Our reasons for existing as written in our very
first issue in September, 1999. Our statement
of (sometimes silly) principles. - Editor
Phil
and I were sitting in our favorite diner/hangout
a few months ago, discussing the meaning of life,
watching baseball on the television above the
bar and chewing on a variety of salty snack treats,
when on came a commercial for Leeza Gibbons'
television show, Leeza (which we both watch with
clockwork regularity). In the commercial Leeza,
smiling brightly, stated the purpose of her show.
"All we wanna do is make sense of what's
going on," she said.
Phil
turned to me and I turned to Phil. We were both
struck dumb. It was one of those moments, rare
in life, when inspiration strikes like a bolt
of lightning (or a bad case of salty-snack induced
indigestion). Without words, we both understood
what we had to do. But Phil spoke anyway.
"Why
don't we do that," he said. I simply smiled
and nodded. Yes, I thought. Let's make sense of
what's going on.
And
that brings us to today. We are proud
to introduce ducts to all of you. It's
our small way of contributing sense (and nonsense)
to the world.
Why
ducts?
That's
a good question and we are glad you asked.
Another
anecdote:
Phil
and I were walking down 10th Avenue, discussing
the meaning of life, gorging ourselves on ice-cream
bars and trying to come up with a good and proper
title for our new webzine.
I
suggested, The People's Court,
but Phil told me that it had already been taken.
Then
Phil said, "The title should suggest that
this is a way for people to connect to the world."
"Yes,"
I agreed. "And more than that. It should
suggest that this is a way for Us (and I capitalized
that word) to reach out to the people."
"It's
about connections," Phil said.
"Connections
that make sense of the world," I said, but
then added, "Or nonsense."
Then,
suddenly, my cookie dough vanilla ice
cream bar fell off its' stick onto the sidewalk.
I bent to pick it up, but stopped when I saw what
was in front of me. Phil stopped as well. Again,
we experienced another revelation. And this time
we knew it had nothing to do with salty snacks.
A
long, tubular duct ran up the side of a warehouse,
took a sharp left turn, and then ran into an adjacent
building, a nightclub. How absurd, we both thought.
And what a wonderful metaphor for the strange,
funny, sad, smelly, exciting, tragic and clever
ways that human beings connect to one another.
"Perfect,"
I said.
"Yes,
perfect," Phil said. Just then Phil's
peanut butter/chocolate ice cream bar fell to
the pavement.
We
spent the next hour or so watching birds eat ice
cream off the pavement and discussing what sort
of material we would offer you (we discussed it,
not the birds).
ducts
will feature the very best art, fiction, humor,
and criticism that all of our contributors have
to offer. We hope it will feature the most beautiful,
ugly, funny works of art and writing available
anywhere. The more unusual, the more we
like it.
The
webzine will be divided into multiple "ducts"
like humor, travel, art, film criticism and so
on. But we do not really believe in categories
and we hope our writers will often blur the line
between one link and another. We want to be subversive,
when it's called for. And versive when that is
called for. If anything, the webzine is about
point of view. It will be a diverse collection
of opinions and ideas.
ducts
will be a quarterly webzine. You are reading
our first issue right now. It was posted September
1st, 1999. Our next update will be December
1st, 1999. We hope that you stick around to watch
us grow into something that will bring intelligent
insight, criticism and wackiness to the world.
So,
finally, our vision has arrived. Thank
you for joining us.
email
us with your comments.
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