Glossy Talk: Time Out's timely take on cheap Sydney

Glossy Talk: Time Out's timely take on cheap Sydney

Time Out editor Nick Dent has hit all the right notes with his timely February issue, a compendium to doing Sydney on a tight budget. From the eye-catching cover with its cut-out font to the 'Do It Yourself and Save' guide, the issue (mostly) strikes a balance between post-flood sensitivity and Sydneysiders' insatiable need for stimulation of the food and entertainment variety in a penny-pinching climate. 

The irreverent title will offend some sensibilities (it's one of the few "mainstream" publications to have a Gay and Lesbian section editor, while one contributor shares that he once haggled over the price of a Big Issue so he could also buy a soft drink), but there are gems aplenty for those who like their culture high and low or somewhere in between.

Faith Talk: The little things

Image by DorothyChan.com
"Sometimes we feel foolish bothering God with little things, but we shouldn't. The Bible says: '...pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.' (Philippians 4:6 NLT) God is interested in every detail of your life; if something is important to you, it's important to Him. In Bible times two sparrows were sold for a penny (on sale you could buy five for two pennies!) yet Jesus said, '...not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it...the very hairs on your head are all numbered.' (Matthew 10:29-30 NLT) When you learn to trust God in little things, you'll be able to trust Him in big ones." - The Word for Today

The Burke Report

Liz Burke rounds out the week in news and current affairs...

And I thought I had it tough, roughing it for a week without internet, only able to access Facebook and Twitter via the tiny screen of my humble smartphone. In a week that’s been marred by violent anti-government protests over police brutality, state of emergency laws, unemployment and living conditions among other issues, seven people have died in Egypt, although reports are sketchy due to censorship. Just hours before the biggest planned protest, the entire nation went offline.

Glossy Talk: MONUMENT wins gold Folio Award

Glossy Talk: MONUMENT wins gold Folio Award

After celebrating its 100th edition in November last year, Australian architecture and design title MONUMENT has gone on to win a prestigious gold Folio Award

The title's May edition took out the top award in the Consumer, Enthusiasts/Hobbyists (Full Issue) category, one of five awards won by Pacific+, the custom and corporate division of Pacific Magazines.

Held in New York City this week, the Folio Awards (aka The 2010 Eddie and Ozzie Awards) recognise editorial and design excellence across the global magazine publishing spectrum.

“Being honoured on the global stage shows our magazines can compete with the world’s best," said Georgina Brujic, Managing Director of Pacific+ Custom. "A number of our titles, including Weight Watchers and Virgin Blue Voyeur have been recognised in previous awards. We are especially proud to receive international acclaim from the Folio awards as further testament to how our magazines just keep getting better and better.”

In the Consumer Cover Awards category Vintage Magazine took out an award for the Best Design for a New Magazine/Consumer title and Best Overall Design, Consumer.

Girl With a Satchel

What's up online?

What's up online?
Glossy happenings in cyberspace.


 - New York Magazine's The Cut blog gets a tailored, free iPad app. Called The Cut on the Runway, the app is designed to deliver live reporting from Fashion Week as well as regular blog posts and a runway photo catalog. Click-through hiccups aside, Min's Steve Smith says the stylish app "a promising newcomer to the app fashion world that may improve with age". 

- Vogue.com is celebrating 15 years online.

- Foursquare, the wireless service that lets users broadcast their where-and-what-abouts to friends, now has 6 million users with a target of 10 million for June 2011. "Other sites want to keep you inside at the computer, while our entire goal is to get you out of the house," said co-founder Naveen Selvadurai at recent conference in France. (Bloomberg)

Media Talk: New Media, Traditional Values

"While being first means being exclusive, it can also mean being wrong and/or unnecessarily alarmist... The dramatic fall in circulation of once proud mastheads is not just about new media’s impact, but also about poorer content and dwindling trust. A lack of quality control, the drive for exclusivity, the tendency to hyperbole, the desperation to lead debate and the desire to crap on the competition all make for a worrying outlook." 
Ian Smith, 'New Media have edged out old-school journalism', for Spectator Australia

