May 16, 2005
Stay Free! Magazine/Blog
filed under: Idle ChatterDisclaimer: this entire post is nothing but a flimsy excuse to post an image which I saw on blogpickle which made me laugh. You have been warned.
This is the back cover to the recent issue of Stay Free! Magazine, "a nonprofit, Brooklyn-based magazine that explores the politics and perversions of mass media and American (consumer) culture."
They also have a blog, Stay Free! Daily, which purports to deal with "Mass media, consumer culture, and Brooklyn curiosities from the publishers of Stay Free! magazine." It looks pretty all right.
I'll pick up a copy of the magazine this week some time and report back.
Mostly, "American Gentrifier" cracks me up because just this morning I was talking with PJ - who was apparently taking a short break from comment-flaming my entries here - about the neighborhood of Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, which is only just starting to gentrify. In Ditmas, you can buy three-story, free standing, 5+ bedroom Victorian mansions with front and back yards, porches and garages, for around $1M - $1.25M. Last year, the same houses went for about $800k.
But, of course, you have to be comfortable being a Gentrifier. From what I've seen of Ditmas it looks like a nice neighborhood and the people currently living there seem quite happy with it, and it would be a shame to see them edged out by the Bugaboo-pushing multitudes.
UPDATE: It's official! Making fun of gentrification is today's meme! It's a zeitgeist! It's in the air! It's hip, hot, happening and here!
This article on The Morning News (a) proves it, and (b) is very funny and worth reading.
Posted by rjt at May 16, 2005 01:00 PMThis is what Mad magazine used to do back in the day. Right? Social satire? If this magazine actually exists in print and not in the mind of some demented blogger, I will buy you sushi dinner. Will need proof. From a real printer like somewhere out in Wisconsin.
Your MamaSan
Posted by: MamaSan at May 16, 2005 10:27 PMYes, you're right that it's a social satire bit - it's the back cover (I gather from looking online) of a real magazine. So it's the joke cover, rather than the real one.
Posted by: rjt at May 16, 2005 10:57 PMTangent Alert: wow, I remember, quite fondly, MAD magazine...for a while there, (after NatLamp but before SPY) I think they were the best social satire publication out there. Just cause it was "for kids" didn't mean they weren't deadly serious about ridiculing pop culture. Between MAD and Bugs Bunny, I learned everything I needed to know about having a healthy disrespect for authority.
Posted by: Scotso the Lawbot at May 17, 2005 03:58 PM