Magazine watch

In a piece I'm calling "Magazine watch" I will look at which magazines I buy, and whether you should buy that particular months issue.

The Jan/Feb issue of GQ SA was not bad but it could have been better. I found two things in particular that disturbed me deep down. Firstly there is that hideous chair, with the headline "The benchmark" That chair does not set a benchmark in anything, other than fucking ugly.

Basically it just a couple of pieces of bent metal joined by a few strips of plastic. Pre-schoolers make those shit designs every year with that colourful putty. What's more disturbing is the price of R32400. Shocked. Mind you, it's being sold by a company called Twiice International. Would you trust a company that can't spell twice correctly?

That's what I hate about the word "art" Label anything as art and it becomes insanely expensive. Take a photo of your dog taking a shit and call it art and some royal prick will pay you $50000 for it. Or if you happen to be Annie Leibovits(Supposedly one of the greatest portrait photographers of our time and Chief Photographer at Vanity Fair) you can just take photos and become rich. I saw her photos she took of David Beckham for GQ's Aug-Sep 2004 issue and they were good. What I want to know is: What's the difference between those photos of Beckham and photo's taken by another photographers. It's all about hype. And I'm sure this chair is all the hype right now but frankly I'm not impressed at all.

Then GQ give us a piece that is clearly from an overseas edition. The horrendous swimming costume. GQ have often said that you should never wear a Speedo. But now they endorse something that is just as bad. True double standards they are showing. Magazines typically are set up three months before they go to print and this Jan-Feb issue must have then been set out in about November. Clearly thinking of the holidays, and not having enough time for their own shoot to be set up, they stole this one. Do they honestly think South African men are going to wear that? Look, if that's what you enjoy then wear it. But keep the fuck away from me on the beach, Fabio.