Glossy Talk: Maggie Alderson to pen final Style Notes for Good Weekend

Glossy Talk: Maggie Alderson to pen final 'Style Notes' for Good Weekend

Those of you who follow my tweets may have been privy to the imminent demise of Maggie Alderson's Style Notes column for Good Weekend magazine last Friday; those more inclined to follow Caroline Overington's Media Diary web page (no offense taken; she's great, a newshound, and I should have blogged it!) would have picked up on it today.

Alas, Fairfax's Good Weekend is undergoing a redesign – in line with the recent spate of makeovers in the glossy newspaper supplement genre – and Alderson's popular Style Notes column, now 12 years running, will not be a part of the new editorial offering.

"They’re changing the magazine around and getting rid of all the columnists except for Mark [Dapin]. I’m quite devastated," Alderson told me, clearly dismayed (and a little miffed) by the news last Friday morning. "I get so many letters and emails from people saying how much they like it and can really relate to something I said, and I’m going to lose that."

One of Australia's most prestigious and respected magazines, Good Weekend – which celebrated 25 years in print last year  and is inserted into The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age each Saturday – is known for its insightful personality profiles, award-winning long-form feature stories and, of course, columnists.

"What you go to newspapers for is comment, expertise and opinion and humour in the columns," says Alderson. "Maybe they’ve got a raft of fabulous new columnists who are going to be brilliant. And maybe they need a fresh voice. My ego is obviously a little bit hurt, but it’s my relationship with the readers – some who have grown up with me, who started reading [Style Notes] when they were teenagers and now have children, and I’ve kept in touch with them; and new young ones – little 16-year-olds keep popping up. Anyway, it’s over." 

Good Weekend currently ranks second in the magazine supplement sector, behind News Limited's Sunday, in readership (1.635 million is not to be sneezed at) making it fertile ground for journalists and writers of a certain calibre (like the brilliant Jane Cadzow). And for Alderson, it's been a fruitful partnership: she's compiled three non-fiction books (Shoe Money, Handbag Heaven and Gravity Sucks) based on her sartorial musings.

After completing her current book tour in Australia, Alderson will be returning home to Hastings, England, to blog here, where she pens book reviews and writes of her daughter's reluctance to embrace book reading.

"I love to read, and if I write about each book that I read then I will be reading it actively, thinking what I'm going to write, rather than reading it passively," she says. "My plans at this moment are to do another [blog] that will be similar to the column and I will probably archive the old columns on there so my readers can find them. I might try and archive them by subject, to make them a little resource for people."

So there you go... better late than never.

'Tis a shame to see Style Notes go – particularly as it's the very column that this writer has lovingly archived since her days as a uni student – but we can at least continue to get our Maggie Alderson fix through Twitter and her blog.

See also: InStyle with Maggie Alderson, and stay tuned for a review of Alderson's new book, Shall We Dance?

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Girl Talk: Humility, femininity and big, fat mouths

Girl Talk: Humility, femininity and big, fat mouths

"Do nothing from factional motives or prompted by conceit and empty arrogance. Instead, in the true spirit of humility, let each regard the others as better than and superior to himself." (Philippians 2:3)

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine loaned me a set of CDs by prolific Christian speaker/author Joyce Meyer called "Me and My Big Mouth" (what was she trying to tell me?). While Meyer has a range of things to say about everything from nagging (I learnt early on in my marriage that it doesn't work – that's another post) to whingeing (won't win you friends or get you what you want), one thing in particular struck a chord.

Meyer tells an anecdote about a time in her life when she was struck down with an inability to speak: while words usually flow from her mouth like honey from a pot, she found herself stifled by she-didn't-know-what, unable to string a coherent sentence together let alone deliver it in public.

Discussing the issue with her husband, he suggested it might have something to do with the fact that she'd been bad-mouthing another preacher for his delivery style. Her resolution? To stop talking negative, particularly about the competition (when you're dissing someone within your own profession, it apparently bites you back doubly bad).

As someone who once prided herself on being above cliquey bitchy talk – and sometimes sidelined because of it – I've also been prone at times to falling into the Howard/Costello trap of giving others a bad wrap, though I've known in essence that to spite is not right.

It's tempting as a woman to buy into bitchy talk, often when we are at a low and lonely ebb, as we are momentarily connected by our disdain for something or someone else (usually because they have something we want... like that scalloped Chloe jacket, a great job or a size 8 butt). But it's a false and fleeting bond; a superficial Super-Glue. The Araldite stuff is positive interaction.

This month Kelly Valen, author of The Twisted Sisterhood: Unraveling The Dark Legacy of Female Friendship, has penned a feature for marie claire hooked on the Australia's Next Top Model Finale. Valen celebrates the kindness shown between Amanda Ware, Kelsey Martinovich and Sarah Murdoch.

"This was a testament to the beauty of civility, empathy and kindness; the thing women are so good at bestowing on each other when we're at our best," writes Valen, whose research overwhelmingly points to a gender troubled by ugliness, "everything from women badmouthing female colleagues who were up for promotion, and mothers stalking their daughters' peers, to the garden-variety gossip and put-downs so many of us fall into the habit, sport, boredom, or even as a bonding ritual."

