Mediaflash is a Smashing Pumpkins fan netzine which began back in December 1997 at the SP fan site, Landslide-A Smashing Pumpkins Experience. Over the years, the netzine has included album and concert reviews, editorials, feature articles, website reviews and interviews pertaining to the Pumpkins and related artists.
Although the netzine was primarily edited and written by Landslide's webmasters (my brother and I), contributions have come in one form or another from members of the Pumpkins fan community. Most notably this included: an interview with Steve Hemming (the former webmaster of the popular mega-fan site, Smashing Pumpkins Collection-now defunct); commentary by Aaron Grant (Siva/Blamonet webmaster) on "Life After the Pumpkins", and even a Post-MCIS tour article written by Josh Provost, creator of Starla.org and the original Smashing Pumpkins Audio Archive. Other highlights for Mediaflash included interviews with SP's former touring keyboardist, Mike Garson, as well as Modi, the director of Vieuphoria.
But in January 2001, we decided to put the netzine on indefinite hiatus due to the end of The Smashing Pumpkins, and a general lack of interest from fans wanting to contribute. Then with the imminent return of the Pumpkins back in 2006, Mediaflash was partially resurrected with a series of feature articles, including a follow-up interview with Mike Garson.
Now, with the Pumpkins revival in full swing, and the fanbase reinvigorated, we are looking to properly relaunch Mediaflash as a full netzine again. We are looking for fans to submit articles, whether they are aspiring journalists or not. Fans are welcomed to submit album and concert reviews, editorials, interviews, feature articles, or anything else SP related that you would normally see in a magazine.
There is no age requirement, but we are looking for writers that will be able to provide readers with a balanced and engaging view of the band. As this is a volunteer position, and everyone has lives outside of the SP fan community (including ourselves), we will aim to publish a new issue online quarterly, with a new issue in the Spring if all goes well. We will also make it interactive by integrating multimedia elements as we did when we originally published issues.
To either propose your idea or submit rough/finished articles, please email me at
david@2007.org, with Mediaflash Submission included in the subject line. Also, let us know whether you are interested in just 'freelancing' or whether you have some interest in joining our staff, essentially committing yourself to contribute each issue. If we are able get a core group of staff together, we can figure out the best way to network and share ideas when the time comes.
Please try to make your submissions topical. While say a retrospective on Zwan is fine, an album review of Adore, a decade late is not
. If you can even manage to get interviews with people who have worked with the band or musicians inspired by them, that would be welcome as well. If you plan on interviewing a band or artist influenced by the Pumpkins, it is highly recommended that some of your interview questions deal with the impact that the Pumpkins music had on the band or artist and/or their personal reactions to contemporary Pumpkins music and so forth. After all, while it is good to expose people to new artists and music, we also need to keep the interviews relevant to the average SP fan as well.
To check out the back issues of the netzine you can go to the
Mediaflash section of Landslide. The netzine has evolved a lot over the years, and it should be kept in mind we were teenagers when we first started out
. The overall look of the netzine will reflect the latest feature articles posted back in 2006.
