Rag Mag 50
What's up rag mag? The last two week's have been a blur for your ol' pal Creature with a mix of highs (we made it to issue 50!) and lows, whole family sick with some brain fog, progressives and democratic socialists swept the local Providence primary elections, and tragic news with the passing of a few members of our community. It's been heavy, but at least with some hope. As Coco says in her message below, celebrate your friends and tell them you love them.
This week we have Stage Dive with Velvet Deluxxx, Hound of Hell (a new column from f/k/a Wasteland Chick), Creature on The Road - The Malt Shoppe Part 2 by Mr. Mittens, Medium Regular with Dottie, The Fight Report by Chessy Renee, and Creature's Double Feature.
Its been heavy with tragic loss in the art and music community in Boston lately . Celebrate your friends. Call them , tell them you love them . Go to their show. Check in . Go hang out and fuck around. Listen to records. Catch up. Look at their art , listen to their band . Tell them a dumb joke or just say hey, I'm thinking of you - xxx - Coco
Soundtrack to this week's issue: Mood is heavy so the music is too. Jacks were apparently a big influence on Confuse and we got a Ramone on drums so this week's selections are punk enough for me.
Hit us up at ragmagclub@proton.me with flyers, art, feedback, column idea, or just to say hi and let's talk about PUNK!
Hooked on Sonics
I've been too distracted these days to have a proper theme for this column this week. So instead I'm just gonna send you some songs I've had on repeat. I had a DJ gig at the beginning of the week ( RIFF RAFF w/ DJ WAXXX LIPS - come hang at the next one) and played some of these tunes along with Some local gems ( pictured in photos below)
The two songs I can't get out of my head lately are "Clouds of Dawn" by DEAD MOON and " The Endless Sea" by IGGY POP. You know when all you want to hear is that ONE SONG that encompasses how you feel. Well, thats been me oscillating between these too. I hope you dig them. I also included some links to Missionary Work and Orange Whip. Out of the Blue isn't on streaming , but you can get their info in our flyer section. Enjoy!
CLOUDS OF DAWN - DEAD MOON
The lyrics and the way Toody and Fred's voices intertwine on this one just really gets me.
The Endless Sea - Iggy Pop
I love the moodiness of this song and the way the backing vocals wash over Iggy's deep voice.
LOCAL GEMS!!! CHECK EM OUT!
DJ Waxxx Lips and local gem selections
Nick Creature
Biscuit
Creature on The Road - The Malt Shoppe Part 2 by Mr. Mittens
I dropped off my last delivery just as the rain began to slow into a light and airy splatter. I’d become so accustomed to the sound, that the loss of it made my ears feel empty. It wasn’t even dark yet, the sky was a kind of pale gray with little streaks of amber flashing through the clouds. That was a good sign, the rainy season could last from a couple weeks to months if the atmosphere was just right. Bug says it has something to do with the currents way far out there in the ocean, but I think it’s just more Company fuckery. They’d flood the whole zone if it meant a profit on rubber boots. I checked my console, it was 4:46. If I really pushed it, I could get a soda from Dumpling’s place with time to shoot the shit. She’s never been strict on opening and closing on time, especially when there’s chat involved. Besides, I had a spare bottle of Ocatane that I’d hoped to use as payment and then some. Dumpling loved a good trade.
Dumpling’s place was located inside an old circular maze of dilapidated houses. Most people built their shops along the main roads, little square huts constructed from old boards and metal sheeting. If you registered your shop, you could get connected to the company grid. It meant metered air conditioning and real ice cubes, but it also meant near constant “informal” visits by the red shirts. They liked to make a big fuss by knocking cups over and lifting floor boards in search of contraband. Most owners adapted by moving their stashes around or paying them outright to look the other way, but what they couldn’t hide was the customers. What the red shirts really wanted was a live detention. They salivated at the thought of nabbing a dissident or a wanted driver. The government loved a face to parade around, piles of homemade drugs just didn’t have the same feeling I guess. Registered soda shops had spaced lines, quick service and no chatter. You didn’t risk complaining, talking shit, or hiding out at a registered joint, you just ordered your drink and fucked off. Dumpling on the other hand, based her spot on complaints, shit talking and hiding. She’d spent a year searching every folded over house and empty husk looking for a place still connected to the grid and not in total danger of imminent collapse. She’d broken a collarbone and both her ankles until she found it, a single story house tucked at the very end of something she said was called a culdesac. The front of the house had sagged into the dead grass in a sort of inverted wave, leaving the front windows crushed and the entrance completely blocked. It stood leaning between a circular row of much larger houses all in varying states of messy and obscuring decay. You could drive by it a hundred times and never take a second look at the little old house, and that was what Dumpling called “prime real estate”.
