Is Anybody Home?

Perhaps my absence here needs a little explanation: you see, a year ago I signed up for this really great Master's program in publishing. I had four months off before it all began, during which I diligently blogged and ate food with my friends and helped to launch a magazine (have you heard of Sad Mag?). Oh, we had such a good time!

And then September came and the program started. There were eighteen of us out to navigate the very confusing landscape of publishing in 2010. We became MPubbers--a special breed of grad student that's able to copy edit passages about the salmon life cycle, design a marketing plan for a national magazine, and parse the cultural impact of Facebook on biography and the archive. It was hard, and there were just a lot of emotions. And too many days spent in the windowless offices, which spun into psychotic, oxygen-deprived nights.

Eight months later, we've finished our coursework and are in reasonably good mental health. I learned so much. My brain exploded at many points (and was expertly put back together by the incredibly patient Andy, and the very necessary support system of more-than-understanding friends and colleagues).

I barely made out alive, while other MPubbers thrived. Not surprising as some of these gals are bona fide superwomen (Shout out to Hur Publishing, Shan's Ride to Conquer Cancer, aaaaand you're all amazing--but maybe not Internet linkable). Some of us managed to blog the whole time; Kristen, you are a machine.

Meanwhile, I've been less than diligent about keeping my Internet home in good condition. Spending your day reading, writing, and creating in front of a screen is not exactly conducive to coming home and seeking out more work on one's computer. There hasn't exactly been time to bathe and sleep, so blogging hasn't been my first priority.

But I'll make it up to you with a summer of regular posts, which begins today.

Oh, and I'm moving to Montreal temporarily. So it will be the QC version of Nutty, Dry and a Hint of Vanilla for the summer from May to September. You can look forward to my social follies as I navigate a new city without adequate language skills. Also, I might be launching a new blog with the multi-talented Tracy Hurren. So, Tracy, if you're reading this, this is me publicly pressuring you to start a blog with me.

Anyway, thank you for staying on and asking me to blog again.

Love you. Miss you already.

M


Postscript //some other MPub blogs:
New additions on my blog roll as of 26.04.2010

/via Andy

You're Welcome

/via Kitteh Roulette

Solange, You Can Cover Anything

Solange performing with the Dirty Projectors at the Ace Hotel NYC Opening Ceremonies event, Feb 18.

Groove Theory - Tell Me

Telephone - Gaga and Beyonce

The best.

Roger and Bill

Hi,

Two things that I wanted to share:

• An almost perfect profile of Roger Ebert in this month's Esquire by Chris Jones
• The official website of Bill Gates. So sleek, so much interesting content.
  

Recommended Reading: It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, but Didn't We Have Fun?

Review-ish blog post: "It Wasn't Pretty, Folks, but Didn't We Have Fun?" by Carol Polsgrove

Surely, this is most intense history of a magazine I have ever read. It Wasn't Pretty, folks recounts the tragedy, gossip, drama, invention, experimentation, drinks, drugs, and sex that lay behind the scenes of Esquire in the 1960s. From 1963 to 1973, Esquire was run by editor Harold Hayes. Polsgrove's treatment of Hayes's reign is a testament to how much a magazine is the manifestation of an editor's vision.

In the September Issue, we saw how Anna Wintour defines Vogue; the New Yorker still bears traces of Tina Brown's influence, etc. etc.

But no editor so irrevocably changed the landscape of American magazine publishing and so lucidly defined a voice of a periodical than Hayes (and possibly another Harold--Ross, that is). There are almost 350 pages in this book, all of which speak to the magnificent achievement that were the 120 issues of Esquire published under Hayes's watch, which include some of the most indelible writing and imagery in the 20th-century, American pop culture consciousness.

We give a lot of credit to George Lois, the famous ad man who created the covers by which we remember Esquire today (an interview with Lois about the famous Esquire covers was published just this week on the New York mag website) but the magic of the book lay in the writing and the emergence of the "New Journalism" genre, which Hayes shaped, tweaked, and defined. He made artists and writers into icons: Diane Arbus, Gay Talese, John Sack, Raymond Carver, Tom Wolfe, and others. Hayes also gave the magazine a voice that was heard even in the advertising; a look into the archives of the New York Public Library showed me how an attitude can permeate every page of a magazine's issue, down to the small print on the shopping directory for the fashion pages.

I can only say so much about the magazine because I learned so much from Polsgrove's thoroughly compelling account, supported by virtuosic research. For any person seeking to learn how a magazine earns respect, veneration, admiration, and greatness, It Wasn't Pretty, Folks is absolutely essential.

New York: Day Three, Four, Five

So the New York Public Library tour was my favourite part of the trip so far. What an honourable, curious, and distinguished institution. Also, architecturally compelling.
They have so many treasures in there - like the 1st edition of Voltaire's Candide from Geneva.

I now am the proud owner of a NYPL library card. Four hours later, my feet feel like they are going to break and I haul ass up Fifth Ave to the MoMa. My very kind friend Claire-Elise lent me her membership card and I got to go in for free. And what a deal! Beautiful Irving Penn photographs in the lobby, new acquisitions -- Avedon photographs made me a bit teary, and the amazing Tim Burton. The exhibit included costumes for Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Batman Returns, and Sleepy Hollow. You wouldn't believe detail, and how big, stiff, and uncomfortable PVC body suits look.

We'll the exhibit is obviously a big commercial for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland but really, that doesn't take away from how wonderfullybizarre and fantastical the works are.

