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Rise (January)
Finally, a latrine read for the polyester-clad lad! Rise debuts this month with a fat, full-colour mix of advice, service and fitness pieces for the knuckle-dragger closest to your heart. Much like the junior lounge lizards rocking the zitgeist on Granville Street, this mag tries way too hard. Overdrawn inches on sex and gadgets come off as a flaccid five years late in the rag trade. There are highlights, or at least one. Remember Dustin Dickerson? Me neither, but apparently he's the fella from that local student-teacher sex flap a few years back. Dickerson updates us on his rap career while reminiscing about his hot-for-teacher daze in an unintentionally hilarious interview. The choice of covergirl spread, twenty-one-year-old Vancity deb Sarah La Greca, is probably a safe indication of the youngster demo being targeted here. Rise should be congratulated on a dense read--there's more type here than in lad rags twice as thick--but there's no, uh, hair on that chest. Their boldest move? Trying to sell male readers on horoscopes. Not to be confused with the artier HighRise Mag, the other BC-based men's title launching this month. But hey, at least Rise is free. Risemagazine.ca
Vancouver (January)
Is it just me, or does the pas de deux between Vanmag's ever-beige ad pages--it's good to know that if your face begins to curdle, there are plastic surgeons who care--and its clever, dour editorial voice--eyeball the cutlines and slugs for clues--make for hilarious bedfellows? This mag has hit a stride all its own. What better timing than this month's "best of the city" package, which is indecently short but chock full of smartypants colour. Points for managing to channel that NoFunCity vibe productively with its trends-to-avoid asides. The convention watch checks in with the "edusexual" goings-on at a local skin biz romp--okay, upscale consumer trade show. There are other interesting reads: from C-section chic (it ain't just for celebrities "too posh to push" anymore) to the uneasy "brand marriage" of Mountain Equipment Co-Op and Nike. A Q&A with Canucks GM Brian Burke is instructive: Who knew the Napoleon fan ("He got a little carried away") stacks TVs in his home and office to squeeze twice the tube-time? Plus, the famed Vanmag fact-checkers are at it again this month, clearing the besmirched name of a mall Santa. Vancouvermagazine.com
Nuvo (Winter)
Nuvo is the quintessence of that peculiar breed of magazine everyone gawks (or sneers) at, but few read--a "lifestyle" title. This genus can usually be spotted in its natural habitat, peering back at you from the periodical pile at the local salon. These bibles of conspicuous consumption usually rate low on content, but Nuvo manages to pull off glimmers of something more. I can't say the stories on estate planning, plastic surgery, fur and caviar warranted attention, and the Maserati ads are somehow wasted on me. In fact, the stories were uniformly snooze-worthy, and I've always suspected hefty (yet editorially featherweight) mags are only good for keeping one's antique coffee table securely anchored to the floor. But, love it or loathe it, Nuvo is establishment-style Canuck glam. The art direction is crisp and the photography pretty inspired. Even the society snaps are sharper than what you'll get elsewhere. No wonder this rag receives government funding: It's practically a cultural export, a still-life of the Canadian leisure class in all its ermine eminence. It's no small feat for a BC mag to hold this mantle nationally, and Nuvo does it with a toney touch all its own. Nuvomagazine.com
Jeff MacIntyre is regularly heckled, from dangerously near and glamorously afar, at jeffmacintyre.com ![[Tyee]](/design-article.thetyee.ca/ui/img/yellowblob.png){kind=small}
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