craftlog

Well, I finally found Rescue Magazine at Borders. I got both the holiday issue and the new one. Eh. The blip about it in the newspaper made it sound much more crafty. Instead it’s some sort of lifestyle magazine that claims it’s not a lifestyle magazine. Most of the articles are pretty boring and useless, although there were a couple worth reading. I like magazines that you can do something with (Martha, ReadyMade). At the very least I want good design and pretty pictures of things to imitate (Real Simple, and even that I might cancel). Rescue tries to walk a line between being the anti-Martha and telling you how they think you should live. It came off to me as kind of sanctimonious. Perfect example: they eschew nice gift-wrapping because it supposedly makes the holidays more laden with ceremony and expectations and effort. Their solution is to use cheap wrapping paper and bows. But why? Not because that’s a perfectly acceptable way to wrap presents and you don’t actually need to care about gift wrap that much unless you want to, but because it’s nostalgic and will imbue the holidays with emotional meaning. Really, c’mon. The supposedly simple cooking article has an entire paragraph about what type of pancetta to buy at the local Italian deli, not to mention the extremely specific brands of imported pasta and tomatoes and “best cold-pressed olive oil you can afford” that you’re supposed to find (I guess saying at the end that you can just use spaghetti is supposed to make up for the much reviled Marthaness of it all). The editor seems really obnoxious, too. He writes little pithy bits throughout the magazine, and seems to think he’s enlightened because he doesn’t put up a tree or send out cards. In the second issue, he gets an advice column. All that leaves to save it is the design, which is OK, but nothing to subscribe for.