To exist in a female Utopia where everyone gets along is a ridiculous proposition, but if the benefits of kindness, empathy and inclusiveness, as apposed to the competition-judgement-gossip-insecurity-aggression-manipulation cycle Valen writes of, were to become the dominant characteristics of the "fairer sex", how much more powerful we could be (tra-la!).

How on earth do we get there?

It starts inside, of course, by addressing the voice that tells you you're crap; what columnist/blogger/presenter Sarah Wilson calls the "judgey voice in my head" that pops up uninvited when you need to shift something in your life.

"This “Fred Nile voice”...holds a mirror up to our own shit," writes Wilson. "As Carl Jung said: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” So when the voice pops up, use it to question what the issue might be for yourself."

Nothing breeds hatred or unkindness or ill intent like insecurity and fear and self-loathing (which in turn feeds the insatiable female guilt/anxiety/worry beast). And we turn increasingly inwards as the world appears to threaten or attack us from the outside, shutting out the potential to form wonderful, nourishing, loving and mutually beneficial relationships that buffer us from life's blows.

The three heroines of Australia's Next Top Model are the perfect example of strength in unity of women unencumbered by conceit, arrogance and petty, small-minded thinking, and the benefits of generosity of spirit. Sometimes we just have to let go of old bad habits and grudges and our big, fat, judgemental mouths to allow the world's blessings to come right in.

As Vallen says, "nice girls actually do finish first".

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Mag Talk: Talking The Economist

Mag Talk: Talking The Economist

Handling The Economist is like walking around holding a placard that says, "I'm educated and informed and therefore liable to be a bit of a tosser", so I don't make a regular show of this magazine indulgence, but I did for a moment feel smug sitting next to a snooty couple en route from Sydney with The Economist in my lap (neatly disguising the Grazia that lay beneath). Of course, they needn't know that I read over some of the passages twice to fully comprehend their meaning (I was sleepy, okay). 

So, with all that time and cerebral effort, why not share of the fruits of this media engagement on the day of the U.S Mid-Term Election (my sole reason for scooping it up). Here's some of what The Economist and its stable of very excellent journalists has to impart:

The election
"The likeliest outcome [of the mid-term election] is that the Republicans will take back the House of Representatives [435 seats in total] and make solid gains in the senate [100 seats], where, though falling short of majority control, they will effortlessly be able to block any bill they wish."
- Americans are angry at Obama.
The Lefties think he's piss-weak; the conservatives (see 'Tea Party') think he's a spendthrift (all those pricey health reforms); and "centrists", like The Economist, see "his skills as president falling far short of his genius as a campaigner". He is out of favour with big business, Silicon Valley and "middle America", which does not like uncertainty or economic hardship (presumably like the upper and lower parts of the American population!).
- But it's not all bad.
The magazine credits Obama, now 21 months into his presidency, with steering the economy away from a "much worse fate" with a "big, bold and immediate stimulus plan" and also for his attention to health reform ("he should probably have postponed doing so until the economy had recovered"), his "generally sensible decisions about Iraq and Afghanistan" and his political appointments (see 'Hillary Clinton').
- Rounding out.
Obama "inherited the inbox from hell" from Bush, says The Economist: banks to be saved from collapse, GM and Chrysler heading down the gurgler, climbing unemployment rates, unfinished wars and climate change... and then BP spilled a load of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. His health reforms have been controversial (unaffordable! unconstitutional!) and he's been described as "professorial and aloof". Can he redeem his presidency and win back the confidence of disenchanted Americans by the next election in 2012?

The Tea Parties
Nothing to do with Alice in Wonderland, apparently, the tea parties represent a growing conservative movement based on "small government, free enterprise and self reliance". Reports The Economist: "In primaries all over the country they have secured the selection of Republican candidates who are 'true' conservatives, not the big-spending counterfeit Republicans whom they blame for leading the party astray under George Bush... America's pontificating class is not yet sure how to take the measure of this strange new movement. Puzzled academics gathered last week at the University of California, Berkley, to ask, among other things, how tea-partiers were "tapping into and/or managing the populist, libertarian and radical currents on the right, as well as fear, anger and resentment among segments of the American public...".

Afghanistan and the Taliban

The Taliban are in talks with the "corrupt and shambolic" Afghanistan government led by President Hamid Karzai. "[The Taliban] leadership, partly based in Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, is believed no longer to have close ties to al-Qaeda, whose command is thought to reside in Pakistan's tribal areas... it seems unlikely that that the Taliban leadership would settle for less than the significant control over southern Afghanistan it currently wields." Despite NATO's 130,000 peacekeepers, and a recent surge of 30,000 American troops [Australia currently has 1550 diggers in the region], the Taliban has a stronghold in large parts of eastern and southern Afghanistan. In response to questioning about an Islamist acid attack on schoolgirls in Kandahar, a mid-level Taliban leader tells The Economist: "What else do they deserve? A good woman needs only Islam, not school."

