out, eventually ending up on the 20th Anniversary version of that album. The zine even has an ad for the original release

8/

Listening to the CD on the way home, I can see how that song fit the indie scene vibe at the time (this is after Elliott Smith got widespread recognition but before he did Miss Misery for Good Will Hunting)

Half of the artists on the compilation CD only have one or two album listings on Discogs. Along with an Elliott Smith exclusive, that's some real Indie cred

discogs.com/release/1630433-Va

9/

Most of the artists included in the companion CD also contributed a lil blurb about music and the internet for the zine. Some timeless perspectives here

"The potential is almost as amazing as Microsoft would have us believe"

This is King Coffey, the drummer of the band

10/

All still rings true today

"face up to the fact that the net monkey's on your back"

11/

The familiar sardonic humor

"The only way to disseminate music propaganda widely was through expensive mass mailings or advertisements, or by taking hostages. Now that I can refer people to WWW sites, and can do all sorts of research and communicate directly with scores of people on the 'Net, the probability of me taking hostages has somewhat diminished."

I'm glad I can share my Greensleeves collection through non-hostage means

12/

There are still so many goodies in this zine to share - just gotta love this article title

13/

In some ways, this article seems really outdated (like recommending Alta Vista), but in other ways, it feels very current

Just some tips and tricks you can do with Netscape on your mac, like pressing command-N to open a new browsing window. Now you can "be two places at once in the nowhere of cyberspace"

And check it out, the Macworld article is still viewable via the Wayback Machine!
web.archive.org/web/1997061323

14/

Zines: like a blog you can physically hand to someone

15/

Another way to describe a :
“small circulation magazines with eccentric titles”

16/

There was actually a whole feature in here about the history of fan-publishing and the birth of the zine scene

(as understood from the vantage point of the late 90s)

Music zines have a history dating back to underground newspapers in the 60s

17/

The music zine was called Crawdaddy, published in 1966 by Paul Williams, who introduced it this way:

“You are looking at the first issue of a magazine of rock and roll criticism. Crawdaddy will feature neither pin-ups nor news-briefs; the specialty of this magazine is intelligent writing about pop music”

Interesting stuff!

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawda

18/

en.m.wikipedia.orgCrawdaddy (magazine) - Wikipedia
Scott Wade

advice circa 1997, back when frames were all the rage

19/

From advice column -
Internet forums change forms;
some things never change

20/

This one is a bit more fediverse-specific
(along with Americans being characteristically self-centered)

It’s funny though, with a well-written response

/21