And plus, everyone should see this movie:




I've been off this blog (and very active on Twitter) since the conference started. I don't know how it happened but Katerina and I basically ended up spending time with a lot of Canadians and grads of the MPub program. It was an amazing experience, despite the number of stinker sessions there were. Just a lot of brilliant minds in the room, and a lot of comfort knowing that we know just about as much as everyone else. There were some good speakers and some exceptional ones as well. The ladies from Harlequin and the romance sector were absolute inspirations! Way to pave your own path. As well, Ramy Habeeb, McGill alumnus who talked about the potential to tap into and support the Arab book market, was especially refreshing. Also refreshing: free champagne!

The highlightiest of all the highlights of the conference was seeing the big panel of indie publishers. It was a pack of 6 or 7 young'uns talking about experimenting with social media on real terms. I talked with James Yeh of Gigantic. Like Sad, Gigantic is just a baby magazine focused on print, literature, art, and showing people a good time (in the business world, they call it "building community"). Though they have distribution around the world, we also share a business model based on the principle that "people are willing to pay for beer but not content." On that note, thank you Phillips Brewery, for your awesome support. And thanks to James for the beautiful magazine - cheers to a future indie mag, cross-continent partnership.

We had most of the afternoon off so K and I wandered around Herald Square and then stopped in Macy's. There was a fire in the 7th Ave side of the building so half the store was closed. The staff told us it was an electrical fire. Hopefully everyone was safe. In any case, it was a bit spooky to see that side of the building steeped in black.

At the end of the day, I walked through the East Village to forage for food (the search never ends). Serendipitously, I ended back at Veselka, one of my favourite New York restaurants: a 24-hour Ukranian deli with the best perogies I've ever had in my life.

It's time to pack up now. Tomorrow is my meeting with Esquire and then it's up to the airport and back to the land of reading and homework.

I had fun, New York (look, I'm personifying the city - I am a cliché). I'll be back soon.

New York: Day Twhreeo

It's 8AM and I'm going to push myself into rush hour to feel the crush on the subway. Makes you feel like a local... or maybe it's because I want to have a bagel downtown.

Going to have a love fest with New York culture today. First: the New York Public Library's main branch. I love those lions that flank the entrance.



Then the MoMa for a little taste of the macabre in the Tim Burton retrospective, and a look at the work of one of my artistic heroes, Irving Penn.



Lost personal items count (I always lose something on vacation):
1: gloves
2: coat button
3: money (last seen at Macy's)

New York: Day One

To recap: no sleep, all shopping. Lunch at Shack Shake (the buns!), dinner at Ippudo Ramen (pork faaaat), and party in Chinatown loft (don't leave your beer in the fridge, someone will take it), late night/early morning eats from Duane Reade (KD).

This city never disappoints.

Lost personal items count (I always lose something on vacation):
1: gloves

New York: Day Two

Hungover. Ughh.

New York: Day One

I've just 7 in the morning, pacific time, I've been up for almost 24 hours. There was a little sleep on the plane, but not much. I saw the man from across the aisle from me lose his shit because he just lost his iPhone. It was sad.

Later on in the flight, I saw him devour beef jerky and use the package as floss for all the beef bits stuck in his teeth. Deeelightful!

Now, on my way to try the legendary Shake Shack Burgers...

Inventory: A family affair, burlesque, hockey night in Canada, and the Big Apple

I can't believe the past week. We wrapped up the first half of our MPub second semester, the Olympics are here, and the lunar new year is here. This weekend, 30 family members descended on my grandma's house from all over the world to celebrate Chinese New Year. Some of them, I haven't seen for more than a decade. It's surreal to think that this might be the last time that we all get together in one room. Our families are getting bigger and we're also moving to different countries and continents. Before, you could contain us in Toronto and Vancouver.

We've been catching up, throwing down, and filling up. Last night, some of us went to see an Olympics women's hockey match between China and Finland. The Chinese goalie was incredible. She blocked all but 2 out of 48 shots on goal. And while the Chinese team only got 4 shots, they scored one shorthanded.

I'm now detoxing from five days spent eating greasy food, sugary treats, and far too much imbibing. But the party is winding down. My brother's already left and my uncles and cousins are leaving over the next few days.

On Friday, I'm heading to New York to meet my future colleagues at the O'Reilly Tools of Change conference. The wonderful Ms. Katerina Ortakova is going to be my partner in crime, as we learn about the ultimate in geekery: books and computers.

I'm also looking forward to going to the New York Public Library's main branch on Bryant Park and spending a dorky hour touring the building; it's going to be a bibliophilic orgasm. Also, a meeting is in the works to spend some time at the Esquire offices in the Hearst building.

No more posts until I'm back in Vancouver but follow me @megan_lau for the latest. I will blog a lot about what I'm eating, it is always one of the huge highlights of being in the city (suggestions, anyone?).

When I get back, I'll be working with Sad Mag to put together Issue 3, our black and white issue, featuring cover girl and burlesque superstar Crystal Precious. It's going to be sexy, beautiful, and revealing.

................

Vancouver events you can't miss:

February 19: Queerbash No. 4 at the Wise Hall. This is Vancouver's wildest dance party (it looks a little something like this). Queer Bash is a queer focused dance party and a non-profit with a emphasis on fun, art and community. This month's theme is Gamers vs. Flamers: "Techno Nerds. Torch-bearers. Flaming Queens. Video Junkies. Muscle Marys. Celebrate or Condemn those Games by being as queer as can be."