And soon, back to Grazia...

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Glossy Talk: Could men's magazines have a new sheen?

Glossy Talk: Could men's magazines have a new sheen?

Have no fear, Charlie Sheen IS NOT DYING, reports TMZ this morning. Apparently the falling "star" of Two and a Half Men is not on death's door but gearing up (ha!) to be on set of his TV show on Tuesday. 

While many will be disappointed to hear of the reckless, drug-alcohol-and-woman abusing Sheen's apparent recovery from yet another night of debauchery (likely to be recounted in court-chery), the Hot Shot sociopath has already turned the event into Spin City (allergies!).

Similarly, the men's magazine market – which has been flatter than a soggy toupee – is not likely to go down without a fight, at least according to the lead item in today's Australian Financial Review Media & Marketing section, 'ACP puts fight back into men's mags'.

Neil Shoebridge reports that ACP Magazines is set to launch a local version of UFC magazine, a sport and lifestyle title devoted to the Ultimate Fighting Championship League. UFC is apparently a "sport" involving "mixed martial arts fights held in octagon-shaped cages and include karate, boxing, wrestling, kick-boxing and jujitsu".

In the words of The Sydney Morning Herald's Peter FitzSimons cited by Shoebridge, UFC is a "a cross between Fight Club, rock 'n' roll, a vicious bar-room brawl and the fall of Saigon" (something right up Charlie Sheen's alley, as it is fellow UFC supporter James Packer's).

"UFC is the hottest men's magazine franchise in the world and the UFC competitions are the fastest-growing sport in the world," ACP group publishing director Phil Scott told AFR, adding, "It's too early to speculate about what UFC might sell, but I think people are going to be surprised."

Mothers with teenage sons are as likely to rush out to buy UFC magazine as they are copies of the video game Carmageddon, dubbed by AskMen.com as "the racing game for the chemically imbalanced."

Packer's passion for the sport neatly ties into his new interest at Channel 10 and its digital sports channel spin-off One HD, which broadcasts UFC in Australia.Given pay-per-view broadcasts of UFC fights are the biggest source of revenue for US-based UFC parent company Zuffa, the Packer/ONE HD/ACP relationship is potentially a big media coup.

Thankfully, there is tamer fare with a sports focus available for gents in the glossy market, including Fairfax Magazines' Sport & Style, which goes on sale on the first Monday of the month and is inserted into The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (NSW and Victoria distribution only).

The latest issue features Michael Clarke on the cover and feature stories on both Clarke ('Working Class Man') and his cricketing contemporary Shane Watson. But even this stylish title isn't averse to the pull of a fighting match: two pages are dedicated to Italy's Palio di Siena, a horse race in which rival neighbourhood jockeys beat each other with whips and some don't survive the dirt track's treacherous turns.

Last week, new of the launch of Gaz7etta, the men's magazine equivalent of Grazia, had media heads talking in the UK with its one-off free distribution of 500,000 copies designed to woo upmarket, 30-something, style-conscious male readers.

The 60-page men's style and lifestyle magazine inserted into Bauer titles Q, Mojo, Empire and Grazia aims to translate Grazia UK's success formula (fashion, news and celebrity done with wit and intelligence) into the men's genre, reports The Guardian. Jordan Plunkett reviewed Gaz7etta for the Guardian online. His verdict? So far so insufficient evidence to necessitate a weekly purchase. 

Meanwhile, in the Australian market, men's lifestyle titles with a fashion focus have been faring well. GQ (101,000 readers) and Men's Style (68,000 readers) both registered increases in the June readership audit, while results for lad mags Zoo Weekly (462,000 readers), Alpha (176,000 readers) and FHM (186,000 readers) all fell. GQ also launched its fashion bi-annual, GQ Style, Men's Health is doing 'Guide to Style' inserts and ACP's SHOP Til You Drop masthead carries a SHOP Men supplement (does it have potential to become a stand-alone brother title?).

This renewed focus on men's fashion could be attributed to the Mad Men influence (just as the show was partly responsible for the fuller female figure making a catwalk comeback and Christina Hendricks scoring several glossy covers). The new edition of The Big Issue has devoted its cover to the show's star Jon Hamm. 

"The MM website boasts a 'fashion file', a 'cocktail guide' and a page where you can 'Madmen yourself," writes Lorin Clarke in the cover story. "This new verb, 'to Madmen', literally means to create an image of yourself in the style of the Hitchcock-inspired opening credits of the program." 

Writes Clarke, the "sexism, racism and the toxic workplace environments explicitly breach contemporary standards of behaviour...is voyeurism at its best... The Mad Men audience gets the fantasy with an acknowledgement of the shortcomings of the reality. We can watch Mad Men without having to live it."

In the current socio-cultural context, where women assert more power and influence, the 'reality' may be why more men are turning into Don Draper lookalikes and turning to UFC. It doesn't take Two and a Half Men to work that out that in magazines, men need escapism, inspiration and style tips, too. The appeal of men's magazines is to service wants, needs and desires; I just wonder what men really aspire to. 

