Some three+ months ago, I subscribed to the Smithsonian magazine for both my father and myself. His subscription was a Father’s Day gift; mine, a selfish little present. Yesterday, after waiting for what felt like forever, I finally received my first issue: September 2005.
For years, I was a fashion magazine junkie. Lately, though, my favorite fashion magazines have been transformed into celebrity memes, and I have had enough. I can only take so many interviews with Renee Zellweger, and I can only flip through so many fashion editorials with Nicole Kidman as supermodel before it all becomes the same self-promoting, “please make me sound smart and look pretty” BS. The end of my rope came when Anna Wintour, Vogue’s editor-in-chief, memed her editor’s letter. Pa-uke. At least I know she likes peonies. Now I can really live.
You can imagine, then, how alien it was for me to subscribe to the Smithsonian in the first place. I remember having to use it in high school as a mandatory reference for social studies’ reports. But it couldn’t have been too alien; after all, yours truly was a decade-long subscriber of Ranger Rick. Perhaps it was my inner Ranger that had me send away for Smithsonian, but whatever it was, I am so thrilled that I did. So thrilled! I inhaled every bit of art! science! history! that I possibly could sink my eyeballs into. And if that wasn’t enough, I was tickled girly-pink to read the last page column: “Geek to Me: How I Learned to Love a Computer Nerd.” Somehow, reading about that author’s relationship with her now husband was all of the femininity of fall I needed. (If you have time, I urge you to get the giggles and read the quick article). Visualizing the author and her geeky husband was a far better satisfaction than SJP spreads in must-have couture by her favorite designers.
Get yourself some Smithsonian.
So we can talk about it.
And because there’s far more to life than Angelina Jolie, the great American phony. Er, humanitarian. Artificially lovely humanitarian, yeah, that’s what I meant.
4 comments:
We will read the article! Oh Master Madge.
Isn't it funny how the magazines we were required to read as kids, we now read for pleasure? In addition to the Smithsonian, I subscribe to National Geographic of all things. They've dumbed it down a little, but it's still better than Vogue.
i am always going through magazine thoes! which one to read! my favorites are adbusters, bust and readymade.
adbusters because it is highly interesting and, i feel, makes me more conscious of societal issues, but it can also easily make me depressed and hate humanity. how can one feel that change can ever be accomplished? that you can ever make any sort of difference when you face a waterfall of intolerance and misunderstanding?
bust because... it's crafty. sometimes their issues are rather immature, but it's good in that non-fashion mag fluff kind of way.
and readymade because... i like to think i'm more crafty than i am. ;) i dream of all the fun projects i can do and sometimes that's enough for me.
oh! stayfree is also good, but hard to find and not published very often. they've had some awesome articles on eugenics and labotomies. ha!
You forgot to mention Paris hilton in the mag covers. Good article, thanks for sharing, kind of gives hope to journalism. Scientific American is also a good mag. Explains Physics in an "Understandable" manner usually.
Monkey: I love NG! Especially the loose maps. There is nothing quite like a National Geographic map of...the antebellum South. Or Siberia. (And there's also nothing like a vintage NG with the table of contents -in white/black/gold- on the cover).
Kimberlina: I want to thank you a million times over for giving me annotated magazine advice. I have only seen/heard of Adbusters; and I think I'm most interested in finding an issue of Readymade. Wow! Is this "hipster" crafting? Will hunt this one down...
Okay, so I said "hipster." Stop rolling your eyes!
To Fics23: Scientific American is another one of those magazines I had! to use as a source for high school research papers.
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