Taqwacore Webzine Manifesto?
Welcome to the Taqwacore Webzine!
I hate the internet and I hate blogs. For all intents and purposes, the internet seems to be the antithesis of everything punk. The internet is sterile, impersonal, and anonymous. Punk is grimy and expressive; it is spread by making mixtapes for friends, and only documented in scribbled letters during drunken late-night sessions at copy shops. So, why on Earth would I want to resort to a webzine about punk of all things?
First of all, I’ve never blogged before, so this is all completely new to me. And frankly, the internet is the scourge of my generation.
My generation is known as the ADD generation–the children of the Reagan-era, where attention-spans last just longer than it takes to click a mouse. As the internet grew up, so did we. This has all culminated in Twitter, the very epitome of our instant, fast-food, tech-savvy excuse for a culture. It seems no one even has time to write a fucking sentence anymore. In terms of this evolution, though, I’m still a step behind, as these long paragraphs illustrated, I’m still somewhat fond of ideas.
Initially, I was in the pro-paper camp. There’s something to be said about having a physical object that you can take with you and read when you’re alone on the subway at night, use as a temporary cd case by slipping cd’s between the pages, or even hand off to some other bored kid that you meet at a party. Honestly, I still prefer paper to this, and hopefully some real-world version of this will manifest.
But after debating the merits of photocopied zines vs. blogs while playing at South by Southwest, Basim and Imran finally convinced me that our punk is different. This is taqwacore, born as an internet phenomenon of friends in far-flung places, we came together to make this real. And unlike all the sub-sub-sub genres that came befores into the world of punk, where you could pass out your zine at a local show, the internet is our common ground. This blog, therefore, is our own fucked-up version of a cut-paste zine handed to you at a basement show.
And so it begins… This is officially day one and post one of, hopefully, many more. As this develops, I’d love to see people coming back to keep reading up, but it would be great for it to be even more than that.
This zine is not only a mouthpiece, but also a gathering point. It is a place to create community, discuss ideas, and meet others. As more and more writers come aboard, you’ll hopefully be hearing less and less from me. So, consider this an invitation to participate. After all, this is your webzine.
Peace
-Marwan
It’s hard to talk like that and not sound like Ron Paul’s goofy nostalgia for the gold standard, but in a way you’re absolutely right. Yeah, it IS a shame, how it seems more than ever before everything is being boiled down to soundbites, hyperlinks, clips, tweets – always wanting the bottom line, as fast as we can get it. I actually told someone the other day, I never read Nietzsche, but I did Wikipedia him.
So your disgust for the internet is not out of place. It tends to strip the romance, you know? Things were a little more meaningful once and a lot more tangible. I mean, does a 128kbps mp3 of Muddy Water’s “Mannish Boy” have any less soul than its original pressing on vinyl?
I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know this – If the mp3 didn’t exist, more likely than not, I never would have heard it.
welcome to the blogging world. I don’t see anything wrong with the Internet, it makes life a little more interesting. for us Deaf people anyway.
Welcome to the blogosphere.
Your blog or zine or whatever you want to call it is typical of many other blogs that start out, in describing itself as a tale, a journey, a frikkin epic.
Most blogs are not epics. Stop trying to be so emo about your medium and write actual content. Nobody gives a crap about the medium and your attempt to show a disliking to this “anti-punk” medium in order to be able to validate or justify how punk you guys really are isn’t going to work.
Just write interesting things and stop trying to throw a romanticized version of how it used to be. Even if you distributed stuff on paper, if it sucked, it’d end up in the trash. At least here, nobody can throw your garbage away.
Good luck.
that’s the point. i don’t want to write content. i want others to write content for this page.
You live in your mother’s basement. Furthermore, Yan CAN’T cook.
you guys are fucking sell outs
blogs are for rich scumbags
fuck you, eyad.
now go hide, ‘fo i call the idirat el-amin (mukhabarat) on you.
assad for life! XD
this is an awesome start.
love, nadia. xox.
noooo mate, i’m glad you made this zine online…
living in the UK.. i wouldnt be able to get hold of a paper copy.
x
McLuhan once famously said, the Medium is the Message, so your concern about this being a blog are well founded.
That said, I’m still glad you started this, I’m a truck driver, I work nights and really have squat for a social life because of my work.
I’d be missing out on all this good stuff otherwise so thank you.
Bear
Enough with the tired cliched fetishism and on with the content. I can’t really speak as I haven’t added anything to my blog.
But thus isn’t about me Its about you!
it’s not fetishism…. i really had to say some shit about how this came together as an introduction. if you are opposed to the style of this post, that’s something else. but, what can i say, man… i was introducing the zine, i had to try to be at least somewhat artistic about it.
anyway, fuck it, i was opposed to a webzine, and honestly, i still think paper is infinitely superior.
unfortunately, it seems like paper is too much commitment for a lot of people in this scene. i, for one, don’t have ANY fucking money.