This is Fat Nipples #1. My name is Chris and I'll be your editor and main contributor. In this issue you will find my assorted rantings and ravings. If what I've written affects you in any way, please write in and tell me about it. Tell me I'm a genius, an asshole, a sex god, whatever! I want your input! The only reviews this time are in my playlist, which is just stuff that I listen to. If anybody would like to send in a record, zine, book or anything pretty, I'll describe\review it(meaning that there probably won't be many negative comments, unless you are a brainless, talentless loser) in a later issue and give you some free publicity. I will also run any ads that you send in as long as they are not blatantly racist, sexist, fascist or any other nasty -ist. I will not do interviews, because every zine in the world does them. They are also too much work to set up, do and transcribe. Please send in your thoughts, comments, stuff, free product samples, geriatric products, Elvis impersonators, cheese graters, Nerf baseball bats and anything else that won't get me arrested! Editor: Chris Contributors: Chris, Christa, Sean, Marisa Logo: Manish Send in your records and zines for review Extra copies are: Fat Nipples P.O. Box 2554 Trenton, NJ 08690 Why is it that everyone I know thinks that punk ended with the Sex Pistols? Everybody around here insists that their music is "hardcore" not "punk". All my friends seem to think that if you call yourself punk, you'll sprout a pink mohawk and get yellow teeth. What bullshit. Everyone in the super-hip City Gardens scene seems to have forgotten that hardcore is an abbreviation for hardcore punk(not to mention rock and roll). It's the same way with straight edge. If you consider yourself straight, then soon you'll shave your head, put Xs on your hands and sing Crucial Youth songs. The problem around here is that everyone's worried what other people think. Everyone acts like they don't care, but we still try to impress the crowd. We reject the mainstream crowd at school and at home to join the "alternative" one at City Gardens. But it's still a crowd. A crowd is a crowd and if you try impress someone, no matter how cool that person is, your still a trendy asshole. Do you like hardcore because of its independence and rebellion? Do you like hardcore because of its free exchange of alternative viewpoints and radical politics? Or do you like it because there's a Biohazard video on MTV? If you answered yes to one of the first two questions, then more power to you. Reject all the fucking trendy-ass stuck-upness and punk out! Be yourself! If you answered yes to the last question, go buy a fifty-dollar Gap flannel shirt and mosh it up! Understand?!? Speaking of Biohazard(Remember? Back in the last paragraph.), I just saw them play at City Gardens this week with Sick of it All and Sheer Terror. I don't know about them. Their music is outstanding and they said some cool stuff--they allowed people to stage dive even though they were recording a live album--but most of it smacks of bullshit. For instance, their guitarist--the one who couldn't help saying fuck, or some variant thereof, every third word--said that if it was up to the band, no one would have paid to get in. Sure. That's why it cost ten dollars to get in. Don't take me as a Fugazi worshiper, but they manage to play City Gardens for five bucks, while Biohazard, who get played on MTV and managed to pack the place, needed ten. There are dozens of bands that manage to charge ten dollars for CD's, but Biohazard cares so much that they'll take fifteen. As Biohazard themselves say (talking to Ricki Racktman on MTV, selling their record)," Music's for you and me, not the fucking industry." Another thing that bothered me was their attitude towards moshing. They repeatedly chastised people like me, who were standing in the back. If some people want to distance themselves from the idiocy of pit politics and the band's super-macho, good old boy, spitting and cussing image that's our business. Sick of it All was great though. Live, I could forget their Relativity\In-Effect corporate cock-rockness and that their new album is a non-vinyl release and really concentrate on the great music. None of those guys cursed too much either. Lou even talked about his mom! The best part of the show, however, was that I got to dance without taking part in the stupid tribal, ritualistic, macho, regressive, new-wave masculine bullshit-fest that takes over the dance floor at all the shows these days. You know what I'm talking about! All of those crazy kids, releasing energy and aggression! Good old fashioned American grandma and apple pie fun! I would've joined the football team if I liked that kind of fun. See "Slacker". It's good. My Playlist! Stuff that I listen to, that you should listen to too: Iconoclast 7" - Raw, screamy, fucked up, intelligent hardcore. Powerful and danceable at times. ($2.5, Ebullition, P.O. Box 680, Goleta, CA 93116) Subzero 7" - Metal-tinged hardcore with good lyrics and a pretty cover. ($3.5, Inner Journey, Inc.