Cover Talk: Facing the Zeitgeist – Justin Bieber + Lara Stone

Cover Talk: Facing the Zeitgeist – Justin Bieber for LOVE + Lara Stone for Vogue Paris

The Bieber strikes again! From Graydon Carter's Vanity Fair to Katie Grand's LOVE, and Total Girl, Seventeen and Teen Vogue in between, no glossy cover is safe from the 16-year-old be-fringed one. He's like the Tavi Gevinson (herself featured in no fewer than two Teen Vogue spreads for Feb) of the pop music scene. 

Meanwhile, while new editor Emmanuelle Alt is rumoured to be debuting with Gisele Bundchen shot in St Barts by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matatin, Carine Roitfeld's obsession with Lara Stone continues with one of her final covers for Vogue Paris.

"If you are selling a fashion magazine, you have to show a lot of clothes," Roitfeld told Deborah Ross. "The first thing we always think is not the brand, but the woman, the model."

If you missed Ross' entertaining profile of the inimitable (though-many-try) and frank Roitfeld in Good Weekend, you can read it here.

Girl With a Satchel

Glossy Review: Teen Vogue's Your Best Body Issue

Glossy Review: Teen Vogue's Best Body Issue

Let's start with the positive stuff: Tavi Gevinson interviewing Gwen Stefani in the L.A.M.B studio? Gold. Twitter hashtag handles and Foursquare shopping guides linked into the pages? Clever. Jane Keltner de Valle's comment that "anyone who tells you high heels are an assertion of power is lying, plain and simple"? Kudos. Culture Blogger Danielle Nussbaum's 'English Muffins' column? Fun! "Thoughful, hyperarticulate, and more than a tad sardonic" cover girl Lucy Hale's advice on knowing your own worth? Priceless.

BUT "Your Best Body"? Alarm bells! Girls with body image issues will be drawn to this feature like an E! news reporter to a red carpet. Going by past readings of Teen Vogue, this is a magazine that has a low tolerance for the eating of sugary snack foods or soft drinks, is not a fan of plastic surgery (more particularly breast implants), promotes exercise by featuring gorgeous young athletes and uses ultra-tiny, ultra-tall models on its fashion pages (yes, there are "real girls", too, stylised to within an inch of their Miu Miu platforms).

Monday Media Study: Lad-mag lip service

Monday Media Study: Lad-mag lip service


Media commentator, author and Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist and I had a DM marathon this morning. We often do. Since meeting Melinda last year, we've become regular online sparring partners; she thinks I'm soft, I think she's too hard-line. But we generally respect each other's opinions. What's more, she has research to back up her opinions. Piles of it. And books. And co-collaborators, such as Clive Hamilton, University of NSW academic Nina Funnell and her fellow Collective Shouters.

Glossy Talk: QWeekend shines (plus Writers on Rafts)

Glossy Talk: QWeekend shines (plus Writers on Rafts)

"On Wednesday, January 12, the sun came out for the first time in weeks. It was incongruous. It was almost perverse. It was as if the stage lights had been flicked on for us to better see our own tragedy."

- An excerpt from Matthew Condon's poignant, rhythmical, beautifully crafted QWeekend cover feature. Tragedy inspires some of the most powerful work, no?

ABC 612 Brisbane's Jenny Brennan has also written a moving first-person account. And you might want to check out Writers on Rafts, an excellent fundraising initiative involving 130 writers, literary agents and publishers across the country, organised by the delightful Rebecca Sparrow in conjunction with the Queensland Writers Centre.

See also:
Paean to Brisneyland
Girl On the Ground: Queensland flood diary (Ipswich)
Girl On The Ground: Queensland flood report
The Burke Report: Brisbane bracing for flood

Girl With a Satchel

The Burke Report


Liz Burke rounds out the week in news and current affairs...