For more info, see the Queerbash blog

March 19: Sad Mag Party No. 3 at the Anza Club. Cheap beer, Vancouver's finest undiscovered performers, and creative folk come together for dancing, celebration, and free magazines.

More info to come in March.

I hope I get one on Sunday

"Flowers again?"



via Daily Dish

Going up!

Well, all my plans to work hard tonight went out the window and I had a laugh-filled, delicious evening with friends. All together, it's been a nice day.

This picture made my day go from good to great. Thanks, @dslang.

"The chef at the Four Host First Nations' Olympic food pavilion had to rewrite his menu to take out the word 'burger' after Mcdonald's—an Olympic sponsor—complained. The meal — a trio of bison burgers served on bannock—has been re-named 'sliders'"

-- Metro Vancouver

A Wake for Duthie Books

Selleck Waterfall Sandwich

via Selleck Waterfall Sandwich

*thanks, Cyn.

Ivory, Eggshell, Chalk, Cream

"The dinosaurs over at Vanity Fair must not watch very many movies other than Twilight, Dear John, and An Education. Shame!"

--Veronicahhh

Social Media? Dream on (my first rant)

Sean Cranbury of mad bookselling and Books on the Radio fame came into to class today to talk to us about copyright. That lasted about fifteen minutes and then Sean talked to us about how book publishing has changed in general for the next two hours. Today's discussion was kind of illustrative about how talks in publishing just dissolve into general ruminations about where this thing might be going. We can't seem to think about change without talking about all the other changes that are happening across the industry. Today's discussion of copyright was inherently tangential. Case in point: we were talking about O.J. Simpson 10 minutes in.

There was a lot to think about, some of which I wanted to play with a bit. So here, I'm trying some ideas out on you, none of which form any kind of coherent argument. I'm really not attached to any of these thoughts so it would be really nice if someone would shoot me down. I love hearing from you and I have no problem with being proven wrong.

Oh, and I should warn you: I worry a lot. Dr. John Maxwell, our technology prof, argued that when some artists and publishing professionals think about the possibilities for sharing online, they immediately jump to conclusions of apocalyptic proportions, such as, "WHAT IF MY BOOK IS ON NAPSTER AND PEOPLE ARE STEALING IT?" I think this is silly, too. You're lucky if anyone reads the work that you do; I feel lucky that you are reading this. All the same, I am prone to being more pessimistic than your average bear. Let that be a preface for what I'm about to say.

From the speakers we've seen at school this semester, I'm getting the feeling that it's simply not cool to worry in publishing these days, or to simply think pragmatically about how we are going to take advantages of the opportunities ahead. The advice given generally goes, "Stop worrying about what's falling apart and take advantage of the opportunities"--usually those opportunities are in building brands. DB Scott of Canadian Magazines was in last week (we are a really lucky bunch) and offered us an impressively tidy take on the future of magazines. His solution to small magazine outfits was to band together to gain access to new technologies--the ones that would give them access to readers online and new audiences. By banding together, he suggested, these mags could maybe compete with other players who are already adept at using digital media and have the resources to launch a full fledged campaign (and have leeway to fail).

I don't buy this yet. A community-based model where cultural mags share the use of a distributor or circulation manager works but a successful digital media effort needs someone who is versed in the culture and language and community of a magazine. Can one person do this for five different mags? Can one person or small organization (which isn't going to charge an arm and a leg) manage the facebook pages, twitter, digital editions, flickr group, and blogs for so many mags at one and still convey an "authentic" voice? There have to be more realistic solutions for these little mags (which have just lost so much funding!)

I recognize that social media is a game changer but how it's changing the nature of the industry is really not that well defined. Call me a paranoid, pessimistic grouch but one of social media's main effects is to reinforce what is already there (rather than really, significantly evening the playing field). Though Random House, Penguin, and Harpercollins will need to change the way that they do business, the fact is that they have an advantage. Maybe they're shaken up because no names are edging in and taking a piece of their pie but at the end of the day, they can hire someone to sit at the computer and make YouTube videos for them ad nauseam. They can afford to hustle. Time is money and this stuff costs time. Tons of fucking time.

At the very scary end of things, the myth of social media is going to push aside some very important voices. Many, many, many people can say something to the world on blogger, twitter, or wordpress (just to name a few platforms) that they wouldn't have been able to before the Internet BUT there are also people who are just as time-impoverished as they are economically impoverished. And just because what they have to express is out there and worthy doesn't mean that people are reading it. Can we all just recognize this? We've given people access to making more noise... at this point (at this point) we haven't found ways to use the Internet and develop it into fulfilling its initial promise of facilitating a more democratic discourse.

And that's the way it's going to be for a while. All of us will hustle, think strategically, and hope for success and recognition. And social media will be an fundamental part of that success. Nothing is going to change that. I completely accept that. I'm freaked out because I don't even think this blog is being indexed by Google and I don't know how to find out if it is, or isn't... and if it isn't, I don't know how to fix that. I would say that I'm competent at using social media, but by no means a guru. So there, full disclosure: I'm threatened by the new environment.

But again, that's OK. I accept that it is the way that is it. I just don't want to pretend to this Internet thing has really rocked the world that we live in. There's still an older white man running the program I'm attending, which charges something in the area of $15K to be a part of. And I'm in an industry dominated by women. That would be exciting except we work in an industry where the most you can hope for is a living wage. (MPubbers, how many times do we have to hear that we won't get rich doing this thing we love?)

