The alleged FAQ file. Last revised: 8/8/97.
In a past life and a previous version of this page, I took the extremely pretentious stance of calling this "an occasional journal of thoughts on music." The best response I could imagine, other than fleeing from the page in panic, was to ask "what the hell is an 'occasional journal of thoughts on music' and why should I spend my precious time reading it?"
To not really answer the question, Finley Breeze is the alter-ego of another fine electronic publication, the Indie-List Digest. The I-L is published more-or-less weekly, and offers record/show/zine reviews from around the world. Like Finley, the I-L is dedicated to music of an independent nature. One argument we've tried to avoid entering over the years has been the vaunted "what's indie music?" debate. Perhaps a quick troll through Mr. Mark's Story Time will tide you over 'til dinner (or the next time it comes around on the gee-tar, along with the twenty-seven 8"x10" color glossy photos with the circles and the arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one telling exactly what it is).
More "substantive" information on this publication appears below.
One of the things that has happened since I inherited Finley is that this damn net thing has exploded into the general consciousness. I'm feeling a little shellshocked by the whole experience, but that's just me... and in part, that's why this publication has its name. (See Morse, Samuel F.B.)
While the telegraph was a great and wonderous invention, it was only for the use of highly skilled persons who spent a great deal of time learning the tricks of the trade, such as Morse Code. Once that damn Bell character stumbled onto the scene, then everyone started using the lines. They thought it was faster and easier to talk directly, and from there it's only a short step to "reach out and touch someone" and telecommuting and even damn video-conferencing.
A similar experience has happened with the Net, as you no doubt have heard/seen/experienced. I've got mixed emotions about all this - I want to show other people what's possible, but I don't want to get overrun in the process. As some have said, if you've got an Internet account (of ANY flavor), then you should be an adult or at least know enough to act like one.
So, this publication is dedicated to a time when jobs involved thinking and producing, not receiving and processing. We made computers to handle the tedious tasks, not to generate more tedious tasks in return...
Finley Breeze is a publication for the discussion of independent music. This publication continues the mission begun by Telegraph, a now discontinued e-zine.
This is not a vehicle for record and live-show reviews, although inevitably records and shows will be discussed in the articles. (The Indie-List Digest is a fine weekly publication of all things independently musical, weighted heavily toward reviews.)
My name is Sean Murphy, and I'm the editor of Finley Breeze. I used to be the archivist and then editor of the Indie-List Digest, and currently handle subscription requests for that forum as well as for Finley. I'm also occasionally known as "Grumpy Sean" on a couple other mailing lists, for various reasons.
Finley is published approximately every 6-8 weeks, depending on my mood, my travel schedule, the number of submissions, and the usual intangibles which affect these sorts of concepts.
Send a message written in plain english (not LISTSERVese) to me at <grumpy@bloofga.org> explaining what you need me to do. PLEASE put the title of this publication in the subject line (i.e. Finley-sub, FB-change, etc.) so I can discern which mail is for which mailing list. Otherwise, I'll assume that your mail refers to the Indie-List, since that's where the bulk of my sub-mail comes from.
About 4 weeks before an issue is scheduled for "publication," I make a general announcement of the intended topic. These topics are not mandatory, nor are they particularly hard to write about. The intention is that everyone who receives Finley will also feel free to contribute to it. (That's what reader-driven is supposed to mean, right?)
Anyway, if you've got something for an upcoming issue, send it to me. All contributions are strongly encouraged. For my part, I promise to keep my blue pencil [and infamous I-L square brackets] safely locked away, unless it's something that simply demands a quick fix (obvious mis-spelling, standardizing the format, etc.). Personal style will not be altered, though I do reserve the right to create paragraphs out of long text-blocks.
There are a variety of options for contributions, including:
All subscribers are strongly encouraged to submit stuff to me - I'm not really looking to publish the "grumpy sean" zine any time soon, but your contributions are what keep this from becoming a one-man show.
Good question. Each of the handy links below will take you directly to the issue in question. The alleged or supposed topics have been:
While some of these were my doing, others have been suggested by readers... again, I'm always open to ideas since I see this more as an open forum which I happen to facilitate rather than "my zine." Perhaps a misguided notion, but that's not important right now...
Back issues of Finley Breeze (and Telegraph, for that matter) are available from me - please allow a couple days for processing of orders, since I really am a human being (despite the amount of time I spend wired at this point).
Thanks for your interest, and don't be afraid to let me know if you think of any ways to improve/change the publication in any way (with the exception of a pure WWW version - too much hassle right now). You can mail comments directly to me at either <grumpy@binc.net> or <grumpy@bloofga.org>. Good enough for you?
Sean Murphy, Primary Facilitator (and sometime-editor)... <grumpy@bloofga.org>
URL: http://www.bloofga.org/finley/finley_rev.html
Last modified: 20 Aug 97 (skm)