04 JANUARY EDITORIAL 08 CASEY SLOAN 17 READERS' LETTERS 18 MARKO BALAZS 25 FIRST STRING 28 Christian Taylor 36 FICTION 38 JOE FOSTER COVERMAN SPECTACULAR SHOOT BEGINNING ON PAGE...38
48 DANE COLT
56 Josh WestIN
64 READY FOR MORE
BEAUTY IS SKIN DEEP AND NASTY IS TO THE BONE WHICH IS RIGHT WHERE JOCKS STUDIOS
SENDS YOUR SOUL IN READY FOR MORE
72 FRED GOLDSMITH
PUBLISHER'S STATEMENT
It seems clear that the "voting in" of President Bush second generation
has gravely affected the world and most acutely the United States. We have taken
a giant leap backwards ten years in environmentally, socially and economically.
In the past it has been the big money lobbyists that have thwarted government
leaders from heading the direction of sensibility. They needed the support and
certainly didn't need creating any enemies with the likes of oil and tobacco companies.
But along comes a new leader who has the courage to challenge the strong hold
and turns our flailing economy sailing. But not sailing on whimsical foundation
such as the penny stocks of the '80s. Instead we embrace the internet and the
result is none less than phenomenal. People no longer have to work in big cities
or even in an office for that matter. They can move to Spokane, Washington and
buy a S75,000 dollar house that's bigger, way more beautiful and a fraction of
the cost of their California or Manhattan prior living quarters. People could
work from their home, entrepreneurs of their own internet website. No warehousing
or stock piling inventory because orders are filled as they come in. The stock
market soared. Interest rates dropped. Unemployment nearly non-existent. Everybody
was upwardly mobile and there appears to be no end in site. Deficit down, budget
balanced. Tobacco admitting cancer and the payoff. Cars better, faster more efficient
and now with respectable fuel alternatives. All this despite the omnipresent spite
of the Republican party in a failed attempt to destroy our then President Clinton.
It is all about going way backward in time. A time when big oil companies ruled
and are back at it. Kiss good-bye clean air, alternative, clean energy sources,
the environment as a whole, gay rights or feeding our starving world any time
soon. Just when we were learning more about ourselves and other peoples in the
world through simple and honest communication via the ever-broadening and beneficial
internet, we turn cold and militaristic. A profile that seems to be they only
way out for the balance of powers representing our current administration (big
money, moral majority, etc.). The economy is now for shit and getting worse. People
are afraid to invest in the future wile facing uncertainties and an other directional
political quagmire. I would not be surprised if had Gore been president that the
whole mess in New York and subsequent fall out may never have occurred. Everybody
saw Bush coming. And that's about it.
