I don't subscribe to many magazines anymore. Just one, actually. My wife has a subscription to a gossip-style magazine, but it was a gift from a friend, who hoped it would help her catch up on popular culture. It doesn't. She looks at the pictures & then asks me, "Who is this? Why is this person in this magazine?"
I used to subscribe to a particular music magazine - it's probably the best one out there, although I don't know anymore - it's been a few years, since I left Austin in fact - & I enjoyed reading it, but it was weird - every feature article extolled the featured artist in such a way that I felt, if I didn't like the artist, that something was wrong with me. Also, every third issue had a Beatle or the Beatles on the cover. That was like saying to me, "You're old. That's why you get this magazine."
I also used to subscribe to a left-wing/progressive news magazine. I felt very guilty unsubscribing, because I think they do good work. I just couldn't read it anymore. Every story was a story of corruption & defeat. Every truth unearthed just showed that the bad people had all the money, controlled everything, & were going to destroy the world, their comfort existing at the expense of everyone else. The people who run the magazine however maintain a crazy optimism, in spite of the overwhelming evidence that it doesn't fucking matter - the bad people are winning. Again, I admire their work, their courage, their spirit - it just got to be too much for me to read the depressing stories of defeat, with that little paragraph of hope at the end. Poor, tortured hope.
The magazine I currently subscribe to is a little more cynical, but I still don't read most of it anymore. I can't exactly say why. I like the magazine. It's just piling up on the table by the front door, though.
I always wanted to make my own magazine - or any kind of zine, really - but as I get older, I find I have less & less to say. This blog, of course, is evidence of that.
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