The word on my book:
My book just took a big leap forward toward becoming a reality. Enough of a tease for ya?
How to magazine:
So Red Herring Magazine is closing. So is Shift. The Industry Standard and Talk Magazine bit the dust within the last few years. I guess Upside is still around but you can’t really tell from their bizarrely altered web site (Note: Upside is no longer around. They closed last year).
It doesn’t seem to be a great time to be in the magazine business unless you’re small, nichy, maybe non-profit and largely publishing in your spare time. Some of my favorite titles like Utne Reader, Bitch Magazine, To-Do List and Ready Made are all on track to survive longer than their glossier, now-dead counterparts through a combination of these methods. Some already have. It doesn’t seem like an easy life but it is possible.
Do you have favorite magazines that also fly below the popular radar?
Sad Day in the Neighborhood…
More on Mr. Rogers passing, a few items…
*I started taking another look at the career and influence of Mr. Rogers after reading a profile of him a few years ago in Salon’s Brilliant Careers. The part I like best is when when the writer talks about Rogers routine “Rogers swims — nude, thank you — every morning, is a vegetarian, has never smoked or drank and has been married to the same woman for 47 years” and never once lost his cool or publicly humiliated himself. Mr. Rogers was who he was).
*My friend Davvy Rothbart from Found Magazine did a lovely story (real audio file) on This American Life about meeting Mr. Rogers and consulting him about a dispute he was having with his neighbors.
*The Metafilter thread on Mr. Rogers passing made me cry.
And now I’m back…
Aw jeez. I leave for three days and Mr. Rogers up and dies.
Both the 5 year old boy and the 29 year old man are sad today. Sad again.