Being bound in a rolling-coverage filled news bubble girt by flood water for several days at the beginning of this week, it was difficult to comprehend there was anything going on outside of Queensland. As my Optus broadband was reconnected, and so too was I to the rest of the world, turns out, there was actually a fair bit happening.

While the worst might be over for the Bligh-led battlers north of the border, further south, residents of Victoria are still copping it. Two-thousand homes have been impacted by unprecedented record flooding and those in the state’s west are still busily sandbagging. It’s predicted the flood emergency could continue for up to another ten days.

Glossy Talk: Nicole Kidman talks to The Weekly about her Best Kept Secret. Sort of.

Glossy Talk: Nicole Kidman Talks to The Weekly about her Best Kept Secret (sort of). 

While The Australian Women's Weekly missed the surrogacy scoop with its Nicole Kidman fronted February issue on sale today ("Damn you TMZ and your news ferreting ways," tweeted associate editor Bryce Corbett), it has been awarded a consolation prize in the form of an exclusive email sent to editor-in-chief Helen McCabe overnight, relayed to readers on The Weekly's website. 

"We have been having a wonderful bonding experience with Faith Margaret. And it is really wonderful to know that our delight is being shared by you and your readers. We feel truly blessed," shared Kidman.

While the news might benefit The Weekly in a sales spike, one look at the comments at mamamia following the post about Nicole's New Best-Kept Secret is a reminder that women, in particular, are polarised by the actress, or, rather, galvanised by an intense dislike of her matched by – and, in part, because of – her intense defense of her privacy and life choices. 

While her husband has been more forthcoming, in the era of the Oprah couch confessional, Kidman is an enigma.

Glossy Talk: Editor Helen McCabe on missing a scoop

Glossy Talk: Editor Helen McCabe on missing a scoop (thanks to Rupert Murdoch)

No sooner had we awarded Helen McCabe a Satchel Award for her humility and professionalism than she again exhibits these endearing traits in her 'From My Desk' letter for February.

The former News Limited journalist/deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph recounts the time she missed the biggest scoop of her life: a comment from Nicole on her split with Tom Cruise.

After tracking down Kidman at a hotel in Cannes in the hope of getting "the exclusive 'tell-all' story", McCabe found herself in an awkward situation in a dimly lit bar occupied only by Nicole, her sister Antonia and then-husband Angus Hawley, Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng.

The Satchel Awards 2010

The Satchel Awards 2010

Golden Globes, schmolden globes. This week we celebrate those rare gems of editorial excellence that enlightened, inspired, comforted, humoured and resonated with us in 2010. 

Close to the (some might say bleeding) heart of The Satchel, they are also simply deserving of time in the spotlight.

Definitive Cover of the Year: The Shame of Afghanistan by TIME

Imagine if this shot had appeared on the cover of marie claire or Glamour. What a powerful message that would have sent about women's causes! But would you have bought it? And would it have secured the media prominence of TIME? With magazine covers and editorials going viral as they do, my bet is yes.

Still, TIME can lay claim to all the glory for taking a chance on an illiterate Afghani woman who has come to represent the new frontier for feminism: global equal rights for women. As author Maggie Alderson articulated to me in November, as long as the Taliban exists, so too is there a reason for feminism.

The GWAS 2010 Glossy Yearbook

The GWAS Glossy Yearbook 2010

It was the Year of the iPad, phone app, Twitter and WikiLeaks in medialand, though the glossies were hesitant to jump on board; ironic given they never saw a fashion trend they wouldn't try. 

As with 2009, there wasn't a terrible lot of innovation going on: safe as houses was the game as the gun-shy glossies recovered from the GFC fallout. Fair enough. Still, our national obsession with food (commensurate with our growing girths) saved the day. 

This is GWAS' annual account of what happened in the glossysphere, from new launches and editorial movements to the month-by-month news headlines that had us talking. Read it intermittently, print it or bookmark for later; there's a lot of homework here. Happy trawling!