Anyway, Sean, thanks for coming in and sharing your passion, ideas, and enthusiasm. I agree with most everything that you said, I just wanted to add a little dimension to it. It certainly was a rich presentation that motivated me to write my longest blog post in a year.

Now, friends, I'm dying for your thoughts. Please, please, please share!

Death and American Magazine Photography

By way of major procrastination, I found a paper I wrote a year ago about Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus. It's kind of good and no one has read it besides my prof so I thought I would share it with you (if you felt like reading 23 pages about commercial photography and death).

Here it is: Newsstand Momento Mori, The Magazine Work of Richard Avedon & Diane Arbus

NB: I do not have permissions to reproduce the photographs in the document. Fair dealing?

Photo: A very young Anderson Cooper by Diane Arbus

PUPPY CAM IS BACK

Best day of 2010 so far... the Shiba Inu puppy cam is back. Hours of cuteness to come.

Free TV : Ustream

Canadian Magazines Could Use Your Help

Canadian magazines received a big hit this week with the announcement of the rules for the new Canadian Periodical Fund. Under these new eligibility rules, we will lose literary mags (maybe not all but some). I could go into a lot of talk about what the details of the new program actually are but I won't. Please just know that your government is blatantly going against their word to support small and medium-sized magazines. They've dropped all support for small literary and poetry mags but are boosting funds for farm magazines. Is "farm magazines" a fancy word for a special type of magazines?, you ask. No, they are simply magazines about farming because obviously they contribute to Canadian arts and culture in a big way.

The Harper government isn't listening to the thousands of people who spoke out online and asked that Heritage Minister Moore honour the promises made in the past. What we can do now is support the magazines that still stand and read them.

Do you love Canadian magazines? Here are a few things you can do:

• You can donate money to your favourite little mags
• You can subscribe to Canadian mags for cheap! Magazines Canada has a special (awesome) deal: buy 2 mag subscriptions and get the 3rd for free.
• You can read magazines online. This week, I recommend the thoughtful and provocative writing found on Maisonneuve's website.

Stillness is the Move

Werner Herzog reads Curious George

Sit down and stay a while

Required Reading:

• Clay Shirky's unfortunately titled post, "A Rant About Women" is another way of saying, how can you win the lottery if you don't play?
  
  Also, note that men in general were handed a ticket... might win, didn't even have to pay to get it. (Are you following me? Is this analogy working?)
  
  
• Feministing gives Mad Props to Hillary

Recommended:

• A letter from Satan to Pat Robertson (scroll down one)
  also via @cshirky
• A note on Disney Princesses: The new rule is a girl can be anything, as long as she’s hot
  NB: The Disney Princesses enterprise is GIANT money maker for Disney.
• Salon asks, "What would the supermarket celebrity magazines do without babies?" and offers some thoughts on Fox News' new hire.

This post is evolving....just arrived at procrastination station. It's going to be a while.

Can't read French

Apparently they call it VO UE in Paris.
Did Tom Ford make Hollywood cry? And did Kate Moss have an affair in a bag?

I don't know but I love this.



via Fashion Gone Rogue

Daily What

The Olympic Clean-up

Hubert Chan: "For those who don't pass through the area much, a few weeks ago, the wall murals on Beatty Street (between Georgia and Dunsmuir) were painted over by a graffiti clean-up crew hired by the city. Why? The fucking Olympics. The parking lot there is slated to be an Olympic entertainment venue, so the city felt the need to eradicate any semblance of culture and personality in the area before we showcase our city to the world. So this morning on my way to work, I was very happy to see someone had spray-painted a response: the Olympic rings, with the statement: 'WITH GLOWING HEARTS, WE KILL THE ARTS.'"

A picture of the original artwork which was

commissioned by the Steve Nash Foundation in 2007 and were created by 16 artists under the direction of Milan Basic.

can be found on the Georgia Straight website.

Photo credit: Trevor Lupick, Georgia Straight

Nothing Good Can Come of This

Recipe for the McNuggetini

Agar and Sandy, Big Sur
Photo by Hunter S. Thompson
1961

via Waxin' & Milkin'

Megan Reads and Ish Likes Books

Ooh yes! The best (I don't know how to qualify that - it's just what I feel) and fastest reader I know is not the kindle (HA! publishing-industry jokes are funny and illogical).

It's Michelle. She has a new blog on books and I know it will be full of thoughtful, clever, and unexpected insights into the best books you've never heard of.

Love you, Ish. Love the blog.

Here it is: Ish Reads Books

The Children of Cyberspace

Chelsea just sent me an article from Saturday's New York Times about "kids these days." "The Children of Cyberspace" hits the nail on the head by noting that the adoption of new technology happens naturally and fast for people under 20. I've always had the nagging feeling that people just three or four years younger than me could use technology in ways that were far more sophisticated than anything I could conceive of doing. As Brad Stone argues, there are micro-generational gaps between people born in the same decade. So while us "old fogies" - the twenty-somethings - feel wired and hip using twitter (while still reading books), our younger siblings, nieces, and nephews are just taking every new invention as a natural part of their world. The author's daughter won't be the only little girl who considers a kindle to be a book!

We had a discussion in class today about what it meant to finish a book and put it on your shelf. And the particular arrangement of magazines and books on your coffee table or night stand when guests are over. Sure, they say something about you and lend a sense of accomplishment--but maybe your LibraryThing account could replace that. The kids surveyed in this article would certainly agree. It doesn't sound like they are too attached to their books. (But oh, what would happen if you took their laptops away?)

