Indy Media is Gorges

Maybe it's just because it's on my radar, but there seem to be quite a few new independent publications cropping up on campus. I recently picked up three of them: Bully Pulpit, Cake, and Better Mag.

Better Mag is just a silly little quarter-page magazine with handmade drawings and scatological humor. They seem to have no funding, and the issue I picked up was hand numbered as 14 of 25. it's a nice read if you're waiting for class to start and have nothing better to do.

Cake is indy-rock sheik, featuring artist interviews, reviews and show dates all packaged into stapled-in-the-upper-left-corner magazine. It's low-budget classic Rolling Stone: no politics, no sports, no color. Cake is all black-and white except for the title, which is hand-colored with a unique design. They cover both the national and local music scenes. It's more indy than Explosions in the Sky at that first set they played for KVRX in Austin where they didn't have any fans or sell out yet, man.

Bully Pulpit is a serious newsletter out of Cornell, published with the support of Campus Progress (the college division of the Center for American Progress). It's been around since 2007 (Check out older issues here) and tackles both global and local issues. The tone ranges from journalistic to nearly frenzied with passion. Some pieces are a little heavy-handed, but overall it's a nice newsletter. Unlike Cake and Better Mag, I haven't seen this available many places on campus. Try the bottom floor of Friends hall by the stairwell if you're interested - I've had the best luck there.