Got my new Philly Mag in the other day. Though Philadelphia Magazine isn’t usually that great, I do have to admit I get a little excited when I get my new one in the mail. Does that make me lame? Anyways, here’s what they’ve got in the latest one:
-The opening sections, the Pulse and the Good Life, are pretty forgettable (best handbags take up two pages of content). On one page, they plug an upcoming Scarf Tying Event. “Join us in learning the many possibilities of wearing and tying your scarves.” Wow, that sounds like a blast. Anybody know of any upcoming belt conventions?
-The Contrarian does a piece on how newspapers have become irrelevant. It’s actually a great piece, and blasts the papers for their exhaustive boy in the box coverage, which was ridiculous. Good stuff.
-The Loco Parentis thing is about how hard it is to be a mom on the Main Line. I think. I’ve never actually taken the time to read it. But if you are a mother on the Main Line, this column is a must-read. Possibly.
-An article on the guy who used to in charge of 4th Street Deli who is now in charge of local zoning matters. I don’t really care much about zoning, but the article did get me thinking about Famous 4th’s cookies. Mmmmmmmm.
-A story about the Rosemount lady who created the soaps One Life to Live and All My Children. Mildly interesting to me. But if you are a mother on the Main Line, this is a must-read.
-OK, now here’s the fun one. This one is about a guy who sounds so much like a douchebag that at one point in the column, the writer actually writes, “What’s most amazing about Dave Magrogan is that he’s not a roaring douchebag.” That is amazing, considering that he
A) owns Kildare’s, the ultimate douchebag bar
B) drives a Hummer, the ultimate douchebag vehicle
C) Well, I’ll just let you read this part: From there, Kildare’s is looking at spots in Baltimore, DC, Delaware, Florida, Las Vegas. Is this selling out? “Hey, there are over 1,800 Applebees. This is nothing.” He wants to be the Applebee’s of bars!
Yeah, if he’s not a roaring douchebag, it will be the most amazing thing since space flight. This is the must read column in this months PhillyMag. (That being said, I do have to admit that dude’s business acumen is pretty damn impressive. Went from broke to multi-millionaire by age 34.)
-Their endorsement for Nutter for Mayor is pretty good, and includes an excellent quote from Nutter that makes you wanna vote for him. This is worth reading.
-An absolute grilling of Tom Knox. While not a bad article, it goes overboard in its efforts to portray Knox as someone who is nothing short of evil. By the end, you wonder if the writer has a personal vendetta against Knox.
-A rundown of ethnic foods in Philly. Pretty good, but they call Gelato the next water ice. Please. The only people who want lilac flavored ice cream are jerks.
-Jessica Pressler does a write up on that kid in those Philly Car ads that aired during the Super Bowl. Apparently, he’s gonna be the “next big thing.” I’m a J-Press fan, and her light, airy writing style lends itself well to this story. But hey, I’m rooting for the kid she writes about. He seems nice enough, and I downloaded one of his tracks on Philly Mags website and it really wasn’t that bad.
-Finally, the Tour de Force, the article on the behind the scenes battle that kept the Gross Clinic in Philly. Though the topic is fairly tired, writer Amy Korman does an excellent job of keeping it fresh and interesting, and defends it against the people who said, “Why can’t we raise that kind of money for other things?” an argument I often make.
I gotta admit, this is one of the better issues of Philly Mag I’ve ever read. Of course, they’ve done this before, and I’ve been like, “Wow, looks like Philly mag is turning the corner and becoming a really good magazine.” Then, the next month, they do 3 articles on Stephen Starr and two on Gervase. So it’ll be interesting to see what happens next month.