periXscope
Happy 5th!

I don’t like anniversaries, all kinds of them, much to the chagrin of my wife and a few other people around me who don’t get it: Christmas, New Year’s and a few other holidays suffice enough to remind us that another cycle in our lives has been completed and a new one is about to commence. I totally despise birthdays, although I tend to like the parties--providing someone else is the honoree; and when the date comes, I prefer to ignore it, although more than enough people have the audacity to remind me! I’ve chosen to understand life in a linear form, not straight, of course, with plenty of curves (feminine and otherwise), drawbacks and leaps forward, instead of the circular form that for millennia has been the norm. No matter what we do, there is only one way forward, with a beginning and an end. The conception of life in a cyclical way offers some sense of familiarity in the form of conclusion-repetition, but I think that’s mainly psychological, an intellectual placebo pretty much like the idea that we have democracy as long as one of the two parties succeeds the other to power!

Having said that and made my position clear, there are always exceptions and I can’t refrain from noticing a very important anniversary which is as much mine as yours: October 2, five years go, our magazine, NEO, was launched in Astoria, New York, in front of a numerous, yet humble gathering of well wishers. Looking at the 50 or so framed covers, forming an abstract yet symmetric mosaic on the badly plastered walls of my frugal office, I can only stand in awe as I reflect on those past five years. Countless days and nights of work, stress, anxiety, followed by immense pleasure each time I touched and smelled a fresh issue coming out of the printer. Although the analogy might be way off, I could compare that feeling with a woman’s after giving birth. The pain fades away seeing the newborn and the will to have another one starts building in her the same moment.

What makes this project even more remarkable is the fact that so far we hadn’t had any special interest financial back up or some kind of a “strategic” partner. Nobody’s money has been given to buttress NEO, beyond regular advertising. And that might have made our job harder at times - especially as we’ve been trying to collect ad money in order to continue publishing – but it has also given us an additional sense of independence and pride: yes, we can do without kissing nobody’s ass! Unfortunately that independence hasn’t always been appreciated by some people who haven’t accepted the fact that we were able to do just that, without their “blessing” or “approval”. But so be it. We are on the lookout for friends and supporters, not for pimps!

Anyway, I didn’t mean to be mean at our 5th anniversary, so allow me to thank each and every one of you for your continuous friendship all these years. Many thanks and immense gratitude should go to our contributors, partners and assistants in every way possible. Much more than a simple enterprise, NEO has been a collective effort aiming to bring something new to the community, not necessarily better or worse, but different for sure. That’s still our goal as another season starts and as much as I refuse to see life in cycles I understand that the beginning is always uphill. So keep helping us and you won’t be disappointed.

DEMETRIOS RHOMPOTIS

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©2010 NEOCORP MEDIA

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