In The Mouth of GAD!ness

     It's been since June of last year that we last posted an article to this site. Long ass time, considering this is supposed to not only accentuate what we do with the GAD! Zine, but also give so much more. And often. OOPS.

    For anyone else, who isn't crippled by depression or the actual disease, a pandemic-induced shutdown might be a golden opportunity to create. Or at least post a lotta shit online. Well, somehow, I ended up at work more. Ate into my "play time". When I'm not at work, I try to spend more time with my family. Besides that, my motivation has been totally shot. Not the motivation to create, but to be involved with "the scene(s), maaaan". 

    I have so many dear friends in the community, but we all land on so many different perspectives. I can put mild political differences aside (not all artists are great at world views or understanding the world in general), but some, thankfully not many, got caught up in conspiracies.... and just hate. I have no time for that. GAD! has no time for that. It has definitely hurt a chapter or two of my Alabama Punk Rock book. It upsets me. It hurts me. And even though it was only very few people, it makes this not fun. Now, before ya'll start pointing fingers like we're in "The Thing", I'm referring to peripheral artists and fans. I'm not talking about any regular GAD! contributors. They're ALL good people. And I can't wait to hang out with them again.

    On that note, while everyone has been all over the place on the subject of masks and social distancing, I've been firmly in the camp of staying the fuck home and wearing a mask when I must go out. Early into the pandemic, we did a GAD!Fest. It was a lot of fun, but I cringe that we took that chance. That was the last show my band played. There's been several apparently excellent shows in the meantime. Before you judge (or accuse me of judging), many of the folks at said shows were careful and surrounded by friends and family that they were close enough with already to know that they were relatively safe. Still, it is hard to promote shows when I personally don't want you to take the risk. I'm a jerk, but I still love ya'll. 

    We haven't released a new issue of the zine since GAD!Fest 2020, but the new one, Issue 25 is nearly done and has been kinda nearly done for a while. I'll share the cover below. Have mercy on us for taking so long. We've all been having a hard time. My brain is fried, but it has to continue. Once 25 is done, we'll of course get to work on 26. We'll also wrap up the GAD! guide book, which will serve as a companion to those first issues, full of lists, history, and commentary. Hope you kids will like it.  

   


    My apologies for the rambling and some of the vagueness. This is just me squirting out what I can to try to explain myself. The zine lives on and this site lives on. Our independent and underground culture lives on, as well. -Adam Harmless

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