The one magazine I've subscribed to for most of my life is Rolling Stone. In the 70s, it was because of the music coverage. Nobody, maybe Creem excepted, ever did the music scene like RS. And they regularly ran rock and roll posters, which filled my teenage bedroom walls.
Their format has changed a lot- it's a small glossy now, not the big tabloid newspaper it was. There are a lot of ads and some idiotic tripish commentary under celebrity pix (I wish they'd stop that). But here we are in the 10s and I'm still a subscriber, not for their papparazzi stories but because of their political coverage.
You see, they have a guy named Matt Taibbi. And Matt Taibbi is a journalist like journalists used to be. He reports what he finds, not what he thinks. RS posts his blog here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog
And they actually have a "culture" section!:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture
They also run guest columns by peep who think. How refreshing. This last issue has a piece by Al Gore about Climate Change. It's online- for free- here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/climate-of-denial-20110622
Not that RS is perfect, it's not. I've had some nasty exchanges with their subscription department people over the years. Well, they're Rolling Stone; I expect attitudinal people to work there. It's a yearly ritual to bitch back and forth with them now.
With all that, I'd hate to see it ever go. It's been a constant in my life, even though they dissed Zep and ignored ELP. Nobody's perfect. They're an institution. They're often just fun and frequently amazing. They're never boring.
And there's the classic song by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show that still makes me smile:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of368QdosR0
Ahhh...Beautiful. Long live Rolling Stone.
MYSTERIOUS GARDEN
10 months ago
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