NEW LAUNCHES

- SHAPE magazine (which went monthly, then scaled back to quarterly)
- GQStyle, published for September and March, taking the masthead's annual offering to eight issues.
- MasterChef magazine (biggest launch of the year)
- The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie
- Younger You (digital turns to print)
- Body + Soul magazine
- Anthology Magazine
- The Gentlewoman
- INDUSTRIE

Glossy Talk: Oprah on Seventeen magazine, ego and God

Glossy Talk: Oprah on Seventeen, ego and God ("Whatever Seventeen magazine said, I did")

Image: jenniferfabulous.blogspot.com
I thought I'd share a few more quotes from the January edition of O The Oprah Magazine, more particularly editor-in-chief Susan Casey's Q&A with Oprah, which is compulsory reading around these parts. Her comments about Seventeen magazine have given me pause for thought: what separates those girls who think of glossies as "bibles" from those who enjoy them occasionally? Has this got something to do with the mother influence or certain vulnerabilities and insecurities? And to what extent is Oprah now living the Seventeen magazine dream embedded in her subconscious all those years ago?  

Oprah on Seventeen magazine: "When I was growing up, Seventeen magazine was like my bible. It was 50 cents a copy. I was at the drugstore every month—I knew the date that they were dropped because I never had enough money for a subscription, but I saved my 50 cents and I was there. Whatever Seventeen magazine said, I did.

Glossy Review: O The Oprah Magazine (January issue)



Glossy Review: Oprah & The Weight of Great Expectation (with a capital OMG)

With The Ultimate Australian Adventure scheduled to run on the OWN network from January 18-20 (in Australia on Network Ten, 7.30pm, from Jan 19-23), despite a flurry of travel cancellations in light of the Queensland floods, a look into O The Oprah Magazine reassures that life goes on with the comfort and hope it brings...

So, you've started the new year and perhaps not everything's going to plan. For example, your house might be steeped in six feet of water.* The diet got lost in a packet of Tim Tams. You committed two spelling errors on Twitter already (Ipswitch? Hilary Clinton?). Your boss, post-holiday, still sucks butt. Or you are stuck in a monumental work/love/life rut. Have no fear, Oprah is here!

To give you some perspective, as if seeing families losing their homes and loved ones wasn't enough, imagine being in Oprah's shiny, plum Prada (yes, they are-da) shoes: she's started her new TV network and the whole world is watching. Or not. And that, friends, is one of her biggest fears. That OWN, with its meaningful and "mindful" programming, go-girl mantras and impressive cast of O-friends, would be met with the sound of crickets, disappearing like Warnie into televisual obscurity. 

She needn't have worried. The network, on air since January 1, debuted with one million viewers in its first night of prime-time programming, 389% more than Discovery Health, the network OWN replaced. PHEW.

Girl on the Ground: Queensland Flood Diary

Girl on the Ground: Queensland Flood Diary 

Ipswich girl Ellen-Maree Elliot recounts the past three days.

By Ellen-Maree Elliot

Tuesday

It’s 8.59am. I’ve been on hold for ten minutes trying to find out if it’s safe to go to work. Inside, I'm a small, hysterical child.

“Hello, this is Dave, how can I help you?”
“Uh, hi. I work in Riverlink, across the river. Is it safe to cross the bridge? I’m working ten ‘til six,” I say to my phone-answering hero, Dave.
“The river’s peaking at 12.7 metres this afternoon and then it will go back down. It won’t go over the bridge. You’ll be fine getting to work,” says Dave.
“Oh,” I say. “Thanks.”

I put on my orange spray jacket and walk to work. There’s slight flooding on the roads closest to the river. I take a photo. I’ll put it on Twitter later.

Girl on the Ground: Queensland Flood Report (and how you can help)


Girl on the Ground: Queensland Flood Report (Lucy tells us how you can help) 

By Lucy Brook

When we first heard the Brisbane River would break its banks and flood thousands of homes and businesses, I felt a little like the passengers on the Titanic must have felt when told their “unsinkable” vessel was doomed.