Is it Mr Sheen Extreme, Mr Squeaky Clean or something wearing a suit in between?


Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Faith Talk: He who cast the first stone

Faith Talk: He who cast the first stone

It's been rather amusing observing the verbal joust between John Howard and his former Treasurer via the nation's press, with Howard's political memoir, Lazarus Rising, the talk of the town. Aussies are famous for sledging – on and off the field –  so let's take a moment to reflect on one of my favourite kick-butt Jesus moments in the Bible, which is quite pertinent as far as civility is concerned.

As the story goes, the Pharisees and scribes bring a woman before Jesus who has committed (and been caught in the act of) adultery and is to be stoned for her crime. When confronted by these men of standing, he bends down to the ground, draws a line in the sand, and says, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."

The consciences of the men got the better of each of them and one by one they walked away from Jesus and the woman, their heads hanging in shame. Guilty as charged. When they had all gone, he said to her, "Woman, where are your accusers? Has no man condemned you?" She said, "No man, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." (John 8:1-11)

To my mind, there are a few lessons* we can take from Jesus' teaching here but for the purposes of this post, there are two: the idea that no matter our rank in life, we are all guilty of sin in its various guises; and that being quick to judge and/or point the finger at others is the fastest way to bring disrepute on ourselves. Hypocrisy stinks.

Belittling others and bignoting ourselves is a common trap in a culture that requires us to stand out from the pack and strive for success. Being the bigger man (even when you are physically the smaller man) takes a dose of humility often in conflict with a culture of meritocracy commensurate with financial gain.

To sit back and watch as others claim our ideas as their own, be promoted to positions of prestige as we languish at the lower rungs on the corporate ladder or achieve what we hoped was within our own grasp is frustrating and often infuriating.  

But what often gets lost in the wake of this (often futile) climb towards self-fulfillment or aggrandisement are a peaceful conscience and a reputation for being a person of integrity. 

I'm no saint: I'm often tempted to refute, have a go or counter someone else's opinion; to take offense, get uptight or anxious and retaliate. But dibber-dobbering and whingeing are not particularly becoming traits. I've always felt petty and silly in the process when I've succumbed, and regretted these ramblings on reflection.

In some circumstances, something must be said: a gross injustice, crime or slight against a loved one might be cause for a defense of some sort (I encountered a woman recently who is still deeply resentful of a journalist who tainted her son's professional reputation).

Constructive criticism is also often warranted, in the right place and at the right time, if we could do with cleaning up our act in some area of our lives. But defending your own reputation – or your professional choices – takes serious consideration.

What is to be gained? Is this something that should be confined to the pages of a diary under lock and key, a therapist or a good friend? Or should it be aired for all and sundry to read?

Understanding that not everyone will like us is a valuable primary school lesson; but learning to tolerate, and even love others, in spite of their opinions of you takes a whole lot of humility. Additionally, acknowledging that behind every closed door is a darkness requires maturity. And saying, "You were right, I was wrong; I'm sorry," takes guts.

Howard and Costello can have their public jousting match, and we will be privy to the odd sledging on the cricket pitch this season, but nothing makes a man look smaller than pettiness, particularly when he/she is far from perfect themselves.

"A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult." (Proverbs 12:16)
"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned." (Luke 6:37)

* The idea that the woman, and not her adulterating partner, were brought before him is another post under 'Feminism'!

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

GWAS Note: A TV Hits Clarification

GWAS Note: A TV Hits Clarification

Well, this is awkward.

While the bi-monthly TV Hits magazine will no longer grace the stands amongst the Rolling Stones and Jmags, word from Pacific Magazines is that the brand will live on in one-shot specials, like the recently published Short Stack tour guide, which was a resounding success.

In even better news, there is soon to be a TV Hits Rip N Stick poster book in newsagents, which should please Liz no end (and I'm a sucker for a sticker).

So, R.I.P., to the mag and long live the one-shot.

Good times, indeed.

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Pop Talk: TV Hits R.I.P.

Pop Talk: TV Hits R.I.P.

While this iconic magazine didn't quite make it to its 23rd birthday, drowned out in a mosh pit of entertainment blogs, self-made YouTube stars, MySpace pages and reality TV show forums, it has left a lasting impression on a generation weaned on its pop-culture packed pages, cover mounted treats and JTT posters. Liz Burke takes us on a trip down a memory lane to the tune of Hanson.

Always the aspirational reader, I think I was begging my mother for my first issue of TV Hits before I got my pen license. Foregoing a cream bun and an icy pole at the tuckshop to invest in the mag and gain a glimpse into the programs I wasn't allowed to watch became a minor obsession.

Party of Five was at its peak of popularity and strictly off-limits at home, but I knew the answers to what older family friends and cousins were fussing over lay within pages behind the beautiful black and white Neve Campbell cover.

After a sneaky trip to the newsagent and a close study of every fact and tidbit in the special issue, the cover was quickly transferred with authority over to a Social Studies exercise book. A clueless kid had quickly become an aficionado of all things Salinger.

