September 16, 2010

Hey! What happened to Architectural Digest?

P1030138

I remember when it was about, you know, architecture. Gerard Butler, eh? Who is he, and am I really supposed to believe he relaxes like that, curled up in that velvet chair, in tight jeans and bare feet and a shirt opened just so? Plus! Sting and Lance Armstrong!

So, it's all about people now. And why are they all guys? I guess this is the real architecture we magazine readers (women) are looking for these days. It all coheres if you think of the right word: erection. It's what we want: a house and a man.

But something seems... off. It's so blatant. The bearded "Joy of Sex"-type guy. His name is Butler. I need a butler. And a lance. And a sting. Ha. Or is it that little girl's watch he's wearing?

Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?

59 comments:

X said...

Leonidas

Hoosier Daddy said...

And why are they all guys?

Cause all you womanfolk are busy getting elected to rule the world.

Quit complaining.

Hoosier Daddy said...

THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

geezerly ;)

test said...

It's 6 to 4.

MayBee said...

I guess this is the real architecture we magazine readers (women)

I'm guessing its more about gay men.

GMay said...

He played Wickett in Return of the Jedi.

kjbe said...

RZ? Long time customer, but haven't been there since spring, when my stylist left to open her own shop.

HKatz said...

It's the rugged masculine beauty of the Brawny paper towel guy.

MadisonMan said...

I like the chair.

LordSomber said...

"Yield, Leonidas! Use your reason! Think of your men! I beg you."

Synova said...

LOL.

I don't know why it's all celebrity guys who presumably have unique and appealing houses.

I'm usually the one who doesn't recognize the celebrity, but I know who Butler is. He looks like a wuss sitting in that chair, though.

Architectural Digest always seems sort of pointless, though. Didn't it? Give me a "New Log Homes" or something like that with floor plans and Anderson Window ads between them.

Methadras said...

THIS IS MY HOME-AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

Fred4Pres said...

Architectural Digest has not been about architecture for decades. It is about interior design.

Now for years, it was mostly glossy layouts of various Upper East Side apartments, vacation homes, and country places without any people in them.

But who is a target demographic for interior design? Hence some Scottish beefcake sitting on what is probably an uncomfortable wing back chair.

Methadras said...

As I've told you before, look at fashion magazines, who does covers now? Celebrities, not models. It's the same with architectural digest. It's not about the homes, but about the access that the magazine gets via a celebrity into their homes. Besides, I like Gerard Butler. I thought he was awesome in Rock n' Rolla.

The Scythian said...

GMay wrote:

"He played Wickett in Return of the Jedi."

You, sir, have won the thread.

Well played.

Dave said...

"He played Wickett in Return of the Jedi."

You, sir, have won the thread.

Well played.


Except, um, he's wrong. Wickett was played by a guy named Warwick Davis.

(scroll all the way down to "Behind the Scenes") http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wickett

The Scythian said...

Dave, Dave, Dave...

Both GMay and I know that he didn't actually play Wicket. It's a joke.

Julie C said...

He was in one of the worst movies I've seen in ages - the Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston. He's quite attractive, IMO, and as I recall, his NY loft is very dark and masculine looking (I saw the magazine already).

At least he's a manly kind of guy, and not one of these metrosexual-looking young whippersnappers. Women like this type of man- he looks like he'd defend you from the bad guys and not run away shrieking (I'm talking to you Ashton Kutcher!).

jaed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jungatheart said...

'Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?'

Architectural Digest doesn't. How have the mighty fallen.

jaed said...

The only thing I know about Architectual Digest is that some of the material on Unhappy Hipsters seems to come from it. This is enough to put me off picking up a copy. (I accidentally subscribed to Dwell, a publication that might as well be called "Unhappy Hipsters Magazine", and that is more than enough for me.)

Irene said...

Did you use a cell phone to take that photo?

If so, did they yell at you for violating the cell phone policy?

lemondog said...

So....ja buyit?

chickelit said...

Architectural Digest is #2 on the list of trashy mags I wish my wife didn't subscribe to.

