By E.C. Nal
Okay, let’s go jaywalk. I wanna rob a bank. Let’s steal some old lady’s purse. No, better yet, let’s bomb Barre. We could always shoot down the governor, or just cruise around and shoot people on the highway. If we got bored at that we could always sell some pot. Wait, that’s not illegal enough. Gimme some crack — it’s goin’ on sale today. Continue reading
By Robert Tetlow
“Rob, grow up, act your age.” That is what most people say to me. They say I’m immature. I am.
It’s my personality. I have a carefree attitude, and think everyone should have one. “Rob, you’re never serious.” That’s bullshit. I do get serious, when it’s necessary. I feel this world needs a sense of humor. When you feel down, you turn on HBO or whatever and there’s comedy. It makes you laugh, and you forget about your problems, until it’s over, and a drama comes on, and reminds you of your problems, and you feel lousy again. The best way to feel good about yourself is to have fun and have a sense of humor: let it go. If you don’t, you’re fucked. A sense of humor is what I use to get by in life. Continue reading
By Scott Berkey
What is America? Most would answer that America is a country of the free and the brave, but America is more than that – and less. Yes, America is a country with borders and states; yet, it has ceased to be merely just a country and become an idea and to some an ideal. Continue reading
Is this season’s skiing weather not getting you down the slopes? Maybe it has something to do with the massive outpouring of harmful emissions from automobiles and smokestacks much like the one pictured above. The Greenhouse Effect is a serious problem and calls for immediate action from every inhabitant of this planet. Change will not occur until we all realize that our disposable society can no longer continue without global repercussions.
By Lance Terry
A true story follows. Picture this. The car seemed to silently glide into the parking lot as I attacked my cousin with a barrage of questions. “Who’s that?” I asked. “How am I supposed to know?” She murmured. “You mean you don’t know everyone in your school?” I pried. “What are you, on crack?” was the rebuttal. I began to sense that a great day awaited me.
You see, I was a visitor in a school where no one but my cousin knew me. Five thousand kids, grades 10-12, that’s big. Wouldn’t you say? William Tenent High School. To me this was not a visit to an educational institution. Oh, no, this was my venture to another world.
I hesitantly got out of the car and kinda scraped my way about, trying to keep up with my cousin. After a few minutes I began to realize that no one would know I was new because, nobody knew everybody anyway. I loosened up a tad. Continue reading
By D.M. Jublowski
The Advocate is in trouble. Confidence is lacking within the office walls of the infamous and purely volunteer oriented newspaper. Sources report that financial and literary shortcomings are placing the future of its uninhibited self expression and creativity in jeopardy.
Other insiders have speculated that strong-arming by the mafia and Tipper Gore is frightening away current and prospective advertisers.
Determined Sex and Rock Editors have been working at a dizzying pace to the prevent the newspaper’s collapse, which would deal a crushing blow of unparalleled proportion to free thinking people everywhere. Continue reading
They Left With Their Answer: Rattle And Hum.
By Brendan Kinney
“This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles; we’re stealin’ it back.” Bono announces as U2 opens Rattle and Hum with “Helter Skelter,” setting a bold and dramatic tone for the rest of the film.
The movie’s highlights include collaborations with the Harlem Choir in a gospel rendition of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and with B.B. King on “When Love Comes To Town.” Nearly all of the concert footage is exciting and powerful. The most dramatic performance is the last ‘set,’ in which Bono makes a speech against the terrorism in Ireland and the Irish Revolution, finally crying out, “Fuck the revolution! It’s just another Sunday Bloody Sunday…” after which an emotional version of that song pounds out of the speakers. On to “Pride,” a tribute to Martin Luther King. Next “Bullet The Blue Sky,” during which Bono grabs a spotlight and plays around with it, shining the beam on The Edge during his guitar solo. Continue reading
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
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
After each issue of The Advocate was published, Scott and I would jump into his blue 1979 Toyota Corolla and drive all over central Vermont. We’d stop at general stores, libraries, bookstores and the like, and we’d kindly ask to leave a stack of papers (“Currently Free”). Continue reading