Category Archives: Issue 1

Commentary: Opening the Time Capsule (Issue 1, Part I)

What follows is commentary about Volume 1, Issue 1 by the founders and editors. of The Advocate. The full issue is visible at the bottom of this page or by clicking The Advocate, Volume 1, Issue 1.

Page 1

Scott Berkey – Okay, here goes. I am going to crack open Volume 1, Issue 1 and see what drops out.  I don’t know for sure how long it has been since I have read this issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is ten years and it could be closer to twenty. Once we stopped publishing I bagged and boxed up back issues and never really had time to go back to them. I thought about trying to pull together tenth, twentieth, and then twenty-fifth anniversary specials, but obviously that never went any further than keeping at least one copy of issue back issue safe and get the scans made.

Brendan Kinney – Quick quiz: What were you doing in November 1988?

Jamie Hill – I don’t have memories of how The Advocate came to be. I do remember walking around and selling ads. And indeed I’m shocked at how many of them we managed to sell! Do you guys remember how we brokered the favorable printing deal with the Herald? I was working at their press at the time … was Ben, too? (“Ben” was Brendan’s nickname in high school. It’s complicated. – Ed.) If not, then probably that would have been me who brokered that connection. I remember Dickey (Drysdale, former editor of The Herald of Randolph. – Ed.) gave us an incredibly sweet deal. Continue reading

Commentary: Opening The Time Capsule (Part II)

Page 2

Scott Berkey – It strikes me as I get to the second page that for all the long talks that Brendan and I had about the need for a new way for kids to speak to the world and for all the long talks we had about politics once we were really publishing something we didn’t really have much to go with.

Alexi somehow managed to finagle a credit in the masthead. Not sure how that happened or what he ever contributed. That really irked me at the time, but now it strikes me as just another piece of the mixed up puzzle that was The Advocate.

Brendan Kinney – I think he wrote one article, but we should corroborate.

SB – “Protests in the 1990s” is the first piece to appear in The Advocate with a legitimate byline.

BK – And there I go again, ranting about foreign policy, war and peace, and whatever else you got. It was around this time that I went to my first protest in Washington, D.C., although it was probably a year later during my first year in college. Ironically, Scott got off a bus just as I walked by with the Saint Mike’s contingent. He threw a rod on his Toyota Corolla flooring it to the bus stop where other Vermonters had gathered for the trip down.

SB – Brendan wasn’t the only one predicting (hoping) the 90’s would be like the sixties, but the momentum that seemed to be building almost came to a boil during Operation Desert Storm and then fizzled away. Continue reading

A New Political Party Option Anarchist – PART I

By Alex P. Laslow

Definitions:

1.) Democrat: one who is a lot like a Republican.
2.) Republican: one who is a lot like a Democrat.
3.) Anarchist: one who is fed up with #1 and #2.

Why does the word “anarchy” offend most Americans? Maybe it’s because this word has suffered the same fate as, say, the word “communism.” Continue reading

Arguments About Anarchy – PART II

By Alex P. Laslow

Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 1 (November 1988)

When I wrote part 1 of this article, I was nearly giving up on all forms of government. I was quite pleased with my radical thinking, and asked a friend of mine to read it. Knowing full well he was going to challenge the whole idea of anarchy and knowing he would be insulted at my anti-American thoughts. So in defense, I prepared a narrow mind.

Well, he argued with all the things I had expected, and he accused anarchy of being “impossible,” and said it was “a nice idea but that is it.” He explained to me that there is always going to be someone that wants to go ahead and with anarchy, it would be complete chaos.” Continue reading

Questions I Have

By Alibaster Johnson

My question to you is: why do people take life so seriously?

There’s no way you can possibly make it out alive anyway. It’s pretty ridiculous when you look at it. We all run around in a frenzy, but where are we going? In circles, as far as I can tell. What people don’t seem to realize is that we aren’t the only ones around. There’s a whole universe out there that probably has several different types of life (three of which I think I saw on the street the other day, but I can’t be sure). The point is that we think that what we’re doing is so important, but it isn’t. It doesn’t really matter much at all. Which is why it ought to be taken lightly. Continue reading

The Definitive Guide to Sledding

By Corey “Iceman” Lopez

Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 2 (November 1988)

Sledding is done down a hill, on top of snow, by a sledder. The terms “hill,” “snow” and “sledder” cover a great many conditions, any of which may exist when you sled.

As a sledder you can be one of three varieties: the rookie, the sage, or the hot dog. You are still a rookie if you buy a sled only once every five years or so. You have reached the semi-honorable rank of sage if you need a new sled every other sledding season. You are one of the the elite, a hot dogger, if, when the winter’s over, you can use your sled to grate cheese. Continue reading

Protest in the 1990’s

By Brendan Kinney

Things happen in cycles. History tends to repeat itself through these cycles. There’s the ‘up’ cycle and the ‘down” cycle, and the somewhere-in-between cycle.

Nevertheless, life seems to have happened in cycles. There’s the ‘up’ cycle, and the . . . wait. I said this already, didn’t I? Cycles like I said, great things.

So far, the eighties have been a real drag. No one really cares about anything. It’s basically been every being for him/herself. But, if you take a look in a newspaper that talks about news, you see a lot of people that are protesting, demonstrating, picketing, sitting-in.

Continue reading

CONCERT REVIEW: CVB At Dartmouth

By Jamie Hill

Whaddaya get when you mix punk, beer, polka, beer, heavy metal, beer, reggae, beer, classical music, beer, and jazz? One AWESOME live show. Camper Van Beethoven is undeniably one of the better bands on the college/independent/unknown circuit today, and with the release of their fourth album, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart, CVB has firmly established itself as a major creative force (and bonafide source of utter lunacy). Their uniquely bizarre mix of genres never fails to take an unexpected turn, more often than not in the middle of a song, and their music is always complex without being overstatedly so.

Continue reading

RECORD REVIEW: Suicidal Tendencies

How Will I Laugh Tomorrow? (When I Can’t Even Smile Today?)

By Brendan Kinney

Some of us remember the songs of yesterday, “Join the Army,” “Possessed To Skate,” “Institutionalized,” and a certain song that opened with a primal scream, “I shot Reeaaagan!” Well, yesterday is now today, and those Suicidal Boys are back, this time they’ve packed a little commercialism with them (in hopes of making themselves more known) and a little more experience that’s come together to produce a great new album.

ST’s new album opens up with “Trip At The Brain,” which displays the talents of lead guitarist Rocky George, with Mike Muir’s rough, gasping voice shouting, “I gotta take a trip, gotta take a trip out of this place, I gotta get away, get away from the human race… “. Only this song isn’t drug-related. “Major trippin’ which you’ll just have to listen to.” Continue reading

The Middle Of The Road

By Robert O. Milieu

Volume 1, Issue 1, Page 5 (November 1988)

Salutations! Do you know where I got the word “salutations” from? I got it from the children’s book, Charlotte’s Web. The reason that I bring this up in a political viewpoints article is that my favorite facet of Charlotte’s Web is that it doesn’t offend anyone. Even though there is conflict and tension, and even though it is a great piece of literature, it does not offend anyone. In “The Middle of the Road” I hope every reader will find substantive, stimulating political commentary that does not offend a single one of their sensibilities. Continue reading