Last night, Brian and I went to a Dave Eggers panel discussion concerning the latest issue of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. Above you can see the panel of Chris Ying and Dave Eggers, both editors of McSweeney's, along with Linda Miller, co-founder of Salon.com, as moderator.
The new issue was done in newspaper, specifically broadside, format and called the San Francisco Panorama (that's where McSweeney's is based). If you bought it in San Francisco when it was released it would seem quite relevant. There are all of the normal components of a local newspaper: local news, advertisements for local businesses, sports and comics. The difference lies mainly in the depth of the articles, the design and the editorial choices. From listening to the panel discussion it was easy to see that Dave Eggers and his team wanted to pay homage to the craft of newspaper writing and to really explore newspaper as an art form. There are great design features, like graphs, diagrams and drawings, that seem to be lacking in many modern newspapers as costs are continually being cut.
Here's a picture of the new issue:
Here is where I got it signed by Dave Eggers:
I am quite happy. I have been obsessed with Dave Eggers and McSweeney's since high school when I discovered their second issue at a Barnes and Noble. I have almost all of their issues. The Panorama is their 33rd issue. I recommend checking the magazine out if you spot it. Each issue is unique (check out some past issues here) and always filled with great content.
The McSweeney's event also coincided perfectly with the class I am teaching Brian on literature right now (in exchange for him teaching me programming). The class is called, "The Rise of McSweeney's and Post-Post-Modern Literature." This definitely will add a new level to the heated discussions in our next workshop.
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