ARTHUR - the magazine

ny vs. la, sydney vs. melbourne, seattle vs. portland, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

i don't mean that to be rude at all -- hell, i was an arthur subscriber and adherent -- but the thing is that any city, any town, any lugar is at best a muttly mix of neutral charges, plus charges, and minus charges. and when people leave a place, any place, they often try to encapsulate, crystellize, codify their experience in that geographic/cultural/political/social landscape too glibly, reductively, authoritatively in a way they would not if they still lived there. seeking closure through final judgement. metropolitan post-partum.

contributing to the characterization of a departed city is, i am certain, a predominantly biographical act. if homages (any stripe -- encomium or excoriating) are read as treatise on their location, taken immediately as what they're written, they are sure to come off as grandiose. if they are taken as personal narratives of leaving proxied through places they are ostensibly about, they can offer a whole lot more.

remy - coke v pepsi, blahblah. totally agree.

oops meant mackro not remy

remy - yup

Has anyone on here with a subscription already received the latest issue (the one with Spiritualized)?

I'm still waiting on mine...

http://www.arthurmag.com/

01/09/2009
A NOTE ABOUT ARTHUR MAGAZINE'S FUTURE, FROM ITS EDITOR/PUBLISHER.
Hey gang--

I am done with self-publishing Arthur, which I've been doing since July, 2007. It's too much work for one person to edit, publish and manage a national magazine, month after month, year after year.

If/when a publishing partner appears, and so on, Arthur will return to print.

That could be in three days, three months or three years.

Or never, given how the internet plus leveraged capital has hollowed out almost all existing analog mass media in favor of stuff that, in almost all cases, is qualitatively worse for almost everybody.

Anyway, we're gonna hibernate the mag for the time being, and focus on the stuff that doesn't have as much financial risk or management burden. Thanks to the work of a lot of Arthur folks, the arthurmag internet presence will upgrade and expand greatly in the coming days. Also, two new cds and a dvd are being prepared, the book(s) are on the way, and so on.

We're staying busy, staying focused on what we can handle, and pushing homegrown counter-culture forward. We hope you can, too.

And if you need more Arthur mags right now...well, there's 31 back issues available in the store.

All love and R.I.P. Ron Asheton,

Jay Babcock
editor/publisher, Arthur Magazine
edi✧✧✧@arthur✧✧✧.c✧✧

Hmmn.

Open an Arthur Store on the Mendocino Coast, have a little club next door, and all will be good.

Eazy - Hahahaha! Indeed

Arthur Store is currently my house if anyone's wondering where their orders are

HAHA

I'm serious!

I know I'm just imagining the little club next to your house.

Hey Shakey, is the shop open?

Like, can you come by and rifle through the back issues? Not exactly. I might make a special exception in your case though...

otherwise you gotta order through the website like any other joe lunchpail

Damn. Sorry about the shitty state of publishing, Jay and Arthur. You will be missed. :(

note to business model: free is not money

Creeps: Eyeballs equals ads equals revenue. Etc.

I know, just goofin. I love the idea of a free magazine anyway, and love Arthur more. So thanks, Jay, for everything, especially for giving me a way to see Arik Roper on a semi reg basis. And for the two guys who'd drink beers and listen to racords.

Creeps - Ha! Cheers for all that. We'll see what happens. I'm getting some feelers.

back from the dead

Meaning this?

http://arthurmag.tumblr.com/

And almost ten years to the day this thread was started...

http://arthurmag.com/2012/11/15/arthur-returns-to-life-december-22-2012/

sweet! i don't know anything about the economics of putting something like this out, but doing away with the "free" model seems like a good idea? I mean, I'm certainly willing to pay $5 for it.

yaay :)

I'm certainly willing to pay $5 for it.

me too!

Great news

YES

tylerw - This business model will work for these times. The old model had a chance to succeed, but stuff happened, and I don't have the resources to try it again...and, also, I'm not sure it would work now, given what I know of the state of advertising budgets.

This is great.

AND -- in this new incarnation of Arthur, everyone who contributes to the magazine ACTUALLY GETS PAID and NOBODY GOES INTO $120K OF DEBT. Very grateful to our readers for making this new reality possible.

are you looking for contributors? because i could write a monthly column about neil young bootlegs.

this is great news!

my first thought today was wondering what arthur's coverage is gon be like in 2012 considering the underground has long since moved on from crunchy folk nu-weird off the gridism and high-art-aspirational hipster metal and is now just I HAVE A TUMBLR AND A KAOSS PAD ON NOM NOM GIVE ME ALL THE MOUNTAIN DEW MONEY

Whiney -

http://arthurmagdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/a29cover.jpg

More for Whiney -

http://arthurmagdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/a13cover.jpg

http://arthurmagdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/arthur5cover.jpg

One more for the Whinester -

http://arthurmagdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/a28coversml.jpg

Who should I touch base with to become a contributor, Jay?

this is the best news.

and $5 is a killer deal. i wouldnt even blink at $10.

now jay: any chance at another run of tuff wizard shirts?

I'd always meant to subscribe but it was free at the record store, so, uh. But now, problem solved, money sent.

I just wanted to let jay know that the essay about the AK-47 has stuck with me all these years.

awesome AWESOME news

Thanks ladies. Raymond, you can touch base with me. Alpine Static - I dunno. Sarahell - I know, right?

And Mike Dixn: Thx for the dough. Glad you had a store that carried Arthur in the old days — which one was it?

I admit I should say something more having posted that link and all. Got a couple of ideas kicking around...

fwiw fyi there is this: New York Times - Media Decoder

Also, something that wasn't mentioned in that initial announcement and didn't get picked up in the Times piece was this, and I can't emphasize it enough really: In this new incarnation of Arthur, everyone who contributes to the magazine actually gets paid. In the old days it was labor love and credit cards for everybody but the art directors (who worked way way way below market rate) and ad salespeople (who worked strictly commission — a hard way to be). This is made possible by the readers. And of course, it is made possible by the fact that Arthur existed previously... so the new reality of Arthur, like most new realities, is built on a combination of new sitch plus past blood, sweat and tears.

all the best with this, jay. fantastic news and the business model seems sound - ideal, in fact. i hope to see (and buy) it in the UK at some point.

jed - thank you, it took four years in the wilderness (3 of those kinda literally! haha) to get back to this place. I was able to avoid bankruptcy, that was one of the main things. Oy. So many people have been so generous.
As for getting the mag in the UK: I would advise pre-ordering it direct from us.