(?!?), P.O. Box 10384, Wilmington, DE 19850) Nation of Ulysses - "Plays Pretty for Baby" LP - Crazy, punked up, jazz tinged, anti-nostalgic revolution music. Truly original. ($8, Dischord Records, 3819 Beecher St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20007) Downcast LP - Fucking great, intelligent rage. Every week, I find a new favorite song off of this. It comes with a huge booklet with essays and information on all sorts of topics. These guys take themselves way too seriously, but as long as their music stays this good, I don't care. ($5, Ebullition Records, above) Helmet - "Strap It On" LP - Much better than their new one, "Meantime". Rawer, harder, fresher. Get the AmRep version, not the Interscope reissue! (Amphetamine Reptile Records, 2541 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55404) Iconoclast\Merel split 7" - The Iconoclast side isn't as good as the 7", but Merel just blows me away. Their song is kind of odd, really original. It's a narrated story accompanied by Merel's screamy thrashings. Totally awesome. ($3, Iconoclast\Old Glory Records, 5 White Oak Dr., Colts Neck, NJ 07722) Sawhorse 7" - Kind of rocking, mid-paced hardcore. Different. Oddly catchy. ($2.5, Ebullition Records, above) V\A - International Underground Pop Festival LP - A really strong comp, with a lot of poppy, punky and fucked up music. It's all live, recorded at the convention in Olympia, Washington. Just a heartbeat away from Seattle! Tell all your trendy friends! Includes tracks from Fugazi, L7, Melvins, Nation of Ulysses, Bratmobile, Courtney Love and many others. (K Records, P.O. Box 7154, Olypmia, WA 98507) Rage Against the Machine LP - Lovely. Unique funk\rap\hardcore crossover. Nifty. Also noteworthy: Vocalist Zack de la Rocha's old band Inside Out [Revelation]. (Sony) Lament - Drowning Room 7" - This is really old and probably really hard to find, but it's also really good. New York hardcore with passionate singing. (Inner Journey, above) Digable Planets - Reachin'(A New Refutation of Time and Space) LP - Funky, jazzy, pretty, cool. I like it. (Go to Sam Goody schmuck.) Born Against - Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children LP - My favorite band. 'Nuff said. ($6, Vermiform, P.O. Box 1145, Cooper Station, NY, NY 10276) Iceburn - Firon LP - This is not the same Iceburn that we heard on the 7". The only remaining member is the guitarist, who has taken on the vocal duties. At first, I was put off by the difference, but this band is just as good, if not better, than the other one. Progressive hardcore\ neoclassical\metal\funk\art-rock. Very refined, slick and well produced. They'll be on a major within two years. (Victory Records) The Hear It If You Can Dept. - Confusion, Patterns, Social Disorder, Maximum Penalty, Darkside The following is what turned out to be a massive political diatribe. I'm sorry if you bought this expecting to read about music and I bore the fuck out of you, but so much fucked up shit is going on in the world right now that needs addressing. Just as I am finishing four pages on the nonevent in L.A., which I had intended to be my only "current events" piece, Dave Koresh lights himself on fire. Then there is the ongoing fucked-upness of the World Trade Center bombing and it's related investigations. Please read on. Maybe you'll learn something. Rodney King The L.A. Verdict It's Monday and soon the verdict comes in. Right now, this looks like a lose-lose situation. If the cops are acquitted, the LAPD can go on and beat the fuck out of all the niggers they want and they'll get plenty of chances, because there will probably be quite a bit of rioting going on, which will only serve to reinforce the nations stereotype of inner city kids as gang-banging crackheads. If they are guilty, our justice system has failed. We will have to live in a system in which public opinion can convict you. No matter how protected those jurors are, their verdict will be influenced by the foreseen consequences. The possibility of a national uprising must somehow influence the verdict. I, like most others, was shocked when the pigs were acquitted last year. I, unlike most others, was also perfectly willing to accept that our justice system had failed and move on. I find it hard to believe that the charges they are now being tried on had been considered before the riots. This trial skirts dangerously with double jeopardy. As well as being a judicial faux pas, it is ridiculously ineffectual. It is a figurehead. An opiate for the masses. No matter what happens to these pigs, police brutality will persist. If there are riots, or if there are none, inner city life will still be hopeless and decadent. We need to concentrate on the real problems that underlie this case. Let's concentrate on welfare, reforming the police, passing stricter brutality standards, ending racism and other things that will actually benefit our society much more than a few pigs behind bars. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The way the press acted after the L.A. riots, you would think that inner cities had just popped up all over the country in a week's time, rather than having developed slowly for the last hundred years. This is a rampant tendency in journalism. They like to pretend that nothing exists in America until they say so and they never say so until something photogenic and "news-worthy" happens. Thus, the L.A. riots were the beginning of lower-class, minority rage and the Rodney King beating was the beginning of police brutality. The sad part is that the American people are shallow enough that they believe this bullshit. I was aware of racism and brutality before Rodney King. I was aware of poverty before the riots. I was aware of sexism before Anita Hill. I was aware of AIDS before Magic Johnson. And so was the average American. The problem is that it didn't matter. The problem is that these very real problems could not assume "reality" until they were on television. Or maybe it's that our "enlightened times" aren't nearly as enlightened as we would like to think. Of course AIDS didn't matter before. Then it was just killing faceless, nameless people. And the celebrities? They were all gay. Rock Hudson, Freddie Mercury--who cared about them? But now it has affected one of our precious sports stars! A red-blooded, American, heterosexual one too! Good God. Go fetch the research grants! Start up new charities! We have an epidemic on our hands! American culture makes me sick. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It's Thursday now and I'm starting to get scared. People were predicting a verdict as early as Tuesday, but it never came. I can just imagine what's going on in that jury room. My mother had jury duty in federal district court about a month ago. The trial was for a man who might or might not have had a tiny part in a drug smuggling ring. My mom firmly believed that there was not enough evidence to convict him. She also had a gut instinct that he was guilty. The rest of the jury, except for one, thought he was guilty, period. Well, the vote had to be unanimous and everybody wanted to go home, so the jury coerced my mother into voting not guilty, even though she felt that he should be acquitted. The point of all this is that I'd imagine that this same thing is happening in the jury room right now. The jurors have been holed up for a month and have already missed Easter. One side has gained an advantage and is abusing and manipulating the other side until it finally gives up. The final verdict will be a compromise and will not represent justice in the least. The wonders of our court system! Like I said before, this trial is a lose-lose situation. If public protest of an acquittal turns violent, police brutality will worsen and a guilty verdict means that if we can't convict them the first time, we can just keep trying until we reach a more acceptable conclusion. It sounds pretty fascistic either way. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It's Saturday night and the verdict is in. I haven't seen the news yet, but my father told me that two of the officers were convicted and the other two were acquitted. What a tidy compromise. The system appeased the masses without lynching itself. It showed that white, racist pigs are not untouchable, but it still went easy on them. I don't think that this will inspire much public outcry, unless their sentence is overly lenient or Reginald Denny's attackers are crucified. Right now, everyone should be happy. In fact, I can't help wondering if this instant will end up as a tiny footnote in history. I think it almost certainly will. By the time you read this, you might not even remember what I'm talking about. For a month, America held its breath. Police precincts beefed up their on-duty officers. We braced ourselves for a holocaust. What we got was a gentle breeze. Twenty years from now, all that has occurred surrounding the Rodney King beating will be a paragraph in a history text. Riots in L.A. In 1991, Los Angeles police were video-taped beating a black motorist, whose name was Rodney King. A year later, in the spring of 1992, these officers were found not guilty of use of excessive force. In response to this, the lower class black people of Los Angeles rioted for three days, killing more than thirty people and causing millions of dollars of damage. The next year, the officers were put on trial in a civil rights case and two of them were found guilty. What the paragraph won't include, if it wants to be used in American school systems, is that at the moment in which the not guilty verdict was handed down last year, something clicked. Something clicked in the collective consciousness of lower-class, black America and it realized that it's end of the stick was smaller. It felt an overwhelming fear. A fear that any white racist pig could do anything he or she wanted and there was not one thing any individual could do about it. And that fear spilled into the streets of L.A. Suddenly George Bush and white, upper-class America were afraid too. None of that will be noted, or even implied, in conventional history books. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Reading that last paragraph, you might think that I hate myself, or that I feel a good bit of white guilt, and I probably should, but I don't. I'm white, male and as middle-class as they come. I've never known poverty, sexual discrimination, subtle or not so subtle racism. I have the unfortunate privilege of being unrestricted by society. I have no glass ceilings. I am favored by a racist, sexist society, but I refuse to use this privilege. I refuse to allow myself the luxury of my arbitrary "advantage". I certainly benefit from it in ways that I cannot control, but the fact is that I cannot help what I am, just like everyone else. So I don't judge people on what they were born like and I expect that they do the same for me. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I guess the only people that are really steaming about the L.A. verdict are the executives at CNN and the networks. No riots + no flaming buildings + no massive protests = nothing to keep us glued to the television for days on end Waco's Burning Two months ago, federal officers stormed the compound of David Koresh's Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas. The media has reported that the sect had been stockpiling weapons, leading the government to put them under surveillance. Apparently, the officers had decided that these people were a threat. Well, when the officers stormed the compound the sect members fought back, killing several officers. The officers retreated, leading to the standoff that lasted until today. This morning, realizing that he would not escape alive Dave Koresh lit the compound on fire. It is assumed that he and more than ninety of his followers burned with it. People are acting like this is a tragic victory. That is what the government and the FBI want us to feel. They want us to think Mr. Koresh and his followers got what they deserved. Only the children are deserving of pity, they claim. Bullshit. First lets get the facts straight. The officers claimed that they stormed the compound because the sect had been stockpiling weapons. It was never made clear what sort of weapons. Were these weapons illegally obtained? This was never stated in the media. It was only stated that they had guns. Remember--this is in Texas, where there are two guns for every person and gun laws are practically nonexistent. The FBI claims that the Branch Davidian sect came under close scrutiny when a parcel addressed to the compound and containing grenades just happened to open in the Post Office. The Postal employees then alerted the police. Why can I picture the package "just opening" while there happened to be a federal officer with a razor blade standing above it? Okay, now the officers storm the compound. Five of them are shot and killed. This fact never failed to get mentioned in any story relating to the sect. It was rarely, if ever mentioned how many of the sect members were killed. Six of them died in the shoot-out. One of those who died was Mr. Koresh's daughter. Several of the sect members were wounded as well, including Dave Koresh. I guess an officer's death matters more than that of a Branch Davidian wacko, which brings me to my next point... The media and the public have already judged and crucified Dave Koresh because he believes he is the son of God. He may have never committed a single crime, but this simple fact has convicted him. Don't faithful Christians realize that this same thing happened to Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago? The Romans thought he was a loon so they crucified him. Don't you ever wonder if mankind's savior is lying straight- jacketed in a mental hospital somewhere, because everyone thinks he or she is a loon? And maybe the son of God burned himself today, because of American small-mindedness and skepticism. The point is not that he might in fact be the product of a divine power, but that our Judeo-Christian culture is too narrow to accept someone else's viewpoints. Thus any person who has a faith other than what is accepted as "American"(i.e., Islam, Branch Davidian, Scientology, agnosticism, etc.) must be crazy or brainwashed. The members of the Branch Davidian sect are not brainwashed. Not anymore than a Catholic who goes to Church every week and follows the letter of the two thousand year old document called the Bible or the priest who pledges to a life of celibacy. All religion requires brainwashing. In order to establish faith, you must first accept certain beliefs that may not make logical, empirical sense. Religion is like geometry. In order to create a religion or a geometry, you must begin with undefinable terms. From this, you can draw conclusions that make sense. Thus, all followers of all religions are brainw ashed somewhat. The members of the Branch Davidian sect have profound faith in Mr. Koresh and they cannot be faulted for that any more than any other religious person. The government, the FBI and the media want you to believe that Dave Koresh was a psycho. They want you to believe that he forced his followers to remain in the compound with him. They even want you to believe that it was members of the sect who lit the fire. For all we know, Mr. Koresh may have been(or may be) a perfectly rational man, who had the wrong ideas. He may have inspired ninety people so much that they were willing to die for him. His and their death may also not have been of their own choice. This morning, officers announced to Mr. Koresh that all negotiations were off and that the sect members were to come out with their hands up. Just after noon, someone set a fire. It might have been Branch Davidians who believed that dying would be more prudent than giving up, or it might have been a federal officer who couldn't stand to see a man with a different belief system live. All we have is the government's word and we know what that's good for don't we? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I was much too hasty in stating that David Koresh lit himself on fire. All the survivors of the holocaust(how appropriate, given that this is the week of the anniversary of the holocaust and the Holocaust Museum is being dedicated) claim that the fire was set by the FBI tanks when they were punching holes in the walls of the compound. The FBI claims that one of its agents heard a cult member scream, "The fire's been set!". This is used as proof of FBI innocence. I can't help wondering how similar that would sound to "A fire's been set!", especially when you're hearing it through a wall in an emergency situation. At least the media has been getting on the governments back about how the siege was handled. Unfortunately, the media has also decided that the only ones deserving of pity are the children. They would never consider that Mr. Koresh was being persecuted for his religious beliefs. What did Mr. Koresh ever do to make anyone think he was a psychopath. He was a religious fanatic to be sure, but he was also a religious fanatic who was being held hostage by a fascist government. One editorial writer went so far as to call him a murdering psychopath. Some people can be so ignorant. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (The following is reprinted from the Red Table Prints info-ad in Maximum Rock-N-Roll #120. Please write to them. You can get a catalog of their custom silk-screened political T-shirts and stickers if you send a stamp or a stamped envelope to: Red Table Prints, 330 W. Uintah #A224, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80905) Stop racist frame-up The U.S. government's witch hunt against Mohammed Salameh, a 25- year-old Palestinian born in Israeli-occupied territories on the West Bank is reminiscent of the days of the rabid anti-Communist McCarthyite hearings of the 1950s. Salameh was arrested March 4 in connection with the Feb. 26 explosion at the World Trade center. The FBI is trying its casein the media through innuendo and racism. "They're trying to put it on the Muslims. We are a scapegoat," said a member of the Abu Bakr mosque in Brooklyn, NY, the day after Salameh was arrested. "Yesterday, you heard them[FBI officials] say it will take a month before they find out what really happened. Today, out of nowhere they arrest somebody. Come on." Isn't it a reasonable possibility that the dangerous health and safety violations inside the World Trade Center--which will cost $80 million to repair--could be responsible for the explosion? The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an autonomous agency that owns the World Trade Center is exempt from New York City fire codes. The Trade Center buildings lack the basic safety features of battery powered exit lights, required in other smaller buildings. In 1983, two people were killed when the ceiling collapsed in Jersey City's Port Authority-run train station because the screws wee inadequate. Since the explosion has been characcterized as a terrorist bombing, insurance companies can look to the federal government to absorb most of the estimated $1.1 billion in damages to the owners of the World Trade Center. That transfers into having the taxpayers absorb the cost. The U.S. government has an ignominious history of engineering political frame-ups that coincide with international policy. The Palestinian community in this country has been the focus of much government harassment. In January 1987, seven Palestinian men and one Kenyan woman--the L.A. 8--were arrested in southern California. They were held in maximum security without bail for three weeks on charges that they were national security risks--charged with supporting Palestinian freedom. Remember the media furor over "Libyan hit squads"? In late 1981, the U.S. government swore that a team of Libyan assassins, assisted by "East German terror experts" reputedly organized by the Soviet Union, had infiltrated this country armed with surface-to-air missiles. When the fantasy never materialized, did the media admit it? No. We view the arrests and round-up of people in the Arab and Muslim community with the greatest skepticism. Those who have been arrested are being convicted in the news media, which precludes the possibility of a fair trial. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ON A FINAL POLITICAL NOTE: If you think that the preceding articles were excessively paranoid towards the media, government and corporate America, I invite you to read some of the works of Noam Chomsky. He is a well renowned genius, who has made ground-breaking discoveries in many fields, most notably in linguistics. He is also a long-standing radical and dissident. The two books of his that I have read are Terrorizing the Neighborhood, which is about the U.S. government's control of "democracy" in Central America and Necessary Illusions, about the media's role in preventing democracy. His books are available from South End and Pressure Drop presses and can be bought, along with lots of cool records, zines and T-shirts from Blacklist Mailorder, a non-profit collective from San Francisco. Support non-profit record stores and support the grass-roots hardcore community. Blacklist Mailorder, 475 Valencia St., S.F., CA 