Magazine

High school might be the period in my life that was literally littered with worthless junk. Apart from the daily school lessons and homework obviously (except geography). It was when tabloids and magazines filled the noons after school time. I'd usually go for Bola which was often shared, or torn, with other mates in the school dorm. That was for weekdays. Weekends were Soccer time, befriending me in TV room watching guys kicked some balls or tricked up some stupid defenders and 'keepers.

That was not happening in library time. You see, some people has so low reading enthusiasm they had to be marched on by the school to the library, just for the sake of training their eye in lines of words. It's no brainer to guess why Jakob Oetama lamented this weakness of our nation with the lack of progress we suffered.

I was one of them obviously. I did have reading impulse, and I still do, but not for some thick books containing vague history written in speculative manner. Or in an almighty, I-know-and-you-don't sort of thing. While Musashi was gobbled down easily, Bourne trilogy was hard (what's up with that small fonts in large paper), or "4000 Tahun Sejarah Tuhan". So, my school library time was spent in things such as Hai, Chip, or National Geographic, stuffs that I don't always understand.

One thing though that I greatly regretted was my unknowing of Pram. There were stacks of his books I just scanned through, without even glancing at them. Bloody stupid I was.

Gradually I moved up the natural chain in magazine world. Being intoxicated with football that time (thanks, Football Manager), I found that national publications did not cut through my personal preference of stupid, anally-wrapped grammar at that time. Those magazines were too many common sense. Henceforth, FourFourTwo came into my roster of periodic publications, joining BolaVaganza and Hai.

College see this hobby of mine dwindling in quality. Hampered by the expensive price of FFT, I have to satisfy the craving in community libraries, where the magazines are often a few months lag. It was certainly interesting when reading about World Cup predictions and other previews after the show finished a month before. I could make a lot of money by making coverage and betting tips from the info obtained in present, for past publications.

And suddenly, now, or in recent weeks actually, I read some magazines about bikes called, well, Bike. Somehow it captivates me. It might be filling the gap left by football (albeit still routining Arsenal news) with stories about motorcycles being reviewed and group tested. I even dared myself bought one, which was priced a dollar cheaper than the Catechism that was also in my basket. A dollar difference with something that should be able to hold my faith against Satan's manifesto.

In the end that got me thinking. What makes a magazine interesting? In my case, I read Bike because of its unending reviews and test on the almighty Bimmer eS-One-thousand-aR-aR. In all honesty, I can't get enough of it blew my beloved R1 to the middle of last week. Or about the new ZX-10R, which now becomes my new dig. Who would not be scared seeing its voracious front end peeking in the mirror? Side view, it looks viciously fast that thing, especially with Akra attached. I really cannot get enough of it.

That is obviously because the topic or articles written in them. We know that magazines are directed to different segment in reader market. But other than that? Most of the stuff written in Bike are also written in other magazines. Same case with Top Gear (which I'm sure is the most influential car mag, in the world, Clarksie way). I got to read about Pagani Huayra in TG, and found something about the car in other magazine. So, what is it?

How the magazine is written and edited overall might well be a determining factor of its survival in declining print publications market. I know that Top Gear and FourFourTwo are written in fairly bonkers language and grammar. Bike is slightly boffin-ish but still bonkers nonetheless. National Geographic has a problem in layout, in my honest opinion, otherwise they are a terrific read.

Tempo readers might agree with this. A special section in the magazine might do the job, as demonstrated by Goenawan Mohamad in Catatan Pinggir. Some people even say as far as 'Tempo is nothing without GM'. That the one-last-page column set the whole thing. Column written by the same person over the years, showing the development of that particular person, defines the characteristic of the magazine.

But those are on my personal opinion. Considering the broad and confusing nature of human psychology and brain, certainly this will not cut into the whole thing. Somebody could be attracted to a magazine in which I found not suitable to my shelf. Female-oriented magazines, for example. Or movie publications.

In the end, one point that we may agree on is, magazines are great sources of information in a sort of entertaining way, especially if we have massive time to spend. Well, at least it might save our ears from being deaf by stuffing it up with noise-filled plugs all the time. 

So, what do you read, and what makes that interesting to you?

Saturday, 5^th March 2011