Breaking Baniers Just a Few Weeks Ago at 33 Remains the Tunes's Praaice to Guard Diseased Pariah News
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traguc. Mosi or tnem arc legitmute enterpnsc >oiiau^ s REAL 12bSFWeeklyBMay 1,1991 PETER LAUFER Breaking baniers just a few weeks ago at 33 remains The Tunes's praaice to guard Diseased Pariah News. Not The magazine has a broader appeal the identities of sex crime complain¬ only is the staff of the San than the two thought it would. Sub¬ ants so long as that is possible and Francisco-based quarterly fac¬ scription orders arc coming in from conforms to fair journalistic stan¬ 1itings deadlinea stressfulpressuretimetoatcom¬the across the country and not just from dards." What makes that statement plete issue number three, co-founder AIDS sufferers. Thorne says people silly, and what makes it clear that the and co-editor Tom Shearer just died who are HIV-negative read DPN Times isn't sure what to do about the from AIDS. because "they want to leara what tness it's created, is that Bowman's The magazine, known as DPN, is a others are experiencing. We take on name has suddenly disappeared from sobering humor magazine. "Of, by, serious subjeas with humor and irony the Times' vocabulary. In this "Edi¬ and for and that people with HIV disease," just transforms it." tor's Note" she is again referred to as reads the masthead statement of pur¬ Right now Thorne is looking for a "the woman," even though the of¬ pose. "We arc a forum for infected new business partner to keep DPNgo¬ fending profile from the week before people to share their thoughts, feel¬ ing and for volunteer proofreaders had printed her name 12 times. ings, art, writing, and brownie recipes and office staff. Or as the ad for help Another follow-up piece in the in an atmosphere free of teddy bears, in the second issue puts it, "Your Times last week summarizes the magic rocks, and sero negative guilt. Diligent Editors could always use a debate the initial profile started and We encourage infected people to sub¬ few more bubble-butt surfboy slaves acknowledges that the Times decision mit material." to help us fold, staple, stuff envelopes, to use Bowman's name was influ¬ Inside is a bizarre potpourri of black lick stamps, and otherwise satisfy our enced by "competitive pressures." humor and constructive advice. depraved whims." The Chronicle — which reprinted DPjVfeatures contests: "Congratu¬ the original Times profile — dealt lations to Mike Cannon. Mike entered, with the problem in an editorial, say¬ and thereby won, the Guess Tommy's bling around trying to recover ing that in the best of all possible T-Cell Count contest. Also, thanks to ThefromNewthe YorkdisgustTimesso manyis stum¬read¬ worlds rape would not be a crime Mike for guessing optimistically ers feel for the newspaper's profile of with a stigma. It also "regrets" using high." Patty Bowman, the woman accusing Bowman's name. "Our basic policy," There arc health care innovations: William Kennedy Smith of raping her. concludes the Chronicle editorial, "Having trouble holding those little The Times is suffering on two counts. "will remain, as it has been for many Dixie cups and snaring the stool sam¬ First for its competitive decision to years, not to name the victims in such ple before it hits the water in the toilet print Bowman's name, a move sharp¬ cases." What the editorial fails to ex¬ bowl? Put a sheet of Saran Wrap loose¬ ly criticized by many rape counselors plain is why that policy was violated ly across the bowl, underneath the and journalism professionals. But in the first place. "Of-'- th"' r»iir-ir>v " even harsher criticism is aimed -'t **-' UPls also includes sophomoric one-sided and innuendo-ridden na¬ quasi-pornographic stories and verse, ture of the profile. Not only was there the weekend by one of the Bay high-calorie cooking ideas to help no equivalent profile of Smith, but ImpressiveArea's Spanish-languagework was donebroad¬over keep weight on and serious resource Bowman's charaaer was assaulted casters, radio station KIQI, La Grande material for people with AIDS. repeatedly in the piece by unnamed Diez Diez. The station's fast-talking The idea for DPN was Shearer's, sources and irrelevant information. DJs pre-empted the usual music mix who became convinced last year that Late last week the Times responded and instead did a grand job of raising there was a need for an HIV humor to the prestige-damaging controversy money and supplies from listeners for magazine. Co-editor and graphic art¬ with a page three box that apologized victims of the recent eanhquake in ist Wulf Thome agreed that the time for nothing. Instead, under the head¬ Costa Rica and Panama. B1 was right and the first issue rolled off line "Editor's Note," the paper ex¬ the presses last September, selling out presses "regret" if readers