Waxpoetics Issue No. 1 & 2, The Hunt for the Quarterly Journal
During a Friday Rep$hop radio show on KRUX 91.5 fm that I hosted with Stephon aka Moleman, he had a magazine. He mentioned there were copies of the Waxpoetics issue over at the local Hastings that I should check out. By this time (2004 or 05') I had grown exhausted of magazines like the Source and XXL. Also lost touch with other subscriptions including Slam Magazine. I could never figure out which issue they were on since the dates were always ahead of when I got them. In one of their issues they explained why, but as a student with a changing address every four months, I got disinterested trying to keep up on my Slam reads, monthly, bi-monthly or whatever schedule they were on.
Enter Stephon's recommendation of Waxpoetics.
When he first told me about the magazine, I let time pass considering I'd already given up on magazines unless there was something unique about the cover story that related to stuff I collected. I accumulated tons of Slam issues since 92', and sliced up my Source magazines to decorate dorm rooms and ceiling tile with Rawkus and Infamous promos when ((Quiet Storm/White Lines)) dropped, followed by Prodigy's solo H.N.I.C... I also scissored and taped up anything else that I could detach from magazines like the Source that had already become publications thickened by paper commercials. Music television had experienced a few deaths by this time and the digitization of music as we knew it started to takeover like track two from the Blueprint.
I don't remember which issue it was from Waxpoetics that stopped me in my tracks. I just know the rotation Steph and I traded live on air between our .45, vinyl, CD, digital collections reminded me of what I was reading in Waxpoetics. It was a crate digger's publication, and an opportunity as a reader to anticipate and collect something again... the stories in the publication were a perfect blend... each with its own music playing in the background of the reader's imagination.
So I subscribed.
About a dozen issues had already passed when I finally got on. So in addition to getting on track, I started to dig into back issues of what I missed during those Rep$hop semesters... With each publication that came in, I'd reach back and purchase an issue until I got to no. 2. I remember a time noticing no. 1 & 2 available on the Waxpoetics website and thinking there was no way I was going to pay a $100 for a magazine... I thought maybe someday I'd find the issue on another site like Dusty Groove or somewhere else... something had to come up to avoid digging too deep into my pockets.
That day never came.
So over the years I've kept up with my collection of Waxpoetics since issue no. 3. I'm way behind on reading... some issues are still in the protective plastic they arrived when I pulled them from the post office box. It took a resolution last year that I'd organize my reading routine and give myself more time to flip through pages of my books and magazines and listen to each track of my CDs, records, and downloads. Otherwise, I'd miss out on what simply started to accumulate faster than I could keep up.
So with a more patient and organized approach I'm finally reading my books & magazines, listening to my music and on occasion finding time to follow up with writers, artist, musicians, etc. to develop my own interviews, stories and write ups like the radio dayz.
Reading through issue No. 58 in its entirety, it made me think about those lost issues again... fast forward to this past month and I was able to locate issue no. 1 & 2 on EBay. I've never used EBay to bid. Never been interested in bidding as I don't trust the process it takes to try to outbid on a max amount you don't know. Especially as the clock starts ticking. But with issue no. 1 staring back at me through the laptop display, I decided to give the online bidding war a shot and won within the last minute. I lost what became a ceiling-less dollar value for issue no. 2.
When the smoke cleared, I did a quick search and found hope for issue no. 2 on Amazon. By the next day my search for the lost Waxpoetics quarterly journals ended and I had both magazines ordered & on their way to a shelf that's been waiting for over a decade.
This completes a Waxpoetics story I look forward to reading starting with issue no. 1.
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