Blog Magazine

In a Word: Mom

CNN has this great piece on the one word people use to describe Mom. InStyle magazine has everything Hollywood Moms. And you’ve got time for a great last minute gift.

George Bush the Movie

Check out Entertainment Weekly’s first look at Oliver Stone’s latest controversial effort, W the movie, which begins filming in about two weeks and could be released this year…during the presidential election.

Media ethics, seriously

As the five year anniversary of the culmination of the Jayson Blair/New York Times scandal approaches, The Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch columnist Jon Friedman rounded up some editors and media experts like Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher magazine, to reflect on media ethics since. There’s also an interview with former New York Times executive editor Howell Raines in Editor & Publisher. Raines talks about life and work after the scandal and how he has few regrets.

Thank a Nurse Today

Today is Nurses Day. According to the U.S. Department of Labor registered nurses continue to be the largest health care occupation in the country with 2.5 million nurses serving in various positions like physician’s assistants, outpatient clinics, hospitals and nursing care facilities. So chances are you know a nurse, have been cared for by a nurse or maybe even work with a nurse. Whatever the case, make sure you say thanks to a nurse today.

There are lots of great publications for nurses like clinical journals, nursing newsletters with the latest news and journals on all kinds of health care topics like nursing management, education and informatics.

Reader's Digest: Even Better

Reader’s Digest has an even newer image with its June issue. A new editor and a new tagline, “Life Well Shared,” come after updating their logo, fonts and column names with the January issue. The focus shifts from the old tagline “America in Your Pocket” to more organic and global themes of heroes, community and inspiration.

Check out the changes and this month’s "Best of America" issue.

Legions of Superiority

It’s officially summer. Well, at least in movie theaters. And because of last year’s extraordinary successful superhero releases, Iron Man kicks off another summer of superiority. When the weather finally does catch up with the movie season there are the much anticipated Batman Begins follow-up The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk. If you’re like me and need a superhero refresher (er, primer) find some cheat sheets at Mental Floss on the origins of superheroes and a superhero reading list at Entertainment Weekly.

Not quite superhero but still awesome, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Speed Racer and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian are coming up this month. Read more about this summer’s top picks in this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly.

And speaking of superiority (in the mortal world)...last night ASME announced the winners of the national magazine awards. National Geographic is the heavyweight champ with three wins including the coveted general excellence award. Also noteworthy, Atlanta, Bicycling and Portfolio magazines won first-time prizes for feature writing and special sections respectively. For the complete list of winners, visit here.

100 Most Influential People

For the fifth year Time Magazine has named its "Time 100" most influential individuals in the world. The issue, which hits stands tomorrow, includes “Heroes and Pioneers,” “Leaders and Revolutionaries,” “Scientists and Thinkers” and “Artists and Entertainers.”

Among “Heroes and Pioneers” George Clooney honors Brad Pitt and Angelina for their philanthropic efforts while Ben Stiller gives props to Robert Downey Jr. in “Artists and Entertainers” and Deepak Chopra discusses the inspiration of the Dalai Lama in “Leaders and Revolutionaries.”

For more on Time Magazine visit here.

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Move over Miley, Paula Abdul's blunder is more buzz-worthy today. While Miley isn't completely out of the woods (see People Magazine poll) Paula's on-air clanger during last night’s American Idol telecast is now PaulaGate2008.  Entertainment Weekly’s PopWatcher blog reports Abdul called in today to Ryan Seacrest’s radio show to explain herself. Apparently, she simply confused the past with the present and the future, or something like that.

The votes are in: last night’s telecast=Twilight Zone episode

An interview with Idol stage Manager from the LA Times

MTV weighs in

A moment-by-moment round-up from Rolling Stone

Scandal? Not so much.

This morning the risqué photos “Entertainment Tonight” revealed over the weekend of 15 year-old teen celeb Miley Cyrus, star of Disney’s “Hannah Montana,” posed a SCANDAL. Of the photos, taken for the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair, Cyrus quickly issued an apologetic, “I am so embarrassed” statement through her publicist. Parents and fans called Cyrus “slutty” on her Myspace page. But that was this morning.

This afternoon it’s not so much a scandal as bad timing of an “evolving image” strategy. Read the scandalous story here.

Cyrus’s “Best of Both Worlds” tour along with her 3-D concert film made $31.3 million in its opening weekend in February and appears on this week’s issue of People magazine as one of the world’s richest kids.

Innovation & Influence: Magazine Cover Designs

During the 1960s George Lois’s controversial cover designs for Esquire sold magazines, lots of magazines. Lois had a firm grasp on the culture and through images like pop art icon Andy Warhol drowning in a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and the horrified statement of a soldier in bold white letters "Oh my God: We hit a little girl" against a solid black background stirred further public debate on issues like pop culture, racism, feminism and Vietnam. Now his designs have reached iconic stature and today NYC’s Museum of Modern Art opens a new exhibit called “George Lois: The Esquire Covers” featuring 32 of Lois’s 92 designs from 1962 to 1972. The exhibit, which runs through March 2009, is not the first time Lois has been recognized for his contribution to magazine cover design nor will it be the last. In 2005 the American Society of Magazine Editors named the best magazine covers of the last 40 years and three of Lois’s covers made the top 10.

See a complete list of the best magazine covers at www.magazine.org

Currently running on the west coast is another magazine design exhibit at the University of Southern California Annenberg in Los Angeles called “Cover Stories: Magazine Design in Germany and the U.S., 1920-1970.” This exhibit of magazine covers features graphic design and photojournalism concepts of American and German magazines that heavily influenced public opinion before modern media like television and the Internet. The exhibit runs through May 21, 2008.

For more information on USC Annenberg's exhibit visit annenberg.usc.edu

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