2002-06-11 16:14:15+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments
Somehow I missed this East Bay Express article on the tribulations of The Spectator. Today Debra ran it, saying she stole it from Daze Reader. I've noticed that The Spectator's web site hasn't been updated in a while, perhaps this is part of why.
[ related topics: Sexual Culture California Culture ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-06-11 19:25:10+00 by: Shawn
Hmmm... I became aware of The Spectator (the web site) about a year ago. At the time, I was only interested in news reports (I linked directly in to that page without going through the main site) and I was unimpressed with the delay between printings - usually of news that was long past - so I gave up.
Nowadays, I'd love to find a sex-pos mag like The Spectator, but with their stated new focus of local (SF) events and articles, I'm not sure they're offering what I want any more (seeing as how I'm not, and have never been, in San Fran).
#Comment made: 2002-06-11 23:21:05+00 by: Dan Lyke
And even with the SF focus, I think it's only the online version that has the interesting events calendar. I've thought about going to them and offering to try to get inside their work-flow and help them build a web site which updates automatically, but I've got way too much on my plate, and before I volunteer for anything new I want to make sure that I'm not just handing a flashlight to a caveman.
Given online publications like Daze Reader and Pursed Lips to point us to content, and Clean Sheets and Scarlet Letters generating content, and that David Steinberg sends out the Comes Naturally columns on request, it's hard to imagine what sort of content I'd put in a general audience magazine that wasn't locally focused. And y'all up in Seattle have the calendars posted on the SHS web site. So, serious question, what more could one put in such a publication?
#Comment made: 2002-06-12 04:21:05+00 by: Shawn
That's just it. The content I'm looking for is not calendars of events. I want something like Salon, or People (I'm guessing - I've never read People Magazine), but with a sexual theme. Kind of a cross between AVN, Wired and Cosmo (again, I'm guessing about the last two - never read them).
Traditionally, I'm not much of a magazine reader. Primarily because I've never found a magazine that has a theme, subject matter and/or articles I'm really interested in. Didn't used to bother me. But these days, I'm feeling particularly disconnected from any kind of "group" or "culture" and I find myself wishing I had a regular mag to subscribe to and read. A few years back, I discovered the existence of a periodical called Sex (I think). But by then it was too late - it had already been cancelled due to lack of subscribers.
I've been to Clean Sheets a few years back, but I didn't see anything that interested me enough to come back regularly. There might be articles there that I'd be interested in reading but the overall feel wasn't one that harmonized with me. Ditto for Scarlet Letters, which I remember as being more about writing stories (and, again, not usually ones with themes that interested me). Perhaps my surfing habits are not "normal", but I don't ever revisit sites unless I'm looking for something I know they have (usually a product or download) or they're part of my [very small] stable of sites I use for news, current events, etc. Neither those, nor SHS meets the bar for the latter. I never go to the SHS web site any more and although I do get the calendar in the mail, I never go to any of the events so it gets little more than a passing glance these days. Again, in large part because there seems to be an overall theme and (intensity?, seriousness?, cultishness?) that doesn't quite appeal to me. (Over the last few months I've even been wrestling with whether or not to continue my subscription to the SHS and Sex-Wizards discussion lists.)
Call me shallow, but I guess I want more pop-culture fluff out of my magazines...
#Comment made: 2002-06-12 05:45:57+00 by: Shawn [edit history]
Okay, I've done some poking around (and I revisited Clean Sheets and Scarlet Letters - which I basically feel the same about) and I've managed to compile a basic example list of what I'd like to see in a national sex magazine:
And I'd like it all without the heavy-handed counter-culture, fuck-the-man, screw-the-normals, kinkier-than-thou, smut-literati attitude.
Sound reasonable? ;-)