Metro Detroit-based Magazines

**DetroitRocks** · September-12-15, 03:15 PM

Was just at the bookstore and thumbing through the magazine rack. I know print is a dying medium, but I liked the fact that there are a couple of Detroit-based magazines still trying to publish [[i.e. - Hour Detroit, Ambassador, InStyle). There's not a whole lot of substance by way of content, but still nice to see.

My question: any other Detroit-based magazines out there being published? If so, what are they?

**Mackinaw** · September-13-15, 09:32 AM

Hour is still fairly significant. An interesting new one is Grand Circus.

**G-DDT** · September-13-15, 04:14 PM

I'm probably going to get lynched for making this more mainstream, but there is ZIPR.

Sadly Fifth Estate is in Tennessee, now.

Jam Rag might be???

Orbit magazine is putting out a retro-anthology [[with a few signing dates left). Now that is a magazine I wish would make a comeback!

Book Beat might be a good place to ask around for local publications.

If anything, I'd like to see what Boston had: a free little publication called "High Five". It would have many interesting things, but it's main focus was to list any upcoming event that was five dollars or under [[especially where house bands would play). I contributed a tip about how BU would have the rooftop telescope open for a viewing to the public for free [[saw Saturn I guess?) on Wednesdays.

**G-DDT** · September-13-15, 04:27 PM

Luckily, print is not dying that much. Though many commercial bookstores have closed, and places like Barnes & Noble push e-books, having talked to folks running college bookstores admitted to me that e-books only make up a small percentage of sales. Sociopathic-Apathetic idiots commuting in Boston may gawk at them en masse , but folks are catching on that they are not all they are cracked up to be.

e-books hurt the eyes, subject to mistranslations and revisions, don't always let you scrawl on the margins, and you can't rapidly flip between many pages at once. http://teleread.com/ebooks/10-reasons-why-ebooks-suck/You have to give them power. You maybe able to log and link onto outside sources, but this causes an aberration to the very focus many of us need to stay in practice with-and that's what a sit-down with a book provides [[otherwise we fall to the perils the internet is causing us as emphasized by Carr's "The Shallows").http://blogcritics.org/why-e-books-suck-and-real/ I should add, I'm not open to criticism to the contrary on this topic, seeing as books are my business and my life.

**Baselinepunk** · September-14-15, 11:05 AM

Was never, ever, a fan of Jam Rag.

It was, IMHO, the truest piece of shit in town, cover to cover.

Ness was a horrible, self-serving a-hole "Editor" who is still putting people threw 8th grade journalism with "Ferndale Friends".

I honestly wish they didn't throw that shit paper on my front porch. I didn't ask for it but it's delivered to my house anyway.

Fucking obnoxious.

**dtowncitylover** · September-14-15, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by Mackinaw

Hour is still fairly significant. An interesting new one is Grand Circus.

I don't understand why. Hour has very little readable content of mention while the rest of it is doctor ads and the same restaurant reviews week after week. I would love a local interest magazine along the lines of Toronto Life or Chicago magazine.

**G-DDT** · September-16-15, 12:50 PM

Originally Posted by Baselinepunk

Was never, ever, a fan of Jam Rag.

It was, IMHO, the truest piece of shit in town, cover to cover.

Ness was a horrible, self-serving a-hole "Editor" who is still putting people threw 8th grade journalism with "Ferndale Friends".

I honestly wish they didn't throw that shit paper on my front porch. I didn't ask for it but it's delivered to my house anyway.

Fucking obnoxious.

Wha?! yo meen yoo din liked teh riting stile ov eht staf at Jam? Tehy ownly misssspellled the naims of abote a duzen of me freends in bandz.

**G-DDT** · October-09-15, 02:20 PM

Bought the Orbit Anthology! I think it's worth it. I recognized a lot of names and references to people I knew [[like "Uncle Sweaty") back when. It covers Vile's previous work with White Noise and Fun. I really do wish I save that filing cabinet loaded with Orbits I collected from issue #1 on.

A lot of the old connections [[Tarantino, Dave's Comics, Noir Lether, etc. etc. etc.) and feuds [[Fungus Rodeo) were mentioned in it. They still had to bring up how it was jabbing the Metro Times as a rag that acts as a "pimping ground" for prostitutes posting ads.

What puzzles me is that it makes references to a place called the Silver Dollar. Did such a place exist? I knew all too well about the Gold Dollar when Neil Yee ran it [[and a lot of old timers knew the reputation it had long before).

**G-DDT** · October-10-15, 01:50 PM

The Orbit Anthology also joked that feuds between certain magazines over "which was better" eclipsed the feuds between Detroit Monthly and Metropolitan Detroit during the mid-'80s. I'm glad those two are mentioned, especially the latter as google results call up nothing about it, and Lowell was frequently mentioned in it.