Love the crafty/DIY and lifestyle magazines and websites. V tired of the east cost/west coast-ness of all of them. I don't live in New York or San Francisco and don't want to, ever, and while the web makes ordering things easy, and Target carries many a fine item, there seem to be a lot of places and resources that those of us in other locales simply cannot enjoy. And I have nothing against patronizing the unique local shops and services in any given place - I love those kind of things too because they're part of what makes each city its own self - but I get so tired of feeling excluded from most of the things in the glossy pages. I don't know whether the authors are actively excluding those of us in the middle 30 or so states, or whether I am inferring it, but I know that when I finish reading I don't feel like I can wholly participate, or that somehow most of what I've read doesn't apply to me. Is it the Amelie bangs everywhere? the faux-poor clothes? the hipper-than-thou-despite-my-pittance-as-a-slave-as-a-magzine-intern attitude? the addiction to gilt-by-association and bling-dropping (Oooh! This $50 Cartier key chain is a steal!)?
I want someone to start a magazine based out of Madison or Columbus or Austin or Lincoln or something. I'd settle for Chicago, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Denver. Anything to show that there's life elsewhere, because I know there is - we've all seen it. Maybe people in these other places just don't feel the need to publish. Hmmm. Which is why, despite their grandma-name baggage, I like Better Homes and Gardens Quick and Easy Decorating - it's headquartered in Des Moines and it shows. They shop at Target, use a lot of color, and emphasize changeable, adaptable, not-overly-resourced projects. You don't have to live in SoHo to buy paint.
By the way, I just looked to see if they have a website, and no trace of this magazine appears on the BHG website. If it is no longer published, I swear I am going to cry. For real. First they stopped Living Room, and now this.
This goes for novels too. Love the trying-to-be-witty novels written by people my age but am losing interest because they all seem take place in the world of writing/publishing (NY) or web design/dot com (SF). Can you only write what you know? Navel-gazing, without humor, on a grand scale. Ugh.
My motto in life may be "I can totally make that!", but I know my limitations. I can't make a zine or a read-worthy website. I'm not a novelist and have no desire to be, but I am a fiction reader and have a desire to keep on being a fiction reader, so I need someone to write something. I am grateful to the people who can and do - I just wish more of them came from my world