It wasn't just a thirst for knowledge that saw the iconic newsstand staple constantly creep its way into mum's shopping trolley on after school trips, causing many an argument at the Coles checkout. Peeling out perforated posters with an aim to plaster one's bedroom in pop royalty was most satisfying. The generously sized glossy posters were the best, my youthful exuberance directed at building up a bedroom wall JTT shrine in their honour.

Movie star and musical obsessions rotated as quickly as the magazine's fortnightly turnaround – how very Gen Y. Alicia Silverstone, Mariah Carey, Scott Wolf, Craig David, Usher, Nick Carter, and Joshuas Jackson and Hartnett each had their time in the spotlight and were meticulously profiled to the point where everyone in school knew their favourite foods, the names of their siblings and, of course, their star signs and who they shared their birthdays with.

I think it was also TV Hits that bore the shocking news to many red-faced Gen-Yers that brotherly trio Hanson were not the all-girl group we thought they were.

Products of a pre-Google upbringing remember waiting by the radio all night long with one finger on record for that one song to come on. Top 30 hits were then looped over and over in attempt to osmosise the lyrics, which often involved resorting to stopping the tape after every line to record tricky phrases – don't worry, it wasn't just you!

How else were we to know how S.O.A.P partied? Toward which direction Cleopatra was comin' (turns out it was "atcha", not "out there"), or Billie Piper's laissez faire philosophical reasoning (because we want to)?

The God-sent cut-out lyrics cards that highlighted four of the month's biggest hits were included in every issue, and saved a whole lot of pause, rewind and transcribe time for me and my dusty pink Sony Walkman. Anthems from All Saints, 5ive, Backstreet Boys and Mandy Moore are ingrained in all of our memories and we have Australia's only teen entertainment mag to thank.

Another memorable souvenir was the TV Hits yearly diary. While not an acceptable school planner, the colourful ring-bound organiser was to be carried at all times behind grid books and Kent sets. Although the diary was mainly used to chart crushes and study the celebrity trivia and quizzes that lay between the brightly covered covers, I can't imagine we had that many important dates to remember in those early teen years.

While the final issue will likely attract a few nostalgic readers to pick it up and revisit what they clung to so dearly before titles like Girlfriend and Cleo filled its space in their satchels, TV Hits will leave a hard to fill hole in national newsstands.

Yours truly,
Liz @ Girl With a Satchel

Glossy Talk: Why Frankie and I can't be friends

Glossy Talk: Why Frankie and I can't be friends

Getting together with an old friend is sweet sorrow for Lucy Brook.

When Frankie launched in September 2005, then-editor Louise Bannister (now assistant publisher) and creative director Lara Burke held an impromptu launch from a brown vinyl couch plonked in the middle of QUT’s Creative Industries precinct.

I was mid-journalism degree and scuttled from the media building to the quadrangle to meet the ladies behind this quirky, clever new book, crammed with cute graphics, wry first person rants and a fresh, alternative manifesto. From the first issue, I was captivated. Real people? Check. Intelligent, grounded content? Check. Savvy social commentary? Hip, arty design? A deliberate lack of diets and dildos? Check, check, happy check.

Frankie captured the zeitgeist of the mid-2000s, when young women were increasingly fed up with the stagnant content in mainstream women’s magazines but weren’t quite ready to spend their weekends devouring Time. For a year or so, I never missed an issue. Frankie and I settled into a comfortable, predictable rhythm – one that more than 38,000 readers no doubt feel settled in today. 

Frankie, in case you haven’t heard, has a cult-following, burgeoning circulation and has been steadily catching big name glossies like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. I’ve changed, Frankie hasn’t, and we've grown apart.

Though its loyal readership of bright, trendy young things might disagree with me, Frankie’s December/January issue seems stale, as though resigned to a state of inertia. I expected to be inspired and entertained, but I was annoyed. I don’t want to read bad jokes about why someone is an awful house guest, or struggle through expletive-laden attempts at funny.

This golden line actually appears in one of the stories (do not proceed to read if easily disgusted): "I hope her unborn children develop rabies whilst in the womb and leave a coating of diseased froth on her vagina on their way out!" Sorry, but either that is completely unfunny, or I have no sense of humour.

I don’t want to look at models doing ‘wistful’ in cheap hotel rooms, or have informative articles tell me that Truman Capote wrote True Blood (that would be In Cold Blood). A sneak peek into the gardens of creative types and a pictorial feature on dark magic in northern Ghana are somewhat redeeming, but I wanted ingenuity and connection, and I got zip.

Maybe I’m expecting too much? I don’t want to suggest that my disappointment with this issue is remotely indicative of how others might feel about it. Frankie has filled an aching void for savvy young Australian media consumers, and in positioning itself as an “indie/twee/hipster/creative” magazine (as Rachel Hills wrote here) perhaps it’s inevitable that it won’t appeal to everyone at every stage in their lives?

