Thank God for a new school year. Congratulations to the class of 2000, notably the Olde Mill graduates. We're so happy that they have now moved on. We send our condolences to their new homes.

We hope you had a good a summer. Well, actually, we don't care! Wanna know why? Because you don't really care what WE did. So before you ask, we'll tell you, so you'll never inquire again. Alex stayed for May, June and July sessions. He then went to New York to do an internship with fashion photographer David LaChapelle and met Lil' Kim, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Chris Rock and ran into Donald Trump. Deb stayed for May and returned home to Long Island where she lifeguarded in the Hamptons. She had a bad summer.

All wasn't fun and games this summer.We enlisted the help of SGA President and man about campus Mark Sullivan to share with us his experiences visiting with Burmese refugees.

When we were freshmen, campus did not look like this. There was no CISAT-2 building, no Festival, no possibility of Door 4 becoming Blimpie's. Back before PC Dukes was going to become PC King, when cool kids STILL used ICQ, SMAD was in Anthony-Seeger, and we didn't get MLK day off.

For those of you who are just arriving, you've got a long (Port) road ahead of you. Since no one was there to hold our hand, we thought we'd include some pointers to help you along the way. This back-to-school issue is a guide to and for the freshmeat.

Upperclassmen, eat your hearts out.

Since this is our first issue, a lot of you may be wondering what you're getting yourself into. We envisioned Turf as being a street publication that everyone looks forward to. A nutty rag containing every thing from fashion to music and campus confessions, all making light of the banal. Just as Wu-Tang is for the children, Turf is for the students.

This is our first time ever starting a magazine from scratch, and we'll tell you, it ain't easy bein' greasy. We are not the type to do anything halfway. Turf has interviews with notorious figures from the JMU community, all kinds of reviews, racy photographs and other various things that we feel you just had to see. We even learned QuarkXPress for your ass.

Cop that shit, son.

Alex and Deb

" I don't know karate, but I know crazy. " — James Brown