I was 13 and dumped for the first time. To cheer me up, my mom took me to the Sawgrass Mills Mall. That day at the Specs, local band the Goods were playing an acoustic set. This was my first local band experience and it changed everything.
I was amazed that good music was out there and it wasn't on a major label. I had done a newsletter when I was younger (circulation ten, for my friends and pen pals) and I decided I could do the same, but have it be music focused. In August 1991, I printed the first batch of the Source, billed as "a monthly rock and roll newsletter that brings you the best of new, unsigned or undiscovered bands." It was five 8x10 pages, printed front and back, ran off of my dad's copier.
I am a pack rat, but I always seem to save the wrong things. I do have the first issue of the Source, but there are lots of issues missing in my collection. At some point in the first to second year, I found out about the rap magazine with the same name. I then changed the paper's name to Ripples (the analogy was that these bands were making small, but important ripples in the big pond of the music industry-I was corny, even back then). As soon as I get a scanner, I'm going to be putting some pictures of the issues I have up here. The paper helped me get a writing job at Jam Magazine. For awhile, I interviewed bands for their "This Band's for You" (yes, Budweiser sponsored it). I got to interview Raped Ape, Lyrics for Lunch, Mary Karlzen, Black Janet, the Itch, Roosterhead and a ton more of bands. Plus, I got to interview my favorite artist of the time, Matthew Sweet, when he came through Florida.
Ripples ran for three years. It reached a circulation of over 500 (a big deal when you consider that we did not charge for subscriptions or ad space-I, with family help, paid for printing and mailing costs). It was mostly in the US, but I had a few subscribers out of the country. It was also left out in some record stores, like Uncle Sam's in Lauderhill and Vinyl Fever in Tampa. I ended it in August 1994, wanting to enjoy my senior year.
'Zines came back to me, though. In 1995, I was bored with school so I started another 'zine, Junior. It was extremely eratic, since I had moved out at this point and was the sole funder of it. It was a more grown up project. It was started around the time of the "zine revolution," fueled by mainstream press talking about Factsheet Five. It was mostly music related but also featured poetry, fiction and opinion. I had contributing writers this time around. The best (and one of the only) interviews we had was with then unsigned Less Than Jake. I went through three volumes of it-again, I don't have many of the issues saved. There were about five issues in volume one, one (I think) issue in volume two and two issues in volume three. Money was a huge issue and I just didn't have enough. It was free (except the first two issues, where I tried to charge $2). I charged for ads, but they were dirt cheap (Epitaph was a regular buyer, I loved them). Circulation was several hundred, mostly US. I got swindled a few times-people promising to help with costs, to donate a printer, etc. When costs got too much, I tried taking it online. Not that I'm a great web designer, but, at the time, I really sucked at it. Plus, doing a site seemed so cold. I was used to cutting and pasting up a 'zine, not designing it on a computer. Sadly, Junior 'Zine just kind of faded out.
