Behold, The First Issue In It's Entirety!

Good God would you look at that, I only now remembered about the blogspot page! I remember how the first post I made here mentioned that this will be updated weekly. Oh, how naive I was. To paraphase, Simon Brody of the great Drowningman once put it bluntly: "A blog is like a sink full of dirty dishes. You'd rather do anything else besides it."

Anyways, the reason for this occasion of the season is simple: I'm running very low on copies of the first issue of COAL. Initially I thought about just doing some sort of made-when-order type service, or just printing another 50 copies, but finally I figured I'd just put it up digitally for anyone who missed out. For those of you who (for whatever reason) picked up a copy, consider it something special. It's still very much likely that reprints of Issue #1 will be made for special occasions, like zinefests and stuff like that, but to assure you all the specialty of the original press, all reprints will lack the color covers and anything else to make them stand-out. Just like us American workers and students.

Anyways, once I do sell out of copies I'll be sure to make a post about it. Perhaps not here, but certainly on the much more active Instagram page (which is, as always, @coalzine). Also while I'm at it, Issue #2 is still very much a work-in-progress. Taking much longer than I had anticipated, but regardless it's coming out no later than July.

To get this all over with, here's what you've all came for:

Attention All Planets... We Have Resumed Control (or; The Blog Apologist Intro)

Much like my ever-growing awe for the zine format, my interest for the ancient technique of "blog posting" has peaked to the point that I've now set up one for COAL. An ancient ritual from the early internet era makes a comeback to promote another ancient ritual from the pre-internet era, how fitting.

I suppose while I am at it, I might as well make up some excuses for the extra bandwidth being used. I mean after all, in the era in which social media reigns supreme when it comes to sending out information, what's the use? Well, for one, it does make for a more "professional" looking front for trying to sell copies I suppose. Having a site with some effort in the design department makes for a better pitch as opposed to some guy on Instagram with "DM your money" in his bio. The "Order A Copy" page has information as to how to spen-I mean, wast-no wait, spend your money on a copy of the zine.

A blog also makes it easier to link local artists and shit like that as well, and speaking of, that "Antelope Valley Links" button you see at the top of the page contains social media links to bands, venues, and labels that are/were associated with the scene, so if you're even a little interested I'd suggest you go there now.

In fact, blogs are great for listing off links to different pages and sites in general. The "Contact" button will have the e-mail and Instagram information relating to the zine, which makes for a great section to send off submissions for future issues. It also doubles as the place to go to for sending your hate mail and lawsuit threats, in fact if you really fucking hate this site, you could just click on the "Youtube" button, which will send you to the COAL Youtube page. That way, instead of feasting your eyes on this blog, you could instead watch performances by great bands that deserve the attention!

So, yeah. I think I did a decent enough job giving this blog a reason to exist. I plan on updating weekly, every Monday with updates and other shit that wasn't good enough to make it into the issue, so feel free to check back often and to link this page on your shit list of sites.

With love, S.O.S.