Every day for me is information overload. All day long is a verbal and visual assault on the senses by the media; television, print, radio, online… it is never-ending. While it is important to keep up to date with the world as it turns, sometimes I want to do is shut everything off and just stop to draw a mental breath.
A new magazine takes stock of everything for you, Delayed Gratification. The second issue of the quarterly almanac came through my letterbox as a part of May’s Stack subscription. I was excitedly looking forward to receiving my copy after attending Stack/MagCulture‘s first Printout! talk a weeks ago, where editor Rob Orchard was in conversation with Tim Hayward from Fire & Knives and John L Walters from Eye.
Delayed Gratification fills that much-needed gap for thoughtful analysis of world news long after the event, dubbed ‘slow journalism’. News organisations today put too much emphasis on speedily churning out stories to feed greedy minds, probably already aware thanks to Twitter breaking news in seconds. Good journalism is all about getting to the heart of a story, but this often is never exposed until weeks or months after the event, where personal eulogies and unexpected details rise to the surface, such as the explosion of suburban crocodile after the Queensland floods in Australia. Or that the inventor of the ‘ Baby Gaga’ breast milk ice-cream, Matt O’Connor, is also the founder of Fathers for Justice. Every page is packed full of brain nuggets you would have missed as the tidal wave of information crashes everyday, beautifully presented through inventive infographics and thoughtful editorials. And the icing on the cake is the cover of the mag, with this issue featuring the hauntingly appropriate work ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ by Hassan Massoudy, and the first featuring a special commission by Shepard Fairey.
Current London stockists include Magma Books and Rough Trade, but subscription is available through the website. The cover price may sound a little steep at £10, but you get three months of international news coverage for your for your Darwin. It’s cheaper than Murdoch’s paywall, and no voicemail inboxes were hacked during production. http://www.dgquarterly.com/
RosieMRogers 