Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone's Web site is offering a sneak peak of its next cover, which features a cleaned up, seemingly elated Britney Spears with the hopeful, Obama era slogan, "Yes She Can!" (Best to ignore the smaller coverline for "Skanky Brits.")

As you can see, the last time Ms. Spears was on the cover (February 21, 2008), the magazine referred to her as "An American Tragedy" (though still airbrushed her within an inch of recognizability). The accompanying story, by Vanessa Grigoriadis, was unflinching in its depiction of a star in complete free-fall. The new issue has a more upbeat profile by Jenny Eliscu in which the pop star is described as "silly, sweet, humble. She has never been very articulate, but she always tries to be accommodating."  read more »

- "If [Axl] Rose ever had a moment's doubt or repentance over what Chinese Democracy has cost him in time (13 years), money (14 studios are listed in the credits) and body count — including the exit of every other founding member of the band — he left no room for it in these 14 songs," David Fricke, Rolling Stone, November 10, 2008.

- "The album credits list 14 studios," Jon Pareles, The New York Times, November 20, 2008.

- "Chinese Democracy's album credits reflect the epic slog that brought it into existence, listing 14 recording studios, five guitarists, and multiple 'digital editors'," Jody Rosen Slate, November 21, 2008.  read more »

Today, Rolling Stone posted the first official review of Guns N’ Roses' (choose your adverb) delayed Chinese Democracy, due out finally and officially and exclusively through Best Buy on November 23. (That’s 12 measly days from now.) The author is, unsurprisingly, David Fricke, and the review is, surprisingly, gushing. Up until this juncture, and with only leaks of varying reliability to go on, the reviews from fans have been mixed to positive. Still, we assumed the logical conclusion to the Chinese Democracy saga would be the arrival of a disappointing record overstuffed with guitars, techno experimentation, and abandoned ideas (though we’ve never been a GNR fan-boy, so our views may be biased).  read more »

As you probably already know, Rolling Stone has undergone a significant change and shrunk its size from 10"x12" to a standard 8"x 11". (In July, The Observer's John Koblin caught wind of this development.)

What you may not know is that it also significantly changed the color of Senator Barack Obama's tie. (Maybe he should've gone with purple?)

Rolling Stone subscribers might momentarily feel like they're having a flashback this week when they receive their new issue. Wrapping the magazine is an ad for ABC's high concept 21st Century cop in the 1970s show, Life on Mars, which consists of a reprint of the magazine's March 29, 1973 cover and a two-page timeline of cultural landmarks from the year 1973.

As Boston.com's Viewer Discretion blogger Matthew Gilbert noted yesterday, the ad is "obviously a joke." What else can you call such a ridiculously dated cover, featuring as it does a Gerry Gersten cartoon of "Where are they now?" semi-hit wonders Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show?  read more »

The last book David Foster Wallace published before his suicide last Friday was McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express, a souped-up edition of the classic piece on the 2000 election originally published in Rolling Stone and later anthologized in Consider the Lobster along with a thorough, at points severe foreword about how the piece almost didn't happen because the editors at Rolling Stone couldn't make up their mind about whether they wanted it or not:

At first I was supposed to follow McCain around in New Hampshire as he campaigned for 1 February's big primary there. Then, around Christmastime, Rolling Stone decided that they wanted to abort the assignment because Governor Bush was way ahead in the polls and outspending McCain ten to one and they thought McCain was going to get flattened in New Hampshire and that his campaign would be over by the time anything could come out in Rolling Stone and that they'd look stupid.  read more »

Former Life Magazine managing editor Bill Shapiro sent the above cover of the magazine from September 2004 (left) to Jim Romenesko's blog as a nod to Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom many have noted resembles Tina Fey.

Media Mob was just struck by how similar Ms. Fey's pose is to the most recent cover of Rolling Stone (right), which features the 30 Rock star along with Chris Rock and David Letterman.

In the new issue of Rolling Stone—the one that features Sean Wilentz's "How Bush Destroyed the Republican Party" on its cover—Andy Greene writes about the enduring appeal of the Coen Brothers' 1998 film, The Big Lebowski.

That the movie was a flop and yet has grown into an enormously successful cult phenomenon, including its own circuit of Trekkie-like conventions has been well-documented. In March, Entertainment Weekly's Clark Collis offered a personal take on the movie and its afterlife called "The Dude & I":

I don't think I had ever tasted a White Russian prior to attending my first Lebowski Fest in 2003, but since then I've consumed far more than anyone with high cholesterol should.  read more »

On Octobser 17th Rolling Stone will be 8-by-11 inches instead of 10-by-11 3/4 inches, The Times' Richard Pérez-Peña reports today.

Last month, when we reported that the magazine was considering a redesign, we asked a few people on the street what they thought. "I’d feel less cool reading the new one," said one young guy on his uptown ride on the 4 train. "It just seems like it would be a Fortune or a Newsweek."

