spirit of the burgeoning alternative culture. Abe Peck, editor of the Chicago Seed and author of Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground Press, wrote that "The Rag was the first independent undergrounder to represent... the participatory democracy, community organizing and synthesis of politics and culture that the New Left of the midsixties was trying to develop." The Austin Chronicles Kevin Brass called the paper "a firebrand little troublemaker" that was "a seminal influence in the national underground press movement." Many of the forces behind the founding of The Rag later played major roles in developing other alternative media. Thorne Dreyer worked with Liberation News Service and, along with The Rags Dennis and Judy Fitzgerald, started Space City News (later Space City!) in Houston. Carol Neiman later edited New Left Notes, the national SDS newspaper. Dreyer, Gary Thiher, and Jeff Shero (later known as Jeff Nightbyrd) worked with KPFT-FM, the Pacifica radio station in Houston. Shero started Rat in New York, where he was joined by Alice Embree and Gary Thiher, and later published the alternative Austin Sun. The Rag held a reunion on September 1–4, 2005, which was attended by over 70 former staff members who came in from all over the United States for Rag art and photography exhibits, a rousing retro-rock concert, and a series of group discussions. Many former staffers had not been in touch for 35-40 years. The reunion resulted in a renewed alliance among many of the ex-Ragstaffers and birthed a group of websites including The Rag Blog, The Rag archives site, which includes full scans of the early issues, a Rag Reunion site, and a Rag Authors’ Page. Several Rag vets have reunited in Austin and are once more involved in political activism through the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS/Austin), associated with the newly revived SDS. The Rag Blog The Rag Blog is an Internet news magazine with roots in the Sixties underground press and New Left. A digital rebirth of Austin, Texas' influential underground paper, The Rag, The Rag Blog features commentary on news, politics, and cultural affairs, and many of its contributors are long-time alternative journalists and veterans of Sixties underground journalism. Founded in 2006 by Richard D. Jehn, The Rag Blog is edited by Thorne Webb Dreyer and is published by the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. It is affiliated with Rag Radio,