#34 - you ruined it.

i used to love magazines...grew up on them & junk. i read highlights, boy's life, yankees magazine (go sox), sports illustrated, a bunch of wrestling mags, spin, rolling stone (who changed size last issue...weird?), guitar world & whole bunch of other mags that fueled my sport & music obsessions. many of them are still in boxes in the attic of my parents' house, likely drying up from the heat or becoming nests for crafty nh chipmunks.

my all time favorite magazine = punk planet. a friend introduced me to it back in the summer of 2003, when i was on the cusp of thirtydom & the magazine was already on its 56th issue & had totally un-punk binding. every other month, when i thought there might be a new issue out, i'd head into the city like a twelve-year old & drop into kim's or universal news, hoping to find a new issue on the stand. 90% of the time, if there was a new issue out, i'd buy it & take it to a bench somewhere in the city to just sit out, flipping through it, skipping to the back to check out the d.i.y. files & countless album reviews, taking in an article here or there. i bought every single copy from that point until their demise in 2007, a demise that was mostly due to the usual suspects in the demises of independent publishers everywhere, notably lacking ad revenue/subscribers, the stuff that major mags are better positioned to deal with...so it turns out by making a bi-monthly event out of buying it on the newsstand, my non-subscriber ass partially contributed to the death of punk planet.

since its death, i haven't had another mag i've cared about that much. it sort of ruined magazines for me...although i suppose vice magazine probably had something to do with tainting (pun totally intended) magazines for me...that rag.

now, earlier this evening, i stumbled across a blog with a post about portland, oregon based (didn't it used to be san fran?) bitch magazine having financial woes. like i said, i've been out of touch with magazines recently, but i love bitch. it's another mag that i've had newsstand fever over in the past. turns out that back about a month-and-a-half ago, they made a plea to their readers & supporters when the need arose to raise $40K by october 15th to stay alive. within three days, they'd raised $46K. that in itself gives me cause to believe that the independent magazine isn't completely dead yet...i just wish worthwhile publications didn't have to resort to bake sales to remain viable...but, hey if you happen to like the cookies bitch is baking, go here.

#34 - you ruined it.
snack: cherry jello
drink: water

who in his or her life has never had a jello shot? not me, i say. you you say? liar. everyone on the planet who is not allergic to jello has had a jello shot & even some of those jello-allergy-inflicted folks have had at least one or two shots out of peer pressure/a need to live life on the edge. it's a scientific fact. look it up, liar.

myself, i was in both college & a fraternity & as noted previously, love consuming connective tissue & love supporting planters/kraft/altria/philip morris, so i have consumed tubfuls of jello shots in my day. not in one sitting, of course...or out of an actual tub...at least that i can recall. in fact, i have consumed so many jello shots in my day that i sort of hate jello now. jello shots pretty much ruined jello for me. like, right now, i'm spooning a bowlful of this cherry jello into my mouth & my brain is all "are you sure there's no vodka in this? i swear i can taste the vodka."

& since it's officially past midnight, with my bowl of jello, i'm going with a tall glass of water...trying to cut back on drinking a liter's worth of mountain dew after midnight, especially whilst inhaling a bowlful of gelatinous sugar. anyway, this is water's second appearance on the blog, so let's hear it for water & let's hear it for its right hand man, the brita, without whom none of this would be possible. and while we're at it, let's hear it for the boy as well. seriously, let's give that boy a hand. you'd better, or kevin bacon will be forced to give you the noogie of your life.