Mean is one of those magazines that seems like it's an inside joke between friends. And in his editor's letter, Kashy (he only uses one name) sums up the inspiration for his magazine in more or less the same way.

Kashy also indicts the television, movie and radio industries for producing endless amounts of mediocre products. With Mean he hopes to raise the bar, so to speak, and break those chains of mediocrity.

Mean is reminiscent of Grand Royal magazinethe stories on personal heroes, musicians and the emerging hip-hop counter culture.

The editorial content of Mean is all over the map. There is a short profile of Noel Godin, better known as the person that threw a cream pie at Bill Gates. He is Number One in a series titled "Contemporary Anarchists." This is followed by a story on the science fiction novels that Jimi Hendrix liked to read.

One of the areas which Mean does concentrate is music and entertainment. The bulk of the music featured is hip-hop or hip-hop-influenced hybrids. Atari Teenage Riot, Dr. Octagon's Kool Keith, Prince Paul, the Psycho Realm, Shizuo, Hieroglyphics and Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers are either interviewed or profiled. Kashy also includes an extremely short interview with Fletcher Dragge, guitarist for the hardcore band Pennywise, and another short interview with the band Can.

The story on comedian Andy Kaufman is the strongest piece in Mean, but the bulk of it is basically a retelling of Kaufman's "I'm From Hollywood" video. This is followed by an interview with Bob Zmuda, Kaufman's friend and co-writer.

Just for good measure, Kashy chose to cover another area of the entertainment world, pornography. The profile of porn star Brittany Andrews shows how one girl has gotten ahead in that industry.

We hate to be mean to Mean, but what's this about, again?