Everything And Nothing

Mass Hysterical

Rex says all God's children are media companies these days - so here I go.

Shawn Inc.

Introducing Mass Hysteria, my new magazine - about everything and nothing (of course!).

But I got accepted into the private beta of www.magcloud.com, so now I feel I MUST create a magazine. I know not why (or why I tried to be accepted into the private beta in the first place - because I just don't have enough projects yet, I'm sure). 

OK, if I'm honest with myself, it's most likely because it's fun. And free. And because I can.

And, because I can, I am now officially accepting contributions from other mass hystericals like myself. Email your article or picture or recipe or whatever you feel like (that can be published, I mean) to me.

You know, think human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

(I think every cover I'm going to cut off everyone's face like I did here. So if you're a photographer, submit images you think would be great cover images in a similar style.)

You get paid nothing (and everything). But if it makes you feel any better, we all make exactly the same salary here at Shawn Inc. ;)

Join the Players Club

Lenny Dykstra, a former All-Star and Major League baseball player, has created a magazine for former athletes like himself, named Players Club, to help pro athletes "keep living the dream." Dykstra also has a stock-picking column on TheStreet.com now.

It's quite an expensive magazine - subscription cost of $250,000.

The “Player’s Club” is essentially an investment vehicle with the goal of guaranteeing cash flow to athletes and their families post-retirement. To join the club, an athlete must make an initial investment of $250,000. There is no limit on a maximum investment and the idea is that players will have a guaranteed source of income for years after they retire. Members of the “Player’s Club” receive a monthly newsletter educating them about investment opportunities.

Dykstra's column in the magazine is called "The Game of Life."

Going Green

National Geographic's Green Guide is making the jump from a bimonthly newsletter to a quarterly magazine.

Launching March 4, National Geographic Green Guide will offer tips for leading an eco-friendly lifestyle, home improvement advice, product news and coverage of environmental issues. The premiere issue takes a look at carbon dioxide in American homes, with advice to help people reduce their carbon footprint.

It will be sold for $4.95 per copy or $15 for an annual subscription. Texterity-supported digital subscriptions including all the content from the print edition will be sold for $12.

[ via MediaWeek ]

It's baaaack...

Victoria magazine is reborn and now on newsstands again. It folded in 2003 after its launch in 1987. My mom subscribed. I remember it fondly.

Articles in this new first issue cover a woman who collects 18th- and 19th-century fashions, a look back at the old five-and-dime stores and recipes for a snowy winter weekend. The Washington Posts says more than 225,000 subscribers already have paid $19.98 for a six-issue bimonthly subscription. The cover price is $4.99.

For details, visit www.victoriamag.com. (And their February/Valentine issues were always the coolest - you'll definitely want to find that issue on the newsstand!)

My art on paper debut

My Self-Portrait in Mirror in Fancy Hotel made the March/April issue of art on paper magazine that focused on self-portraiture and photography. The managing editor found the photo on Flickr and wanted me to submit it for consideration. I said OK and didn't think much else about it.

Then she sent word that I made the cut. I didn't get the magazine issue until later, but I'm quite impressed with myself now.

I see quite a great modeling career in my future after this initial New York exposure! ;)

Everything old is new again

In September, fans of Rolling Stone and Playboy can order back issues on DVD (whether you read the magazines for the photography or the articles).

Bondi Digital Publishing will be putting out a DVD-ROM set with page-by-page reproductions of all 72 issues of Playboy published in the 1950s. In addition to the magazine’s first issue (of December 1953, with Marilyn Monroe on the cover and semi-naked in the centerfold) the set features fiction by writers like Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck and Ray Bradbury, cartoons by LeRoy Neiman, and photographs of Brigitte Bardot and Bettie Page. The Playboy DVD will come with a paperback book that Hugh Hefner edited, as well as a facsimile of Playboy’s first issue, which has never before been fully reproduced.

Separately, Bondi will offer a DVD archive of Rolling Stone, which will include photographs by Annie Leibovitz as well as articles by writers like Lester Bangs and Cameron Crowe. The boxed set will have 1,024 issues of Rolling Stone from over the decades. (The magazine turns 40 this year!)

The magazines will join The New Yorker and Mad Magazine, both of which currently offer archives on DVD. (Mother Jones is joining them in September also.)

The DVD sets will go on presale next month at covertocover.com, and be sold elsewhere online and in stores in November. The Rolling Stone set — which includes a one-year subscription to the magazine — is $125, while the Playboy set is $100. 

[ via Jane L. Levere, The New York Times ]

GQ Gets Philanthropic

GQ is telling its readers that you are never fully dressed without a social conscience. (Has anyone besides me ever been alarmed that that particular word breaks down to con-science? I'm just saying is all.)

To help commemorate its 50th anniversary this year, GQ magazine is starting a charitable project called the Gentlemen's Fund.

The initiative is centered on a Web site that is planned to go live this week, www.thegentlemensfund.com. It will also involve the GQ Mobile text-messaging service and events at stores like Saks Fifth Avenue. Singer John Legend is the spokesman for the fund (pro bono, of course).

[ via The Daily Dog ]

Hello Again

Sanrio Corp. has launched Hello Kitty magazine. Each issue will feature a different country and come with a Hello Kitty trinket. The magazine will also include features about the Hello Kitty Museum, which contains all of the thousands of different types of Hello Kitty merchandise that has been produced since the cat character first appeared in 1975.

The inaugural issue sells for 990 yen, while future issues will cost 1,890 yen apiece. There are plans to issue 50 editions.

[ via WriteNews.com ]

Compost post haste

The Green Cone System by Solarcone makes composting easy. It's a simple alternative to the homemade heap - and it accelerates the decomposition process through thermal heat. All household food waste can be dumped into the cone, which is partially buried in your yard.

$105, solarcone.net

Cargo, we barely knew ya

Cargo magazine, published by Conde Nast Publications Inc., is closing its doors. The magazine was launched two years ago with much fanfare as a shopping guide for men. Its May issue will be its last.

Subscribers to Cargo will receive GQ magazine for the remainder of their subscription. (Great...I already subscribe to GQ. I guess I'll get TWO copies now.)