Today in the 2016 PopCult Gift Guide Magazine Rack Part Two we look at some nifty lifestyle magazines for the pop-culture-focused individual. Yesterday we covered comics and other cool stuff in part one of this post. Today we broaden our horizons.
Three of today’s picks are neat little digest-sized publications, but the cooking magazine is full-sized. These are great gifts for the person on your holiday shopping list who still reads print.
Zelda: The Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau
Zelda: The Magazine of the Vintage Nouveau is the publication for lovers of early 20th century culture, style, arts, film, music, and more! From the beginnings of the 20th century to the Golden Era of Hollywood, Zelda brings the love of this era to life on paper. They feature not only interviews, tutorials, and features on subjects from the era (1900-1940), but highlight the movers and shakers and best of what’s going on in the vintage-style social scene today.
Published twice a year, this digest-sized small press publication is the perfect gift for the person on your holiday shopping list who feels that they were not born of this time. Zelda is filled with articles on fashions of the day, new Jazz era concerts and shows and interviews with the biggest pre-Atomic-age retro personalities.
The latest issue, just released a few weeks ago, includes articles on coctails of the era, David J, late of the neo-Goth grandfathers,Bauhaus on his transition to Big Band music, 1920s-style Garters, plus reviews of classic movies, words on styling and a look at Art Deco Egyptmania, along with loads of other fascinating stories.
You can order the current issue, as well as select back issues of Zelda at their website, and be transported to another time.
Bachelor Pad Magazine
We move on to another “out-of-it’s time” digest-sized ‘zine, Bachelor Pad Magazine. This quarterly mag is for anyone who is a fan of the Atomic Age lifestyle. Filled with stories all about booze, babes, and burly-q since 2007. Bachelor Pad publishes four regular issues a year plus one naughty Nightcap Edition each summer. You can subscribe or order back issues at their website.
The hallmark of Bachelor Pad Magazine is the stunning PG-rated pin-up pictorials, usually starring the stalwarts of the modern burlesque scene. Though eye-popping, they are tame enough to retain a classy aura that calls back to a more innocent era, where being “naughty” didn’t involve quite so much effort.
Alongside the lovely ladies you’ll find short stories, articles on mixologly, movie lists, coverage of Burly-Q events and vintage-style magazine cartoons. Bachelor Pad Magazine is a deliberate relic of an earlier age…an Atomic one, at that.
TCM: Now Playing
Movie Lovers should already be well aware of TCM–Turner Classic Movies. For some time the commercial-free classic movie channel has had a companion magazine, Now Playing, that is much, much more than a simple guide to what they’re showing. The movie-lover on you holiday shopping list will thank you every month for a gift subscription to Now Playing.
The 48-page digest-sized magazine includes: A complete movie schedule with descriptions for each film; Articles from TCM hosts Robert Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz; An alphabetical listing and genre specifications for each movie; Information on special programming themes, festivals and tributes; Hollywood history, rare photographs & a movie-themed crossword puzzle; and a monthly column by Martin Scorsese.
This is the dream gift for the movie-lover who really wants to know how to set his DVR in advance. You’ll find out before anyone else what the special stunt programming is and what cult films are scheduled for TCM Underground, or which silent and foreign films will inhabit the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. You can subscribe at the TCM website, and chances are you’ll also get the cool TCM catalog every few weeks, filled with pages and pages of DVDs and Blu-rays.
Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine
From the creator of America’s Test Kitchen comes the new home cooking magazine, with a focus on areas of culinary delight that were unexplored in his previous publications. Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street is in downtown Boston and is home to this new magazine’s editorial offices and cooking school. It also is where they record Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street television and radio shows.
Milk Street intends to change how we cook by searching the world for bold, simple recipes and techniques. Adapted and tested for home cooks everywhere, these lessons are the backbone of what they call the new home cooking. Kimball, who founded Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines, and the TV shows America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country from America’s Test Kitchen left the company that he started last year, and Milk Street is his first venture since striking out on his own.
With Milk Street Magazine Kimball is exploring the world of cooking beyond traditional American cuisine. As he says, “The rest of the world has created flavor by using spices, textures, fermented sauces, chiles, and fresh herbs.This new style of cooking is more about layers of flavor, about contrast, about combining ingredients in new ways.There are no long lists of hard-to-find ingredients, strange cookware, or all-day methods. Grilled spicy broccoli, French carrot salad, rum-soaked chocolate prune cake, Thai-style coleslaw, or Asian chicken noodle soup all deliver big flavors and textures without having to learn a new culinary language.”
Each issue of Milk Street Magazine includes: Recipes full of culinary secrets; Principles of cooking so you can improvise at the stove; A new repertoire of techniques to transform your cooking; The best ways to use cookware, tools, and gadgets. As always with Kimball’s magazines, Milk Street is ad-free.
You can order a charter gift subscription to Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Magazine at the website, and if you’re lucky, you might still be able to get a free sample of his pilot issue, which was released last October.
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