RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Carrie's had a long (long! I don't recall the exact date of issue #1 but 
it predated the premiere of this-here newsgroup, for sure) print run of 
Stay Free!, but she's decided that the time for print zines is 
well-nigh-done, or at least the time for print zines published by her: 
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2007/03/the_future_of_s.html

I think it would be difficult to overestimate the impact of Stay Free! 
on the local music/arts/culture scene of the 90s. A couple of obvious 
markers would be the fact that Stay Free! released (as singles inside 
the zine itself) the debuts of Evil Wiener, Spatula, and, oh yeah, 
Archers of Loaf. Much more important, I think, was Stay Free!'s 
good-natured (and usually really funny) insistence that we could and 
should care about issues larger than ourselves. At the time (the 
mid-90s), the most obvious/pressing such issue was the ever-increasing 
encroachment of corporate America into all aspects of our lives.

Still is, I guess: look behind nearly every rotten decision by the Bush 
administration & you'll find the smiling face of some corporation.

So long, Stay Free!, and thanks.

xo

Ross