And so it begins. You are about to experience the very first weekly mailbag answered by yours truly, Cameron Strang. The purpose of this weekly Friday extravaganza is to give space to all of the questions and emails we get, emphasizing, yet not limited to, ones specifically addressed to me (I’m partial to those). I also check the [email protected] and [email protected] accounts with the other editors, and I’ll probably pluck all of the good emails from there before they get to them since I need material for this column each week.
To participate in The Mailbag, write in to the aforementioned email addresses, or more directly at [email protected]. If I so wish, I shall answer your query in a future edition. (Yet another word that can be used as a smoke bomb: “query.”) It should be stated I do accept bribes and compliments via email as well. And funny web clips. I’ll even share some of them.
Onto the inaugural batch of letters (don’t you just love that new blog smell?) …
So, all I really want for (one third of the way to) Christmas is a new desktop for my computer. Can we get the interns on that after running out for your Frosty’s?—Brandi Stanley
Cameron: Actually, yes. The real staff is honestly so busy doing stuff that people can, you know, buy that we have to leave the cool little freebies like new desktops to the interns. Thankfully, we have a great crew of design interns this summer (7, I think) so you’ll absolutely see a ton of new downloads and icons and other doo-dads roll out over the next several months. Especially doo-dads. Can’t get enough of those.
I recently discovered your podcast about a month and a half ago and you’ve quickly become one of my favorites. However, I do have a question. You say at the beginning of the podcast that you are a companion to RELEVANT Magazine. I have debated weather or not to subscribe to the magazine, and I’m just wondering how your podcast is a companion to the magazine?—Troy Reynolds
Cameron: First of all, debating weather—how does that work? Are you yelling at the clouds? Do they answer back and tell you to subscribe? (You should, by the way, whether the clouds tell you to or not.) The podcast is an audio companion to the print magazine in the sense that you listen to it instead of read it. It’s the editors of the magazine talking about timely news and issues that don’t appear in the magazine (along with RELEVANTmagazine.com, filling in the gaps between issues) and has interviews and performances by people that you can experience in a completely different way than a magazine could allow (again, audibly). The podcast is free and is just something we throw together every week, whereas the print magazine is something we spend months working on and is the cornerstone of our company’s mission and existence. If you like the podcast, you’ll probably like the magazine. But if you hate it, you probably aren’t even reading this response. So really I could say anything I want to here because you won’t even see it. Or maybe you already subscribed and will see this. Crap, I might’ve ruined this answer. Buy the magazine!
Was last issue’s page 32 supposed to replace the “Last Word”? If so, I like it there even better than at the end of the magazine. I was able to just flip the page to the 31 side, slide my scissors along the inner edge of the page, and neatly tear it out without doing damage to the rest of the magazine. I promptly hung the page on my wall. Thanks for helping me decorate my office!—Amber Short
Cameron: Yep, and I’m glad you like the new placement. We do too. And hopefully bringing Last Word back (albeit in a different location and with no name) will end the deluge of “I want Last Word back; it was the best part of the magazine” emails. Do you people realize what those emails did to the morale of our editorial team, saying the one page with no content on it was the best page in the magazine?
Where’s the After Edmund performance downloads?—Matt Wheeler
Cameron: On my computer. If you want to come over and burn them, you’re welcome to. They’re pretty great.
The Links:
1. OK, so it’s no omelet, but it still is pretty freakin’ awesome. Best quote from this page: “I tried a piece. I use the term “piece” losely. For some reason, this cake tastes vaguely like Novocaine? I don’t know what that’s about.”—Elliott Innes
2: I don’t know if you guys have seen this.—Nicholas Becker
Cameron: Who really can argue with Gary Busey when he says, “Now I can be an example and a leader”? Not me, that’s for sure. But that said, Nick, I appreciate you sending the link, I really do, but we need to talk. I think we need to be honest with ourselves that the Busey jokes just aren’t the same anymore. Let’s remember the good times, be realistic that it’s just not working like it used to and go our separate ways before it gets ugly or someone gets hurt. We’ve had so many good times, I know we can be mature about this and just call it quits now because if deep down we’re honest with each I think we both know there’s not a future. But don’t feel bad. It’s not you, it’s Busey. Sincerely, Cameron