“But this river can’t flood!” I spluttered in disbelief to my mother, a Brisbane lifer who was 19 in ’74, and spent those hot, heartbreaking weeks that followed scraping mud from people’s ceilings in St Lucia and comforting the inconsolable. Like so many Brisbanites, mum was certain the waters would never again reach such catastrophic levels. After all, Wivenhoe Dam built those assurances.

GWAS Notes: Paean to Brisneyland

GWAS Notes: Paean to Brisneyland

Image: Frock Paper Scissors
You know the intense love Carrie Bradshaw felt for New York? That's how I feel about Brisbane. We've had a lot of special moments together over the past three years, as we've got to know each other's quirks and tastes in our honeymoon phase, and while it's hard to see her suffering, she's shining despite the circumstances.

Now submerged beneath muddy waters, South Bank and its surrounding areas have provided an adventure playground for a girl who loves the library, ballet, market stalls, cafes and long strolls on sunny days; the ideal setting for showing the city off to visiting friends and touring author types.

The Burke Report - Brisbane bracing for flood


While Lucy helps friends sandbag their house, after evacuating News Limited headquarters yesterday (only to be called into work today!), I'm feeling pretty impotent here on Mount Tamborine – the area I live in turns into an isolated Tasmania when flood waters rise. 

Many phone calls have been filtered from loved ones in Chinchilla, Dalby, Ipswitch and Toowoomba, the most harrowing of which told the story of the fireman who lost his grip on the four-year-old boy at Marburg, west of Brisbane, whose body was found late yesterday. Heartbreaking. 

Trivial inconveniences, like being unable to purchase Fairfax newspapers, halted magazine deliveries, mold and piles of washing, fade into obscurity as Brisbane braces for the worst. Liz Burke reports from her home town... 

After a few weeks of constant unseasonal rainfall across the state in which the nation supposedly shines, the incessant downpour had already claimed the life of my iPod, I hadn't been able to tackle that ever growing pile of hand washing and it felt like my towels hadn't been properly dry for weeks.

We thought (hoped) that might be the worst of it. When news of flash floods, lives lost and missing people in Toowoomba and other affected areas of Queensland started surfacing, it was clear that there was more to come, callbacks to 1974 no longer made for clever quips but incited fear, and I clearly had no ground to continue my petty complaints.

Faith Talk: The futility of things

Faith Talk: The futility of things


It's been really hard to generate the enthusiasm to post anything as the flood waters rise 60kms from home. I feel guilty going to the shops or surfing the net let alone prying open a glossy, as I'm itching to do something to help. So, as animals great and small from Fairfield's RSPCA (donate to the flood appeal here!) flee to the safety of Brisbane's RNA showgrounds (Lord Mayor Campbell Newman playing Noah in this scenario), and stories of good samaritans filter onto news sites instilling hope into an altogether hopeless situation, some sage words from Paul, John, James and, um, and Justin Bieber after the jump. I shall return with other, glossier thoughts soon.

GWAS Media Satchel


Bits and (Anna Wintour) bobs from the glossy media beat*...

Image: SMH
- The Sydney Morning Herald has its first female editor in its 180-year history. Amanda Wilson takes the helm of the Fairfax newspaper, her role formalised now after acting in the role since October. ''We have always had brilliant women journalists at the Herald,'' said Wilson. ''One of the people who helped me here was Lis Sterel and in my opinion she should have been the first woman editor." She also added that one of the benefits of having more women in the media industry had been for men to consider how to balance work and family, while she sees her role as upholding the paper's commitment to "outstanding independent journalism" as the masthead looks at monetisation for online news.

"Wilson joins a handful of women including Ita Buttrose (The Daily Telegraph) and Michelle Grattan (The Canberra Times) who have edited major dailies and Gay Alcorn, the current editor of Fairfax's The Sunday Age," noted The Australian.

