[Printed Matter]

When Fliers Ruled

by Reviewer Rob

So I was at Gelato Vero on India and Washington last night for a quick cup of scooped espresso and picked up a Soda Bar schedule for November. The “FREE” on its nominal folded cover is what caight my eye. Well of course it’s free, it’s on a flier rack. But it reminded me of a small 90’s zine or chapbook. Gelato Vero is one of those last standing places in town with a reliable flier rack that has room for newsprint magazines. Only a few years ago after handsets took over there were still flier and zine racks in almost every shop and bar. Not now. I was driving up Fifth Avenue yesterday afternoon after some business downtown and was about to turn right on the corner near where Off The Record used to be (they used to have the ALL TIME BEST ZINE AND ALT-PUB RACK EVER) and stopped at that Greek food place across from Buffalo Exchange. No more zine and flier racks in Flashbacks and Buffalo Exchamge anymore either. WTF? Fliers and zines still rule over digital media. When someone takes the time to design, make, print, and distribute a flier… you know there’s substance there that the average keyboard jockey clicking a mouse over a screen doesn’t have, or doesn’t want to put out. I mourn the loss of the flier and zine rack. I also salute those stalwart venues that still maintain them. You guys rule. We need to bring back the zine rack. Russian socio-political engineers would find fixing an election much more difficult, I bet, if local media was still dominated by locals.