Hustler of Culture
“Writing is a job, a craft, and you learn it by trying to write every day and by facing the page with humility and gall. And you have to love to read books, all kinds of books, good books. You are not looking for anything in particular; you are just letting stuff seep in.”
— Stephen Dobyns (via The Writers Almanac)
What: Magazine Day: a celebration of magazines and attacking the stack of unread titles piling up next to your bathroom sink.
When: Saturday, February 27th, 2010. That's in a little over 2 weeks. It's also my dad's birthday. He got me hooked on magazines as a young pup.
How? On Saturday, February 27th, ordinary folk across America (like you, like me) will spend the day "attacking the stack" or reading their way through the unread magazines they've accumulated. If you're a big goody-goody and read your magazines straight through the moment they arrive, you may spend the day at your local library/bookstore/university exploring new periodicals, discussing your favorite magazines with friends, tweeting your favorite articles. As you wish.
Where: I live in San Francisco, California and will be hosting a Magazine Day celebration at Booksmith bookstore in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood from 1-6 PM. Five dollars reserves you a spot which includes all the coffee you can drink, all the snacks you can eat, free reign of the store's ample magazine racks and admission to a 6 PM panel discussion entitled "The Future of Magazines."
Magazine Day is open to everyone, no matter where you are. Invite friends over and rumage though each other's stacks. Spend the day reading at your local coffee shop or library. Multch your magazines and construct a giant paper mache wildebeest. It's up to you. The idea is to spend the day having fun and forming community around a shared love of magazines.
Why? 90% of Americans read magazines, including me. I love magazines and hate waste. I buy way more magazines than I could ever read so without designating time for them, they will remain next to my toilet gathering dust. And that's a shame.
Does that sound familiar?
Who's idea was this? Mostly mine. I'm Kevin Smokler. Although friends and followers on Twitter did plenty of egging on.
Colophon:
Recently I spoke with Oscar Villalon, my former editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, now Publisher of McSweeney's. I wrote up the interview for The Rumpus some time later.
As publisher of McSweeney's, Oscar was one of the driving forces behind "San Francisco Panorama", the gigantic, beautiful newspaper experiment that came out earlier this week.
Our conversation happened before that or else I would have asked about it. Oscar summed it up pretty nicely in this radio interview, if you're curious.
Anyway, we talked mostly about reading, writing and books. Enjoy!
"You could easily argue, yes, they’re the most
important thing going on in our culture, is fine literature. Is fine
non-fiction, and fiction, and poetry, etc., and essays. Because of
that, it does carry a disproportional weight. So, I find it
disheartening when, for example, when we read a review by someone who’s
very critical of a big shot author, and it’s a sound review, and the
criticism I get back from our readers is, “Well, this person has never
written anything important, so why should I listen to them?” Now, they
didn’t bother—you read the review based on what’s presented. Who the
person is, what their bona fides are, is meaningless. Who cares? If
what they’re saying is true, it’s true. I don’t care if the guy’s a
parking lot attendant or if he’s got a doctorate from Harvard, what’s
the difference?"