Of course, Ita is being brought to our TV screens soon via the ABC series Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. To get a sneak preview of what will be covered in the show (weddings!), read Andrew Denton's excellent interview with Ita here and a retro review of Cleo here.

- The biggest goss on the Aussie glossy block is Grazia editor-in-chief and Harper's BAZAAR editorial director Alison Veness McGourty's departure from ACP Magazines. Frockwriter has a report. And so does The Daily Telegraph. "Managing editor Jane Davies is a very capable operator and the staff on Grazia are true professionals," said ACP managing director Phil Scott, dismissing rumours of the title's imminent demise. "The magazine enjoys my wholehearted backing and that of (PBL chief executive) David Gyngell."
 
The Courier-Mail reports the magazine's staff were moved to ACP's Goulburn Street offices before Christmas. McGourty follows Paula Joye (now of Life.Styled) out the door, while the Park Street camera crew have been making their way around the building.

AdNews today reported that the Foxtel show will be sponsored by Pandora jewelley. "The exclusive deal includes in-magazine activity, including a three-month advertorial component, across all five titles involved in the show - Cosmopolitan, Cleo, Madison, Shop Til You Drop and Dolly - as well as in-program brand alignment, opening and closing billboards and social networking activity.

"Park Street is an important vehicle for Pandora to demonstrate the brand values of handcrafted jewellery made from genuine materials," said the brand's head of marketing and communications Jeff Burnes. "Through our sponsorship, we will inspire women to style their own individual looks."

- Robyn Foyster, one-time editor of The Australian Women's Weekly, has rejoined ACP as Associate Publisher after working on the Seven Network's Sunrise morning program, where she was said to be in the running for the Executive Producer role vacated by the popular Adam Boland. "I am excited to work for ACP again under Phil Scott’s strong leadership," said Foyster in a statement. "I have ink in my blood and a passion for magazines and ACP has the best mastheads in the country."

- Emmanuelle Alt, 45 and a glossy veteran of 20 years replaced Carine Roitfeld as the editor of Vogue Paris, starting February 1. The always-reserved Karl Lagerfeld is underwhelmed.

- Anna Wintour is to receive a French Legion of Honour Award, reports UK Vogue.

- The Daily editor Brandusa Niro has bought the masthead from IMG. "As part of the sale, The Daily will retain its status as Magazine of Choice for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week; financial terms of the deal were not disclosed." (The Horses Mouth)

- Dennis Freedman, the former creative director of W, is now creative director of Barney's New York. (NY Times).

- Newsagency blogger Mark Fletcher has a few things to say about increasing cover prices to offset cover mount costs, as with February's marie claire Australia, and dealing with magazine bundle packs.


*Pales in comparison to the flood devastation, of course. Working out a strategy for helping in that regard as I negotiate some woolly weather and supply-demand grocery issues in Queensland myself.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Glossy Talk: Visions of femininity for 2011

Glossy Talk: Visions of femininity for 2011 + Kanye West's misogynistic new film clip

There is much online chatter about the fashion media world's current obsession with "gender bending" cross-dressing.

Marc Jacobs chanelling Miuccia Prada for the cover of INDUSTRIE magazine (as Mrs Marc Jacobs), "transversal style magazine" Candy's depiction of Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington (@ Frockwriter) and boy-model Andrej Pejic, fashion's new "femiman", who represents "a new gender fluidity in fashion, in which traditional male and female attitudes are starting to matter less" (The Daily Beast) have all made online headlines.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Hall poses in a white suit for the February 2011 cover of UK Harper's BAZAAR, Ines Van Lamsweerde posed with a moustache and beard for the The Gentlewoman, and Christina Binkley writes for WSJ that to dress well "a woman should shop like a man" (and Annie Hall dressing makes a comeback). This follows the rise of Lady Gaga/Agyness Deyn/Alexa Chung androgyny.

