Stack: September

September's Stack delivery is boat, a travel magazine. Each issue of boat focuses exclusively on a single city and this issue is about Los Angeles. Of course, this is Stack so boat isn't a typical travel magazine. There's no guide to the best places to eat or the top 10 attractions to visit. Instead, boat is a series of articles by, and interviews with, residents of Los Angeles in which they ruminate on aspects of life in the city.

And it was a great read. It needed some better copy-editing, but the actual articles were compelling and gave a great sense of L.A. as a city. I previously had no interest in going to L.A., but boat made me want to visit so that seems like a solid endorsement for a travel magazine.

Would I buy it again? Yes, if there was an issue on a city I was going to. I actually looked to see if they had a past issue on Berlin as I might be there next month, but sadly they've not gone there yet.

Curtain

I live in a first floor flat. It's a nice place, but when we moved in it was cold. This was mostly due to the hilarious lack of insulation in the loft. That was sorted out pretty quickly and things improved a lot. However, on particularly cold days there was still a draft coming up the stairs and straight into the main bedroom.

Graffiti

Found on the pavement of Snowsfields by London Bridge.

Stack: August

It's taken me a while to sit down and write something about IdN, this month's Stack delivery. Usually I try and read about 75% of the magazine before I post something, but with IdN every time I open it I get completely overwhelmed, flick through it for a bit and then close it without making any progress.

It's a design magazine, although compared to Printed Pages it's such a different beast that it seems strange to put them in the same category. IdN is a blur of product design, street art, graphic design, and installations; images fill the pages, swamping the tiny paragraphs of tiny text. As a reading experience it's pretty terrible, but as a design showcase it's great.

My favourite part of IdN is that it also showcases animation. Apparently it used to come with a DVD, but this material has now moved online and is accessed with a password provided by the magazine. This issue's theme is Geometry in Motion Graphics Design and there's a lot of fantastic videos to watch, although my favourite is a music video that can also be seen here.

Would I buy it again? No. But I recommend it as a source of inspiration to designers and animators everywhere.

Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

It's been almost a year since I last went to Candid Arts. My favourite drawing from this set is the eighth one.

Stack: July

This month's Stack is Intern, the magazine by interns for interns!

In all seriousness, this is actually pretty good. There's been a lot of focus in the US and the UK recently on unpaid internships and their value to the individual and the economy. Intern explores that debate, interviewing people in the creative industries about internships. There's a variety of voices in this issue: young people in internships; creative professionals who have done internships; creative professionals strongly opposed to unpaid interns. Interestingly, it's not just focused on social debate; the magazine also includes photography, fiction and poetry, making it a creative outlet as well as a platform for political/social discussion.

Overall, it was an engaging read. It's a very polite magazine though; there are no polemics about social injustice to be found here, just well-articulated thoughts about how things could be improved. I'm not sure if you really start a labour movement that way, but I don't think Intern is looking to mobilise anyone so much as make them think.

Would I buy it again? This is yet another that I'd buy for someone else, but not for myself. If I had a younger friend or relative who had just graduated and was looking for or already in an internship it might be something I'd want to share with them.

T.Rex

This is going to be the last automata for the forseeable future! This one comes Flying Pig Ltd, the same company that made the Skiing Sheep. I didn't take any construction photographs this time, but it was very easy to put together.