I have been subscribing to Cabinet since its 3rd issue, and I will continue to subscribe until they stop publishing.
Perhaps it is because the content is rather hard to define. Cabinet is a non-profit publication, dredging the vast resources of society, arts, culture, and academia for interesting articles. Each issue features a different theme (Childhood, Evil, and Travel being some examples), for which they comission a variety of authors to write on any and all aspects of the topic.
Many of the articles have either an historic or artistic bent, and almost all are written in standard academic prose. However, each issue also includes a handful of interviews, photo essays, and quirky postcards. Additionally, there are a couple of repeating columns from issue to issue. My personal favorite is the "Colors" column, in which Cabinet commissions a different author each time to write about a color of the editors' choosing. The various interpretations run the spectrum bice was a particularly amusing rumination on boogers, beige began with the line 'Beige is the color of evil,' and sulphur was a surreal paean to drug use.
I would especially recommend this magazine to academics, sociologists, students fresh out of school languishing for mental stimulation, historians of science (lots of articles of this bent!), or visual artists. Aside from this group, however, I believe this magazine to be absoultely fascinating for anyone who enjoys being exposed to a variety of unusual, arcane, or stimulating mental topics pertaining to culture and society.
The editor kindly sent me a copy of "Cabinet" in the mail, writing that "I might enjoy it." Well, I did enjoy it, from cover to cover. I am not typically a subscriber to literary mags, though I used to occasionally enjoy "Exquisite Corpse" and could be seen furtively leafing through "The Utne Reader" at the newstand from time to time. "Cabinet" is full of wonderful photography, interesting snippets about art and lots of articles that stimulate the mind. It's hard to classify this journal, which is supported in part by the Andy Warhol Foundation. But if you like art and literature, and are looking for new stuff, "Cabinet" is a pleasure.
In the issue I read (Issue #12) I enjoyed the article about Presidential doodling (nothing new, this subject was covered in the 60's when I was in school) but the arrangement and comments about the doodles, from Hoover's to Geo. Bush, Sr. were interesting and amusing. Eisenhower's artistic rendering of a broken sword gets the predictable "thoughts of impotence" remark, and Johnson's scratchings are truly scary. The other article I liked specially was about the color of total eclipses. There's a lot in this quarterly issue (recipe for making a shrunken head of your late enemy??? Hmmm, not sure I will do this) and much more, politics, art, current events. VERY interesting stuff.
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I admit that when I first encountered this publication I wasn't sure what it was all about. In some respects it has a UTNE Reader feel, in another way it has a feel like The Nation magazine or even an elitist Architectural Digest feel. It certainly has an international or eccentric, eclectic feel. All of which appeal to me.
Do I think it is a magazine 'most' people would like? No. But then most Americas prefer Levitz furniture to timeless classic or artistic originality.
What other publication has articles on the most phallic building in the World, or the topic of 'evil,' or who owns history, or childhood or Pharmacopia ? So many new words are used in this publication that my vocabulary has increased contrary to what some say about ones mind going to pot after age fifty.
The photography accompanying the articles are stunning and a couple like page 80 fall 2003 issue of the Holland House Library in London after the 1940 bombing by the Germans is one photo I want to acquire in a larger format to frame. I am a bibliophile and have a large home library and the photo in question shows three men browsing thru the shelves for books with two men reading a book, which is what a true bibliophile would do be it war, storm, or hunger.
At least get a subscription to the publication for you local library.
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I hadn't heard about Cabinet magazine until the editor offered to send me a free sample issue. This is one of the most informative, interesting and hard-hitting literary magazines out there! Arts and literature have always fascinated me, and this wonderful magazine covers all of the interesting facets of the same. I loved the Issue 12 article about artist Gianni Motti. The article and the artist's portraits enthralled me. I also enjoyed all the articles about artists whose work center on politics and foreign affairs. Cabinet magazine is a great companion for art buffs. This isn't the sort of magazine you can pleasantly skim through on your way to work. This is a drop-everything-you're-doing literary experience.
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I should go into painful detail about how amazing this magazine is, but suffice it to say that this magazine touches on an incredible variety of disciplines, from art to history to science to sociology and is often funny or absurd to boot.
It's as if a bunch of art-history majors (only the cool ones) got together and culled only the most interesting sidebars of history and put them into a magazine. The magazine sometimes reads like a scholarly version of Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" and occasionally delves into esoteric subjects that only the most specialized amongst us can understand.
I own land in New Mexico because of this magazine.
JP is a good read, they always have interesting articles on Jeeps with good insight into modifications, for the price you can't go wrong.
