Seattlest: "D'Ambrosio's dark, intense prose drives these stories like coffin nails."

Dan

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:32:19 -0800

I'm waiting until I have the magazine to read this.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 18:03:17 -0800

I still read dead tree books because most digital books use some idiotic DRM that is platform specific and not future compliant and the selection is bad. I have no problem buying DRMed Apple iTunes files because the DRM can be easily defeated and turned into future compliant and platform neutral MP3 files. A book is supposed to be much more permanent than a magazine while your typical magazine issue has their articles as long as the average American can read on the toilet having the average poo. Books and music are supposed to last. Magazines are meant to be disposable. But there are whole kinds of virtual books that I have read and massive amounts of on line text. But the whole concept of disposable distributed paper media does not click with me anymore.

Courtney Nash

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:27:55 -0800

OK, I'm weighing in one more time and then shutting up. I don't see the two as mutually exclusive, Jake. Are you done with books, too? I don't want to get too Edward Tufte on you, but the format and resolution of oh-so-last-century glossies is still far more desireable from a casual reading perspective, especially if I want to sit down, drink something and actually read for a while. The web is great for quick, shortbit consumption, but magazines and books are still superior for actual READING.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 14:59:30 -0800

Well if you are still into distribution of dead tree editions of time sensitive periodical media then go ahead and enjoy them. As a collector of old Nintendo games I can see your desire for retro media. Strange to be having this discussion with folks that run a web publication.

Courtney Nash

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 13:26:02 -0800

In fact, I was curled up in bed last night with this past week's issue, and it had: a compelling profile of Alberto J. Mora--the former general counsel of the United States Navy--on the record for the first time ever about his dissenting opinions on the Bush administration's stance on torture, a fantastic piece on how the southern coast is consuming Louisiana at an alarming rate, and a witty short from Sedaris on his family's art "collection" activities. I'm still a huge fan of this magazine, I really don't know of many other publications that have the quality of writing that the New Yorker does these days. And it would suck on my iPod in comparison, I'm still a sucker for the glossies.

James

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 13:24:35 -0800

So your point is what? Because magazines will eventually disappear, we're obligated to stop reading them right now? My guess on print magazines in 10 years: less important than they are now, more important than you think. But I'm not reading magazines 10 years from now, I'm reading them now. We're all tools of dying paradigms, which is why it's important to settle in with paradigms you enjoy.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 13:19:30 -0800

Last time I checked it was 2006. Children born in 1990 will be eligible to vote for the next President of the United States. That 18 year old does not remember a time before the Internet and CDs. How important do you think paper magazines are going to be when that 18 year old grows up? I loved reading Nicholas Negroponte’s (http://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/ ) dead tree book Being Digital and his theory on what literacy is going to mean in the twenty first century.

Audrey

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:40:37 -0800

Oy vey, Jake. Get over yourself.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:02:08 -0800

No the Stranger still is publishing a physical newspaper. I can’t remember when was the last time I was actually impressed by an old fashion dead tree magazine. My parents read the New Yorker despite the fact they live in West Richland Washington. I have never been impressed with it and since most paper magazines are owned by a media conglomerate and are written to a lowest common denominator, are confined to the available page space, they are dated as soon as they are printed and are based on moving physical dead tree paper around. I would rather curl up next to my fireplace with my iBook and RSS Reader than some publishing relic of the nineteenth century. If this were a paper magazine I would be reading this a week or so after it was published and mailed and my comment letter might be published a week later. It is just so Victorian.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:49:04 -0800

Dan

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:02:00 -0800

This tool of a dying paradigm subscribes to a lot of magazines, the New Yorker included.

Michael

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:50:11 -0800

Yeah, Jake, normally I enjoy your other-side-of-the-Sound commentary, but come on. I just restarted my subscription to Harper's, and you can have my copy when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Magazines, by their nature, allow in-depth views you can't get in weeklies or online. They fund really good writers and editors. And last but not least, I still dig those New Yorker cartoons.

James

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:45:26 -0800

Did the Stranger stop printing on paper recently? Why don't we have a post about that? And I subscribe to at least 8 dead tree magazines. Apparently I'm content to be the kind of tool I am.

Jake of 8bitjoystick.com

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 10:39:48 -0800

Pff. The New Yorker.. my ass. If you took The Stranger and published in a magazine with a glossy cover and charged five buck and issue and sold it nationally it would still be a better read than the New Yorker. In the internet age people that still subscribe to dead tree self-righteous magazines like the New Yorker are tools of a dying paradigm.