It’s so nice to find my lifestyle being vindicated by the powers that be here at MRR. I’m sure you’ve read about it in other places around the magazine, so let me just say it’s nice that the rest of the magazine has decided to join my world. C’mon, how punk is it to waste paper anyway? Plus, don’t the changes coming about mean that more intelligent punks will be reading the zine now? Anyway, on with the regularly scheduled column, which, I’d like to remind you, for this month at least, can be found online at http://www.cruzio.com/~hanford/maximum.html .

For those of you looking for cheap web access, I found a company that gives you access to the net for very low rates – in fact, it’s FREE! NetZero (http://www.netzero.com) has access numbers all over the country, and they charge absolutely nothing for their service. All you have to do is give them some information about you, get their software (it’s a free download, or you can purchase a CD for 6 bucks or something), and put up with a window flashing advertising at you the entire time you are on the net. The advertising is a pain, I suppose, but a small price to pay for free access. Before you install NetZero, however, I have one word of warning. There are some reports of the NetZero software screwing up your ability to access your regular ISP, so think about that before you install the software.

A funny thing happened at home the other day. I had a hot water pipe bust open in my foundation, and I had to call the plumber. They ended up having to jack hammer in my bathroom. Well, to make a long story short, it turns out one of the guys on the job has an online e-zine that deals with plumbing, comics, and more. This world is getting weirder and weirder. Anyway, Drainwash is the zine’s name, and you can find it at http://www.drainwash.com/ . Get inside the mind of a plumber and read all kinds of great top 10 lists – like plumber’ nightmares, the worst things about being a plumber, and things you shouldn’t flush. Plus, you get original comics. Who woulda thought…?

Here’s a site for those of you into the new swing dancing craze – it’ll tell you why you suck. Check it out at http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Quarter/3341/index.html . Unfortunately, the web address is about as long as the page, but it still deserves a mention.

If you’re looking for other people’s opinions about music, check out the Punk Review Connection at http://members.xoom.com/talleysucks/index.html . Over a hundred reviews here, but mostly stuff that you are already aware of. Unfortunately, their frames were fucked up when I visited the site (with Netscrape 4.0) and I had to resize the top frame to figure out how to use the site. Still, it’s worth a visit.

One of the things I love about the net is that you can scope out tons of underground bands who you’d never see or hear if it wasn’t for their web pages. Unfortunately, a lot of their web pages suck bad. Moral Panic has a site for their band that DOESN’T suck at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Underground/9206/bob.html . Lots of lyrics, pictures, news, and some poorly recorded sound files here. Political hardcore from Canada, too.

Also from Canada, Monolithic offers ala’ carte bootlegs. That is, you can pick up to 74 minutes of stuff from their bootleg list, and they’ll kick it onto a CD for you. The cost is something like 15 bucks, and they’ve got old shit from the Germs and Flipper, as well as newer indie stuff, corporate punk, and the like. Anyway, you may find something you want at http://www.dowco.com/jgwilson . Now, if they’d just learn how to format their graphics to load quickly…

Another site for you collector scum is Vinyl Recycle. Vinyl Recycle has a bit of everything, from punk and new-wave to jazz, metal, classical, goth, and more. There is a lot of semi hard to find vinyl here, so if you’ve been searching for something for years, you may just find it here. Vinyl Recycle is at http://www.vinylrecycle.com/ .

A super-happening site is Panx at http://www.panx.net . From France, Panx has been around as a label and production company for a long time. This site has it all. Panx zine, Panx real-audio radio, Panx live video of punk bands, music distro, and more more more more more. Unfortunately, it’s all in French, but that shouldn’t keep you from enjoying it.

I’m hesitant to mention this last site, because at this point they don’t exactly have a lot on it, but they’ve got a really cool logo, and a good idea. I just hope they get around to actually putting something up. The site I’m talking about is Unixpunx dot org (http://www.unixpunx.org), a site that is "For people who like counter-culture music and counter-culture operating systems". Yep, you got it. It’s a site for those of you into punk music and Unix, an operating system for the true geek.

That’s all I have for you this month. Remember to e-mail me your websites at hanford@cruzio.com or write to me at PO Box 752; Santa Cruz, CA 95061. If you’re online, I’ll see you next month. Otherwise, it’s been fun. Bye.