Whats up cosmic freaks! We made it to 50 issues can you believe it hun ? Honestly I've never felt so good but that also might be because I just downed a couple a nips in the ladies room , how else am I supposed to wait in line at the DMV ? . Its HEAVY out there but I'm hoping some of my guidance can ease your day a bit.
We're still in Virgo season , like it or not. Mercury is the ruling planet of virgos, but the only mercury that rules me is my cousin Jimmy's mercury sable. Also if he asks the bumper wasn't on it when he lent it to me. Virgo's are also known to show love by helping / fixing things which is a beautiful trait. Which if there are any virgo mechanics reading this , give ol' Dot a shout - okay?
This month virgo or not help one another. You never know what kinda day someones having.
Hound of Hell (f/k/a Wasteland Chick)
Oh, good, we’re doing another one of these! Welcome back to another HoH (I’m trying a new name, you like it?) Futurama analysis focusing on everyone’s (mine, obvs) favorite character: Fry!! I just- I love him so much :D, I literally have no idea why. Anyway, getting to the point, today we are pushing another Fry theory that is humorously noted in my notes as “Fry implied eating disorder?” Now where, you may be asking, does this theory come from? Or, if you’re the canon-fodder type, you may be asking: “wHaT?! nO wAy, fRy’S aLwAyS eAtInG aNd StUfF, yOu’Re JuSt SpEcUlAtInG fOr No ReAsOn!!” Well, I see this and raise you: I CAN THINK WHATEVER I WANT AND THEORIZE ABOUT WHATEVER I WANT! Is this random thing I’m cooking up true or canon in any way? Maybe, maybe not, who cares?
Okay, no more talking, let’s start: We have this one scene that I KNOW is a joke, but, like, honey no. Okay, so in the episode with the buggalo and barbecue thing, there’s this joke preface cutaway with a truck full of Pepto-Bismal being loaded into a water pump, and I think the joke is that it’s in the Wong barbecue instead of the barbecue sauce, and then we see Fry pumping this pink stuff (seemingly unknowingly) onto his food. But, what if he actually does know what it is that he is putting on his food and is doing it intentionally to still try something new while remaining comfortable? Would you like to take a guess at what I’m building up to?
Anyways, now we can get to the main meat and what I wrote most of my notes for: What Fry eats at restaurants! You heard me right, I watched, like, 10 different Futurama episodes where they eat at restaurants and intensely took note of what Fry ate in those scenes just for this random essay. Yes, I’m crazy. Shut up baby, I know it! Moving forward, in the first appearance of Elzar’s Fine Cuisine and the first time Planet Express goes out to eat, we see Fry eating something that looks extravagant, but upon further intensely staring at freeze frames as rather simple but dressed up. Hmmm… In the next episode where Elzar’s appears (the Amy and Fry date episode), we see Fry ordering a burger at a relatively fancy restaurant. Again, this is obviously supposed to be a joke in the context of the episode, but like, is it? Well, in one of the next appearances of Elzar’s (the robot mafia episode that I never feel like I’ve watched yet I always watch it), the crew are all eating a personalized meal, and Fry’s is a burger that he eats somewhat carefully in small bites. When Bender tells Fry to try his robot soup thing, Fry declines twice for one potential obvious reason of the soup being made for robots, but his refusals seem monotone but almost desperate. Additionally, this is like the only restaurant scene that Fry doesn’t seem spaced out in (trust me, I’ve kept track). Hmmmmmm…
Next, in the really frustrating to watch Bender falls in love episode, Bender takes the Planet Express crew out to eat and celebrate his new love with Angelene at Elzar’s, and Fry is notably very checked out and just staring off into space, also mostly just drinking in small sips while everyone else eats. Hmmm… Then, in the Leela gets two eyes and dates a man that is basically if cardboard talked, the crew is once again at Elzar’s peace and though everyone is just eating bread, Fry has the most on his plate and has specific parts of the bread left uneaten. Side note, this is one of my favorite episodes solely because of Fry. Like, he was on-point with the jokes and commentary and being adorable with Leela and not wanting her to change herself in this thing (I promise, I’ll do a review of this episode!!)
