Re: new Option

[uwvax!astroatc!gtaylor@seismo.CSS.GOV (Mr. Sharkey....white courtesy phone, please)]

In article <8704301923.AA19125@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU> Love-Hounds writes:
>Really-From: hsu%uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU@a.cs.uiuc.edu (William Tsun-Yuk Hsu)
>New Option is out. The usual Option format, slick and not very in-depth.
>There are some interesting groups covered this time, like Diamanda Galas,
>Alain Neffe/Human Flesh, etc.

I think that we're sitting right on the business of seeing the near-final
settling in of the OPtion/Sound Choice split so that *nobody* will ever
assume that the two are confusable again. OPtion is settling in and
turning a bit slicker, while Sound Choice is really starting to get
their schedule into gear a little bit. For people like me, the sad
part is seeing the people who are/have been in the habit of writing for
*both* publications starting to thin out a little bit: C.W. Vrtacek
seems to have gotten pissed at the whole spectrum of the scene, and 
Dean Suzuki just isn't doing as many reviews as he used to in SC. I'm
firmly committed to fence-straddling (though it's a little easier for
me, since I tend to do mostly reviews for one publication and feature
stuff for the other), and would really hate to see things fragment
more. I still maintain that the *real* scene is the arithmetic mean
between the two, crossbred with a few other more "fringe" and "special"
type 'zines.

P.S. this also means the end of "Aunt Donald's" amazing history of
old swing-era jazz stuff. I know that none of the people he/she
talked about had funny haircuts or played power tools, but what an
*amazing* labor of love those columns were-actually got me to listen
to some of the stuff. OPtion will be poorer for AD's absence.
-- 
"And all the seven heavens showed to me/their magnitudes, their speeds, 
the distances/of each from each. The little threshing floor/that so
incites our savagery was all-/from hills to river mouths-revealed
to me..." Dante, Paradiso (XX I,148-152) Gregory Taylor (gtaylor@astroatc)