Sunday, July 09, 2006

Shelter Magazines Have Bloggers

No way! Way!

You know how I said that everyone blogs just last night? Well, that seems to be true. When I took to my bed and read the shelter magazines I so love, there in House and Garden were a list of bloggers.

This is how I navigate Conde Nast's House and Garden: First, I read Mayer Rus's The Testy Tastemaker. He is so bitchy (in a good way) and I almost always agree with his snarky design criticism. This month, he points out design advances for the kiddie jet set. Didn't know there is a kiddie jet-set, did you? Can you guess where? That's right! New York, New York.

Second, I read Jay McInerney's Uncorked even though my wine connoiseurship consists of Margaritas and Martinis. Let's just say that I'd like, someday, to have the time and money (and lack of breast feeding children) to indulge in such a finer thing. His column qualifies as my "caviar dreams". His writing, which I've been a fan of since Bright Lights, Big City, is like drinking a fine wine--a bit of bite at the start, full-bodied and always a smooth finish. Here's a recent sample:

And it's one of he reasons I look forward to summer. Like Jerry Bruckheimer movies and Jacki Collins novels, rose can deliver a lot of pleasure in exchange for a minimum of sweat and intellectual effort. And isn't that what you look for when the thermometer is stuck north of 80?
Now, he has his own blog called Dining Out. Go check it out. He talks about New York eateries, his girlfriend Anne (finally has one), and all the important New York people that he's friends with and most of us on the conservative side marvel at. Also, his latest entries were May. I hope they continue the blogs.

Finally, if my emotional state can handle it, I read House and Garden editor Dominique Browning's column. She has shared her angst--divorce, raising boys alone, the loss of manners, horrid backyard jungle gyms, moving, buying a new couch, playing her beloved grand piano, empty nest syndrome. The whole thing. I've read and own her books, too. But I must tell you, her weepy insights sometimes are simply to heavy some days.

Anyway, if you're interested in more, check out their other blogs:

Behind the Lines--Martin Filler on Design and Architecture
Gardener's Almanac--Tom Christopher talks about his garden
Design Sponge--Grace Bonney "the web's hottest design blogger", hmmm.... go judge for yourself
Eating Around--Lora Zarubin's diary of a passionate eater
Design Journal--by all the editors at House and Garden

Oh, and if any of the House and Garden editors are web-savvy enough to check their links and read this, here's a word of advice: 1) you will not up your readership by burying the blogs in the website nether regions and 2) to get loyal readers, update the blog more than once a quarter. A guy like Jay will have tons of readers if people know about him. If you guys start posting more, you might even get on someone's blogroll.

1 comment:

design*sponge said...

To the savvy writer of this post:

H&G is in the process of redesigning the sites- we launched the blogs now because we were antsy to get started.

Most of the blogs update weekly. I update daily, so hopefully that gives you enough to read.

D*S