Monday, November 2, 2009

Thumbs Down: Vancouver View magazine, Nov/Dec 09 issue

Vancouver View,

I'm a bit reluctant to give you the full thumbs down, because, quite honestly, it's not like I expect a lot from you. Basically, someone drops off a million free copies of your magazine at our building, we laugh at the C/D list celebrity you put on the cover, and if we pick it up accidentally, it goes into recycling. Giving you the thumbs down is like making fun of the disadvantaged.

But for the current issue, you've put famed chef Daniel Boulud on the cover, so this glutton has got to check it out. And I actually got somewhat excited to see that your writer had a face-to-face interview with the man.

To read what was basically a cut and paste job from the DB Bistro/Lumiere press release, though, was more than disappointing. Locally-sourced product, we're-not-the-old-Lumiere disclaimers, I-love-this-town pat answers: I could've read that on the DB website. Not a lot of people get to meet Boulud in person, and you've let that opportunity go to waste. I'm half-guessing that you ran the piece just to get comps at the restaurant, especially considering Boulud arrived in town more than a year ago and is hardly new news.

The rest of the magazine is just as pitiful. Your story on Vancouver's "Hollywood North" can basically be summed up in a couple of premises: (i) weak Canadian dollar good, (ii) tax incentives good, (iii) the magic of Vancouver is its peoples, by gum!

Dumbing columns down beyond the standard Maxim sidebar is one thing, but making them utterly boring is another. It's to be expected, I guess, when your music picks for the next couple months are Josh Groban and Il Divo. You could've saved the thing by at least making it look nice, but it looks like your main fashion spread was shot on a cellphone (and not in a good way).

So, I don't feel bad about giving you the thumbs down. It's not like picking on a fat kid, it's like picking on rich fat kids that are rubbing their (published) indifference in my face, particularly while slimmer, better, prettier magazines fail (RIP, Gourmet!). Stick with the local almost-celebs so I can continue ignoring you in peace.

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