"The No-Fi "Universe" Must Be Saved!"
You know, sometimes when you put out a magazine, you expect certain things to happen in the proper order because of those fun things we like to call deadlines.

Since we switched over to an online format in 2002 we've learned that the demands of putting out new content every week can be... Hmmm... Let's say "Graaaaaghhh!"

When we started No-Fi "Magazine" back in the G. W. Bushless year of 1996, we were generally about three months ahead with each issue. So when Issue #1 came out, we were already finishing up Issue #3. Cool, right? Pretty efficient.

So when No-Fi "Magazine" returned after a year of hiatus (technically, although I was still adding content to the site), Issue #25 debuted while I was finishing up Issue #26.

See the difference there?

That's a one month difference and that one month was the start of a big problem.

You see that one month made all the difference because it didn't allow for those little setbacks that always happen. Technical problems, Lost interviews, Hi-LAR-ious technical problems....

So the No-Fi universe kept moving forward even though the trail it left behind was cracked. Oh, sure it looked pretty. REALLY REALLY pretty... But think about all the cracked sidewalks you've walked on in the prettiest of trailer parks. That trailer park may be the shiniest of magic golden trailer parks, but a cracked sidewalk, no matter how well it functions on a basic level is still a cracked trailer park...errr...sidewalk. Yeah, that's it.

So 5 years since we were reborn online onto the new flesh that is the digital flesh (that one's for you Cronenberg fans!) we've followed a rough road that needs to be repaved. Some of the problems we've had because of personal problems, but others were technical. A good example is the fabled interview with The Silversun Pickups that was supposed to go in issue #39. I actually did that interview personally...THREE TIMES. The first two times didn't record and the third time DID, but came out like a series of whirrs, chirps, and whines that sounded very much like R2-D2 throwing up. This same crappy tape recorder prevented me from doing the scheduled interview with the band Monster. (...Who?)

This kind of thing happened a few times and because we were always stepping forward in order to keep up, we left things behind unfinished at times. I couldn't leave it that way. It's pretty lame.

So last year was the last straw. 2005 was bad, but 2006 dragged me and the magazine through the same hell that spawned Lindsey Lohan's pruney vagina. Ok, it wasn't THAT bad, but bad enough that issues that should have been great were only just good...AND some of which unfinished.

So I was inspired by the comic book world. Both DC and Marvel Comics have had to recreate their universes in recent years to clean up the years and years of dogmatic, conflicting stories. Some stories had to retold in new ways and others had to be dropped altogether. There were two ways I could have done this. All sneaky and behind your back...or just let you in on the joke and help you to enjoy all this interviews and articles all over again for the first time. I chose the latter...or is that the former?

Aww heck. Anyway, this is going to take some time. Aside from the missing interviews, articles, and technical gaffs, there are also a whole lotta ugly issues from the first 5 years of No-Fi "Magazine". You see, we were concentrating on making the paper version of the magazine look good so the online version basically looked like... Well, yeah, like Lindsey Lohan's creepy ol' vagina does now.

So over the next 6 months, every other month we are going to sort out all these mistakes, ugliness,and general crisis in a three part series called "The NO-FInite Crisis". The only way we can go forward is by first going backwards and fixing the mistakes that have been dragging behind us much like that toilet paper on your shoe.

(...made you look.)

In the meantime, we've got a whole buncha new writers and we are currently working on issues that are months ahead. MONTHS... Not just a MONTH ahead. MONTHS! We're talking at least FOUR months ahead from what I'm seeing at the staffroom tables.

So check the updates in these three NO-FInite issues to see what we've fixed up special just you. Actually not just for you. For me... For us...

The No-Fi "Universe" is in danger...

...but the No-Fi "Universe" will be put right.


yr no-fi pal,

Chris Beyond
editor, no-fi "magazine"
nofimag@hotmail.com



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