Unknown said...

Assuming Ann never saw "300", I'm guessing there would probably be a lot of holes in her "Men In Shorts" policy if she did.

traditionalguy said...

Beautiful post, Professor. This magazine clearly steers us into stiff, standing, strong, structures of staunch stability. Is mind sex wrong, or is it the only real aphrodisiac? Only the vortex knows for sure.

Paddy O said...

I had a years subscription to Architectural Digest.

I have no idea why. It just started arriving at my apartment one month. No one gave it as a gift. I never ordered it. It just showed up one day, and then every month for a year. We moved to a different apartment, it followed us. No idea why.

It just was. I think I have most every issue still. No idea why. About 3/4 are still covered in their plastic wrap. I guess maybe I had an subtle thought that at some point that sort of stuff would be interesting in a useful kind of way.

Mostly, at first, I would put an issue or two on the couch or table to give an air of ironic sophistication for guests.

I'm almost positive that whenever we move from this apartment I'll be tossing every issue into the garbage.

But maybe even if I do that, they'll somehow show up at the new place, and every place thereafter, wherever I go.

It's like a really lame Twilight Zone episode. The unwanted magazines that just show up one month and won't ever leave. They just arrive, looking all glossy and refined, basking in their sardonic residence.

Anonymous said...

I remember the man in the Joy of Sex, with that 70's-style beard. And the woman, with her ... oh Christ, here it goes again.

Peter

Henry said...

Architecture Digest has never been about architecture. It's always been about interior decoration. Maybe this just makes the point more obvious.

Henry said...

Now I scroll up and see Fred4Pres already made the point. Fred4Pres is right.

DaveW said...

Yeah it's a design magazine and I suspect this is a gay appeal thing.

The professor has a keen eye for the subconscious sex message. Architecture...erection? Heh, OK.

I've thought about this for years now, it comes up (heh) when I least expect it, and I'd have never caught what she sees in that cover. So I keep wondering if I'm dense or if she's imagining things.

I haven't been willing to eat carrots for 2 years now though.

Anonymous said...

Like much else in what passes for highbrow culture, it has become the practically exclusive province of wealthy women and homosexual men.

Automatic_Wing said...

Except, um, he's wrong. Wickett was played by a guy named Warwick Davis.

(scroll all the way down to "Behind the Scenes") http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Wickett
/

I would have to say that this wins the thread.

dbp said...

I bet this comment thread won't make it to 300!

Indigo Red said...

Fred4Pres refers to "...Scottish beefcake..." Isn't that what the Scots call hagis?

Ann Althouse said...

Irene said..."Did you use a cell phone to take that photo? If so, did they yell at you for violating the cell phone policy?"

Glad you noticed the policy. Actually, I used a Panasonic Lumix camera.

lemondog said.. "So....ja buyit?"

How would I do that? It's a beauty salon.

Joaquin said...

AD is the top of the line when it comes to monthly interior design magazines. Once a year they do a celebrity issue, just like they do a renovation issue, and a designer home issue. Because they just happen to have the star du jour on the cover does in no way diminish the quality of the content.
I will wager that while at the salon, all you did was look at the pretty pictures. Maybe you didn't make it pass the cover?

afarrago said...

it's time for a drink in my comfortable chair with my shirt open just so

knox said...

I'm guessing its more about gay men.

There's no guessing about it... it's got little or nothing to do with women. But that is true for an awful lot in the entertainment industry.

Weird things are attributed to women's tastes all the time... "why do women like this!?!?" All outraged and aghast. Guess what? a lot of the time what you are seeing is actually targeted to a gay male audience. There is some overlap, certainly.

But a decorating magazine focused on "hot" men??? Gay, gay, gay.

David said...

The end was when gay couples became commonplace. For a while the editors could congratulate themselves about all the articles describing couples named Giorgio and Lorenzo. Now that is completely old news (blame Dick Cheney) and they have to find something to draw the rubes. Since a fair percentage of their rubes are gay, why not good looking guys?

chickelit said...

dbp wrote: I bet this comment thread won't make it to 300!

