Angry Thoreauan

#18 $3 (PO Box 2246 Anaheim, CA 92814)
by Lex Marburger

Ah, my dear Rev. Tin-ear! Once again, your abrasive sensibilities grace our eyes. This month, he and his crew of jaded misfits take a look at Christianity. I only stopped briefly to wonder what religion he’s ordained in (turns out to be the Universal Life Church) before tackling the literary onslaught upon the most respected carpenter in the world. First, he takes on Christian Rock, specifically Tooth and Nail Records, roundly slamming bands that write hardcore/punk songs about God (hey, didn’t Bad Brains do that?), followed by an email transcript between him and Tooth and Nail. Next is a pictorial/drug-addled tour of “The House of A Thousand Crosses.” Downright scary, it is. A search for Jesus’ foreskin is next, tracing it’s passing from Jeruselum to Rome and beyond, followed by a pictorial of a rather attractive, bare breasted tattooed woman showing how to perform a circumcision with your teeth (courtesy of a Taco Bell burrito). It goes on, with pieces on a holy Frog and the Pope’s feces (This one’s kinda hard to read, it’s white on white don’cha know). The rest of the issue is standard fare for AT. Monique, the phone sex Goddess, talks about sensual domination and her murdered lover, there are interviews with Texas Terry and the Stiff Ones (who turns out to be the oral circumcision girl), Wack Pack, and U.S. Bombs, as well as book, ‘zine, and music reviews. An interesting thing to note is that in the letters section, Tin-ear says to some foolish retractor (who goes by the name “Clarendon”) that “to truly anger those whose music you do not like, the best thing is to simply ignore them.” If that’s so, and I’m not saying whether I agree or not, why does he spend half the issue discussing the music (among other things) of something he obviously doesn’t like? I think the needed phrase is “Do as I say, not as I do.”