Muted (R)evolution

A small piece pondering the impact of digital on street press and the music industry generally has been published in the September issue of Meanjin (volume 70, number 3).

You have to knock. If you're supposed to be there, someone will let you in. The exterior broadcasts little; only a small sign in the window marks the name of the magazine.

'Hi,' he says. 'Come on in.'

Inside, the walls groan with the weight of history hanging from them. Posters old and new jostle for the limited space available: Powderfinger bidding farewell to the world, the Smashing Pumpkins touring their new album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. To the left, a reception desk curves away from me around the corner of the room, overlooking the entire area. No one sits behind it. To the right, stacks of papers line the wall by the front door without any discernible order to them: the reformed Saints here, the Residents there. There's at least fifteen years of history lying at my feet, almost discarded on the floor.

It's available in all good bookshops or you can buy a copy online over hereabouts. Go buy it. Go on.