I used to be a manic magazine buyer. I never buy magazines at all anymore, and I only look at them when I'm stuck---like a doctor's office or getting my nails done. And I can't believe how..just plain boring...they are when I do look. I was going to joke that I never get off the web, but it's actually sort of become true. The web just seems so rich and dense with interesting stuff, compared to magazines which are just such Twinkies. But, oddly, I now read newspapers on the web signficantly more than I ever read the paper version. I jump across three of four almost daily. I'm coming (prbably belatedly, everybody else probably has known this for years!!!) to believe that between the internet and email, it may be the most revolutionary social phenomena since the printing press...or,er, some other important social phenomena, take your pick!!! It's certainly made the world smaller and more interesting that jet planes ever did.

People worried when the internet first came out that people would become socially isolated, typing away at their computers. But I think it's actually quite a social place, and can bring people together.

Well, I've gone on too long. "Fetish" is a fashion mag, huh?

Posted by: annette on October 4, 2003 5:32 PM

What I read cover to cover on a monthly basis:

Spinners Magazine
Interweave Knits
Piecwork
Smithsonian
National Geographic

What I read occasionally if there is a topic that looks interesting:

Time or Newsweek
The Economist
The New Yorker
The Atlantic
Invention and Technology
Mad Magazine

Posted by: Deb on October 4, 2003 9:19 PM

Some of the magazines you've listed sound like classic computer-geek publications.

Hmmm. I think Freud once had something to say about "sublimation" ...

Posted by: Tim Hulsey on October 5, 2003 3:11 AM

"Uncut" in England is a fairly good music magazine that I sometimes buy for the cover CDs. Are we talking about the same magazine?

Posted by: Alan on October 5, 2003 7:39 AM

Annette -- Yeah, if I remember right, Fetish was a chic fashion and style magazine. But the mind doesn't retain short-term like it used to ... I'm finding these days that an hour surfing blogs and magazines on the web has pretty much taken the place of much of the old magazine-reading I used to do. It's easy, there's so much out there, and it's great to stumble across unexpected things, which always happens. I feel for magazines: what can they offer in the face of it? How can they compete? I guess one way is by giving themselves porn-magazine titles.

Deb -- That's a great list. Probably a unique one too. You've made me realize that I haven't looked at a paper copy of the Atlantic in a few years. B.C.M. (Before Cable Modem), I'd been a long-term subscriber. I'll bet there's still a lot of good stuff in it. And how's Mad these days? Still fizzy and funny?

Tim -- They sound like computer-geek mags? There must be much about computer geeks I don't know.

Alan -- You're right, Uncut was a British music magazine. I'd forgotten that, thanks. Funny title for a music magazine...

Posted by: Michael Blowhard on October 5, 2003 10:33 PM

And Opium is a perfume.

Posted by: degustibus on October 5, 2003 11:17 PM

The only magazines around our house are (surprise!) MacAddict and NetworkWorld, both of which I get for free due to being a consultant.

An interesting thing is that the Wife will pick up NetworkWorld on occasion out of boredom and/or curiosity, and has absorbed quite a bit of networking jargon and knowledge through random osmosis.

The MacAddict she actually picks up on purpose :-)
(She knows more Photoshop tricks than I can shake a stick at, and I've been using it for years longer. But she actually has skill in the visual arts, which I am sorely lacking!) I think I've taught her the zoom-in and zoom-out keyboard shortcuts, and the basics of layers, and beyond that she's been off to the races. She actually reads the tips, tricks and shortcuts bits in it (or at least retains them!)

A few random copies of Wired I've bought in the 3 years we've been together have been the only other mags. around our house. She can get much more magazine-esque girly stuff if she wants it off of the Web, and mags never had Flash cartoons.

Posted by: David Mercer on October 7, 2003 4:22 AM

Michael,

Mad magazine is still the same as I remember it from the late 60's and 70's. That's the problem. What was fresh and funny when I was sneaking a peek behind my folks back isnt quite as funny now that I actually get the jokes. I have to say their satire on the movie The Hours and what they did to Nicole Kidman had me chuckling, however. My son enjoys it, tho.

Posted by: Deb on October 7, 2003 9:47 AM

Say what you will about magazines, Annette, but at least they didn't inflect!!! you!!! with a dose of multiple bangs!!!

You've simply got to get control of yourself!!! Don't make me take away your !!!! key or you'll have to compute with only 0!!!

Posted by: Van der Leun on October 7, 2003 11:33 AM

Van der Leun---Sorry I didn't punctuate the way you wanted me to. Why do you care?

Posted by: annette on October 7, 2003 4:26 PM






Post a comment

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember your info?