Monday, March 16, 2009

I Love New York (Magazine)

I spent Spring Break in the one city I can't seem to get my mind off: New York.  I also somehow broke my 'not-spending money' streak by purchasing New York Stories: Landmark Writing from Four Decades of New York Magazine and Tucker Max's I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell (I won't bother talking about this douche bag) at Virgin in Union Square.
I was first drawn to buy the book because of how much I like New York magazine.  It was this summer at Digitas New York that I was introduced to the culturally rich and intelligently written New York.  They cover everything I like: fashion, art, gossip; and cover things I don't really care about in a manner that I will like it: politics.  
As a media intern, I was fortunate enough to meet with nymag.com's General Manager Michael Silberman and Online Account Director Jock Agorastos.  They were very personable gentlemen in pretty suits.

I started reading New York Stories and realized my admiration for the magazine is even more than I knew.  New York founder Clay Felker seemed to have led an amazing, influential life, and Tom Wolfe's Foreword and the book's introduction seem to strike a cord with how I felt about the city and journalism:
  • "...Felker had the insight one afternoon that The New Yorker is 'so...BORING!'" (p.xxxv)
  • "...a Missouri boy's [Felker] wide-eyed obsession with New York as the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the capital of the world... the radiant City of Ambition." (p.xxix)
  • "Personality was central to his understanding of the world--personality and conflict were, for him, the two essential ingredients of great journalism." (p.xxxv-xxxvi)

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