Getting back on track, in another one of my favorite episodes (the Cubert clone one), the crew is at Elzar’s for no particular reason and though it only happens for like 2 seconds, I noticed while aggressively rewinding this scene that Fry has a random food on his plate that is visibly uneaten, and Fry is pointedly looking around the room and away from his food while everyone else around him is in the act of eating. Before I get to my main theory here, I would just like to note a few more random examples of the crew eating out: In the Zoidberg goes to Hollywood episode, the opening thing shows Zoidberg at a comedy club thing with the Main 3 (Fry, Leela, and Bender) watching, and in this scene, though there is a big bowl of spaghetti that is presumably Fry’s in front of him, he is very clearly not eating it and is just staring intently but unfocusedly at Zoidberg’s routine. Finally, in the Richard Nixon episode, we see Fry eating what I assume is Bachelor Chow very carefully and in small bites.
Hmmmmmmmmm….. OKAY! Now, I’ve gathered you all in the accusing room to tell you that my grand theory is: Fry has a form of ARFID! WOAH! Okay, I know this sounds really out of left field. But, one symptom of ARFID is avoiding social situations where food is present, and though Fry doesn’t often do this, I did notice that in the Bender falls in love episode and in the scene where Bender tells the crew he’s taking them out to eat, Fry is noticeably barely excited to go as compared to the rest of the crew. Am I overanalyzing a microexpression? Maybe, but, another symptom of ARFID is eating a limited or specific range of foods, and throughout almost all of the seasons I can watch, that is exactly what we see Fry do. Another symptom of ARFID is only preferring to eat food of a similar color, and most of the food that we see Fry actually enjoy eating is brown. Another more prevalent symptom of ARFID we see in Fry is eating in small, careful bites, and if you’ve been paying attention to my descriptions and examples, is something we see Fry do in formal and informal settings when food is present. Finally, one very prominent symptom of ARFID we see in Fry is being very unfocused while eating, and, again, if you’ve been paying attention to my descriptions and examples, in almost every single scene of the crew at a restaurant or out to eat, Fry is very consistently and visibly spaced out while everyone else eats, especially and most glaringly in the clone episode where Fry is quite obviously looking away from his food. Woah! Well, that’s all I have for this random but kind of obvious-to-me theory I wrote ‘cuz I wanted to angst about my favorite character. Hope you enjoyed!
All my love, Hound of Hell <3
The Fight Report by Chessy Renee
What’s up, punks? ARE YOU PISSED OFF?!!! Plenty of reason to be.
What’s pissing me off today is that my friends are being deported or otherwise forced to leave the great old shithole country we reside in. Having grown up here, the American Dream has never really made any sense to me. But also - I grew up here, so what the fuck do I know?
Even though many many people are not afforded appropriate or affordable health care, are not kept safe by our society or the institutions that run it, and most people are not able to get to (or maintain) a place of economic stability in this country, I do know that many people can and have accessed more resources and opportunities than countries that they have migrated from. I, just like many of us, would not be here if it weren’t for my father moving to the U.S. to “better” himself. Too bad in my case he’s a total deadbeat… but that’s beside the point!
I’m not here to tell you about fighting my father. I’m here to say even though this country sucks ass – there are a lot of fucking immigrants here making it a better place. And it FUCKING SUCKS ASS that they are being pushed out and even abducted by ice. Fuck this shit – Now and forever.
I don’t have much else to say, other than I’m pissed off! But I will leave you with some cool stuff I have found on the web recently:
PM Press - books about antifascism, novels, memoirs, cool shit. Check it out!
IG MA politics info - check out this person explaining Massachusetts poll things. Very informative and helpful for understanding what’s coming up in the elections and ballot questions
5 calls - If you’ve got the time, hop on the line, babbyyy!
