…but the mouth-wateringly luscious Winter print MISC is finally done! Dropoff copies will wend their way thru the greater Seattle area over the next week. Subscription copies should arrive on Boxing Day or soon thereafter.
As you might have noticed, we got this one out on the Winter Solstice. The print mag will have a solstice/equinox schedule until further notice.
And, I must say, it’s the best issue yet. It includes a reprint of last year’s favorite, the cautionary fable “A Dot-Com Christmas Carol;” plus a number of features relating to the economy and why the recession can be good for you:
- “A Manifesto for the New-New Economy” (explaining why the old “New Economy” was such a dud from the get-go and how a more cooperative, street-level economy can rise from its ashes);
- “The Age of Uniforms” (one woman’s 25-year job history, told via what she had to wear to each workplace);
- “How to Love America” (how “alternative” folks can still take pride in their nation whilst still questioning its government);
- “Why Pay Less When You Can Pay More?” (comparing fancy gift-store candles and lunch boxes to their mass-market equivalents);
- “Welcome to the Working Week” (imagining economic restructuring as if people mattered);
- “The Death of Charity” (why nonprofits can’t count on private-sector largesse anymore);
- “Harry Potter vs. 7th Heaven” (comparing religious statements in mainstream entertainment):
- “Letter From Astoria” (a report from one of America’s oddest towns, where hard times are a way of life);
- “Dear Mr. Blethen” (an open letter inviting the Seattle Times publisher to make good on his earlier threat to move the whole paper to the ‘burbs);
- “Politics Gets Nickels-and Dimed” (how the Seattle mayoral election was about class wars, not “culture wars”);
- “Poetry Camp (With Alcohol)” (a memoir from last summer’s slam-poetry championships);
- “D-I-Y-Not-Now?” (the indie-rock lifestyle as an economic strategy);
- “EWWWWipe Out” (the obscenely wealthy become the merely annoyingly wealthy);
- “How to (heart) the Downturn” (reasons to be cheerful in these times); and
- “The Agony of Debt” (a philosophical-fatalistic look at the hell of plastic obligation).
Plus essays, book-music-video reviews, satirical shorts, and snappy b/w illos.
More than half of this issue has not appeared on the website; so even if you’re a regular here, the print mag will still be a fresh and exciting read. Look for it at a dropoff spot near you (in Seatown) or for sale at an alterna-bookstore near you (in the rest of the land). Or better yet, subscribe at the handy link somewhere on the left side of this page.
