encountered a new magazine, on a sunny afternoon
I've always loved magazines. I grew up reading CHIP, and Tips And Tricks. One of my favourite childhood memories is visiting Kinokuniya in Ngee Ann City, and seeing a new issue of Tips And Tricks on the shelves.
What do I love about magazines? Maybe there is no one concrete answer. Is it the passion of the writers and contributors who have made such deep research into their chosen subject matter? Or is it the smell of the paper, glossy and smooth?
I've never met someone else who has quite so publicly declared a similar love of magazines, until Covid, when everyone started spending even more time online, pouring out their souls through Telegram, and LinkedIn. It was then that I met – albeit virtually – a CEO of a publishing company, Wildtype Media. She has a PhD qualification but chose to enter the publishing industry as an entrepreneur instead. She's my she-ro (a portmanteau of “she” and “hero”).
I could talk about my she-ro all day, but I have magazines around me that capture my attention. Pardon me. When I go to cafes, there are magazines dedicated to professional baristas: StandArt, and Drift. When I go to the public library at Orchard, there are shelves full of magazines for countless pursuits: photography, appreciation of Classical Music, and anime, just to list a few.
But perhaps there is one thing that can attract me more than magazines, and that is community. After all, what is a magazine? Someone, who is more eloquent than me, once spoke of a poem this way: “a poem is the ashes of a life burning brightly.” Let me go on a parallel, and put it forward that a magazine is the ashes of a community burning brightly.
Which brings me to the magazine I saw, one sunny afternoon, in a non-descript room in {redacted}. It is titled The Sauce and it features articles about soil. Farming, gardening. Thailand. Interesting topics zoomed into view as I flipped through the magazine.
Oh yes, let me go off on a tangent – if a magazine is a re-purposed part of a dead tree (ahem, ahem, let's not argue whether the Chinese or the Europeans invented paper... or was it the Egyptians who invented papyrus?) then it is especially meaningful that a magazine itself is dedicated to the idea of planting more trees. Yes, I am talking about an article in this particular issue of The Sauce that features a fervent argument for planting trees as a carbon sink: if there is too much carbon around us, then let's trap the carbon and make it part of a carbon-sucking organism, also known as a tree. More trees around us, means: less carbon around us. Problem solved.
(Except that... certain trees take 200 years to reach maturity?)
A famous Vietnamese monk – now dead – once spoke about his impending death this way: “a cloud never dies”. And the Abrahamic God speaks through the Bible in such words: “just as rain that falls from the skies does not return empty-handed, but enters the soil and brings forth wondrous fruits from the earth, so too will my word go out.” (Isaiah 55:11)
So, I wonder: is a tree really dead if it lives on through a magazine? I am reminded of an ouroboros.
But, to go back to what I was saying – the attractive-ness of community – I want a friendly caring community, overflowing with people who champion the 3 Cs, not the 5 Cs: curious, creative, and crazy (the good kind of crazy).
Are there people like me out there? That's what I want to know. And that's why I've stopped by {redacted}, more than once now.
Are you interested? Where have you been, in your journey thus far? Where do you want to go next? Even if you have no answers immediately, you can drop by that non-descript room... while it is still there. And possibly browse through The Sauce magazine while you are inside the room.
Peace out. Ciao.