A lot of promises were made during those wide-eyed early days of the Internet boom. Technology proponents proclaimed that the web would solve most, if not all, of the worldís problems. However, the one promise most frequently offered stated that the web had finally destroyed the barriers to publication and soon everyone would be contributing to a grand communal dialogue of the Global Village. Unfortunately, despite all of the irrational exuberance and broken promises, this prediction has proved to be all too accurate ñ now everyone can share their thoughts without any kind of filter. The past two years have given birth to the most pernicious form of self-expression: the blog (short for weblog; think: frequently updated online journal). Quite possibly the most over-reported and worst named trend in recent memory, an unprecedented number of blogs have sprouted up in every imaginable corner of the internet. In the best cases, the immediacy of a blog offers an intimate look into the day-to-day thoughts and ephemera of one personís life. In the worst, they are a torrent of half-baked rants.

That said, the idea of a blog is not necessarily a new one. We all have those thoughts that we want to share with others but until we all had cheap internet access we couldnít share them. In the case of the print magazine, Crimewave U.S.A., it is clear, however, that if one had the money and/or derring-do to publish a collection of personal observations about the world, you could do it and you just might secure national distribution.

Published by Mark Maynard and Linnette Lao, a husband and wife duo, Crimewave has nothing at all to do with crime or the United States as a whole. Instead, the magazine is a collection of Mark and Linnetteís musings on their tiny corner of the world in the decidedly unromantic Ypsilanti, Michigan. Although the observations of a happily married couple in rural Michigan donít sound the least bit interesting, Maynard and Lao manage to open themselves up enough so that you get a sense of familiarity. After all, if reality TV has proven anything, it has shown that ìnormalî people can be just as interesting as anyone else.

No matter how personal Crimewave may be, it is far from essential reading. Yes, it is easy to relate to the mundane details of a personís life but do you really want to read about the naked guy Mark saw in the gym last week? In the hands of a gifted writer this might be interesting, but unfortunately neither Lynnette nor Mark can raise their observations about the mundane above ordinary. This is especially true for the pieces written by guest contributors. A memoir of one manís experience working in a West Virginia grocery store is entertaining but smacks of amateurism with a chronic over-use of exclamation points and run-of-the-mill punchlines.

In an interesting twist, Mark himself writes that the line between Crimewave and his new blog at markmaynard.com is dangerously blurred. Can the two really co-exist if both media offer the same story? Even though Crimewave is essentially an ancestor to the current blog craze, Mark and Linnette may be killing their magazine while capitalizing on this newest craze.

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