Introducing, print
ISSUES #1
letter from the editor
Print has been dead. Magazines died long ago, despite my best efforts. I will still, on occasion, pay the newsstand price for a magazine at the airport even though I know I’ll fall asleep on the plane. Whatever it takes to keep Condé Nast from firing its staff and destroying music journalism.
Growing up, magazines were an enormous influence on my young tastes. Truthfully, I wasn’t reading many articles, but scanning my subscriptions kept me informed on what was cool. I poured over Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and I hung a free Adidas poster from Slam on my bedroom wall.
Print might be dead, but the internet is impermanent, and nostalgia is expensive. Rolling Stone’s albums list has undergone four rounds of edits since its original 2003 publication (check out this handy spreadsheet detailing the changes!) and that old Adidas poster now sells for $50 on eBay.
As an adult, I graduated to the New Yorker, but quickly found that the stacks piled up faster than I could read them. If the free shelf at my local library is any indication, I’m not the only one. At no cost to myself, I started thumbing through old issues, ripping out pages, and taking some reading material with me on the go.
Once I started looking, I found free magazines everywhere. Decades old copies of Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Time, LIFE, discarded in prime conditions. Yesteryear’s publications - with their glossy covers, outdated outfits, and cigarette ads - act as time capsules of a bygone era. (Huge shout out to the Bookmark Bookstore, which has been feeding my habit at $1 per publication.)
Not only do these mags offer a look at a forgotten time, they highlight the opinions, trends, and belief systems that got us where we are today.
As long as digital archives stay kept behind paywalls, and these faded bits of writing remain relevant, I figured I would share some of what I’ve been reading.
- pat
ISSUE 1
Number one issue, gotta be the daddy issue. I’ve included some articles about fathers, the NBA Finals, male friendship, and more. Compiled neatly into one portable document format (pdf).
Read if you believe that defense wins championships / you are turning into your father / your dad needs help making a friend / you need help picking out a steak / you are missing your dad / you are curious how this country used to handle repentant fascists
Happy Father’s Day yall.
First shout goes to my dad, RJ. The original tastemaker, style icon, and role model. Additional thanks to the homies who encouraged me to start a substack (smh): Max, Devon, Meghan, Sarah. Finally, happy birthday to all my Geminis.
i have that ali poster at my parents house!