One can’t discredit the ground Frankie has broken. Would we have believed in the early 2000s, when our obsession with celebrity was beginning to pique, that two 25-year-olds peddling their sweet, left of centre, gossip-free glossy would be taken seriously?

That Frankie, which, refreshingly, features real people of all ages (nannas included), races and socio-economic backgrounds, would be wholeheartedly embraced by a generation weaned onto Dolly/Girlfriend then Cosmo/Cleo then Vogue/Marie Claire? It’s pleasing that Frankie is a runaway success. What’s not pleasing is that I fall smack-bang into their demographic, and I just don’t get it.

Perhaps Frankie needs to refocus with some original, thought-provoking content that will reignite the flame for former devotees like me? Inspiring features that have you nodding and ‘mmm-hmming’ as you read. Some fresh voices. Less focus on ‘cool’ and more focus on ‘real’.

Or am I expecting too much of an old love?

Yours truly,
Lucy @ Girl With a Satchel

Satchel Vision: IDM's Marina Go (Part #1: Younger You magazine)

Glossy Vision: IDM's Marina Go (Part #1: Younger You magazine)

Last week, Independent Digital Media – the brainchild of Michael Hannan, former owner of FPC Magazines, which sold its titles to News Magazine in 2007 – celebrated six-months of YoungerYou.com.au, its newest digital brand ironically aimed at turning back the clock.

In some ways, IDM's foray into print is a counter-clockwise move, too: for IDM, digital is the main game and print plays a supporting role. Last month the Sydney-based publisher put Younger You into print with a 132-page book priced at $9.95 and on October 27 TheKnot.com.au will have a newsagent shelf presence as well (a 284-page one priced at $14.95).

Just as Primped.com.au represents the "pointy end" of beauty, so too does Younger You with its pro-anti-ageing editorial direction, which is supported by a booming $448.5 million industry in Australia (and that's just the non-surgical cosmetic market).

The magazine is essentially a service title that celebrates "ageless celebs" and features stories on skin serums and sun damage, non-invasive laser technology, fake tanning, weight loss and flattering hairstyles. There's also information on fixing facial "irregularities", faking better-looking busts and liposculpture. It's supported by ads for anti-ageing skin products, The Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and a slew of cosmetic professionals listed on the Younger You website.

To be honest, I'm not a fan, just the same as I dislike Vogue's yearly Cosmetic Enhancement Guide inserts, but I'm not currently in the market for a face life. Marina Go, publisher of the magazine, puts forth a convincing argument for the brand's existence. A former magazine editor, Go has been with IDM for two years and graciously shares her insight into digital and the Younger You brand in this first installment of our interview (again with the irony; the video looks a bit warped, though Marina is lovely).

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Faith Talk: There's something about Mary

Faith Talk: There's something about Mary

In a media culture that often supplements strength of character for celebrity and faith for fame, the life of our newest golden girl, Saint Mary MacKillop, is a welcome addition to the national narrative and an example for us all.

Pilgrims paying their respects and miracles aside, the focus of the coverage of MacKillop's canonisation has overwhelming been on the celebration of her admirable (some might say "saintly"!) character traits: her tenacity, fierce independence, sense of justice, humility, courage and devotion to her life's calling (her "vocation" in Catholic speak).

In this sense, Saint MacKillop provides us with a model for Christianity In Practise 101 at a time when the Catholic Church is increasingly distant and removed from secular life, as much as it is a target for derision. Inasmuch as her saintly status is based on her posthumous intercession with God, her worldly status makes her an intercessory for church and society; an accessible deity. 

Those now familiar with MacKillop's life story, conveyed in part to us through her prolific letter writing and journal entries, will know of her trials: her debilitating illness (she was often unable to get out of bed to go to mass), accusations of alcoholism (she took a tipple of brandy to ease her pain) and her temporary excommunication from the church in 1871 over a "constitutional dispute" (which may have had something to do with her outing of a sexually abusive priest).

At that time she wrote, "When I was asked to kneel before the Bishop, I felt lonely and bewildered ... I do not know how long I knelt there facing the Bishop and four priests with all my Sisters standing around. I knew they were there but saw no-one and I think I was trying to pray ... I shall never forget the sensation of the calm, beautiful presence of God."

Even for an atheist Prime Minister there is something to revere in MacKillop, with Julia Gillard calling her "a role model and a guide" in a column for The Sun-Herald, while feminists rightly champion her bold stance against the powers-that-be in the Vatican and her valiant desire to protect children.

But we can't reduce MacKillop's triumphs to human virtue, nor to uniquely Australian character: she would be the first to admit her whole existence was underpinned by her faith in God.

"I do indeed feel such a grateful love of God when He denies me my natural desires - even when they sometimes seem best, " she wrote. "I do so long to love God, and be grateful to Him when He denies me anything I expect."

MacKillop never claimed to be faultless but she saw that operating apart from God's will did her and others no favours. That's a challenge for us all. Of course, we're not all called to become nuns, but a life of service, of Christianity in action, and the comfort and joy of the presence of God in one's life, is not exclusive to religious types. It just comes at a cost.

