The funny thing: when I used to work in the same office as Taibbi's agent, I told her I was a fan, and he asks her: Is a young, hairy-knuckled young Jew?" She answered in the affirmative. Apparently, most of us are.
@D2theMatthews: Specifically, "great octopus wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
@D2theMatthews: To be fair: that's an octopus and Taibbi is describing a vampire squid. Squids are faster, leaner and more invisible. And vampires are undead, hard to kill and easily disguised.
I'm not a big Taibbi fan, but I don't believe that anyone that uses a squid/octopus metaphor is anti-semitic because some shut-ins found a fifty year old illustration of a nazi squid. It's more likely that Taibbi's sealife metaphors are derived from repeated viewings of Sigmund the Sea Monster.
@uncle_wiggly: Standard Oil was called the Octopus before the trustbusters broke it up, and nobody ever accused the Rockefellers of being Jews. So, not.
I subscribe to at least a half dozen magazines and I've subscribed to Rolling Stone for about 30 years, but other than to follow a "more info" thing in the text, to change my address or to quickly access a back article for online attribution, I don't know that I've ever visited the website for a magazine, I receive.
OK, I take that back... RollingStone.com did used to have the most readily available copy of the "Imagine" video before YouTube and I've pointed toward it numerous times, but I really don't think I'd like it, if the website were to try and replace the magazine. As with all my subscriptions, but especially Rolling Stone, I actually look forward to getting my hard copy in the mail and have a ritual about reading it.
US Weekly is just a gossip rag and it's understandable that they have better traffic; their competition is online, there's lots of blogs linking to gossip and the text is just a lot of blurbs. Rolling Stone, Playboy, Vanity Fair, etc are lifestyle publications; They have devoted readerships, long-form articles and all of their websites are suffering online.
@Magister:
IOW: Like pretty much everyone else, I read almost every word of every Rolling Stone, but we're not going to do that online. No amount of "engagement" is going to change this fact and unless the "engagement" is going to be separate animal, disconnected from the offline content, then I don't see a reason for them to worry too much more than their stated goal of bringing site management in-house.
Online ads don't pay as well as offline and though there's been a noticable advertising slump (not as many fashion ads), I'm sure the offline situation is temporary and an ad-free Twitter feed isn't going to add anything toward the bottom line.
@NerD!!! - R.O.A.C.H.: Caught my attention too-- Because I drew all that scary movie type back when I was working there. That cover was in my portfolio for quite some time.
@ejs2000: It's one of my favorite covers. That's why I chose it. Somewhere, there's a picture of my ceiling in 9th grade. It was covered wall to wall with my favorite Rolling Stone covers. Believe me, if there's a publication going to shit that breaks my heart more than any other, it's RS. Nice work!
He needs to talk to the person who decided to put the Jonas Brothers on the cover, twice within a year.
I can take the Beatles cover even if the article is rehashing the same bullshit, it primarily takes from John's interview when he was out of his head on smack and angry. I love how the author completely ignores the fact that John in later years said he lied through his teeth during that interview.
Plus, it would be nice if R.S. would for once focus on the fact that John and Paul made up, but I guess hating each other is better copy.
The Rolling Stone website is a mess. I think one of the most ridiculous things is that Rolling Stone a MUSIC MAGAZINE rarely if ever breaks new music news. It's pathetic that People Magazine can beat them to the punch.
@goldenslumbers: "Last August, the Jonas Brothers issue sold 151,160 copies off the newsstand, above the magazine's 125,000 average, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation's Rapid Report. It was the fourth best seller of the year for the biweekly."
Another huge newsstand issue this year? The Adam Lambert coming-out issue.
And again, RS *does* break music news. (Like the aforementioned Adam Lambert story -- which was probably one of the biggest non-death music-related stories this year as far as garnering public interest.) But a) music is pretty sprawling, probably much more so than any other popular art form, which guarantees that any news it breaks won't be of vital importance to everyone; and b) music news is rarely important enough to a wide swath of the populace to warrant being "broken."
11/20/09
11/18/09
11/19/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
It's actually -ink.- And it's not a squid, it's an octopus.
11/18/09
Some say that calamari is Italian slang for mafia. Yes? Verifiable?
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
[upload.wikimedia.org]
11/18/09
I think we can let Taibbi off the hook, but God is on notice for actually creating something that should not be seen outside my nightmares.
11/19/09
11/18/09
The image was also used to denounce Standard Oil back in the day.
11/18/09
11/18/09
@Adrian Chen: There are even more!
#tips
11/18/09
08/31/09
OK, I take that back... RollingStone.com did used to have the most readily available copy of the "Imagine" video before YouTube and I've pointed toward it numerous times, but I really don't think I'd like it, if the website were to try and replace the magazine. As with all my subscriptions, but especially Rolling Stone, I actually look forward to getting my hard copy in the mail and have a ritual about reading it.
US Weekly is just a gossip rag and it's understandable that they have better traffic; their competition is online, there's lots of blogs linking to gossip and the text is just a lot of blurbs. Rolling Stone, Playboy, Vanity Fair, etc are lifestyle publications; They have devoted readerships, long-form articles and all of their websites are suffering online.
08/31/09
IOW: Like pretty much everyone else, I read almost every word of every Rolling Stone, but we're not going to do that online. No amount of "engagement" is going to change this fact and unless the "engagement" is going to be separate animal, disconnected from the offline content, then I don't see a reason for them to worry too much more than their stated goal of bringing site management in-house.
Online ads don't pay as well as offline and though there's been a noticable advertising slump (not as many fashion ads), I'm sure the offline situation is temporary and an ad-free Twitter feed isn't going to add anything toward the bottom line.
08/30/09
08/31/09
08/31/09
09/01/09
08/30/09
I can take the Beatles cover even if the article is rehashing the same bullshit, it primarily takes from John's interview when he was out of his head on smack and angry. I love how the author completely ignores the fact that John in later years said he lied through his teeth during that interview.
Plus, it would be nice if R.S. would for once focus on the fact that John and Paul made up, but I guess hating each other is better copy.
The Rolling Stone website is a mess. I think one of the most ridiculous things is that Rolling Stone a MUSIC MAGAZINE rarely if ever breaks new music news. It's pathetic that People Magazine can beat them to the punch.
08/31/09
[www.observer.com]
Another huge newsstand issue this year? The Adam Lambert coming-out issue.
And again, RS *does* break music news. (Like the aforementioned Adam Lambert story -- which was probably one of the biggest non-death music-related stories this year as far as garnering public interest.) But a) music is pretty sprawling, probably much more so than any other popular art form, which guarantees that any news it breaks won't be of vital importance to everyone; and b) music news is rarely important enough to a wide swath of the populace to warrant being "broken."