My feeling is that you'll part ways with your DVD collection (ok, maybe you already threw that out) and your library (if you have to move again), and that you'll define your cultural and intellectual identity to others by customizing your tablet to display what you're watching, reading, and listening to at the time. And you'll keep your copy of The Catcher in the Rye/On the Road/The Bell Jar/Catch-22/The Prophet (har) with you forever.

Agree? Disagree? Shoot.

P.S. ! JULIA STILES?

Ravishing Beasts

Nothing to do this weekend except work. Also managed to check out the Museum of Vancouver - which is totally awesome! Who knew they had all the city's old and icon neon signs?

The museum's fairly recent rebranding by Kaldor makes the whole institution so much more accessible to young people. Yes, I thought, sans serif fonts speak to my generation.

No really, quite a fabulous job done. The whole move to capture a new audience is working well. They've managed to take Kaldor's aesthetic and meld it into their current and upcoming exhibits (Art of Craft looks fun too). The current feature exhibit, Ravishing Beasts, is in fact, ravishing. It's the first showing of the museum's taxidermy collection. The scale, the staging, is like a magnificent film set... with a little bit of hipster old-library/apothecary/lab-fetish thrown in. I'm interested in buying the lion. It's for sale, they say.

The Straight wrote a lovely piece about guest curator Rachel Poliquin and the exhibit:

"Discovering the vast, forgotten collection prompted guest curator Poliquin—a Vancouverite fresh out of a post-doctoral history fellowship at M.I.T. who’s also writing a book called Taxidermy and Longing—to mount a decidedly contemporary show that would raise the kinds of questions she had about the practice. “I grew up in Vancouver and I never knew this taxidermy collection existed. And I think it’s a wonderful allegory for taxidermy itself: it was hidden away not because people hated it so much but because they were not sure about it,” she explains. “Hopefully, this show allows people to think about it. Taxidermy is no longer something just to look at but to think about.”

"Exploring the bowels of the institution, where the animals and birds were carefully lined up on shelves, all packaged in blue boxes with clear plastic coverings, Poliquin admits she felt emotional. “There were just rows and rows of these little animals. I think it’s sad to ignore these creatures once you’ve made them your responsibility,” she says. “There’s hardly any information now about them and who they came from and how they got here.”"

The exhibit will inspire questions, and maybe extreme emotions. Either way, an interesting, off-the-beaten path way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Ravishing Beasts closes Feb 28

More:
Ravishing Beast blog by curator Rachel Poliquin

Joy in a Flowchart

via Thad McIllroy @ thefutureofpublishing.com

The Notebook: Changing Fashion History

A word on Ryan Gosling's beard (and other style moments on film from the decade past) on the T Magazine blog

Where the Wild Things Are [trailer]: The Best Short Film of 2009

The movie was awful. These 2 minutes and 6 seconds are all we needed.

Says Jeff Martin, "The same way a tight little pop song can be more effective and memorable than a lengthy concept album, this trailer captured the spirit of Maurice Sendak’s book in its entirety."

Fall in love again:



commentary on The Millions

Firmuhment

Are you following? The Awl calls it "the Internet's greatest long-form, scanned-written-word website."

Firmuhment

Cartoon Families

Tom Elrod on "Pixar's Small-c Conservatism":

"...over the years, Pixar has made a number of films which return again and again to the anxiety of familial dissolution. Monsters, Inc. does this through the small family unit of Scully and Boo; Finding Nemo is about a father's inability to let his son go; in Up, an old man learns to live after his wife's death. In the (unfortunately) much-maligned Cars, the modern world's loss of small communities (exemplified by Radiator Springs) is a tragedy, and the film (despite the restoration of the community at the end) is mostly a lament for lost values. None of these films may be overtly political, but the moral message is innate: The family (or small community) is central, and it is failing, so we must do what we can to preserve it."

This essay is very good.

Paris, 1962

a Flickr set by Tom Palumbo

One little tablet, so many haters

There's much speculation that the Apple tablet will ship in March.

There's been so much hype about the tablet--about what it could do for the future of publishing, how it could change the way that we read, how we interact with the written word.

Something with so much promise, something developed by the unstoppable vision of Steve Jobs, must. garner. cynics.

Today, Matt Yglesias wrote that it wouldn't fit in his back pocket so it probably wouldn't be useful to him.

On TechCrunch, Paul Carr noted that the tablet would likely have the same "retina-burning screen" as the iPod to better display movies and web content, and therefore, this device would probably be pretty useless for reading, and also fix none of the problems with the Kindle.

Slate's Jack Shafer says that tablets will eventually morph into ultra-light laptops and your magazine will just be a website.

I most agree with Carr, who writes his criticisms of the notional tablet (remember-it doesn't even exist yet) by prefacing his disapproval with this note:

Predicting that something is going to fail before it’s even launched is like betting against the future: easy to do, but likely to end in embarrassment.

Image from Wired.com

......

Oh, and see this video from 1994... creepy.

Best Wishes

Happy 2010, everyone. I hope this new year brings you joy and new inspiration.

Before getting my party gear on last night, I put together this little chapbook for my magazine course. This week, my brother and I visited Main Street and Granville Island, and then had dinner with our parents at the very cute (and dark) Les Faux Bourgeois restaurant. This is a photographic journal of our day.