Amidst the celebrations for our first saint, perhaps what is being lost is the narrative on which the whole Christian faith is based: of Jesus Christ's sacrificial intercession here on earth in atonement for our imperfections, and the fundamental requirement of Christians to love the Lord their God first and foremost (not a saint, not our children, not ourselves).

As a wise woman (a living saint in my eyes) preached at my church on Sunday, faith gives life goals, purpose and destination: "When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus, our lives change completely. But that is only the beginning of the journey... Faith isn't just for some special people, a few elite saints. It is for all of God's people."

Good readings on MacKillop:
Mary MacKillop.org.au
The problem with having a vernacular saint by Scott Stephens
MacKillop inspires modern women by Miranda Devine

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel

Satchelnomics: Parity Like It's 1983

Satchelnomics: Parity Like It's 1983

Liz Burke

Feeling pressure to lower the Australian dollar? Deflation talk killing your buzz? Have no fear, Treasurer Swan, Liz Burke is here with a sure-fire economic strategy. Dive into your Dollarmite account and buy some Jatz crackers and French Onion dip: let's get this parity party started!

Did anyone else let out a little squeal when our dazzling dollar made its brief foray into world domination, leaving the economy in a state of AUDelight? For just short of an hour late Friday night we got there, soaring to a high of $US1.0003, the highest the dollar’s been trading since float, before pulling back to just under parity state.

While this is good news for some (hello, Topshop!) and not so much for others (sorry, exporting industries), there’s no denying its significance. And so, in the tradition of newsworthy celebration inspirations, I’ve decided to mark this occasion with a homage to the year that started it all: 1983.

In that year, so I'm told, the Hawke Government made the decision to float the dollar. It was also the Year of the Cabbage Patch Doll and Mircosoft Word. But more significantly, a little mixtape called Thru the Roof ’83 was released.

Purchased by everyone with enough newly market-influenced pocket money, it spent five weeks at the top of the Aussie album charts. Who knew that 27 years later these seemingly unrelated events would finally find a link, as the Aussie dollar took on the direction of its musical birthmate and really went thru the roof?

This annotated mixtape of parity-powered ‘83 classics provides a suitable soundtrack to any economically stimulated soirée. Tonight we’re gonna par(i)ty like it’s 0.99!

Side a
1. "She works hard for the money" – Donna Summer. A fitting tribute to the Australian economy and its rough and ready recovery from the GFC. She’s certainly been working hard to come back from that, so you better treat her right!

2. "All time high" – Rita Coolidge. Under that windswept perm and copious eyeshadow sliced awkwardly between Bond scenes, Rita had more centsibility than Moneypenny herself, the prescient Octopussy theme’s chorus providing a view of what would happen in the Australian money market 28 years on.

3. "One on one" – Hall & Oates. $US poster boy George Washington and our currency’s marsupial pin-ups certainly played that game on Friday night, seeing AUD finally nudge the greenback off its turf.

4. "Down Under" – Men at Work & 5. "Australiana" – Austen Tayshus. These two speak for themselves, really, throwing in a bit of national pride. If the portrayal of our fellow countrymen in these film clips was nothing to be proud of, at least we now have a thriving financial market to make up for it. 


Side b
6. "Too shy" – Kajagoogoo. The dollar is falling just shy of the parity mark, though many economists are speculating a not-far-off rise to as high as $US1.10. While a rapid increase could be dangerous and stabilisation equally so, everyone’s keeping hush hush as to what’s going to happen...

7. "After the fall" – Journey. The fall of the USD that is. RBA intervention? Rates hold? An online shopping revolution? Or an even stronger formation of the Australian Contiki army taking advantage of international exchange rates?

8. "I’ll tumble 4 ya" – Culture Club. The USD has indeed taken a gracious tumble, and more stimulus to aid recovery could definitely be on the cards. An economic equivalent to whatever Boy George used to keep his fringe upstanding could certainly keep a weakening economy afloat.

Nb. Popular finance-themed cocktails have been omitted from this post to provide a more wholesome Parity Party experience . What’s worse than starting a day on the trading floor feeling All Ordinary? (boom tish!)

See also:
Federal Election Party Time!

Yours truly,
Liz @ Girl With a Satchel

Interview: Modern Media Maven - Melissa Hoyer

Interview: Modern Media Maven – Melissa Hoyer

After years covering the style and society beat for Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph, Melissa Hoyer refashioned herself as a freelance lifestyle commentator, using her media mileage and bulging Little Black Book to strike up hosting arrangements, writing gigs with Australian Traveller and Grazia, and ambassadorial roles with the likes of Crossroads, Pantene and Westfield. 

Two years into running her one-woman show, all the while performing single mum duties behind the scenes, Hoyer has another editing credit to her name: Rouge, a mini beauty magazine and dedicated website published by Procter & Gamble (P&G) and distributed to one million Australian homes. 

