Issue 1
So you've found us: Habits of Waste: A Quarterly Review of Pop Culture. And how do we reward you? Despite our announced focus on "popular culture," right out of the gate we seem to have steered more towards the cult and obscure. Only a few of the bands, movies and books examined here will have much name recognition.
But then, the fact these topics have never become popular is no hindrance to those of us at Habits of Waste. Indeed, we take heart from Oscar Wilde's advice that "To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture" ("The Critic as Artist"). Well, we've got parts, and maybe even a smattering of culture, and so we ask, "why not?" Why haven't all the figures here received more attention?
So, in our first issue, Jeff Purdue calls your attention to the pop charms of the little-heard band Velvet Crush. Dave Zauhar gives his considered evaluation of the book Our Band Could be Your Life, a guide to all the great indie bands of the Eighties that never went Big Time. Paul Piper finds a hidden thread about the nature of time that runs through a variety of books, movies and advertisements. Allen Frost dares to go where Entertainment Tonight won't: behind the scenes for the making of a movie you have no chance to see. And Jim Kirchner pays tribute to the hardest working man in music you've never heard of, Derek Bailey.
Pop culture seems a vast field. Perhaps this is because it is so often ephemeral; it appears, is consumed (by numbers large or small) and disappears. The articles in this issue are all the result of private passions. That a cultural form intended for mass consumption can have such a solitary existence, the provenance of a few devoted obsessives, is one of the curious features of pop culture. A band, a movie, a comic book will connect with someone for whatever reason. We hope to provide a place where those personal connections can be communicated, and perhaps encourage you to explore something new. Think of the contributors in this issue as cartographers. Follow if you dare.
