ABOUT LINCOLNZINE
2004

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  Launched on Feb. 18, 2000, Lincolnzine was the original electronic zine devoted to music & art in Lincoln, NE & the surrounding communities. 

A Brief History of Lincolnzine
By Michael French

     From the age of ten onward I'd spent a good portion of my life creating or contributing to underground magazines, (we in the underground call them zines - created with exactos and glue sticks, and mass produced through the technology of copier machines) and around 1999 I found myself wanting to create a zine distributable on cd-rom. 

     My friend Aaron Wright handed me the idea of creating a website charting the course of local music in Lincoln, Nebraska. The main idea was to present calendar information for shows and events and find some advertisers to pay for the hosting fees. I of course had grandiose schemes of changing the layout and visual theme of the site monthly and eventually creating a virtual 3-D world to explore the local scene... but decided upon a more appropriate magazine format, complete with cover image. 

     We had also decided to incorporate our visual projects into Lincolnzine. Early on it was a place for Aaron to showcase his photos and for me to showcase my line drawings and such. Very few else ever took the opportunity to display their art in the gallery section.

     Aaron was to handle the business side of the zine, but dropped out of the project fairly early on leaving me sole operator.

     So my task became to start reviewing shows and interviewing bands. My tastes and local music influences stemmed from the Indie (alternative/punk/new wave/"dinge") scene of Lincoln, those bands popularized by the Linoma era of local music, the Linoma comp., Caulfield Records, Ism Records, Lumberjack, etc. This is what I knew and enjoyed, and this is what I focused on. Aaron was my gateway into a whole other scene of jam bands, of jazz, funk, blues and reggae. After Aaron's departure I never found a suitable replacement to cover this scene, and I myself didn't have the knowledge or burning desire to cover it. And really this was too bad. My dream for Lincolnzine was to be open to everyone. Lincolnzine wasn't suppose to be about snobbery, fads or personality cults. A bit lofty, perhaps?

      Music is a powerful medium and seems to much more readily divide people than unite them. 

     This city is named after a man, that through great turmoil, managed to keep our nation united. I really dig the metaphor of Abraham Lincoln. I would have liked to have seen Lincolnzine cover all scenes and genres of music in Lincoln, and work as some sort of bridge between them. I would have also liked Lincolnzine to be some sort of bridge between Lincoln and Omaha, to recapture what had seemed during the "Linoma era" to be a friendship between the two cities. Not that in the 21st century the two were enemies, but simply that the scenes didn't seem as collaborative.

     Lincolnzine began life as a dot com, but eventually this idea fell under the weight of expense. Mind you at this time I had not a digital camera, and it was part of the Lincolnzine aesthetic to include as much visuals as text. Many temporary schemes were hatched to garner advertising and return to dot com status, but my heart was never into such capitalism, and eventually I felt it prudent to leave it out completely. Hence Lincolnzine is still to be found at this free geocities space, whose name 'megomix23' was and still is my primary e-mail address.

     Of course Lincolnzine held a couple of special events, but never went much out of it's way to garner attention from mainstream society or it's press. I always thought that such was part of the point. The biggest complaint I heard from local musicians was the fact of never getting written up in the local paper. Well, I offered an alternative, which is what I always thought was the point of D.I.Y. society. Start your own label, book your own shows, make your own merchandise, put out your own magazines. The mainstream be damned, if they didn't care.

     Lincolnzine, like most zines was a pretty spotty operation at times, sporadically updated, fretted with equipment failures and such. But many fine local musicians and scenesters contributed to it's operations through the years and helped make it something important (so important that it has spawned not one but two similar, if not cloned, websites), and helped it achieve many of it's goals.

     Of course the now defunct geocities web board became the hotspot of the zine even when nothing new was to appear on Lincolnzine proper. And that to, was part of the point, bringing the music community together.

     In 2001 and '02 many Lincolnzine contributors decided to part ways with the city of Lincoln to find their fortunes elsewhere. I myself spent over half a year in Colorado, and so Lincolnzine suffered a sort of blight. Upon my return to Lincoln I decided to concentrate upon my newly formed family and my own long neglected art, and hence retired myself from reviews, interviews and most of the main duties concerning Lincolnzine in February of 2003.

     So the seed was planted, and a blueprint made. Now it's up to someone else to further the idea without selling it out.

Michael E. French
Editor-In-Chief
Lincolnzine
megomix23@yahoo.com

     Lincolnzine is still accepting submissions of info., photos, etc. for the History of Lincoln Music Project. This project has not the silly notion of attempting to chronicle ever single band that has existed in Lincoln, but is mostly focused upon original bands whose aesthetic stems from the ideology of punk rock and  D.I.Y.. Still, any information on any defunct Lincoln band from any era will gladly be accepted. And actually any band from anywhere in Nebraska.

ABOUT THIS SITE
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   Owner / Editor:  Michael French - megomix23@yahoo.com

   Technical difficulties, anything to do with the mechanics of the site, letters, contests, your thoughts.

Round Abouts

    Launched on Feb. 18, 2000, Lincolnzine is a an Monthly on-line magazine devoted to music & art in Lincoln, NE & the surrounding communities. Our goals are: To provide the public with up to date information about what is happening, where it's happening, & who is making it happen. And, to provide space for the expression of  local musicians, writers, artists & performers.

     All contents are © Copyrighted, and all rights are reserved by Lincolnzine unless otherwise noted.

Lincolnzine does not censor itself or others, hence you may find objectionable words, images and ideas here.  It should be noted that we cover Art and Music, fields generally populated by adults with products created for adults, and that if something is here, we consider it art and not pornography. Anyone may contribute what they wish to the zine, but we reserve the right to refuse publication of any item for any reason. Articles, reviews, interviews, etc. commissioned by Lincolnzine are subject to the usual editing for grammar, spelling and clarity, and that's about it. Anything else can be hashed out with the Editor-In-Chief. We do not rewrite or drastically alter articles without the writers say-so.  We prefer articles, photos, art, etc. to be exclusive to this zine for at least one year, but we aren't into suing people and generally work on the gentlemen's agreement system. Let us know if something has or will be printed elsewhere.

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