While serving as a vehicle for P&G's female-friendly brand ads (Max Factor, Covergirl, Olay, SK-II, Herbal Essences, Pantene...), Hoyer has recruited a reputable team to bring the editorial pages to life, including fashion writer Glynis Traill-Nash, art director Cheryl Collins, journalist Sandra Lee, stylist Nicole Bonython-Hines and photographer Carlotta Moye. The magazine is also flush with findings from P&G's survey on cosmetic surgery. I chatted to Melissa about finding balance in work, rest and whiteboards.

GWAS: With all your media commitments, I imagine every day is a bit mad for you?
Melissa: I can look at next week and think, 'Oh, it's quite quiet', but because I work so much reacting on the news of that day – and someone will ring me and say, 'Come and do something on television', or 'Do something on radio' – I have to be always very prepared and ready to talk on anything at any point on any media. 

On average, I probably do three television [appearances], on morning television, one of the evening shows or Sky News; radio I have a regular thing with Kyle and Jackie O here every week; others will ring me to comment on something or other; writing for Grazia is whatever they want; and my blog tends to get a bit lost because it's something I'll do after all my paying work. Unless you can monetize it, I can't be making a living out of blogging every day at this stage of the game.

There's this great myth about television of radio that you just go in there and rave about anything but you don't. You really have to succinctly put your opinion forward. You do have to research – you do have to be up on popular culture and news and trends. Just the research that goes into it – reading every mag, reading every online news site – takes a lot of time.  

How did you find the transition into freelance? When you have the comfort zone of working with a big company – you've got your superannuation; you've got your weekly or monthly salary set in stone – it's a big thing to move away and create a new life.

Because I was established in my area – having been with News Limited for over 20 years – I had a reputation and I think I had integrity, which you need to be able to do that change successfully. I'd already developed contacts and people knew what I could do; I was able to segue into these great new things but the platform was the training and experience I got with News.

It didn't scare me – you sometimes have to get out of your comfort zone to recreate yourself. You get a bit complacent... It got to the point where the column I was writing, in my mind, had become pretty stale. I didn't want to become stale myself. Then I went to Bali, got back, and it was time to move on. 

How do you manage your glossy alliances? I do a bit with Grazia, so in some editors minds I'm aligned to Grazia. But because it's a role where I don't go into the office, and it's quite a loose relationship, I still have to know as a fashion commentator if marie claire is celebrating 15 years or whether Who is doing their Best Dressed list. Nobody dumps me because I write occasionally for another magazine: I don't think they're that naïve. I actually quite like doing a bit for this one, a bit for that one – I'm liking discovering all these other companies. I did that for so long.

How did the Rouge gig come about? Procter and Gamble in North America have a website called Rouge, and a seasonal magazine they distribute, which features their products but is also very lifestyle driven: it's not just a catalogue. When I was approached to be involved, it needed to be someone who could write, who could edit and magazine and who had contacts. The offshoot is the ongoing website. I think there will be more magazines once they work out how successful it was from a sales point of view.

The website is about making it as general and lifestyle and fashion and beauty oriented as possible. Of course a site that is funded by P&G will feature P&G products but I don't think it's too narrow-minded with every story having a mention of a P&G product.

How did you bring it all together? We were basically given the book to fill. We could use some of the stories that were published in the American magazine but we wanted to generate local content and make it more us, and Australian, by bringing in local talent... Cheryl Collins, the art director, and I didn't want to be too bombarded by other magazines; we did look at the other Rouge magazines, but I didn't look to the local magazines to emulate. We wanted to make it as informative and clean and readable as possible. Because it's a small mag, we couldn't throw too many words on a page.

What's your opinion on cosmetic surgery? When we commissioned the survey – and it was a good, legitimate survey – the statistics were quite scary. One in two people have had or think it's absolutely fine to have something done, no questions...

It's a constant conundrum. I think all the glossy magazine editors must feel it – particularly over the whole airbrushing debate. They want to be seen as supporting real women, but then women out there actually want to see these nearly ethereal, unrealistic images. They have enough of the real world seven days a week. 

We want to morally say one thing but then present something that's totally different. It's probably worse editing a high-end glossy. They're damned if they do; damned if they don't. Like with The Weekly with Marcia Hines – great cover but then it had to say, 'This cover has been airbrushed'. I think it's a shame they have to say it. 

How do you keep organised? In front of me on my desk I have a monthly planner, so I can look at all of October, and next to me I have my sturdy old Filofax. That's a weekly one where I write down every appointment and it goes in my bag. But the best thing I got when I went freelance was a whiteboard... I write on it everything I'm doing – radio gigs, any ambassadorial gigs, invoices – so I can turn around and see what I've done and what I'm about to do...

I think I like being on one perpetual deadline. You do sometimes think, it might just be my time and in a year's time or two month's time, no one might want you. The media can be a very fickle beast. I may not be needed in certain areas in a year's time, so you do tend to say yes to everything. There are some things I do say no to: you may lose a few bucks by not doing it, but you look at the time and cost ratio. Having a child puts things into perspective. I love what I do but it's a means to an end as well; you have to keep your child fed and clothed. You don't just do it to satisfy yourself and pretend you're a rock star. You do it because it's your work and you have to earn some money.


Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel