All stories about "Media"

Writers like to drink. Other forms of substance abuse are often indulged in, but drinking is the only one that's state sanctioned. After a long day of drinking at their desks, sometimes journalists like to hit the town. And by town, we mean the closest, cheapest bar. So here's a map of media-bar hangouts. Don't be surprised if you walk into one of the bars and hear people discussing The Elements of Style or the underappreciated genius of Joshua Ferris. Know of any media bars not on this list? Send them in, and check out our earlier list of New York blogger bars.

And if it can't be the worst, just focus on London and it's bound to be rated the most expensive. London can now lay claim to having the most expensive residential property and public transport in the world. It is more than twice as expensive to dine out in London as in New York. Unfortunately for newspaper headline writers, London lags just behind Moscow with the second highest cost of living. But the Independent and Daily Mail would like you to know that the UK does have the most expensive dental care in Europe. And now, "It's Official: England is the most crowded country in Europe" -- or, well, actually read the rest of the article, and it seems that it's poised to probably be the most overcrowded major European country and might be already, but anyone who can count is busy conducting surveys.

New York City is rotten with giant buildings dedicated to media companies, both new and old. It's particularly surprising how many of these have sprung up in the last decade or less (the buildings and the companies). The New York Times moved from their storied space in favor of an austere new temple, while others like the Daily News had to bail out of their classic home and make do with a cement bunker by the railyards. To straighten out the newcomers and the maneuverings of the oldsters, here's a guide to where the heavyweights of New York media do their daily deeds, from the ink-stained wretches to the Internet hipster kids.

I don't just write for magazines -- I also have an extreme love for them, one that can get, I'll admit, a bit dirty. It's therefore my obligation to point out the current exhibition taking place at the Ginza Graphic Gallery, "Welcome to Magazine Pool: Ten Creators Crossing Boundaries for Magazine Design." In celebration of the Japan Magazine Publishers Association and the Japan Book Publishers Association's 50th anniversary, the show brings together the works of ten top magazine art directors and designers, with the first floor dedicated to work created specifically for the show -- and also published as a special limited print run issue of the Singaporean magazine WERK. The second floor is devoted to examples of each participant's groundbreaking work.

Almost every big city neighborhood has a hyper-specialized blog solely dedicated to the minutiae of life in said neighborhood. However, the majority of these blogs are written by boring and/or crazy neighborhood obsessives. For a broader aggregation of the news in your 'hood, check out Your Street, a new website that maps out news stories in your area from all the local papers. Plug in your zip code or street address, and the site shoots out a map with icons representing different news items from your park's recent fundraiser to the ever compelling police blotter and obituary notes. For example, in my neighborhood, the articles that pop up include, "Death Notices," "Bushwick Hipsters Left Out in Cold," and something about Alec Baldwin filming something. I would have had to actually pick up a community newspaper to find those gems. And don't worry if you don't live in a big city. A search of my childhood suburban neighborhood produced a story about firefighters pulling a car out of the town lake. Fun and interesting.

Your Street [via Thrillist]

The new New York Times building already has a lot going for it -- "smart" elevators, a sweet-ass cafeteria rivaling that of Conde Nast and maybe someday Google, and environmentally friendly specs. But now we hear from Moleskine's blog that it's also about to get a pretty incredible art installation in the lobby. When finished, "Movable Type" by artists Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen will feature a 560 small-screen panels projecting texts from the day's news stories along with typical newsroom sounds of ringing phones and frantic typing. Rubin explains that multiple times throughout the day algorithms will scan all sections of the newspaper archives, and reader traffic (comments, searching, etc.) to pull clips to project on the screens. Though I wouldn't have gone with the bright orange paint, I think the project is fitting given the context of the building. Also it offers great entertainment for those of us who try and fail to get past the lobby here.

Movable Type [via Moleskinecity]

Sadly, it appears the golden age of the journalistic fabulist is over. When caught lying in print in Beijing, you don't just lose your job, as did Stephen Glass; nor do you go on Oprah, as did James Frey. Instead, you go to jail for a year, as will hapless Zi Beijia, a Beijing TV who reportedly fabricated the story about fabricated street food. Zi admitted to taping a staged segment where workers stuffed baozi -- steamed buns -- with cardboard rather than the usual meat or veg. This charade resulted in the criminal offense of "infringing the reputation of a commodity"; a contrite Zi claims he was "muddle-headed" at the time. In response, 60 newspapers signed a declaration "to root out fabricated news" and "rebuild the credibility of the media." China leads the way once again!

Beijing reporter gets jail for fake buns story [AFP]

For a city with such decidedly overwhelming nightlife, Buenos Aires is surprisingly short of a well-designed nightlife listings/agenda magazine. While the city could still use a weekly Time Out (hint, hint), Wicked!? Buenos Aires, a new bilingual arts and underground culture rag produced by crew of locals and expats, makes a big step in that direction. (Full disclosure: The publisher is a friend, and I contributed a piece for the launch.) The first issue of the tabloid-sized pink book, distributed in hipster stores in Palermo and the like, contains a Q&A with multimedia crazyman Fernando Peña, a quick interview between yours truly and fotog Sebastián Friedman, and that nightlife agenda, from What's Up Buenos Aires.

Wicked!? Buenos Aires [Official site]

-- Ian Mount

Nineteen months and ten issues after debuting in Spanish (with many launch parties, including a New York gala covered here), the Buenos Aires magazine Metrópolis is letting English-speakers in on its "maliciously porteña" take on the city. The Metrópolis en inglés website includes translations of select restaurant and bar reviews, as well as a few cultural columns. For city visitors growing sick of beef beef beef, the restaurant guide includes seafood, veggie, Moroccan, Armenian, and Chinese offerings.

Metrópolis en inglés [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

A little shilling on this Wednesday morning, the new issue of City magazine is just about due out and it's all about travel. Also, nota bene Gridskipper's Joshua David Stein (me) has a piece of reportage from my trip to Brazil and ex-Gridskipper and friend of the family Greg Lindsay on the golden age of air travel. But the magazine is also good for small bites. They mention a stellar new art book of hot shots of underbellies of planes, the new Greek restaurant Anthos and a profile of Jason Pomeranc, our favorite hotelier. [Favorite, in this sense, used sarcastically.] His best-in-show quote? "There is an intellectual soul to every one of our projects that is very organic." Hmm, who's the intellectual soul behind that hunk of concrete outside our window? Sartre? Baudrillard? Zizek? Buber? Do tell!

City Magazine
Eater Inside: Anthos
Aircraft

Previously: Culture and Travel: Part Trois, Russians Put Out Magazine Called Russia! About Russia!, 10 Magazines in One For the Price of 100, Magazines as Propaganda? ¡No Me Digas!

As hard as it is to say, we're developing a little crush on Culture & Travel, a magazine we've kicked in the shins in the past. The third issue recently arrived on our doorstep and, well, it's purdy. I mean, it'll still succumb young like Elizabeth Barrett Browning but not before producing some real quality work. This issue comes complete with a journey to Kyoto for sashimi, a New York chef's guide to Mumbai restaurants, and a story of post-deluge N'Awlins gardens. So if you see the mag on the newsstand (and you will because it's huge) and if you're rich (and if you're not you wouldn't like the magazine anyway) we recommend you pick it up. Or, if you're like us and hate spending money on things that don't rhyme with standjobs, go to their website and flip through the preview issue.

Culture & Travel
Culture & Travel Review [Gridskipper]

Previously: Culture and Travel Review, Magazines as Propaganda, Russians Put Out Magazine Called Russia! About Russia!

From the frigid loins of Mother Russia, a new magazine recently emerged called Russia! about Russia! but for Americans! Our big sister Gawker checked it out yesterday and concluded, "Informative!" We heartily concur, although we'd be very very very interested in who is financing the venture since it seems a boosterish. Nationalist shilling notwithstanding, the mag has a ton features for any Russophile. There's a tale of exploring Moscow subways, a correct hatchet job on Gary Shteyngart and a list of "The Russia! YouTube playlist" from which the above Basement Jaxx video was taken. According to the mag, it "is admirable for its ethinic and social accuracy." Well, if that's the case, all I can say is Russia. No, wait a minute. I meant Russia!

Update: We just talked to publisher Ilya Merenzon who informed us that no, the magazine isn't funded in any way by the Russian Tourism board but is a commercial publication. Of course, Ilya says, the board is happy about the magazine and bought advertising but that is where the relationship end.

Russia!
Reading Russia! [Gawker]

Previously: Moscow: Two Tapas Town, Glorious Capitalist Revolution Brings Thugs to Moscow's Artists and Safe Taxis to Moscow's Women, Not One For Subtlety Monkey Poops on Swastika

Usually we prefer posts about sex over sobering environmental wake up calls, but this super interesting interactive feature at the Times-Picayune piqued the Nova-loving nerdy Al Gorey side of us. The feature offers an informative and interesting, not to mention devastating, gloss of land loss in Louisiana. Every year the state loses 24 square miles of wetlands, or, as the stentorian narration of Dan "Pulitzer" Swenson informs us, approximately a football field every 45 minutes. By that rate, by 2020, New Orleans will basically be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico. To fully navigate the feature, you'll probably need a good solid 15 minutes but the information is presented in a simple and interesting way and, hey, you can only read so many crass sexual posts a day, right?

