Hundreds & Hundreds of Books......

...to read!!!  I'm backed up about 225 books right now!  YIKES!!!  I've also got about three hundred fanzines that need to be re-read.  I have to periodically look through my library to be reminded of what I own.  I used to do that with my music collection since I would, on many occasions, buy a 7" or CD that I already owned!  Every time I went to a hardcore fest I would come home with 25 - 100 new 7"'s, LP's, & CD's.  Not to mention a couple of dozen demo tapes.  Man I loved those demo's!  Still do.  My favorite part of MRR (Maximum Rock n Roll fanzine for you non-punks) has always been the demo's review section and the fanzine review section.  I don't even know how many times I would get the new issue (usually at Borders...ugggghhh, that's a whole other blog post --to come sometime soon) and read it with a pen in my hand to mark the thing that I wanted to order.  You can't get much more D.I.Y. than sending off $3 to some kid for his bands crappy (most of the times) demo cassette.  Or a couple of bux for the first and only issue of a new 'zine.  But actually many times the demo's would turn out to be awesome and some of the bands best work.  And to me it was always worth it for just a few dollars.  Getting a letter and small package in the mail from Singapore or Poland....cool as all hell!  A hand-written note on the back of a punk show flyer, thanking me for buying his band's demo!  Or being one of the lucky fifty people to get the first issue or the last issue of some fanzine.  I vividly remember getting the newest issue of "In Abandon" fanzine done by that kid Mike in south Florida...Tampa to be exact.  It turned out to be his last also.  I went to my p.o. box in downtown Ann Arbor at around 9:30a.m. one sunny late summer/early fall day.  Those perfect sunny-but-not-humid days we experience mid September here in Michigan!  I grabbed a nice, fat stack of mail and drove over to the small park near St. Francis church & school. Sat in the freshly mowed grass and opened a manilla envelope from Mikey in Tampa. I was blown away at the outstanding printing job he or someone else did with the 'zine!  The blacks were ultra dark and super crisp, all the lines were sharp, and the drawings were vivid.  It was printed on a heavier bright white paper.  Lots and lots of block lettering and weird/cool drawings and doodles.  An awesome story about going on tour with his favorite band, who just happen to be comprised of his best friends!  All kinds of anecdotes that punk kids experience being 20 years old and touring the United States in a punked-up van full of sweaty, stinky d00ds and band equipment.  Mike meets and befriends all kinds of interesting people up & down the east coast of our country.  He repeatedly talks about the "revolution at 3 a.m." jolted up on coffee and wide eyed & in love with life!  Such a great 'zine!  I never got to meet Mike though I did write him a few times.  A bit later I saw that hed done a bunch of artwork for the REVERSAL OF MAN records who he was good friends with.  And I saw something he did for the band BRIGHT CALM BLUE.   I recently pulled out that very issue of In Abandon and re-read parts of it.  I also wound up buying the two previous issues of that 'zine.  Twelve years later those fanzines are still great!