Most of the text in this book links to websites for more information about the locations I visited, some to music on Hype Machine. Explore and enjoy! (and leave comments as before).



Best to read in fullscreen

Work from Jon Huang, Kimberly Bost, Snigdha Koirala, and Leanne Shapton grace the richest page from the New York Times website this week: A Selection of Op-ed Letters and Art From 2009

What a strange categorization

Young People in Germany are Internet Users, not Readers

Fewer Twentysomething Readers in Germany
from Publishing Perspectives

from Bear Portraits

Life is Beautiful

David Foster Wallace says so in "All That," the third excerpt of The Pale King, an unfinished novel the author worked on for more than a decade.

And GQ on editing the author's work in the absence of the author.

Muppets Ringing of the Bells

Testing, 1, 2, 3

I'm experimenting with digital publishing for my magazine course at school. Have a look at this redesign of Maisonneuve magazine I did for my design course.

The project was to produce a new cover, table of contents, sample spreads, and a static website. In the first few pages, you'll see prototype covers I produced (ick). his magazine redesign began with a summer issue of Maisonneuve magazine. Published in Montreal, Maisonneuve is the winner of numerous National Magazine Awards for design and journalism. It is one of my favourite magazines to read. When I began redesigning, I knew I wanted to retain the spirit of the magazine, while going beyond the excellence of the prior design and using typography and images more effectively. Ultimately, I abandoned the design history of the magazine altogether, but I wanted to convey the eclecticism of the content, which I have always admired.

Leave comments about the experience of reading online or the design, and play with Issuu, and you'll help me with my research (thanks!). *I've already noticed some problems when converting my pdf to the issuu platform, including missing text and transparencies that have been altered.



NB: I do not own any of the images used in this mock-up. Please also note that the article used in the sample spread is from the Economist.com ("Reforming Italy's Schools")

Merry Christmas

A treat from the Daily What

Oooh, you writers are mean!

Did anyone else notice that the New Yorker got really mean in the past several issues?

James Wood gave Paul Auster absolutely no credit in his review of the novelist's latest work Invisible.

Nancy Franklin also particularly nasty about Glenn Beck (maaaaaybe it's deserved but it's also obvious!)

But I have to give credit to Sam Tanenhaus for sharply lambasting Sarah Palin (and her book, somewhat) in "North Star: Populism, politics, and the power of Sarah Palin":

To an extent unmatched by any recent major political figure, she offers the erasure of any distinction—in skill, experience, intellect—between the governing and the governed...Her insistent ordinariness is an expression not of humility but of egotism, the certitude that simply being herself, in whatever unfinished condition, will always be good enough.

True words!

[truest words!]

Oh! The things you discover at 3 AM

Just surfin' the web in the wee hours of the morning and I come across a video of a "Explosive erection of duck penis."

It's seriously NSFW--even though it's a duck--and just unbelievable. The Muscovy duck has a penis shaped like a corkscrew that when erect, is up to 40 cm long. That's almost half the length of its body.

And just wait till you read about the female Muscovy's vagina! Nature, you are incredible.

Fascinated? Learn more.

It's all the same... except for Kim Kardashian

Who's commanding top dollar on the Internet? For all their bitching and moaning about how they can't compete in the world of online entertainment, the big players--Martha Stewart, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and NBC and FOX (via Hulu)--are still rated by agency buyers and media sellers as the most powerful sellers of ad space.

But one lone lady is making it on her own: Kim Kardashian charges $10,000 for just one tweet. MMMM Carl's Jr., so tasty.

Who makes it happen? Ad.ly

.........
from Ad Age

The Stephen Colbert Effect

"Colbert covers sell quite well, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. He boosted Wired’s newsstand sales by 38 percent, Esquire’s by 17 percent, Newsweek’s by 16 percent (according to unaudited numbers), and GQ’s by 6 percent. New York’s sales of its Colbert-fronted issue were about average, and Rolling Stone has not yet reported the numbers for its August 14, 2009 issue, with Colbert on the cover."

-- "Should Vanity Fair Put Stephen Colbert on the Cover?", Vanity Fair

Issue 2

[video by Jocelyne Chaput]

Sad Mag is already working on Issue 3! I can't believe it. While we get working on that, it's time for you to enjoy our latest and greatest issue yet.

For everyone who wants to read Michelle's work, to ogle the beautiful photographs by Brandon, or wants to check out the magazine for any other reason (there are many good reasons!), download the mag from our website. You can check out Issue 1 too, if you missed it.

In other Sad Mag news, subscriptions to our wonderful magazine are available from me for just $10 (contact me via facebook or at the address below). That's just a toonie and 2 quarters each season to get a print magazine delivered to your door! And our new subscription deal means all you people in Toronto and Victoria (and Calgary, Edmonton, etc, etc) can get the mag too.

As well, we're looking for some stunning pitches for our next issue. If you want to contribute to Sad, please write to me at megan [at] sadmag [dot] com or info [at] sadmag [dot] com. And if you know of amazing illustrators, painters, photographers, and other visual artists--or you are one yourself--please let us know!

...........

A special thank you to all those who came out to the ANZA club on Thursday night to support Sad and to celebrate and dance the night away.

Mag+

Blowing. My. Mind.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Mag+ is a collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future, presented by BERG.

This concept video is meant to spark a discussion around the digital reading experience in general, and digital reading platforms in particular.

Follow the discussion in the Bonnier R&D Beta Lab.