concluded ► News Real wants to hear your its first printing of a couple of hun¬ from the article that the Times ques¬ questions, concerns and comments dred and going into a second press tioned Bowman's character. about the media —- not just news¬ run of over a thousand. In a silly attempt to explain away papers, radio and TV, but media in "He wanted to create a community the Times' gleeful public announce¬ its broadest interpretations. Send for those who did not feel comfor¬ ment of Bowman's name in the em¬ your correspondence to News Real at table with existing support groups," barrassing profile just the week be¬ SF VC'eeklv, 425 Brannan Street, S.F. says Thorne of his partner, who died fore, the regret piece claims, "It 94I(r. photo-fiction essay, and "the per¬ sonal is political" personals, « Girljock, "for the athletic lesbian with a political consciousness," de¬ livers neither heavy athletics nor political tirades, but self-effacing humor — like cartoon qm'ps about the simultaneously indecisive and incestuous nature ofwomen's soft- ball teams. It's a magazine for women who like to get muddy, sweaty, and to bed early. The real humor in both ofthese 'zines is not only the introduction of a new generation of stereotypes (the era of the butch, leather-dad dyke and the high-heeled drag queen has been on its way out for a long time), but the realization that the 'zine-makers can't quite live up to their own hyperbolic expecta¬ tions. They'rejust "normal people." Brains admits the possibility of spelling errors and unashamedly offers a "bonus question" to its quiz — "Do you give head?" — then advises the reader to slap scoring the test and move ahead if the an¬ APRIL 1991 ifa THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN/lit. ^ 3 swer is yes. Girljock includes plenty ofstories by Sunah (Dherwin, self-described unathletic "Girl- Jell(o)," and cartoons about not 'ZINE SCENE really making it as a jock. These 'zines are the publishing equivalent of a Queer Nation "mall action" — parading stereotypes so outra¬ geously that the notion of stereo¬ type itself dissolves. And it's not just these "single- 'Homozine' issue" 'zines that are transforming their chunk of the world. Wffile these homozines on AIDS, athlet¬ ics, and intellecmals careen through stereotypes with humor and anger, punk homozines (J.D.s, Hamocore, Nation Bimhox) trash attempts at "gay ide¬ ology" — the reliance of main¬ BY SUSAN GERHARD article), I found more variation than stream gay glossies on political commonality: some trash, some correcmess. Sex homozines (Taste of 'ZiNES ARE to publishing what vi¬ eloquence, and plenty ofrebellion. Latex, Slut.Mag, My Comrade/Sis¬ brators are to the world of rela¬ The best of the lot was far and ter!) present multiple variations on tionships: When you can't find the away DPN(DiseasedPariah News), a simpleminded photo-filled main¬ 'zine that takes on the colossal task right connection, plug in and do it stream gay and straight pom. Other yourself. Many writers and pub¬ of creating "AIDS humor." It's a 'zines like Fogtown Rag, Whispering lishers are doing just that. The up¬ proposition that puzzles editors Campaign, Frighten the Horses, and start Tom Shearer and BeowulfThome gay publications (referred to Homoture fill odd gaps in written here as as much "homozines") found in free- any new reader, but some¬ discourse with works that range how the writer-artist team as¬ thinking bookstores (like San from purposefully humble to ag¬ Francisco's A Different Light) or sembles a collection of works that gressively highbrow. mailed bite hard at institutions through personal networks (hospitals, Obviously, it's a world of many across the the country use a do-it- government) and the AIDS- minds and many Macintosh com- yourselfspirit to express themselves phobic while poking gentle fun at puterSj so if you don't like the PWAs themselves. and, in the process, spit in the face DPN^indulges in browsing selection, make your own. of both the gay and straight pub¬ neither sanctimonious anger nor lishing worlds. mind-numbing "warm fuzzies." Susan Gerhard is an editor at the Bay V\^th In addition to punk attitudes, intellectual Captain C^ondom's Guardian. She has written on gay sex, or just plain humor, the 'zines adventures in snotty nightclubs, the events and issues ofsexuality. rush in where advertising-driven "Pom Potato's" inspired video re¬ entities fear to tread. Since 'zines views, and Shearer's wry prose, are often produced on tattered- DPNoffers plenty ofinformational shoestring budgets by labor-of-love pieces on services for PWAs, news, writers/editors/publishers/cut- Biffy Mae's "Get Fat, Don't Die!" and-paste artists, things like pro- recipes, and tips on condoms. With duc^^ and, of the cover's Palmolive detergent- course, profits can slip through the parody — "The blood of over cracks.