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Newspaper magazines

  • July 26th, 2009

What a pleasant surprise a few months ago to find that the DomPost’s Saturday magazine "your weekend" was both readable and worth reading.

Over recent years I’ve made it easier to get productive on weekends by tossing the newspaper magazines into the bin with the supermarket flyers. More often they’re simply put aside for the women in my household. It took me some time to realise that they were simply mini women’s magazines – written for narcissists, rarely straying from advice on skin, health, clothes, films, books shows and music to like or pretend to like if you need to seem ‘contemporary’,.

But  your weekend has  upset my efficiency. It cunningly includes stories on things I’d like to know more about. Mark Wilson’s editorials, and Mike Crean and Michele A’Court can throw in lines and snippets that elicit "precisely" (though Michele went over the recommended weekly intake of food for thought on the results of touring performers’ lack of access to washing machines).

This weekend’ copy has taken the magazine to new heights. It has become a must read. I’m condemned  to an extra 10 minutes per weekend, looking for those nuggets. 

The standout features this week are its cover story and a writer interview on the book page.

Margie Thomson’s ‘Thrill of the chase is a balanced, beautifully written and illustrated explanation of what makes hunters so passionate about hunting (pigs in this case but it catches the essence of hunting generally). The dogs pictured tell me more about my dog’s genetics. The story reminds me to get through the paperwork and tidy up trapping me here instead of at the farm for weekends.

Philip Matthews’ interview with Brian Boyd avoids the tone of ‘nose holding’ tolerance reviewers so often affect when profiling NZ intellectuals without left wing cant as their creative well-spring. This brief interview even refers without distancing the reviewer, to my friend Denis Dutton. He and Brian Boyd must be now New Zealand’s internationally best known and most influential  intellectuals.

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  • peterquixote
  • July 26th, 2009
  • 8:31 pm

jesus stephen you must be getting old,
reading rubbish,

why not join the green party and enliven,
those bicycle rides you take don’t work,
maybe australia,
too soon to be writing rubbish stephen

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