In depth @ BergLondon

via thinkubator

Snap and Search (and Scare Megan)

DEAR TECHNOLOGY:

I know things are going well between us. Ever since you gave me the Internet, I've been totally in love. But we're moving too fast. This Google Goggles is a bit much for me.

I think we should take it slow and get to know one another a little better. In fact, I think you know too much about me - I know so little about you.

I hope you will understand.

With affection,
Megan

"The world, like the World Wide Web before it, is about to be hyperlinked. Soon, you may be able to find information about almost any physical object with the click of a smartphone.

"This vision, once the stuff of science fiction, took a significant step forward this month when Google unveiled a smartphone application called Goggles. It allows users to search the Web, not by typing or by speaking keywords, but by snapping an image with a cellphone and feeding it into Google’s search engine.

"How tall is that mountain on the horizon? Snap and get the answer. Who is the artist behind this painting? Snap and find out. What about that stadium in front of you? Snap and see a schedule of future games there.

"Goggles, in essence, offers the promise to bridge the gap between the physical world and the Web.

"... It is ...easy to think of scarier possibilities down the line. Google’s goal to recognize every image, of course, includes identifying people. Computer scientists say that it is much harder to identify faces than objects, but with the technology and computing power improving rapidly, improved facial recognition may not be far off.

"Mr. Gundotra says that Google already has some facial-recognition capabilities, but that it has decided to turn them off in Goggles until privacy issues can be resolved. 'We want to move with great discretion and thoughtfulness,' he said."

"Snap and Search," NYT

MORE LADY GAGA BARBIES PLEASE!

travels in bizarro world

There's nothing like the Internet to homogenize travelling. With sites like Trip Advisor, travellers gravitate towards the same "top 10" restaurants, hotels, and attractions.

Andy and I just got back from Portland and today, Andy found blog posts that document an Asian couple's culinary tour of the city. Well, maybe I didn't need to bring a camera on our vacation because these people just took the pictures for us -- they ate all virtually all the same places. At one restaurant, they even ordered the same dishes as us. Weiiird.

Follow bizarro (older) Megan and Andy, and share in our delicious adventures.

• Uncanny I
• Uncanny II

Special Read: Asterios Polyp

My favourite book of the year: Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli

Now, I've read a lot of fine books this year and this one just takes the cake. Asterios Polyp is a work more than ten years in the making. It's about a paper architect (one that designs but whose buildings are never constructed) and an arrogant professor.

As a star in his field, he meets a new sculpture instructor at a faculty party and they hit it off. He and Hana are married and they begin their life together. But Asterios's his insistence that the world can be defined in dualities jeopardizes their relationship. Asterios's compulsion to see everything as black and white is just his instinct, however. The protagonist is an identical twin; his brother Ignazio died at birth and Asterios cannot help but wonder how his brother, the narrator, would have done things differently.

I'm not even scratching the surface here ... and all there is is surface in this book. Mazzuchelli's epic work is mostly only about form here: how do we express our realities and consciousness to one another to create meaning? But it is explored through a truthful depiction of family, gender, and sex.

His telling of Hana's story is beautiful, unforgettable, and so true.

I read this book and then I read it again. That's something I can't say about Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware, my other favourite graphic novel and a strong parallel of Asterios. I love Ware's work. It fascinates me. It's clearly the work of a mad genius. It's sad and rich and complex. But it's also frustrating and difficult to read. These are all qualities that make me love Ware's work but I think that's where it differs so much from this book.

Asterios Polyp is simple to read but certainly complex. Mazzuchelli's use of colour (blue for Asterios, red for Hana, purple instead of black for outlines and shadows) is enough material for a Doctoral thesis. There is something to be said for the way that Mazuchelli refined the narrative into a simple story of a man finding redemption while skillfully infusing a meditation on meaning, expression, commerce, and art into the pages.

A fine achievement. Now, go read it.

Portland (x2)

Today I am in Portland. I took the train down here. It was an eight hour ride and we got to look at the ocean.

I read Ray Carver and listened to a tribute to Alice Munro.

In Portland, we've already been to Powell's. I might go there everyday.

See you in Vancouver for the A Very Sad Mag Family Holiday Party (make sure to RSVP!). We have delicious beer from Phillips to boot!

Remember the Good Times

A new poll shows that 44% of voters would rather have George W. Bush as president than Barack Obama. Because remember how great was? We had so much fun!

via The Awl

The Tiger Woods Critical Reading Group

It's funny when you reach back out to the world outside your school life (it's nice to know it's still here) and realize that the big news these days is Tiger Woods's "transgressions."

Writers at the Globe and Mail and the CBC have exhausted all the gossip so now they've both analyzed Woods's PR crisis management strategies.

Let's read and compare in the morning.

• Tiger Woods's word team chooses carefully (Russell Smith, Globe and Mail)
• Tiger Woods needs new PR strategy (Malcolm Kelly, CBC Sports)

A Christmas Miracle

NYMag got word from a reviewer at the The Vertex that MacGruber might be the best SNL movie since Wayne's World:

You might not believe me when I tell you this, but there’s no doubt: 'MacGruber' was amazing.

A bold statement but I buy it. After all, could a movie with Bill Hader, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig possibly bomb? The answer is no. End of story. I'm excited.

Macgruber. April 2010.


The Vertex review

Jing! Jing!

This will never get old

From the "REALLY?!" files

And the sad thing is, I really liked Jay Baruchel.

Movie Trailer of the Day: First official teaser trailer for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Jon Turteltaub’s live-action reimagining of Disney’s Fantasia.

