In June of 1999, as some of you may know, I started a little zine called Amish Drive-By. Well, it is now December of 2002, so we will be nice and round and say that there is a three and a half year disconnect between the beginning of ADB and this current period, which I am working on the ninth (and final) issue of NeuFutur. After this issue, I will be working on "Futur", the political and music oriented zine that NeuFutur once was, and continue the zine that NeuFutur has become in the last year, dropping the Futur from its name. So, NeuFutur is also the name of my organization, and each zine will have on it somewhere a NeuFutur reality number. This is 13, for the thirteenth zine that I've did. I have numbers reserved up to 18, including 2 splits, one one-shot, one more issue of this, and one of "Futur". I just can't foresee a time when I'm not actively doing a zine. For me, the zine is a lover that I just cannot get away from, in that I feel empty and without motivation if I am not at some point in the process of creating a zine.

I understand why I originally wanted to do a zine, but I still wonder why anyone willingly bought an ad in Amish Drive-By or send CDs in for review. Not many of my current readers have had the (dis)pleasure of reading ADB, so I will explain it here. It was a full sized, 20 paged zine that was created without any knowledge in computer programs besides word. So, each issue included a number of reviews by yours truly, a rant or two, some contributed articles, and some articles I blatantly ripped off without permission. I must admit, the topics that I picked for covering in the magazine (including discussions about socialism, Skinheads, the Dalai Lama, etc) still have a lot of global significance, but I still cannot remember a time where I actually read more than a paragraph of the stuff I ripped off.

The only thing that I happily look back at Amish Drive-By for having that NeuFutur didn't have was continual contributions by some very cool people. For example, whatever girl I was dating online was sure to have some sort of poetry that she had written, and being "in love" with me, she was typically more than happy to contribute something for me. But, by far, the coolest contributions that I ever received were from this New York girl that I had begun talking to for some unknown reason, Nina Goldsmith. Now, you may remember her as the editor of Glendale Boulevard or mentioned in Dunk and Piss, but she got her zine virginity taken away from her with her piece in issue #1, "The Lobster Conspiracy", which was reprinted in a later issue of NeuFutur.

I never have regretted doing Amish Drive-By, even after getting kicked out of school for that week. Even though I received tons of mail saying the opposite, I always felt that I was providing music scenes with a resource, especially in the fledgling Lancaster scene. For my reviews, which I now admit were not always the most fair, I truly got the most shit. I remember going to those small punk shows, those shows that were held at people's houses, or at a VFW hall that they rented for the night, and being heckled by the punk band of the week, for a shitty review that I had did of them the weekend before. I helped the last good concert venue in town, Cool & Phat, book some excellent bands from Northern Ohio, and I was mentioned a number of times in the flyers of different concerts.

Over the three and a half years since Amish Drive-By first came out to the whole wide world, I believe that I have made some serious changes in my life, both with the zine and my entire lifestyle. The cover of Amish Drive-by #1 had a picture of me, with long dyed-black hair, black jeans, silver boots, and "its so damn good we scare ourselves", with about 60% of the page being open. I originally used word and an ink pen to make the entire zine. For the first few issues of NeuFutur, I completely used photoshop to make the zine. Now, I find WPA posters and Communist propaganda and randomly paste bits from magazines on them. Amish Drive-By was on the average 50% white space, but I dare you to find any of that in a later issue of NeuFutur. I have learned the gospel of background images, and I don't think I could ever go back. For me, the decision to use white space is not something that I can truly feel comfortable with, because I feel that white space has more to say sometimes than the actual text of the piece.

NeuFutur, for me, has been a form of therapy that is relatively free. Compared to the shrinks that I used to attend, I am sure all the costs in running a zine pale in comparison. But, if one was to acquaint themselves with this issue of NeuFutur and then look back at any issue of Amish Drive-By, even some of the earlier issues of NeuFutur itself, it really seems as if there were two different people in charge of the magazine. Doing these last few issues of NeuFutur has really allowed me to express things that in real life, I simply would not be able to divulge to the parties. At least with putting these things in the magazine, I can at least now say that it was out and open to the public, which makes me feel good even if it is a little bit underhanded. Personally, I would love to hear from anyone who has read issues of Amish Drive-By, early NeuFutur, and has noticed some changes between those two and the latest issues of NeuFutur. Even if you are only acquainted with the last few issues of the magazines, feel free to e-mail me and I will send you a copy of the old zine, as long as you write me a paragraph or so about how you feel I�ve changed. Lets' call it a little experiment.