MISC, Seattle's long-running culture-commentary report, was resurrected as a stand-alone literary/commentary magazine in early 2000. It's just kept getting bolder, brasher, and bigger ever since.

Now it's blossomed into a handsome 48-page magazine, in the regular magazine size, with even more great kickass writing, snazzy illos, and stunning photography.

KISS the pictures! LICK the print! CHEW the staples!

The new MISC is a new magazine for a new Seattle. It's a conversation-starter, a forum for the urban community. It discusses the big and little issues of city life with wit, curiosity, and the occasional awful pun. It's contemporary, informed, and passionate. It's designed to lure readers in with lively, short pieces; then to keep them lingering with longer, thought-provoking items.

It's out three times a year with all the pop-culture comment and sociopolitical pontificating MISC has been known for for fifteen years; plus complementary material by a select team of writers and artists.

IN ISSUE #118, AVAILABLE MID-JANUARY:

It's the "Hipster Parents & Swingin' Kids" issue. "Theme" stories include:

• Punk dad Julian Fox defends the honor of his punk daughter from slanderous school administrators.

• Debra Bouchegnies remembers the lighter side of a bedridden pregnancy.

• Charlotte Quinn becomes a feminist single mom, attaining true independence by having a dependent.

• Stacey Levine finds creepy Oedipal undercurrents on a TV cooking show.

• Doug Nufer thinks baseball is behaving like a bad parent.

• New stepdad Eric Nygren watches nice "progressive" parents trying to re-segregate the schools.

• Clark Humphrey (yr. humble editor) differentiates between real families and the fantasy that is "The Family," and also offers lesson plans on how to tell your kids the sad truth about Bush.

• Illustrator Sean Hurley finds the inifinities of the universe in a little child.

• Susan Purves thinks punk legend John Doe should stick to grownup music.

• Yr. editor asks his fellow men to rise up for peace.

• Tom Deluxe shares sure-fire moneymaking ideas.

• Julie McGalliard discusses her worst job ever.

• Filmmaker John Michael McCarthy claims American culture hasn't produced anything of value since Elvis died.

• Doug Nufer and his parrot decide what TV shows we're going to watch.

• Spinoza Ray Prozak dissects the corpse of nihilistic heavy metal.

• Matt Briggs thinks fiction writers don't have to be gay to be "queer," but it helps.

• Doug Anderson wonders what winning the lottery would be like.

• Cartoonist David Lasky and writer Tatiana Gill recall a wild night of naked beer drinking and frozen-pizza eating.

The splendiforous MISC #118 will be available at select retail outlets starting in mid-January for a mere $3.95 US; or you can order it by sending a check or money order to the mailing address below.

OUR POLICIES:

We believe Seattle needs a journal of sharp commentary, wry, humor, arts and ideas.

We're trying to be professional but not corporate; neither hippie nor Republican; for people with lives, not just lifestyles. We believe politics is a subset of culture, not the other way around.

We like meat, TV, Ding-Dongs, and heterosexuality. We don't like demagogues, celebrity hype (not even involving "alternative" celebrities), hummus, or cigars.

We believe women aren't just equal to men, but men are also equal to women.

TO SUBSCRIBE:

Send $15/year (U.S. funds) by check or m.o. made out to:

MISCmedia
1400 Hubbell Place, #1314
Seattle, WA 98101

To order online with a credit or debit card, follow this link to our authorized vendor, Kagi. (Some of the instructions might presume you're not buying a magazine subscription but "shareware" software, Kagi's main e-commerce line, but it should otherwise be fairly clear sailing.)

We also have a privacy policy.

TO ADVERTISE:

Display ads are available at the following rates per issue:

FULL PAGE (7.5" x 9.85"): $400 color, $200 b/w.
HALF-PAGE (3.65" x 9.85" or 7.5" x 4.85"): $200 color, $100 b/w.
QUARTER-PAGE (3.65" x 4.85"): $50 b/w only.

Resizing and other design assistance are extra. All ads are payable in advance. We reserve the right to reject any ad. Quantity discounts are available for multiple publications of the same ad. Call, write, or email for further details.

Un-classifieds are $.15 per word per issue, payable by check or m.o. in advance. (Phone numbers and Web addresses count as one word each). We reserve the right to reject any ad.

We're distributing 3,000 copies throughout the Seattle metro area to start with, plus 500 copies sent nationally and subscription copies sent out who-knows-where.

AD DEADLINES:

Spring-Summer 2003: Reservations April 1, copy April 15.
Autumn 2003: Reservations August 1, copy August 15.
Winter 2003: Reservations November 1, copy November 15.

TO HELP OUT:

If you're in the Seattle metro area and would like to sell ads on commission, distribute the magazine, or help design pages, we'd love to hear from ya.

TO PUBLICIZE STUFF:

Please mail or email words and pictures about your upcoming performances, art shows, publications, CDs, websites, be-ins, film screenings, etc. etc. A few really interesting-sounding ones will run in the magazine. Don't feel bad if yours isn't used.

TO CONTRIBUTE:

MISC Magazine is a concise, highly selective forum. Feel free to send or email your writing, illustration, or photography--but don't feel "rejected" if it's not used. It probably will just mean it doesn't fit the "mix" of material we're trying for. All pictures should be b/w. All texts should be under 1,000 words. Don't send the only copy of anything; if you want your stuff back, include a SASE.

WHAT WE WANT:

• Healthy skepticism toward hype and pomposity (including "alternative" hype and pomposity).
• Intriguing ideas, expressed well.
• Pieces that are short and sweet and full of meat.
• Urbane wit, sincere whimsey, and prosocial fun.
• A progressive, populist, inclusive point-O-view (a la Molly Ivins, Michael Moore, Jim Hightower, Thomas Frank, Dave Marsh, Barbara Ehrenreich, etc.).
• Positive suggestions for today's problems.
• Smart talk that respects the reader's intelligence.
• Stories and travelogues from all over, especially from places other than NY/LA/SF.
• Items that promote discussion and discourse on the issues of the day.
• Stuff written to be read. More precisely, stuff written so people will want to read it.

WHAT WE DON'T WANT:

• Straightforward promo/puff pieces.
• Items of a short shelf life (we only come out once every three months, and the issues stay on the shelves the whole time).
• Celebrity gossip.
• Funny fake news.
• Explicit potty humor.
• Cutesy pot humor.
• Rants blaming everything wrong with the world on Those People Who Don't Read Alternative Newspapers.
• Wholesale condemnations against all church goers, meat eaters, television viewers, members of your opposite gender, suburbanites, squares, residents of rural areas who didn't move there from a city, residents of the "red states," people older than you, people younger than you, etc. etc.
• Pieces hyping the writer's own self-styled celebrity godhood.
• Snide attitudes, particularly of the "gonzo" variety, and particularly when directed against people of relatively little economic or political power.
• Poetry. (I know, just like everybody else....)

THE PROCESS:

• Contributors hold all rights to future use of their work.
• Alas, there's no monetary compensation yet.
• We prefer emailed submissions, preferably in plain text or Rich Text Format.
• Firm commitments to finish stories are needed by the 1st day of the month the magazine comes out. Final copy is due on the 8th of the month of publication.
• If you're given a word-count limit, heed it as well as you can. It means your piece has been assigned a spot on a page with several other pieces. Making room for a piece that's suddenly twice its previously-promised size means having to re-jiggle the whole layout.
• Prepare to be edited for space, the publication's "house style," and taste.