GREAT MAGAZINES THAT NEVER MADE IT. MUSE

MUSE: Exploring the World's Museums 

MUSE is part of my collection of magazines that are long gone and out-of-print. The cover of the Premier Issue of MUSE featured a haunting bronze portrait of Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar. According to the notes about the cover, the portrait composed of metal fragments was acquired in 1902 by Henry Walters, son of the founder of Baltimore's Walters Art Gallery. In 2000, the Walters Art Gallery changed its name to the Walters Art Museum to reflect its image as a large public institution. The following year, the museum reopened its largest building after a dramatic three-year renovation. 

Thirty years after the defunct Museum Magazine was published by McGraw-Hill (1979), I tried unsuccessfully to find the original cover art at the Walters Museum website. There is a similar head composed of fewer pieces but not the subject of the cover photo. The bronze portrait bust like the magazine has disappeared.

THE EDITOR

Otto Fuerbringer was the Editor of this one-and-only issue of MUSE. According to the New York Times obituary (7/30/2008), "He (had been) a hard-driving, conservative-leaning managing editor of Time magazine during the political and social upheavals of the 1960s" and "brought a vibrancy, and a degree of controversy, to what had long been a rather taut, tartly written publication". Fuerbringer was noted for "Time’s lead story on April 8, 1966, (it) had no portrait on the cover, just a bold-red headline on a black background that asked, “Is God Dead?...The article set off a backlash by religious conservatives."

In the Editor's letter for MUSE, Fuerbringer said, " Museums are a part of almost everyone's experience. Museum-going is learning and enjoyment, intellectual refreshment and emotional release. It stirs curiosity and enlarges one's vision."

"By founding Muse magazine we hope to keep enlarging the museum experience. We will convey the excitement of current shows and the richness of permanent treasures. we will describe, judge and (when justified) exclaim! The world's museums are our province, and we will help our readers discover them." 

GARDEN & GUN

The name "Garden & Gun" on a magazine blew me away. I saw it in a waiting room and as I recall, it also said, "The Soul Of The New South" The juxtaposition of names Garden and Gun got my attention real quick. The magazine is "perfect bound", the pages are glued in with a square spine. It is slightly oversize and the magazine is well designed. No, it's a lot better than that - it's opulent. The magazine is printed on fine paper with bold formats, excellent typography and beautiful photographs. It almost went broke but apparently has been rescued for now. G&G lists Roy Blount Jr. and Pat Conroy among the contributing editors and the first advertisement I saw was for a gun, a Beretta. Never judge a magazine by it's name. Go to the website and check it out. I'm curious. There is no price listed on the cover. Have you ever seen the magazine? Let me know.

THE DECLINE OF TELEVISION NEWS

The hype about your local news affiliate begins almost as soon as the "award winning" news program starts. Sometime during the newscast the "award winning" station slips you a slick commercial of last years First-On-The-Scene coverage of a street murder, forest fire, blizzard, or a bloody car accident with flashing red lights. Wait a minute. Is this happening now? You lose track of what is real and what is editorial bullpucky. I think a better way to judge a TV station is by the quality of it's Weather Reporting. You can easily compare the way the weather is presented and who is presenting the data. Finally, you can grade the TV channel on its nightly weather report by opening your front door the next morning.

We know the TV channel "cares" about you, deeply and sincerely, like the Banks used to. That's why they created another 10 second segment that cuts into the news flow and ends with an 800 number where the viewer can, "tell us how we can improve our service to you-the viewer". Ted Baxter lives. 

What I care about is a good weather report. You can have your local news anchor. I will switch to the local news channel with the best weather reporting. There is always the Weather Channel. There scope is too wide and I go nuts with the electronic music they generate as it takes forever to cycle back to your corner of the map. 

THE WEATHER AS BAIT.

Before your nightly local news begins, the weather person pops on your screen and announces, "according to my exclusive Weathermatic Channel XX computer-generated forecast, tonight's weather is going to be absolutely terrible. I'll be back later with all the details." This is how the weather is used as bait and you are hooked.

THE WEATHER AS AN ART FORM.

The special effects on the weather segment of our local news channels get better and better. It wasn't too long ago that our weatherman was a cartoonist (honest) who made funny little sketches that would overlay the map of the state. A smiling sun with a swatch of orange color would forecast a fine day. On the other hand, a blue sun with a cloud "hat" and a teardrop would fly to the map and ...you get the idea.

All that is gone.

Now there are super realistic clouds  and downpours of rain or snow. There is fog, thunder and lightning and the camera swoops in like like a low flying plane revealing land contours that are superimposed with temperature numbers and Santa Clause, if its Christmas, a bouncing bunny at Easter. There are dials that spin and arrows - lots of arrows - that shift position. There are isobars that move and squeeze each other. And there are wonderful flow patterns, tubes and tidal flows that show us the jet stream - the "arctic express" that will send us into hibernation. Can 3D be next?

THE WEATHERMAN (OR GIRL).

The Weather "person" doesn't get old, except for Willard Scott, who's selling longevity and jelly. Lots of famous people started as a Weatherman. Johnny Carson, David Letterman and Pat Sajak to name a few. Dave Garroway,  host on the original Today Show, would hand draw the day's weather fronts and areas of precipitation on a big chalkboard map of the United States. Now, if you want to be a serious weather person on TV and get an authoritative AMS seal on screen and call yourself a meteorologist, you have to have a four year degree. Al Roker (NBC) holds American Meteorological Society Television Seal #239.

TOMORROW'S WEATHER

Once again the Internet is taking over the weather. NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, has a very good website. Also, your local TV news will have a website with an interactive, radar equipped weather map that includes all the bells and whistles of the TV image. Unfortunately it's surrounded by postage-stamp sized ads and interactive buttons to confuse you. Go back to your lounge chair in front of the TV, drink in hand, and watch the handsome young stud or nervous ingenue in front of the weather screen. When they squeeze that cordless button concealed in their palm, your glorious weather report will come to life.