If only I had my own magazine...
Philip gave me these books for my birthday/anniversary presents. The MaryJane's Idea Book is very cool. It's like her magazine times ten. I will admit that I feel a little inferior when I read about her life and projects. I mean, here's a middle aged woman who is not chubby, completely lovely, has created an amazing little lucrative empire for herself, and is not a beer-swilling weak-backed crazy person who can barely ever remember to order new checks before she runs out. Everything she does seems so frugal, so wise, so moderate, and annoyingly healthy.The Re-creative book is pretty cool. I am inspired lately by all the recycled crafts going on out there. In some ways it's silly to have a book with fifty projects that completely depend on you finding the same throw-away items as the designers did, they're making things out of trash and repurposing things that most people will not have, like New York metro cards. On the other hand, what all these books are doing is inspiring (or trying to inspire) people to think differently about things they might throw away, or things that others might throw away. This is valuable to us all. It is so lazy to look at everything as fulfilling one purpose when it might find new life as a whole new useful object. I am trying to think like that myself.
I have been doing that for years to a certain extent. I never seemed to have a ready stock of wrapping paper in my house so I have wrapped presents in some very interesting ways using newspaper and construction paper. I remember wrapping one wedding present with Newspaper and then covering it in three dimensional spirals I cut out of construction paper. It wasn't the tiniest bit elegant, but it made me laugh and you can bet that no other present looked like that. The present was a pair of pot holders I'd made the couple. One in black because the bride was a very fashionable gal who was into black and white. It was the single most personal wedding gift I have ever made and wrapped. I wish I'd taken photos of it.
We've had this lamp for a long time and the shade is now in a very sad state. I was thinking of buying a new shade but now I am inspired to either use fabric I already have or use some other material. I won't get to it any time soon because of that super long list I have hanging over my head (from which things are actually getting ticked off, in spite of the back incident). But I'm thinking that this lamp will be an exercise for me in using only things I already have. When I finally come up with a new shade, I'll post the results.I have now completely gone through all of my magazines and sent them to the recycling bin having ripped out all the pages that had inspiring images on them. I have a HUGE binder full of pages I've saved from magazines for the past eighteen years. In truth, I have enough now to fill two giant binders. While I was going through the last of them this week-end while propped up in bed with a heating pad under my back, I couldn't help but indulge in one of my many fantasies that my head has been filled with since I was a small girl. I would love to publish my own glossy magazine.
What could I possibly publish that would improve on the million magazines that are already out there, enough variety to appeal to every lifestyle, every subject, every region, and every religion? I would pull together elements from many of them into one place. A magazine where good writing on important domestic subjects like "Why safety locks don't make you a better mother" and good design come together in one place.
Here's the thing: I read Elle magazine because it's the only fashion magazine that dedicates a lot of space to "Indie" designers, I read Vogue because even though it's kissing the big designers' tired asses, Vogue actually prints really intelligent articles on all kinds of subjects, I like Jane magazine because it doesn't take itself too seriously and is fun to read (even though it's so completely aimed at the nineteen to twenty five year old crowd), and I read ReadyMade for the innovative projects, and I want to read BrainChild because its not afraid to go against the current mothering trends (but I don't often read it because there's no shiny pictures and because I think it could use a bigger dose of irreverence. See what a pop-culture whore I really am?)
If I had my own magazine I would not give an inch of space to fashion designers like Dior, Versace, Balenciaga, or any other stuffy old mogul fashion conglomerates who do the same thing over and over and mostly are designed for really boring socialites to wear. I would only feature Indie deisigners or designers who have some innovative risk taking spirit like Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, and Vivien Westwood.
If I had my own magazine there would be no uber skinny models ever. I would probably end up being labeled a "plus size" magazine for using models that are at least a size 8. Well, go suck lemons on the catwalk people! When I went to design school, the fitting model dress size was eight. That was in 1987. It's not completely a case of models and people getting more and more insanely skinny, a little vanity sizing has been slowly applied to clothes. A size 8 in 1987 is probably the equivalent of a size 4 today. People sure are emotional about numbers, and kind of stupid to buy the whole vanity sizing thing. Anyway, I would not allow models in my magazine whose knees are larger in circumferance to their thighs. That's just sick and gross.
If I had my own magazine I would have articles in it that questioned everything. Such as the current trends in parenting that have parents thinking they've signed a contract with the devil if they don't spend every second of every day with their child and protect their child from every unpretty fact of life until they're eighteen years old. (At which point they will enter the "real" world where they will not be equipped to deal with anything at all and will probably end up overdosing on heroine.) I would have articles about keeping house that are inspiring without pandering to the notion that all of our homes should be free of dust or else people will think bad things about us. In my magazine, readers would be invited to have fun cleaning their homes without worrying that they are filthy monsters if they only do it twice a month.
If I had my own magazine I would feature artists and craftspeople who are making truly equisite things. No precious moments style paintings of alien-eyed children with impossibly big heads covered in suger sweetness. There would be interviews that examined the creative process of different artists, crafts people, musicians, and writers, because don't all of us want to know what other people do to keep in the creative groove? You don't? Well then you better not read my damn magazine! I would have a featured project in every issue too. A pattern or instructions for something really cool.
So watch out, when I finish my never ending huge list of things to do to get people shopping on my web store, coming into my retail store, and stocking their own stores with the things I design myself, I will kick the publishing world's ass!
Do you think I'll beat Beyonce to the magazine stands? You know, she probably has her own magazine in the works too. Mine will be better.
*Either the spell check feature isn't working, like in the old Blogger days, or I didn't make any errors, which is impossible. So don't hold this against me please.
