Dear Readers,
Good afternoon and welcome to Off The Fence, a newsletter that’s in a particularly celebratory mood. On Tuesday, we brought you a special edition, and today, we’re back with a more conventional offering. Issue 18 was dispatched to subscribers yesterday, and it has been brushing doormats across the country this morning. We do love to see snaps of the magazine, so do send them in and we will feature every single one.
If you want to get your hands on a copy before Christmas, then you can do that right here.
It’s a shorter outing today. Let’s get it going.
The Fence Turned Eighteen
On Wednesday we celebrated our coming of age with a party at The Devonshire, a pub which does superb Guinness. It was a pleasure for us all to meet so many contributors and we were really happy with how it went, with FT Magazine editor, Matt Vella, saying ‘nobody throws a party’ like we do! Which is a nice thing to say. Thank you also to everyone who has written nice emails – we will reply to you all soon.
Tied Up with a Bow
If you would like to give a friend or a family member a subscription to The Fence for Christmas, it really is very easy. You simply go to the link below, choose the option in ‘select your region’ and ‘select your plan’ and then click ‘purchase as a gift’. It’s very easy and very cheap!
Give The Fence to Someone You Love
Bunker Mentality
Bethany Elliott took a detour to the Wolf’s Lair with her mother. Yes, you read that right. Her mother is obsessed with Adolf Hitler and was desperate to visit the Wolfsschanze. As you would expect, it’s a very funny piece.
The Fleet Street Kids
The height chart of male journalists saw Ed Caesar coming out on top and a few other surprises further down… Surely some of the self-reported heights have gone awry? Anyway, it seems that our chart has already prompted spin-offs on Twitter with one individual categorising all the men in music journalism. Who knows what sort of information we will have amassed by the next issue.
Spotted in Dublin
John Banville was snapped reading his lead feature all about first love from, in his own words, ‘a wonderful magazine called The Fence’. It really is amazing that John Banville has not just written for our silly little magazine, but written something that really is very, very special indeed. His piece is worth the cover price alone.
Atlanta’s Finest
There are now two Coke Maps left for sale. Just two left and they are not going to be reprinted. Order one now and it will arrive before Christmas. They’re waiting at the bottom of our shop page.
In Case You Missed it
Inside the horrific Nullo castration cult. Do not read this if you are feeling queasy!
Averting their gaze from the unspeaking heavens, SETI announce they’ve just had a conversation with a whale.
The Verge do a very good one of those spangly scroll-type things on The Year Twitter Died.
2023 was the year of Ozempic.
And Finally
Even the most blackhearted cynic will admit that Christmas carols can be very moving when sung in church, and there are many glistening treasures to be found in the canon of festive pop hits. But given the demands of 24/7 radio playlists, there’s also a lot of dross and, moreover, a sense we’ve heard even the most immortal classics just a few times too many.
Step forward SoCal rapper/producer JonWayne who five years ago birthed Yuletide Bangerz: the single greatest Christmas mixtape ever conceived.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLzC8WDcjsw
Featuring 18 self-made hip-hop instrumentals that chop, screw, flip and twist a platter of Christmas favourites, and throws in a host of movie samples for good measure, it’s the best selection of lo-fi Christmas cuts ever put on tape.
It’s hard to pick a favourite moment: you might not, for example, have believed a sample from Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s Jingle All The Way would make for a creditable vocal before now - but we predict that by the time Kermit and Tiny Tim’s a capella of Tis The Season from A Muppet Christmas Carol arrives, you will be well and truly in the festive spirit.
That’s it for this week, and we’ll be back again on Tuesday with a nice long outing. Something to look forward to! We hope you have a lovely weekend. And please send us lots of photos of the magazine.
All the best,
TF