So, I’ll leave you with that - and as always - take care of yourself, take care of your neighbors, and good luck staying sane out there in this crazy mad fucking shit storm of todays day and age
As I said in my intro, the last two week's have been a blur and heavy on a personal level and writing has been difficult. Take care of each other and celebrate your friends. One of our rag mag readers reached out about a local organization they work with to share a link on our website and I wanted to shout out here as well. https://www.hausofcodec.org/ Great local organization that hosts a monthly community LGBTQQIA+ Resource Fair & ART Marketplace as well as providing a safe housing space for youth ages 18 - 24. Look up for more info and help out if you can.
Speaking of celebrating friends, Tigers on Vaseline guitarist Insect World recently updated his castle with a new photo exhibit from Greg Harvester ("Blinding Light") in the ballroom and launched the Fujichia Feast Society (see a glimpse of my holographic membership card above. Check it out in the castle and poke around awhile as the weekly posts are always a highlight of my week. His post on 9/1/2026 featured a song he loved and ended with a callout for a notable Life Hit or personal top 40.
"It's different from "favorite song"– I'd say that as a ballpark measure we're looking for songs you've listened to AT LEAST 100 times in your life, ideally things you've listened to AT LEAST 5 times in a row."
Which brings us to this week's double feature, two under the radar life hit songs which the post immediately brought to mind. The kind of songs that when you first nabbed the record you just kept picking up the needle and dropping it again and again.
Velveeta Heartbreak single from Creature's collection
Velveeta Heartbreak's 2006 single I Shot the Invisible Man. Two song weirdo 60's/70's esque pop perfection from a guy named Michael J. Bowman along with a few aliases I presume to also be him. Billed as lo-fi, indie, whatever, this is just a perfect . At the time I never looked much further than this, but I played I shot the Invisible Man over and over so many times in summer 2006 I probably should have bought a back up copy. One of those songs I can't explain what it is that I love about it, but this is pure pop end of summer bliss. Only place I could find this streaming was on a couple WFMU radio show playlists, which cuts the extended weirdo ending. Here's a link.
The other song that came to mind (and played way too many times this week is "You're in America" by Granicus. 70's never-were hard rockers released this extremely rare LP (thanks Rob for the nice price years ago and Riding Easy Records for reissuing)) in 1973 and the opening track is an all-timer. Not hard to see why record companies weren't pushing this one. The song fades in, the riff starts and the opening refrain of ...who stole this land - Wicked! Wicked! Wicked! Wicked! and launches off from there. It keeps building and building until ending with his screams about Let me drop my load on you America. Fuck, this is what I thought hard rock was supposed to be.
Granicus LP from Creature's collection
Records of the Week
Democracy - Party's Over LP
First up is a new 10 song LP on Unlawful Assembly, Democracy - Party's Over. Crude, noisy hardcore punk that when mittens first heard it said from the other room she said, I haven't heard this drum beat in years and I forgot how sick it is. Been playing this non-stop, and I think their words speak for themselves: "We are Democracy, born out of the fascist hellscape of so called “United States of America”. We combat the destructive core of capitalist imperialism with a love of noise and hatred of money. We are anti money in that we recognize the existential threat of the accumulation and hoarding of capital by the ruling class. While acknowledging the Real Politik that survival in our urban dwellings requires. We do not wish for fame nor fortune, only to produce music with enough power and aggression to force you out of your skull and see that we are on the precipice of social and environmental collapse."
Total ripper, this rules!
ihateesocialmedia
Barrows - Tomorrow's Fear 12"
Next up is Barrows - Tomorrow's Fear 12". As the Disclose worship art says "Raw Brutal D-Beat Still Continues". Self-released 12" by these Japanese Dis lovers, the production is raw and loud, and the anger is felt. Nothing new invented here, but raw punk doesn't need invention, just the spirit and punk energy which this has in droves. Another brutal ripper.
Soul Song of the Day
Recently found a cheapo copy of With My Love and What You've Got (We Could Turn the World Around), a northern style classic from Jean Wells - (who also has the writing credit here). As one of the comments on the video says "Proper track, proper voice". Get up and dance!
That's it for this week's Rag Mag. Here's some flyers and keep sending stuff in (ragmagclub@proton.me).
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