And why should it since a winner has already been declared?

JAL said...

No.

Joaquin said...

"But a decorating magazine focused on "hot" men??? Gay, gay, gay."
AD "focused" on hot men? PFFFFT!
knox = clueless

Chennaul said...

It just dawned on me why you posted a pic of yourself looking at Gerry Butler w/ only one of your hands visible.

siiiiiinnnnneeeeerrrr.

[blog theme o' the day.]

Chennaul said...

Oops!

Thought you were at home.

knox said...

Once a year they do a celebrity issue, just like they do a renovation issue, and a designer home issue.

I don't know anything about AD and how many issues have a celebrity on the cover. Just because it's once a year, that issue can still be focused on gay men. Likely is.

Sorry I touched a nerve, J. Why are you making such a big deal of it?

GMay said...

Maguro said: "I would have to say that this wins the thread."

Yo! Dreamkiller! I've never won a thread before, why can't you let me have my moment?

Your parents were never married.

jungatheart said...

EPR:
"Architectural Digest is #2 on the list of trashy mags I wish my wife didn't subscribe to."

Which is #1?

$9,000,000,000 Write Off said...

Vitruvius would not be happy:

"Writing on architecture is not like history or poetry. History is captivating to the reader from its very nature; for it holds out the hope of various novelties. Poetry, with its measures and metrical feet, its refinement in the arrangement of words, and the delivery in verse of the sentiments expressed by the several characters to one another, delights the feelings of the reader, and leads him smoothly on to the very end of the work.

But this cannot be the case with architectural treatises, because those terms which originate in the peculiar needs of the art, give rise to obscurity of ideas from the unusual nature of the language. Hence, while the things themselves are not well known, and their names not in common use, if besides this the principles are described in a very diffuse fashion without any attempt at conciseness and explanation in a few pellucid sentences, such fullness and amplitude of treatment will be only a hindrance, and will give the reader nothing but indefinite notions.

chickelit said...

Which is #1?

VF, which she compares to porn but claims to *only* look at the pictures.

Will Cate said...

This has been a trend in AD which has been percolating for a few years now. In fact, we dropped our long-running subscription when it started to be more about people and less about architecture.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Whatever helps AD sell. I'd call it newsstand appeal.
The magazine is very formulaic. If you want to see how the richest people in the world spend their money - AD is your interior voyeur. Occasionally a really famous Architect will create something amazing; Like Robert AM Stern or something. Mostly AD is the same format and display of interiors...issue after issue. Within each issue you get the token modern home, the country home, the NY Loft, and then the tropical or Indonesian home towards the end. After a while it all blurs together as it has all been done before.

Moose said...

Extremely high end house porn. Except the houses and buildings they celebrate are not meant for people to live/work in. Sort of like how fashion designers view woment.

Little Towhee said...

Architectural Digest is INTERIOR design. Never a real architecture mag in my opinion. I have a degree in architecture. It's a rich lady's and gay designer's mag. So the boys are enjoying that cover too, haha.

Little Towhee said...

I just wanted to say that I had not read the other replies when I posted mine.

Seems others think the same:
for rich lady's with nothing else to do and gay designers.

Sharc 65 said...

Butler schmutler. How can I angle an intro to your cosmetologist? Hubba.

jungatheart said...

EPR:
"VF, which she compares to porn but claims to *only* look at the pictures."

Thanks. I've wanted to get AD a few times, but it's a $42 subscription, or was at the time. So I satisfy myself with looking at it in the dentist's waiting room or the library. The decorating is way too hoity-toity for me, but it is interesting to look at. I never got a gay guy vibe.

d-day said...

I liked Architectural Digest and bought it month in/month out 6-7 years ago, precisely because I'd rather look at houses than people. Interestingly enough, it is through Architectural Digest that I became a huge fan of actor Orlando Jones.

"All that stuff I said about being a crackhead? It just helps me sell magazines. I'm actually an unemployed software engineer."