Fashion, in constant search of the Next Big Thing ("big" being ironic) to capture and sell, is bored with last year's fuller, curvaceous figure already, and is now more interested in boys who look like girls. Five years after the emo scene gave popular rise to men's skinny jeans, it's raining girlie men... again. Will manbags make a comeback? Lady-stashes?   

So what of representations of women in 2011 – where will fashion and the women's glossies take us? Will the boy aesthetic give rise to size zero momentum and underdeveloped and undernourished models all over again? I certainly hope not.

Stand your ground, glossy editors: feeding the fashion fantasy, aspiration and consumerism need not mean negating what is good for women (i.e. representations of strong, beautiful, powerful, stylish, feminine, smart, political, sophisticated, funny, creative, complex women).

Meanwhile, ladies and gents, guard yourself against fashion's fickle aesthetic obsessions.

You can use your clicks to protest Kanye West's latest (disgusting, misogynistic) video which depicts "eroticized violence against women" here. Plenty for Taylor Swift to write about there. And another reason to join the Turned-On Women's Movement!

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Glossy Talk: The Best Glossy Covers 2010

Glossy Talk: The Best Glossy Covers 2010

Before we get into the new year's glossy offerings, a moment to celebrate – and be inspired by – some of the best women and fashion magazine covers of 2010. With a particular focus on those that present women in affirming yet unashamedly feminine ways, these are the covers that got GWAS' attention.










See also:
The Best Glossy Covers 2010 Voting Criteria
Best Glossy Covers 2009
Best (& Worst) Glossy Covers 2008

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

GWAS Short & Sweet (New Year Greetings)


Like a freshly brewed coffee awaiting you when you get to work (after wading through the rain, like today), a blog should really satisfy some craving of yours. I spent a little time over the holidays contemplating what part GWAS plays in serving you, given the plethora of online content out there. 

Often I feel the blog is bipolar: proffering magazine and media news on the one hand, but presenting you with personalised posts and female-skewed features on the other. Perhaps you enjoy the mix? Perhaps it makes you want to stab yourself with a pencil? 

Most often I'm asked, "What happened to your breakfast posts?", so I've been considering a return to the basics, the staples, the toast and jam: magazine reviews, essays on spiritualism and women's issues and more insight into the life of the satchel.

Of course, one should write about what they enjoy; the things that make their heart sing. Sometimes I feel cheap and in need of a good shower when I post something that betrays that inner voice that says, "What is the freakin' point of this? Does it really matter? Don't you have better things to write about? And, hey, who's paying you to sell yourself so short?" (answer: no one!).

So, I invite you to drop an email into editorial@girlwithasatchel.com or leave a comment after the jump, in answer to the question, "Are you being served?". Less media-y, more feminin-y? Less glossy promotion, more satchel-values devotion? Glossy previews or just the reviews? How often would you like to visit? And how do you hope to feel when you leave? 

In short, getting to the point, let's unclutter this joint!

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Book Shelf: Why are these titles not films yet?

Book Shelf: Like, hello, why are these titles not films yet?

With Diablo Cody's filmic adaptation of the Sweet Valley High series due out in 2012, Sweet Valley Confidential hitting book stores in April this year (join the Facebook page!) and childhood homes revisited over the Christmas break, we thought it timely to reminisce on titles cherished in our girlhoods that should most definitely be adapted for the big screen, like, really soon...

THE GIRL MOST LIKELY by Rebecca Sparrow

Hello, movie execs? A rather large portion of the Australian (and I surmise, international) public is yearning to see 27-year-old Rachel Hill eat Miracle Whip from the jar in her pyjamas, attempt to master the musical trickery of Green sleeves and gobble Fruit Loops galore on the big screen. For the not-yet-acquainted, Rebecca Sparrow’s hilarious debut follows Rachel, who was dubbed ‘the girl most likely to succeed’ in high school and, ten years later is living in her childhood bedroom with a failed Vegas wedding under her belt and a whole lot of time to dissect what went wrong. The message? Life doesn’t always deal the cards you were expecting. Bugger. Lucy