The Rise and Dissappearance of Southeast Louisiana [Nola.com]

[Graphic: Coasts circa 1932 (top) and 2020 (bottom)]

Previously: Gridskipper's Travels With Dignity: Mardi Gras (NSFW), A Guide to Mardi Crass, This Week in Branding: Turning Funny-Tragic into Funny-Haha, Then and Now: Tourism in New Orleans

That super hip multistory shop Colette is the sort of Kaaba of hipster boutiques. This year marks the boutique's tenth birthday and to celebrate they're selling some anniversary items to mark the occasion. Now we always thought the proper gift for a tenth anniversary was tin and aluminum but Colette has a different idea. Ten products with ten elements each, of varying shades of coolness, are being sold on a limited basis. Our fave of the lot is a magazine bundle:

Very special publication comprising assorted pages from 10 magazines distributed at colette, all of whom have in some way, shape or form played an important part in the colette history since 1997. The concept is simple and straightforward: 20 pages from each of the March issues are selected by each magazine editor especially for the "10 magazines" project. The best and brightest assortment of titles including: Big (#64), Dazed & Confused (vol.II 47), Fantastic Man (#5), Huge (#33), i-D (#274) , Paradis (#2), Permanent Food (#15), Purple Fashion (#7), Self Service (#26), V (#45)

10 Magazines in One
Colette [Official site]

Previously: L'Hotel: Make Mine A Wilde, Top Contemporary Art in Paris, Youngin Europe: Fubu for Travelers

Madrid's Reina Sofia museum is hosting a show that examines the role magazines played in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939. Just like today's NY Sun or NY Post, Madrid in the 30s had its share of sanguine war mongering ads providing fair and balanced news. The only difference is that they had better cover art. The show runs through April.

Revistas Y Guerra [Museo Reina Sofia]

Previously: Hot Dogs in Madrid, Want a T-Shirt from the FBI?, Sweet Home J&J's Books and Coffee, A Whole Leg of Love

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away, or start new 200-page magazines aimed at the traveling elite. Tyler Brûlé, the man who made us learn the HTML short cut for not one but two diacritical marks and who also, less importantly, launched Wallpaper* launched yesterday his latest venture, Monocle. Brûlé had kept his grimly attractive lips pressed tightly together on the content so we were assuming either a Terry Kiser Fanzine or a trade publication for the 19th century dandies. But when we finally got a copy, we were presented with a hodge-podge affair of reporting from around the world. Monocle is basically Wallpaper* but agéd: slightly less design, slightly more gravitas and higher pricepoints. The inaugural issue features stories from the Japanese Navy, a report from Sundance and an entire Manga comic. For the traveling set, there's a couple nice pieces, one featuring Genoa but who exactly the magazine is for is hazy. But Tyler Brûlé isn't worried. In fact he was recently quoted saying he expects to sell 200,000 copies in six months. Ah little Tyler, remember James Truman. There but for the grace of God go you.

Monocle

Previously: Tipstarr, Just Because You're On the Cover of Travelgirl Doesn't Make you A Covergirl, Girl, Thrillist Moves West

One of the best online design magazines in Japan has got to be PingMag -- please note that they do much more than just cover design -- and a recent piece took a look at a free paper project called Tipstarr, that covers luxury travel in Asia. Read the interview with Creative Project's Hiroyuki Hatakeyama for more on what the quarterly magazine is all about, but from the images that pepper the piece, it looks like a nice mix of stylish photography and sexy fashion spreads -- think Wallpaper* but with a strong focus on the nightlife and the sexy side of things. Issue 1 featured Vietnam, with the next two issues covering Thailand and Bali respectively, and the upcoming 4th issue will cover Malaysia. You can currently find it up in hair salons, certain hotels, select shops, even at Narita Airport, and they're also hoping to turn into an in-flight magazine for airlines, and also offer an English edition.

Tipstarr: Gorgeous and Glamorous Fun in Asia! [PingMag]

[Jean Snow]

Previously: Darling Don't You Go And Cut Your Hair, Kameroku Sakura Shopping Center, Cafe Carat, Cosplay Cafes: Dress Up Baby, We're Going Out

Shanghai is having a moment. A moment in time. Matt Gross the Times Frugal Traveler is somewhere in Eastern Europe now but his recent Mark Rowe also recently went to Shanghai to focus on the past and future. Using the two articles in conjunction, one might even be able to construct an arc through time though the only thing they agree on is Shanghai at some point in the past had a future, now it only has that future past. The future, meanwhile, continues to move forward, every time one gets there.

Surprises in Old Shanghai [Telegraph]
In Shanghai, Balancing the Past, the Future, and the Present [NYT]
Scrooge Does Shanghai [Shanghaiist]

Previously: Give the Peace Hotel a Chance, Member's Only Club Coming to Shanghai, Shanghai's Aleksey Vayner, A Whole Lala Love, The Thames Gets Shanghaied, Pic of the Day: Old Shanghai