I Started Something I Couldn't Finish

The slackest of 'em all: Issue No. 8 THE SLACK BEER ISSUE
aka read this issue and find out how beer makes you smart!
aka aka Slack goes online 14 years later!

As I watched the Philly goons clobber their way into a goal and into the Stanley Cup semi-finals, I yelled.... it seemed so bad, so mean, so playoff hockey. Now Philly is playing the Habs (and you know how I feel about the les habenaeros!?!) So now do I have to switch and root for Philly? Will my hockey conscious let me? Marty?

I was going to post an early issue of Slack #3, with Jimmy Griffin waving goodbye on the cover, but after reading through it, I decided it wasn't the best issue. I mean, it was only the 3rd issue-- out there trying to get into it's own format. A lot of my favorite regular columns and 'ists' weren't in it yet. So like an East Coast hockey fan, I am switching gears and posted the creme de la creme (I have been in a dessert mood lately!) the first Slack Beer Issue (issue no. 8). Besides I only have ONE copy of this issue, so preserving it digitally seemed like a good idea.

You can tell your grandkids about this issue.

This issue has always been one of my all time favorites and it was always a popular back issue. The layout is tighter (eight under our belt), the cover shot was actually photographed by a professional photog-- Donnie downstairs-- and not just a stolen scan from a magazine, the editing was tighter and the DJ lists top in at 13. The record reviews are better (Dre pens six in one issue), the regular columnists are freaks like you and I, the photoshop filters are being used like I knew I could, and this issue sticks with a popular theme for Slack readers, drinking!

The Beer issue plays out like a long night out with feature stories, surveys, a detailed cheap beer taste test, charts and graphics (the winner at $2.99 a six pack) and drinking games, notes and guidelines. My early obsession with lists really took off back in the '90s, it seems. And this issues has a great Slacker in Space (Mr. Don Keller).

But best of all is this issue's Editor's Desktop. It is the story about my experiences with a call from a producer from the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah were doing a show about the "Slacker Generation" (not officially Gen X, as of yet...), they had heard about Slack magazine and they wanted us to be on the show.... until she found out Andre and I both had jobs-- we were not slack enough!! This is a true story! I coulda been famous!

Classic columns like the Bitter Boy anti-smoking rant for The Virtually Lungless, Strick's expose on green beer bottles, and a Horrorscope featuring a beer of the month are awesome to read in perspective. This all adds up to a great example of slack in Buffalo 1994 stylee.

Quoutables include:

For God sakes. I am not Ethan Hawkes in Reality Bites!!

Drinking this beer make reminds me of...
> Being in Goodbar's on 25¢ draft night,
> Grateful Dead 3-23-91, Knickerbocker Arena, Set 2
> My aunt that liked to make knit crafts, and
> Seventh Grade Wood Shop.

Dear Molson, I am goddamn pissed off!

>> Click here to read the PDF of Slack Magazine n. 8, The Beer Issue (7.5 mgs)

And don't forget... so far (we also have):
Slack issue #9: The Dead Rock Stars Issue

follow up: rockin' Donny Shaft comments on The Artvoice blog about rememberin' SLACK- click here!