94103-3416. WARNING: Generic vegetarian information. May be harmful to your meat- eating When I first sat down to write this zine, I made a conscious decision not to include lots of vegetarian information. I felt and still do feel that this information can be obtained from any number of sources, all of which would be better informed and more sincere than I. But, I also realized something else--the first time I was exposed to vegetarianism was through a zine. It was one of the first zines I ever read and, to me, these ideas were fresh and new. Even though that zine was probably repeating what a thousand others had already said, it didn't matter to me, because I wasn't aware of anything but that zine. Not to sound too melodramatic, but that zine changed my life. So, on the assumption that someone out there is reading their first zine, I will say my two cents about vegetarianism. Instead of writing a long essay on the evils of carnivores, I will simply explain why it is all right to be a vegetarian. That is to say that I will quickly debunk a few of society's myths. The following is adapted from a New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance flyer called "Tossing Out Some Myths About Vegetarianism", by Alex Hershaft, Ph.D. 1. Vegetarians don't get enough protein. Sorry guys, but the sad fact is that a vegetarian can easily get as much protein as a meat-eater. The difference is that meat contains protein and fat, cholesterol, pesticides and antibiotics. 2. Vegetarians need to be careful. Nutritionally, not eating meat requires no special precautions as long as a balanced diet is followed. The only thing vegetarians need be careful of is putting the medical care, life insurance and meat processing industries out of business. 3. Eating meat is nature's way. Actually the human body is designed for a herbivorous diet. Our flat, wide teeth, weak stomach acids and long digestive tracts are just right for a vegetable diet and all wrong for a meaty one. 4. Farm animals are bred for food, so it's all right to kill them. Were slaves meant to be enslaved? That's called a cop-out. 5. If vegetarianism is so good for you, the medical establishment would come out in support of it. Researchers have been slowly realizing for the past thirty years that meat is a lethal part of the American diet, but the meat industry doesn't want you to know that. Lobbying groups sponsored by the meat industry are what kept the FDA's food pyramid, which recommended that meat intake be decreased, delayed from release last year. The dairy industry sponsors most of the nutritional information that is distributed to public schools. The meat industry would be crippled by a massive conversion to vegetarianism. Just remember, not eating meat does not hurt Farmer Bob and Bessie the Cow, who live and work on five acres in Missouri. It hurts multi-millionaires who make money off animal suffering. Please, I urge you to take the time to write one of the organizations below. It will only cost you a stamp. Well, actually, two stamps, since they would probably appreciate a stamp or self-addressed stamped envelope for their reply. Even if you plan on staying a meat-eater, you should take the time to write these people. They will send you tons of helpful information. You deserve to know. New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance P.O. Box 703 Woodbridge, NJ 07095 American Vegan Society 501 Old Harding Highway Malaga, NJ 08328 People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals P.O. Box 42516 Washington D.C. 20015-0516 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It's called doublethink and it's one of the most important reasons I can think of that you should get off your ass and read. The word comes from George Orwell's 1984. It means to accept everything that the government tells you as true, despite any obvious contradictions or lies. To do this, the individual must accept that everything the government does is good and virtuous and that the government is infallible. Thus, the individual subconscious must weed out knowledge and awareness of the government's lies. There are two sides to every story, but as long as I give you one, you're happy. Iraqi soldiers were teenagers and kids. Remember the newscasters bragging? The United States Army was superior to Iraq's because Saddam Hussein forced children to serve in the army and gave them no training. All right! America's #1! Aren't those the people we killed? A hundred thousand of them. As well as the innocent citizens of Baghdad. Doublethink. Two sides. We have to read. We have to educate ourselves. Stephen King isn't good enough. Neither is Danielle Steele. Get off your ass and read about what matters. Go read literature. Not the sterilized shit they cram down your throat at school, but the real deal--Boroughs, Kerouac, Orwell. Nonfiction! The television does not educate it leaches. You need to be rich to get on TV. You need a few paychecks to put out a book. The only way to change is to know. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I want to live in a society that doesn't discriminate based on age, race, sex or sexual orientation. A society that accepts people who are different. I want to live in a society where people are left alone to do what they please. A society where people don't have a need or want to hurt and kill each other. A society free from greed. A society free from poverty, hate and addiction. I know that I will never see this society, but I am going to work until I die to see at least part of it. How can I accomplish this? How can other like-minded people help me accomplish this? I don't know exactly. I'll tell you how we won't. We won't accomplish any change in our current society if we follow its rules and take on its shortcomings. Our society is violent. Can we affect a change in it with violence? No. Our society is hateful. Can we overcome it with our own hate? No. Our society is elitist. Can we transform it by forming our own elite? No. We must show the world that people can live without hurting each other. We must show that people can live in peace. We will fight back with nonviolence. We will fight back with love. We will crush its rigidness with the sheer force of our acceptance. Stop fighting. Stop beating the shit out of people who share common goals. Stop looking at everyone with disgust. Hostility towards people who have not wronged you is pointless. You turn them away instead of opening their eyes. Go out and change the world. Bring some friends with you. Chris is so crazy! He's wearing socks!!! This is harder than I thought it would be. Free Finally She has set me free Free to dream Free to smile Free to dance Free Sing Feel The chains have been cast The clouds have been lifted I can Breathe Breathe Breathe Deep Take it in Smell The sweet air Taste it See the sun Feel Warmth Warmth Fire Spin Around Float Fly Up Way Up Touch it The sky Heaven Heaven Hold it My heart Hers Don't let it get cold It happened once It can happen again No Hold it to the sun Be careful If it freezes you'll die She'll die No No Up Way Up To the sun Don't Fall Freeze Get cold Free I won't let go Free If you won't Free Up Way Up Free -Christa Left Left Behind, Alone A solo grape Could jump back in But don't want to lie Just don't feel right Something inside Pretend No Left Aside, One Just the blue crayon without the other 7 I was here first Don't know what to say Could try to understand Isolated again Hurt Yes Left Black, Crying A broken heart There is no glue Could lead somewhere else Don't want to Want my own stuff back They took it away Scared Yes Left I can't describe Left What I feel is very real to me Lost Yes Left Can you understand? Don't want to say the wrong thing Missed out on this part of your life Yes Left It's not your fault I blame you No Don't get mad Trying to deal Yes Left Let's hope not for long Left In the background, In the wind -Christa Find the Way If only, I could understand, I knew why. Why she did this, To us. Why did she drive a dagger, Through the one thing, The most precious of all things, Which I hold so sacred. With words so harsh, Words so strong, That not the power of a tornado, Could tear them from the core of my soul, And throw them back at her, As if to say that I do not care. But caring is the mere beginning, Beginning of the long journey, Whose destination is love. I love all things. Even the producer of my tears. These tears drip off my chin, Falling like a fountain of guilt. Guilt for not being the person, The person who she can love. For if you love, You must love all things. There is so much hate, It lives inside her, In a place where I once found life, It is for so many things surrounding my heart. Compassion is lost. Lost in the throwing of cruel words, Lost in the demolishing of feelings. Lost in a cold, dark place, Yet it must be strong. Only then can it find its way. And along with this compassion, This love, I pray, That I too, Can find my way back. Back to my mother. -Marisa Chaos Boxes of chaos Controlled Discrete units of infinity The fractals of life Like peanut butter Chained A prison of mulch Boxes of chaos Where one cannot love The other Trapped in a box Aluminum siding At right angles Live in a box Grow in a box Work in a box Of chaos Boxy cars Petrol reactions All contained within a box Controlled by a lack of control Helpless But clean A box in your head To keep all your big ideas Chained Reject Deny Control Defy Why cry? Let it Chaos upon chaos A chaotic order Don't fool yourself Let it Fibrillations Sensations Opened wide Feel it Swallow it Bathe in it Breathe it Let it Peace -Chris The walls are up again left from the struggle fought back then pain inside keeps us out our frustration is what we shout shout it at our wall no one will ever respond at all feelings of anguish which they use to bind us images of color which are there to blind us it makes me angry cause they cannot see the walls they've formed around you & me - Sean This zine was originally published on paper in June 1993. I have adapted it to this electronic format so that it can be spread farther and more ecologically. If you have read and enjoted this zine, please feel free to upload it to another BBS so that it can be circulated more. But please allow people to see it in its original form and do not alter it in any way. Everything contained within this file is copyrighted to Fat Nipples. Please do not hesitate to write me with your comments: Fat Nipples c/o Chris p.o. box 2554 Hamilton sq., NJ 08690 Thank you very much