The film, which is essentially a front for a two-hour long home movie of Nicolas Cage making unwanted advances of a sexual nature toward your childhood, will hit theaters July 16, 2010.

via The Daily What

Can it be?

This blog has been abandoned for almost a month?

Well, I'm back for a short while since my masters program has loosened its death grip and decided to give me a little break. It'll take me a while to get back into the swing of things but I'm excited to see what's happening on the inter-tubes lately.

Offline, I have an exciting stack of books to read. It's ambitious winter-reading book-list time. Here's what's on deck this year:

• Watchmen (Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons)
• Candide (Voltaire)
• The Progress of Love (Alice Munro)
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (Raymond Carver)
• The New Kings of Nonfiction (Ira Glass, ed)
• Black Dogs (Ian McEwan)
• Happiness (Will Ferguson)
• I Like You (Amy Sedaris)
  

Plus there's a huge stack of New Yorker magazines by my bed that are calling my name. One day everything will calm down and I will have time to read, right?

I also want to recommend BIGFOOT: I Not Dead by Graham Roumieu. I'm not sure how to describe this book by Toronto author and illustrator Roumieu except to call it the most satisfyingly cruel and unapologetic adult picture book you've ever read. And if you're doing last-minute Christmas shopping just pick up copies of BIGFOOT for everyone you know. It's a crowdpleaser.

Here's a sneak peek:



[click photo for large size]

Miscellany

Hi, I missed you. Here's what's on my mind:

Annie and Grace for Vogue (I swear, if they put Grace Coddington's stamp on every cover of Vogue from now on, sales would sky rocket. Woman is a Genius.)

Thanks, Brandon

School reading:
"James Frey's Morning After" - a great article from Vanity Fair, June 2008

Essential viewing on the future of e-books by Michael Tamblyn (inspirational, smart, thought-provoking [insert more cliches here, I dare you--they will all hold true])


Q: Illogical sentence? "A very good article about Megan Fox with quotes from the actress that are intelligible."
A: No. I liked this NYT Sunday Magazine cover story very much. "The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox"

You know how I got sucked into the Frank Bruni hype machine in the summer? Well, turns out Born Round is very good indeed.

Also, Amy Adams is lovely. See: Junebug.

Pop-culture-conversation starter: "An Uncanny Similarity between Mad Men and the Office"
via The Daily What

Findings from Torrington, AB's World Famous Gopher Hole:


Literally:

The New Black

Tracy Morgan doesn't hold back. On an interview with Terry Gross that has been making the rounds, Tracy Morgan speaks candidly about his childhood, getting out of the ghetto, and his experiences as an actor on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock.

He's charming, he's real, he's effusive. It makes for a very good interview.

Morgan is promoting his memoir I am the New Black (Random House).

Transcript here

Audio here

Soul-Stirring Reading

I was up really, really late last week reading Ian Brown's series for the Globe and Mail called The Boy in the Moon. The report is an intimate and raw account about his family's struggle to care for and understand his son Walker, who was born with a rare genetic disorder.

I know you will love it and it will move you.

Ian Brown's book based on the G&M series was published by Random House Canada this fall. A preview here:

Ryan!

Today, we welcome good friend, pasta maker, promising butcher, and future architect Ryan McClanaghan into the blogospheres.

Here he is, just 30 minutes old: ryanmcclan.tumblr.com

NEW MICHAEL CHABON!!!

I'm three months late, so what?

Here is Manhood for Amateurs

via New York Review of Books

Blockbuster Book Trailer

Not too long ago, nobody knew Quirk Books. Now, with the smash success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, they are publishers to watch. Currently, Quirk is pulling out all the stops for the follow-up book Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters with this fantastic book trailer.

Authors, beware: Your publisher may not hire actors and put them in costume and actually light them properly.



via HuffPo

Braggart Alert

I was doing a little bit of cleaning around my house and found a print-out of Bruce Handy's article from the September issue of Vanity Fair. Know what's it's called? "Don and Betty's Paradise Lost."

A year ago I wrote a paper about Mad Men and Milton.

I'm just sayin'...*


*that I'm brilliant and prophetic.

Goodbye to "the Magazine of the Good Life"

Looking back on 68 years of Gourmet covers. I'll miss you.

Memorable Gourmet pieces -

• "Consider the Lobster" (plus, Editor in Chief Ruth Reichl on DFW)
• Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver Culinary Smackdown
• The Trouble with Julie and Julia
  

[ruin the beauty of this cover by clicking for related creepy story]

NYTimes breakdown of why Condé Nast closed four magazines this week.

Phew! Gourmet recipes will be searchable on www.Epicurious.com, shared with down-market sister magazine Bon Appétit.
via Toronto Star

He's a Borg

"Ladies and gentlemen, your President is a robot. Or a wax sculpture. Maybe a cardboard cutout. All I know is no human being has a photo smile this amazingly consistent.

"On Wednesday, the Obamas hosted a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, during which they stood for 130 photographs with visiting foreign dignitaries in town for the UN meeting. The President has exactly the same smile in every single shot. See for yourself — the pictures are up on the State Department’s flickr. And, of course, compressed above into 20 seconds for your viewing pleasure."

from Bus Your Own Tray

This ad combines many things I like: San Francisco, (some) skateboarders, big thinking, and TETRIS.



via BoingBoing (but the post has since been taken down -why?)

October

Love Like A Sunset – Animal Collective Remix