«Rolling Stone»
Best magazine on the planet. Love the new format. Definitely worth the money!
[Friday, November 14, 2008]
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«Retirement Home»
Rolling Stone was conceived in the '80s as a counterculture music magazine. It covered acts like the Grateful Dead, CSNY, the Rolling Stones (of course), and the Jimi Hendrix Experience when they weren't part of the pop culture spectrum. Rolling Stone started out as trippy.
Rolling Stone has changed a great deal since its '60s-70s heyday. It is now more of a nostalgia magazine (like their self-adulating 40th anniversary issue,with Baby Boomers like Al Gore, Mick Jagger,etc) It still cares about acts like AC/DC,Bon Jovi,and Guns n' Roses,when young people have moved on. Rolling Stone faces a great challenge- young people's musical tastes are more varied. The iPod has individualized music. The songs dominating iTunes range from High School Musical/Camp Rock/Jonas Brothers songs to the latest rap hit. There's also a great deal of world music available,from the hippieish Putumayo World Music to the hip Six Degrees Records,and Oxfam has their own acoustic "unplugged" label. It's hard to cover such a broad spectrum.
Rolling Stone has also gotten more political-- probably meriting another magazine in itself. I have no problems with musicians having political views,or music magazines having politics,but Rolling Stone stumbles.
Rolling Stone still has hilarious reviews--for music and movies. Their snack-size review of "Everything is illuminated" was pithy,funny,and memorable. I might not always agree with their music reviews, but they're good for some insight or a laugh.
Rolling Stones gather no moss. Unfortunately,this one has. Sort of.
[Sunday, November 09, 2008]
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«Ordering Magazines on Amazon is Not Like Ordering Products»
When you have a service issue with a magazine you do not have normal access to the folks at Amazon. You don't even have access to the magazine until they actually begin shipping which could take a month or two. In the initial limbo, you get the phone number of a magazine broker. In the case of Rolling Stone Magazine its Wenner Media. But when you dial the number for Wenner, they answer the phone as the New Yorker and disavow any knowledge of Rolling Stone. (As you would expect from the folks at the New Yorker)Guessing this was a phone bank issue I called a dozen or so times and someone actually took down the change of address I needed. Well, the magazine is now arriving on the doorstep but its the wrong doorstep.
And don't I love that in your first week or two of delivery they send you the current issue and dump a copy of the prior month as well. You can imagine how they justify this. (He ordered it a month ago so he is getting what he asked for.) This is really a neat way to handle overstock for them and a month less of service for you. Unless you like your information stale. You still get a year's worth of magazine... its just a little front ended.
[Thursday, October 30, 2008]
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