I recently had a conversation about starting a "dance" review or zine...Something like Contact Quarterly in that it would have articles, interviews and innovative free flowing discourse that critically thinks about issues in contemporary dance. Nice...right?
But what an administrative nightmare...finding grants, shuffling and filing paperwork, promoting it, creating a buzz around it, seeking help, recruiting advertisements and sponsors...
I'd probably need a board of directors...I'd definitely need contributors, oh and editing and images, oh and printing and wow...that sure sound like a hell of a lot of work.
I'd probably have to hire some eager college-age interns, maybe a few naive carrier pigeons, an in-house hipster bike messenger, a blonde bombshell personal assistant...a new psychologist to help me cope with the extra load of stress, a massage therapist who could help further relieve my stress and advertise in my zine all in one shot.
I'd probably need to hire a ninja or two to scale the freshly power-washed walls of city hall...scale all the way up to good old Billy Penn, and secure in his hand a larger-than-life neon light-up billboard advertising my brand spanking new dance zine....BUT the sign wouldn't say "dance zine".
No. It would be more mysterious by revealing just the title which would be (drum roll please...) "TENSE MAG.: not stiff but Present". There would be a buzz around Philly, and people would not put 2 and 2 together until they started seeing copies all over the place...It could be like in Las Vegas where you can't walk anywhere without a few pages of the "slutty naked lady zines" getting skewered by the skinny heels of your stilletos. "TENSE MAG." articles would be strewn across Philly. You'd go for a walk, step in some gum, and before you'd know it, you'd have an article entitled "Finding the Sits Bones: Philly's Prime Movers Discuss Pelvic Halving and the Head Tail Connection" stuck to your new Puma's.
So...stay posted...more to come on "TENSE MAG.". If you are a dancer who likes to hear herself talk, a talker who likes to imagine himself dancing, a dreamer who likes to dance herself to sleep, or a talker that likes to force others to the point of sleeping and dreaming , then "TENSE MAG." is for you!!!!!!!! If you are none of these things...go read the Wall St. Journal.
