Midnight Mind Magazine – 2003
the guide to life (like we know what we're talking about)
2003
Sima Rabinowitz
Fun. Funky. Wild. Weird. Probably is best to read this at midnight. If it’s not necessarily the most reliable guide to life, it’s certainly an entertaining experience.
Fun. Funky. Wild. Weird. Probably is best to read this at midnight. If it’s not necessarily the most reliable guide to life, it’s certainly an entertaining experience. Design is important here whether you read it at 12 noon or 12 midnight, with drawings, photographs, dueling fonts, graphics rich pages, the reproduction of handwritten text, and so much to look at, it’s hard to know where to start. “Letters and E-mails,” “Life Moments” (quirky stuff from published writers), “Things of Note,” “Mistakes We Made in the Last Issue,” “Overlooked Art,” and other “Journal Entries” are generally quite clever, though a few are merely silly. The “CD Rack” and “Magazine Stand” offer short, intelligent, useful reviews of current releases and publications. The book reviews are worthwhile, too. Oh, and did I mention there is poetry, fiction, and nonfiction? The titles alone could make any middle of the night more meaningful: “City Planner with a Pointer and a Blueprint talking to the Engineer at the Board Meeting regarding the Building of the Expressway, Boston, MA, Sometime during the 1960’s” by Tim Malone and “If You’ve Never Stepped in Dog Poop,” by Linda Simone. There’s some serious thinking and writing going on here, too, including a thoughtful little essay by Aileen Weintraub, “Politically Speaking. On the Front Lines of Volunteerism” and many pieces about the most serious of subjects: war, lost love, suicide. But, just so we won’t take ourselves or Midnight Mind too seriously, the editors have gleefully provided a “guide” to their guide! If you’ve ever seen the guides for reading groups published at the end of many of what, for lack of a better term, let’s call Oprah Book Club type novels, you’ll love this “Reader’s Guide to the Guide to Life”— question “# 2. Does Linda Simone want to know someone who has stepped in dog poop?” [Midnight Mind, P.O. Box 146912, Chicago, IL 60614. E-mail: [email protected]. Single Issue $7.95. www.MidnightMind.com]