What does Jann Wenner have to say about that to The Times? "All you’re getting from that large size is nostalgia," he said.

You hear that, subway guy? Jann Wenner says you're living in the past.

Yesterday, we told you that Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner was considering a major redesign of his magazine. He sent out a test copy to subscribers and asked them to participate in a survey to tell him what they thought.

Media Mob hit the streets of Manhattan to do a survey of its own. Judging by the responses of eight people, Mr. Wenner’s proposed change might be akin to passing a kidney stone in the minds of Rolling Stone's old-school fan base.

"You cannot go—you can’t—you cannot move away from this format," said David Peebler, a 46-year-old options strategist and trader at Park Ave and 22nd Street.  read more »

"We are considering a major change in the format of Rolling Stone from its current look to one more like the enclosed test issue," wrote Jann Wenner, founder of Rolling Stone in a note to select subscribers.

Enclosed in a manila envelope from Rolling Stone, which Media Mob has acquired, is Mr. Wenner's letter with a tighter, smaller, glossier version of the current issue of Rolling Stone featuring Barack Obama on the cover. (A larger version is currently on newsstands). The test issue is the same size as your Vanity Fair, your Gourmet, your Lucky. It's glossy and perfect-bound (goodbye, staples!), and the spine has all sorts of type on it making it perfect for your bookshelf: the dates, the issue number (RS 1056/1057), and a peek of what's inside: BARACK OBAMA/BONNAROO/ AMY WINEHOUSE / RUSH / GREENLAND.  read more »

Mere words cannot express the awesomeness that is Barack Obama. At least that's what the new cover of Rolling Stone tells—or doesn't tell—us. The cover of the magazine's new issue features only a photograph of a smiling Senator Obama (with prominent flag pin!) and no text whatsoever. In keeping with the photo theme, Rolling Stone's Web site features a photo gallery called Barack Obama, a History in Pictures, with a whopping 98 (!) images of the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.

The wordless cover is not Rolling Stone's first. The motif has also been used by the magazine for other important, "words are not enough" stories like the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison.

It was also used to great effect on February 1995 for a cover story about Demi Moore.

Today on the Huffington Post, Ben Cohen interviews National Magazine Award-winning Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi.

Back in April, Mr. Taibbi got into a spat with another HuffPo writer, novelist Erica Jong, that hinged mostly on his description of Hillary Clinton's "flabby arms." In the interview with Mr. Cohen, Mr. Taibbi explains why he chooses to write about his subjects' physical flaws:

Um ... it's funny? (Laughs) That's one thing. ... You know, I make these caricatures of people, and a lot of it sure is gratuitous, and on some level I am trying to be funny, but I'm also trying to make it an easier read for some of the people who maybe aren't so interested in politics.  read more »

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A long letter written by Michael Moore to friends and supporters has been posted on the Drudge Report (and now on Gawker, whose link will likely last longer). Mr. Moore writes that he's not endorsing any of the Democratic candidates for president "at this point." But the most interesting tidbit comes a bit further down.

Mr. Moore reveals that he was asked by Rolling Stone to do a cover story in the form of separate Q&As with the three top Democrats, under the understanding that if any of the candidates didn't participate, the story wouldn't run.

He writes: "Obama and Edwards agreed. Mrs. Clinton said no, and the cover story was thus killed."

Of course, this isn't the first time during this campaign that the Hillary camp has successfully nixed a major magazine story about her.

We all know how powerful China is becoming, but powerful enough to deflate the ego of one of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men? This morning brought the news that China has yet to green-light Will Smith’s latest blockbusting effort, I Am Legend, which opens here on December 14. The apparent snub comes loosely attached to a report that the nation of 1,321,851,888 citizens plans to block all American movies, hoping to boost its own budding film industry. (Let’s also not forget that I Am Legend basically equates populous areas with violence and death; the only haven of solace is found in pastoral Vermont.) “We struggled very, very hard to try to get it to work out, but there are only a certain amount of foreign films that are allowed in,” Mr. Smith told reporters in Hong Kong today.

Poor guy can’t get a break. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Mr. Smith, 39, admits to being insecure. When he was 15, his first girlfriend broke his heart. “[I]t destroyed my concept of myself,” he told the Wenner music book, adding: “I [thought I] wasn’t good enough.” He then recalls a certain look his grandmother once gave him, the look of someone who’s proud. It affected him to such a degree that he now needs to find it in the faces of all the women in his life—namely, in that of his lovely wife, Jada Pinkett. “Every singe day Jada must have the look. I can’t function if she doesn’t have that look in her eyes.” Ms. Pinkett’s proud-look is probably awesome, but we’d most like to see the look on his first girlfriend’s face when she saw The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for the first time.  read more »